Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Vacations

This is for you Emily!

Brian and I have been on a two vacations recently, and due to Emily's pestering :) here's what we did!  The first on was a cruise out of Jacksonville, FL to the Bahamas.  This is us just as we're leaving the port!








I wanted Brian to get a picture of the bridge we went under because it was really pretty, but I didn't know he got me in the picture too.





This was our formal night on the cruise. :)

His name is Freddy, this ships 'fun" mascot. 

Brian was one of the final 4 in one of the competitions.  The lady in the pink polka dots was our cruise director!  She was the best one we've had!  She was hilarious.  P.S. Brian came in second. :)

The weather was perfect the day we left, but it just went down hill fro there.  People were getting sick all the time because we were swaying so much.  It was also really stormy and rainy outside!  We even missed our stop in Half-Moon Cay because it was too dangerous for us to go into the port.  We finally got to Nassau, where the weather was much better and we finally got to get some sun, and we finally got to get off the boat!

I am so excited to simply be off the boat!

We chose to go to the beach then do some shopping- 3 things I absolutely love...sun, shopping, and my hubby!  It was a great day!  And the water was so clear and pretty!


As we  were getting back on the boat, we saw this guy getting the shells and the starfish ready to sell!  It was pretty interesting to see!



The first day on the boat, we were practicing the evacuation procedures in case anything went wrong, and this cute little family from Alabama was in our group!  They are 5-year old twins  and were so much fun!  Brian said something about me being a twin, and from that time on we were all good friends, eating together and going to the shows together!  The mom just kept asking questions about me growing up and what it was like being a twin, and asked lots of suggestions in regards to her own twin girls!  They were such a fun family!  And the twins absolutely adored Brian and loved playing in the water with him.

When we got back from the cruise, we had two days before leaving for California for a Meritain conference with Brian's brother Chris and his wife Carrie.  There was just one 3-hour meeting for work, then the rest of the time was play time!  We got picked up from the airport in a limo!  So much fun! 


Sunday afternoon on the way from the San Fransisco airport to Napa Valley, where the conference was.
 The 3 hour meeting was Monday morning, then we went golfing!  It was one of the four activities to choose from!  It was a blast!  It was my first time golfing for real...not just mini golfing.  It was harder than I though, but also a lot of fun!  If you look in the background you can see some of the vineyards.  That's what we played through.  There were grapes growing on both side of the course and sometimes right in the middle of it.  It made for an interesting day, but was beautiful!




Tuesday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn to go on the hot air balloon rides!  It was so much fun and so pretty!  Here are some more pictures:









I thought this one was especially cool because you can see the reflection of the balloon in the pond!
I couldn't believe how smooth the ride was, you couldn't feel a thing!



After the ride as they are deflating our balloon.

The four activities to choose from for the trip were golfing, wine tasting, vineyard tour, and massages.  Obviously wine tasting was out of the picture.  We could have gone on the vineyard tour, but we didn't think we would really care about anything we learned, so that only left golfing and massages.  Obviously golfing was Monday.  So that left massages for Tuesday.  We had some free time after the hot air balloon ride and before the massages which we filled with pool time!  Then the massages came.  Neither Brian or I had ever had one before, but we both loved them!  Sorry, no pictures. :)

Then we went to dinner over-looking a vineyard.  Again, very pretty.





There were lots of bugs...Brian killed the one you can see on the pillar.  It was pretty funny. :)

Wednesday was the day to leave, but Brian's brother had some other meetings, so the rest of us went to explore San Fransisco.



Pier 39.



We went to go see the seals that usually lay all across these planks, but there were hardly any of them there this time!  I was really sad!



We  also visited Ghirardelli Square, which was pretty cool!  Anything named after chocolate has to be awesome!

Then we walked around Fisherman's Wharf and got clam chowder in bread bowls for lunch...yum!  We visited a few shops and watched the street performers!  My favorite thing was this guy that would just sit on the sidewalk and hold two branches in front of him.  When people got close enough, he would jump out at them.  It was pretty obvious that he was holding the branches and that there wasn't some weird tree growing in the middle of the sidewalk, but people walking by were so distracted by looking at other things, that they never noticed him!  It was the best when he got groups of girls who would scream and run away.  We had a blast watching him for a while.  :)  When Chris got back, he picked us up then we drove down Lombard street before heading to the airport!  It was such a fun day!

And the only thing I bought in San Fransisco...SALT-WATER TAFFY!!!  I didn't realize how much I miss living next to the coast until I tasted the salt-water taffy again.  It's so sweet and fresh!  The kind you can get here in Colorado is good, but the kind right next to a coast...HEAVENLY!  Anyone need an idea of what to get me for my birthday?  :)

It was two vacations filled with fun and relaxation!  Even though I don't know when our next vacation will be, I already can't wait for it!


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