Social work (LISW), writer, blogger, quirky primate
This was my favorite (and our last of the trip) towel animal… a monkey!! It was hanging from our ceiling when we came back from the last elegant dinner. I choose to believe the amazing staff knew that I absolutely adore primates and wanted to make our last towel animal the best one ever.
And this concludes my cruise reminiscence. Back to real life.
I miss having this view while reading. Why do people have to come back from cruises?
I am really enjoying reading outside though, ever since receiving the Kindle Paperwhite for my birthday and then really getting a feel for outdoor reading on the vacation. I’d never realized how much distraction there is when reading on my iPad… the constant alerts really pull you away from reading and with the Kindle I can just really sink in to a book. Really loving that.
You can see what I’ve read recently, including on the trip, over at Goodreads. :)
So, for a while now I’ve know that I’m allergic to brandy. I discovered this several years ago when taking supplement drops that were preserved in brandy, which caused me to break out in massive hives after a week of just a few drops per day.
As a pretty casual, infrequent drinker, I rarely drink more than one day in a row, and I didn’t go hog wild on the cruise, but I did definitely have an occasional drink and I had at least one each day of the last half of the cruise. No brandy, but mostly mixed drinks with liquor in them.
Week after cruise has been an adventure in the recurrence of THE HIVES. I am one itchy mess. Lesson learned after some poking around online. The likelihood is that I’m slightly allergic / alcohol sensitive to all liquors and I need to avoid more than one hard liquor beverage every once in a great while. Sticking to wine or beer henceforth, but the martini tasting and the cocktails at dinner (even the MASSIVELY hot bloody mary at the last elegant dinner!) were a lot of fun and worth the rash… this time. ;)
So, we’re back from our cruise and it was such a long trip and such a great, relaxing time that I really don’t feel like recapping it. It was warm, sunny every day except the very last day (a few hours of rain), having my bestie along (and her hubby) was fun, the beaches were gorgeous, the swimming and snorkeling were amazing, the food was great (but not so great that I went into a binge fest), the dining staff were so much fun, the shows we saw on the ship were pretty cool, and being in the Caribbean was just all around amazing.
It was a great way to kick off the baby-making phase of our marriage, a great way to celebrate our five-year wedding anniversary, and it absolutely SUCKS to be back. Here are some of my favorite shots:
(Anniversary Dinner Night above, my anniversary present - Skagen watch - below)
(St. Thomas - with hubby above, with bestie below)
(On our way to power snorkeling excursion at the last port - Grand Turk)
There are a lot more photos if you’re friends with me on Flickr or Facebook (like, 300+ more lol). I’m not posting them all, but believe me when I say it was gorgeous and it was relaxing and it was SO MUCH FUN.
Wondered why my purse was so heavy. Had a “little bit” of change down there.
Saw some crazy stuff in Bahamas today…
Dear Virgilio Villoresi,
This video is beautiful and moving… It’s the highest compliment to know my song inspired something as deep as this.
Thank you.
Dear everyone else,
Watch this....
I bought this cardigan like four years ago for a penny (not even kidding). I hadn’t worn it until today. Uh, score.
Notes