antigua

Continuing with our cruise recap...

Wednesday we got to spend in Antigua.

It was also my 33rd birthday! 

I highly recommend going on a cruise during your birthday week.

Everyone kept asking what I wanted to do for my big day....

Guys- I'm on a C.R.U.I.S.E! This is it!

Let's take a minute to discuss Adam's interesting outfit.

I think he looks like one of the village people,

but I'm not sure they wore fanny packs?

And I love that his shorts were shorter than mine. 

Y.I.K.E.S.

We never quite knew what we would do everyday so we wore our 

swimsuits and shorts/coverups every morning. 

I think we swam everyday so it worked out great.

We decided to go zip-lining that day, but first we took a drive around the island.

This is a cool church we saw.

The taxi wasn't an open-air one this time, and we were sort of disappointed, 

but then it rained a little bit and we were glad for the cover.

tropical paradise

We stopped by some little shops at the top of a hill and you could climb 

some stairs up even higher behind them to see this amazing view. 

--photo session in progress-- (I love this pic!)

Rich & Abby

My boys would have been in heaven with the bounteous wildlife!

Brooke & Luke

fruit stand

We bought some red plums (they tasted more like pears) and some tamarind balls.
The lady had me taste a little bit of it before I bought it.

They have tamarind trees all over the Caribbean that grow tamarind--- those peanut looking things in the picture above. They scoop it out to make jam or roll it into balls and roll them in sugar. 

They tasted super tart and yummy- nature's sour patch kids. 

We found ourselves at this boat harbor to take a look- but really, 

it was a national park and the cool stuff was inside the gates that you had to pay to enter.

We did sneak inside for a second with the help of a fellow lady in our taxi to use the restrooms.

This is what was on the outside... needless to say we
stayed for five minutes before hopping back in the taxi. 

Riff Raff

Another pic I took for the boys. This was a dead bug in the gutter... 

that was about 6-8 inches long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I loved the Antiguan flag- sun rising over water.

We bought some pineapple jam at this roadside booth.

Pineapple bushes- can you see them?

Banana trees

The guy with the cool socks.

Beautiful plant- even if it does look dangerous.

One of the schools we drove by.

Our taxi driver said they are really strict and everyone wears uniforms.

It was cute to see all the different kids in their cute colored dresses and all the boys in ties.

Their tallest mountain's name (hill??) is Mount Obama- after the U.S. president.

We thought that was weird and interesting.

The Caribbean waters are so turquoise- it just amazes me!

Next we stopped by this GORGEOUS white sand beach. 

We only had about a half hour here, but it was HOT, so we took advantage!

Rich, Luke, Brooke and Adam 

me- collecting shells

The beach was made up of all these broken shells. 

Even the little sand was just little bits of shell. 

It's funny how different all the beaches were. 

I brought a few of those white coral pieces home- I think they are pretty cool.

 Eating fruit we stashed in our bags from the buffet every morning.
Adam and Rich in the background.

 I wish we had more time to spend on this beautiful beach!

 Next up was zip lining!
We got to slide across the tops of trees in the rainforest- get this- in the rain!
You can't really see it in these pictures, but there was a fine mist coming down.
We got to go on 10 different lines- it was exhilarating!

 Haha- I love my face!
It was funny coming to a stop on these little planks high up on a tree-
I even kicked another slider in front of me once.

 Adam!
You can't tell by these pics how high up we really were.
We would slide from one tree, across the canyon to another.
Then walk on a little path to another tree and go across again.

 You can see the rain in this one...

The sun came back out at the end.

This guy was catching us on one of the planks.

I didn't see his mask until I was face to face with him and I screamed!!!

All the kids working there were super cool.

We all laughed with them.

A horse and his three ducky friends. 

All the horses and cows we saw had visible ribs here, 

which is weird because it looks like they have plenty of vegetation to eat... 

so they were probably healthy still?

country road

A girl in her school uniform.

Adam and Rich's "evening wear"

Next up is karaoke!

We would have done this every night 

(and when I say we, I mean the boys)

but they only had it twice.

Here's Rich singing "Mamas don't let your boys grow up to be cowboys."

Adam singing his hit- "Sailing". 

Luke singing Bon Jovi I think.

My dinner was white fish- I forget what kind- with prosciutto and pasta. 

YUMMY. I need to try making this at home.

Abby got some shots of me doing camera stuff- which I sort of like. 

Because that's what I do. :)

 Next up is DANCING! 

We had so much fun and would dance until late in the night/morning. 

Next up is Dominica!