February: 9 (almost) perfect days!

For almost a year, Ryan has been planning a trip for just the two of us.  Something about parenting 3 crazy boys that will do that to a person.  We decided on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean with our good friends the Chens after finding an amazing deal online.  Finally, after lots of waiting and planning and packing and getting kiddos ready for Grandma, it was time to go!

Day 0 & 1: Portland and the impossible journey.
Normally, the Portland area gets lots of rain during the winter.  But the weekend we were trying to get away, it looked like this.  May I present, Snowmageddon.  In Utah a couple of inches of snow would be no deal at all.  But here, there are no snow plows, no salt trucks, and overconfident yet inexperienced snow drivers.  (I'm looking at you men in Portland driving pickup trucks.  Just because you have 4 wheel drive on your truck doesn't mean you know how to use it properly on the snow/ice.)

Because of the snow, our flight was cancelled and rerouted through another airline.  Then that flight got delayed so we got rerouted on another flight.  Then we missed our connecting flight because the rerouting airline messed up our ticket.  And then... (you get the general idea).  In the end, after almost 24 hours of travel we made it onto the ship on the very last transport from the airport.  Without our bags.  (Sigh)

  

Day 2: Day at Sea aka Isolation!

Just in case we didn't have enough fun the day before, Ryan came down with a stomach bug the night we got onto the boat.  He was fine the next morning, but because of the serious problems cruise ships have been having with Norovirus, he was put in isolation for 24 hours.  As in, he couldn't leave our room.  "Mr. Walker, please go back to your room.  Isolation!"  

Day 3: Barbados

Luckily, Ryan was cleared by the medical staff at 8am the day we pulled into Barbados.  We dashed off the boat and ran into the first shop we could find so I could buy a bathing suit.  (No bags, remember?)  They had ONE modest swimsuit in my size.  Yay!  Not exactly my style, but hey it worked.  Then on to our first real activity of the vacation...Scuba Diving!

When we got back to our room later that night, we had an even better surprise waiting for us...Our LUGGAGE!!!  We were so happy!!!

Day 4: St. Lucia

Now that we had our stuff back, we were ready for a fun day in St. Lucia!  It is a stunning island, and reminded us a lot of Hawaii.  We booked a sightseeing tour with our friends, Johnny and Melyssa, and it was AWESOME!  Really, one of our favorite days of the whole trip.  If you ever go to St. Lucia, we loved our experience with St. Lucia best experience tours.  

There is our boat!

St. Lucia has one of the world's only drive-in volcanoes.  

It is crazy to look down and see pools of water that are BOILING.  Really, boiling.

A little way down from the volcano, there are hot springs and mud baths.  Can you see the guy in the spring?  Look in the lower left corner.

Danny-boy (our amazing tour guide) told us the mineral-rich mud from the volcano made people look 10 years younger.  I told him I didn't want to look 18.  People already give me funny looks with 3 kids attached to my legs.

One of the Piton mountains.  (I couldn't remember which one...the Gros Piton or the Petit Piton).

The best way to rinse off all that mud is in a sparkling clear waterfall!

And then this happened...

Our favorite stop on the tour...a local Creole restaurant with local ingredients like breadfruit and plantains and other vegetables I can't remember.  Best food on our vacation, hands down!

Day 5: Antigua

Antigua is famous for its white sand beaches so we took a taxi and had a beach day.

It was a great day at the beach (except for a crazy guy trying to sell Melyssa and I marijuana...but I digress).  There were some little sailboats for rent on the beach so after a short lesson, Ryan and Johnny took us out sailing.

We may have quoted this part from What About Bob a few (thousand) times.

Day 6: St. Martin

We arrived in St. Martin only to discover there were 5 other cruise ships in port that day.  That makes 6 giant ships!!!  Uh, no thank you.  Instead of fighting the crowds, Ryan and I decided to hang out by the pool all day.  It was surprisingly relaxing and really quite fun.

The upside to losing your bags?  Free tux rental for Ryan courtesy of Celebrity Cruises for formal night!

Day 7: St. Thomas

St. Thomas is one of the US Virgin Islands and it looked and felt just like So. California EXCEPT they drive on the left side of the road.  

We spent our day in St. Thomas doing a Kayak-Snorkel-Hike tour of the mangrove lagoon.  It was awesome!  We started off with an intro from our main guide Zulu.

Then we made sure our rental gear fit...

And we were off!  

The mangroves are like the nurseries of the ocean.  There were so many baby fish!  We also saw tons of Casseopea jellies like this one.  They looked like cauliflower on the bottom of the lagoon.

We saw a few lionfish as well.

Then we stopped for lunch and had a hermit crab race.  Go Shelldon Go!

Wait for it...

Ahh!!!

Baby Lobsters

Can you spot the stingray?  I missed it the first time swimming over the top of it.

Day 8: Back to Puerto Rico

We got back into Puerto Rico early Saturday morning.  Our flight didn't leave until the next day, so we said a sad goodbye to the Chens and then headed to our hotel.  The rest of the day was spent enjoying the beach, soaking up the last bit of sunshine, and stuffing ourselves silly with Puerto Rican food.  Mmm...mofongo.

The next morning we packed up our bags and headed home!  We couldn't wait to kiss our little boys!!!

Really, we couldn't wait.  We woke them up in the middle of the night as soon as we got home :)

Meanwhile, back on the ranch...

...Grandma Susan achieved saint status by taking care of 3 busy boys as they (all) endured the flu...

...Giant Lego Towers of Doom were constructed...

...and Eli turned 11 months AND learned to climb the stairs.  Yikes!!!

Goodbye!