Norwegian Sun Ship Inspection

I was fortunate enough to be able to tour the Norwegian Sun and have lunch in the Four Seasons Main Dining Room. We saw inside cabins, ocean view, balcony, and suites! The rooms were nice, especially the suites. There were jacuzzi tubs in the suites along with a sitting area and dining area. One of the suites even had their own jacuzzi on the balcony! The pool area was nice and had a nice buffet going on while we were touring that area. The ship is an older one, and will be going in to dry dock soon for some updates. The children's area was bright and colorful, and the teen area had a nice lounge area for the teens to hang out, along with a foosball and air hockey table. The dining room was nice. We were served an appetizer of beef short ribs, lobster bisque for the soup, rib eye was the main course, and then had a delicious chocolate cake for desert! The meal was very good! They also offered us wine with lunch. The ship was beautifully decorated for Christmas!

Celebrity Solstice Ship Inspection

Sunday 8/29/10 I had the luxury to tour the beautiful Celebrity Solstice ship at the Ft. Lauderdale pier. We were greeted as we entered the ship by their pleasant staff with a mimosa! We were given a tour of the ship, starting with the different staterooms available. We got to see a few different suites (which were amazing). The decor was beautiful, with marble counter tops in the bathrooms and very modern sinks. The staterooms were roomy, so you didn't feel cramped! The balcony rooms had a nice size balcony to sit on while watching the waves go by! After we toured the staterooms, we got to see the different speciality restaurants available, as well as the main dining room. Murano was decorated beautifully, and they served contemporary french cuisine. Silk Harvest was their Asian cuisine, and Tuscan Grille was their Italian steakhouse. They were all so pretty! After seeing the restaurants, we were able to have lunch in the main dining room. Lunch was excellent. We had an appetizer, salad, beef short ribs, and desert. The food was very good, and we all left feeling so full! We then got to finish the tour of the ship. We saw the casino, martini bar, ice bar, and dance club. We also got to see the lawn club. That was amazing. To think that there is real grass growing on a cruise ship! They have lawn mowers and a sprinkler system to keep the grass looking nice. It was a real nice day!

Curacao

Sailing the Southern Caribbean was so much fun. One of the places we visited was Willemstad Curacao. Curacao is part of the Netherland Antilles. They speak Dutch, Spanish, English and their local language, Papiamentu. There is so much to see and do during your visit. The buildings are fun to look at because they are all painted these pastel colors. We took a snorkeling trip and were able to snorkel in the crystal clear waters and see a sunken shipwreck, as well as very colorful fish swimming all around us. On the boat ride to the snorkeling location, we were able to see some of the homes of Curacao, as well as some beautiful waterways. We walked downtown afterwards, and got a chance to see some of the local culture.

Itchetucknee Springs Float Trip

What a great time we had on Saturday floating down the Itchetucknee River! We traveled to a town called Ft. White in central Florida. When we were just about at the river, we stopped on the side of the road to rent tubes for everyone. After the guy tied them to our truck, we continued on to the river. Once inside, we walked to the south entrance because all the other entrances were closed at that time since they had reached their capacity for the day! Wow the water was cold when we jumped into our tube. As we got acclimated to the water, we started our beautiful float. The water is crystal clear, so you can see below. There are beautiful trees lining the banks of the river, creating canopies of shade the entire trip. Sometimes you could see wildlife hanging out around the banks of the river. Once in a while the kids would stop to jump from a tree branch back into the river. The float took us about an hour to complete. When we were done, we hopped out, enjoyed a picnic lunch and did it all over again. I feel this is one of Florida's most beautiful state parks.

Annual Cocoa Beach Trip

Well we just returned from our annual Cocoa Beach trip. As usual, we had a great time. Cocoa Beach is beautiful, and we stay right on the beach. It is so nice to get up in the morning and look out your balcony and see the ocean! This year we rented jet skis and both my children drove them. How exciting! We also went kayaking in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. That was nice. We got to kayak next to manatee, and also got to touch them. They are very playful, and love to roll over on their backs so you can pet their stomach's. We also got to see dolphin while we were kayaking and jet skiing. Most days were spent on the beach getting sun or surfing the waves! Went to dinner at a restaurant called Fishlips one night. The name is interesting, but the food was good. Of course we had our traditional dinner the first night at Denny's and our traditional breakfast the last day at IHop. Now we are counting down the days until next year!

Clearwater Beach

Our family loves to travel, and this past weekend was no exception! We traveled to Clearwater Beach for our daughter's beach volleyball tournament. Included in our travels this weekend, was her best friend, and beach volleyball partner!
Driving over the Courtney Campbell Causeway from Tampa heading into Clearwater was such a beautiful sight. You could see dolphins swimming in the bay and boaters everywhere! Once we arrived at our beach hotel, we decided we would head down to the pier and watch the adult volleyball tournament. It was at that time that we realized our son did not pack a bathing suit! Before we could head to the beach, we had to go in search of a new bathing suit! Once we had that, we were able to get to the beach. The sand at the beach was just like sugar! The Gulf of Mexico was beautiful! It was so nice to sit and enjoy the sound of the Gulf and feel the breeze coming off the water!
That night proved to be interesting because no one would let my husband sleep. The kids thought it would be funny to aggravate him for a while! But finally by midnight we all settled down for a good nights rest!
The next morning came bright and early. We were up at the crack of dawn to head to our daughter's volleyball tournament. Prior to leaving, we bought a gazebo to help us stay out of the sun. When we got to the beach, we opened the box thinking that it would be a cinch to put up, but as it turned out, this gazebo had to be put together! As my son said, "you get what you pay for!". Needless to say, our beach gazebo neighbors ended up putting this together for us, and it served its purpose for the day, but at the end of the day it went in the trash! We spent a lot of our day worrying if it was going to fall over from the wind! Fortunately it did hold up until the end of the day!
Watching volleyball was a lot of fun, and we spent 7 hours at the beach that day. We enjoyed dinner with friends both nights, and now we are looking forward to our next vacation to Cocoa Beach!