Vegas!!!

We planned this out so well. Or so we thought. Bob found a flight on US Air leaving at 5:30 Tuesday evening, arriving in Vegas at 9:30 - going through Charlotte. Not bad, right? I ran my last minute errands and did all the laundry Monday. This morning I watered my garden and plants, went to the gym, then by Cullipher's for my CSA box. Was home in time to shower, have lunch and actually have some down time. I even had time to go get my sunglasses adjusted. Piece of cake. 

I left at 2:45 to pick up Bob at 3:30 - plenty of time to get to the airport in time for our 5:30 flight. Uh huh. On the way to the airport Bob got a phone call saying the flight had been delayed until 6:40. Ugh. Well that presents a problem catching our 8:00 flight out to Vegas. So we ended up getting re routed through Philadelphia. It was 4:10 and the flight boards at 4:25. Nice. The connecting flight left Philadelphia at 8:30. Still gave us plenty of time to grab some dinner, right? 

We boarded the plane. And sat on the Tarmac. And sat. And sat. There were strong storms going through Philly so we couldn't take off. We ended up coming back to the gate about 5:35. Around 6:15 we were given the okay to board and try it again. It was around 6:45 by the time we took off. We still have hope we'll make our connection at this point. 

We landed in Philly about 7:25. Taxi to the gate. 40-50' from our gate we stop only to be informed that the "ramp" (Tarmac) has been shut down. Apparently there was lightening. If there is lightening within 5 miles of the airport, the ramp is shut down for 15 min for safety reasons. If there is another strike the 15 minutes starts over. Not looking good for our connection. The captain comes on at some point and says it's going to be at least 30 minutes before they reopen the ramp. Sigh. Really? It was 8:15 by the time we made it to the gate and could get off the plane. 

Our current gate was at the "F" terminal. Our connection was at the "C" terminal. This required a shuttle ride. Running through the airport, knowing we had missed this flight, we finally got to our gate only to see long lines of passengers waiting to board. I asked someone in line what flight this was and was shocked when she said it was for Vegas. We made it!! Hope our bags did too!!

So we board, and we're in the back of the bus. No really. The very last row, which doesn't recline or anything. For a 5 hour flight. Oh well. Better to be in the last row than not on the plane. It's all that was left on the plane for us to sit together. So we make our way to the back and settle in. They closed the cabin doors somewhere around 9:10. And we sat and waited some more. It was 9:50 by the time we actually took off. Keep in mind that neither one of us had eaten since noon and we both had relatively light lunches. Needless to say, we were starving. Guess it's one way to get on west coast time. 

We got a cheese tray and a couple of southwest salads - at 10:30. Oh and a couple of 1/2 bottles of Meiomi. So Bob is now jamming out to his jazz and in la la land. It's nearly 12:30am our time. I think we're sleeping late in the morning. This was the temp at 12:30am in Vegas. How crazy is that?

Wednesday

We did sleep late but with the 3 hours difference we ended up on west coast time pretty quickly. Mr. Lucky's was a restaurant in the hotel that got good reviews so we went there for breakfast. Bob got a quesadilla and I ordered an omelet. We could've split either one and been fine. But since we didn't, we stuffed our faces to the gills and waddled back to our room ... to put our bathing suits on - oh fun!

The only pool that was open before 11am was the Nirvana pool. It was made to look like a beach on one side. They brought sand in and had chairs set in the sand which extended into the pool. It really did look like a beach. So we picked out chairs and settled in for however long we could stand the 100+ plus degree sun. Needless to say it didn't take long for us to feel parched so we had to order a drink. 

I wasn't feeling the beer so ordered a Mojito. It hit the spot. Shortly thereafter we waded in the water. Wow. It was like bath water. Seriously. No shock factor here. So we hung out in the water in the shade under an umbrella for a while and just soaked in the moment. 

Eventually we moved to chairs in the shade and ordered a light lunch - a fruit plate and a protein power plate. Both were pretty good. The fruit plate had grapes, cantaloupe, honey dew, a couple of strawberries and pineapple with a honey yogurt dressing. The protein power plate had a boiled egg, grilled chicken strips, cheese, carrots and celery. Of course we ordered another round of drinks as well.  And water? Yes, we're in the desert so water is at a prime. $4.75 for a liter of smart water. Dumb people paying that much money for water - shake my head. But since we couldn't take any outside food or drink into the pool area there wasn't any other choice. 

By the time we were taking our last dip in the pool, the water was no longer like bath water. It was now like a hot tub.  Seriously, it was hot. It was only 4.5' at the deepest part and most of the water was only 3.5' deep. Combine that with the sun baking down at triple digits, well it just stayed hot. 

Around 3:00 we closed out our tab and were hit with my little 12 oz Mojitos being $15. I had two. The large 32 oz souvenir cup was $28. And those cups were in lots of people's hands. Crazy. Just crazy! A nap sounded good so we went back to the room and rented up from our busy day. We still weren't really hungry for dinner so we ended up a Mr. Lucky's again and split a flat bread pizza. Catching a cab to the Mirage for Jeff Dunham was a piece of cake and it didn't take long to get there. I was really excited about seeing him again. And was excited for Bob to see him. He's never really been a fan, but he's never really sat and watched him either. I knew he'd enjoy it more than he thought he would. I was right. Of course.

It was a great show!! Jeff started out with some background history which was thoroughly entertaining. Then Walter came out of the box. Ya gotta love Walter. And yes, Bob was laughing too. He's just so grumpy!! Walter, not Bob. 

Bubba J was the next, then Peanut, Jose and Little Jeff. Achmed closed the show as only Achmed can. Jeff shot baby Peanut dolls out of his big gun and I GOT ONE!!!! How cool!! Bob walked away with a new respect for Jeff and really enjoyed the show. My face hurt. He truly is an artist. We'd both go back to see him anytime. Of course we had to visit the merchandise store. I picked up a really cool shirt with all the gang on it. Thanks, honey!

Back at Hard Rock we looked for some ice cream. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to find ice cream at this place. Bob thought he had seen gelato somewhere. We couldn't find it. We asked a couple of people. All they could come up with was the little cafe had pints of Ben and Jerry's we could buy. Not what we had in mind. So we found ourselves at Mr. Lucky's once again! We ordered simple bowls of ice cream and it hit the spot. Afterward we played our free $5 worth of slots (voucher when we checked in). Won $5 and lost it again. We were done. Went back up to our room. 

Thursday

More pool time today after breakfast at Mr. Lucky's again - we split an omelet and it was plenty. We chose chairs in the shade right off the bat this morning. It didn't take long before we were looking at the menu to see what else I could get besides the crazy, ridiculously priced Mojitos. Guess what we discovered? We could get draft beer for $5! Well hell! That's a no brainer. And they even had Shock Top which I like! 

It went down so easy - no shock there! More floating and drinking, and a replay of lunch from yesterday. We were starting to get into the chill groove today. That really surprised me that we could hang out poolside that long in that kind of heat. But honestly, it really wasn't that bad! Even though the water was warm/hot, I guess being wet made a difference. And even though the temps were 100+, it was doable in the shade. Sounds crazy but there ya go. 

A buffet dinner was included with our tickets for the Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil. So we had to get out of there a little earlier than last night. Plus we had to pick up the tickets at Will Call. Wouldn't you think they'd have a different line for Will Call other than the normal line for purchasing tickets? Nope. So that took a little while. The place was packed! It made us appreciate being at the Hard Rock, which is kind of on the outside of the strip and much quieter. Tickets in hand, we headed to the Cravings Buffet. Another line. Again, wouldn't you think they'd have a separate line for those who already had tickets? Again, nope they did not. Thank goodness we got there when we did. This was a great buffet. There was something for everyone. Beer and wine was included as well - like we really needed that after our lazy day at the pool, but hey! It was free, right?

Time for the show. Our seats were perfect. But really, any seat in the venue was perfect. The stage was in the center so there isn't a bad seat in the place. Bob had seen the show back in January and had been wanting to take me to it since he walked out. It. Was. Amazing. I've never seen anything like it before. I had expected acrobats. But this was far more than that. It was like a Broadway show telling the Beatles' life story with their music. There were so many things going on at once it was impossible to know what to watch! You could see this show five times and still miss action. The short 90 minutes flew by.

Then we got to stand in line to catch a taxi back to Hard Rock. That actually didn't take too long even though the line seemed like it would. What took so long was sitting in traffic trying to get out of the area. As soon as you get in the cab the meter starts at $3.45. It was over $12 before we even started to move. The traffic was horrible. And the people! Holy cow! I thought July was the middle of summer, dead time in Vegas. Not so much. The triple digit heat didn't stop the people! They were like ants at a picnic. No lie! It was fascinating, but Vegas is a people watching place anyway. And as one traveler pointed out, night is when the freaks come out. LOLOL Truth. 

Back in our room it was lights out. I mean, we'd had a long, hard day, right? We had to regroup for our last long, hard day by the pool. But wait, before I go any further I have to talk about the framed photographs in our room. It's a series of four images all framed together but the only common denominator we can assume is that they're all musicians that have stayed at the hotel. Still, I just couldn't understand why anyone would take these images, much less think they were worthy of framing in a public place!! What? See for yourself. 

Friday

Breakfast at Mr. Lucky's again. Bob had oatmeal and I got the yogurt parfait. Both were good and lasted us longer than we thought it would. Our chairs in the shade were empty so we planted. Keeping well hydrated (before we ordered our first adult beverage of the day) we killed a $5 bottle of water. I wasn't feeling the beer today so actually caved and ordered one of the 32 oz Mojitos. It was good, but I'm not sure it was that good. Anyway. When in Rome, right?

I will have to say I thought three days was plenty to chill by the pool. I told Bob yesterday that three days was perfect, that I couldn't do more than that. Half-way though the day I knew I had been wrong. We were so much more relaxed today. Surprisingly, the day flew by. Part of me was excited about that because we were going to see Kenny at the end of the day, but the other part of me was a bit sad because it was coming to a close. It reaffirmed what we've said in the past about vacations. It takes a good three days to get in the mode and start letting things go to truly relax. 

But there was something we had to do before leaving. We had to go check out the other pools. In order to do that we had to get wristbands. Those pools don't open until 11:00 so that's why we hadn't gone there before. Getting wristbands ended up being a total PITA (pain in the ass). But we did it. And finally made it to the big party pool. Oh my. It was huge. And loud. And they weren't playing country. Or rock. Or pop. Or anything worth listening to. And the people. OMG. Definitely the party pool. It was like a flippin' frat party. Reminded us of Pittsburgh all over again. Needless to say, we didn't stay too long. It's just not our scene. 

We found ourselves at Culinary Dropout for dinner. The hummus was recommended and it was really good. Since I make my own hummus, I'm pretty hard on finding it elsewhere. This was good. We both got salads that were also very good. Should we find ourselves back at the Hard Rock in the future, we'll definitely eat here again. 

Finally, it was time to make our way to The Joint for Kenny!!! For a Kenny show, it's a small place. We were kind of in the back of the bus as Bob likes to say and we still had good seats (although Bob says we'll get sandbar next time - hehehe). I've journaled about Kenny so many times. He's always awesome and tonight was no exception. The boy was on point and seemed to be having a ball. He rolled! There was more jamming this show than we've seen in the past and Kenny was more into the fans tonight than we've seen in a while. I guess the smaller venue allowed more of that, although he has a sandbar wherever he goes. The surprise tonight was Uncle Kracker showing up! They did "When The Sun Goes Down" together and a couple of Kracker's songs. Of course it was over way too fast. We were hoping for a longer show but sadly 1 hour 40 minutes was it. I was hoping he'd have some shirts with Vegas on them but there weren't, so we left without buying anything. 

It was time to pack our stuff up and crawl into bed. We had to catch the 7:10am shuttle to the airport. 

Saturday

Crossing our fingers the trip home is much less eventful than the trip out. I'm grateful to say it was. There were no hiccups whatsoever. We were home around 8:30. It's so excited to go on vacation, but it also so nice to come home. 

The Big Revival!!!

On the road again!!! Heading to Pittsburgh, Heinz stadium, to see Kenny!!! The drive was pretty uneventful so that was good. Both of us drove because when we leave the hotel in the morning we go in different directions to go home. We made good time and were at the hotel a little after noon.

By 12:45 we were checked in, the car rearranged and we were on our way! We were all pretty excited about being able to tailgate because we almost didn't get a parking pass - that's another story. Tailgating is such a big part of going to Kenny! The sky was pretty overcast but there was only a small chance of scattered thunder showers so we weren't concerned.

We hit major traffic about 5 miles outside of the city. From there it took us another hour to actually park. The closer we got to the stadium the darker the sky got. We were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate overlooking the packed parking lot with all the tailgating going on. Oh. My. God. It wasn't just that the cars are crammed into the lot with no room to tailgate (Bob had warned us about that), it was really the amount of people that blew us away. Sardines much? As we're staring in disbelief, the sky opened up and poured a deluge upon them. It didn't phase them. 

Thankfully, by the time we made our way around to where we would eventually park (on a corner - thank you God) it had stopped. Of course it started raining again before we could even unpack anything. So we did the unthinkable …. We broke out the chips and guacamole and ate in Bob's car!! Oh noooo!! We were starving. It was about 3:00 by then and we had a shake for breakfast. So we killed the guac and waited it out. It didn't take long.

Other than the food, the best part of tailgating this time was people watching. We saw things you just don't see anywhere else. At least we haven't. Some highlights were the redneck shirtless guys strutting their stuff, usually with shorts and work boots on. That was the “in” thing here, work boots. And Americana stuff. There were flag shirts all over the place, flag hats, flag everything. The most memorable get up I saw were two different guys wearing wife beaters (sleeves torn out of their shirt) or t-shirts, shorts and cowboy boots. I kid you not. Oh and the other one was a guy walking past us with jeans tucked inside of his cowboy boots, like all the girls wear during the winter. Fro. It was an experience I'll tell you. Little did we know it was just beginning …

It showered some more and the whole tailgating thing wasn't the norm, so between that and the rain, we ended up going in a little earlier than we thought we would. Good thing too. (We really had someone looking out for us.) What we had to wade through just to get to the stadium was disgusting. We had been reading about how nasty these people are when tailgating - leaving tons of trash in the parking lots. The problem here is that there are three colleges within 30 minutes of the stadium. So these college kids use the event as a party opportunity. There were people all over the place walking around with coolers, going to meet someone who had a parking pass. The amount of people tailgating verses the number of cars was staggering. And they were all college kids. Bob and I felt out of place standing in line for the porta potties. So walking through all these “frat parties” just to get to the stadium was enlightening.

We all made it through security …. except Matt. He forgot about the pocket knife in his pocket. Oh and apparently you weren't allowed to bring a pen in either. It's a weapon. Didn't you know that? Seriously, he had to walk all the way back to the car to take it back. While we waiting for him we did some more people watching as they came through security. LOL. So entertaining.

As soon as we made it through the gate we bought shirts, really cool shirts, some bottle koozies and Bob got a hat. Poor Cari hadn't peed since we left the hotel so she really had to go. All the lines were really long so we kept walking, making our way toward our section. Finally we saw a line that was shorter than the rest so we bolted. Little did we know …

That was the slowest moving line EVER!! We couldn't understand what in the world was taking so long. But figured we had stood there so long we may as well wait it out. By the time we discovered exactly what was going on we had so much time invested we figured we may as well stay. It was a men's room they had converted to women's for the event. Riiiiiight. There were a couple of ladies on the floor by the urinal trough - one was obviously sick/drunk, the other comforting her. We waited … And waited … And waited …

As we got closer I saw the problem. There were only three stalls. And there was a line forming on the exit side. There ya go. Problem solved. At this point we're still in for a long wait but it really was too late to go start over at another restroom. So we continued to wait. And wait. And wait some more. It was hot in there. No air moving at all. In a bathroom. Full of women. And loud. Oh dear Lord it was loud. It took us a little while to figure out why. Well, other than the obvious reason of all the whooping and hollering. It was the reason for all the whooping and hollering that makes this even more interesting.

I've told you about the urinal trough we saw upon immediately entering the men's room that was “converted” into a women's room (uh huh, by changing the sign outside of it). Well there were two urinal troughs on either side of the room with three stalls in between them, sinks opposite the stalls. These college kid chicks were not only dropping their pants and peeing in the trough in full view of the rest of the world … as if that wasn't enough. But nooooo, they were taking selfies at the same time!!! Fro. No shit. You really can't make this up. AND others still standing in line were taking photos of them peeing and taking selfies. That's what all the whooping and hollering was about. Thankfully, Cari and I were blessed to be in line on the opposite side and had a half wall between us and them. So we were just subjected to the audio, not the visuals.

About that time the handicap stall became available and the three girls at the front of our side of the line all went in together. LOLOL. I guess they figured they'd all get to go quicker that way. THEN, this other chick comes up and starts puking in one of the trash cans in the middle of the room. Can you imagine the looks Cari and I are giving each other. We can't get out of there fast enough.

By the time we made it out of there alive, I think we had been in there at least 45 minutes. They guys thought we had been kidnapped. Oh and there was this poster on the wall about Steelers players and fans. Hang on, let me see if I can finding online…..

Yup. Found it. Taken directly from their website:

P.R.I.D.E.: PRIDE in Yourself, PRIDE in the Game. P.R.I.D.E. stands for 

Positive Heinz Field Experience

Respect Each Other

Integrity

Dignified Behavior

Excellence On and Off the Field

There are no words - even though I seem to have a plethora of them.

By the time we made it to our seats, Brantley Gilbert was at the end of his set. I used to like him but his music lately is just not my style. He leans much closer to the Rock and Roll side than the country side in my opinion. Eric Church was up next and he came on around 7:30. The crowd was stoked. Eric is a blue collar guy and these patrons are definitely blue collar. They loved him. Which brings me to the next part. The people.

First of all, the crowd inside the stadium was not the same crowd outside the stadium. Bob and I didn't feel out of place at all, at least age wise. With that said, there were still plenty of sights to be seen. Apparently, shirts are not required at blue collar venues. And believe me, these guys could not be bothered with covering their tats or bellies. There were a few that deserved to strut their stuff, although a beach venue would've been more appropriate in my opinion. The rest of the guts strutting around were not so pleasing to the eye.

Then there was “red dress” chick. I'm thinking she was a concert virgin. She just had no clue what she was walking into. I'm giving her the benefit of doubt. See how nice I am? The shoulders were missing. But there were parts of sleeves above her elbows. The neckline allowed for much lovely cleavage. And the rest of the spandex barely covered her curvy ass. Oh and you know she had the hair and makeup to go with the dress and heels. Yup. Sure did. She let everyone know she was proud of her stuff. All I could do was stare and shake my head.

All the while we're people watching we also have an Eric side show right in front of us. This guy LOVES Eric Church. No, I mean REALLY LOVES Eric Church. He was dancing and singing with so much passion and enthusiasm it was unmistakable. And it was every single song Eric played. He punched the air, stomped his feet, closed his eyes and got into it! He wasn't drinking or trashed. He was just enjoying the moment. He made us smile.

Eric is always good and fans always love him. I like a lot of his music but there's a lot I don't like. I think he played every one I don't like. Oh well.

Finally it's time for Kenny to take the stage. It was a little after 9 and he played non-stop for two hours. One song after another. There isn't anyone who delivers a show with more energy or enthusiasm. He's like an energizer bunny. It was nice to see him with a different crowd and doing different songs. Although any Kenny anytime is awesome. But he really shook it up this year doing different stuff. He did a number of old songs we haven't heard in a while and quite a few new ones as well. My favorite is always “Anyone But Mine” and it seemed to be a fan favorite since the stadium was lit up with phone lights as soon as he started it. It was beautiful. And hearing everyone sing it back to him just gives me chills every time. His voice at the end of that song? Oh my. Like silk. Just love it. 

The rain started up again and at times it was coming down rather hard. Some left, for the rest it didn't phase us. Of course he always finishes at stadiums with “Boys of Fall” and picks someone to give a helmet to. Tonight he also gave away a signed guitar and he brought out Ben Rothlisberger to sign it as well. That was pretty cool. Kenny has a great relationship with the Steelers coach and team. An article was posted on his facebook page about him working out and hanging out with them yesterday. I'm sure that's part of why he loves playing Heinz Field.

And the final song is always “She Thinks MyTractor's Sexy.” A Kenny show is not complete without Tractor. He brought Chase Rice out to sing it with him. Umm, no. No one, and I repeat no one, should ever sing Tractor but Kenny. Period. When he toured with Tim, Tim butchered it big time.

As we were filing out of the stadium we figured it would be smart to potty again before the 45 min drive home and who knew how long it would take to get out of the parking lot. So as we went to walk into a restroom that said "women's", a guy walks out ... ??? Quickly on his heels is another man coming out with woman hot on his heels telling him it's a women's restroom. She showed him the sign - it said women's. Poor guy was so confused, LOL. Cari and I just went to another one. We'd had enough of that stuff. 

Now it's time to walk back through the parking lot to get to our car. We sure hope the trash isn't as bad as it was two years ago. Well, I guess it wasn't but it sure ain't good either. There was crap all over the place. Damn partying college kids with no respect for anything or no one else. Surprisingly, we got out of the parking lot quickly and easily and had very little traffic back to the hotel. Of course it was still 2am before I turned out the light. It was a wonderful weekend spent with the Yewts doing something we do so enjoy. We're all very thankful for these times when we can be together like this. Road trip home tomorrow. 😪 

Canvas Gifts

Since I tackled my first canvas earlier in the year, I had been itching to do more. On a fall crafting weekend away I played with some more with these results:

This one is for my oldest grand daughter for Christmas.

This one ended up going to a wonderful friend who fell in love with it.

When I came home I did this one for my youngest grand daughter for Christmas. Love the final result, but it sure kicked my butt in the meantime. It went through lots of stages before I was happy with it.

The following are for nieces and my nephew:

This one was for my mom:

One for Cari:

The these two for a couple of special ladies who take care of me all year.

The saying on the last three are a bit hard to read but they all say, "Today I Will Choose Joy." Need to make one for my craft room next. :)

Saturday, Day 9 - San Juan to Home

We had booked a rainforest tour in San Juan which included airport drop off. It started at 8:00. We had to be at our departure area at 7:15. That meant we had to be in Blu for breakfast at 6:30 when they opened. Talk about an early morning. It's gonna be a long day. But my boys are in the playoffs and I get to go home and what that game so at least I have something to look forward to tomorrow. Having said our goodbyes to our people in Blu we got our bags and went to area to wait for disembarking.

Carlos was our driver for the morning. He was full of information about the city, the rainforest and its vegetation, politics, etc. The rainforest was a good 30 minutes away so it was a nice little drive. Our first stop was the welcome center and hike through the forest. It was beautiful. The walk itself was pretty short but Carlos guided us through and informed us about the trees, plants and birds that inhabit it. We heard all kinds of birds but they make themselves scarce and hide from people. Not like those fish yesterday!

Next Carlos took us to the waterfall. It wasn't much to be honest. But that's ok. It was still pretty. There is a much bigger one but the tour didn't allow time to go to that one. I think it's a half hour hike in and back out. This was only a 4 hour tour.

From there we went to a tower overlooking part of the forest. That was beautiful. The rainforest in the foreground and the city and coast in the background. Wow.

We were at the airport around 12:30. By the time we changed clothes (started our in short sleeves and shorts - surely couldn't arrive home that way), checked in and went through security it was around 1:30. And we were hungry! My oatmeal was long gone. There was nothing by our gate so we ended up at Margaritaville by security for some drowning our sorrows and grub. That was interesting. Took us a while to get anything but we had plenty of time so it wasn't crucial ... except we were hungry. Gigi and I got nice salads which were surprisingly good. The Land Sharks weren't too bad either. Ricky cracks us up with his wandering. He's always off somewhere investigating something. It gets quite comical. Eventually we all wandered back to our gate to sit and wait some more. 

We are about to land in Atlanta. The pilot just said its 41 degrees. Ugh. The party is officially over. But man it was a good one. :)

And we thought that was bad enough ... this is what we came home to:

Yeah ... nuff said.

Friday, Day 8 - Śt. Thomas

(Broke my golden rule. I'm journaling this Saturday on the plane. When we got back to our cabin after dinner last night I discovered I had, apparently, accidentally packed my glasses in my suitcase. No glasses, no journaling. So I turned in a bit earlier.)

After breakfast at Blu we went down to the port to find a taxi to the beach. We weren't sure if we would end up at Saffire or Coki Beach. The guy we ran into said the snorkeling was the best at Coki so off we set. It was probably a 20-25 min drive. St. Thomas is the most developed island. It's very Americanized in town. Out by the beach was, however, a different story. I wasn't impressed with island when we were there last year but we didn't see that much of it. I'm sure there's still plenty to see but I wasn't impressed this time either. The area the beach is in was a bit rough looking. And just dirty. The beach was ok. The first thing we noticed was all the snorkelers in the water. The water was beautiful and the snorkeling ended up being really good, especially in comparison to the rest of the week. This beach was a pretty small cove and it got a little crowded but not too bad. We'd probably go there again. 

The water was cool but seemed warmer than at the other beaches. Knowing it was our last day We took full advantage of it and was in the water most of the day. After we took our first dip, we broke out the gear. What was so nice about this site was being able to just walk out and snorkel to our hearts' conten, then come back to shore and rest ... Then do it all over again! We had a ball!!

Would you believe they actually sell dog bones to feed the fish with? FRO. Bob dropped a piece of a granola bar in the sand so I took that out to see if they'd eat it. Sure enough. It was friggin' AWESOME!! Video Here's some more of all the fish:

More fish - with divers

More fish - rocks and coral

We packed up about 2:30 since the taxi would be back to pick us up at 3:00. We were so thrilled we got to use our snorkel gear and see some fish. Today was what we were hoping the rest of the week was going to be like. But at least we got one good day. 

Back in our cabin we got ready to go to the sauna one last time. Believe me, we needed to detox. After the herbal steam room I sat out on the heated stone benches for a while. Good grief! I was a limp dishrag coming out of there. I met Gigi on the way out. She had already sucked a mojito down, enjoyed her turkey burger on her balcony and was enjoying an ice cream cone. LOL. Well hells bells guess I'm having a burger too. 8Ball and Jacques was still steaming it up so she sat with me while I ate my burger. About the time I finished Jacques found us and decided he needed a burger too, so we both sat with him while he ate. 8Ball was still nowhere to be found. They headed off to their cabin and I went looking for him. He was really enjoying his sauna buzz. Then I sat with him while heate his burger. LOL. We just couldn't get our act together this afternoon. 

After we both got our showers and were somewhat presentable, we went down to Blu to pick up the bottle of wine we started last night and had planned to finish in there tonight. After our day beaching and snorkeling in the sun we decided we were going to slum it tonight, especially since we had to pack everything up. Talk about a major buzz killer. Anyway, we got our bottle of wine and enjoyed it on our balcony one last time while watching the sunset.  Or so we thought. We didn't really get a sunset tonight. The ship wasn't facing the right direction heading back to San Juan. 

Sadly, we couldn't put off packing any longer so we just got to it. Our bags had to be outside our door by 11pm. We had to put what we needed for Saturday in a duffle bag. 8Ball remembered to keep shoes out this year. :) (Story from last year: Bob realized getting ready for breakfast the morning of departure that he had packed all of his shoes in his luggage. Yup. All of them. He had to go down to breakfast in his socks. We still laugh our asses off about that. Everyone in the restaurant got the biggest kick out of that. I made a sympathetic move and took my shoes off too just so he wouldn't feel so alone. LOL. Unless we had to walk down the gang plank and it was raining. I drew the line there. After we got our luggage in customs he got a pair of shoes on his feet. True story!)

It took a lot of energy to do all that packing so we went up to Mazy's (Ocean Cafe) for a snack. About half way through our meal we were delighted when Mazy found us. He had been down to Blu looking for us. Said he went down there last night looking for us too but he was a little too late, we had already left. He is such a sweetheart. He didn't have much time to spend chatting but wanted to buy us a round of drinks and give us his contact info so we can keep in touch and hopefully reconnect again when we're back next year. That was priceless. He is a gem. 

After reminiscing about another fabulous cruise together (and we still like each other!) and sharing some laughs we went back to our cabins. Which is when I discovered I didn't have my glasses. So early night for me.

Last night to be rocked to sleep. I'm not ready. Ya know, when we took our first cruise to the Caribbean last year we read about back to back cruises. I just couldn't understand why anyone would want to do that. LOL. Yeah. I get it now. Not ready to leave the sunshine, beautiful beaches, warm breezes, being rocked to sleep, being waited on and pampered. But all good things must come to an end I supposed. Already counting down to January 9, 2016.  

Lights out!