Caribbean Cruise 2014- For Ellen.

This year for Mike's birthday we decided to head out on a little trip-no kids allowed.  We'd been wanting to head on a caribbean cruise for a while so we picked a good one, invited some friends, and packed our bags.  We left on Mike's actual birthday and flew to Philadelphia then on to Puerto Rico.  We made it to the boat right in time for dinner.  If you've been on a cruise before, you know that the food is one of the highlights.  This one did not disappoint!  Our waiter was from the Philippines.  One of our friends had served his mission there so he got to speak Tagalog with him.  It was neat to hear.  I told him both of my brothers served missions there as well.  Turned out he had been baptized about 10 years ago.  

Anyway, we picked this cruise because we had a different island to see everyday and then the last day was our only day at sea.  

First stop:  St. Thomas.  We grabbed a little open air taxi that drove us to Magan's Bay Beach.  Probably one of the prettiest places I have ever been.  The sand was so soft and white and the water was clear Turquoise as far out as I could swim.  

Second stop: St. Croix

Third stop:  Antigua

Fourth stop: Martinique

Fifth stop: St. Lucia

Last day:  at sea.

 Mike:  pre zebra-stripped sunburn.  I may have not rubbed in the sunscreen well enough.  Oops.

 St. Thomas.  Crystal did my finger nails and toe nails.  I had the cutest fingers on the ship.

 Antigua.  Our favorite stop.  We got mopeds and rode them all over the island.  We formed a little scooter gang and called ourselves the Wolverines.  It was a riot.  Our first stop was a beautiful beach with great snorkeling.

 He wasn't worried about us until Rob about ran into that orange fence there in the back.  I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while.

 St. Lucia.  This was in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

 West Indies Shipping and Trading Co.

 This guy drove his boat around and people would walk up and buy fruit from him.

 Rob was quite the snorkeler.

 This guy ended up rubbing aloe all over Mike's back.  He felt so bad for him.

 Our ship had 13 floors.  We stayed on floor 3 and I never took the elevator up.  And I only took it down once.  Somehow I still gained 8 lbs though.  Oops.

 Maybe it's because this was our typical dessert.  After every meal.  Nick gained 13 lbs.  He won.

 St. Croix

 Antigua

 Martinique.  This huge old fort had been turned into a Naval base.

 St. Lucia. The Pitons.  We drove through winding mountain roads for over an hour.  I threw up twice.  That's when we decided to just head back to the beach and lay on the sand and read a book.  I didn't need to see the mountains any closer than this.

 Sunrise in Puerto Rico.

 Amy and I practiced our French on all these unsuspecting people.  Not our favorite stop.

 Wolverines.

 Mike was the only one that would pose for the crazy photographers.

Thanks for the wonderful trip, friends.  I can't wait until the next one!