What I Did on My Summer Vacation Part III: The Beach

So after a nice relaxing week with my folks, we packed up the cars and drove out to the coast for a nice, relaxing week at the beach! Zack met us there. We didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few highlights.
Ela's average day involved several visits to this lovely pool.

She'd play in it on the deck, or we'd drag it down to the sand and fill it with sea water. That way she could play in the sand and the water at the same time. Ela loved the beach. She couldn't wait for Mommy and Daddy to get ready to go down. So sometimes someone else would help her get down and we'd join her afterwards.

We had a nice set up down in the sand.

Generally, all the play would wear Ela out, so she got lots of good naps.

We had a really good time. Ela and her Daddy swam in the ocean. We took lots of long walks in the sand, and even got a few rounds of Bocci Ball in. It was an excellent week.

What I Did on My Sumer Vacation Part II: The Week in Raleigh

During our week in North Carolina, we mostly just chilled out. Ela spent some time in the pool.

We celebrated my birthday.

We got to see a few friends.

And of course, we got into a little trouble.

Ela and I also made a quick trip to Winston to visit Zack's folks, since Ela hadn't seen them. Mostly though, it was just a relaxing week.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation: Part I - Cruisin'

When we were in Japan, Zack had very few opportunities to use his vacation time. Now, he's got a ton saved up, so we decided to go on a cruise with his family this summer in honor of us coming back to the US and his sister graduating from high school. We dropped Ela and the dog at my parents' house, and hopped a flight to Miami. There, we met up with Zack's family, and we were off for our Eastern Caribean adventure.

Our first stop on the cruise was Half Moon Cay, in the Bahamas. This island is privately owned by Carnival. We took a kayaking tour around the bay opposite of where the ship landed and then chilled at the beach for the day. The water was perfect: clear and just the right temperature. It was a great way to start out the trip with just the combination of relaxing and activity.

Next up was a stop at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. We started that day with a trip to a high peak on the island with a great view.

From there, we caught a taxi to the shopping district and checked out some fabulous jewelry. In the afternoon, the "kids" went on a snorkeling trip, while the "grown ups" took a trip over to St. John. The water was a little murky from rain the previous day, but it was still good to check out some fish and just float around. The boat ride out and back was quite nice, too.

This is where we snorkeled.

After St. Thomas, the ship took us to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I learned that originally, the island was named San Juan (by Columbus) and the town that grew up at the port was called Puerto Rico (Rich Port) and somewhere along the line they got switched, though no one said why or how. There, we took a walking tour of the historical district, which mostly showed us around El Murro, a fort originally built by the Spanish.

Then we walked from El Murro through the historical district past several older buildings. We got rained on, and I mean really rained on, but it actually felt good because it was quite hot.

Factoid: the cobblestones are actually large stones that ships used as weights on their way across from Europe. In the Carribean, they bought spices or sugar or what not and left the stones behind. San Juan had literally tons of the stones, so they used them as pavement.

After the tour, we grabbed lunch at a place recommended by our guide and set off for more shopping. On the way out of the port, we had another great view of El Murro.

Our final stop was Grand Turk. Here, we split up again. The girls took a snorkeling/beach trip, while the boys went for some more intense snorkeling. We all ended up at the same place for part of the time, and it was amazing. There were fish EVERYWHERE. It was really gorgeous. After that, the boys were taken to another good snorkeling spot, while the girls went to a private beach where we floated around and relaxed. When we got back to port, we had a little time to look around at the shops again, picking up any last minute gifts we needed. Unfortunately, this stop didn't lend itself to lots of photography, but here's a nice shot of our home away from home.

The whole trip was a great way to relax, but by the time it was over, I think we were all ready to get back. Zack and I were delighted to hear that Ela was good for her grandparents. We had a quick birthday celebration at their house for me, then Zack hurried back to DC, while Ela and I hung out in NC for a week.