So we are at the end of our wonderful Caribbean cruise! We are hanging out in a Miami Holiday Inn, waiting for the Miami Heat game to start (which we will be off to go see). We would have kept updating throughout the cruise, but Norwegian wanted $0.75/minute for internet access, and I'm afraid we were way too cheap to spend much time online.
Besides that, we had an AMAZING vacation! We left for Miami Wednesday night (evening of the 28th) and true to what we've come to expect of Air Canada, our flight was a bit of a disaster. Delayed by almost 3 hours in Calgary, we were running to make our connection in Toronto. Luckily, Air Canada incompetence continued and our connecting flight was late as well! We made our flight and had the privilege of seeing them loading our baggage onto the flight as well (our worst nightmare of not having our luggage for the cruise luckily was NOT realized).
We stayed on South Beach on Thursday, but we were soo tired we didn't really do much. Had a nap on the beach, went for burgers, and pretty much went to bed really early. South Beach is an interesting place - I can imagine how crazy it gets during spring break time!
Now to our cruise! Our first few days were spent on the ship and it was a great relaxing start - the food was sooo good. So much better than Cuba! I'm afraid I ate way too much!
Our first stop was Dominica (which quite frankly was our least favorite stop). There wasn't much to see there - nice rainforest, but nothing too special. We went to see some emerald pool which was very nice. It's a very poor island, and everywhere we looked there were people waiting on the side of the road for who knows what. It was okay though, we just ended up going back to the ship 3 hours early because we didn't know what else to do.
Stop 2 - Barbados. We LOVED Barbados! We did a snorkeling tour in the morning where we got to swim with sea turtles and fish and it was so much fun! It was a little freaky for me, because a few times I came close to the guys that were feeding the animals food and so I would turn around and there was a big fat sea turtle in my face - I may have screamed (once or twice only). We went to two beautiful beaches in Barbados - the water was everything I imagined Caribbean water to be. Yep, we loved Barbados.
Stop 3 - St. Lucia. Ever since I saw a picture of St. Lucia 4 years ago and showed it to Brian, we have wanted to go there. Needless to say, we really anticipated this stop. I think I may have built it up a bit much, but it was really nice. The Pitons (the two mountains) were really quite spectacular.
We took a catamaran cruise to the Pitons and then stopped in the charming town of Soufriere for lunch on the boat. We then proceeded to a beach, which was nice, but admittedly not as nice as Barbados. The sand was black, not white, and it was quite crowded. There were people continually cruising around in these kayaks trying to sell us stuff. I'm thinking to myself - "what part of me being in a bathing suit in the water tells you that I have money on me" but I tried to understand that they are just trying to make a living. It did get annoying after a while - on all the islands, people are just so aggressive. It makes me really uncomfortable. But anyway, St. Lucia was nice, but did not turn out to be our favorite port of call.
Stop 4 - Antigua. Another great beach location! Not quite as nice as Barbados though, we don't think. We had a very relaxing day hanging out on the beach - didn't do any tours on this island.
Stop 5 - last but not least, Tortola! All we had time for was a cruise to the Virgin Gorda Island and a tour to the Baths. You know, I've seen alot of very cool coastlines and beaches in my day, but I don't think I've ever seen anything that compares to this place. The water was violently crashing to the shore - so much so that it actually knocked my watch right out of the pocket of my shorts, never to be seen again:(. It truly was an awe inspiring sight, though - I didn't spend a lot of time in the water here because I was actually afraid I might get washed away! Anyway, probably our favorite stop - a stunning location.
So after another relaxing day at sea (where we tried bowling amidst some 7 - 9 foot waves rocking our world), here we are in Miami once again. I think I'm somewhat ready to come home, but this vacation was sorely needed. I don't know if we ever slept less than 10 hours in one night - and we were getting up early for shore excursions! Yes, we were in fact like the old people, going to bed when most of the young people were just getting started. Like I said - it was just what we needed:).
. . . SO I apologize for the cheesy headline but I just couldn't resist:). We just got back from the game (oh you'll have to read the 
below post first or you might not know what's going on). It was so much fun! A very exciting game - lots of swings in momentum, and ended up being won by the home team in the dying seconds. Anyway, we had a really good time and it was a nice way to end our vacation. Tomorrow, it's back to the airport and another fun day of travelling (here's hoping Air Canada can get us home at a reasonable hour).
