Our Winter in Florida

         My family and I were home in North Carolina for Christmas, and it was fun spending the holidays with our extended family.  This was the first Christmas we'd spent at home in two years, and it was nice to be surrounded by familiar faces and spend time with the people I love. 

We spent Christmas Eve with my Gramps

We got to see Mia's cat Finn on Christmas Day

Christmas Day with my nana

My mom with my Gramps, and great-grandpa Floyd--he's ninety-four. We have a family tradition of playing music together every Christmas, and that's what they're doing here. 

        Two days after Christmas, we drove twelve hours--in one day!!--to Florida.  I was so happy to be in my favorite state, and we had plans to stay there until March.  

        Our first outing in Florida was to Mount Dora, a charming suburb of Orlando.  We had plans to meet our friends the Hendricks for an early dinner, but we arrived in Mount Dora earlier in the day to explore.  This town has a bunch of cute shops and restaurants, including a coffee shop where I got a delicious gingerbread latte, and a general store where my mom purchased some pretty earrings.  After browsing the stores, it was time to meet the Hendricks for dinner at Mellow Mushroom, my favorite pizza place.  It was great to see our friends--we hadn't met up since Ohio (see my blog Vermont and the Great Lakes), and we had a wonderful night eating pizza and spending time together. 

There was a pretty fountain down a little alley, perfect for photos!

The Christmas tree downtown was huge!

Yummy coffeeeee

Railroad tracks are a perfect place for photos 

My mom's new earrings (she never buys earrings so this was very out of character for her but I thought they looked so good on her!) Can you see me peeking out from the backseat? 😂

    

        From January 12-21, my mom, Mia and I were on a cruise in the Caribbean (my dad isn't a fan of cruising, we don't intentionally leave him out 🤣).  It was such a fun and nice getaway that I really needed, and we got to do some awesome stuff and meet some fun people.  The cruise went to five ports: Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic; St. Thomas; St. John's in Antigua; Roseau in Dominica; and Basseterre in St. Kitts.  We had a great time exploring the islands, but we also had a lot of fun on the ship watching special performances, playing games, and chilling poolside. 

Relaxing on the pool deck at the sailaway party!

The stage in the Royal Theater on the ship, where we enjoyed performances by comedians, singers, dancers, and even acrobats!

We got photo bombed 😂 (look right above Mia's head)

Silent disco is one of our favorite activities on a cruise! Everybody has a pair of headphones that they can switch between two soundtracks--green and blue. Each soundtrack plays different songs, and everybody can choose which one is their favorite. It's so funny to walk in and see all these people on the dance floor, dancing and singing, but with no music to be heard. 

There's always something to do onboard, including themed trivia and game shows. We attended several of these events, and had some fun times--we even won a couple of them!

We participated in a selfie scavenger hunt with some friends and our team won! The picture above is one that was required--someone on piggyback.

 Can you make out the faint rainbow in the middle of the picture? We saw several rainbows on our cruise both while in port and while sailing. 

Enjoying some coffee and a sweet treat at the ship's onboard cafe

We had some great international food on the cruise (I especially enjoyed their Indian cuisine). However, I didn't get very many pictures of the food--I was too busy eating it! In the picture above is one of the desserts we had one night at dinner. 

One of our appetizers one evening

The head waiter was so good about making sure we had vegan desserts. The ice cream on the cruise was divine. 

My mom's brownie on the last night of the cruise--doesn't it look so cool? 

        

The entertainment one evening was an acrobatic couple called Duo Quintessence. They were so talented and their story was so sweet--they actually met on a cruise ship! How cute is that? 

The ice skating show Spirits of the Seasons was my favorite performance of the whole cruise--we went and saw it twice! Above is a picture of the skaters dressed as carolers for Winter. 

Spring 

This skater danced a rainbow solo in Spring and did so well!

Summer was my favorite season

An action shot in Autumn!

We tried ice skating a couple of times, and it was wayyyy harder than the professionals made it look

        Our first port was Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.  We booked an excursion here to go on a hike to the Damajaguas waterfalls, and then jump and slide down the falls.  This was one of my favorite things we did the whole cruise, and it was fun, thrilling, and refreshing. Unfortunately we forgot to bring a waterproof case for our phones to take pictures, so we don't have any digital proof of the adventure, but nevertheless we had an amazing time. After our excursion we had some free time to enjoy the nice complimentary pools and lazy river right at the docking location of our ship, which was a great way to relax and enjoy that tropical vacation feeling. All in all, we had a wonderful day in Puerto Plata and made memories to treasure for a lifetime. 

Walking down the dock to the island! We were coming off of the ship as the sun was rising. 

Our ship, the Explorer of the Seas!

The lazy river 

There's our ship again!

We saw a lot of people riding scooters instead of cars on the roads

On the way back from our tour, we stopped by a roadside stand and got some fresh bananas grown right on the island! They were smaller and sweeter than usual bananas, and quite yummy!

When we were walking back to the ship through the area with the lazy river, we saw some parrots hanging out on perches 

        The next day, we docked in St. Thomas.  We debarked that morning with plans to go to the beach, but the clouds were threatening rain and a taxi to the beach was overpriced, so instead we just enjoyed a chill day on the ship swimming in the pool, reading, and napping. 

St. Thomas is a US Virgin Island

St. Thomas from the pool deck. 

The pool deck is always less crowded on days we're in port, which makes for a much nicer and more relaxing experience

        Our third port was St. John's in Antigua.  We took a taxi to the beach where we spent several hours soaking up the sun, swimming, and enjoying the beautiful blue Caribbean waters. I got to watch a local man skillfully weave a basket out of palm fronds, and I also did a beach photoshoot with Mia. It was here that I got the worst sunburn I've had in a long time--the Caribbean sun is no joke!  Nevertheless, we still had a good time. 

St. John's is Antigua's biggest city

        Roseau, Dominica was my favorite port (Dominica is different from the Dominican Republic, in case you were wondering about that).  It has nine volcanoes, both active and dormant, and is a beautiful mountainous island with a rainforest and colorful houses.  We had an excursion booked here as well, and though it got somewhat derailed by a sudden storm (we were in the rainforest, after all) we still had a great time.  Our first stop on the tour was the black sand beach of Champagne Reef where we went snorkeling.  Champagne Reef is so named because of the slender streams of warm water that bubble up through the sea floor due to volcanic activity below.  When you're surrounded by the bubbles, it's like being in a glass of sparkling champagne.  We also saw a variety of beautiful and interesting sea life including tube-like yellow sea sponge, a spotted moray eel, a flounder, and dazzlingly blue parrotfish.  I even got stung by a butterfly jellyfish--twice.  Thankfully it wasn't too painful; it felt similar to a bee sting and stopped hurting not long after.  Overall, our snorkeling experience was really fascinating and enjoyable, and I just kept thinking I'm snorkeling on a Caribbean island! This is awesome!  Once again we didn't have a waterproof pouch for our phones so we couldn't take any pictures, but I hope I've given enough of a description to help you imagine it in your mind's eye!  

I loved the architecture and color in all of the houses

After snorkeling we drove up into the rainforest and embarked on a short hike to a breathtaking waterfall. 

It started to rain after we left the waterfall, so we stopped to wait out the storm and get some local drinks. Mia and I got a carbonated sweet ginger drink that was delicious. 

The rain didn't cease so we had to skip one activity on the tour, but we were still able to visit the botanical gardens back down the mountain in Roseau. 

The botanical gardens had this huge bamboo house  

This school bus was crushed by a tree during Hurricane David in 1979. The tree continued growing over top of the bus and is now a tourist attraction. 

We drove up to an overlook of the city and could see our cruise ship!

I thought the mist-shrouded mountains in the distance and the colorful homes dotting the hillsides in this picture were so unique 

Roseau is Dominica's largest city. In the picture above you might be able to see the faint rainbow arcing over the mountains in the distance.

        Basseterre, St. Kitts was our last destination on the cruise, and it was another one of my favorite stops. Right when we walked off of the ship I saw a man with two baby monkeys and people holding them and taking pictures with them. They were so cute and sweet that I decided to have my picture taken with them too.  That experience of holding those tiny creatures was literally enchanting, and I just kept thinking about it as we were exploring the port. It was definitely one of the most memorable experiences of the cruise. 

A fountain in Independence Square 

I've visited a lot of cathedrals in both America and Europe, but this was the first cathedral in the Caribbean that I've ever been to. 

We sat on the second-story porch of one of the businesses right at the dock to get in the shade and enjoy some refreshing drinks--it was hot that day!

      

        When we arrived back in Miami, I was a little sad to say goodbye, but I was looking forward to seeing my dad and getting back to the simplicity and calm of home.  The cruise was such a great trip to meet new people, go on fun and exciting adventures, and try new things.  I am so grateful for the ability to travel the world and experience all of these different cultures, and I look forward to future travels! Thanks so much for reading this blog, I hope you enjoyed it!