Photo(s) of the Day February 24th

Welcome to Curacao!

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The colours of the floating market in Willemstad, where we picked up spices and fresh fruit

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Inside the amazing Hato Caves

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The architecture and colour of the Willemstad waterfront

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After enjoying a much-needed sleep in (did you see all the stuff we did yesterday?!) we did a bit of research about the one stop we promised ourselves to make in Curacao, the Hato Caves. We chose not to book an excursion to the caves through the cruise line because all of them combined several different stops that we didn’t think Sophie would have the patience for (old churches, fascinating rock formations, plantation homes, etc.) So the plan was to grab either public transportation or a cab to get to the caves, but we didn’t count on several things: 1) the oppressive heat, which we knew right off the bat would be a bad thing for Sophie, especially if waiting for a while at open-air bus stops was involved) 2) how long public transportation actually takes to get to the cave area (1 hr) and 3) how very expensive cabs are in Curacao ($25 one way to get there). So after some humming and hawing over the situation we decided to bite the bullet and pay for the cab, knowing that Sophie would be such a mess by the time we arrived at the caves on the public bus that we probably wouldn’t get her through a tour anyway. When we arrived at the caves we had about 10 minutes before the next tour left, so we were able to look around the site a bit on our own before meeting the rest of the tour group – the area is beautiful, overlooking an airport landing strip and the ocean, covered in cactus and amazingly formed rocks. Inside the caves the humidity is over 90%, so we were sweating buckets throughout the tour – but it was worth it. It was almost hard to believe that the caves were real – they were so beautifully formed and amazingly textured, with an underground lake and a beautiful cavern called “the cathedral” with a hole in the ceiling streaming light into the cavern below. And then there was one of the main things that attracted us to the caves in the first place: the bat cavern. Sophie’s quite focussed on bats lately – she and both Rhys and Rowan pretend to be bats all the time around the house, so we thought that seeing real fruit bats in their natural environment would be exciting for her. She liked the whole thing, with the exception of the little rocks that kept getting into her shoes – she was even able to handle the oppressive heat well. After the tour (and the $25 cab ride back to the pier) we dropped Sophie off at the Adventure Ocean kids club so Chris and I could wander around Willemstad for a bit revisiting some of the places that Chris remembered from when he visited the island as a teenager. His dad worked on the island for several years, so both he and Mary as well as their younger brother Paul visited Curacao in the past – in fact its appearance on the ports-of-call list was one of the reasons we chose the cruise we did. So while Sophie played we wandered the streets looking at the Dutch Colonial architecture, admiring the brightly coloured houses and shops, and people watching. We enjoyed a drink on an outdoor patio while listening to steel drum music, and returned to the ship happy and relaxed for dinner and a relatively early bed time. A lovely stop, and having spent the day in Curacao I’m sure it’s a place we’d like to revisit.

Other vacation notes for today:

As we were leaving the ship for the second time today, we saw an interesting sight: many men with large shipping crates and luggage racks headed up the gang plank, accompanied by a rather mature petite woman with big blond hair and a real shimmy in her walk. Charo has just arrived on our ship. What the heck?!?!?

Regarding the constant number of attractions, parties and parades happening on board the ship: Chris took a walk this evening while I was drifting off to dreamland, and came across the “Seventies Dancing in the Street Party”... a festival of music and dancing on the Royal Promenade that featured not only a some wild music and costumes but also a performance by cruise staff dressed as the Village people. Boy, my living room is going to seem mighty tame after this week...
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Photo(s) of the Day February 23rd

Ready to snorkel with the Jolly Roger Pirate crew

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Mary shows us how to master the ship's rope swing!

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Our first island stop was today; we docked in Aruba around 8am and after breakfast we decided to take Sophie onto the island to walk around and check out the sights. Another note for future travels: Sophie is not a “wanderer”... the aimlessness of our path combined with the heat made for a grumpy girl about 15 minutes into our walk, and we ended up having to head back to the ship earlier than intended. A few minutes in the air conditioning combined with a cup of chocolate fudge ice cream brought her back to her normal self, and we decided to let her spend the afternoon in Adventure Ocean rather than exposing her to the constant heat on the island again. Chris also opted to spend the afternoon on the ship enjoying some quiet time while Mary, Courtney, Brandon and I went on a snorkelling excursion with the “Jolly Roger Pirates”. We hopped on an open-air bus that took us to a small pier off one of the beaches in the resort area of the island, and from there we boarded the Jolly Roger pirate ship. The sun was shining and the breeze was blowing as we sailed to the site of the Antilles shipwreck, where many of the passengers opted to get off and snorkel. Our group decided to stay put and watch because of the roughness of the seas at the site of the wreck, but we enjoyed the music and watching some of the other folks snorkel (or attempt to – as I mentioned, the water was pretty rough so several people got in only to get right back out.) Our second snorkelling stop was much calmer, and we all dove in and enjoyed watching the bright colourful fish dart in and out of the coral... it’s so easy to lose track of time and location when you’re snorkelling - more than once I found myself quite a ways from the Jolly Roger ship as I followed schools of fish. The time flew, but I managed to make it back to the ship before it sailed away and we headed to our next stop, a calm grotto where the crew pulled out a rope swing and invited us to take turns jumping off the boat and swinging out over the ocean, where you then let go and drop into the water below. Mary impressed us all by shooting up her hand when the captain asked who would like to try the swing first – after she lead the charge on the rope swing we had a blast watching people take turns swinging over the water (sometimes gracefully, sometimes not so much), and were amazed to watch the crew take turns doing complicated spins and amazing back flips into the water. A few times crew members even carried passengers on their backs when jumping off the ship with the swing – it was amazing to see!

Other vacation notes for today:

The Adventure of the Seas is one of the few cruise ships that feature an onboard ice rink, and they make the most of it by offering an ice show on two nights of the cruise. It’s incredibly popular, and the (free) tickets available for both performances were gone the morning they were offered. We were disappointed to have missed out, so since Mary had offered to have Sophie go to sleep in her cabin at the beginning of the night, Chris and I slipped down to the “Studio B” stage and waited in line for standby seats. We were in luck, and got to see the show despite our ticketless status – it was very well done, very artistic, and really just an amazing site when you consider that you’re floating on a ship in the middle of the Caribbean. After the show we slipped up to the pool deck to enjoy the “Carnival Under the Stars Deck Party”, complete with late-night buffet, Mardi Gras beads, masks and dancing. We are going to be so spoiled when we get home... aside from the wonderful food and complete lack of cleaning to be done, there’s at least one (if not several) fun events happening every night on board. What will we do when we get home and there’s no one to serve us four course meals every night? What will we do without a parade or party each evening???
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Photo(s) of the Day February 22nd

Enjoying our private balcony in the sun

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Brandon, Chris and Sophie tee off at the mini golf course

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The kids, all dolled up for formal night

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Sophie and our Room Steward Sidney

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Our first full day at sea... Chris was up before dawn and had the pleasure of watching the sun come up as we sailed past a large storm system that threw large waves up against the side of the ship. I woke and drifted, enjoying the rocking – Sophie slept through it as though she were drugged. After hooking up with Mary and the kids we hit the Windjammer for breakfast, where I was thrilled to find my favourite culinary cruising treat – a large platter of smoked salmon with my name on it. After breakfast Sophie opted to hang out at the pool with Aunt Mary and her cousins instead of walking with Chris and I, so we slathered our girl in SPF 50, popped her into a bikini and hit the road. This ship (Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas) is massive, and there’s just no end to the activities you can partake in if you want to do something other than laze by the pool or cosy up to the bar. Within a ten minute period we came across card tournaments, a basketball game, rock climbing, mini golf, inline skating, Mardi-Gras mask-making, and the Cruise Critic’s Meet & Mingle activity (which was what brought us to Deck 13 & 14 in the first place). The daily activity planner that’s delivered to the cabin is pages long, and in addition to the activities we stumbled upon this morning offers everything you could imagine: crazy pool-side contests, yoga classes, ice skating, spa services, gambling, art workshops, wine tastings, dance lessons, parades, concerts, Vegas-style shows, and so much more. You could spend every waking hour doing something on this ship and might not do/see it all in a week – it’s really something else. We chose to enjoy a round of mini-golf with Brandon and Sophie after lunch, and then took Sophie for her first visit to the Adventure Ocean kids area, which was a phenomenal hit. The kids programme here is wonderful, and I was relieved that it lived up to Sophie’s anticipation – we had talked to her about it several times, and I was worried that it might not be as great as she thought it would be... no worries there. At this point I think she wants to spend the rest of the cruise at Adventure Ocean and have us pick her up on the way to the airport! And the bonus for mom & dad? We actually enjoyed an afternoon nap while she played astronaut with the kid’s club leaders... talk about luxury!

Other vacation notes for today:

On our way to the pool this morning, we were graced with one of the most amazing sights: we watched dolphins leaping and spinning through the ship’s wake. They were beautiful, graceful and just looked like they were having so much fun... I’ve always had a “thing” for dolphins and watching them do their dance so close, in the wild – it almost brought tears to my eyes.

This evening’s “Formal night” was lovely... we all got dolled up in our finery (Chris and Brandon both in Tuxedos, the girls in formal dresses), but we left our primping too late to get portraits done before dinner - next formal night we need to be at least a half hour ahead of schedule so we can get our photos done. We can’t look this good and not have a record of it!!

Sophie is completely enamoured with our room steward, Sidney... she played very shy with him when we first met, but has come around in a big way. This evening when we turned the corner from the elevator into the long hallway that leads to our cabin she saw him down the hall and took off to him like a rocket, throwing herself into his arms when she caught up to him. This is the man who makes cool animals out of towels and leaves them on her bed – this man is a God in Sophie’s world!

Photo(s) of the Day February 21st

Flying over the Florida Keys – we’re not in Canada any more!

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Nunu Gabby and I keep Sophie entertained on the 4+ hour flight to San Juan

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Sophie and Daddy in the Cruise Ship Port, just after checking in

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And we’re off! Last night was spent at the Fairfield Inn in Romulus, Michigan – we had a suite with separate bedroom and sitting area so after packing Sophie off to bed (in theory at least) Chris and I ordered dinner and sat up watching Olympic coverage. Until we realized that Sophie was far too excited to actually sleep, and had been sitting up in bed watching the television’s reflection in the bedroom mirror, that is. About an hour and a half and a televised basketball game later, her excitement over the trip had relaxed enough to let her sleep – we all passed out to be ready for our 5:30 wake-up call. Breakfast and an airport shuttle later, we met up with Mary, Courtney and Brandon and boarded our flight for San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was uneventful and (because we were travelling with a four-year-old in need of fairly constant entertaining) felt long, but by 2:30pm we were in a cab and on our way to the cruise ship terminal. A few lessons either learned or reinforced during this trip: taking a cab from the airport is considerably faster and cheaper than using the cruise ship’s ground transportation, carrying your bags through the cruise ship terminal will get you dirty looks from the (tip-driven) baggage handlers but is preferred over waiting several hours to have your bags delivered to your cabin, and Rum Runners are a good thing. We settled in quickly and spent a bit of time looking around before dinner – got Sophie registered for the Adventure Ocean kids programme, suffered through the muster drill, and got a general idea of some of the tricks of the ship (ex. You cannot walk the length of the ship on deck 3 – to get from one end to the other you must go up to deck 4, walk across, and come back down to deck 3 again.) Dinner in the restaurant was lovely and our Waiter Rolvino (from India) and Assistant Waiter Andy (from Jamaica) were both charming. Sophie settled in with a very exhausted Aunt Mary for a few hours of sleep while Chris and I watched the ship sail away from San Juan and met up with some of our Cruise Critic friends at the Sky Bar for drinks and a few laughs before letting the ship rock us to sleep. Day 1 behind us, already our vacation has been great.

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Photo of the Day February 19th

Yup - the bags are packed and waiting... we leave for our family cruise vacation tomorrow! Today was spent juggling some final volunteer events at Tecumseh (hosting the Coffee Drop-in for the month, finishing some meeting minutes, etc.), cleaning the house, pulling together our last-minute travel items and sending about a thousand emails to make sure all my bases are covered while I'm away. Just a few more hours and I can put it all behind me, relax and just enjoy some vacation time... please send me some good, stress-free vacation vibes!

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Photo of the Day February 18th

After my class at Tecumseh last night I went over to my friend Valeeta's house so we could have a proper visit for the first time since she's returned from her 5-week trip to Australia. We've managed to sneak in a quick coffee, and have chatted at our shared Book Club, but time to just sit on the couch and talk about whatever comes to mind was long overdue. So we sipped some coffee and exchanged (also long overdue) Christmas presents, talked about our kids and assorted trips, and shared several laughs. Valeeta brought home gifts from both herself and from our mutual friend Angeline, including the kangaroo duo shown above for Sophie. We may not have been able to travel to Australia, but it's awfully nice that a little bit of Australia has made its way to us!

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Photo of the Day February 17th

The area of London where I live is called "Old South", and it includes a particularly charming neighbourhood called Wortley Village. It's everything good that you'd picture a quintessential little village to be: well preserved old architecture, lots of services (grocery store, bank, restaurants, drug store, library, bakery, coffee shops, florist, etc) all within two easy-to-walk blocks, several green spaces, and neighbours who all seem to know each other's names. It's reputation is one of friendliness, it's vibe is artsy and welcoming, and easy access to it is one of the reasons we live where we do. The neighbourhood's in an uproar at the moment though, because a developer has purchased an empty lot and is planning to build the large, box-like modern condo development shown above. It's four stories tall (higher than local zoning actually allows), modern in design, and doesn't blend with the style of the neighbourhood at all - see below for an example of the typical "look" of Wortley Village. So, meetings have been called, letters have been written, and citizens are going door-to-door handing out flyers about the development - it will be interesting to see whether the voice of the public or the all-mighty-dollar have a louder voice in the decisions that will be made about the development from this point forward.