Cruise

Travis and I went on a cruise for our 5 year anniversary that was on June 20th of this year. The cruise was in August and we were able to enjoy an entire week of just the two of us with no kids (thanks to Aunt Darcy) We had the best time and loved every minute of the trip. It was so nice to spend that kind of time together which we hadn't done since our honeymoon. Travis is my best friend and there is no one I would rather spend time with. I love him and all that he does for me.
The ship was the Adventure of the Seas on Royal Caribbean. The itinerary was perfect, we left out of San Juan, Puerto Rico and spent the first day at sea then went to Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas. On a tip from my brother Jeff we took a ferry from St. Thomas to St. John and spent the day there. We are dying to get back there some day, it was amazing. If I would have blogged about this right after the trip I would have had a lot more to say about the trip but in an effort to do some quick updates here's a few pics.


Lovin' our first beach on Barbados

One of the best decisions we made was to get a cabin with a balcony, we spent a lot of time out there. It was nice to know when we were at port, and it was awesome at night to sit out there and watch the stars.

Here's a view of the Pytons on St. Lucia, it reminded us a lot of Hawaii. We took an amazing tour that wasn't booked through the cruise. Travis found it online and we got an all day tour from some local guy named Cosal, it was my favorite excursion. We got to see the entire island and they fed us local cuisine for lunch that I'm pretty sure his girlfriend made for all of us, I still crave the coconut cake.

Eating a fresh banana at a plantation in St. Lucia, yum.

This was overlooking a fishing village on the tour.

Trav in front of an active volcano on St. Lucia, it smelled like sulfur so bad I could taste rotten eggs in my mouth, not my favorite stop but cool to see a volcano so close.

This was a beach we stopped at in Antigua, all the beaches were amazing. On this island we took a 4x4 tour in the morning then rested on the boat, it was probably our least favorite island but looking at this picture right now I wouldn't complain if I was back there!

I took this picture on Antigua to put on my fridge so I could look at it when I'm stressed and try to remember sitting that chair with that view, it relaxes me just looking at it.

On to Orient beach on St. Maarten, or I guess St. Martin since this beach was on the French side but we docked on the Dutch side. I had to put this picture in for my sun fearing hubby. We always got an umbrella for Travis to park himself under so he wouldn't get sunburned, but I would usually pull my chair out for optimal sun. If Trav wasn't under the umbrella he had his rash guard on and was snorkeling. He did get a really funny tan about 2 inches thick where his rash guard didn't quite meet up with his swim suit. At least he won't have skin cancer later in in life, but next time we'll budget out more cash for umbrella rentals.

We had to take a shot in front of the Del Sol to honor Carrie, Tyler and Brittany. Carrie did you work on this one in St. Maarten?


And of course a shot of the "Hey Mon"shirt purchased for Travis years ago by his grandparents when they were serving a mission on St. Maarten, he still has it and brought it to wear on the island. If you're a Rhodes you understand the significance of the shirt, we spent a long time looking for an equivalent for the boys but only came up with a Hey Mon we be jammin' shirt with two drunk looking fish on it.

On the dock at St. Maarten

On to our last port which was St. Thomas. We hopped on a ferry to St. John which is a U.S. Virgin Island and 2/3 of it is a national park so it is completely pristine and undeveloped. It is the most beautiful place I have ever been, well besides the Swiss Alps but you can't really compare them to each other. We spent the day at Trunk Bay which has an awesome underwater trail that you can snorkel on with signs along the way to explain about the fish and corral. It was some great snorkeling, Travis could do it for hours but I get a little freaked out when the fish come so close.

This is shot when we first got to the beach, it was empty and pretty much stayed that way the whole day. The facilities were very nice because it was a national park and no one was walking up to you every five minutes asking you buy things. It was one of the most perfect days I have ever had.

Before heading to the airport we took a tour of San Juan and stopped at an old Spanish Fort, it was pretty cool to walk around the fortress and go down into the tunnels.

A view of one the forts in Old San Juan.

After this we headed to airport for a long flight home, it was so nice to see the boys again but they had a great time with Aunt Darcy. She kept them busy with trips to the zoo and aquarium and constant entertainment from her pet bunny Winchester. I hope we get to go on a vacation like this again some day. We head to Hawaii in a month but this time the boys will come along and I can't wait for some more beach and sun, but I have a feeling the Hawaii trip won't be quite as relaxing!