Two posts in the same month, unheard of for me!
Mat and I decided since our anniversary is so close to Christmas we are going to leave for Christmas every year. Our 1st anniversary we were in Seattle, WA, for our 2nd we stayed in a hotel in SB because we were spending all our money on med school applications. But for our 3rd we booked another cruise, this totals 3 cruises in 3 years of marriage. Depending on scheduling and such we want to try and do a cruise at least once a year, #GOALS.
It was like 11 o'clock at night on some random Sunday when we were talking over Christmas/Anniversary plans and I said well I found a cruise that looks pretty good. That night maybe 20 minutes later we paid and were booked. The cruise originally had 5 stops of places we hadn't been before. But because of the hurricanes, they had to replan our itinerary a little bit. No big deal for the 2 of us; we were just happy we would be going to the sun and getting away.
Mat knew he would be busy studying any of the extra time he had so he was very meticulous about his time management before and after we left for vacation. A 9-day cruise was just what we needed to remind us that we are a united front and that we can face anything the next three years throws at us.
First, we flew from our little international airport to ATL, then from there to FLL, Lyft from FLL to the Miami Cruise Terminal. Our first time using Lyft and let me tell you I'm so happy Mat speaks Spanish because our Lyft driver didn't know ANY English. We got on the boat and carried our own luggage on because it was way quicker to just get to the room put our stuff away and then go EAT! I ate so much Mongolian Wok and Tandoor, I was so happy. We lounged and walked around the boat. We just took a deep breath and got into vacation mode.
The first night we were flipping through the channels and saw on the news the power outage in Atlanta airport, our connection missed the outage by 45 minutes!!! I can't imagine how we would have dealt with that but we were both so shocked and happy we did not get caught there.
FIRST STOP: Nassau, Bahamas December 18th, 2017
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| We hiked up the Queens Staircase to this fort. |
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| The water tower was this huge structure, I thought it was a lookout at first but nope. |
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| Throwback recreation photo to 3 years ago for our Honeymoon. |
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| On the Queens Staircase |
SEA DAYS:
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| Formal dinner with the hottest date out there. |
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| Our matching PJ's for Christmas, everyone loved when we would walk around at night together. |
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| It got super windy up here every day, poor placement for Putt-putt. |
SECOND STOP: Antigua, West Indies December 21st, 2017
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| We roamed around the city by ourselves and found this empty church. |
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| We went ziplining in Antigua and it was so beautiful. |
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| He wanted to hold the monkeys so badly! |
THIRD STOP: St. Kitts, West Indies December 22nd, 2017
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| St. Kitts in the background |
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| We got a taxi to this beach, our boat is behind that mountain. |
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| YAY! Sun and dirty sandy feet. |
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| Mat just roamed around the beach and swam while I read. |
FOURTH STOP: San Juan, Puerto Rico December 23rd, 2017 Happy 3 years anniversary to us!
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| Puerto Rico! |
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| We loved this city and the buildings. |
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| Mat got me roses and a cake for our anniversary |
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| Formal Dinner Night! |
FIFTH STOP: Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos December 24th, 2017
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| We want to come back and live here someday. |
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| The water was so clear and beautiful. |
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| Right in front of us was a row of beach houses, so dreamy! |
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| Merry Christmas! |
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| Pro-Tip: Always bring a thermos and water bottle with you on a cruise. No leaks and keeps ice all day when you are out in the sun! |
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| When we got back to port we took a tour of the Everglades and then flew home! |
My goal is to live at least a year someplace where it doesn't snow at all. But for now we came back home and it was negative 18 degrees that night. Its kind of lightened up a little but I want spring to come so I can work outside!
