Celebrating 30 a Little Early

***WARNING***

This will be a very long and photo filled post.

Craig and I went on a 7 day Royal Caribbean cruise to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.  We went a month early since our Granddaughter Chloe is due in May.

We flew in to San Juan, Puerto Rico on Friday before our cruise.  We had been there before but just at the airport so it was nice to get to see the city.

We stayed in the area known as Old San Juan.  It was very clean and we enjoyed walking around looking at the old fort and beautiful bronze fountain.  It had a plaque explaining what all the different statues represented but my high school spanish is a little rusty so I understood very little of what I tried to read.  (I guess I should probably brush up on my spanish sometime.)

We walked along the pier on Old San Juan and found one of Craig's favorite "hangouts"...Senior Frog's.   Just kidding we didn't even go in.

I like the way the frog is peeking out over the top of the building.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the local Subway sandwich shop.  It was quite the adventure.  A homeless lady asked Craig to buy her breakfast but the Subway employees said it would cause problems because she would always come back and pester the patrons.  He felt bad until this lady just "went off", yelling at the Subway employees  and screaming in spanish but slipping a few english words in..."Yankee go home".  Everyone in the place was laughing at her and she finally left when the police were called.

When we arrived on board, I was surprised with a bottle of champagne, bouquet of flowers and vanilla bean cupcakes.  Craig had arranged for them to be waiting. 

Our first stop was Curacao.  It is a Dutch island just of the coast off Venezuela.  The colors of paints they use are really unique and beautiful.  The island is also very friendly.

Our excursion was a dune buggy ride through the streets to an old fort and to a beach.

Here we are with one of the towers of the old fort in the background. (We want to point out how "proud" our kids are of us for wearing fanny packs.)

After the ride we walked around the plaza.

We came across this 3-D mural in one of the alleys.  If you followed the mural you came to a lovely little bistro.

Next stop was Aruba.  The island is also a Dutch island with unique architecture and bright colors although not as bright as Curacao.

We took a sail from the dock past beautiful white sand beaches and the clearest water you can imagine.  We had an hour to swim and enjoy the beach before sailing back to the dock.  We spent the rest of the day walking around the town.

Our third stop was Dominica. (pronounced dom e ni ka)

The island is a British island centered around a dormant volcano.  The greenery and mountains were beautiful.  It was however the least favorite of our stops as far as hospitality.

Craig and I chose to do a river innertub ride for our shore excursion.  As you can see we were required to wear "safety" gear; crash helmets, life jackets and also carry a paddle.  Not too sure the need for any of the equipment since the water was no more than 3 feet deep in most places but they do make a certain fashion statement.

As we had our lazy float we discovered why you need a helmet...falling mangos.  Craig had a little chuckle when one fell about a foot from him and made a big splash.

There were a few rapids to speed things up.

Final stop was St. Thomas which is a US Virgin Island.  We have been to this island before and loved it.  This time we arrived during Carnival which means everything in the city was closed for the celebration.  The big celebration had been the night before so we didn't get to see the party. 

Our excursion on St. Thomas was a power-cat ride to St. John for snorkeling and swimming.  We saw a dog fish.

A parrot fish.

And a sting ray.  The dark spots on the bottom are sea urchin.  There were hundreds of sea urchin but you don't want to touch them.  They are the oceans equivelant of a porcupine.

After our excursion we decided to walk to town just to see if we could find anything open.  Retail shops were closed but we did find Coconuts sports bar, if you could call it a  sports bar.  It had a bar with about 6 stools, 4 tables, 2 tvs and a Texas Tech flag.  Craig and I split a hamburger for lunch and it was delicious.

On our first day of the cruise we met a couple who we had seen at the motel in San Juan.  Norman and Jeri Scott are originally from the Carolina's and have a home in Jackson Hole Wyoming.  Right now they live in Barbados due to Norman's job assignment.  We all went to the Mystery Dinner Theater on the ship and we enjoyed meeting them each evening for a little visiting and a strawberry daiquiri.

That is a recap of our trip; loved every minute of the trip but it is nice to be home.