Sail Away Sail Away Sail Away!

Last month Jon and I were lucky to sneak away for a week to Florida and a cruise to the Bahamas!  I won the cruise as a prize for my strawberry recipe contest prize last year and Jon' parents and my parents were SOOOO generous to help watch our kids while we snuck away for our trip!

First stop - The Everglades! My first time in Florida (not counting a stop at the airport) and I wanted to go to the EVERGLADES and see some ALLIGATORS!  I know serious tourist stuff there, but I was glad we did that before our cruise.  I got to mark off one more National Park (the Everglades) off my checklist of the ones I want to see, and I got to get up close an personal with some Alligators!

Had to take this photo to show the kids!

Riding on the airboat!  There are several places leading up to the park that do airboat rides into the everglades and that was a really neat experience and you learn a lot about the area and wildlife from the tour guides!  We went to Gator Park (and great deal buy one get one free boat ride if you are there before 10 am!)

Feet away!

 Pretty sight to see!

I told Shay I was going to hold a baby alligator and get her an alligator tooth and that was all she could talk about!!

Shark Valley Entrance to Everglades National Park - here are my notes for anyone who goes there and wants to add it to their list of places to visit: We went in through the Shark Valley Entrance (there are 3 main entrances depending on which way you come from). You just walk around and pass dozens of alligators hanging out on the side of the roads, etc! I would say if you are with kids to rent a bike with trailer to do a bike ride through some of the trails, the best way to see more! But hiking there is good too! It was hot and humid so I can only imagine how it must be in the warmer months!

Now on to the Bahamas! Sailing away from Ft. Lauderdale port!

First stop, Nassau!  Although our boat docked on time they didn't let us disembark ontime so we missed our day excursion which was going to be a powerboat ride to a private Island to see sharks and swim with Stingrays, etc.  I was sooo bummed to miss it, but we hopped on a boat to go to Sandy Toes Island where we had  a nice ride to the beach with a tour and history of the islands around Nassau (and boating right by several amazing houses like Beyonce's, Oprah's, Nick Cage's, etc).  

Private beach at Sandy Toes - we got to lay in the sand and do some snorkeling too!

Had to post this because of the beach name Sandy Toes! Nice BLUE water!!!

Me and my honey!

One thing about Cruises, hey know HOW to feed you!  Our waiter brought me two vegetarian selections each night (this night was curry and veggie enchiladas)  - good stuff and tempted to eat it all but had to save room for my two dessert too (; 

Joys of cruise rooms - thats about all the joys to the small staterooms with twin beds pushed together - but Jon is smiling because he did not get sea sick (key to not getting seasick- get a room as close to the middle of the boat as possible!) 

See, I told you - room for dessert!!

The water was too choppy for us to tether boats from the ship to make our second stop at Cococay Island which I was bummed about since we wanted to kayak and snorkel that day!  Next stop was Key West which was very chilly even more January in Key West!

Key West - We did the on and off bus tour which was great as we could hear the amazing history of Key West and make several stops in the one day we were there!  We went to Duvall Street, saw Margaritaville, Etc.  I really liked stopping at the Eco Discovery center  - a low key place but really neat and learned a lot about the islands! 

Here's Jon and I at Southernmost point of Continental US - this was the third person we had take our photo and the best one - even though they blocked out the monument - the other ones had fingers in the photos! ha ha!

Here was the monument we were trying to get in the photo with both of us!

I really wanted to tour Ernest Hemingway's house since I had recently been reading some of his work and history about him as well.  It was neat to see and see many of his 6 toed cats too!

Here is where Hemingway wrote several of his books

BEST DESSERT I EVER HAD!  Chocolate covered frozen Key Lime Pie (made by Kermit's Key Lime pie).  Here I am with Kermit - the guys behind the pie!

Yep we were on the Majesty of the Seas- yep the EXACT same sick that the week before had a Norovirus outbreak!!  Luckily we did not get sick and they even made all the passengers use antibacterial stuff on their hands when entering or exiting any main rooms, dining or on and off the ship (Although ironically the norovirus is NOT killed by antibacterial gel so not really sure what the point of it was - maybe peace of mind?) 

We enjoyed the ships entertainment from the comedians to the dancers to the jugglers and more!  I like the built in activities which make it pretty easy to have a great time!

And returning home to these two cuties who had to try on our snorkel gear in the bathtub!  Sorry kids, maybe (MAYBE!) next time you can do the real thing with us! 

Overall a fun trip although we hoped for warmer weather and to hit all our port stops and did not appreciate our several airport layovers taking us 15 hours to get home, but still I would do it all again in a heart beat! Here's to the Bahamas!