Colorado 2014

This year my school district had a short Fall Break at the first of October, so we decided to take a trip out west to Colorado. Even though we would miss him terribly, we left Will with Grandma and Grandpa. We new that he wasn't quite ready for this vacation and would be much happier being spoiled by grandparents.

We flew from Chattanooga to Denver, and Riley was so excited. I have no idea why I let her have some of my coffee.

I had packed meticulously for Riley, and naturally I forgot to pack the jacket I bought just for this trip. On the first day, our first stop was to buy a new jacket for me. We then drove to Garden of the Gods, where we had the best time. We spent the entire day hiking around all of the rock formations. Riley thought David was the absolute best rock climber ever. I had to show off my "flatlander" skills.

Our next stop was to Pike's Peak, where it was SO COLD! We were expecting it to be cold, but we were not expecting all of the snow. In true Riley form, she made a friend on the train ride with a little girl about her age. We weren't able to go all the way to the top, but we did get to get out of the train and play in the snow.

Our next stop was to Vail, which absolutely took our breath away. It was such a beautiful town. The trip there from Colorado Springs was long, and by the time we got to the hotel we were planning to stay in, we were tired and grumpy. Unfortunately, the hotel was full, and we had to look for somewhere else to stay. David stopped at the Ritz Carlton and got us an amazing hotel room. It was certainly worth the wait.

We spent our last days exploring the town of Vail. On our way home we were snowed in for a little while, because the pass was closed. I can think of much worse places to be snowed in than Vail, though.

Key Biscayne 2014

For David's 40th birthday, we decided to take a quick trip to Key Biscayne. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton (perk of David's traveling insurance job) for the weekend. We took an incredibly long taxi ride from the air port to Key Biscayne. 

Most of our time was spent visiting with another couple at the pool, but we did use the resort bicycles to ride to the light house. It was a nice ride, and I managed to avoid steering into traffic. However, the smell at the light house was absolutely putrid. The lighthouse was locked, so we didn't climb it, which was fine with me.

We saw enormous lizards or iguanas. I'm not quite sure what they were, but they were huge!

We also drove a golf cart around the island, where we saw the house that the move Scarface was filmed in. I've never seen the movie, but apparently it's a big deal. There is definitely a lot of wealth on the island. While it was nice, I was excited to get back home to the babies. 

Royal Caribbean 2014

Despite the fact that we loved our Norwegian cruise, we decided to try Royal Caribbean for our next cruise adventure. We sailed on the Allure, which at the time was the largest cruise ship. We sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale, which is always a bit outside my comfort zone. It's a bit more fast paced and upscale than what I'm used to. 

We were extremely impressed with our stateroom, which was a Crown Loft Suite. The living area is downstairs, and the bedroom and bathroom are upstairs. The absolute best part of the room was the huge, two story window with a view of the water. It was a bit of an upgrade from the porthole in our last cruise.

This was our first big vacation without the kids, so we were anxious for some rest and relaxation. We did not utilize the concierge lounge at all...probably because we didn't know much about it.

Our first stop was in Nassau, Bahamas. We walked to the British Royal Hilton, which was where we honeymooned 11 years earlier. Everything looked the same, and it was funny to see how the memories started flooding back.

David made friends with Mrs. Low at the straw market. We bought Will a straw hat and Riley a straw purse. David loved walking around the straw market, while I couldn't wait to get out of there. 

Keno was our taxi driver, but he was really more of a tour guide than taxi driver. He was proud of his home, and we enjoyed getting to know him and having him show us around Nassau.

We went down Queen Victoria's 65 steps, which was something we had also done on our honeymoon. I feel like I learned much more about them with Keno.

We followed Nassau with two not so relaxing days at sea. David and I signed up for the FloRider, which is a surfing simulation. Our group class was somewhat early in the morning, so the water was freezing! After a little demonstration, it was our turn. We were both able to stand upright for a few seconds, but we both ended up falling. I only took one turn, because it was just too cold for me. I also felt a little stressed with having everyone watching. 

We're not sure if it was a result of the FloRider or not, but as David was trying to catch an elevator later that day, he threw his back out. Over the years, I've seen this happen more than once, but this was probably the worst I've seen his back get. He was complete crooked. As you may or may not know, David is the one who takes pictures, or reminds me to take a picture. Since he was out of commission, our number of photographs from the rest of the cruise were greatly reduced.

Our next stop was St. Thomas. To be honest, we weren't that impressed. However, after later experiences it's now our favorite place in the Caribbean. I can still see the pain in David's face in this picture. He was holding himself up on the rail. We had booked a snorkeling excursion through Royal Caribbean. We rode a bus for what seemed like the longest time. We were on the same bus and tour as a high school group. Apparently the students discovered they could easily access alcohol on the island, and they were loud to say the least. One of the boys accidentally dropped his key card out the window of the bus as we traveled. I snorkeled for a little while, and the water was beautiful. David tried, but he was in too much pain to enjoy anything.

After St. Thomas, our next port was St. Maarten, which we loved. It was such a beautiful port. We booked another excursion through Royal Caribbean called the Decadent Day at Sea. Our small group went to a villa that provided minimal beach access and a pool. They also served a delicious lunch and were very hospitable. David hurt worse than ever, but he tried so hard to make it fun for me. He was able to make his back feel a little better by floating on a raft in the pool and "pain killers". By the end of the excursion, he wasn't feeling much of anything.  He did greatly enjoy the calypso music as we headed back to the ship, and I wasn't exactly feeling it that afternoon. He still teases me about not dancing with him at the port.

               

I'm not exactly an adventurous eater (understatement) and David hurt too bad to completely enjoy his meals on the cruise. We were a little surprised at how casual the dining room was, and while the food was good-we weren't blown away. We ended up dining in the speciality restaurants most nights, which cost a little extra. On the last day at sea, we booked The Chef's Table. The guests we dined with were hilarious, which completely overshadowed the actual food experience. We had the best time listening to Kim and crew. That was probably the highlight of our trip.

The ship itself was nice, and we spent a lot of time in Central Park. We did miss a lot of the ship, so there was plenty we didn't see. We tried the show Chicago, but we only made it a few minutes into the show. I was so thankful when David asked if I wanted to sneak out, because I was dreading sitting there for two hours. We sneaked out of the comedy show too. Every time we walked past the splash pool, we missed the kids so bad. We couldn't wait to see them and tell them all about the cruise.

Our only real complaint was that we constantly felt like we were being nickled and dimed. Every time we turned around, someone was trying to sell us something. That's a small price to pay though, for a wonderful week at sea.

What to Pack on a Caribbean Cruise

I am a notorious under packer and my husband {although he'd never admit it} almost always over packs. Usually, as long as I have my flip flops, toothbrush, and a few good books, I'm happy. I knew that strategy wouldn't work too well for our first cruise, so my husband and I did quite a bit of research on what to bring on a cruise.  We ended up packing a lot of things we didn't need and forgetting a couple of essential items. By our second cruise, we felt much more comfortable with packing but it was still hard to remember everything we needed, which is why before our third cruise I created a little checklist. This checklist is certainly not an all-inclusive list, but it's what we used. You can download it by clicking on the picture below.

I won't bore you by explaining each item on the list, but I will share about some of the less obvious items.
Formal Wear-Obviously, if you don't intend on participating in formal night, you don't need any formal wear. I enjoy getting to dress up, so I always go all-in, except for the shoes. I'm not great with heels in the first place, so I play it safe and keep my shoes conservative.
Water Shoes-I learned about the importance of these the hard way. When we went cave tubing in Belize, we had to wear water shoes. I had no clue about this policy, and all I had to wear was flip flops. I ended up having to RENT and WEAR a pair of used water shoes, which were not a little gross. I still shudder when I think about wearing those things! From that point on-I will have my own shoes.
Sunglasses Strap-You'll only need this if you're planning any adventurous excursions. We've lost our fair share of glasses, so we always try to pack a strap or two.
Electronics-This is my husband's section of the packing list. I could completely live without any of these items, other than the Kindle. However, I do bring my laptop with me, because I do squeeze in a baby bit of work on our trips.
Toiletries-Most ships do provide a blow drier, but I do bring my own, as well as a flat iron. However, I rarely use it, because it's hard to beat a pony tail on a cruise!
Extra Contacts/Glasses-This one is one of the most important ones to me. I used to always pack just what I needed and never brought my glasses and completely ignored my husband reminding me to pack them just in case. My standard response was, "I'll be fine." Famous last words! To make a long story short, I spent one of our most recent trips with fuzzy vision because I developed an ulcer on my cornea and didn't have any glasses and couldn't get to glasses store. Lesson learned.

One thing that I pack on our first cruise that I won't back again is beach towels. Save yourself the space in your suitcase and leave the towels to the cruise line. They'll take care of you!

Norwegian Spirit

There's something special about your first cruise. Especially when you go into that cruise with no, or even low, expectations, and you have absolutely no idea of what's in store for you over the course of the next week.

My husband and I took our first cruise in April of 2008 on the Norwegian Spirit, and it's one of our most memorable vacations. It was a complete spur of the moment decision, and we actually booked our cruise on the Thursday before we embarked on Sunday.

We arrived in New Orleans the night before the cruise and stayed with JW Marriott which is close to the port. Embarkation was smooth (we got there really early). We were actually the second couple on board. While it's not an excessively large ship, it was still very nice and well kept.

The first night we sailed down the Mississippi River towards the Gulf and it was such a great way to start the week. The weather was perfect and the band on the pool deck was playing reggae/summer music creating the perfect atmosphere to get you in the mood to cruise to the Western Caribbean.

Our luggage was delivered to our stateroom in a timely manner and Marcello, our room steward had everything ready for us. He kept our room clean, fresh ice and towels, and was almost "invisible" the entire trip.




We had a room with a porthole view. White it was definitely small, the space was used efficiently,

and we were comfortable the entire cruise.

The food was absolutely fantastic. We ate in Cagney's Steakhouse which is an upcharge, but found no difference in the food or service level from Window's or The Garden Room, which are the main dining restaurants. In our opinion, don't waste time or money going to an upcharge on the Spirit.

There are always people wanting to take your picture and serve you alcohol onboard. This is the only part that we felt displeased with NCL. We felt "nickled and dimed" a lot. Also, with alcohol there is an automatic gratuity, along with the $10/day per person auto-gratuity that is added to your room bill.

The casino was nice, but a little smoky for our taste. The dance clubs were fun and The Galaxy of the Stars, which is over the Bridge was a great place to unwind after a hard-day's play. The bands and entertainers onboard were all excellent at their jobs, except for the comedy troupe "Second City" We actually left during the show.

Our first excursion was the Tabyana Beach Party in Roatan, Hondurus, which was nice. It wasn't the most amazing beach we had been to, but hey it was a beach! This was probably our shortest excursion, so we just walked around the beach and enjoyed a light meal.

Our second stop was in Guatemala, which was also nice. The beach was just beautiful, and there was an employee at the resort we visited who constantly raked seaweed to keep the beach clean. You could sit at the beach or swim in the resort pool. If you felt the need to move around, there were a few areas that we could explore at our leisure.

Belize was by far our favorite port!  We tendered to shore first thing in the morning and went on the cave tubing and zip lining excursion. I spent the entire day scared to death! We floated on inner tubes down Cave Branch River, which was so much fun. I will admit that the cave portion was more than a bit unnerving for me.  We floated through the cave for quite awhile, and it was pitch black inside the cave. My imagination began to run wild, and I started visualizing what all might be swimming underneath me. I was more than happy to have our guide tell us to turn on our lights. Zip lining was crazy. I was so scared that I was literally shaking from the time I put on my gear until my feet were on solid ground again.

We went on the speed boats excursion in Cozumel, which was our favorite port but least favorite excursion. I was surprised at how rough the boats. I'm not sure if the water was particularly rough that day or if that was the norm.

By the end of the cruise, neither of us wanted to leave and go back to everyday life. We were already planning our next cruise on the way home. 

Where did you go for your first cruise or are you still waiting to try one out?

Welcome to Ashleigh's Travel Journey

Welcome to Ashleigh's Travel Journey! As some of you may know, I've been blogging on Ashleigh's Education Journey for the past four years, and I've grown to love the blogging process and community. After spending hours upon hours on the Internet looking for vacation ideas for my young family, I thought why not? Let's give this a try! I'd love to share some of the highlights and lessons learned from some of our {not so many} and {not so exotic} vacations and experiences.

Since I've been stuck inside with the kiddos for four days now, I have some extra time on my hands. I googled 'travel blogs' and at least glimpsed at every link on the first 15 pages of Google. I saw some amazing websites, blogs, articles, and pictures. However, it struck me that I'm totally different from any of the bloggers that I found today. Don't get me wrong, the blogs are incredible. In fact, there is a part of me that envies that lifestyle of travel, but it's just not me. I'm not the type of person to be able to live a nomadic life, and I'm not comfortable in completely remote and exotic locations, especially with two young children.

I have a five year old daughter and a two year old son, and they bring me more joy (and stress) than I ever imagined possible. I teach third grade, create educational resources, as well as maintain my education blog. My husband also has a full time job and is responsible for keeping me sane whenever I start to feel like everything is spiraling out of control. Despite our hectic lives, we do LOVE to travel and explore new places as often as we can. Sometimes I wish we had traveled more before we had children, but to be honest we just couldn't afford to do as much as we wanted since we were both just starting our careers.

My goal for this blog is to share some of our hits and misses of our little family's adventures. I can't wait to get started!!