I am truly a blessed woman. Counting all of them would take days and I have committed myself to keeping a grateful attitude. It's easier said than done at times. But even in the face of life's little bugaboos I really am focusing on the positive side.
As some of you may have gleaned I have a new love in my life. He's truly a blessing and we are simply having just the best time! Part of this experience was a wonderful Christmas gift of a cruise to the Caribbean. Well, dear friends, I am fresh off the boat, sun kissed, relaxed, over fed and laughed out beyond belief. We had such a great time! Let me touch on just a few highlights and special moments from out experience.
We sailed from NYC. This was nothing short of magical! I have cruised before but never from just down the road and let me tell you.....life changing! Brad and I hopped a taxi to the pier and were having a nosh and a pina colada within the hour. We were blessed with lovely weather the day we sailed and I was able to capture some wonderful pictures of the new Freedom tower. I have seen it up close but not from the water and it is powerful addition to our fair city.
We spent the next few days at sea. Because of the time of year and the amount of water we needed to cover it was a rough few days. Thankfully my dear sister gave me some patches and I would not have been able to enjoy these days without them. I am prone to sea sickness and this smoothed the rough edges. These few days we got to experience the glorious transition from winter to warmer summer air. The moist sun filled air soothed me to the core. I know I'm preaching to the choir here but this winter has simply sucked the life out of NYC, and more specifically me. Between the icy sidewalks, snowy banks and grey skies, topped off by my recent injuries have left me with dirty dishwater disposition and a pallor worthy of any Dickensian novel. I needed this brightening up and am so grateful for the trip.
Our first port o' call was beautiful Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Sadly we had a very short amount to time to explore the city. Brad has been to Puerto Rico many times and knew of a wonderful restaurant famous for it's deep fried Red Snapper. We hopped a cab and in no time were darkening the door of El Jibaritto. The charming atmosphere, ice diet cokes and delectable fish was a real treat. Here's a picture of our friend.
Before:
And After:
Next up was picturesque St. Maarten. I have never travelled to the Carribean before and I was simply enchanted with the beautiful crystal waters and soothing air. The weather was flawless. A perfect 85 degrees with expansive blue skies. We spent the day at the wonderful Divi resort were we met a new friend.
This is Gizmo:
It is his restaurant and here we munched on fresh grilled shrimp. The gorgeous water simply beckoned us and I tried to bust out my best tropical fashion:
It was an extraordinary day and I could begin to feel the icy winter leave my bones. Bit by bit I was defrosting. I will never forget the color of these waters. My Father calls it "Disneyland Water". He's right and I am pretty convinced that little island gnomes creep into the night and dye the water this azure potion.
The next day we hit St. Thomas. One spectacular view after another. We opted to cab it to Magen's bay, one of the top rated beaches in the world. We hoped on a beach shuttle and were treated to a little tour of the island. I always love to step off of the beaten path and I did enjoy seeing a little bit of the local scene. I'd love to go back to St. Thomas. The people, the air, the water and the fresh seafood are on the top of my list. One surprise was that my cell phone worked here! It is a US territory and frankly my reception was better here than in NYC! I was able to facetime with Dad for a bit and he got to see this astounding beach. It was as if he was with me for a bit. I cannot wait to take him here someday. What a marvel technology can be!
Our next day was spent exploring a new port for Norwegian cruise line. Samana, Dominican Republic is one of the most undeveloped sections of the Island. Brad and I being the adventurers that we were chose to forge our own way and hit the pier running. They have no formal pier so we were shuttled by boat to a small docking station. This process is called tendering. We caught an early tender and found ourselves bombarded by the local shop keepers and taxi drivers. We did a little shopping and Brad really got into negotiating for items. It was fun. We found a "taxi" to take us to one of the local beaches. I use this term lightly. It was basically a metal cart attached to a moped! They took us to Annabel beach where we enjoyed another delicious snapper, cold presidente beer and warm beautiful water for a delicious swim.
We tendered back to the island around 3:00 pm for a 4 pm sail time. While on the tender I noticed a beautiful older woman with absolutely stunning hands and fingernails. Her fingers were dotted with tasteful diamonds and a lovely coral bracelet. I noticed her right away. She was wearing crisp white slacks and a colorful cotton blouse. In other words, she was my Mom, if Mom had lived to see her 80's. I was truly gobsmacked by my reaction to seeing this elegant woman. She was with her sprightly husband and was enjoying every minute of our short tender journey. I mused on the immense injustice of my Mother's early passing. She and Dad should have been with Brad and I . Laughing, haggling and exploring uncharted territory. I cry foul, universe, FOUL! Luckily, sunburned cheeks and sunglasses hid my misty moment. I was shocked at my reaction. I just couldn't take my eyes off this stunning woman. She was a vision and a little embodiment of Mother and her love to travel and tasteful Caribbean haberdashery. I never saw her again on this trip and I like to think she was placed in my eye line to let me physically enjoy the presence of Mom.
The following days at sea were filled with Bingo, slot tourneys, craps table adventures, deck lounging, steak consuming and book devouring. All in all the week was just what the doctor ordered. One of my favorite things was returning to our cabin from an evening of reggae and colada's to a towel animal placed in our cabin by our steward. Here are a couple of my most favorite:
We returned this morning to this love letter from NYC:
This is the very deck where I was luxuriating a mere 24 hours before. It was a charming surprise actually because at my core I feel this:
Which has a lot to do with this:
Thank you, my sweet, for helping this ice princess to melt.
