Our Cruise!!!

Well, I have taken a very long vacation from posting and frankly, it was kind of nice. Things have been busy at work and honestly I just haven't had the desire to get back on the computer after hours. I now feel refreshed and ready to roll again!!

A lot happened the past month, I went back to Utah twice, turned 29 and went on a cruise to the Bahamas. My visits to Utah were very nice, it was great to be able to see family and very nice to be able to celebrate my birthday with family since this was the first one away from home.

My birthday was also great, Brando did a great job of making it a special day. Birthdays were serious business growing up and he did a good job of keeping traditions alive. Instead of cooking myself an awful looking birthday cake ala last years....we went to Sprinkles and got all sorts of delicious cupcakes. It. Was. Divine. We then scooted ourselves up to Scottsdale for some delightful sushi, which we learned while we were there that good ol' Steven Segal likes to frequent the joint. In fact, he had been in there the week before speaking fluent Japanese and doing crazy things like the splits...just kidding, but that would have been awesome....and would have guaranteed that I would have been back the following Thursday to see the show again.

Last week we went on a cruise to the Bahamas with our friends Jake and Nicole and Garret and Jamie. Brando and I headed out a couple of days early to spend some time in Miami Beach...which I LOVED! I didn't get any pictures because I didn't feel like lugging the camera around, but the beaches were beautiful, we ate heaps of delicious Cuban food and rented bikes to ride up and down the beach. I would definitely go back to Miami in a heart beat.

Our first stop was Nassau, where we cruised around the island, learned all sorts of important stuff ("you got to protect your tings!" and swam in the ocean. I really like the color of the water over there by the Bahamas, that light blue is so inviting.

The next day we went to the private island that the cruise line had. The day started off so-so. I feel like I'm a strong swimmer, Brando's a strong swimmer...I don't know about the other cats we were with, but seriously...by 30 you should probably know how to swim. The cruise line insisted that you wear a life vest, it drove me crazy and didn't let me dive down where I wanted to go, but in the end all was forgiven. Have you seen the show River Monsters? (I know this sounds like a tangent, but believe me, it isn't.) Brandon and I love River Monsters and we watched an episode a few weeks back about stingrays and dangerous they are, slightly unpredictable and pretty much that you want to watch out for them. So...back to Coco Cay...Brando and I are swimming around trying to snorkel with those dang life vests when suddenly a stingray goes gliding along the bottom of the ocean. Yep, he was content to swim around our feet (we were madly, yet gracefully, trying to swim away without upsetting him or his very long, poisonous stinger) and then he swam off into the depths. Needless to say, that made up for the life vest, although I did see another stingray a bit later in the day, which made me a little bit nervous, but only for a bit. The second I got the opportunity,  I took off into the water to swim and swim and swim.

The third day we were in Key West. I had never been to Key West before, but I loved it! It has a quaint feel, the love the houses and all of the bright blooms everywhere. Key West is where I decided to lug my camera around, so I was actually able to document something.

This is the Majesty of the Seas..aka home for a little bit.

Jamie told me before we disembarked onto the island that Key West has a lot of ghost tours. If I could have talked anyone into going on one with me...I totally would have done it. Not to mention the inside of the bus was decked out with cobwebs, gravestones and skulls...my kind of a bus.

Meet Jake, he's a super good sport about posing inside scuba gear from last century.

Key West is famous for its key lime pies thanks to the ever delicious key lime...Brandon and I ate key lime in several different variations including covered in chocolate and on a stick. While it was delicious, I don't know that I'll be eating key lime pie again for a while.

While we were there we found an antique store that had the best find on the face of the planet. For 10 bucks, I scored myself the earrings you see me wearing so proudly....note to self, gold, dangly earrings do not go well with a swimming suit.

I have worn these bad boys every day since, I've been telling myself that they  were taken from a southern lady's house when she died along and wealthy, but no one claimed her stuff. It makes it that much more fun to wear them.

Meanwhile, how did we get around the island you ask? Oh well that's easy, we rented an electric car that drove all six of us around. (Picture Brandon and I in the back seat, yes it was a tight fit for our legs.) If you notice the front left wheel...do you see the odd angle its at? That poor wheel made the worst screeching noises, people were staring at it as we drove, we even had people run up to us to say that the wheel was almost off. Do you think the proprietors of the business that we rented the vehicle from were concerned? Nah. They just rented it back out to the next people. It was a lot of fun to roll around in that bad boy, I was a little concerned about its power when it would stall in the middle of the intersection, but oh well, what do you do?

I had to add the obligatory hat picture. The sun was blazing hot, my nose was extremely burned, even though I had piled sunscreen on it...so it was time to get a hat. I opted for the Kentucky Derby version, which meant I couldn't see anything while I walked around, so I had to turn it sideways in order to see where I was walking. This meant that I ended up looking slightly like a miner heading out to work in the morning, but I'm sure my face was thanking me.

My last picture of the day is Jake and Nicole and the very nice-looking fisherman. There were statues all over the place in Key West. No one could explain just what exactly they were for. The best part, there were statues of photographers all over the place taking pictures of the statues...hm....interesting...but when in Rome....

We had a great time, I wasn't ready to come home!!! Hopefully we'll be able to head back down to Miami soon...anyone want to come with? :)