The Roaring 20s...

Allow me to take a quick break from the cruise posts to go back in time....this past weekend, myself and 100 or so other Richmonders took a step back in time and spent an evening in 1920s Paris!  My friend, Lila, and her friend, Barrett, threw a huge soiree complete with can-can dancers, and one of those burlesque feather dancers (you know the ones with the big feathers that cover their body and all they wear is fancy undies and pasties).  Well needless to say, I was chilly so I cannot imagine how she was feeling.  

The night was grand and Lila and Barrett outdid themselves with the Paris theme--there was a HUGE Eiffel Tower in the neighbor's backyard, Can-Can dancer performance by the Richmond Ballet, a Parisian cigar room set up with old movies playing in the background, and lots and lots of flappers, gansters, formal wear, and boas!  It was a fabulous evening!

We managed to snap a few shots before we left the house for your viewing pleasure....

1920s Laura

1920s CJ

CJ and Me with our flapper outfits and cigarette holders!

CJ, Kathryn, and myself

Grand Cayman

Our second port of call was Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands.  As you can see this was one port where we had to tender off (nope we did not swim to shore from our boat way out there).  Earlier in the year Kristi had visited Grand Cayman and had done a sting-ray/snorkeling excursion and she highly suggested it, so we decided to go with it, and as it was, it ended up being my favorite thing of the cruise--Good Job Kristi!

Here I am excited to get the day started!

Here we are when we arrived in Grand Cayman--just off the boat!

We went on the Captain Marvin Tour!

The three of us with the sting ray!

CJ Kisses the sting ray!

Kristi kisses the sting ray!

Me kissing the sting ray!

CJ and Kristi snorkeling!

Kristi and I snorkeling!

On the ride back, one of our guides dove off the ship and came up with 2 starfish---they were HUGE, so he let us have a turn holding them and I was definitely going to do that!

On the way back!

Life is good--thumbs up in the clouds!

Our stateroom attendant made us a sting-ray after I put in a request for one!  

Back on the boat....just in time for some fun and games!

A sunset picture with our hair waving in the wind!

Key West

So as a child of an oldies-loving mother, I grew up listening to the best hits from the 60s and 70s.  Since the beach boys were popular during that time, my mom loved them as well.  One of my FAVORITE all time beach boys song was "Kokomo."  I used to always want to travel to the places in the song, they sounded so, well, peaceful and fun!  A little sampling of the lyrics follow:

Aruba, Jamaica oooo I wanna take you

Bermuda, Bahama come on pretty mama

Key Largo, Montego baby why don't we go

Jamaica

Off to the Florida Keys

There's a place called Kokomo

That's where you wanna go to get away from it all

Bodies in the sand

Tropical drink melting in your hand

We'll be falling in love

To the rhythm of a steel drum band

Down in Kokomo

So we did not find Kokomo and I definitely googled it and it is in Indiana, so why they talk about it being in the Florida Keys, I do not know!  What I do know is as a young child in my mom's minivan, I used to love imagine the type of people that went to exotic places like Jamaica and the Bahamas and the Florida Keys and drank tropical drinks and listened to steel drums.  Well guess what?  I am now one of those people!  I have done all that!  I did not fall in love unfortunately as the song suggests; and between me and you, the sand and beach in the keys was not nearly as nice as in other parts of the Caribbean, but the peaceful part---yeah that was there!

Key West, a place, I had only heard my brother talk about.  He loved key west--loved the people, loved the location, loved the weather...and I never got it until I was there!  It was fairly nice (albeit a little hot) weather and the people are super nice, very LOW-KEY (in KEY west, imagine that!).  We enjoyed walking around and being tourists for the day, see the visual tour below....

We just got off the ship for a fun filled day!

Everybody loved getting their picture taken with a giant cigar!

Just a couple of sisters being butterflies!

Key West Palm Tress!

The Southernmost point!

The Water!

So after we walked to the southernmost point, we decided we might want the trolley to ride on for the rest of the day!

Me with the lighthouse

Cooling off at Ernest Hemingway's house!

Ernest Hemingway's creepy 7 toed cats!

How can you visit Key West without having Key Lime Pie?  We couldn't!

Right after lunch, we went outside to do some shopping and it started POURING!

This was the roadways during the down-pour.  They were already flooding after only 20 minutes of rain!

The Navy Ships!

The three of us with our 'home'!

Our precious bunny towel animal when we got back to the room!

Being silly and trying to pose like the photographer wants us to!

Our photographer, Thomas would be proud!

Fort Lauderdale

So I have decided that the cruise blog post was too overwhelming, so instead, I am going to break it down to ports of call and talk about each one, with pictures thrown in, of course!

Well technically it is a port of call but we did not do much in Fort Lauderdale, we were way too excited about leaving for our cruise.  We flew in on Saturday, checked into the hotel, and decided that we would go see a movie (The Campaign) and went to this dinner for dinner.  Then we acquired our wine for the trip and went back to the hotel for some hot tub time and a semi-"early" bedtime.  I say this only because instead of going to bed, us three girls decided to chat the night away.  I feel asleep about 12, only to wake up an hour or so later and CJ and Kristi were still chatting.  So instead of falling back asleep, like any sane person would do, I decided to wake up and talk with them.  Our early bedtime came around 3:30 in the morning.  Good Times--such a great way to start off a girl's cruise trip!

  

Our floating home for the week!

The Allure of the Seas --randomly enough, a young girl feel off this ship the week we were on our cruise and drowned, so good thing we stayed on our ship for the entire week!

Sunday morning, we made it up just in time to squeeze in our free breakfast and load in the vans to head over to the ship to board.  We finally got on the ship about 1pm and enjoyed lunch from the buffett!  After lunch, we were able to go check out our room!  Kristi settled right into the room's window:

As we were leaving port we made sure to say one last good-bye to Fort Lauderdale for the week:

Leaving port and ready for the pool!!!

After a fun day in the sun cloudy weather!  We got ready for dinner and dancing!!!

Ladies Night = Free Champagne!  You knew we were going!

It seems like they did not offer enough Champagne cause no one was dancing!!!

All in all a great start to the cruise....more to come....

Sisters

Only ONE guess per person, please pick who is my actual sister....

Picture # 1

Picture # 2

Picture # 3

Or triplets?

So on our cruise, the three of us got mistaken for triplets more than once.  And for sisters quite a few times.  But I only have one sister....can you guess which one she is?

Corbin turns 2!

So I am taking a little break from the vacation post (don't worry, it is still coming)...to talk about my super awesome, super adorable, super smart nephew, Corbin, who happened to turn 2 on Sunday (seriously it has been 2 years since he was born?!?!)

Corbin a few days after he was born

2 years later!

Well, the day after I got back from vacation, my dad, brother and I went down to Norfolk (mom was already there) to celebrate with him a week early since my sister, brother in law, nephew, and mom were all gonna be at Myrtle Beach on his actual birthday.

To say he had a good birthday would probably be a HUGE understatement!  He was so excited about all his presents and we actually had to take away the toy he just opened so he could open another!  But he FINALLY got through them all....his favorite present?  The truck Uncle Andy got him!  It was a Bulldozer and HE LOVED IT!  

Just woke up from my nap to a party...hope this happens everyday!

Zoo Animals!

YES, a bulldozer...thanks Uncle Andy!

Get the truck out of this pesky box!

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!

Why do yall force me to keep opening presents?

Get it out Mama!

Thanks mom and dad for the bike!

The party was construction themed and the adults did a fantastic job decorating for it!  

My sister also made the CUTEST birthday cake....

Needless to say, Corbin loved the cake, as did the rest of us!

Can't keep his hands off it and he is not even in the seat yet!

Who needs a fork?

Nom Nom Nom

Apparently he was still hungry for CAKE!

Pizza, oh, that will do!

It is great to see how little Corbin is growing up.  He has become such a little man, talking up a storm, and trying to be so independent.  I am going to blink and he will be in college!  Oh wait, that means I would be 45!  Corbin, let's wait a bit to grow up, huh?