New York at Night

This past weekend we went into the city again but this time it was at night. Manhattan is so beautiful at night time and we had a blast. We started the day off at the temple and then went out to a yummy dinner. We walked all over and ended up in Time Square where we started our journey home...exhausted! The pics are a little hazy because we left our camera at home and used Terrill's iPhone.

Waiting at the Ferry station



We were just walking along central park when all of a sudden someone yelled "Wait! Just 60 more seconds and then you can keep walking". Apparently they were shooting a movie and although you can't see it in the picture above, under the bright lights was Ben Stiller. It was pretty cool to see it all going on!

Caribbean Cruise Part II

Belize

Belize was an interesting place. I guess I pictured it as an exotic tropical location, but it was kind of the opposite. It was very run down and impoverished. Once we got out into the country it was thick jungle and just beautiful. Our tour guide was really awesome and told us some really interesting things about the country. Some highlights include:

• 1 US Dollar = 2 Belize Dollars
• The hospital system is so bad that even people in the country will go to Guatemala or Mexico to get better medical care. He said only the rich people are able to do that
• All students where uniforms
• The only country in the world with Jaguar preserve
• There is a Mosquito there that will plant itself under your skin and feed on your blood for a couple of weeks - the only way to get it out is to stick duck tape on it and suffocate it and then squeeze it out
• Exports included: Coffee & Oranges
• There were only 6 working stop lights in Belize City

You can find a lot of these things online, but it was still fun to learn them in the country!

The excursion we did was inner tubing down a river while going through caves. We saw some really cool formations and went for a really nice 30 minute hike prior too it. The only problem was that I was slowly getting really dehydrated and got an infection throughout the day so I had to go to the doctor and get medicine. Thank goodness the ship had a medical staff otherwise the rest of the cruise would have been miserable!


This was a view of the ship from the Ferry boat we had to take in. Belize has one of the biggest barrier reefs in the world so the boat had to anchor way out from the dock.

Isla Roatan

This place was the most beautiful of them all! We did some light shopping and then parked ourselves on the beach and played in the water. It was very relaxing and actually nice to have an excursion planned.





White feet in the sand



Mangroves...they were so cool lookin!



Later that day we had the wonderful opportunity to relax even more by reading in this comfortable chair on the front of the boat.

Costa Maya

Costa Maya was pretty fun. The only thing we did here was shop and look at tide pools. The tide pools were my favorite because it reminded me of growing up in Santa Cruz and going to Natural Bridges with my dad and exploring all the creatures in the tide pools. I just loved it! We found a cool crab and some sea urchins.










Later that night was the second formal night. Our waiters were crazy and danced for us.

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Day At Sea

All this day consisted of was reading, eating, playing games and doing some more reading. It was awesome. It was really windy and cold but it didn't matter because we were on vacation.

Caribbean Cruise Part I

In the first week of November Terrill and I got to go on a Caribbean Cruise!! We had a blast and it was a nice get away from every day life. We flew into Orlando airport about 2 1/2 hours before the ship was going to leave. (It's a good thing none of our flight were delayed because we would have been cutting it really close!) We spent that night exploring the ship, playing games and eating a yummy dinner. The couple at our table were around the same age and we got to know them well during the cruise!



This is on the bus over to the cruise. We got to see a little bit of Florida and the Kennedy Space Center from our view on the bus.





One thing we love about cruise ships is there is neverending soft serve ice cream...It was a regular part of both mine and Terrill's diet.



Each night they leave a towel folded cool on your bed.

Cruising Day #1 10-31-10

This was our view from breakfast and I loved it. We also had a great view at dinner time as well. It is a cool feeling to look out for miles and miles all around you and only see ocean.



It was Halloween the first day on the cruise so they had this cool display of pumpkins in the lunch area.



The first night was a formal night so we had to get all dressed up fancy.

Cruise Day #1 - Cozumel 11-1-10

For this cruise we decided on doing 2 excursions since they are kind of pricy and we didn't want to spend to much. Our first excursion was going to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. We had to take a ferry boat over to Playa Del Carmen and drove about an hour out to the country where these were located. Below -Terrill is standing in front of the Ferry boat we took over. It was a very rocky ride and I was happy when it was over but they provided entertainment. There was a guy about our age singing popular american songs on his guitar. He was really good so it distracted me from the rough ride!





Our tour guide was of Mayan decent and knew a ton about the culture and ruins we were going to see. Some of the things he said that were interesting to me were:

• The Mayan's still believe there is a hidden magical city called Zarahemla
• They have a carving/mural called "Lehi's Dream" - he somehow knew we were LDS and so when we got to a gift shop he showed us a Lehi's Dream carving and then said "You can learn more about this in the Book of Mormon" I was surprised to hear that!
• The rise of the Mayans happened around 500 - 600 AD. This aligns with the time that Lehi/Nephi sailed to the America's and prospered
• The Mayans were very advanced in education. They had a completely different calendar system.
  
• It just amazes me that their structures still stand today after so many years!
  

It was sooo hot. We were drinking so much water, but I feel like I was sweating it out just as fast! You really can't beat the weather in California.





















The ruins were right on the beach and it was the most beautiful beach I had ever seen before!