bahama mama

Next stop was the Bahamas!!!! when we got in it was overcast and looked like it was going to rain. we went to the atlantis resort a few miles away. the resort was beautiful! we could see it from our balcony

the first thing we did was swim with the dolphins!!! it was such an amazing experience and we loved every minute. this was the huge complex that they housed over 30 dolphins in.

we were in a group with a family from boston. they were really sweet. we lined up and the dolphin would swim along our hands both on their bellies and on their tops.
they did some tricks for us! its pretty amazing how high they can jump!!
we were able to get on a boogie board and have the dolphin push us across the bay by our feet. they are so powerful!!! that was probably my favorite part of the experience.





couples pic!! awww
only girl i could share him with :)
after the dolphins we were able to spend a bunch of time in the big water park on the resort. we didnt get any pictures because we were too busy riding CRAZY rides! there was one that went through a tube in the middle of the shark tank! it was so sweet. it rained a bit while we were in the water park but the rain was warm so we didnt mind. we had so much fun but had to get back to the ship.....

my swimming suit was still wet so all of these pictures look so funny! we wandered around downtown and it was beautiful. the shops were full of all the same stuff but we found some dr pepper and salt and vinegar pringles!! mmmmmmm so great!!

after nassau, bahamas we went to royal caribbean's private island called coco cay. it was absolutely beautiful! it was the definition of tropical island and it was where we really felt we were in paradise!
we went snorkeling and enjoyed the sun for the day. afterwards it was two bumpy days back to baltimore. this is our balcony looking onto the baltimore port.

these are some pictures from dinner when we had to dress up.

this picture was taken before we got tan! hahaha

our steward left us cute towel animals!! yipee! this was my favorite, an elephant

it was such an amazing trip and we had so much fun spending it together. it was such a great time for us to go and we are so glad that we did!

flo-ridin

We had two stops in Florida on our way to warmth. the first stop was port canavaral, first we walked to coco beach which was really close to the ship. we didnt have our swimming suits so we just walked along the beach. the weather was nice but it was pretty hot and muggy which did not endure mainland florida to me.


after wandering down the beach for a while we headed back for our gator experience. ross and i are in love with this show called swamp people on history channel, and so when we heard about seeing gators on an airboat we just had to go. it was so cool!! we were taken through the swamps and the guy driving the boat took us right up to gators.

our cool headsets! so we didnt go deaf and so we could hear the guide. i was surprised at how loud they are!
this is when the captain hit the gator with the boat!!! the gator wasnt too pleased and i was pleased to not be on that side. the guide said that gators can jump half their body weight out of the water, i thought he was joking but he wasnt!

this was the boat and ross wanted a chance at the captains chair.

the best part was probably getting to hold a live baby gator. it was so creepy and i was totally freaked out. ross jumped in right away but i was really hesitant. but i did it and it felt pretty cool! i was proud of conquering my fear.

the guide showed us how much the gator liked to have his neck scratched. it was so funny because the gator would crane it's neck like a cat! (notice the rubber band keeping the mouth closed)



our next stop was KEY WEST!!! oh man i loved this island!! it was somuch fun! we pretty much just wandered around and bought souvenirs. i was surprised at how excited i was for the whole jimmy buffet experience and it didnt disappoint! the sun was so pleasant and the temperature was great. i loved the feel of the place, it did feel like a vacation place where people just dont leave.



margaritaville!! i was decidedly more excited than ross but he was kind enough to humor me.

UTAH!! represent! woot woot

we ate right by the stage after i had found a copious amount of souvenirs (so so great)


i HAD to get a burger (minus the cheese) in paradise. and it was so great!! mmmmmm
after we toured key west we went back onto the ship and caught some rays (which subsequently burned both of us to a crisp. like most of our other shipmates)


the color of the water was soooooo beautiful! i loved it so much!

Goodmorning Baltimore

So ross and i decided that we needed to get out of logan and go on a trip (of course this was in december!) and we decided on the Caribbean. I have always wanted to see the caribbean and so i have been pretty excited all semester, especially when it was snowy and miserable. I have decided to break up the different places so the whole trip wont be as daunting to post. our first stop was baltimore. we flew in the night before and stayed at a beautiful hotel right on the inner harbor. we were on the 31st floor out of 32! we had a great view of the city. it was a clear day but very windy so we were very cold! luckily we had packed hoodies because we would have frozen!!




we wandered around the inner harbor and went to a recommended seafood restaurant. we both got crab plates (because everything i read said we had to get crab) and it was so great! it really does taste different than the imitation kind :) the waitress was way nice and taught us how to take the meat from the legs. we had a great dinner and payed an arm and a leg (typical tourists!) and i felt like i had a pretty good taste of balitmore. we also spent some time at the inner harbor the day we flew home as well. we toured the submarine torske and the uss constellation which were so so great!! i had always wanted to see a sailing ship up close and it was so interesting!! we also went to the national aquarium which was crazy cool!! there were shark tanks that you could get up close to and all kinds of interesting displays of different ecosystems. i love love love museums of any kind! i love to see how people display things and how they convey information. someday i will hopefully work at a museum because that would be so great. baltimore was a lot of fun! hopefully some day we can go back


walking around the inner harbor
little italy! it was so cute and the small buildings kind of reminded me of scotland.