(Cruise Day #6) Zip Lining Through Dominica

When we had tried to sit down and plan out our excursions for the days that we were in port, my main request was to do some sort of zip line tour. Steve found this outing that was called, 'High Hopes! High Ropes!' We weren't quite sure what all to expect but were excited none the less! Nana Kathy figured this wasn't going to be at all an enjoyable experience for her, so she and Sawyer hung out together for the day! Thanks Kathy!

We piled into yet another white van with a jolly guy named David. He was energetic and entertaining, giving us a complete rendition of Dominica's history as we wound our way through the narrow streets of the city. Did you know there are six women to every man in Dominica? Yeah....I know what some of you men are thinking! "When's the next flight to Dominica?"

David got us through the city, along the gorgeous coast line and into the jungle, right up to the 'Rocky Rollers' place. We signed our lives away, got suited up and were ready to go!

I love zip lining!

In between zip lines, there were also tons of different tight ropes, hanging logs and other rather difficult obstacles that we needed to cross. It was sooo fun!

And as Steve pointed out afterwards, we went up in a really random order: Dani, Me, Steve, Alex, Bill and Ron brought up the rear. So no pictures of Bill and I up there together :(

Toward the end of the course (that ended up taking about two hours) there was 'The Tarzan Swing'. You stood on a platform, harnessed to a long rope, jumped off, drop swung fifty feet and tried to grab a hold of this net and pull your self up.

Dani went no problem, I, on the other hand, got up there and had a little mini freak out :) The guy ended up pretty much just tossing me off! I grabbed the net though! Gold star for Carrie*

We all survived!

After we had zipped the last zip line across the river and into the bamboo brush, we were treated to drinks (rum punch!), fresh coconut, sugar cane shoots and orange wedges!

All the staff at 'Rocky Rollers' was SO nice and just made the entire experience so enjoyable!

After downing our Rum Punch, we headed back into town, hoping to be able to see a little bit of the town before boarding.

We ended up finding this really cute sidewalk cafe that looked like we'd be able to eat there and not pick up salmonella (unlike some of the other places we passed!). We ate really good jerk chicken dishes and beef stew~D-lish!!!!!

Yup. We fell for it. The little tents selling a bunch of random, over priced junk with Dominica branded across the top, and had to haggle for it too! But hey, it wouldn't be a tropical vacation if you didn't come back with coconut jewelry and Dominican hot sauce!

(Cruise Day #5) Let's Talk about FOOD.

You have never experienced true gluttony until you've gone on a cruise.

All aboard for a spectacular ocean-bound foodies extravaganza! I was not nearly prepared for this onslaught on my taste buds. Good grief, no one mentioned letting my belt notch out one or two or five times during the course of the week either! Apparently eating on a cruise is more of a gastronomic experience rather than a necessity.

Cruise eating is the jewel in the crown of on board enjoyment....with sumptuous, round-the-clock food from all-you-can-eat breakfasts, to 'let's get bloated' lunches, to bejeweled dinners and on to midnight poolside buffets. You can eat 24-7, eating out is possible every hour of every day. Not to mention how incredibly easy they make it for you to always have a drink in your hand! There is the Schooner bar, the pool bar, the Blue moon lounge, the piano bar, the sky bar, Promenade cafe bar and of course room service that offered full bar services. You almost felt out of place without an icey pink hurricane glass with a piece of pineapple and a little umbrella sticking out of it. Alcohol flowed like blood coursing through a body.....

We sailed all day today, which meant sleeping in, eating, lounging around, eating, tanning, napping,trip to Johnny Rockets for milk shakes and fries (I could feel my arteries clogging!) and then off to dinner, because we were getting a little peckish.

My Happy Family!

This is what you get when you tell Bill to smile and show some teeth :)

(Cruise Day #4) Scuba in Aruba

Bill's parents have been taking classes here in town for their Scuba certification for a couple of weeks now and worked it out that they could do one of their open water dives in Aruba! Bill and I and Alex decided to join them for a day under the sea. Dani and Ron were kind enough to hang with Sawyer all day so that we could go! Thanks guys!!

We piled into a van and headed to a dive place called 'Aqua Windies' that was run by a Dutch family.

There were tons of these iguanas just zipping along all over the place! There were bright greens ones and then some blue ones too! Crazy!

After a forty five minute instructional video on hand signals, checking your levels, equalizing pressure in your ears and not touching the coral....we were 'ready'....the whole thought of throwing a baby in the water and telling them to swim, felt very familiar....

So, for those of you who have never had the opportunity to scuba dive, let me tell you: the tanks are SO heavy! Good Lord! I was bent over like the hunch back while trying to make it from the parking lot, down the bridge and into the water!

Once we got into the water, Bill's parents and the rest of their 'experienced' group took off right away. Show offs. Then Bill and I and Alex stayed behind with this guy. He had a Dutch name that sounded something like Shven? or Shoorn? and I have no idea how to spell it. He was totally the kind of guy you would expect to work at a scuba place on a tropical island. Tall, tanned with bleach blond dreads. He was so patient with us as we learned how to decompress and fill our masks and clear them.

We eventually got the hang of it!

Although Bill and I both had horrible times with our ears not popping! Obviously as you went down further and further, the pressure would make your ears feel tight and you'd plug your nose and pop them. Except for some reason, my left one never did quite get there and it just felt like I had a Charlie Horse in my ear.....

Steve had rented this underwater camera and got some great pictures of all the sea life that we saw! This is a Tiger fish and is extremely dangerous~get bitten by one of these and your off to the hospital. Apparently they are taking over the water in Aruba, where they're not supposed to be. The general consensus in Aruba is, if you see one, kill it. They are actually having competitions put on for who can kill the most. Shoorn had a very large knife strapped to his leg for occasions such as this, and tried to kill it, but it got away....

Kathy was making fun of us because you could tell that we were newbies in the water by how much of the time the three of us were just floating around upright instead of leisurely swiming horizontally :)

This eel was the creepiest thing ever!!! It totally looked like it was going to lunge out and eat your face off!

Trying to get together for a picture was pretty comical.....getting everyone down at the bottom at the same time and looking the same direction and not floating up was nearly impossible...

This was as good as we got!

Scuba Diving was exhausting and exhilarating and one heck of a way to see Aruba!

(Cruise Day #3) Cliff Diving in Curacao

We arrived in Curacao early on Tuesday morning. For the other ports, we had prearranged excursions through the ship, but we had decided to just wing it in Curacao. Alex decided to hang with us that day and so once we got off the ship we asked around for a good place that the boys could cliff dive. According to a little wrinkly old lady at the tourism desk, West Point was the place to go. Problem was, we were on the bottom of the island and West Point was at the very top. Luckily for us, it's a small island and it was less than an hour drive! We hailed down a taxi and talked him down from $60 one way to $80 for a round trip (not bad!).

Curacao landscape was beautiful. Everything was just a lush green with vibrant flowers popping out here and there. Rolling hills and mountains covered in palms. Our taxi driver, Bruno, drove like a bat outta hell.....at least we got there quickly! The guys dove at two spots, and at bot places once they did it, there were tons of other people that followed em! :)

(First jumper is Bill and then Alex is next)

This video is the second place the dove off of. Right as they jumped, a tour bus of German college students pulled up and joined them. There was this one girl that jumped and hit the water in a sitting position and it made the worst sound ever! Then when she got out, the backs of her thighs had a huge black and blue ring on them!! It looked sooo terrible! And of course a she was walking out of the water, all of her friends were sympathizing with her by erupting in laughter!

(Note: I also jumped off of a cliff, but it was really short and the video of it is really long....it's about five minutes of me standing at the edge hemming and hawing and freaking out. So I won't subject you to that.)

Curacao's streets were lined with these weird trees that had these plaques on them...sorta dangerous if you ask me....but whatever.

Sizing up the jump...

This was the beautiful beach that Sawyer and I hung out on while Bill and Alex were off doing boy stuff. We spent the afternoon making all sorts of different sand castles....dry ones, wet sloppy ones, some decorated with shells and rocks.

I went to go grab my video camera and when I got back, Sawyer had found two cigarettes and thought they were the perfect things to stick on the very top of the tower! Gross.

Eating a yummy PB & J. Before we had left Omaha, I had bought some small Ziplock containers and brought them along~that way I could stock up on fresh cut fruit and PB& J's from the breakfast buffet for the never ending appetite of a four year old.

The two of us, hard at work.

Every place we went, I couldn't get over just how GORGEOUS of a color the water was!

Bruno suggested a local place for lunch and we were really excited to have some traditional food! This little place was full of locals, little tiny yellow birds chirping loudly in the bushes right outside the windows and occasionally flying across the room and back again!

As it turns out, this was what's called a 'Walk in Restaurant' meaning, they have no set menu. So, the owner came and sat down, rattled off what the options were and we just picked a few!

Alex and I had fresh fish and shrimp (the shrimp were as small as thimbles), Sawyer had chicken and Bill decided to be daring and got goat and iguana! He said it was really good except the iguana had a lot of little tiny bones that you had to pick out.

Since there was no menu, we had no idea how much it was going to be. But hey, we thought it's a very local place, not at all fancy, it shouldn't expensive. $75.00 later......oh well!

This was our taxi driver, Bruno.

After getting back from West Point, we had a little bit of time before we had to be back on board so we decided to walk around a bit in town. We ended up in this really fun courtyard shopping area with live music!

What afternoon is complete without some ice cream? Sawyer had his favorite~chocolate. Bill and I shared pistachio and espresso chocolate chip......yummy!

You always have time to stop for a sample of Gouda cheese!

Chocolaty smiles....for some reason mine isn't as good as Sawyers :)

Yes, please let's walk through a mine field of water, just asking to get wet.....

We were at dinner that night and when offered dessert, Bill said he didn't care for any but he would like some chocolate sauce to put in his coffee. our server brought him a dessert plate of 'nothing' :)