Who Needs Fire?

The next port was Antigua. It was a very easy and relaxing day. We didn’t have any excursions planned. We woke up a little later, and ate breakfast. After that we decided to go look around Antigua. We all got off the boat and started looking around the small shops that were near the boat. My Mom, Mary, and Cindy did some more shopping, while Kavita and I decided to look around town a little. When we docked, I noticed a church that looked to be quite old. I wanted to go and check that out first. We walked about a half mile, until we came to it. It was amazing. It was St. John’s Cathedral. It was built in 1845. The architecture was unbelievably intricate. The wood carvings and inlays were unlike anything I’d ever seen. The stained glass windows were also masterpieces in and of themselves. Plaques and commemorative artifacts adorned every wall of the church. Most of them placed there in honor of the people who sacrificed and labored to build the church. As I was walking around, I could

St. Lucia was our next stop. I was very excited about this port because we had planned a hike in the rainforest. We got up early again and ate breakfast, and prepared for what was listed to be a moderately difficult hike. We met our tour guide as we got off the boat. We got into a van and drove for almost an hour. Along the way we drove through several small towns and saw beautiful scenic landscapes. We drove out to the end of a road where a walking trail began. We were off. The hike was not too difficult. The trail was a little rocky and we had to be careful where we stepped. Slipping was a very treacherous thing to have happen, because we were so close to the edge of a cliff at times. The forest was incredibly lush. Vegetation growing on top of vegetation. The plants were relentless in their growth. We also saw several fruit trees that are used by the natives for various cuisine and crafts. Eventually, we came to a small waterfall that emptied into a natural pool formed by rocks. I

The next morning we got up early and ate breakfast at the buffet. The buffet was quite impressive. Then we were off to explore Barbados. My Dad and I planned an excursion to go scuba diving, while the girls set up a beach excursion. We met up with the scuba diving company and they drove us to a small boat. There were about twelve people in our group and the dive master told us that we were going to the coral reefs first and then to a place to do a drift dive that had several ship wrecks. We went to the coral reef walls about two miles off-shore. The water was quite rough. We all jumped in and were told to swim to the marker bouey. The current was so strong that only five people made it to the marker. The current carried the rest of us away. The boat had to come and get us. It was crazy. After that the dive master decided to go to the other site. This site was close to the shore. There were several ship wrecks and there was some amazing sea life going on and around them. I couldn’t beli

We woke up in the morning and headed downstairs for breakfast. There were two options for places to eat for breakfast – one was a buffet type set up that offered the typical breakfast fare, and the other was in the fancy dining room. I had almond-crusted French toast. It was amazing. At this point I was beginning to understand what five star dining truly entailed. The second day of the cruise (Monday) was spent cruising. We weren’t set to arrive in Barbados until Tuesday. This meant that we had to spend the day hanging out on the boat. One of the things that I wanted to do on this trip was to get a tan; so, I figured that this was the best day to start on that. I went up to the sun deck and listened to some music and read while I was catching some rays. It was going great until I fell asleep. I fell asleep for an hour and a half with my shirt off in the afternoon Caribbean Sun. I got a very bad sunburn. I think I went through a whole can of Solarcaine that week. We spent the rest of th

We woke up somewhere around 9am. We were not allowed to board the boat until 3pm in the afternoon. So, we had some free time. My parents went shopping, and Cindy and Mary hung out at the hotel. Kavita and I decided to walk around a little. We didn’t know very much about the area that we were in, so we just decided to walk around a little to see if we could find anything interesting. We first came to a small beach. We hung out there for a little while. We took some pictures, looked at some shells, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. After we left the beach, we started walking across a bridge. We saw some kids jumping off of the bridge and into the water. It was about a fifteen-foot drop from the bridge to the water. These kids were diving like pros. They were doing flips and twists and many other kinds of acrobatic jumps. As we were watching them, I noticed something in the background. It appeared to be a very old wall. It appeared to be about a mile away, and we didn’t have a lot of tim

Friday was a flurry of activity in my parents’ house. We were packing like crazy people, because we always wait until the last minute. We were also trying to clean up the house a little, so it would be easy when we came home and also so it would be presentable to the people taking care of our cats. All was going about like you’d expect until about 2pm. My dad was sitting in a chair looking very worried. So, I asked him what was wrong, and he told me he thought that he might have a hernia. We decided to go to a local clinic to get it checked out. The doctor confirmed that he did indeed have a hernia. He said that normally it takes about two weeks to schedule the procedure to repair it. He said that going on vacation wouldn’t hurt it, and told him to be careful. We went home and told my mom and sister about the situation. We prayed and decided to go ahead as we had planned. It was a long day. I think that I hit bed around 2am. I’m not sure if my mom slept at all. It was quite the early m

As you may or may not know, I had the chance to take an amazing vacation this summer. My parents and sister arranged for a family vacation – a cruise to the Bahamas. It was the first family vacation that we’ve had since I was 15 years old. They paid for everything and made all of the arrangements – most of it without my knowledge. They also arranged for me and my sister to take a friend along. One week in the Caribbean visiting 5 ports (Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten, and St. Croix) starting in Puerto Rico sounded too good to be true. We left on August 2nd and we just got home this past Sunday. It was incredible! It was an amazing time of rest, fun, adventure, and quality time with the family. I had never been on a cruise before. In fact, as far out of the country as I’ve ever been was China and Puerto Rico. I did not know what to expect. I was looking forward to going to the different islands to learn about the culture and try the food, as well as, hiking, climbing, swimmin