Cruisin' Part II

Sorry for the long delay...I pretend like you are all just waiting by the computer to hear how our cruise went. I'll pretend...The wait is over! Once we got on the ship we left Florida bound for Princess Cay, a private island in which the cruise line owns. It took a full night to get there and we awoke to crystal blue/aqua water and the whitest sand beach you have ever seen. It was probably the prettiest thing I have ever seen. I have been to Cancun and the Caribbean before but nothing was as crystal clean and beautiful as this beach. They had a water taxi waiting for us to take us ashore. I insisted that Nate and I be one of the first ones of the ship because I didn't want to miss anything. I guess Tim wore off on me a little. Nate and I found our spot and for the next 7 hours baked in the sun...well I baked, Nate really just kind of burnt with an occasional white spot on his body where I actually applied sunscreen. Sorry babe. My bad! They had a luau set up for lunch, which we were excited about because it meant that it was FREE. We loved that aspect of the cruise. Even though it really wasn't free, we made ourselves believe it was exactly that! You gotta do what you gotta do. One thing I learned about myself on this trip is that I am much more of a penny pincher when the dough is coming out of my pocket. I have only been on vacations with my parents before this and I was always suggested the nicest restaurants here and there and begging that I "needed" this trinket from this shop and that shop. Ask me what I brought home from my travels this time...a fifty cent bracelet and a bag for my sister-in-law. Dang it! Oh well, it is good for me, right? After Princess Cay we had a day at see and were off to Puerto Rico and El Morro. El Morro was a fortress that was built in the 1500's to protect the "gateway to the Caribbean (Puerto Rico)". See I listened! I have been known to be somewhat of a party pooper when it comes to landmarks, ruins, etc. El Morro was definitely the highlight of Puerto Rico. Not much else to see. Then as we slept we cruised to St. Thomas! Can you say beautiful? It was so much fun. We went to Megan's Bay which was voted one of the top ten beaches by National Geographic. It was pretty amazing. There was shopping, shopping, shopping, and beaching. They say St. Thomas is the place for bargaining, but we didn't find such luck. There was every fake designer bag imaginable and unfortunately they were sticklers to their price. $80...too rich for my blood. Then we were off to Nassau where Oprah's favorite hotel is. The Atlantis! It would have been amazing if you could get in, but everything cost a price...too rich for our blood. That was a common theme. It was a site to see though. They say that hotel owns 75% of the island and cost billions. Our source was a rasta man on our water taxi so take it for what's it worth. We were so sad to have our trip come to an end, but as my mom would say....back to reality. I can't believe I forgot to tell you the most dramatic part of the trip! When we first go aboard, we met up with Nate and Keshia and then went to check out their room. Not knowing what to expect, we walked in and saw a huge king size bed and a beautiful view of the blue water. After seeing that, I couldn't wait to get to ours. Da da duh....We walked in and what do we see...two twins. Does honeymoon ring a bell? Nate immeidately called the front desk to inform them of our "situation" and they had little sympathy. They said that all the beds were twins and they just pushed them together...ok? But as we returned from dinner that night our beds were in deed pushed together with a kig sheet set on top. It did the job and it worked for us! The end. I'll be posting pictures asap. Love ya all!

World Travels

As the semester quickly came to an end, Nate and I were off to Vegas for the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl against UCLA. The weeks events kept the boys busy with practice and appearances and the girls busy shopping with no money since we were all newlyweds! Then we went back to St. George to spend Christmas with Nate's family. One camera and wedding band later, I would say Christmas wasn't too shabby. In other words Nate came through big time!! He is the greatest! It was nice to finally relax and have leisure time with the fam. Then it was back up to Salt Lake to take off for our honeymoon cruise. We left Saturday morning bright and early and arrived into Miami that evening. Our hotel plans were arranged the night before (or so we thought) so all we had to do was make the shuttle by 6:30 pm. As we ran to Concourse H, we made it, but then sat for the next ten minutes watching every hotel shuttle pass but the good ol' Howard Johnson. Nate went to the phone to call our hotel, but then realized he didn't have the number! Just a minor detail. So he searched through the call log and noticed another hotel number in Miami. He called and asked the guy for the number to Howard Johnson, but after the receptionist put Nate on hold for five minutes, she came back and said, "Sorry sir, but we do not have a Howard Johnson staying at this hotel." He was a little weak with the English to say the least. After that comment, Nate didn't even want to go there so he hung up...one down, several to go! As I sat on the luggage waiting for Nate to come through, I couldn't help but think how I had never gone on a trip without my father and how this would have never happened if I was with him!! I don't know if any of you have ever been on a trip with Tim Halverson, but there is definitely no curbside waiting and you better believe there is no question as to which hotel we are staying at, the number of that hotel, and the name of the person we booked through! After a few more phone calls, we finally got on the shuttle and arrived at the blessed Howard Johnson. I couldn't wait to get to the room, but let's just say after entering the ghetto I would have rather stayed on the luggage curbside. We got through the night touching as little as possible (simply out of fear that we may catch something due to the hotel accommodations) and were then off back to the hotel to catch the transfer to the ship. Little did we know that we needed tickets to board the bus transfer, but after a little persuasion the people let us on. Thank you bus driver. We made it to port 26 and shortly boarded the Westerdam of Holland America along with 2200 other cruisers. It was the biggest thing I had ever seen and quite the process...