Roatan, Honduras

Helloooo Honduras! Our first port was to the island of Roatan- we made plans to go snorkeling and kayaking to take advantage of the awesome reef right off the island... BUT to our disappointment, our excursion was cancelled!! (BOO!) They said the water was too rough and had cancelled all the water excursions. So we decided to just get off the boat and be spontaneous!

So we rented a scooter!! We were confident we wouldn't get too lost, considering the island is only 32 miles long and 1-3 miles wide. What an adventure it turned out to be!

I got to enjoy the beautiful scenery, while Jason concentrated on the pot-hole filled roads! He drove that scooter like a champ! GO JASON!

Bye-bye cruise ship! I hope we can find our way back to you! (yikes!)

Beautiful! (I'm talking about my husband, but you can say it about the background :) )

We made it to the tippy-top of the island, with beautiful views all around and an old lighthouse.

Gorgeous.

Look! We pulled over quite a few times to take a closer look at the wild life, banana trees, and breath-taking views.

We found it! (by accident...) We noticed quite a few people going down this little road, so it was only natural to follow! And look what we found:

THE BEACH!!!!!

Notice there really isn't anyone in the water. That made us feel a little better about not getting to go on our previously planned adventure. We did some a couple of people trying to snorkel, but they seemed to just be fighting the rough waters the whole time- plus they said they weren't seeing anything. So now I feel ALOT better :)

Stud.

Back to the scooter! Hmm... where does this road go?

Well let me tell you- we drove down this road and decided to pull over to look at some houses. We're standing there, on the side of the road, talking and I feel this weird sensation on my right foot. (PS- I was wearing sandal-like tennis shoes) So I look down and realize that I am standing right in the middle of a huge ANT HILL!! AHHHH!! My foot is covered in ants. You can imagine the freak-out screams and dance that followed. Yikes! It took Jason a minute to realize what was wrong with me, hehe, poor guy. And I'm sure the locals just thought we were crazy Americans! I got my shoes off as fast as possible, and took care of the situation with any grace that I had left. Luckily. they weren't fire ants- but they did leave some horrific little bug bites that itched like crazy! Ugh, dang Honduras ants.

Cool tree.Bus, house, shack, casa?

Love my camera timer :) and love this picture, it's paradise! (except for all the poverty...) This is the tip of the island!

Why can't I grow these in Nampa?!

Or these?!

There were some random locals watching us like hawks! Kinda like we weren't supposed to be there... so we left :)

So all the pictures of Roatan stop here. And let me tell you why: shortly after we got back on our scooter, we got caught in a tropical rainstorm!! At this point we were in the middle of nowhere, soaked. We kept driving and around the corner we came upon this little hole-in-the-wall diner with locals eating and a carport! We were mostly interested in the shelter from the carport, but then decided to be brave and go get something to eat. At first, we weren't even sure if it really was a restaurant- there was just an outdoor (but covered) patio with a coca-cola sign with a tiny 19-inch TV playing some soccer game. Finally, a woman came out from the kitchen and we asked her if there was a menu. She said no, but then proceeded to tell us what they had to offer. I had the garlic shrimp and Jason had the stewed chicken. Our meals also included a small side salad, beans, rice, and fried bananas!! Oh my, I have never had fried bananas like this before. DELICIOUS. AMAZING. FANTASTIC. I was head over heels for these things! Luckily before we left, I got the cook to show us how they were made- someday I will re-create the dish. Someday. Needless to say, this was the BEST dish we ate all week! Better than any of the cruise ship food even! However.... the dish gave me food poisoning later that week. Boo. More of that story to come later, aren't you excited. HA.

After our amazing, bacteria infected meal- the storm had lightened up enough to get back on the scooter and head back to the other side of the island. We found their city center and did some touring while trying not to get trampled- driving there was a crazy madhouse! Jason drove that scooter like a champ!

Then back to our little boat we went. We were exhausted! What a day!

Recuperating by enjoying the night's performance in the Stardust Theatre!

Caribbean Cruise!!

This cruise has been 5 YEARS in the making. I like to think of it as a gift to Jason for putting up with me for the last 5 years, and a sneaky way to try and get 5 more out of him :) We booked the cruise 8 whole freaking months prior to out departure date! Talk about self control! Jason had a count down on his phone, and as the number got smaller, the anticipation got greater! Neither of us had ever been on a cruise, but it seemed like everyone else and their dog had been there done that- so we jumped on the bandwagon! This is going to take a couple of posts to give a full review and do it justice, but here's day one and two!!

All checked in at the port, waiting to board the ship! We could hardly wait!

Here's to hoping we WON'T have to get in those rescue boats!

Our cozy room- since this was our first cruise we went with a room that had a window. Jason's gotta give me five more years for the fancy-pants balcony suite :) And yes, that's my own pillow I brought all the way from Idaho. It's my mom's fault really- she got me hooked on those memory foam pillows and I was nervous about not getting a good night's rest on the standard pillows (only fellow memory foam users will understand my addiction!) So I stuffed it (literally) into Jason's suitcase, what a guy!

Good-bye Tampa! Good-bye America! Good-bye stress! Good-bye reality!

HELLOOOOO VACATION! HELLO PARADISE! HELLO HAPPINESS!!

Had to locate all the Life Saver rings, incase Jason decided to jump... or push me overboard! Yikes!

We had been looking forward to the Shuffleboard, being seasoned pro's from East Canyon. When we found out they had a tournament- we were knew we'd be the team to beat! OR NOT. Do you know how much those ships move your disc? REDICULOUS. Totally threw off my game, but we still had a good time!

Enjoying the sun...

Enjoying the sun a little more!

Dinner time! Truth is we were honestly a little disappointed in the food. Everyone we talked to always said how AMAZING the food was on the boat, and you'll gain 10 pounds, and yadda yadda yadda. Unfortunately none of that happened. (not so unfortunate for the weight I guess...) That's not to say the food was bad, it was just OKAY. We tried almost everything on the menu and everytime we would ask each other how it tasted and I was always just ALRIGHT. We fully expected to be blown away and it seemed to always just miss the mark. Oh well, at least we didn't starve :)

CONFESSION: I did have a small love affair with the CREPE station though. A-MAZ-ING.

Next Stop: Roatan, Honduras!! Stay tuned!