Fantastic Maui memories

Maui has become a favourite place to get away from the colder weather back home. It's a relatively easy trip in that the flight is usually direct and takes about 6 hours to get there. Even 6 hours on a plane is worth it because when you step off that plane the tropical warmth surrounds you and you immediately forget you were just on an air-conditioned plane with recycled air. At least that's how I feel. The going home part is always hard knowing what I'm leaving behind and what I'm heading to. 

This trip was memorable in that we got to spend a lot of time just chillin' and relaxing. Taking a break from the craziness of life is important to me and this trip helped to accomplish that. We went zip lining which was a first for both of us and such an amazingly fantastic thrill. And what a scenic place to do that at. We spent Hallowe'en evening in Lahania and experienced what they call the Mardi Gras of the Pacific. It was neat to see everyone dressed up in costumes and having a great time. The thought and effort that went into some costumes was quite impressive....made my red cap for Red Riding Hood look a little basic. We met up with some good friends who were also there at the same time and had some good times hanging out. But most importantly I got to spend some quality down time with my Z. And for me that's probably the best part of it all...that I could experience all these great, fun things with him. Life is good. Aloha! 

Eating in Maui

A tech failure impacted my ability to finish my blog while still on vacation. Since returning home almost 3 weeks again life's demands have hindered my ability to find the time to finish this off. It's sad how that happens and just reinforces my sentiment that we really do make ourselves too busy and don't take enough time to enjoy the finer moments and simpler things in life....

We made an effort to try a few more restaurants this time around and we were never disappointed; probably had a lot to do with a certain someone doing his research on different places. In no particular order we enjoyed meals at the following places: 

Monkeypod Kitchen - cool name to start and we learned from their menu that Monkeypod is actually a type of tree that is common in Hawaii, but not native to Hawaii. We went here during happy hour....they have 2 happy hours! How awesome is that? It's not just because their drinks are cheaper, in fact their food discounts were a steal of a deal, but because you didn't have to feel rushed from an afternoon at the beach....3-5:30 or 9-11pm are the options. Appetizers are half priced and drinks are cheaper too, but I can't remember what they cost. The food here was really good....we tried the pumpkin patch ravioli, chicken wings, Portuguese bean soup, pizza and jalepeno poppers. We sat on the outdoor patio which also has great views of the sunset if you time it right. It's located in Wailea and was a 5 minute drive, if that, from our hotel. Great spot, would definitely recommend. 

Cheeseburger - our favourite restaurant at the Shops at Wailea mall. Their happy hour is from 3-5pm and offer half off Pina Coladas which is one of my favourite drinks. The food menu during happy hour was more limited than last year which was disappointing and the food was a little underwhelming. I found that part strange because we had regular dinner there once and the food was good. They have a good breakfast special at $6.99 for eggs, hash browns, toast and coffee. Even if you don't eat eggs like me, it's still a good deal considering a coffee alone costs over $3. 

Mala - this is the restaurant at the Wailea Marriott. Part of our stay included the buffet breakfast as part of our rate and that made it worth it. Otherwise the buffet costs $28.95 per person and I'd say unless you can eat $30 worth of food, it's not worth it. The options were fantastic again with plenty of options from fresh baked goods, toast, pancakes, waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage, to fresh fruit and an omelette station. The best part of it though are the amazing ocean views you enjoy while eating. There's no wonder that no one sits indoors during breakfast!

Da Kitchen - found in Kahului, it's more of a locals restaurant. We had heard good things about it so we gave it a try. I ordered a daily special of chicken curry which I found underwhelming....the chicken was rather dry and really chewy, but the curry sauce was very flavourful and tasty. Z had the ahi tuna sandwich which he enjoyed but he found the tuna to be a little more on the raw side than he likes. The portions here are huge too! The fresh lemon aid was good. Not sure I'd visit again knowing there are plenty of other options that won't disappoint available. 

Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice - this has got to be the best shave ice place on the island and so it's no wonder they are rated #1. We went to the one in Kahului and were not in the least disappointed even though it's about a half hour drive from Wailea. We had the extra small size which is a good sized serving. They just do it right here and use a technique that allows the syrups to really engulf all the shave ice. They also give you the option of having a scoop of ice cream at the bottom. How can you go wrong with that? Only difficulties is picking your flavours and even with that if you go more than once, then you can try others. :)

Coconut's Fish Cafe - first thought is why would I go to a place with fish cafe in its name? Well because they don't only serve fish that's why. This is a popular place known for its fish tacos made with fresh catch of the day. They also make a pretty darn good chicken taco. Located in Kihei, it's worth checking out. Just don't be afraid of possibly sitting with other people at your table because they have picnic style tables set up so it's ideal for sharing. 

Peggy Sue's Diner- right next door to Coconut's is this great throw back diner that takes you back to the 50's/60's...not that I would know what diners were like back then, that's well before my time. The atmosphere is great with the jukebox and diner booths and swivel chairs. Had a peanut butter milkshake here and it was pretty good! 

Gannon's - going for a little higher class with this restaurant. Located at Wailea golf course, this restaurant is the ideal setting for a sunset dinner. We had a lovely sunset dinner here and enjoyed a fabulous tasting meal consisting of organic chicken with greens and mashed potatoes for me, while Z enjoyed cashew crusted catch of the day which was mahi mahi. For dessert we shared a very delightful island fruit crisp with pineapple and mango with coconut strudel on top and vanilla bean ice cream. We could have probably each ordered our own it was that good. They also have a happy hour, but it's restricted to the bar area and a small area of the patio where the sunset probably wouldn't have been as spectacular given the trees in the line of sight. We had the perfect spot at the edge of the patio with no one in front of us and nothing but a uninterrupted view. 

Stella Blue's - located in Kihei, we went here for breakfast. Enjoyed their banana pancake with macadamia nuts and coconut syrup. They cook the bananas right in the pancake which just adds a whole different dimension to one of my favourite breakfast meals in Maui. 

Kihei Cafe - guess where it's located....right on the main drag of Kihei. Portions here are large and definitely enough to share. Banana nut pancakes were the order. The bananas are cut fresh on top of the pancakes here and sprinkle with a generous helping of mac nuts. This is the place where I was first introduced to the banana mac nut pancake a couple years ago. Very tasty! This place gets very packed during the breakfast rush so we went a little later than usual to avoid that. They get you to order inside first before finding a seat which at peak rush can be a challenge. 

Leoda's Kitchen and Pie Shop - located on the highway to downtown Lahaina, this place is famous for their pies. It could be easy to miss unless you're paying attention because it's on the side of the highway and you can easily just drive past. Well worth a stop here for food though. We had lunch here and had their chicken pot pie. And of course we had to try a pie, well actually we each had to try our own pie. I had the coconut cream pie and Z had the chocolate pie. My only regret was that I ordered the mini pie....it was gone before I knew it. So good!! True comfort food here. All is made fresh daily and they are known to sell out of pies too. They are open from 7am to 8pm. 

Lahaina's Pizza Co - located on Front Street in downtown Lahaina, this place offers great pizzas which are made with very thick crust so you end up filling up quickly. 

Pita Paradise - located in Wailea and actually in the same shopping complex as Monkeypod. Just as the name might suggest, here you'll find some tasty Mediterranean food. They too have a happy hour, but restrict it to the bar area and we didn't feel like sitting there so opted for their outdoor patio. Why wouldn't you sit outside when in a place like Maui with the sun shine providing more than enough warmth? They serve lunch from 11-5pm and then switch to their dinner menu. We luckily got in before the switch because I really wanted to try the falafel pita sandwich and it's not on the dinner menu. Really enjoyed my falafel which Z really enjoyed his lamb kabob. 

Longhi's - also located in the Shops at Wailea, right across from Cheeseburger. This place is a little on the fancier side and their prices reflect that. We had breakfast here one morning just to give it a try and it tasted good, but not sure we'd come back just because of the prices especially knowing across the way at Cheeseburger, is a much more reasonable costing breakfast special. 

Lappert's - also at the Shops at Wailea, this is an ice cream place with locally made really good tasting ice cream. They make their waffle cones fresh daily and in fact while you're strolling around the shops you're likely to smell the aroma of the cones being made. Ingenious on their part because it really makes you want to go and get an ice cream cone from them! 

So these were the restaurants we ate at this time, sometimes more than once, but who's really counting? I'd have to say that I'd go back to all with the exception of maybe Da Kitchen, but maybe their cooks were just having an off day and it's worth a second chance. We'll have to see if we ever make it back there. It's funny what the heat and sun can do to you....we generally had breakfast, no real lunch just some snacks and then an early dinner most days. At every chance we go we sat outside because why wouldn't you? It's such a treat to be able to do that and not worry about getting cold when the sun goes to bed. I didn't find that there were too many bugs either that can sometimes ruin a nice outdoor meal. 

Zip trekking in Maui

Chillin' on the beach and snorkelling has occupied most of our time, but we decided to try something new this time round. Neither of us have ever been zip lining and we thought that scenic Maui would be a great place to give it a go. On a previous trip we tried booking, but couldn't find an available slot, so this time we booked earlier. After some research and relying on our trusty Maui Revealed guide book, we decided to book with Flyin' Hawaiian Zipline.  They have a bunch of great reviews on Tripadvisor and are rated number 1 in Maui Revealed, so that was enough of an endorsement for us.

Flyin' Hawaiian offers 8 zip lines ranging from 250 to 3600 feet in length and covers about 2.5 miles stretching from Waikapu to Ma'alaea. There is some hiking involved between zip lines, with all of it uphill hiking. Flyin' Hawaiian is located at the Maui Tropical Plantation and in addition to offering the zip line tour, they also provide restoration/conservation for several indigenous Hawaiian flowers and trees which are endangered. They only have 3 tours a day with 10 people maximum. This is one way in which they feel they are able to preserve the natural habitat. When the company first started, each tour group would plant a new tree or plant as part of the tour and now they have moved to watering these trees and plants as part of the tour.

The day started out with an ATV ride up the mountain into the scenic Waikapu Valley to the safety briefing and practice zip line. I was apprehensive at first, but quickly got over any fears after the practice run and was excited to "zip on" the rest of the lines. The views of Maui during the course of the tour are absolutely stunning. You get unparalleled views of both the North and South shores as well as the majestic Haleakala.

We had 3 guides with us, Jasmine, Matt, and Xavier who were fabulous and made the day a lot of fun. They were very easy going and also helped to dispel any fears or anxieties. Our guides informed us that Maui was experiencing one of its worst draughts in recent history. As our luck would have it, just as we arrived at line 1 and with no method of escape outside of riding all 8 lines it started to rain a little, and then a little more and then it just opened up on us and poured down till we were soaked through. This didn't stop us from having a blast and enjoying each and every line and the beauty surrounding us. The rain lasted through 4 lines and then stopped. With all the rain during our tour, we didn't need to water any of the trees and plants afterall. Our guides did a great job of educating us on the habitat and the importance of their conservation mission.

With each an every line I got more and more comfortable and by line 5 didn't feel that I had to hold onto the bar through the whole ride. In fact at this line our guides gave us the option to "freestyle" our ride and most of us decided to zip backwards. That was a pretty cool experience as I even managed to bend backwards so my head was upside down. The longest line was the last one at 3600 feet and was a thrilling 60 seconds. It was over much faster than I was ready for. Our guides told us that on some of the lines we'd reach speeds of about 55 miles/hour. FUN!!!

After the last zip line, we got to experience another very thrilling ride in an ATV down the mountain. Thankfully our driver was very experienced because at times it felt like we might drive off the side of the mountain, but I think he was doing that on purpose. This ATV ride was much better than any roller coaster I've ever been on! Z was surprised at how much fun I thought the ride was because I'm pretty chicken when it comes to roller coasters.

The whole experience was so much fun and well worth the money. And as an keepsake we got to keep our aluminum water bottles which they provided at the start of the day. I would highly recommend this particular zip company for anyone interested in zip lining and I would definitely do it again. The tour takes about 4 hours because the zip lines are single lines and with 10 guests and 3 guides, it takes time for everyone to get through them. But to be honest, it didn't feel like that amount of time went by. The time went by way too fast!! What an awesome experience and one of the best things I've ever done!

                                                   

Chillin' in Maui

Where to start? We've been doing a lot of chillin' in the fabulous sunshine. It's really great staying in one place for the entire trip and not having the hassle of switching hotels, but I'm still torn on whether I prefer Wailea over Ka'anapali. Both are really great places to stay at. Our resort isn't overly busy this time around which is nice.

While the Marriott doesn't have direct beach access, there are two really great beaches on either side, Ulua and Wailea beach, and access is just a short walk along the boardwalk, which is also a great running route- very scenic with the ocean.

The snorkelling at Ulua beach is good first thing in the morning, but during this week we have found that the visibility hasn't been the best. I decided that I wanted to try out snorkelling with fins this time around to see if that would make things easier for me. I always get tired quickly when snorkelling, so we rented a pair from Snorkel Bob's for the week at a cost of $8. Out front of our hotel there are a bunch of "resident" turtles, but with no direct access point we needed to swim a ways out from Ulua beach so I'm glad I had the fins otherwise I wouldn't have made it out there. We saw 5 turtles this time out just swimming around. One of them swam under me which was cool though the entire time I was thinking that it better not swim up into me. One of the turtles was gigantic, it was probably a good 4-5 feet in length. Ulua beach is a great beach to just bob in the water too; the surf is usually quite tame. We ended up buying a boogie board for $10 and in the afternoon when the surf gets a little rougher, this beach is great for body surfing too. Buying the board was cheaper than renting one and some lucky kid will get a free board when we leave.

On the other side of our hotel we have Wailea beach. This is also a good beach for bobbing in the water. But it's also a good area for stand up paddle board. Z rented a board and after he was done paddling around he got me to try. It was fun, but harder than it looks. I had a lot of trouble actually standing up, so ended up kneeling instead. Maybe next time I'll get up.

We've hung out at Big beach where Z enjoyed playing around in the waves. I didn't go in the water here because I'm still gun shy from our last visit there where I got tossed around in the waves and felt like I might drown. We had read that the snorkelling at Little beach was supposed to be good, so we trekked over there but the waves were quite rough and so we didn't bother. Little beach is also famous for being clothing optional and well there was really no need to be surrounded by that.

One of our best beach times was up at Ka'anapali beach where our friends are staying. Here the snorkelling is amazing. The water is so clear and the afternoon we spent there the water was very calm. We got to see a bunch of different fish. The bonus treat here was when a pod of dolphins appeared and started jumping out of the water. It was such a cool sight. I've never seen dolphins in the wild before. One of them jumped out of the water and did a back flip, it was amazing to see. They played around in the area for a bit and actually swam quite close towards the beach just down from us. Definitely a highlight of this trip!!




Attempting stand up paddle board.



Big beach in the background.



View of Molokini from Big beach.



South view from Ulua beach with Molokini.



Sunset at Ka'anapali beach.


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Third time's a charm....back to Maui

Well so much for "I don't want to always travel to the same place" - this is our third consecutive year travelling to Maui. Now we have travelled to other places as well during this time, so I don't think I'm really breaking my own personal commitment to myself at this point. And even if Maui were the only yearly destination, would that actually be that terrible? It offers a lot of the things I look forward to for vacation.....warm sunshine, gorgeous sandy beaches, good snorkelling, and well a break from reality!

Our day started early....5:30am early. You know, it's only for vacations where I don't mind getting up at such a hour. We travelled through LA with a 2 hour layover there. That 2 hours went by real quick with having to make our way from one terminal to the other side of the airport to our departure terminal, to having to sort out seat assignments which got really messed up at check-in, to re-clearing security to having lunch and being at our gate for boarding. We flew United from LA and for whatever reason United hasn't retrofitted their planes with individual TV's so we had pre-decided to watch the movie "Now You See Me" on the computer. This would not have worked well with our original seat issue of being seated in different rows. The movie was fantastic, worth seeing especially for anyone who enjoys a good magic show.

We arrived in Maui around 4:30 local time and made our way to our hotel in Wailea. Our rental car is a Ford hybrid and it has a bunch of neat features including in car navigation. The drive to our hotel started getting us on Island time and into the relaxed atmosphere of the Island. We checked in and were upgraded to a lovely and overly spacious junior suite with an ocean view. How awesome is that? Or should I say how awesome is Z and all the hard work he puts in to get these perks?!?!

Just as I was quickly settling into vacation mode and relaxing, I went to my suitcase to unpack a little and found that a lovely 3-lettered agency had picked my bag for additional screening. But what really annoyed me about this "exercise" of theirs is that my lock which is approved by this 3-lettered agency appears to have been cut off instead of being opened by the master key they are supposed to use. Now of course I did not witness this so I cannot be 100% sure they cut it off, BUT inspecting what's left of the zipper it looks like a clean cut versus my bag getting stuck somewhere on the conveyor belt system. What's more to support my suspicion is that my suitcase has a 2 zipper system and the 2nd zipper is also gone along with not so cheap lock, and to top it all off, there is no visual damage to the zipper track itself. So it would seem in my humble opinion that my suitcase did not get stuck, as this 3-lettered agency would tell me if I complained to them, and in fact was accessed by them by cutting off my lock. So I was rather annoyed at all this, but on the bright side I get to go suitcase shopping when I get home. After having had a day to disgust this, it also struck me that the extra "security" gained by them searching my bag is a farce because absolutely none of my contents appeared to have been moved while they "searched" my suitcase. Everything was exactly as I had placed it except that I found a lovely card from them saying they searched my bag. OK...I'm done ranting on this topic. Anyone interested in knowing how frequently this occurs, just google search it. You'll be amazed at the amount of similar stories out there.

We had a great dinner at Cheeseburgers at the Shops at Wailea and I'm looking forward to heading there for happy hour so I can enjoy some half price Piña Coladas!! They make a GREAT PC!!


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San Diego

I have never been to San Diego and so we thought it would be a great idea to include it as part of this trip. Half way through our trip we drove the 2ish hours south to San Diego. I slept for much of the drive so don't really remember any of that or the scenery though I'm pretty sure there wasn't much to see along the I-5.
We stayed in a great Marriott which was well located to be our base for exploring the San Diego area. Lucky me that someone thought this out in advance of our trip!! :) We spent some relaxing time at Torrey Pines beach which was a 5 minute drive from our hotel. This beach stretched for miles and there are supposed to be some good trails around, but we didn't have time this time around. The water was cool, but refreshing. After our beach time we drove down the coast to explore the area. We drove through La Jolla on our way to Point Loma and then downtown San Diego. We stopped for lunch in Point Loma at a seafood restaurant....now usually a seafood restaurant will have one or two token non-seafood dishes for those who don't eat seafood, like me, but end up at their restaurant. This place had one option, a chicken Caesar salad and I really didn't feel like eating that and besides I couldn't wait to get away from the "lovely" overpowering smell. There was no planned option B but we happened upon a Mexican restaurant called Miguel's Cocina, which turned out to be a fantastic lunch with a great view of downtown San Diego from their outdoor eating area.

We visited the Cabrillo National Monument at southern most part of Point Loma. The monument commemorates the first time an European expedition set foot on the west coast of the US. There was a $5 entry fee into the park but it did allow for repeat visits, not that we planned to come back. The park gives you wonderful views of the coast and you can see US Airforce fighter jets take off from their base nearby. This turned out to be a neat little stop.

We visited downtown San Diego during the day and also returned on a Friday evening for dinner and explored the Gas Lamp district on foot. This area comes alive on a Friday night with people out and about everywhere. Every restaurant lining the main road had outdoor seating which was pretty full. We ended up eating dinner at an Italian restaurant called Chianti. Now when a restaurant is named after an incredible wine region you just expect the food to be just as incredible and this place did not disappoint. We got a table on the patio out front and this provided for some good people watching opportunities too, like when a Ferrari pulled up and was told by the police he couldn't park where he wanted and he took 10 minutes to make his way across the street to park all the while revving his engine. Twice now on this trip have we dined on some really incredible Italian food. Highly recommend this restaurant when in San Diego. We also walked through a Marriott hotel in the area which is in a former bank building. The cool thing about this hotel is that they preserved many of the original parts of the building including the bank vault which is now a meeting room and still has the old safety deposit boxes attached on the walls. It also has the old telephone rooms with working phone and work areas. It was really neat to see.

We visited SeaWorld because its admission was included in our City Pass. I had never been, and so was curious to visit but also have mixed feelings about the whole concept. The park is very well laid out and designed and kept very clean. One thing I found annoying was that they don't have very many water fountains in the park. We wanted to refill our water bottles instead of buying water so having water fountains for this purpose would make sense especially when they are trying to teach about planet conservation. Seems logical to me that you wouldn't force people to buy multiple drinks on a hot day only to discard the container. Anyway, I digress. I enjoyed the exhibits, was a little saddened to see the killer whales and dolphins doing their shows in the size of pools they had. While the shows themselves were entertaining and it gives an opportunity to see these animals "up close" it breaks my heart to see these majestic animals out of their natural environment and put on display day in and day out. I don't regret going, I'm glad we did, I just had mixed feelings about it. They do put on good entertaining shows, but I also think about the welfare of the animals and what SeaWorld's intention is when the current animals pass on.

Our last day was spent at Del Mar beach. This is another beach that stretches for miles and is very popular. It took us about 45 minutes to find an appropriate free parking spot; parking near the beach and park was outrageously expensive. It was worth driving around looking for a free spot though. The water was great for playing in the waves. There were plenty of people trying to surf and body surf. There were also some stand-up paddle boarders beyond the break of the surf. We saw a couple weddings in the park. What a picturesque place for a wedding. We relaxed and took in the vitamin D before heading to a restaurant on the boardwalk for a light snack before dinner. A family friend of Z's lives in San Diego and he invited us over, so we enjoyed a lovely home cooked meal at his place that evening. It was a lovely way to end this vacation.



Torrey Pines beach

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Universal Studios

We drove to Universal Studios for the day. I had never been here, while Z had been there a few times before. I was a little apprehensive going on all the rides so I ended up skipping a couple which Z did by himself. When we arrived we went straight to the Studio Tours which Z says usually has a long line up. It took us about 10-15 minutes to get on which was very reasonable. The tour was really cool. We got to drive around the various sound studios, got to see parts of the set from The Grinch, Desperate Housewives, War of the Worlds, and many other facades of building which were part of many movies including the City Hall from Back to the Future. We experienced a 3-D Jurassic Park meets King Kong production, a Mexican flash flood, an earthquake in a subway station, and Jaws attacking a scuba diver and then trying to attack us. The tour was really cool. Z is always thinking ahead and planning out the best way to maximize our park adventures. He figured our best bet was to enjoy the lower park area first because most people would explore the upper part at arrival and then make their way to the lower part. On the lower part we did the Transformer 3-D ride; which I'll admit I was unsure about because I didn't know what to expect. I don't like the unknown, but I ended up enjoying the ride. Z did the Jurassic Park ride himself because I didn't fell like getting soaked and he also did the Mummy Ride; well I don't know anything about the movie and just the name of it didn't sound appealing to me. We stopped in the NBC Universal experience and got to see some artifacts for different movies including the Delorean from Back to the Future.

After some lunch we head back to the upper part of the park and watched the Special Effects show which provided some insight on how some of the special effects in movies are done. We enjoyed The Simpsons ride, Shrek in 4-D and I got my picture taken with Donkey and Shrek and Fiona. We also enjoyed the Water World show which is an action packed show based on the movie of the same name. We saw and got our picture taken with Scooby Doo and gang. All in all it was another fun filled day even though I chickened out on experiencing a couple of the rides.













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M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

I was quite tired after my run and my right knee was bugging me so we didn't go into either park that day. Besides Z was running his half marathon the next day so we took it pretty easy after breakfast. We drove down to Hunnington Beach in the afternoon and spent some time watching the surfers. This beach stretches for miles. It's got fabulous fine sand and the water was refreshing though a little on the cold side. The water was rather choppy and the lifeguards were telling people to watch out and not wade into the water near the pier.

Dinner that evening was at a lovely little Italian restaurant, Capones Italian Cucina, on the way back to Anaheim. Z and 3 others in our group were running the half the next day, so pasta was on the menu again. The food was really good and I decided to have pasta as well. Got to be as supportive as possible.

If I thought getting up early for my run was difficult, Z's run started even earlier at 5:30am. What had I gotten myself into? I promised to get up and head to the start line with him. This meant a 3:45am wake-up call. Who does that? Apparently thousands of runners and their support groups, that's who. No time for even a coffee before, but I did manage to find one in Downtown Disney while Z was running. Good thing otherwise I would have been G-r-u-m-p-y!!

My first glimpse of the Mouse was at the start line. Mickey and Minnie were both up bright and early dressed in their track suits ready to see the runners off. Z did well on his run, finishing sub 2 hours which was really good considering the intense heat they had to endure once the sun came out. His run took him through the parks on a shorten version to the 10k and then through the streets of Anaheim to the Honda Centre and through the Angels Stadium back towards Disneyland Drive to the finish.

After the run and breakfast we decided to spend the rest of the day in California Adventure. We had bought a California City Pass before coming here which gave us a 3 day park hopper pass, 1 day at Universal Studios and 1 day at Seaworld. The two parks sure had quite a different look from the day before because this time there were lots of people all around. We went on a few rides like Hollywood Tower of Terror. I willing went on this ride, but remembered pretty quickly why I don't like it. We did Soarin' Over California, watched the Aladdin show which was hugely entertaining - the genie was the star of the show, and went on The Little Mermaid. We had dinner at The Storybook Cafe and did a lot of walking around. We capped off the night by watching the World of Colour show at Paradise Pier. This show was spectacular. It is a water show that included lights, music and cartoon imagines within the water. This show is really worth checking out. I was blown away by the production. Disney sure does aim to please!!

Our day in Disneyland included many exciting rides. We did Finding Nemo - a submarine ride under water, Space Mountain -a thrilling ride in the dark, Star Wars in 3-D, Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean, It's A Small World, Indiana Jones, Buzz Lightyear. We also took in the new Mickey and the Magical Map show. This was a fun filled day that also took us rough Toontown. By the end of our park days, we were exhausted from the heat and all the walking.

Our third day at the parks took us to both California Adventure and Disneyland. We arrived at C.A. at opening and head straight to Cars Land so we could ride the new Radiator Springs Racers. The wait for a fast pass was probably about half an hour so we decided to risk it and try our luck in the regular line. When we got to the ride we heard the line was about 1.5 hours long so we debated whether our better bet was getting a fast pass. We ended up staying in the line up because we didn't have all day at the park. When we got closer to the entrance we as the single riders' line and decided to go that route, so we were on this ride within about 10 minutes. It was an exhilarating ride that included a "race" between two cars. This was a great ride. We did the Mickey Carousal ride and Z did the big coaster; I was too chicken. I got my picture with Donald and Chip and Dale. We saw Woody and Buzz Lightyear as well. We hopped over to Disneyland and got to see Mickey, Minnie, Daisy Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. We stopped in to watch Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln which was a neat presentation on Lincoln's greatest achievement of equality for all. This was the end of our visit to the happiest place on earth and it was once again a great visit to an enchanting place that allows you to leave all your worries behind.
















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Disney 10k

We arrived in Anaheim Friday afternoon and the first order of business after checking into our hotel was getting to the runners' expo at the Disneyland Resort convention centre. We decided to walk the 1.6 miles from our hotel which probably wasn't the wisest choice considering the heat. At the expo we had to pick up our race bibs, runners' packet, and shirts. Once we were done walking through the expo we decided to check out some of the Disney branded souvenir items and picked up a couple nice shirts. For Friday's pre-race dinner, we met up with our friends and indulged in our pasta meals at a restaurant called Oggi's. In typical American restaurant fashion, portion sizes were huge. I had spaghetti and meatballs and it was quite tasty. After dinner, last minute prep for the run before early bedtime.

Saturday morning wake was EARLY!!! The race started at 6:15am, but we needed to be in our corrals by 5:45am. Everyone knows how much I LOVE mornings so getting up at 4am was a piece of cake, NOT!! But it had to be done, so 4am arrived much sooner than I would have liked and it was get ready and head to the start line. Even the sun was still sleeping at this time. I was mentally and physically ready, the only part I was concerned about was whether my knees would hold up because they had starting giving me a little trouble on a couple recent training runs.

The theme of the inaugural 10k was Alice and the Mad Hatter. This being my first real 10k race, when I registered I had no idea what my finishing time would be so I registered in the slowest time group. This turned out to be a frustrating mistake because I ended up in the last corral which meant that I started a good 25 minutes after the first group meaning I had that many more people in front of me. Many of them were walkers who liked to spread out along the route and caused all the runners to have to dodge around them. That part was the most frustrating part.

The route took us first through the streets of Anaheim down Disneyland Drive down to the Anaheim Convention Centre and right past our hotel. For a split second I thought about heading up to our room and going back to bed, but I had come all this way, trained for four months and at that point also really wanted the finishers' medal so I kept going. We ran up Harbour Blvd which was closed southbound and I could only imagine the frustration for the drivers having to reroute just for the race because this street is a very busy roadway. The route made its way into California Adventure park by Cars Land through a back entrance. I ran through California Adventure along Paradise Pier and around through Grizzly Peak and Hollywood Land before exiting through another back route and running along a service road towards Disneyland Park.

In Disneyland the route took me into Tomorrowland past the Star Wars Adventure ride up to Autopia and past the Matterhorn. We continued into a back service area for the park and all along the route had Disney employees lined up cheering us on. That was really encouraging especially at times when I wasn't sure I wanted to go on. It was especially helpful after mile 3 (half way) when my right knee started bugging me and I really started thinking about finishing it by walking. It helped me keep going as they random strangers were cheering on us other random strangers and yelling things like "way to go", "we're proud of you", etc. The route continued back into the regular part of the park and through Sleeping Beauty's castle. From there I ran through Frontierland and Critter Country before the route took me to Downtown Disney and to the finish line. By this time I was really getting to the point of wanting to be done. Just past mile 6 I saw Z standing at the side and that gave me the extra little bit of energy to go the last .2 miles. Just as I had the finish in sight, I saw Pluto at the finish and I managed to find a slight burst of speed and high fives him as I crossed. 1:19:30 was my official time.

I'm glad I did this run. It gave me a reason to start running and a goal to reach for. It sure was a neat experience running through the parks so early when they were closed to the public. There were several characters who were in the park during our run as well.....the ones I remember are Alice, Chip and Dale and one of the princesses.







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Disney 10k here I come

We had a wicked thunderstorm last night with rain pounding down so hard and much that I can't remember the last time I've heard rain so loud. Needless to say I didn't get a great night sleep before my early wake up call to catch my flight. There seems to be a pattern I'm noticing with my ability to sleep well before I fly but this time I can say that it wasn't all just me.

I started running about four months ago and I love travelling so why not combine the two? A lot of people may start out running and participate in races locally but that isn't quite adventurous enough for me....so I, at the encouragement of some good friends, signed up for the inaugural Disney 10k in Disneyland and well then I had no choice but to start training. So here I sit at the airport day before the run waiting to catch my plane to LAX. I'm pretty sure I'm ready...just got a little anxiety about whether my knees will cooperate but other than that I should be ready. I've trained and I know I can complete it...quite excited about running this race and getting to see Mickey and all his friends again!! I'm also meeting my Z in LAX and I can't wait to see him again.


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Sunshine Coast Photos

                                                               Near Gibsons Landing

                                                               Davis Bay

                                                            View from our room

                                                             Kayaking Sechelt Inlet 

                                                            Sea lion sunbathing

                                                            Purple starfish

                                                              Marshlands by Smugglers Cove

                                                              Viewpoint at Smugglers Cove

                                                              Smugglers Cove

                                                         Arbutus tree

Road trip - Sunshine Coast

Time to explore a little closer to home when we are fortunate to have such a glorious "backyard" to play in. Our road trip to the Sunshine Coast began with a 7am wake up call to get ready to catch the 9:40am ferry to Langdale. It was a beautiful sunny day and the 40 minute ferry ride was smooth sailing. It's a really scenic ride over with all the different islands surrounding the route and mountains raising out in the background.

We decided to spend a little time in Gibsons as our first stop on our way to Sechelt. Gibsons isn't that large of a town and on the Monday of a long weekend there isn't much happening in town. We walked to the wharf and watched boats coming and going before walking through the rest of the area by the water. Gibsons is famous for the long running TV show "Beachcombers". Z found a great ice cream store called Mike's Place. From the outside it doesn't look like the place you'd find home made gelato that comes a close second to gelato found in Italy!! I can't remember exactly how many flavours they had, but there were a least 24+. The pistachio was my favourite. It was a great mid morning snack. I think a visit on the way back to the ferry might be in order.

We stopped at Davis Bay after some lunch. This is a great spot for some beach combing, swimming - my extent was up to my knees and I'd have to say the water was refreshing - or just some plain rest and relaxation on the beach soaking up the sun and the gorgeous view! We spent a couple hours here before checking into our B&B - Four Winds Beach House and Spa.

Our B&B is nestled down Hill Road, a quiet road off Hwy 101 and is right on the water. We stayed in the spa room and have a fabulous ocean view. The room is set up to maximize your ability to enjoy the beauty of the ocean. Lying in bed or sitting on the balcony brings such peace and tranquility because all you hear are the rolling ocean waves hitting the rocky shoreline and the occasional bird chirping. There are resident ducks always swimming in a row, guess that bring some truth to the saying "got my ducks in a row". There is also a sea otter hanging around and we kept seeing its head pop out of the water. There's nothing here to stress you out. The house is quite magnificent. The common living room looks out to the ocean, the dining room has views of the ocean and there is a wrap around balcony also oceanside. Our hosts, David and Brenda, are gracious hosts. They are quite friendly and are very hospitable. Breakfasts were very tasty. over the course of our stay we indulged in fresh baked blueberry muffins and rhubarb muffins, oven baked apple pancakes and blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit salad, croissants, Scottish eggs nest (ham formed like a nest with egg baked in the centre), waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, coffee and juice. Waking up in the mornings to the smells of fresh baking was very delightful!

Our first night we ate at Lighthouse Pub. There is no shortage of fresh seafood in Sechelt. Z ordered the seafood chowder which he thoroughly enjoyed before eating his local halibut fish and chips. I enjoyed the freshly made tomato/basil bruschetta and half rack ribs with caesar salad and mashed potatoes. And of course this was enjoyed on their waterfront patio by the marina. This evening was capped off by watching the sunset on our balcony.

Our first full day was Tuesday and after our filling breakfast we decided to head a little north east, about 10 minutes past Porpoise Bay, and go sea kayaking. We spent 2 hours on the water and got a great workout in and saw some marine life up close. There was a sunbathing sea lion who eyed us cautiously as we passed by, a sea otter popped his head up out of the water a short distance from us probably wondering if we might be a danger to him, some flying fish, and in a shallow bay we saw a bunch of purple star fish, some clams, and sea cucumber. There were plenty of birds too and I think we saw a bluejay. We've seen a couple herons too and one was fishing one morning on the rocks below our B&B. Paddling in a sea kayak is quite different from what I've done before. Thankfully Z is good at steering and while hugging the coastline kept us away from any obstacles that would have tipped us or beached us. There were times when I wasn't comfortable with the waves but we didn't flip and in the end it was all worth it!! Looking up and seeing the mountains rise out of the water or discovering a beach around an outcrop of rocks. It's hard to accurately describe the beauty of the scenery here on the coast. It's much more beautiful than I ever imagined and to think it's taken me this many years to finally come and explore.

Dinner for our second night was at Daphne's in downtown. This is a Greek restaurant and rated as one of the best restaurants in Sechelt. We were not disappointed. I had a very tasty chicken souvlaki while Z had roast lamb shoulder. We had dessert to go and enjoyed the Baklava in our room. It was a great end to a fabulous day which also happened to be my birthday.

On Wednesday we had another lazy morning. I lounged around after breakfast reading on the deck while Z had some work to do. We decided to go for a hike today. About half hour north from our B&B, just past Halfmoon Bay is Smugglers Cove. The trail to the cove is not very difficult. Part of the trail is a boardwalk that takes you past a beaver pond. We didn't see any beavers, but did see their dam that they have been busy building. The hike itself is about a 4km loop. The forest is filled with many different plant and tree species as well as many different birds. We learned along the way that one of the tree species native to our coast is the Arbutus tree. I'd never seen an Arbutus tree before and it's actually quite neat because in the summer it sheds its bark and exposes its smooth wood beneath. There are many amazing view points along the way to the cove and an area known as Smugglers' Hideout where many years ago sailors would smuggle alcohol to the US or smuggle immigrant workers into BC.

After our hike we drove up to Pender Harbour...didn't find this to be much of a town, unless we missed it somehow. But we did stop and have lunch at Grasshopper Pub. We sat on the patio, of course, and enjoyed the gorgeous view of the bay while eating some really great food which also turned out to be enough for leftovers for dinner. The portions are quite big. I had the chicken tostada salad while Z had seafood linguine.

A lot of time was spent reading, resting and relaxing....everything this B&B is set up to provide. It was a much needed break for both of us as work has been rather busy in the last few weeks. The weather couldn't have been any better...sunny and hot with the heat lasting well into the evening hours and not a cloud in the sky. It's so peaceful here.



View from our bed


Sunset view from our balcony


Heron sunbathing at Davis Bay

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Caribbean cruise final thoughts

This was certainly not our typical type of trip, but this Caribbean cruise couldn't have come at a better time for us and provided just what we needed....a little break from the realities of life. After all is said and done, our little motto "Life is good" still rings very true.

All in all, we travelled a distance of 4,150km round trip from Port Everglades to Princess Cays, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Grand Turk and back. The waters were calm and the weather absolutely perfect. How blessed we are to have experienced such a fantastic trip! The sheer beauty of the islands and more particularly the beaches we visited is so hard to accurately describe in words. Each stop provided us with an opportunity to experience a true tropical paradise!

I've wanted to travel to St. Maarten and Turks & Caicos for some time now and as an added bonus I also got to see St. Thomas and an island in the Bahamas. Taking in the sun and relaxing on a beach was our ultimate goal and each of the beaches provided this. The fine white sand, clear and turquoise water were perfect and such a beautiful sight! Exploring the islands in the limited time we had gave us a brief experience with the culture, the sights and gave us a sense of whether we might want to return some day for a longer time.

The cruise ship itself was great. It was clean, modern and full of different things to do. The food was all very tasty and there was plenty to go around. A few of my favourite things we did on board was movies under the stars, taking in the shows, and sitting on our balcony reading or just staring out at the open waters.

As we get back to real life, the memories of this trip will last a lifetime. More importantly I got to share this experience with my best friend, Z and that makes it that much more special.

Where we'll end up next is anyone's guess, but these globe trotters won't sit still for long, there's an entire world out there waiting to be explored. Until next time....

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Miami stop

By the time we woke up on Sunday the Ruby Princess was making her final approach in Port Everglades which meant our fabulous cruise was over. We got ourselves ready and head off for a final breakfast in the Da Vinci dining hall. Our disembarkment time was 8:40am and after breakfast we still had some time to kill, so we decided to hit the Princess Links for a quick 9 hole putting game. Disembarking from the ship was smooth sailing...we met in our predetermined spot and right on time they had us in our way. Our luggage was in a large holding area sorted by colour coded tag which represented your disembarkment time. Once luggage was found, it was off to the immigration line up which was very quick. All in all it probably took about 15 minutes to get through all this. Quick taxi ride to the airport to pick up our car rental and off we went to kill some time at Sawgrass Mills shopping centre.

Sawgrass Mills is huge, with over 300 retailers! They have practically every store you can think of under the sun. We heard about it from that Calgarian couple we met on the cruise and thought we'd check it out because we had time to kill before we could check into our hotel. It's a combination of regular retailers and factory outlet stores. We found a few good deals, but with limited space in our suitcases we didn't go too crazy. After lunch at California Pizza, where we had a very yummy Thai salad and pepperoni pizza we drove to Miami to check into our hotel.

We are staying at the very swanky JW Marriott Marquis in the downtown core...again for free, thanks to points!!!! Our room is on the 37th floor with a view of the Biscayne Bay. The room is absolutely amazing with a comfy king bed, extra spacious bathroom that has a TV in the mirror. Never stayed in a hotel as luxurious as this one before. It's supposed to be ranked as one of the top hotels in the U.S. How lucky for us to get to stay here. The hotel has several cool amenities like a virtual bowling alley, a pool table, virtual golf driving range, and a yoga room. We also got turn down service and one evening a pair of slippers were placed on my side of the bed. I've never had slippers provided for at a hotel before, that was a neat treat!

We went for a nice evening walk to check out the surrounding area and found ourselves at the waterfront, walking through Bayfront Park. The area reminded us a little of home. There are luxury hotels and high-rise condo buildings all around with some very expensive yachts moored along the seawall. The promenade was busy with people out enjoying the evening warmth. We found a little shopping area with restaurants and one was playing some latin music and had people dancing. We ended up with take-out from a Mediterranean Grill and brought it back to the hotel to eat later. The food was typical Lebanese food and really good. We had hummus, stuffed grape leaves, tabbouleh, and falafels.

Monday started off as partly cloudy and gave us a chance to sit by the pool for awhile before it started dripping from the sky. It soon opened up to full rain showers so we stayed indoors and enjoyed the hotel for a couple hours. Why not take advantage of this awesome hotel in this case? We went to the gym and spent some time on the treadmill; this time it was much easier being on stable ground. Perhaps Mother Nature was also trying to prepare us for the weather we're likely to experience when back home.

Once the sky cleared up some we ventured out to explore a little. We found a TD Bank not too far from the hotel. We went to a little shopping area called Mary Brickwell village. There wasn't too much interesting there so we decided to hop on the Metromover (a skytrain like system) which takes you around the downtown area for free. It was a neat way to get around and see downtown which consists of a lot of really tall skyscrapers.

In the evening we drove to South Beach for dinner. This trendy area is popular for its restaurants and nightclubs. We found parking along the busy Ocean Drive and walked to the very large beach. The water was still quite warm at dusk; it would have been perfect swimming water, clear with a sandy bottom. We found a Peruvian restaurant, Goyo El Pollo, for dinner and enjoyed some traditional Causas Rellena de Pollo (potato and chicken appie) and Lomo Saltado (beef, onion, tomato dish) with rice and french fries, both of which brought back great memories from a previous trip.

Oh yeah, we also enjoyed free breakfast and evening drinks and snacks in the concierge lounge as a benefit of Z's frequent stays at Marriott hotels. What a nice little perk!



View from our hotel room

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Day 7 - At Sea

Today is another sea day, a sad sea day because we're on our way back to Fort Lauderdale which means our fabulous cruise has come to an end. Everyday there is so much to do on board and this sea day was no exception. We started the day with breakfast on our balcony again - why not treat yourself when on vacation! Yesterday at dinner we found out the kitchen was doing a galley tour today which we both thought would be fun to see. So after breakfast we made out way down to the Princess Theatre for a culinary demonstration followed by the tour. The culinary demonstration was hosted by the Executive Chef Paolo Merio and Maitre D'Hotel Nicola Furlan. These two guys were a hoot to watch as they demonstrated making three dishes. We learned that everything is made fresh on the ship. They loaded about 115 tons of food on board in Fort Lauderdale. The food is purchased mostly locally in the U.S. and from Canada, but they also bring in food from other parts of the world, like Italy and France. Afterwards we got to walk through the largest kitchen on board, 16,000sf, and see a little behind the scenes in food prep. It was a quick walk through but you could see the various stations and some of the chefs at work getting ready for lunch.

Some intriguing food facts, everything in "on average daily": - fish prepared 1700; - amount of salads served 1600 lbs; - amount of pasta made 500 lbs; - amount of coffee consumed 470 gals (I contributed to my fair share here); - amount of dished washed 70,000. There are about 515 staff working in food prep/serving and total crew on board is 1,100. As you can see they dedicate a lot to making sure this side of the cruise experience is well taken care of, and they did an amazing job. No complaints on the food or service we received, well maybe only that there were too many choices of good food it was hard to decide at times!

The other day while we were docked in St. Thomas the U.S. Health and Safety inspectors boarded the ship and did their inspection. The Ruby Princess we're told scored a perfect 100 - that's comforting to hear.

We chose to relax again today and not do too much. I was still feeling the after effects of being in the hot sun yesterday, so I was very lethargic. We did get our ping pong match in though and the outcome...well not what I had hoped. I lost both sets - 21-16, 21-18. Until the next rematch!!

There was an ice sculpture carving demonstration that we found enjoyable to watch and were very impressed with the final sculptures. One was a swan and the other was the face of an Indian Chief and both were carved from scratch in 16 minutes.

Z went to go see the magician David Cats who was offering up lessons on a few of his tricks. Quite impressive when Z successfully tried two of the card tricks on me! Being the last day also meant packing and we put that off as long as possible, but got it done and then went to see the production show "Broadway Ballroom" before dinner. It was a mix of dancing and singing of some Broadway show songs, including songs from Mamma Mia and Jersey Boys. We both agreed that this was the best show by far put on by the Ruby performers.

We did the shared table option tonight and sat with the same couple from Calgary again as well as a couple from Denver and one from West Virginia. My last dinner aboard was really good...watermelon and feta salad followed by meatloaf with mashed potatoes and veggies. Z had a seafood trio appie, a beef soup followed by filet of Kingflip. Dessert of course was also part of this meal and I had an apple pie and Z a baked Alaska. The comedian Miguel Washington was doing another show tonight so after dinner we head over to the Explorer's Lounge to watch. He's really funny and it was a great way to end the day and our wonderful cruise.



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Cruising the Caribbean Seas

It's 7:45AM and a warm 25C as I sit on our port side balcony cruising back up to Fort Lauderdale after an amazing past few days touring the Caribbean islands. This is the third time I 'guest blog' on L's travel page so it seams like she likes my contributions or she is running low on material. I really doubt it's the latter because L always seems to find the time to write up daily synopses during our trips...I don't know how she finds the time but it sure is nice to have a comprehensive summary of our trips documented!

You may be wondering how we picked this particular type of trip for our vacation this year. While a cruise is not our typical method of travel, we had never cruised together and were curious about what it would be like to do so in a tropical destination. We found a great boxing week deal for this Eastern Caribbean Princess Cruise and ended up booking it on a fairly quick whim followed by flights and hotels booked on our own using points. That was December last year. My usual travel research and planning kicked in shortly after that (researching the ports, pre and post cruise stay, cruise ship secrets, etc). L says she likes to leave the planning up to me and she'll continue to do the travelling bit!

In mid-March, life delivered to me, and to us, a fairly big curve ball. This is one of these 'why me, and why now?' type situations that we had to deal with all of a sudden. Without getting into too many details here, the next few weeks were hectic in every way imaginable, leading right up to the day before we were to leave for our cruise. We made it of course, glad we did, and although the curve ball is a big one and right smack in front of me, I'm planning to dodge it and get back in the game soon.

So here we are wrapping up a great week cruising the Caribbean. By now you have read about most of our activities in L's previous blog entries so I will highlight my top ten most memorable and interesting times on this adventure:

+The amazing ship. The Ruby Princess is one of the newer ships in the fleet and has tons to do on board. Good places to lounge in the sun. A great movie under the stars setup to watch the latest hits. Lounges with non-stop entertainment, decent comedy/magic/broadway shows, and some sport activities like ping-pong, mini-golf and basketball.

+Being 'disconnected' - sort of. Both of us travelled with iPads and I did bring my phone but we used these mainly while in transit at the airports and hotels as a distraction. On the ship, Internet is pricey and very slow so it was nice to be away from all the flurry of day to day emails and other stuff. Okay, I confess that we did get the basic Internet package but that was mainly so that this blog could get updated and the occasional Facebook update could be uploaded :)

+Our balcony room. Definitely worth it! We used the balcony to read, lounge, watch us arrive and depart from the ports, stargaze, eat breakfast and listen to the ocean every day. The room itself was pretty good too with lots of storage for clothes/stuff and a little fridge which we filled with water daily. The shower was tiny as expected but still roomy enough to be comfortable.

+Warm weather. With highs of 28 and lows of 26 on average, the weather was awesome! I was a little worried when theweathernetwork.com forecasted thunder showers before we left but there was nothing but sun, some occasional clouds and calm seas after the first day.

+Tasty food - and lots of it. This is what cruises are known for and Princess did not disappoint. Dining room lunches and dinner were always top notch. Speciality dinner at the steakhouse restaurant Crown Grill was amazing (filet mignon, Kansas grill steak, lobster tails, and more). Freshly baked thin crust pizza made for a repeat snack/lunch (the pizzeria also cooked up tasty waffles in the morning!). Gelato, sorbet, mousse, cheesecake, cobbler, pana cotta, and endless other deserts where too readily available and we could not say no. Fruit bowl delivered to our stateroom and room service breakfast most mornings were a nice touch.

+Princess Cays, Bahamas. This is the first of four ports that we visited. I'll warn you that there is a beach theme to each - a big reason we selected this particular itinerary. Princess Cays is a private beach area which was much better than expected! Turquoise blue water, white sand, swimming and snorkelling areas. A perfect first stop.

+Orient Beach, St. Martin. Located on the French side of the island this beach was also tropical paradise. 2 miles of the same amazing water and sand. A little choppier here with tourists tearing up the ocean on wave runners so I decided not to snorkel.

+Governors Beach, Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos. Like the other beaches, I researched this beach ahead of time and learned that it offered clear turquoise blue water and fine white sand (starting to see a pattern??) without being busy like the beach located next to where the ship docks. We took a taxi out here and spent over 2 hours in the sun, water and snorkelling.

+Coki Beach, St. Thomas. By far my favourite beach on the trip! Coki beach is small and you have to take a taxi to get there but we lucked out because we were the only ship on St. Thomas that day so we enjoyed over 3 hours of relaxing, swimming and great snorkelling at this picturesque beach spot.

++And last but not least is spending time with L who has been a great partner and made this trip fun despite all of the hectic-ness we faced before leaving.

Although I don't think we are going to become regular cruisers after this trip, we enjoyed it enough (and enjoyed all the wonderful food and pampering) that we will probably end up on another ship sometime in the future.




That's all for this edition of the 'guest blog'!
Z

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Day 6 - Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

We're nearing the end of the cruise, which is sad. The cruise has been great thus far, the ocean has been fairly calm so the motion of the ship has been gentle with no signs of seasickness in this stateroom.

Today we woke up to some more beautiful sunshine and had breakfast on our balcony again. We weren't going to be docking until 1pm so we had the morning to kill. What better way to spend this time then by playing a friendly competitive game of ping pong. It's been a few years since the last friendly competitive game so the stakes were high to see who come out on top this time. The first game was a battle back and forth with Z finally winning 23-21. Not liking to lose, I suggested a best out of 3 match. I didn't fair so well the second game and lost 21-16. Ahh, until next time (likely tomorrow).

We've managed to not eat in the buffet all week, but today for lunch we decided we'd give it a try. Partly because we wanted to eat right before we disembarked and didn't want to risk having to wait for a table and also because it was just opening for lunch which meant that the food would be most fresh and not too many people would have been through.

Grand Turk is the capital of Turks & Caicos, but is a small island only 7 miles long by 1.5 miles wide with about 5000 residents. On average they enjoy 350 days of sunshine. Up until the week we were leaving we weren't sure the cruise we even stop at Turks & Caicos because for the past 4 weeks cruise ships has been skipping this stop after a bunch of tourists got sick on the island due to some problems with the water. Our week was the first week the ships started heading there again.

We decided we'd take a quick tour of the main town, Cockburn, before heading off to the beach. Cockburn town is not very large and took about 10 minutes to get to by taxi; cost $5 per person. We've spent more money on taxis this trip than anything else!! There isn't too much to see, but we got our token souvenir and saw the town's salt pond.

The crew on board really try and get you to hang out at the port beach, but we had other plans. After the town we head to Governor's Beach, which Z researched as being a much better beach. It did not disappoint. We've been fortunate to visit 4 impressive beaches on this trip. Governor's Beach is situated in front of the British Governor's residence. The beach as a partly sunken ship on the shoreline, which was pretty cool to see. It wasn't busy when we arrived so we rented a couple beach chairs for $20 and planted ourselves for the afternoon. Z snorkelled a bit and saw some really colourful fish while I decided to just wade around in the ocean before settling down with my book in the sun. This beach was pristine, white fine sand bottom with clear water. What better way to end the beach hopping than with this fantastic location!!

All on board was 6:30pm, so we got on a little earlier so we could get to diner before all the masses. We also wanted to catch two of the shows tonight and not have it be too late of a night. The magician David Cats was doing another more intimate show and we wanted to see that. He is quite amazing with his tricks. On board tonight was comedian Miguel Washington and his show was left us in stitches. We turned in after the show because I'm feeling the effects of some heat exhaustion. Have I mentioned the Caribbean sun is not to be underestimated?




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Day 5 - St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

There is something about listening to the ocean as we sail along that is just very soothing and calming for me. It is so very tranquil. Not only that, but listening to the waves crash along the shoreline at beach time just brings me to my happy place!

Today we docked bright and early (7am) in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas. The partly cloudy forecast was once again something that I could live with as the temperature reached 27C and any clouds blew over before you even realized they were there.

We had decided the night before that we'd have beach time and walk around the town a little so we didn't see the need to rush off the boat right at 7. We enjoyed another breakfast at the Da Vinci dining room before making our way off the ship at around 9. Our plan was to head to Coki beach and chill out. The taxi ride was about a half hour and the taxi was a safari type truck that could fit about 18 people. The island is quite hilly and the ride took us up and down countless hills with incredible views of the harbours and shoreline.

How to describe Coki beach? In two words: tropical paradise. A place where all your life's concerns are forgotten and you just take in the natural beauty in absolute amazement. We had read that this beach can get quite busy, but when we arrived it wasn't at all busy. We were the only ship in town, which is apparently rather unusual, so that helped reduced the number of people here. The beach is smaller than I expected, but that didn't matter because the white sand beach and crystal clear water all but made up for it being a little small. We rented a couple chairs and an beach umbrella and were set for our day. This beach had good facilities and the staff working the beach were quite friendly and took care of you. Of course everything costs money and we paid $20 for the chairs and umbrella. It was really hot and so we also bought some bottled water. Who knew we'd have to fly all the way to the Virgin Islands to get Ontario bottled water?!?

We did a little snorkelling here too and got to see some cool fish. They weren't as plentiful as other places we've been blessed to snorkel, but just the same the fish were something we'd never see back home. I really should start learning to identify different fish if I'm going to continue snorkelling, it would really help to describe them. People were also feeding the fish while we were there so that likely attracted more and kept them in the area much longer. The water was calmer than at Orient beach the day before, and it was a lot of fun just playing around. Again the ocean bottom was a fine white sand, easy on the feet and with a reasonably gentle slope out into the ocean. It's very hard to describe the beauty of this place in words and the pictures hardly justify it.

We walked the town for a short while. Boy are there plenty of jewelry and liquor shops around. We bought our token souvenir; this one is really cool, a pirate Santa Christmas ornament, and the head back to the ship. I wanted to get back in plenty of time to see us cast off.

Along the dock area, we saw a bunch of iguanas sunbathing on the rocks. I had never seen a live iguana, so that was cool. We also saw a pirate ship in the harbour and thankfully they didn't come on board. :) I think it was actually an excursion you could pay for to take a ride on their ship. When we were leaving port the pirate ship sent us off with a canon shot....that was cool! We actually left a half hour late because evidently some passengers didn't pay attention to the on board time. Our room is port side so we could see all the stragglers coming back, but for these three in particular the ship crew had parked a van at the security check point and drove them to the ship when they arrived...and it's only a 1 minute walk. How embarrassing when our entire side of the ship cheered and clapped for them!!

We set sail just after 4pm and we had plenty of time before the evening events. Tonight was our second formal night so we got all dressed up, head to the Piazza for some gelato before heading to the 7pm show. The production tonight was "Once Upon A Dream" - a musical dream/love story. It was a great show, the performers are very talent both with singing and dancing. The costumes were very elaborate too.

Dinner tonight was at the Da Vinci dining room where we opted for a shared table. We had dinner with a couple from Calgary and a couple from New York but originally from Italy. Dinner and the conversation were good. We skipped dessert, mostly because we wanted to catch the 9:15 Marriage Match Gameshow, but also because we kinda had dessert before dinner.

The gameshow was hilarious. It was just like the TV show the Newlywed Game. Four couples answered questions and then their spouse had to answer the same question to see if their answers matched. It was some good fun.

Being in the middle of the Caribbean is awesome. The evenings are so warm here and star gazing is so easy because there are no lights around, just open ocean, open sky!! What a great way to end another wonderful day in tropical paradise.



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Day 4 - St. Maarten/St. Martin

Overnight we crossed the Puerto Rico Trench which is over 8500 meters deep and makes it the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean. That's a lot of water!! I can't even imagine how much water that is, and yet wonder what lives at the bottom?

Today took us to the smallest mass of land shared by two countries....we docked an hour late on the Dutch side of the island and were greeted by "partly cloudy" skies. If their partly cloudy skies means a bunch of warm sunshine, then bring it on. We opted to have breakfast in the Da Vinci dining room. It wasn't overly busy and we got seated right away. I enjoyed some pancakes, coffee, and fresh fruit. The fruit on board is really good, especially the fruit you can get delivered to your room. Due to our late arrival, we were the fourth ship in port, everyone was eager to disembark so the line to get off was long, but moved well once we had clearance to leave.

We had pre-planned to head over to Orient beach, which was about a 20 minutes taxi ride from the port. The locals have this down to a tee, cram a bunch of tourists into their van taxis and charge everyone aboard a nominal fee. It cost $6 per person and I got to sit up front squeezed in between the driver and a really hairy guy. The driver was fun to talk to and I learned that there are about 90,000 people living on the island, you can live on either side of the island and move to the other side if you like without hassle, tourism is the only industry on the island, and unless a hurricane comes through it doesn't really rain here. It's sunny year long and averages about 28C.

Orient beach is on the French side and is a very popular beach. Given it's on the French side it is a clothing optional beach. Thankfully we didn't encounter too much of this. The beach is 2 miles of fine absolutely fabulous white sand beach. The water is gorgeous with white sand as well. Picture any photos you've seen of the tropical Caribbean waters and this was what we got to play in. The water was a little choppy but not enough to deter us going for a dip. On the beach we rented two beach chairs and a beach umbrella for $15. We were only going to be there for a few hours so I was hoping we could negotiate the price down, but he wouldn't budge. Should have had Z try in French. The beach also had restroom facilities, a fresh water shower and change room.

After some vegging on the beach we decided to head to Marigot, the capital of French St. Martin. This town was another 20 minutes taxi ride from the beach and this time cost us $20 total as it was just the two of us. The town is a seaside town, but we quickly found out there isn't much to do there. We decided to have lunch at Rosemary's, on the suggestion of our taxi driver. It turned out to be a really good suggestion. I really enjoyed my jerk chicken and ribs dish while Z enjoyed his seafood creole combo. We walked through the little market they had set up before deciding we should head back to Philipsburg, which is the capital of Dutch St. Maarten - this is also the town where we docked. Another $20 taxi ride later and we were back. The great thing of all these taxi rides is that we really got to see a good portion of the island as we made a giant loop around it with our stops.

Due to our insane days leading up to our cruise Z didn't have time to get his hair cut before and so had been saying that if we saw a barber he'd want to get a cut. Taxi driver dropped is off in Philipsburg right in front of a local salon...it would do. Haircut turned out good, despite it taking what seemed like forever and my thinking she didn't know what she was doing. We walked around the town a little....it was already later in the day and some of the shops were getting ready to close. I'm glad we hit the town later because it would have been a zoo otherwise especially with 4 ships in port. We bought a couple souvenirs and then made our way back to the ship because we wanted to get ready for the 7:15pm show - magician and illusionist David Cats from Italy. We were scheduled to depart at 7pm so we figured this show wouldn't be as busy and besides we had dinner reservations for 8pm. The show was really good and he did some pretty cool card tricks that left me amazed. We also enjoyed a new favourite drink - Key West cooler...passion fruit, watermelon, cranberry and sprite. So refreshing!!!

We decided to make reservations at the Crown Grill. This is the ship's steakhouse and there is a cover charge of $25 per person. We brought a bottle of wine on board (you're allowed one bottle each) and decided tonight would be a good night to enjoy it. They do charge a $15 corkage fee if you don't buy the bottle on board. I ordered the goat cheese and tomatoes salad which also came with spinach to start and at the waiter's recommendation the filet mignon which I wanted cooked well done. Oh my goodness!!!! This steak was the best steak I've ever tasted at a restaurant. The waiter had them prepare it butterflied and it just melted in my mouth. I was still talking about it the next day. Z had the mixed green salad, Kansas grill steak and lobster tail. We had the chef's dessert sample for, well dessert. Our waiter was Sam from Thailand and he was very surprised when I thanked him in Thai. It was a fantastic meal and a great way to end a superb day in our tropical paradise!




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