Cruisin'

Back in June, I finished the school year and immediately left the country!  Josh and I went on our second annual cruise.  And after this second one, I think it's official... we are cruisers!  This cruise went out of New Orleans and took us to Key West, Freeport, and Nassau.  It was a very different type of vacation for us.  Normally our vacations are more sight-seeing trips, but it was nice to do a realaxing, beachy trip for a change.

We started in New Orleans.  I've decided that I'm not a NOLA fan.  I think our 24 hours in the city were enough for me.  It was fun for the short trip, but I can't ever see myself just going there for a long vacation.  While we were there we went to the aquarium, Cafe du Monde, Jackson Square, Audubon Park, and St. Charles Avenue.  We also walked up and down all of the major touristy streets and ate A LOT of delicious food!

Then we finally got on the ship.  This cruise was through Carnival.  It definitely didn't measure up to our Royal Caribbean experience from last year, but it was a good second place.  We would definitely take RC again over Carnival, though.  The ship itself didn't have as much entertainment as we would have hoped for with three days at sea, but we still managed to have a lot of fun.  They had putt-putt, pools, a comedy club each night, shows at night, trivia in the afternoons, movies in both the room and on a screen by the pool, and other random activities. 

 Our first stop was in Key West.  (All pictures of Key West and Nassau were on a disposable water-proof camera.  Pictures of these ports are on Facebook.)  While in Key West, we went out to a reef by a small island and went kayaking and snorkeling.  It was BEAUTIFUL!

Next was Freeport in the Bahamas.  It was a rainy day in this port.  However, we spent the first half at a cooking lesson, so it worked out perfecetly for us.  We learned how to make different conch dishes.  Conch is like a mussel.  We made it conch fritters, fried conch, and conch salad.  All were quite yummy.  And it was a lot of fun.  Our chef, "Grandfather", was a very entertaining teacher.  The second half of the day was spent on a private beach just relaxing and enoying the day.

Lastly, we went to Nassau in the Bahamas.  I've always wanted to visit Nassau, specifically the Atlantis resort.  That's exactly what we did!  (Just like Key West, most of our pictures were on the disposable camera.  See Facebook to find them).  First we went swimming with Dolphins.  We got to interact with both a baby female and the alpha male of the group.  They were amazing.  I want to be a dolphin trainer in my next career.  We spent the rest of the day at the waterpark of the resort.  I always enjoy acting like a child with my husband  : )  They also had a cool aquarium and amazing lobbies to check out.

At this point, it was back on the ship for a few more days at sea, then a long drive home.  I need another vacation soon.  It's already been a month!!!