Defying Igor

Despite Hurricane Igor's best attempt to ruin our vacation, Chris and I managed to enjoy ourselves Mity-ly (ba-dum-ching!) on the 2010 Mity Lite Caribbean Cruise. Matt and Lindsay were with us, and we had a great time spending the week with them.

Our pictures are not that interesting.  I don't know ... I just wasn't feeling the picture-taking this time around. So consider yourself warned and don't come asking me for your five minutes back after you've read this post!

Puerto Rico

We spent Saturday night and most of Sunday in San Juan since our ship didn't leave until Sunday night.  A group of us walked down the street from our hotel for some al fresco Mexican dining and got caught in a monsoon on our way back.  As we sprinted for cover, Chris lost one of his flip flops and had to go back for it, which made me laugh so hard that I peed a little.  Just thought you'd like to know.

   

The views from our balcony (the dark one is kind of hard to see, but it's of the hotel's pools).  I probably would have been happy to just stay at that hotel all week.  It was beautiful.

 

Barbados

We spent the day in Barbados on this beach.  I don't remember what it was called.  The guys on these boats had lettuce to attract sea turtles so people could snorkel with the turtles.  I'm pretty sure the guests on the boats paid to do this, but since we had our own gear and just happened to be in the vicinity, we snorkeled with the sea turtles too.  I'm not sure which was more entertaining: the turtles, or watching a bunch of pasty white people flapping around like they'd never been in water before.  Those turtles must have been pretty hungry to swim through that gauntlet for some measly scraps of lettuce.

 

I asked Chris to buy me a condo in this building for my birthday and he agreed (jokingly, of course).  When I asked one of the locals how much a condo there goes for, he replied, "There?  Around $10 million US."  So if we start saving now, I should get my condo for my 963rd birthday.  I'll fly you all down for a housewarming party.

St. Lucia

Thanks to stinkin' Igor churning up the ocean floor, we were only able to do two scuba dives and both were in St. Lucia.  But good grief, these dives were amazing.  On the second dive we swam out to these two coral-covered underwater pillars that were just breathtaking. This picture is from the boat ride toward our dives.  In the background are the Piton mountains, which are volcanic plugs.  Supposedly you can climb them, but who would want to?  (They're about 2,500 feet high and just a little bit steep.)

Mangrove forest.  Mangroves are cool.

Antigua

Antigua was another beach day.  The island has 365 beaches ("One for every day of the year!") and we asked our cab driver to take us to his favorite one.  We were not disappointed.  I don't remember what this beach was called either (maybe I should start writing things down?) but it reminded me of a Corona Light commercial.  Not that I pay attention to beer commercials or anything.  The sand on this beach was so soft and spongy.  It was like walking on the moon. 

The tiny white arrow in the picture is pointing to a massage therapist who I think may practice witchcraft.  She was super nice but kind of creepy too.  When we first arrived on the beach, she silently materialized and was suddenly standing about two inches away from me, and out of nowhere she goes, "I'm going to call you Kathy because you're bubbly!"  What?  Then she said that she could tell by the way I was standing that I'm left-handed.  That was when I started to think that she must be some kind of mind-reading witch, but then I realized that she probably just saw me carrying my bag over my left shoulder.  The rest of the day, any time I looked to my right, she was staring at me and would start maniacally waving.  She was even smiling for this picture which was not even supposed to be of her.  Like I said, really nice, but kind of creepy.

St. Thomas/St. John

Our fourth stop was supposed to St. Maarten, but Igor had kicked up waves so high that we couldn't safely port there.  I was totally bummed because I had really been looking forward to seeing the island's airport. 

Instead we ported in St. Thomas which was an acceptable alternative because this is my favorite scooter island.  We took our scooters and ferried over to St. John on a cleverly named boat. 

The beaches there were beautiful but the waves were too strong for me to venture into the water.  Not everyone can grow up in San Diego.

 

Don't be jealous of our sexy scooter helmets.

St. Croix

Our camera met its untimely demise the evening before we ported in St. Croix so I don't have any pictures.  We had planned to dive but settled for yet another day on a beautiful beach.  Tough life, I know.  The only thing that really set St. Croix apart from the other islands was the creepy welcome wagon at the mouth of the dock: guys dancing on stilts (which always gives me the heebie jeebies) and a dancer dressed almost in drag whose backup dancers were just kind of shuffling their feet while they talked to each other.  The whole thing was very bizarre.  I think M&L have video of it if you're really interested.

On the Ship

Formal night and my famous yellow pumps.  I say famous because apparently Chris' aunt bought these shoes for her son's entire wedding party.  Yep ... I'm a trendsetter.  What can I say?  Seriously thought, I know that material possessions aren't supposed to make us happy, but I kind of do a little jig every time I put these shoes on because I love them so much.

A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel on the front of his pants.  The bartender says, "Hey, do you know that you have a steering wheel on your crotch?"  And the pirate says, "Aye, and it's driving me nuts!" Just a little humor for our classier readers. (This picture was taken after the unfortunate camera-LCD screen-breaking, which explains why it's off-center and out of focus.  I don't want you to think that I got tipsy or anything.)

Well, that's it.  And since you asked: Yes, I am already counting down the days until Cruise 2011.