St. Kitts

Our first port was St. Kitts.  Overall I think this was my favorite island.  St. Kitts is just 67 square miles so with a main road all the way around the island so it was the perfect island for a scooter ride.  We had arranged to rent a scooter for a day.  Our friends Alisha and Brian joined us on our scooter adventure. I loved being back on a scooter with Seth...my rides with him are become few and far between and it reminded me so much of when we were dating and first married.

Our first stop was the Romney Manor which is home to the Caribelle Batik.  This property was once owned by Sam Jefferson II the great great great Grandfather of Thomas Jefferson.  The grounds of the property were absolutely divine.

We went into a little shop to see a demonstration on how they make the cotton fabric.  To make the patterns they trace patterns on with pencil.  Then they apply wax where they don't want the fabric to be dyed and then dye the fabric.  This process can be repeated several times if the fabric contains more than one color.

We shopped a little in the store...and I held myself back from buying Millie a cute dress or buying fabric for a cute dress.  I was expecting the fabric to be stiff but it was so soft and luxurious.  Maybe the $80 price tag would have been worth a few yards of the gorgeous stuff.

 We explored the property a little more and found this bell tower.  Seth read that this is one of the last bell towers on the island.  When slavery was abolished on the island many of the former slaves  destroyed towers because they saw them as a symbol of their slavery.  The bells would ring when it was time for them to get up and go to the field and when it was time to finish work and go to bed.  This bell tower was preserved because the land owner immediately released his slaves when slavery was abolished.

We also got a view of one of the towers that the Plantation owners used to climb to see their slaves working in the fields.

Then we got our photo taken in front of the most photographed laundry line in the world.

 
We started to walk down to some ruins and then realized the ruins were located on the road out of the Manor...so we sent the guys back to get the scooters.

 The ruins were the former Wingfield Estate. 

In this picture you can see a couple of guys behind Seth.  They had little monkeys and were charging tourists for pictures.  A little later in the day we actually saw one of these monkeys bite a tourist.  She had large pink nails and the monkey must have thought they were food.

 Our next stop was Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park.  This place was gorgeous!

Just after this picture was taken we enjoyed a yummy grilled chicken lunch and enjoyed this beautiful view.

Our next stop was a pretty long scooter ride away.  We rode through several small villages.  I loved the graffiti on the wall "God still answers prayers."  The lady in the picture got pretty mad at me for taking this picture as we drove by on the scooter...she shouted pretty loudly.  We saw lots of dogs and chickens out in the streets as we drove.  Most of the houses were unfinished so that the occupants wouldn't have to pay property taxes.

Our next stop was Black Rock Beach.  You can see the volcanic rocks in the ocean below.

We continued our scooter drive and decided we had time to make it to a great viewpoint.  This part of the island was much more developed and obviously the tourist side of the island.  We actually went a little too far and stopped to turn around.  As I got off the scooter for a short break I didn't pay attention to the exhaust pipe and ended up burning my leg pretty bad.  The skin pilled off immediately.  It ended up being a blessing in disguise...you will have to wait for the other part of that story.

We finally got to the look-out point.  On one side is the Atlantic Ocean and on the other the Caribbean.

We thought about our kids everywhere we went.  We took this picture with the Knight on the way back to the ship.  We knew that Phin would love it...Knights are his current obsession.

That night was formal night.  We loved our little spot in the dining room.  We were at the very back of the dining room, close to the window and with no one seated behind us.  Our waitress Jo Ann and assistant waiter Dabo spoiled us each night with great service and delicious food.  We loved catching up with Brian, Alisha, Jackie and Curtis.  I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. 

...next port Antigua.

Puerto Rico

Seth and I said goodbye to 2016 and hello to 2017 in grand fashion this year.  On December 31st in the afternoon we headed to the airport with a final destination of Puerto Rico.  For over a year we have had a cruise planned with some of our Clemson friends.  When I first told Seth about the cruise he thought it was for last year...he was pretty disappointed to find out we weren't going until 2017. 

We had two layovers on the way to Puerto Rico.  Our first was in Denver.  We landed a little late and had just forty minutes to make it to our next flight.  We rushed off the plane and found a monitor...just to realize we were boarding the same plane!  In the past the flight attendants have always mentioned that if you are continuing on you should stay on the plane.  I don't know if there has been a change of policy or not...but it was super frustrating.  Our next layover was in Houston.  We arrived just in time to see our Clemson Tigers beat Ohio State.  We enjoyed the victory over a seafood dinner.

Then Seth got cozy in the terminal while we waited for our flight to Puerto Rico.  We were literally in the air at midnight.  We saw all of the fireworks in Houston below.  It was a fabulous way to start the new year.

We landed in Puerto Rico a little before 6 am...which was about 3 am in Utah.  We exited the airport and then started to explore our options.  We tried to catch a bus...but there were no buses to be caught due to New Years Day.  We thought about taking a taxi to our hotel to drop off our bags.  Seth had the idea of renting a car...it would solve our luggage storage issue and allow us to explore more of the item.  It ended up being one of the best decisions we made our entire trip.  Our first stop was El Yunque Rain Forest.  We arrived before the park officially opened so we were surprised to see the parking lot to La Coca Falls completely full.  It seemed very odd for a Sunday Holiday morning.

 

As we approached the falls we found a prayer circle taking place.  

We walked up to Yokahu tower.  It reminded us very much of Rapunzel's tower.

We walked back down to Coco Falls and got some pictures since the prayer circle crowds had thinned out.

Then we drove down to the Visitors Center to pick up a trail map and watch a brief video.  Our next stop was La Mina Falls.  The trail was gorgeous.

How gorgeous are these falls.

We drove up the road as far as we could and enjoyed the beautiful views.

On our way back down the road we stopped at the Tower again and climbed to the top.

Seth insisted I pretend to be Rapunzel.

Just outside of the park we found a little cafe for lunch.  We enjoyed delicious hamburgers and a dessert empanada.

Then we drove back to the airport and waited for our friends Curtis and Jackie to arrive.  The park and wait lot is in the perfect location to watch all of the airplanes land and take-off.  I should have taken a picture of that...but you will have to settle with a picture of Seth.  He managed to catch a quick power nap while we waited for Curtis and Jackie to land.

Curtis and Jackie arrived safety and we headed to the West side of the island with the hopes of visiting a cave.  We should have turned our GPS on...but we didn't and got a little lost.  We arrived at the cave just minutes after it had closed for the night.  Our backup plan was to drive North and along the shore.  We happened upon Arecibo Lighthouse and decided to stop...so that our car ride wouldn't be a total waste.

Just below the lighthouse they had some ships that you could climb inside of...as well as a little aquarium.

We also found a display on the native culture.

We continued our drive back to San Juan.  As we drove on very narrow roads we saw lots of people at various bars along the road.  We also happened across this gigantic statue of Christopher Columbus.  This photo does not due the statue justice...it seriously looks as big as the statue of liberty in person.

We braved some pretty awful traffic in San Juan and made it to our hotel the Caribe Hilton.  We dropped Curtis and Jackie off with our bags and headed back to the airport to drop off our rental car.  Seth and I ate dinner at a yummy pizza place just a block away from our hotel.  Then we showered and collapsed into bed.  The view the next morning was spectacular.

Before leaving the hotel we stopped to send a postcard to our kiddos.

Then we walked to Old San Juan.

We happened across some gorgeous mosaic walls on our walk.

Here we are with our whole crew Brian, Alisha, Jackie, Curtis, Seth and me.  These couples were some of our best friends during our time in Clemson

The view along the coast was gorgeous.

 

 

As we got close to the Capitol building the road was closed.  We found out that the new Governor was being sworn in.   We took a detour a couple of streets over.

Our detour brought a welcomed treat...we found our favorite ice cream.

We walked Brian, Alisha, Curtis and Jackie to the Castillo de San Cristobal.  We visited the Castillo on our trip back in 2014 so we decided to go and explore more of the city.  We started with a yummy empanada.  Then we found a few souvenirs for the kids and a thank you gift for Jacque and Reed who were watching Phin and Millie while we were away.  After shopping we walked up the hill towards Castillo de San Felipe del Morro.  The streets in San Juan are steep and bumpy.

We were amazed to see a graveyard just outside the Castillo.  It reminded us of the Graveyards in New Orleans.

The area just outside the Castillo was perfect for kite flying...unfortunately we forgot to pack ours in our bag for the day.

Around this time our friends were done exploring and we decided to meet up for lunch.  I loved the colorful houses along the coast....reminded me of Rainbow Row in South Carolina.

We found out that the 3 Kings are a huge tradition in Puerto Rico.  We picked up a little nativity earlier in the day that had the 3 Kings.

We enjoyed some authentic local food....and some authentic slow service.  We were a little rushed to get back to our hotel to pick up bags and then to the cruise port...but somehow we managed to make it work.

 

Stay tuned for posts on St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados.