Our Vacation- Belated Post!

In mid May John and I took a cruise vacation to Bermuda and the Bahamas. The cruise conveniently departed from New Jersey! We took a cab out to Jersey, hopped on our boat, and sailed away to paradise. It was great to not have to mess with airport traffic.

This was our home for 9 days.

The ship was massive, boasting multiple swimming pools, a put put golf course, rock climbing wall, basketball court, and even an ice skating rink.

After arriving on board, John and I enjoyed a nice cup of tea in the ship's "sidewalk cafe."

This became one of our favorite ways to spend our early evenings on the boat.

Both of us thoroughly enjoyed breakfast each morning. There was no shortage of juice, fresh fruit, yogurt, and (John's favorite) pancakes.

After two relaxing days at sea, we arrived in Bermuda.

Our first day in Bermuda, we explored King's Wharf, the port where our ship docked.

We didn't stay ashore too long, but headed back to the ship to enjoy some peace and quiet. All of the other passengers had left the boat to explore, so we practically had the place to ourselves.

One of the best parts about our cruise was the self-serve soft-serve machine. John and I enjoyed getting a little ice cream treat in the afternoons. I particularly enjoyed watching the wide-eyed little kids who piled their cones a little too high.

Our second day in Bermuda, we ventured out to a local beach.
After a 40 minute, incredibly frightening bus ride, we arrived at this beautiful beach.
It was simply stunning.
After an afternoon of sun, we headed back to the boat.

Over the next few days, we enjoyed a wide variety of activities on the boat.

We went ice skating.
John studied for the CFA. I watched and tried not to distract him.

We played ping pong. I must say, we were a fairly even match. However, the game was made much more difficult due to the strong winds.

Two days after our departure from Bermuda, we arrived in the Bahamas. We spent an entire day at Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island.

Atlantis is an incredibly large resort. Perhaps you have seen this nearly vertical water slide advertised on TV.

John rode down the slide TWICE! It was terrifying to watch. I secretly wanted to try, but I didn't think the baby would appreciate it very much.

John and I spent the entire day relaxing and riding (very tame) water slides. Our favorite ride was a lazy river ride where you sit in inner tubes. The entire river took more than 40 minutes to go through. The river had different sections where you had to navigate rapids, small waterfalls, and even tidal waves! The lazy river even had a conveyor belt that transported you (while sitting in your tub) up 10 stories to water slides.

One of our favorite things in Atlantis was the Shark Tank. It's hard to see in the photo below, but there are tubes that run through the shark tank. There are two water slides that take you through the shark tank (protected, of course, by a very thick layer of plastic).

After an exhausting day of playing in the sun, John treated us to some candy treats.
Here's a photo of our tiny cabin. After living in a NY apartment, the cabin didn't really seem all that small.

Captiva, FL

After our wedding festivities, John and I vacationed on Captiva Island in southwest Florida. Captiva Island is stunning area, just north of Sanibel Island. Captiva, with the exception of vacationers, is sparsely populated. Although the island barely has a grocery store, I'm happy to report that there was a Starbucks on our resort's property. My kind of place.

Our resort covered a 3 mile stretch of Captiva; vacationers ride trolleys to get from one end of the resort to the other. Our first evening, we ate at the resort's barbecue restaurant.

We ate ribs and shared a cream soda. After dinner, we took a walk down the road and visited one of Captiva's most famous (or strangest) establishments, the Bubble Room.

What exactly is the Bubble Room? Technically it's a restaurant, but it could pass for a garage sale. Words cannot describe the Bubble Room...You have to visit for yourself. We were simultaneously amused, interested, scared, and completely weirded out. One can spot the Bubble Room from 100 yards away, due to its rainbow colored paint and carousel horse lawn ornaments. The kitschy, 1950's lounge music playing through outdoor speakers lures you in... before you know it, you're transported to another universe...

Upon entering the Bubble Room, we were greeted by several full grown adults wearing scout uniforms. Weird, right? The weirdness continued...one wall was entirely covered with the creepiest Santa statuettes known to man.

Despite the weirdness, the Bubble Room serves up tasty pieces of cake. We purchased this piece of cake to go and ran as fast as we could back to our condo, far away from the Bubble Room.

Yum, cake in the safety of our condo- away from all the creepiness!

Most mornings we ate breakfast on our screened in porch, which had a nice view of the marina. Note the presence of John's two morning staples: orange juice and cereal. This man is easy to please.

Our second evening, we rode the trolley to the other side of the island for dinner.

The sunset was amazing.

The picture below is one of my favorites. It almost looks fake, doesn't it?

But it's not!

After our walk through the marina, we stumbled into the resort's candy store. We had so much fun filling our bag with eighteen different varieties of jelly beans and all sorts of things that are very bad for you.

So much fun, and all it cost was $2.50.

Here are a few of our evening beach pictures.

On the second to last full day of our trip, John suggested we take a little boat ride...

And do something a little dangerous...

Parasailing! Below, I'm starting to get a little nervous at the thought of floating at an altitude of 700 feet, secured only by a rope, harness, and parasail.

John kept his cool, though.

And here we go!

Higher...

And higher...

And higher!

From our lofty perch, we were able to see all of Captiva Island. Below us we could see dolphins jumping in the water, and even a giant sea turtle. The view was amazing. Before we knew it, it was time to come back down.

The boat driver surprised us with a little dip in the water.

It was an amazing experience, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone!

Our trip was just wonderful, and before we knew it, it was time to come home.