CRUISING

Alone at last.

In March Kelly and I went on a 9 day cruise to the Carribean.

The kids stayed in Idaho with Grandma and Grandpa Phillips and Aunt Shari and Uncle Josh. They took care of them for us. Thanks you guys.

We stopped at 5 different islands.

1. Samana, Dominican Republic

2. Tortola, BVI

3. Antigua

4. Barbados

5. St. Lucia

The weather was great! It was warm the whole time even when it was rainy or breezy.

We flew to Miami Florida where our ship left port.

This is us on deck in Miami just as we were leaving port,headed out to sea.
I could get used to living like the rich and famous. Just walk down to the dining room and have people wait on you. You can also go to the buffet pretty much any time and get whatever you want, or room service any one? You could order food and have it delivered any time day or night. They also come in and clean your room and turn down your bed. Ahhh, the life!
This night we went to a dining room that was at the back of the ship if you look behind me you can see the wake through the windows. It was really beautiful.

In Tortola we took a mountain hike and our group got separated and our guides got lost. We were supposed to follow a trail that looped around the mountain and came back out where we started and it was supposed to last about an hour and a half and ended lasting about 3 to 4 hours. We followed a path that ended up trailing off in the middle of the forest and we had to turn around and back track out. The forests there were really cool the tree roots made up the forest floor. The whole ground was just a tangle of roots and dirt.



Plants just grew every where even out of the sides of trees and rocks.

This is the little shop where the trail started and ended. They had candy bars here that were just like "Mounds" bars but bigger and better they were called "Bounty Bars".
We brought some home for every one to try along with some other island favorites like guava cheese and coconut fudge, but every one liked the bounty bars best.

When we were in Barbados we went ziplining. It was so much fun. I only wish the lines were longer and there were more of them.

We all looked so cute in our safety getups.

Kelly snorkeling. I think he grew gills on our trip because he was in the water pretty much the whole day every day we were in port.


One of the locals climbed a palm tree and cut off one of the leaves and made us a basket and a hat. He did it in about 15 minutes and did a really good job too.


Another guy climbed a tree and chopped down some coconuts with a machete for us. He chopped off the tops and we drank the milk. When it was all gone he hacked it up and we ate the meat. Yummy!

In St. Lucia Kelly and I got a cab and went to a beach where there were still ruins from when the British and the English were fighting over the island. One country would win and then a while later another would try to take it back.
Kelly and Kara standing in the ruins in St. Lucia

The beaches were beautiful. We had such a fun time here. We jumped in off the pier and went snorkeling all over the bay. We saw all kinds of cool stuff. The coolest thing for me was an octopus that Kelly tried to grab but it was so slippery and strong we couldn't pull it out of it's little hole.

We saw puffer fish, star fish, eels, box fish, tons of urchins and all kinds of colorful blue and yellow fish like Dorey from " Finding Nemo". It was fun.

These little lizards were all over the place. Even in the shopping areas.
Kelly in one of the phone booths.

This picture of Kara was taken in Antigua. These kind of shops were at every island. The artwork was all done by locals and some of them were really very beautiful.