Hi blog buds!

Thank you so much for reading and commenting last week while I was out of town and not able to respond to your messages.  I am thrilled that my ‘auto post’ function worked in WordPress so that you had something to read while I was gone.  And I was happy to see that Cindy was able to snag one of the Trufflehead apps – who got the other one?

Most of the time when you hear me talk about traveling lately, it’s been for work.  Last week was purely for FUN!  Back in the spring we came across an AWESOME deal for a little autumn cruise that we just couldn’t pass up.  We decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary a little early and celebrate the completion of school a little late.   Granted, we know it was so cheap because it fell SMACK in the middle of hurricane season for the location – but we decided to take our chances.  And then one of our ports of call was recently hit by Hurricane Irene, so we started to get a little nervous as the time drew near. But in the end we got SO lucky with the weather.  It couldn’t have been more perfect!  And as is always the case with me and travel (whether for fun or not), it always feels really great to return home and get back into my own bed, my own routine, and of course, my own FOOD!  After all the food we consumed this week, I feel like all I want for the next week is green smoothies and kale salads!  :)

We departed from Miami, FL and then had 3 stops.  The first was Nassau, Bahamas.  The second was CocoCay, Bahamas.  And the third was Key West, FL (which I was most excited about!).

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of what we saw – so here is a recap of the Miami and Nassau parts.  I’ll share the rest in the next few posts to keep this post from getting too long.

Evening in Downtown Miami:

View from breakfast:

We had time to kill before going to the pier, so we walked for about 2 hours just taking in the Miami air (and by that I mean HOT and HUMID air) and scenery:

Bon voyage!

Ready for the first night’s dinner:

Mmmmm… the food choices were delicious!  I didn’t end up taking any photos of food in the dining room – we had 10 people at our table and it just seemed like it might have been bad manners.  So I kept my camera tucked away. But I did get a few shots of the menu that was posted outside the dining room.

 

The sunrise as we pulled into Nassau – GORGEOUS!

Me before my coffee:

And after:

Colorful Nassau, Bahamas – the first stop:

While there, we took a $3 ferry ride to just walk around the grounds at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, rather than paying the CRAZY amount of money for the group excursion.  And we had so much more fun on our own for no money!

We were even able to check out the aquarium from a distance (we didn’t take the tour – just “happened” to find our way into one end of it)  ;)

The manta ray was the size of a queen-sized bed and I’m not exaggerating – this thing was huge!

He even came to say hello – he looks like he’s frowning  :(   I could have hung out here all day long.

Is there anywhere that Starbucks doesn’t have a storefront? (Would you believe me if I told you I did NOT go in?)

I really didn’t!

Back on the ferry to get back to the ship:

Because it’s time to eat again – gotta get ready!

Frozen MOJITO?  Oh YES please!

LOVE the towel animals!

We were tuckered out at the end of this day!  We packed it full of fun, sun and food.  It was definitely time to call it a night!

In the next post, I’ll recap CocoCay.

Have a GREAT day friends!  Thanks so much for reading!

– Shari B. =)

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