Cruise: Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay is the private island in the Bahamas owned by the cruise company - so no big pier means small boats take you over to the island which is essentially just a really nice beach without anything much else to do. Sounds good right - except when it is raining like crazy which is what we woke up to that morning!

Half Moon Cay in the rain

We weren't going to let that stop us though and as the rain subsided a little we headed down to get the boat over to the island. I thought the boat ride in the wind was fun but other people didn't seem so happy, it was only 5-10 minutes though.

So just as we start to walk towards the beach to find a spot it started raining again. Proper tropical rain where you are soaked after about 30 seconds. Once again, being someone who works on understanding tropical rainfall for a living I found it quite exciting, but all the other people huddled under shelters didn't seem quite so enthused. In fact, people seemed quite angry about the rain. The heavy rain didn't last too long and we found some sun loungers down the beach under a tree. I relaxed and watched people for a while and Matt took a swim. It really was beautiful even in the rain - and the rain meant a lot of people stayed on the boat (crazy people) so it wasn't so busy.

We knew there was a guided nature hike you could pay for on the island so we decided to just follow the nature hike trail alone. It wasn't very long but it was an enjoyable stroll to see some of the native plants and a few animals - of course Matt found some Bahama's mushrooms!

On the nature trail

The trail led along the island towards the far end of the beach and we came out by where the horse stables were for rides along the beach. It did look like fun but I didn't think it was worth the price when you could walk.

View from the end of the beach, including a wedding. We ended up sitting by them later that night at Karaoke

We walked back to our spot on the beach and both headed into the water for some snorkeling and swimming. The water was so clear and warm and the sand so soft. We weren't really expecting to see much so close to the beach but as there weren't a lot of people we were pleasantly surprised to find a school of fish right by the beach. They weren't scared of us and at one point had me completely surrounded.

We found a little fishy all by itself!

Fish everywhere!

What a great view with the dark clouds and perfect blue water

 After getting out of the water we had some slight drama on finding someone had lost their S&S card (i.e. what gets you back on the boat, into your room and to pay for anything). It was about 1.30 ish at this point so we decided to head back to the boat to deal with it and have lunch rather than staying on the boat and taking the chance that someone wasn't using the card themselves.

Hungry? Our cabin was on the other side at the back - the row of windows below the red line

We got back on the boat (this is why you take some ID with you off the boat), got a new card, had lunch and watched some more rain! It really started raining a lot more consistently at this point and the ship actually ended up leaving a little early as everyone had left the island. We both enjoyed Half Moon Cay even in the rain (it was still warm after all) so I can only imagine what it is like in the sun!

The evening consisted of more karaoke (not me, no one wants to see that), drinks and food. I can't quite remember if this was the night we had the most delicious black bean and vegetable enchiladas for dinner or not but they were amazing. Maybe my favorite food from the whole cruise! We also enjoyed the Quest game with the cruise director. Let's just say that some people are crazy and will do almost anything and leave it at that!

Time to sing for some people

One more day in the Bahamas on land to go. This cruise was going by way too fast!

Rain won't stop us from having fun!

Cruise: Grand Turk

It's time to stand on dry land! We were up early, as our cabin was low down and at the back we could really hear the engines when the ship was maneuvering in to ports. No bad thing really as it was good to be up early on those days. We had ordered room service breakfast the night before and it arrived right on time - yummy bagels with smoked salmon. Room service is even better when it is free!

We then headed out to the forward stairs to get off the boat. The stairs were packed with people waiting to get off, but we didn't have to wait too long to go down to deck 0 - the benefits of being in the cheap rooms at the bottom :-)

We headed off the boat and to our only excursion that we had booked - snorkeling. We had to wait for a little while for everyone to arrive as debarkation was a little slow for some, but after a wait we were loaded up onto a boat and headed to "The Wall". 

Just in case you weren't sure where you were

Not much better than this!

It was around this point that the whole pot of coffee Matt drank for breakfast was making him a bit wobbly. Nevertheless, we got our snorkel gear on (we had our own) and jumped into the warm clear water. We were a way off the beach at the point where the reef drops off from 20-30 feet deep to over 7000 feet deep and it was amazing. The perfect time to try out our new underwater digital camera.

The fish were not afraid

Couldn't get much deeper than this. Definitely couldn't touch the bottom

We also sneaked some cereal off the boat. Turns out fish love cornflakes and will almost bite your fingers off to get it - those teeth are surprisingly sharp. It was very cool to be surrounded by so many fish everywhere. It wasn't a colourful coral reef but it was fun to swim around, back and forth over the wall and just watch all the fish. I even found a little zebra fish after swimming away from the group.

Just an idea of how many fish there were

This boat got washed ashore during a hurricane (I think the captain said Sandy)

After a while we got back on the boat and went to snorkel site number 2. This was closer to the beach with fewer fish but more sharks. I even got to swim down and touch one! Matt wasn't feeling too good at this point but he at least got in to see the nurse sharks hanging out.

Nurse sharks (note: no sharknados here)

Matt doing his thing. Much shallower here.

Here's a video of the sharks and me swimming down to touch it. It's a much better quality on my laptop but I had to degrade it to get it to upload. Anyway, hopefully you get the point!

Back on the boat and back to shore. After waiting a while at the beach and me searching the terminal area for a can of something fizzy we decided to head down the beach. We walked straight past Margaritaville (a nice pool but the beach was better) and past the main beach area and lounge chairs. We made it to Jack's Shack, and enjoyed some conch fritters (not as good as I hoped) and a local beer (better than I hoped). After a while in the sun, we were getting pretty hot so it was a stroll back down the beach, a stop in duty free and back on the boat. Getting back on was quick and easy but we watched everyone else in a huge line from the 3rd floor promenade with a nice cold drink!

I can't remember what we did that evening, but it more than likely involved karaoke, food and drink. Another early start the next day so we didn't stay out too late. What a great day in Turks and Caicos!!

Excited about snorkel time in Grand Turk

Blogger Fail

... I have been terrible at updating my blog recently. I promise to get some updates this weekend on at least some things from my list...

* The rest of the cruise (including actual islands and not just boat stuff)
* Camping in Vermont
* Trip to Colorado
* Swimming and camping in Ithaca

... It's pretty warm here (like everywhere it seems) and sitting with a hot laptop on my lap just hasn't seemed like a good idea. Maybe I could use the dining table but really, isn't that just a storage area? :-)

...I'll be back soon.

Sea Days 1 and 2

Sea Day 1:

Started out with purchasing the Cheers package - the drink package they have on the ships. You had to buy it the day you get on or the next day and so we picked today as we had wine with us the first night and wanted to get our value for money! We headed to brunch in the main dining room. This was the only time we actually went to the brunch. The food was good, as were the mimosa's and bloody Mary's.  We were on vacation after all! It was supposed to be a comedy brunch but there were no signs of any comedians.

After brunch we decided to try out the mini golf course up on the top deck. It was sunny, but the wind was pretty chilly so there weren't many people around. The wind made it somewhat challenging but I won in the end!

Golf time in the Atlantic Ocean

The rest of the day was spent participating in various activities, mainly trivia games - one of which we actually won! We lay outside for a while reading in the afternoon but the wind made it tough. That night was "elegant night" so while Matt took a nap, I hung out at the bar in the casino at the captains meet and greet watching all the people who were already dressed up for early dinner (we had anytime dining rather than assigned early/lat dinner). I tried a few different cocktails and all were good. I went back down to the cabin and we made an effort to get dressed up for dinner.

Pre-dinner drinks at the atrium bar

We got a few pictures taken at some of the many backdrops. They take pics for free and then display them the next day and you can buy any you want (or none at all). We did actually buy one - a nice cheesy one with a piano. Before dinner we watched the best sunset of the whole trip out on the deck and followed that with lots of lobster at dinner! I also tried the chilled strawberry soup, which basically tasted like melted McDonald's strawberry milkshake - weird. The good thing about cruising - you can order as many or as few dishes as you want so I got some salad too :-) Can't remember what we did after dinner - just hanging out around the ship probably!

What a great sunset!

Sea Day 2:

Finally the sun and warmth combined, at last! We started the day with a 2-3 mile run around the running track. This was our only workout of the whole trip, although we did take the stairs the majority of the time rather than take the lifts. After breakfast at the buffet we found a couple of loungers in the adult only serenity zone which were a lot nicer than the general loungers by the pool and with fewer people and a bar. We relaxed in the sun with my favourite pina coladas and watched the ocean.

So so soooo delicious. Seriously. I want one now!

We had a few breaks for food, more trivia, more food and ended the day with more comedy. Doesn't sound like the most exciting day but it was wonderfully relaxing and warm :-)

Towel animal 2 and a Fun Times,
which lists all the activities for the next day

Towel animal 1

Cruising from NYC

We went on a cruise!! We sailed on the Carnival Splendor to the Eastern Caribbean from New York City. Not only was it a close port to sail from, the timing over Memorial Day meant that for an 8 night cruise we only had to take 4 days vacation from work. Bonus!

So on Saturday morning we got up early, headed to the train station and took the 2.5 hour ride down to Penn Station. A quick taxi ride (rather too quick, actually) to the cruise terminal and it was time to check in. We arrived around 11, and they weren't letting people through security yet but we didn't have to wait long to get screened and get boarding zone 2. Check in was next and this was probably the most problematic part of the whole cruise, due to me not having an American passport and the computer system being partially broken. Anyway, after having 4 people trying to check me in it finally worked, we got our sign & sail cards (your room key and how you pay for everything) and waited to get on the boat.

I think it was around 12.30 when we headed on board and went straight to get lunch (avoiding all the yummy desserts and things and getting a salad) and did some exploring while it was still kind of empty. We were able to put our carry on bags in the room after lunch and have a tour of the spa. We were all the way down on the 1st level (the lowest level for guest cabins) and near the back of the ship. It worked out great through. Being low we never really felt much motion even when it was a little rough.

The main lobby and atrium. The ship was quite pink!

The Carnival "Whale Tail" in the rain.

Matt getting the feel of one of the spa treatments. It lowered you down to float in warm water. Not sure it was very relaxing though!

Eventually we got to the muster drill, where they show you where your lifeboats are and how to put on a life jacket. It was packed and people were unable to shut up so it took a while, but at least it wasn't hot. In fact it was pretty chilly and raining all day. Not what you want to enjoy the Manhattan skyline from the boat. We ended up leaving about an hour late, but that meant we missed the worst downpour.

To give you an idea of the wind... here's Matt posing by the Statue of Liberty...

And here's me...

.... looks like my hair is trying to do the arm in the air pose! It was still great to enjoy the skyline and because of the weather it meant hardly anyone was outside so we didn't have to fight for photo space.

Manhattan from the Hudson - I like the dark clouds.

Looking back at downtown from the harbour

They had maps on the tv's showing where you were. That's a lot of "Dumping Grounds" and the well confined zone of "Chemical Wastes" is quite disturbing?!

We did some more sailing after we got out of the harbour and enjoyed dinner, where we shared a table with 4 other people who were great. Food was good and plentiful. They had a regular menu that was the same every day and a daily menu. We almost exclusively ate from the daily menu, including the "didja ever" dishes like alligator bites, escargot, frogs legs and shark and langoustine rolls. Yum!

After dinner (while enjoying the two bottles of wine we brought aboard and the free bottle of champagne as a booking bonus) we watched (and one of us participated in) karaoke. This was followed by the adult comedy show. The comedy was probably the best entertainment of the cruise and the first guy, was brilliant.

After a long day it was to the room for my first time sleeping at sea. I took a seas sickness tablet just in case but I didn't have any problems. I didn't take a picture of the room but it was surprisingly spacious and I'm glad we paid more for an oceanview. It was nice to see out and know when it was daytime!

Time for two days at sea to get down to the Caribbean. More to come!

Here we are in front of One World Trade Center.

Myrtle Beach Day 2

Sunday started with some beach time for me and Matt. We headed to Myrtle Beach state park, just south of the main hotel/free beach area. First stop was a walk along the nature trail, which delivered in it's nature promise! Various birds, lizards, both legless and ones like this fellow. This one was huge although I know it's hard to tell from the picture

Red Headed Skink

Unfortunately most of the animals we encountered were pesky mosquitoes, so it was kind of a sprint nature trail as they were very hungry apparently. The trail came out a little way down the beach and we had this lovely view:

Myrtle Beach State Park

Watch out little bird

We hung out on the beach for a while. The water was pretty chilly, we only went in up to our knees! I was satisfied sitting on the beach and watching the pelicans and other birds fly by while Matt strolled the beach looking for shells and other things.

Jellyfish!

There were lots of washed up jellyfish along the beach and I was always told not to touch them even if they are dead but Matt didn't follow my advice. He was fine though! After a stroll along the beach we picked up Matt's parents and headed back south to spend the afternoon at Brookgreen Gardens. It's a huge garden area filled with various sculptures from American artists, started by the couple whose house we visited the day before.

The gardens were nice and some of the sculptures were quite lovely. We did a sculpture tour which was a little more detail than I needed to know but I enjoyed the gardens and all the Spanish moss on the trees. Very southern! 

Spanish moss

Golden sculpture

Huge (close to full size I imagine) Don Quixote sculpture

The gardens also had a zoo type area with a big bird atrium you could walk through, alligators, eagles, owls amongst others. I think I was most fascinated by the giant, slightly evil looking local squirrels though. Don't they look mean?!

Giant mean squirrel

We were flying out that evening so after a quick game of mini golf on one of the what seemed like hundreds of mini golf places (I kept up the Martin family name by winning of course) we headed to the airport and back to Albany after a fun weekend.

Hello from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina!

Myrtle Beach Day 1

A few weeks ago, ok a month, we went down to Myrtle Beach South Carolina for the weekend to meet up with Matt's parents. We arrived on Friday evening, had a delicious dinner and prepared for a busy weekend.

Saturday started with a bike ride. I'd never ridden the bikes where you have to peddle backwards to brake but after a while of my hands searching for brake levers I finally figured it out. It was a nice few mile ride to Huntington State Park and an Atalya house at the beach.

The ride included going across a kind of causeway with lots of wildlife to see. I think this was my first wild gator!

Please don't eat me - s/he was close to the shore

Great Blue Heron (I think)

 The old (this is all relative, it was built in the 30s) was interesting, especially seeing where the animals were kept. The lady of the house was a famous sculptor and did lots of animals. We couldn't stay long as we had to ride back to get the bikes back by a set time.

At Atalya House. we couldn't walk up to the top deck :-(

After the bikes were returned it was off to Georgetown (south of Myrtle Beach) for a boat ride out past a lighthouse to an island. Keeping to the animal theme of the day we saw 3 bald eagles... my first wild bald eagles too! The picture isn't the best but you can tell what they are.

A pair of bald eagles

We got to walk along the beach and look for shells. I was not so good at this task apparently but Matt found lots, including this one that still had a whelk living inside. The guide said it was pretty rare to find one still alive there. But this wasn't even the best find...

A live whelk - a big one too!

He found a huge horse conch shell!! The guide said it was the best shell anyone had ever found there. We also got a few over smaller whelk shells that now reside in a rather large bowl on our dining table. He also found a sea urchin but unfortunately that little one had a nasty accident on the way home and didn't make it. It was pretty though!

Horse conch and sea urchin. See the legs for scale.

Dinner was at a seafood place recommended by the people running the boat between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown. Matt and I shared a steampot for two. I didn't take a picture right away but here was dinner...

Dinner

Oysters, clams, shrimp and crab legs. And no, it wasn't filled out with potatoes and corn... I don't even know how many oysters were there. We didn't quite finish it but it was pretty delicious.

After dinner we headed to the main downtown area of Myrtle Beach. It's basically a strip of hotels, bars and restaurants by the beach. VERY touristy but we joined the crowds and rode the sky wheel. I'm not the biggest fan of heights but it was fine after the first go around. It was dark out so we got to see all the lights but I imagine the views of the coast and ocean are much nicer in the light.

The Sky Wheel

After a long and busy day it was back to the hotel for some sleep.

Biking picture. Safety first!