Vacation 2010 pt. 3

So, Jaime asked me to do wrap up her 3 part blog.  Jaim did our trip to the Keys as well as our cruise aboard the Norwegian Sky and I will be blogging about the last leg of our trip, South Beach.

Last year, when Jaime and I went on vacation we were lucky enough to stay at the Marriott South Beach and just absolutely loved it.  The hotel is beautiful and the amenities are fantastic, including access to the very south end of South Beach which is the most beautiful beach in the continental USA.  When we came back again this year we talked my sis into staying there with us.

I know how weird hotels can be about check in times, so when we ended up disembarking from the cruise earlier than I thought and were in South Beach at 10:30AM, I thought we would just have to make do and wing it.  The Marriott was extra awesome to us and gave us our rooms right away and upgraded me and Jaime to the concierge floor with an amazing room that had a gigantic deck with beautiful views of the city as well as the beach.  The deck proved to be a great place to hang out.

When we got all checked in, everyone decided that it was nap time, so I headed down to the pool.  I mean, I can nap at home, right?  I definitely can't enjoy tropical weather at home...

Anyway, once everyone was awake we enjoyed a beautiful time on South Beach.  The water was ridiculously warm, too warm in fact, and we had fun swimming around trying to find cooler water currents to sit in.  We had some great sunshine and good fun too.

We went in around dinner time and got ready for the evening.  We decided to splurge on nice sea food and went to a restaurant called Quinn's.  Quinn's had amazing food, and I enjoyed some of the biggest and best king crab legs I have ever had.  I was even feeling generous and let my little sis try a bite.  Just watching her expression as she ate the king of all seafood was well worth it (my sister is a bit of a foodie).

The next morning I woke up extra early for a sunrise swim, one of my very favorite things to do.  It was so calm and so amazing.  I will live somewhere with great sunrise beach access someday.

With that, we packed it up and headed to the airport to finally be heading home!  At this point the vacation felt like a very long one, all legs of the trip felt like their own vacation (Keys, Cruise, South Beach) and we were ready to see our kids again.

Well, mother nature had other ideas for us. 

We made it out of Miami just fine and had to fly through Atlanta.  We arrived in ATL at 3:00PM for a quick layover to catch a 4:30 flight to ABQ.  That flight was delayed and changed to a 7:30 flight.  Lame!  So, Jaime and I did a thorough tour of the ATL airport.  And then we waited some more. 

As we got to our gate, nearing the time we were supposed to leave we saw that our flight (along with many others) had been postponed until 9:30.  We checked with Delta and it turned out that we were waiting on a flight from DC and it hadn't left yet because of lightning in the ATL area.

At this point, Jaime and I were exhausted.  You can only spend so much time in the ATL airport.  We watched a couple of shows on the iPad, read, walked some more...

We sat there some more and around 8:30 at night the lady at the gate announced that our flight still hadn't left DC and wouldn't be there until 11:30 or maybe later.  At this point I decided to capitalize on my platinum status and give Delta a call.  I calmly explained that I understood it wasn't their fault but that there was no way I was going to spend another minute at the airport.  Delta took care of me and put Jaime and I on a flight the next afternoon (first class I might add, thanks Delta!).

I logged onto the internet from my phone, found us a great rate at the Marquis Marriott in downtown ATL and we decided to call it a night and enjoy a 4th leg of the trip, Atlanta!!

Jaime and I spent some time in Atlanta a couple years ago and really loved it.  The Georgia Aquarium is the largest in the world and is worth going to Atlanta for by itself.  Jaime and I took the opportunity the next morning to spend some time there enjoying all they had to offer, especially the 6.5 million gallon tank that houses 4 whale sharks!

Another thing we really liked about our last trip to the A is a certain dessert we got at the Fox Sports Grill called Banana Bread Pudding.  Now this isn't bread pudding made with banana bread, but it is a mix of banana's foster and bread pudding and is almost worth a trip to Atlanta all by itself!  So after we finished up at the Aquarium, we took a cab to get some lunch (and dessert!) and then took another cab to the airport.  (it is much easier to travel like this when you have no luggage, everything we checked had to stay at the airport...).

Once back at the airport, we only had some minor delays and finally made it back home after a 30 hour layover in ATL.

All said, this vacation was one of the longest and best we have ever taken.

Here are some pics from legs 3 and 4 of the vaca...

This was the view from our room at the South Beach Marriott.  Beautiful.  I love South Beach!

 That is me in the water, most people in South Beach are concerned with being cool, I was mostly concerned with enjoying the beach.

At dinner, Chelsie was obsessed with these Popover rolls.  They were delicious!

We came back to the hotel after dinner for desert up on our deck.  Great views of the city (although a tad post-apocalyptic looking in my opinion)

This was the view toward the beach that night.

This is the crazy elevator at the Marquis Marriott in ATL.  There are 47 floors (we were up on 43) and there is an atrium that goes all the way up with glass elevators.  So creepy!

Another view at the hotel.

Jaime and I at the aquarium.  We really do love it here!

Such an amazing place!  It was fun to also pick out all the fish we had seen that week whilst snorkeling.

Whale sharks are so awesome!

Jaim and I spent about an hour just sitting by the giant 60'x40' looking glass at the world's largest tank.  Jaime could have spent all day there but I was getting hungry...

For this!  Oh Banana Bread Pudding, how I love you so!!

C R U I S I N G

Last week Chet and I had the opportunity to go on an Eastern Caribbean cruise for our 10 year anniversary. It was heaven! Here is a day by day rundown:


DAY 1- Miami

We got to Miami in the late afternoon and headed to our hotel. It was a really modern hotel called the SenSe on Ocean Drive in South Beach. It was very nice but way too modern! The chairs were see through plastic and there was chrome and glass and weird artwork everywhere! After checking out the room we decided to stroll Ocean Drive and find some food. We finally decided on Johnny Rockets and ate our lunch outside during a torrential downpour! I have never seen rain like that. It was so much fun! When the rain stopped we headed to the beach. We didn't get to hang out there very long before the rain started again. We walked across the street back to the hotel in the rain. We figured that we couldn't get any wetter. After getting back to the hotel and getting ready we headed to Chet's favorite seafood restaurant "A Fish Called Avalon". It was really yummy and a great way to end the first day of our vacation.

Our super modern room

There was a roped off area on the beach. This is what we saw when we got closer. Cute!Eating at "A Fish Called Avalon"

Day 2- The Boat

We spent the morning at the beach before we headed to the boat. When we got to our room on the boat we had to check out our balcony and then the rest of the boat. Pretty boring day.

The view from our balcony. Its not a very good picture because we took it with Chet's phone.

The Lobby of the boat.Every night they would turn down the bed and make a "towel buddy'. (No Chels it wasn't us making them every night) Stop looking at me swan...

Day 3- "Fun Day at Sea"

Yep not as "fun" as it sounds. We spent the day laying out on the balcony and reading and of course eating. Not a bad thing but I wouldn't call it "fun".


Towel buddy of the Night, a scorpion.
Day 4- Turks and Cacios

What a beautiful place! This was our shortest dock. We were only there from 7-2 but we made the most of it by getting up early and heading out. Grand Turk is a very small island only 6 miles long and a mile wide. The west side is white soft sand and calm blue water the east side is very windy and super rocky. We walked down the west side of the beach to get away from the crowds and found a beautiful spot to spend the day. The sand was the texture of corn meal and the water was so blue it looked fake! We dropped our stuff and headed to the water. We had a great time snorkeling we saw tons of fish and even an eel and a starfish! After several hours snorkeling we decided to go for a hike and check out the other side of the island. The other side was so different! The water wasn't as blue and the beaches were all rocky and there were conch shells everywhere! Like a conch graveyard. We made it to the end of the east side and headed back right when it started to rain. Chet decided to snorkel back as I walked along the beach. He made it about half way before it got too rocky and the water too choppy to be safe. We said goodbye to an amazing island and headed back to the boat for dinner and a movie under the stars.

Chet snorkeling back after the hike.
On the beach in front of the boat.

The rocky side of the island.In the amazingly blue water! (Wall-E under the stars.)Towel Buddy of the Night, a pig, I think...


Day 4- Half Moon Cay

Half Moon Cay is a private island owned by Carnival. WOW is all I can say about this island. It is so gorgeous! The water was even more blue than Grand Turk and the sand was so fine it was like flour! We immediately hit the water to do some snorkeling and were sorely disappointed when we only saw 1 fish! The water was so clean and clear there wasn't anything to see but water and sand! We were supposed to go on a snorkeling trip that day but the water was too choppy so it got cancelled. :( No biggie we decided to do our sting ray adventure today instead. When the time came we took the shuttle to the other side if the island to see the sting rays. We got all geared up listened to a short instructional and hit the water. Now I love the ocean and even sharks they fascinate me but I was way more scared then I though I would be! These giant things swimming silently around you and rubbing up against you like cats freaked me out! They have giant barbs that stick out of their tails that can kill you (like the Crocodile Hunter) and they are rubbing up against me because they want to be rubbed! It was a very neat experience. By the time we were done with the sting rays I was soooo fried (even with SPF 50!) I was done. When we got back to the boat we got ready and headed to dinner. After dinner Chet was thrilled to hear that they would be playing game 1 of the NBA finals on the giant outdoor screen. So we grabbed a drink and my book and headed to the Lido deck and enjoyed the game!



Reading on the most beautiful beach ever.One of the Sting Rays that we swam with.Watching the game.Towel Buddy of the Night-Aardvark???




Day 5-Paradise Island, Nassau Bahamas


Since our snorkeling trip on Half Moon Cay was cancelled we thought we would go today, but it was a two and a half hour ride on a catamaran and then only 40 minutes snorkeling! Umm, no. So we decided to spend the day at Atlantis. It is a resort on an island just off of Nassau and it is amazing. Since I was so fried from the previous days excursions we decided to go to all the different aquariums on the property. I love fish and anything that lives in the ocean so I was in heaven! There was a tank with manta rays that were the biggest things I've ever seen! They were close to 6 feet across! (That is actually quite small for a manta.) They, at one time, had one that was 18 feet across! She was so big she would scrape her fins on the sides of the aquarium! Awesome. After sufficiently fulfilling my fish watching need we decided to head to the beach. The beach was nice but not nearly as nice as the other two. We snorkeled up and down the beach and decided to head to the private lagoon that Nassau built just for snorkeling. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. The water was very dirty and it made it hard to see anything. We made the best of it and did get to see quite a few things so I guess it was worth it. We had a great time on the islands and were sad to say goodbye. When we got back to the boat we had dinner and then went back to our suite to get packed up and go to bed. In the middle of the night I woke up to lights flashing outside our window and thought "who is taking pictures in the middle of the night?!" but it wasn't a camera it was lightning! It was so scary! The lightning was right next to the boat flashing so bright I had to close my eyes. I could see it hitting the water and then the boom of the thunder was deafening! It was the scariest thing I have ever seen! I just knew we were going to die! (Chet slept through the whole thing.) Obviously we didn't die and made it back to Miami safely.



Looking at the Blacktip Caribbean Reef SharksThe Flying Fish fountain
The awesome Mantas!





Chet snorkeling in the lagoon
Last "Towel Buddy of the Night" fittingly enough a Manta
Day 6- Miami
After successful debarkation we caught a cab and went straight to our hotel. The Marriott South Beach. Now that is my kind of hotel! So beautiful and right on the beach and since Chet is a Silver Elite Member our room was ready even though it was only 8 in the morning. We quickly got changed into our suits and hit the beach. It was a beautiful day to just hang out in the water which is exactly what we did until it started to rain. We figured that since it was raining we would grab some lunch. Chet decided that he wanted to go to "Joe's" (a seafood place) we walked over there and it was closed so we decided to just walk up Collins Ave and find a place. We ended up at the strangest little place called "Manolo's". Great, Italian we thought. We were kind of right. It was an Italian restaurant inside of a Cuban bakery served by Mexicans. We were confused but the pizza was awesome! After lunch the rain had stopped so we did a little shopping and walking. South Beach is a strange place, one street is slums and the next is millionaire mansions. Like the Versace Mansion which is right on Ocean Drive just up the street from our hotel. It was very cool to see it. They have a plaque on the stairs where he was shot. We wanted to take a tour of the mansion but it was 40 dollars a person! Rip off! So we headed back to the hotel for more beach time until dinner. For dinner we ate at the hotel restaurant which overlooks the ocean. It was such an amazing view and a wonderful way to end our fantastic vacation.


The hotel pool and beachThe Versace Mansion, the second most photographed house in the US.



I have to say that the best part of the vacation was the time I got to spend with Chet. Sitting on the balcony playing cards and watching the lightning, being able to walk down the beach holding hands without the interruption of kids and remembering why we are best friends. Life gets busy with work and kids and all of the other daily distractions and we forget how important time alone together is. I am so grateful for the wonderful memories and the laughs that we shared. I am looking forward to the next 10 wonderful years with my best friend! Always and Forever!!!