TravelStream™ news feed for member beckymike on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/beckymike en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:51:12 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228441140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228441140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228441140/tpod.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:51:12 -0500 Bahamas Cruise 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas

Hello everyone,

Unfortunately we won't have pictures this evening for our current entry. I think we have now dropped our camera 1 too many times and we don't have a USB card reader handy. Oh well, we'll just put in some pics when we get back home.

Nonetheless, today was what we finally expected of the Bahamas. As bad as Freeport was, Great Stirrup Cay (NCL's own private island) was awesome. It was a little chilly, but not bad enough to keep us out of the water. Becky and I went snorkeling first thing and after some equipment problems we were able to see a huge array of fish and reef formations today. As far as snorkeling goes, this has been our best adventure yet. We saw many more varieties of fish than in Bermuda or yesterday (although we didn't spot any Lion fish or Blowfish). Hopefully, the underwater camera pics turn out better then those from Bermuda. We'll also post those when we get back home and get the pictures developed.

Once we were finished snorkeling we just relaxed on the main part of the island. We had our own hammock and table to play cards and what not. We ate around 12:00 (NCL had a cookout consisting of hamburgers, hotdogs, barbecue, etc) and it was pretty good.

We're back in Miami tomorrow and going to see my cousin as well as redo the everglades. Till then hope everyone is doing well and we will see you all soon.

Love,

Mike and Becky
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228356240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228356240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228356240/tpod.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:05:36 -0500 Bahamas Cruise 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Nassau, Bahamas

Nassau bahamas

Well, today made up for yesterday. The weather was beautiful, we got to snorkel, and Nassau was much prettier than Freeport. It's still not Bermuda, but we're not going to complain ...

We started out today by walking around the town of Nassau. It's a mix of beautiful old buildings, some more modern buildings, and a lot of tourist shops. But, unlike Freeport, there aren't any tankers, smokestacks, or other industrial stuff, so it's an improvement. The buildings are beautiful colors. Unfortunately, the streets are pretty dirty, but it's hard to tell whether that's the way they normally are or how much is un-repaired hurricane damage. Some of the really old buildings are in pretty bad hape, but some are still pretty.

We walked around town and walked to the Queen's staircase. It was carved straight out of the limestone. After walking there, we shopped a little and then headed back to the ship for our sea scooter snorkeling excursion. We rode a catamaran out of the harbor and got a brief tour of the rich people's houses along the water (Oprah, Tiger Woods, Anna Nicole Smith, Nicholas Cage, etc.) and then got to swim around using these sea scooters that help propel you through the water. They actually were pretty useful since the current was fairly strong because of the cold front in the area. We saw TONS of fish. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures - it was too deep for our camera to really pick anything up. But, we saw a blow fish, a lionfish, and lots of others I can't name. The water was really cold at first - it was hard to breathe it was so cold, but after we got used to it we had a really wonderful time.

After the excursion, we did some more shopping and had conch fritters, calamari, and jerk chicken for dinner. Everything was pretty good. Conch fritters are fried pieces of the animal that lives in the conch shell and evidently people here eat it pretty often. It was ok, kind of like calamari only chewier. :)

After dinner, it was time to say goodbye to Nassau. We'd like to come back with more time and maybe stay at the Atlantis Resort (if we had the money).

We gambled a little at the casino (we lost $6) and then went to a show in the theater. It was a medley of broadway songs. It was surprisingly good. Now, I'm sitting here listening to people attempt karaoke while I download our pictures. Mike is in the gym working out and hopefully watching the Carolina game. We've had really calm waters until tonight - you couidln't even feel the ship moving. BUt now we're starting to feel it a little bit. I've got a headache, so I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow we're going to Norwegian's private island, Great Stirrup Cay. We're going to do some more snorkeling and enjoy relaxing on the beach all day, if the weather is nice. So, that's it for now.

We're having trouble with the camera, so I can't get the pictures downloaded right now, but I'll try again later (probably in the morning). Sorry!

Love,
Becky and Mike
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228272240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228272240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228272240/tpod.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:45:29 -0500 Bahamas Cruise 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Freeport, Bahamas

Freeport - Since when did the Bahama's version of Jersey become a cruise destination?

This port definitely isn't Bermuda. It was strange to see all of the factories, plants, tanks, and smokestacks in what's supposed to be an island paradise. There was trash everywhere. It looks like the way the Chesapeake Bay used to look, but worse. Of course, this could be mostly from the hurricane, but who knows. I almost think Norwegian and the other cruise lines shouldn't come here because everything to do (snorkeling, shopping) is so far away from the port, but the island needsthe tourism money to rebuild everything. Hopefully one day it will be back the way it used to be. Maybe they will also build a cruise port closer to everything, rather than right in the middle of the industrial part of the island.

We couldn't tell whether we were hunting for shells or nuclear waste. To be fair, the place was hit by two hurricanes only a few months ago, so it wasn't in as bad of shape as it could have been. Plus, the weather didn't help at all.

We drove all the way out to Deadman's Reef, which is supposed to be THE place for snorkeling on the island, but weren't able to do anything because of the waves and the strong current from the cold front coming in. This time I couldn't sucker Becky in by telling her the waves are "relatively calm." We did go down to the water's edge and it was the warmest ocean water I've ever been in. No cringeing. We had an authentic bahamian cheesburger and fries (i.e. we were starving and it was the only thing they were serving) and drove back towards town.

On the way, we saw tons of conch shells just lying by the road. They're like rocks here - they're everywhere. We picked up a couple and tried to rinse them off, but they were so old they still looked pretty rough. So, at one place, where they shell the conch to make conch salad, fritters, etc. there were just tons of them piled up by the water. Geniuses that we are, we picked up a couple and put them in a bag to take back to the ship as souveniers - they were much newer and had just been cleaned, or so we thought. About 1 hour later, we took them into the bathroom at the pier to rinse them off before taking them back to the ship. When we opened the bag, we were hit by a terrible stench and lots of little black flies. That probably wouldn't have made it through customs, so we ditched them and bought two freshly cleaned souvenier shells for $5 at the pier.

After a great dinner, we saw a comedian named Rich Purpura. He was hilarious!

Looking forward to hopefully getting to snorkel on Nassau tomorrow and breathing in a lot less smog. Enjoy the pictures!

Love,
Becky and Mike
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228059300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228059300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1228059300/tpod.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:48:05 -0500 Bahamas Cruise 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Miami, Florida, United States

Ok, not only is Florida far away from NC, but it is enormous. We thought we could do so much more than we actually did, but we had a great time. We got up early and drove to Sanibel Island (pictures will be posted soon) and saw more shells than we've ever seen in our lives! It was awesome. We stopped at a cool touristy citrus stand and bought some Christmas presents and tried the orange juice. The FL welcome center was closed yesterday, so we didn't get to try it there. :(

Mike also tried some "Maryland style" crab cakes on the island (even though I told him they wouldn't be like his Nan's - and I was right). The food was ok, but we're still waiting for some good seafood. Dessert (Key Lime pie and chocolate cake) was awesome at the Hungry Heron.

Anyway, it started pouring rain right after we left the beach at Sanibel and didn't really stop even after we got to Miami. We got stuck in traffice and missed most of the everglades (which are enourmous and also take forever to drive through) after it got dark. But, I think we're going to try them again Friday when we get back to port. Mike did an awesome job driving in horizontal rain and lighting through a neverending swamp. We saw (and probably ran over) some frogs and I saw some eyes reflecting out of the trees on the side of the road, but that was it for wildlife. Maybe we'll have better luck Friday.

Anyway, we booked a hotel on hotwire.com and when we got here, after we found out there was no parking, they told us that we had been "upgraded" to their other hotel across the street. In other words, even though they had confirmed we had a room three hours ago, when we got there and showed them our hotwire receipt, they told us they had no rooms and had overbooked, so we went to the other place. It was just as nice outside, but was really too cool for me and Mike (we felt like Hank and Peggy Hill). The lobby was in the middle of a loud club. They put us on the third floor, farthest from the music, but you could still hear it. Anyway, my main problem with this place was the bed - at least 20 years old. Mike woke up with a sore back. The hotel we had booked a room with had new beds b/c it was completely renovated. So, we got shafted. Needless to say we probably won't ever stay at the Chesterfield or its sister hotel the Salley again.
Hope everyone is doing fine back home.
Love,
Mike and Becky
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1227972720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1227972720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/4/1227972720/tpod.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:35:08 -0500 Bahamas Cruise 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Starke, Florida, United States

Ok, Florida takes a lot longer to get to than we thought! It doesn't help if you go to bed late, oversleep, take a detour to Spruce Pine, and stop every hour. I wish that we had something cool to say about our trip so far, but basically, we just drove forever. The hotel is ok, but has a really really crappy bed and an exposed light fixture above the shower. Mike the engineer is going crazy! There's also rain and tornado watches. I hope the trip gets better from here!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209757560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209757560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209757560/tpod.html Fri, 02 May 2008 15:47:33 -0400 Bermuda 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

St. George, Bermuda

Hey everyone,

Well it is our last day on our cruise. We were both sad to leave Bermuda and we even comtemplated staying ashore when the boat left (just kidding sort of). Anyhow, we haven't gotten sick at sea like we did on the way over. The water was pretty choppy yesterday, but we passed the test with Dramamine. Today the water is VERY calm and we haven't had to take any medicine.

Last night we ate at the chocoholics buffet. The sculptures were cool, but the chocolate was not. It seems like they
used the cheap icing and skimped on the chocolate. Oh well. The dinner we had at the 4 seasons dining room more than made up for the chocolate.

We also played BINGO yesterday. Unfortunately, we didn't win this time, but oh well. Oh yeah, now that we are alive and back on the ship I guess that we can tell you that while we were on the island we rented a motorcycle to get around.

Okay so it wasn't a motorcycle, but it was the closest to one that we could get. Instead we rented a two person scooter. It was scary at first, but once we got the hang of it, it was really good to go where you wanted to go when you wanted to go. We rode on it from St. George's all the way to Church Bay, which is on the southwestern portion of the island. It took us about an hour to get from St. George's to the beach.

The last day in Bermuda was mainly spent shopping. We first started in Hamilton and determined that the new slogan for the island's biggest city should be: "Have fun in Hamilton.....if you can". Even the festival later that night
proved to be very dissappointing. Kind of like a poor man's Bele Chere. Oh well.

Anyway, we look forward to seeing everyone in a couple of days.

Love,

Mike and Becky
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209513060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209513060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209513060/tpod.html Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:52:25 -0400 Bermuda 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

St. George, Bermuda

Today we enjoyed some more snorkeling. I wish we could put the pictures of the fish online, but we took them with a waterproof disposable camera, so we won't have them until we get back. The water here is absolutely gorgeous. We've never seen anything like it. The area we went to today was called Church Bay. It was great, but the waves beat us to death. They weren't very big, but there was just tons of them. It was supposed to be a "relatively calm" beach, but it wasn't. It wore us out. We were going to go to a couple of other beaches, but we were too tired. So, we just wandered around the island and enjoyed looking at all the neat houses and architecture. Becky got cut on a piece of coral (of course) but it wasn't bad. Just annoying. I know it's late, so that will be it I guess. We'll write more tomorrow. We're going to go to a flea market and a craft fair as well as some more beaches. We miss you all.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209426300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209426300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/3/1209426300/tpod.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:59:16 -0400 Bermuda 2008

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

St. George, Bermuda

Hi everybody! It seems like we're traveling somewhere all the time :) This month, we're in Bermuda. We can't believe how clear and beautiful the water is. Hopefully the pictures will do it justice.

The cruise over on the Norwegian Majesty was great. We saw some jellyfish floating by and what may have been a dolphin or a whale (it was too quick to tell). The ride was smooth until yesterday afternoon. No storms or rogue waves though. :) We got a little seasick because of the large swells coming from a storm farther out to sea. We both got better by this morning.

Today, we reached Bermuda. We went snorkeling at Tobacco Bay. There were so many fish - purple, yellow, black stripes, and even something that looked like a snail without its shell! We didn't take any pictures, but we will tomorrow and post them on here.

Well, that's it for now. We'll write more soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/las_vegas_2007/1192560180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/las_vegas_2007/1192560180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/las_vegas_2007/1192560180/tpod.html Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:58:31 -0400 Las Vegas - will we ever win anything?

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Las Vegas is expensive when you're on a tight budget. Mike is enjoying a free ride from work, but we're having to pay for anything I do. It's fun, but the money adds up quick. So far, though, we've only lost about $50 gambling, so that's not too bad for two days. :) I took a free blackjack lesson today and had a good time. I've been to a lot of free attractions and just walking around while Mike is at the convention. It's been fun. Hope you enjoy the pictures.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/las_vegas_2007/1192387260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/las_vegas_2007/1192387260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/beckymike/las_vegas_2007/1192387260/tpod.html Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:51:41 -0400 Las Vegas - will we ever win anything?

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Dallas, Texas, United States

I flew on a plane by myself! I din't think it would ever happen, but I did. I was scared to death, but after the first one, it wasn't so bad. :)
]]>