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.

The Cloisters

On Saturday we met up with two of John's friends from college and journeyed uptown to the Cloisters. The Cloisters is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located at the northern tip of Manhattan, nestled back in Fort Tryon Park. The Cloisters houses an impressive collection of medieval artwork. The the artwork is impressive, John and I most enjoyed the cloistered gardens, which are planted in medieval fashion.

The Cloisters has a beautiful, unobstructed view of the Hudson River and New Jersey Palisades. John. D. Rockefeller purchased a large parcel of land in the New Jersey Palisades specifically so that the view from the Cloisters would remain pristine.

Hard to believe that stained glass from the 1500's could remain in such amazing shape!

John and His Pizza

One of our favorite meals to make is homemade pizza. On Friday night, John proposed a novel idea: Why bother cutting his pizza into individual slices when he could enjoy his portion undivided?

Isn't he a sensible man? Adrienne and I really enjoyed watching him tackle his personal "slice" of pizza.

After pizza, we all indulged in ice cream at Tasti D Lite. Tasti D Lite is a NYC ice cream chain that sells "healthy" soft serve ice cream. I doubt that the ice cream is healthy, but it's supposed to be less caloric and sugary. We like Tasti D Lite because they have many unusual soft serve flavors: peanut butter, cookies and cream, mint, etc.

Spring Happenings

Yet again, I'm behind on blogging! My spring (or summer!) resolution is to keep this more up to date. I'll write more later, but for now I'm just going to post some fun spring photos.

With spring weather here, John and I have been enjoying eating our dinners outside at the park by our apartment building.

For our first outdoor meal, we enjoyed fried rice with pineapple (one of John's favorites) and Vietnamese summer rolls with shrimp.

On another occasion, we had an outdoor Greek feast: steak gyros, couscous, and Greek salad. Yum!

John made a special, surprise contribution to our Greek feast: Chicken McNuggets!

I had mentioned earlier that day that I really wanted some Chicken McNuggets. John surprised me by picking some up during his workout. What a man!

That's all for now! More to come later...

Roller Babies!

My husband sent me this thoroughly amusing video yesterday. Enjoy!

Several members of my family have gently pointed out that I'm neglecting my blog duties. It's embarrassing, but it has been over 1 month since I last posted!

During the past month, we have been very busy! Here's a quick run down:

We had a snow storm.

We explored several areas near our apartment, such as South Street Seaport.

We celebrated our 1 year anniversary on March 8th.

This is the bench where John asked me if I would be interested in "beginning a long distance relationship that would move towards a short distance relationship."

After visiting our bench, we enjoyed sushi at our favorite sushi restaurant.

We love this place because there is a conveyor belt which brings food right by your table- instant gratification!

The plates are color coded by price. At the end of each meal, John and I always compete to see who can guess the final bill. I hate to brag, but I usually win.

We have had several guests over for dinner.

My dad made a very quick visit to New York.

We shared a lovely lunch at Kosher Delight: The Schwarma Platter. I will address the Schwarma Platter in a separate blog post. All I can say is- DELICIOUS!

Our precious niece, Grace Noelle, was born!

Finally, I went to Chicago on a business trip.

That pretty much sums up the last month!