#StemWallSkiPartyBarge | Personal Post

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step into their celebration

#StemWallSkiPartyBarge | Personal Post

Wow.. It’s been kind of quiet over here for the last few weeks. I’m having a hard time writing this time of year for some reason. Lack of ideas? Or the fact that I’m thoroughly enjoying some time off to unplug from the business (other then emails) and re-charge.

With that said I was on an Eastern Caribbean cruise last week and there was a couple that had gotten married in Miami before we had even left port. They were taking their portraits on the Lido deck and I adored watching them & made me SO excited for the 2015 season!

Back on track, Cait. I wanted to share a little bit of my vacation here with you all and kind of a shameless plug for Carnival Cruise Lines. I absolutely adore cruises. I feel they give you the best bang for your buck but also have great entertainment, fantastic food, and most importantly give you the opportunity to travel!

This cruise we (The fam bam and I) traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico – St. Thomas – & Carnival’s private island, Half Moon Cay.

San Juan was my personal favorite. The cobble stone streets, the bright colors, the beautiful architecture.. I adored it and would LOVE to go and spend a greater amount of time there. We visited the Gibraltar of the Caribbean which was pretty cool and I’m not much of a history buff. Most importantly it’s home of the original Pina Colada.. Too bad I’m more of a daiquiri girl myself.


St. Thomas wasn’t exactly what I expected and I felt like House Hunters International glorified it a bit albeit it was beautiful. Don’t get me wrong.. The views, water, and hillside is absolutely amazing. But the actual “town” of it wasn’t something that I really loved. We opted to leave town and took a two hour island open bus tour which was amazing. Soaking up fresh air with some amazing views and a few scary drives past semi’s (uhhh driving on the wrong side of the road is terrifying!) it was worth the money. I definitely preferred the “backside” of the mountain as it was less commercial and more home town feeling.

Half Moon Cay is Carnival’s private island and this was my second time visiting. I loved it just as much this time as the first. It’s basically a lay on the beach, get sunburned, swim in the ocean kind of day which I was totally okay with. It was actually our first port of call and it was much needed! I kicked off a good sunburn and drank a couple cervezas.. What would possible be better? Since it’s Carnival’s island they have a yummy lunch spread for the day with grilled goods and tons of fresh fruit and freshly baked cookies. They have island tours, hikes, horseback riding and all sorts of other fun things! 
& most importantly the boats are AMAZING! They are seriously so beautiful and although I didn’t take any pictures inside this go around (I’ve been on this ship before) it was just as beautiful as I remember. The staff and crew are so absolutely sweet wherever you go and are always more then helpful with anything. 
I also did something that was equally refreshing and didn’t give me as much regret as I thought it would.. I left the big girl camera at home and shot with my iPhone 6+ all week. I was a little sad when we were on the bus tour at the top of the hill in St. Thomas and would have loved to blow up a print from San Juan but I also did something I don’t normally do. I bought artwork. So instead of printing my own work I supported a home town local artist and helped her with her dream so I think in the long run it was worth it! 
So that was vacation! It was amazing and I loved spending time with my parents, brothers, and sister-in-law! Traveling with 8 was a little hard at times for me but it felt so good to be basically trapped with all of them on a no technology floating oasis! 🙂