Jamaica – Friday May 9th

Jamaica – Friday May 9th

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Friday morning Matt and I got up at our usual early time and headed to Eleanor’s for breakfast.  This was the only other restaurant that had breakfast however this was a sit down, order from the menu place.  We snagged a nice table outside.  The service wasn’t great, considering I ordered 4 mimosas and only ended up with 1.  Anyway, the food was really good.  While we were eating there were a few birds scoping us out from a few feet away.  When we finally finished one of them hopped over to our table.  Of course, Matt and I are laughing.  We want to see how brazen the bird would be.  He did not disappoint, within a minute or so he quickly grabbed an item off my plate.  We thought this was hilarious and I even took pics while it was happening. 🙂

When we got to our chairs, L & C were already there waiting on us.  We all laid on the beach for awhile.  Around lunch we headed back to the main plaza.  And on the way there I stopped to buy a cute giraffe statue.  (I knew the vendors were set up so I had run to the room and grabbed some money.  We’d seen them the first afternoon but they weren’t there on Thursday so I was really excited to finally get my giraffe.)  We decided on Neptunes for lunch.  This was an open air type pavilion and turned out to be a nice place for lunch.

We went back to the beach for a while and finally a dark cloud appeared so Matt and I decided to go in for a nap.  After our nap we got ready for dinner.  Jill and Steve really enjoyed their candlelit dinner while in St Lucia so they set this up for us as an anniversary gift.  🙂  We got to our table a few minutes early and ended up having an impromptu photo shoot with one of the resort photographers.  Clearly Matt and I had done this before so our expectations were pretty low but what the heck!

Finally our server grabbed us for dinner.  The photo took a few more pics while we were sitting and was sent on his way.  The table was set up really pretty.  White chair covers with hot pink bows.  There were several of the beautiful pink and white hibiscus on the table around the candles.  Matt and I decided to each get different items to take full advantage of the menu.  For the most part we each really enjoyed our food, though his soup was much better than mine.  I wished I had had the same.  We also got a personalized menu with our dinner choices.  The outside had our names and date.  We opened them only to realize instead of putting Matt on the inside they put Phil!  We had a good laugh over this.  First Sandals tries to get me to marry Matthew Spencer and now I’m supposed to have dinner with Phil?  😀  Nice to see they were at least consistent.  Anyway, the meal was very nice and sweet.  We really enjoyed the experience.

After dinner we headed to the main pavilion.  We ended up at the Neptune’s bar chatting with a couple for Cali.  They were nice enough, but thankfully they were leaving the next day.  After a few drinks we headed back to the room for the night.

~k

Jamaica – Sandals Whitehouse – Thursday May 9th

Jamaica – Sandals Whitehouse – Thursday May 9th

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Thursday morning we woke up around 7:30 am and were headed to downstairs around 8.  We ran to the beach and were able to find 4 chairs with an umbrella so we put down a few things and started walking to the main plaza.   It was sunny and beautiful out so I took pics as we went.  We got to the main plaza and went back to Bayside for the breakfast buffet.

After breakfast we headed back to the beach.  Since we hadn’t actually walked the beach yet, Matt and I decided to walk to the beach back to our chairs.  The beaches were beautiful with pretty white sand.  Unfortunately for me there were no shells to be found so I scooped up the small ones I saw.  We got back to our chairs and decided to keep walking to see if we could find L&C.  We didn’t see them when we got to the end of the chairs so we decided to keep on walking.  The resort property went a few hundred feet past the last of the huts but you could sign out and keep walking down the beach.  We took pics as we went and at one point I told Matt it felt like our own little deserted island.  It was so pretty to have the beach to our left and mangroves to the right.  Not to mention it was so serene and quiet.  We only ran into one couple headed back to the resort as we were walking to the end.

We got to the end of the sand and decided we could probably go further if we wanted but we’d have to walk in the water.  Neither of us were really up for that so we decided to head back to the resort.  I felt like I took about a million pics while we were walking and most of them turned out pretty well.  On our way back we saw a sea urchin shell (which I am still kicking myself over not grabbing) and then Matt spotted a starfish in the water.  I ran over to it and picked it up.  It was soo cool.  I barely had it in my hand when the little tentacles came out.  They felt like a caterpillar   It was weird and cool.  We took a  pic and I put him back in the water.

We finally got back to our chairs around 10:30 when L&C walked up.  They’d gotten up and eaten breakfast and then found us on the beach.  We laid out until lunch time and then the rain set in.  We all huddled under the umbrella for a few minutes and then L&C decided to run and get a table for lunch at Bluefields.  This was the only restaurant on our end of the resort.  Matt and I waited a few more minutes until there was a break in the rain and then we headed over for lunch.

After lunch Matt and I went back to the beach and hung out till about 3.  We headed to the room and took naps before getting ready for dinner.  We met L&C at Neptunes bar and then went to Jasmines for dinner.  After dinner we grabbed coffees and pastries from the Paris Cafe and found some couches by the fire-pits   We sat there chatting for a while before we headed to our rooms.

**Again, more pics to come.

~k

Jamaica – Sandals Whitehouse – Wed May 8th

Jamaica – Sandals Whitehouse – Wed May 8th

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Matt and I woke up around 4am to get ready for our 7:30 flight to ATL.  We showered, dressed, got our things together and headed for the airport.  The security line was actually pretty long considering the time and date but the process was smooth and we were able to get through pretty quickly.  I grabbed some breakfast and looked at FB while we waited for our plane.

On the flight to ATL, we met an older lady from Raleigh.  She was sitting on the aisle seat next to Matt.  We hit a patch of rough air and she grabbed his arm.  She immediately apologized but we laughed and told her it was fine.  We started talking to her and found out her and her daughter were on their way to Jade Mountain in St Lucia.  Talk about WOW!  Not only that but they had a mountainside room.  Jealous!  It was a gift from her son in law for the daughter’s birthday and mother’s day.

The layover in ATL was pretty uneventful and soon we were on our way to Jamaica.  The flight was nice and I got some cool pics from the plane.  We think we might have been over Cuba but we weren’t really sure.  The flight was a little under 3 hours so Matt watched a movie while I read.

We landed in Montego Bay around 2pm local time (they don’t observe daylight savings time).  It was a pretty long walk to customs and once we were through we found the Sandals lounge.  This place was CRAZY!  There were people everywhere and unlike the lounge in St Lucia, we barely had time to freshen up before our bus was called.  A porter, un-associated with the resort grabbed our bags and walked us outside.  Matt wasn’t extremely happy about this because we weren’t told this up front, and of course you have to tip.  We got on a bus with 2 other couples and waited for a driver.  A few minutes passed and the decided to move us to another bus.  It turned out the girl that sat beside Matt on the ride down was on the other bus (she was an AL grad).

On the bus ride several of us began to talk and we found out one couple was from the ATL area.  We ended up staying with them while we were checked in and walked to our rooms.

The bus ride took about an hour and a half.  The roads were awful and I’m sure the trip would have been greatly shortened had we not had to come to a complete stop to pass over most of the pot holes.  The scenery was nice but in a dilapidated way.  There were numerous houses/structures that were mid construction, only you could tell it was finished.  No one was coming back to complete the project.  The houses were mostly small and many had large rocks on the roofs holding down the tin.  I didn’t get any pics from the bus.  The windows were tinted and well…yeah.  About an hour in we finally got to a point where we could start to see the ocean.  You could see the beautiful bright blues.

We finally got to the resort around 3:30 pm.  There was a long drive that took us to the main building.  We were greeted with cold towels and then proceeded to the lobby to check in.  Our group was seated and we were brought Champagne while we waited for the paperwork.  Somehow all the guys ended up filling out the forms so the girls went to the desk to put credit cards on file.

We got to our building and parted ways with the couple from ATL.  They were in the next village but we didn’t exchange room numbers.  Matt and I went to our room which consisted of a king sized 4 poster bed and a small love seat.  We had an amazing view of the pool and the ocean.  I not so patiently waited for the bell boy to bring our luggage.  I was ready to get in a swimsuit and grab a drink.  Finally our bags arrived and we headed out to explore.

There was a bar in front of our pool so we picked up drinks and headed for the main pool.  We noticed the sky was looking pretty dark but we kept going and by the time we got the main pool it started to rain.  We grabbed more drinks and ran to an umbrella to wait out the rain.  It only lasted 10 – 15 mins and then we headed back to our room.

We laid down for a little while then got ready for dinner.  We had no idea what we wanted so we walked to the main plaza and settled on Bayside.  They served breakfast in the morning but had a nice set up for dinner and we were able to sit outside.  After dinner we walked around just checking the place out when we ran into the ATL couple, Lauren and Chris.  We decided to have a few more drinks and headed up to the martini bar.  Everyone was pretty tired from the day so we turned in early but we told L&C we’d save chairs the next day and we’d see them in the morning.

***I’ll actually add some pics to this post when I get home and have access to my pics but for now here is the link.  These should be mainly from Wed and Thurs. http://www.kellysuzannephotography.com/?page_id=201

~k

Scarpetta Anniversary Dinner

Scarpetta Anniversary Dinner

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Since we decided that we would come up to NYC for our anniversary the one thing that I really wanted to do was try Scott Conant’s spaghetti dish at Scarpetta.  It seems like everyone just raves about this dish and I’m always seeing it come up on the Food Network.  So I figured this would be a good place to go for our Anniversary dinner so I made a reservation, a month in advance!

We made our way to the restaurant from our hotel via the subway and got there a little bit early for our reservation so we sat at the bar and enjoyed a nice drink.  After 10 or 15 minutes we were shown to our table and had one of the best meals of our lives.  Not only was the food excelent but the service was out of this world.  We will be back again.  But enough about that, onto the food porn!

 

Matt’s Meal:

Braised Short Ribs of Beef – vegetable & farro risotto

Spaghetti – tomato & basil

Dry Aged Sirloin – baby vegetables, potatoes & pickled shallots

Amedei Chocolate Cake – salted caramel gelato & chocolate butterscotch

 

Kelly’s Meal:

Raw Yellowtail – olio di zenzero & flaked sea salt

Duck & Foie Gras Ravioli – marsala reduction

Halibut – spring vegetables, preserved lemon & almond broth

Coconut Panna Cotta – guava sauce & caramelized pineapple

They also sent us a nice surprise dessert!

 

After all of that we were totally miserable, but in a very very good way!  Thank you Scarpetta for a great meal and making our 1st anniversary meal one we’ll never forget!

NYC Day 3 – Happy Anniversary!

NYC Day 3 – Happy Anniversary!

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Sunday morning Matt and I woke up and exchanged anniversary cards before heading to FAO Schwartz which was just around the corner from our hotel.  A friend suggested we check it out just because so I took her advice and off we went.  When we got there there were 2 Soldiers greeting the kids at the door.  It was pretty cute.  We opted not to have our pictures taken with them. 🙂  I have to say I pictured the store to be a little more grand.  I mean it was big but not as big as I expected.  On the first floor were tons of stuffed animals and then you walked into the candy room!  AHHHHH!  Matt found the world’s biggest bag of twizzlers.  I should say all the candy seemed giant sized.  We managed to make it through the candy section with NO candy.  Whew!

 

Next we headed upstairs.  In between the 2 escalators were huge life sized stuff animals.  EEKK!  Unfortunately I couldn’t talk Matt into a life sized horse!  BOOO!  {He’s a dream killer sometimes. ;)}  We did see the life sized piano from the movie BIG.  That was pretty cool.

After we left FAO Schwartz we headed to Central Park and looked for food on the way.  Picnic in the park baby!  We found a little deli, grabbed some lunch and headed to Central Park to eat.  We found a nice little spot in the grass under some trees and just as we sat down a baby play group pulled up.  Thankfully they were babies so they were good.  When we finished lunch we headed over to Tavern on the Green.  Super disappointed.  I remember seeing this in the movie the Out of Towners and the movie made it appear to be in the middle of the park.  In reality it is right on the edge of the park and not nearly what I thought it would be.  It used to be a super fancy restaurant but now it’s a little visitor center type building.  Thankfully they had bathrooms.

Tavern on the Green

From Central Park we found a metro station and headed towards Chinatown.  WOOO HOOO!  We might have started walking in the wrong direction when we left the metro station.  I blame Matt. I told him what street we were looking for but he choose which way we walked.  {That’s right hon I blame you!}  Once we figured this out we turned around and really headed for Chinatown.

Only pic I took in Chinatown

It seemed as though a lot of the shops were closed and Matt wasn’t sure where we needed to go in order to score a bag.  Luckily we turned down a rather busy street and were immediately approached by a lady asking if we wanted a bag.  Hell yeah we want a bag.  We followed her through the crowd to a side street.  At this point she pulls out a laminated piece of paper with hand bags.  I start asking how much certain bags are.  Her opening price wasn’t really in the budget and Matt goes you knew you needed cash.  GRRR!  I told her I didn’t have that much and was about to walk away when she made a me deal.  😀  We waited while she went to get the bag. I must say I was a little disappointed we didn’t get to go to a super secret back room but I also had my camera so standing on the street really seemed like the a smarter idea.  A few minutes later she returned with a shopping bag, I glanced at the bag and handed over my money.  Wooo hooo!  Hello Louis!  I was pretty determined to not leave NYC without a LV bag.

Now that we had a bag we walked to the Brooklyn Bridge but not before we had a Starbucks break.  As we were walking Matt made a comment about everyone having Starbucks.  Well we got to the next corner and there was a Starbucks.  I’m not gonna lie, sitting for a few minutes was great.  And sitting with an ice cold drink was even better.  Now that we’d had a little break we walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge.  By this point my feet were like please stop using us so I wasn’t super disappointed when Matt noticed the bridge was boarded and you couldn’t see out.  We found a nice spot, stopped and took our pic and headed back.  I wanted a pretty easy, early day since we had dinner reservations that night.

We got back to the hotel around 3 or 4 and napped before getting ready for dinner at Scarpetta.  Oh Scarpetta…….

~k

 

NYC – Day 2

NYC – Day 2

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Saturday Matt and I woke up around 9 and were headed to the Empire State bldg around 10.  I thought it would be pretty cool to go to the top.  As we were walking Matt decided it would be good to go by Grand Central Station on our way.  We walked a few more blocks before we finally arrived.  The inside was pretty cool.  The first thing you notice is the bright green ceiling and then the clock in the middle.  We walked down the stairs and started to wonder around.  It was really cool seeing all the train entrances.

We continued around until we got to the Market.  Matt wanted to check it out since it’s been on a few of the cooking competition shows.  I have to say I didn’t think it was extremely large but they seemed to have a pretty good selection of foods.

From Grand Central we made our way up Park Ave.  It was neat because at one spot there were brass/gold plaques in the sidewalk.  I took a couple of pics because I thought they were pretty neat.

Soon we could see the Empire State bldg in the skyline so we continue to walk that way.  A block or so from the Empire State Bldg I saw a really cool fossil and mineral store.  My dad loves stuff like this so I took a few pics just for him.

We entered the Empire State Bldg and started to make our way up.  Matt mentioned we picked a good time to come because when he went the lines were pretty long.  Thankfully it only took maybe 30 – 45 minutes to get to the top.  As you walk through they have pics and various things about the building.  My goal though, was to get to the top.  The first elevator we got in took us from floor 3 to floor 80 in about 5 mins.  It was super fast.  The next elevator that goes from floor 80 to floor 86 (where the observation deck is) had a 30 minute wait but the guide told us we could take the stairs if we wanted.  Of course a ton of people moved from the line and headed for the stairs, us included.  We got to floor 83 and the group started dragging.  I’m really glad I wasn’t the only one about to die.  Thankfully we made it to floor 86 alive. 🙂

We got to the observation deck and there was a girl who looked like she was going to pass out.  I overheard her say she hated heights.  HAHA!  I would say she probably never made it outside.  Anyway Matt and I headed for the door.  There were a ton of people gathered right there so Matt grabbed me and we kept moving.  As you went around the crowd thinned out so I grabbed a spot on the wall to take pics.  We made our way around and took pics of the city before heading back down.  But I am pretty sure we walked by a proposal.  Girl crying, kind of shaking.  It looked like a proposal to me.  Matt missed it. 🙂

By the time we were done both of us were starving.  Matt suggested we make our way back over to the Shake Shack.  We got to the park and the line appeared to be a tad shorter then the day before so we decided to wait it out.  Forty-five minutes later we finally ordered lunch, 2 shack burgers and 2 shakes.  It didn’t take too long to get our food and we found a little table to eat at.  Matt grabbed our burgers and much to our disappointment they were not really worth the wait.  Don’t get me wrong they were good but nothing spectacular.  The milk shakes were pretty good but again not really worth the wait.  Oh well.  At least we did it and now we know we won’t do it again. 😉

After lunch we headed down to the World Trade Center and Battery Park.  {Thankfully Matt said we could take the metro.}  It was awesome seeing the new towers go up.  We thought about going to see the Memorial but you needed an appointment and we didn’t feel like waiting.  They had the original site all blocked off so you couldn’t see in and the streets were also blocked so you couldn’t get too close.  I was very surprised to see cops with rifles standing on the corners.  Crazy.

We walked by Trinity Church, which was beautiful and then down Wall Street.  We didn’t see the Bull, Matt wasn’t sure where it was and well my feet really didn’t care, but we did see the stock exchange.  We stumbled across a cool little street where all the bars and restaurants had tables set up as we walked to Battery Park.

The first thing you see when you enter Battery Park is this weird structure of bamboo.  Inside the tepee structure was a garden.  Then we walked over to Castle Clinton.  I’m not really sure what exactly it was but I have pics if I want to find out. 😉  The tour boats were at the dock so we didn’t get a great view of the Statue of Liberty but you could see her out there.  I guess I never really thought about it but I kind of expected it would be taller or higher.  I’m sure it looks much more impressive if you actually go out there.

I should mention that as Matt and I were looking at the Freedom Tower from Battery Park, Matt thought it looked like King Kong at the top.  He thought maybe it was something “fun” they were doing since the tower is now the tallest in the city.  Thankfully my zoom lens revealed the real truth….it was the crane tower. 😉

As we were leaving there was a group of men playing some sort of traditional instruments.  Then as we were standing around waiting for Matt to find a bar, I found a four leaf clover!  HOLY COW!  As a kid I always tried to find them with no luck and here I am standing by some random fence in NYC and there it is.  I was tempted to try to convince Matt to jump over the rail when I noticed a little gate.  I opened the gate, picked my clover and we were on our way back to the cute street full of bars.  We stopped at the Dubliner for a drink before making our way back to the Hotel.

That night we went to a pizza place around the corner from our hotel called Pizzarte.  The food was amazing and they had some very interesting art on the walls.  I decided to ask the waiter who the artist was, Paolo Romano, and just how much the art went for, umm 4 grand.  That’s just a smidge out of my price range. 🙂  But I might have a new art project coming soon!

After dinner we walked over to Times Square.  Man was that place crazy so we just walked though.  I did manage to get some decent night pics but I think I will post all of the night pics in a separate post.

~K

NYC here we come!

NYC here we come!

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Okay it’s time to blog about this trip.  As you know this was mine and Matt’s 1 year anniversary trip. We decided to go to NYC since I had never been and we could make it a long weekend.  {I will be running out of PTO days soon if we take another long trip.}

Matt decided we needed to be up around 4:30am on Friday to make our 7:20 flight.  Ughhh!  I hate waking up early and I really thought this might be an issue but my body had other ideas.  It decided to wake up at 4.  JOY!  I rolled over and found Matt awake too so we decided to just get up and get going.  We left the house around 5:30ish and headed for the park and ride.  The park and ride is pretty awesome and cheap!  We arrived at the airport and I grabbed some breakfast before getting on the plane.

The flight from RDU to JFK was pretty quick, just over an hour.  Once we got to JFk we found a taxi and headed into the city.  Um, now let me just talk about our cab driver.  He didn’t say one word to us except to ask where we were going.  And then it was like a mad man driving.  {Granted I never actually felt like we were going to die but holy crap they are BAD drivers!}  He managed to get us to our hotel in one piece but I am pretty sure there are no rules for driving and there are certainly not any lines to follow.  But enough about our cab ride.  I will say the drive was interesting.  Not really what I expected though I’m not sure what I expected.  I felt it looked kind of run down and dirty.  Seeing the skyline as we drove in was pretty cool though.

After about an hour in the cab we finally arrived at the Chambers hotel.  The hotel was very nice and had a funky modern flare to it.  We were told our room wouldn’t be ready til noon so we left our bags and hit the street.  Now is probably a really good time to mention I completely forgot my Rainbows at home and I wore my Lucky Brand boots on the plane.  That’s right I started walking the city in boots.

Our hotel was at the corner of 5th and 56th so to our left was Harry Winston.  Across the street was Trump Tower, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and a host of other super high end places.  We walked for a little while and Matt informed me taking pics was out of the question since people would run me over.  Hmmm.  I randomly took a few pics as I could maneuver my way into a corner or out of the main walking paths.  We found a Pret A Manager and grabbed some yummy snacks and rested our feet before heading over to the Flat Iron building.  The plan was to go to the Shake Shack for lunch.

When we got to the Park where Shake Shack was the line was stupid long so we decided to wait a little while for lunch.  Around this time my feet were absolutely killing me and I told Matt it was time to find new shoes.  He found the world’s largest Macy’s about 10 blocks away so we headed there.  OMG, I have never seen such chaos in a department store before in my life and guys this was a Friday in May.  WTF?!?  Ladies shoes were on the 3rd and 4th floors so we rode the cool old wooden escalador up.  Matt ran to the bathroom while I tried to wrap my head around the chaos that was Macy’s.  I found a couple pairs of flip flops but I was so discombobulated I just grabbed a pair, quickly tried them on and went to pay.  As I was standing in line I realized I had nothing to actually use to buy shoes.  Matt had all my money.  Dammit.  I waited for him to return and finally paid for my new shoes.  They weren’t the best but by no means were they as bad as my boots.

We left Macy’s and walked around to Madison Square Garden before heading back to the park for Shake Shack.  Of course the line was still stupid long so we continued our walking.  We finally ended up at Momofuku ssam bar.  We got the steamed pork buns and they were delicious.  After lunch we started to make our way back towards the hotel.  Honestly I have no clue as to where exactly we went.  Matt decided we could take the Metro back only to realize there were no restrooms in the metro station and I was about to die.  This turned into find restroom and head back to the metro.

We got back to our hotel around 4:30 and laid down for a while.  I tried to wash the black off my feet but they are still dirty looking, almost a week later.

That night we asked the concierge where a good place to go to dinner was and he said Bistro Milano which was one block away.  Sold!  He recommended a few dishes and called to let them know we would be right over.  We were lucky to snag a table outside but as the evening went on it began to get chilly.  Being the amazing husband he is, Matt ran back to the hotel to grab my sweater.  Our food arrived and I was less then impressed with my pizza (which was recommended) but Matt’s pasta was amazing so we ended up sharing that basically.  Our waitress was HORRIBLE!  She took our order and we didn’t see her until we asked another waiter for the check.  I was seriously tempted to just leave but Matt didn’t want to go to jail on our first night. 😉  I will say her tip reflected her shitty service, so much so that we took a pic of the receipt.  I wanted to leave tip:  Learn some customer service but Matt left actual money.

So that was basically our first day in NYC.  I think we walked at least 50 miles and guys these feet are NOT made for walking. 😉

~K

I’ll post all the pics on my photography website in the next day or so.

And now for the fun stuff

And now for the fun stuff

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Each night our room staff made cute little towel animals for us.  The first night was well, ummm interesting.  😉  We’re still not sure exactly what it is but if you use your imagination you’ll probably think what we did. 😀

A sting ray.

I’m pretty sure this is a butterfly.

Matt said this was a turkey but I voted him and said it was a Peacock.

A lobster!

I think the last 2 are my personal faves!

A cute monkey!  Awww.

And an adorable doggy.

Also Patrick had the same room servers and apparently since he never opened his curtain they thought it would be funny to put a towel animal behind the curtain.  He randomly discovered it one day and told us about it later.   We all got a kick out of it.

~k

Last Day at Sea

Last Day at Sea

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Well today was the last day on our cruise and it was a day at sea as we make our way back to Tampa. There really isn’t much to do on board on the days at sea other than hanging out by the pool so we decided to have a nice lazy day today. We didn’t actually wake up until about 9am and the met up with the fam for breakfast. We found a nice spot outside and sat there for a few hours before we headed back to the room to get changed and head back to the pool. We spent most of the day at the pool but then when the steel drums came out we decided that was our queue to leave, so we headed to the crows nest bar to hang out. They happened to be doing the trivia contest so we grabbed a sheet and quickly realized how little we knew, least we didn’t score the fewest points!

As we were sitting there we started to notice that we were sailing towards an object in the water but we couldn’t make out what it was. As we got closer we decided to head outside for a better look and then we realized it was a boat, or at least part of one.

The Captain came on the intercom and said there was a de-masted ship and we were going to check it out. We got right up next to it and it appeared to be part of a catamaran, there was no sign of anyone though. The Captain said he reported it to the coast guard and that we would be on our way. Later in the day he announced that the boat that the part came from had crashed in the middle of the Atlantic in 2010 and had drifted all the way there. The three people who were on board were also rescued. So in the end just a floating piece of trash really.

After that excitement Kelly headed back to the room for a nap while Patrick and I went to the bar to watch the game. We only lasted a half then we decided it was nap time too. We all met up again for a pre dinner drink and then had our last dinner in the dining room. Dinner has really been a lot of fun because of the staff that has waited on us this trip. Dodi, Daniel, and Ronald are a lot of fun and very nice people. We were all glad that we got to meet them. The highlight of dinner tonight was dessert, baked Alaska. While it was quite good the best part was that Dodi gave us each half of a dessert that must have been meant for 4 at the minimum. It was quite funny to have this giant pile of ice cream and meringue in front of you.

After dinner we came back to the room to pack as we needed to have our bags outside of the room by midnight. I also have an early morning tomorrow as all non US citizens have to meet up at 6:30am for some reason. Awesome! We are now all packed up and just getting ready for bed. We get to leave the boat about 8am and our flight home isn’t till 5pm tomorrow so we’ve got some time to kill in Tampa tomorrow, maybe we’ll find something fun to do, or just play on the Internet all day as we’ve been without it for 7 day, oh the horror!

Costa Maya – last stop

Costa Maya – last stop

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Costa Maya Mexico was our last before heading back to Tampa.

We arrived at the port around 7am.  The skies were blue, the water clear but Costa Maya appeared to be deserted.  The port had 2 docks and what appeared to be a few little shops but otherwise there was nothing else to be seen. As Matt, Patrick and I took our little morning stroll around deck 6, this is the only walk around deck, we noticed an ambulance next to the boat.   We all wondered what was going on.  The guys headed up to breakfast and I realized I had forgotten my rings in the room so I ran to grab them.  As I was waiting for the elevator up I heard a couple talking about someone having a heart attack.  I guess that would explain the whitestar call over the PA last night at dinner.

After breakfast we hopped off the boat and headed for the port. The port had a few bars and restaurants as well as souvenir shops.  Since it was only 7:30 local time it wasn’t too busy. Jill and Steve had arranged a beach day at Nohoch Kay, a local beach.  Now we just needed to get out and find a cab.

It was a short ride to our destination.  The beaches were okay but there seemed to be a fair amount of trash around. We settled in under our hut and I walked around and took some pics.  I was oddly attracted to the dilapidation.  The area is still being rebuilt from the destruction caused by a hurricane a few years ago.

Matt "walking" on water.

The staff was very friendly and kept the drinks coming.  Apparently I was the only one that didn’t realize everything was included until later in the day.  Anyway as the day went on the water started to turn beautiful shades of blue and you could see all the little channels between the grass.  The water had tons of grass which we all thought was weird.  Way out you could see the barrier that lead to the ocean.

Around 11am we walked across the road to the restaurant and ordered some food.  We had shrimp tacos, ceviche, and nachos.  The food was very good.  Then Matt, Patrick and I set off down the boardwalk.  We kept seeing signs for free wifi but all the networks were locked.  Come to find out our place also had free wifi. Dammit.  Apparently massages are big business down there because every feet we were getting asked if we would like one.  We finally decided to walk the beach back to our spot.  By this time the water felt considerably warmer so Patrick and I decided to go swimming with Jill.  We could basically walk out to the bouys where the main channel was.  The water was much deeper and super clear.  We only stayed out for a few minutes because we would need to head back to the boat soon.

Our view at lunch.

After we dried off, Jaime (pronounced hi-me) the owner of Nohoch Kay, called us a cab.  We arrived back at port and headed to the boat.  As we were walking back I wanted to take some pics of the rocks by the ocean. By this time the water was crystal clear with shades of turquoise and dark blue.  The colors were spectacular.  At this point Matt is like Kelly look.  Omg!  There is a dolphin enclosure right beside the ocean and people are swimming with the dolphins.  Of course now I am going crazy taking dolphin pics.

We finally get back to the boat and the kids decide to grab some ice cream and wait for the boat to leave.  It was so hot outside and we couldn’t find any shade so we went back inside to cool off.  As we were sitting there Matt spotted something really large in the water.  I grabbed my camera and hauled ass outside to see if I could get a pic and figure out what exactly it was.  No such luck in figuring it out but it was cool.  A few minutes later the boat set sail.

Now we are on our way back to Tampa.   We had a quick stop in Cozumel last night.  Someone was feeling “poorly“ so they were removed from the boat.   Still not sure exactly what that means.   I asked the bartender while we were watching the NC State game but he wasn’t very chatty.

~k