The Bahamas

In  September of 2007, Dave and I took our first cruise. We went with my dad and grandpa on the Carnival Valor. I was 6 months pregnant and let me tell you there is no place like a cruise ship for a pregnant woman. The food was spectacular and best of all it was never ending.

 

Growing up in California I had been to Tijuana many times but other than that quick jaunt over the border I had never been out of the country. So for me this trip was a big deal. Our cruise was scheduled to go to Honduras, Cozumel, Belize and Grand Cayman but, Hurricane Dean took our exact cruise route that very same week and our ship was rerouted to go to the Bahamas, Grand Turk and Jamaica. Most of the other passengers on the ship seemed to be pretty upset at the cruise company but, our little group of four was more than happy to avoid any and all hurricanes. We decided that it was a good thing that these were our stops because we would not have chosen  to visit these places on our own and we loved all three countries.

I have always loved to vacation (who doesn't) but, I think that this trip was what taught me how interesting traveling can be. Not only is it relaxing but, it is educational, and I love learning. Dave and I were eating breakfast in the dining room when our ship pulled up to Nassau, Bahamas. The view out the window was spectacular. The houses on the coast were amazing, they were jagged little shapes of extraordinary colors lining the hillside. Of all of the places that I have been, pulling up to Nassau was definitely the most exciting. It really did look like a fairy tale. (From the ship that is)

We all got off of the ship together, Perry "a tour guide" found us and offered us a good deal for a tour of the island. He was licensed by his government and we decided that take him up on it. Our first stop was an outside market where there was amazing handmade jewelry, I only bought a couple of pieces, assuming that there would be lots of jewelry to buy at our different stops. (I was wrong.) If we ever go back to Nassau I will be buying all the jewelry I can afford.

Next we visited the Fort Fincastle which was the fort that the British built to protect the island while the Bahamas were under British rule. It was a little fort that only had a few cannons an armory with a couple of cells.  (Picture above)

Driving on the left side of the road was a scary thing for me. We were in a big blue van that seem to swing way out into the other lane with each turn. I had never experienced this before and those left hand turns at red lights were quite an adrenaline rush. We drove past the old prison (picture above) and through the city into the suburbs to see the houses that the middle class people there live in. There was quite a bit of graffiti but, Perry insisted that the gangs problem there was minimal. LOL. Funny, Perry didn't realize who he had in the van with him and that he could not fool Dave.

Perry took us over a long  bridge and into the city of Atlantis where America's celebrities like to vacation. In Atlantis there was a huge (and I mean huge) casino where the slot machines would take anything from pennies to thousand dollar tokens. I wish now that we had stopped and thrown the dice at the craps table or put a few coins in the slot machines. The chandeliers there were spectacular, some of them cost over a million dollars. There was a salt water aquarium in the casino, we saw a lot of big big fish, stingrays, sharks and other creatures of the sea. The people of Nassau are very proud of the sea animals that they have, their favorite are called conch. A Conch is a medium to large size snail, their shells have a lot of pink to them and they generally have a spire. Conch is believed to be the cure for just about everything including sexual dis-function. The Conch is used as a remedy to illness and also as a main course on the dinner table. Perry said that he eats it cooked and raw. (Yucky!)

After all of the exploring on the island I was exhausted. Being so pregnant I could not stay awake for another minute. I really wanted to spend every last minute that I had available on the island but I just couldn't, I had to go back to the ship and take a nap. Dave of course wanted to utilize every last second so he wandered the shops until he had to get back on the ship or be left behind.

California With Friends

 When Dave and I met, I already had two kids, so dating involved a lot of trips to Chucky Cheese Playland and we didn't have much of a honeymoon. So, in February of 2007 we used our tax return and took our first Adults Only trip. We invited our friends Josh and Karly to come with us. This was the trip that made Dave and I realize that we REALLY needed and enjoyed alone time. We have taken at least one Adults Only trip every year since. It is amazing how little stress there is in life when your on a vacation with the love of your life, and without children.    

    

Dave @ Fort MacArthur

Tonja @ March Air Force Base

   

With our friends connections we were able to stay at Air Force Bases in Southern California. We stayed at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro California for a few nights and then at March Air Force Base in Riverside California for the rest of the trip. I was really, really excited to stay at March A.F.B, because that is where my grandparents met. Also, Riverside California is where I grew up and I was very close to home. 

               

Dave had not ever been to Disneyland so, we DEFINITELY had to take him there and show him a good time (even though he is not a big fan of roller-coasters). We spent two full days at Disneyland, one in the original park and one in California Disney. It was a bit chilly and it rained at night but the lines were not too long and we had a great time. Space Mountain is still my favorite ride but, the big roller coaster in California Disney was a lot of fun, Dave liked Indiana Jones and the Rodger Rabbit rides.  I think he had enough fun there that he would even go back to take the kids.

 We spent an afternoon in Hollywood, wandering around the Chinese Theater, shopping for souvenirs and finding the names of our favorite stars immortalized on the sidewalks. We finished our day at the Universal Studios Stores.

 One of our best days was spent at the Santa Monica beach. We rented tandem bikes and rode up the beach to have lunch at Bubba Gumps on the pier. This was another first for Dave. Being an inland mountain kid, he had never been on a big pier. He spent a couple of hours just watching the waves and taking in the entertainment from the buskers. I was pretty sad that it was too cold to swim although I did love just being near the ocean, breathing in the air and tasting the salt.

    

For Karly's birthday we had dinner at Medieval Times. Our knight didn't win but, he was a hottie and we had a lot of fun!

 I have to say that one of the things that I most looked forward to was going to Vince's Spaghetti House and having a Full Size plate of spaghetti, garlic bread and a root-beer. Vince's is a restaurant that my grandparents have been going to for over 50 years. When we lived in California the whole family would pile in my grandpa's truck. Dad would drive, mom would ride in the passenger seat, Pop, Gram and 5 of us kids would ride in the bed of the truck and play "my bug" (which is slug bug without the slugging). We would drive the hour to Vince's and stuff ourselves. Grandma would always bring pennies and give them to us kids to put into the M&M machine. We would fill little brown paper bags with the colorful candy and eat them the whole way home. 

I knew that my family back home would be jealous so Dave and I bought $100 worth of Vince's spaghetti sauce, put it in our cooler and took it to all the Vince's lovers in Utah.



 Bond Street House



Shaker Drive House



 



 





One morning at the end of our trip Dave and I got up early to drive by the houses that I grew up in. I showed him the school I went to and some of the places that I loved to hang out. (Like the Canyon Crest Golf Course).  We drove by the Bond St. house which is where I lived until 1st grade. The house on Shaker Dr. is by far my favorite place of all the houses I've lived in. I was there longer than I have ever lived anywhere. We also stopped to take pictures of the house on Timberlane, where my grandparents lived until they moved to Utah to be with us.



Timberlane House