March Break - St Maarten

Our last port of call was St Maarten. I think the consensus among our group is that this was the best stop on the trip. Not only was the beach just about perfect, but it and the shopping area were very close to the cruise ship. As you'll see in the first photo below, you can actually see our ship off in the background from where the beach is. We've already discussed going back at some point, either to a resort or possibly renting a villa with some other families. 

Unfortunately, one of the downsides to being such a great stop was that we didn't think to take that many pictures. All of the highlights you'll be seeing are from the beach area.

Once again, we took a water taxi to get to where we needed to go. In this case, it was a much shorter trip. In this picture, we're at the dock right next to the beach, and as I mentioned above, you can see the cruise ships in the background.

I really wish we had a video or better picture of this. Lucas got really comfortable with the floaties in his arms, and he decided to float on his back while bending back his legs and holding his calves with his hands. I hesitate to use the word, but it was just plain adorable. There were a group of college-age kids in the water near us, and they loved it too. One of the girls actually took a picture of him as well. Actually, you can see that group in the previous photo. Kudos to Marilu for getting so many bikinis in the background. :)

The obligatory cruise ship photo. I'm only including it since this is probably the best one we took.

And that's it from St Maarten. If you're planning a trip to the Caribbean, I highly recommend stopping there. We loved it.

I've got a few more pictures yet to download from the camera from the last two days at sea. I should have those up in the next day or two.

March Break - St Thomas

Our next port of call was in the US Virgin Islands at St Thomas. We had a longer stay than in the Bahamas so it gave us a chance to visit without feeling rushed. We started off by taking a taxi to the beach at Magens Bay. This was an absolutely beautiful beach that put the one at Nassau to shame. The weather was beautiful, the water was calm; it was the perfect place to relax.

Here, the gang poses (if what Adam is doing can be called posing) on the taxi ride.

One very valuable lesson we learned on this cruise is that visiting places without using the ship-associated excursions is MUCH cheaper. I think the total cost for the three of us for the taxi ride to and from the ship was under $50 ($8 each, one way). In comparison, the excursion cost around $40/per person! This won't work in all cases, but if you're just looking for a beach, going with the locals is the way to go.

There's not much else to say about the beach itself so here are the photo highlights.

The taxi ride back had some good opportunities for pictures of the harbor and our cruise ship. Being a mediocre photographer, I didn't make the most of the opportunities, but you should at least get an idea of what it was like.

We had lunch at a restaurant that the taxi driver recommended. I can't complain since they had jerk chicken, and that's one of my favorite seasonings. We also spent a bit of time in the shopping district, but I didn't think to take a picture of anything. The highlight for me was buying a 1 liter bottle of Absolute Mango vodka for $15. We then poured it into our water bottles and smuggled it back on the ship. It was pretty good stuff, but by the end of the trip, I'd had about enough mango-flavored drinks.

Before we got back on the ship, we got Lucas to pose in front of it.

This last picture was actually taken in the morning, before we left the ship. I wanted to included it since it shows one of Lucas's favorite features of the room: the porthole. The way our room was set up, the porthole was recessed and had about 2-3 feet of ledge space. Not only did it give Lucas a place to sit and play with his action figures, but he and his buddies had a blast jumping off of it onto our bed.

Next up: the last port of call, St Maarten!

Begone, illness!

Update: Although he is still on antibiotics for pneumonia for the next 10 days, Lucas's fever is gone. He went into school a little late yesterday (so that I could give him Advil that would last the day), but today, he went in at a normal time--sans medicine--and he made it through the whole day so three cheers for this ordeal being over!

Sick Day

Today was a long day with the doctors, but it ended on a decent note. I initially brought Lucas into our family doctor at 11:30 to have her check out his fever and rash. It turns out our doctor is vacationing so we had an attractive, 20-something doctor in her place, which made the whole appointment feel a little like a Grey's Anatomy episode.

She wasn't worried about the fever since the children's Advil was keeping it under control, and she only had mild concern about the rash. However, just to be safe, she had me take him to CHEO (the children's hospital) to get some bloodwork done.

As expected when using the emergency room, the wait was the worst part of the hospital visit. Lucas and I got there at about 1:30, and then Marilu got there after work, around 3. I had to run some errands so I left at that point, but when all was said and done, they didn't get home until after 7. A very long day for all of us but particularly Lucas.

Once they actually were seen, the doctors at CHEO said that the "rash" on his neck was due to broken capillaries from when he threw up this weekend. I was particularly happy about this since it meant Lucas didn't need to get any shots. Before we went to our family doctor, I had promised Lucas that there would be no needles today, not realizing we would be at the hospital in a few short hours.

I'm not sure what happened next, but they then decided to do a chest X-ray to check for pneumonia. It turns out he does have signs of it--not a severe amount, apparently--so they gave him an antibiotic prescription, and then they came home.

As I write this at almost 10:30 PM, they have both been asleep for a couple of hours, and everything seems to be okay. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they both get plenty of rest, and I'm really hoping Lucas's fever is gone tomorrow so he can get back to work. I love the little guy, but I've been at home with him since Friday, and I'm starting to get a little stir crazy!

Speaking of crazy, here's a picture I took of Lucas while waiting in the examination room at our family doctor much earlier in the day. None of this was staged. This was all him.

I'll be sure to keep you updated with any more health news.

March Break - Sea Day

Health update: the last couple of days, Lucas has been dealing with a fairly high fever. When we give him children's Tylenol, it brings it down to under 100, sometimes even around 98. However, towards the end of the 6 hour cycle, it can get as high as 104. We're not super concerned since his fevers tend to be like this, but since it's been going on for 3 days and we just got back from a vacation, I'll probably be bringing him to the doctor tomorrow. No need to get too worried, but I'll update to let you know how it went.

Between Nassau and St Thomas, we had a couple of sea days on the cruise. During that time, we took a whopping total of 4 photos, 3 of which I present to you now.

The first one is just him and Brandon playing on the deck chairs. For what it's worth, although most people are out first thing in the morning, getting the best chairs they can get, I think I spent less than a half hour total on them during our trip. I got all the sun I wanted at the beaches, I guess.

The second and third photos are from face painting Lucas had done while at Camp Carnival (he's a bunny, if you can't tell). For the uninitiated, CC is Carnival's "daycare." It's completely free, and it gives you a place to drop off your kids from 10 AM to 10 PM. It's broken down by age so each age group has its own activities going on. Lucas probably spent an average of 3-4 hours a day there during our trip. It was particularly nice to have a couple of quiet dinners, without him and his cohorts running around the table like hooligans. We honestly weren't sure if he would take to it, but by the end, he didn't want to leave.

I know other ships, particularly the Disney cruise line, have their versions of Camp Carnival that may be bigger and better, but from what we saw of his time there, it was a great experience. We would definitely do it again.

March Break - Bahamas

Our first port of call, on the second day of our cruise, was Nassau, Bahamas. Of the three ports we visited--the other two being St. Thomas and St. Maarten--this was my least favorite for two reasons. The first was that it was a pain in the ass to get to the public beach. We had to hunt down a water taxi, ride that for 15 minutes, and then when it dropped us off, we still had to walk a good half hour before we found the beach. And I stress "found" since it's not clearly marked so we had to wander through the Atlantis resort before finally stumbling upon it. I suppose it doesn't sound like that huge a problem, but it gets exponentially annoying when you have a small kid with you.

My second qualm with Nassau was the quality of its beach. Don't get me wrong, the beach itself was nice enough, if extremely crowded. Unfortunately, the surf was crazy. So crazy that for the majority of the time, Chris (one of the other dads) and I had our back to the surf and were playing a "game" of making sure our kids didn't get swept away. Not only was the surf crashing right at the shoreline, but when it receded, it pulled hard. Hell, I was nervous about going out much past my waistline. I don't think Chris's wife Nicole realized what we were dealing with since she came over to check out the water and got completely knocked over by the first wave that hit her. No injuries other than a lost hairband, fortunately.

All that said, from what I saw of Atlantis, it looked pretty impressive. It would be worth coming back to the Bahamas if we were going to do the resort thing, but as a cruise stop? Probably not. So enough about the overview of the day, onward to the pictures!

Here's a shot of our cruise ship, the Carnival Dream, taken from the water taxi. I should point out that we did see normal taxis on our walk back from the public beach so if there is a next time, that might be the better choice, time wise.

This is the best shot I could get of Atlantis. The place is massive, and it reminded me a lot of a Las Vegas hotel.

Rough waters or not, I have to admit the water was quite spectacular looking.

Just one of the many times I probably saved Lucas's life from oncoming waves. This was a small one compared to some of the others.

Lucas takes a break. The picture Marilu took of the two of us from behind that I posted while on the cruise was taken shortly before this one as you can see I am still sitting in the background. It turned out that wasn't the smartest decision as I got sand in just about every spot on my body sand can get into. Let's just say Lucas and I were still finding sand days later.

Marilu and Nicole relax on the beach. Judging by Nicole's wet hair, this was taken after the wave had its way with her.

Lucas, Brandon, and Jayden play in the sand. Apparently, covering a wet towel completely in sand is what's fun for 4-6 year olds these days.

Back on the cruise ship, Lucas relaxes on his bed. Of the three cruises I've been on so far, this was by far the best stateroom I've been in. We didn't have a balcony, but we had plenty of room for both a large bed (queen size, I believe) and a fold out couch for Lucas. In addition, we had two bathrooms: one with a shower, toilet, and sink, and the other with a sink and a bath. It was a far cry from our last room where Marilu had to open the bathroom door just to shave her legs. I know Carnival isn't considered 5 star when it comes to cruise lines, but I was more than satisfied with this aspect of their service.

That night was the first of two "elegant" dinners, where everyone in the main dining rooms dressed up. Here's a photo of Marilu with her brother Jonathan.

Lucas and I took a serious picture for the camera...

...before devolving into our true nature.

Unfortunately, our new camera was giving us a hard time getting a picture of Lucas and his cousin Colby. They are all blurry to some extent, but this is the best of them.

This was taken a little later, after we'd somehow fixed the blurring issue. Sadly, it's not the most photogenic shot. "Wow, look at that food."

As for this video that was taken in our room before dinner, I have no idea.



That's it for the Bahamas! Next up, St. Thomas!

March Break - Orlando

The first stop on our vacation was Orlando. Lucas and I traveled down on Thursday, while Marilu had to wait until Friday due to work. As a result, it gave the two of us a whole day to have fun together before heading out to sea on Saturday. In the week leading up to the trip, I was researching lots of different places, trying to figure out what to do.

While the big amusement parks like Disney and Universal Studios can be fun, going alone with a 4 year old would be a huge waste of money. I wouldn't be able to go on any adult rides since there was no one else to watch him, and the kids rides are just a fraction of the rides in the park. Considering the average prices were $80+ for an adult and $60+ for a kid, you can see why I marked these off the list quick. Don't even get me started on how crazy I would go waiting in multiple hour long lines with Lucas. We'd hate each other by the end of the day.

Thanks to a suggestion from a friend in Florida, we decided to go to the Orlando Science Center. Not only was it a much less expensive (a little over $30 total for both of us), but it wasn't terribly crowded. OSC is a pretty good science museum with plenty of stuff to interact with for the kids. We ended up spending a good 3-4 hours there. I think Lucas also enjoyed the bus rides there and back. I was going to rent a car, but then I realized I could get an all-day bus pass for less than $5. I'm not a cheap person, but that's just common sense right there.

So here are some of the highlights from the Orlando Science Center.

One of the first exhibits we looked at was a really cool one that demonstrated the process of harvesting oranges. Kids pulled "oranges" out of the trees and dropped them into a couple holes at the back of a machine. Then another kid would pedal the tractor, raising the oranges up above the tractor, at which point they would roll across and drop into a box. The kids could then put the oranges into little crates, place them on a conveyor belt sort of thing, and the oranges would dump into a hole behind the scenes. The oranges would then appear back on the trees. All in all, a clever exhibit. It was really neat to see a bunch of kids playing around it, each performing a different task.

It might be a little hard to see, but he is standing in front of a display that has a black snake in it.

Remember the photo in the last post in which Lucas was standing in front of an island full of reptiles? Here's a better look at what was right behind him.

Even great scientists need to take a break now and then. In case you're wondering, I'm not sure where the hat to the side thing came from. God knows I didn't teach it to him. I suppose it's cute on a 4 year old. Less so as you grow older.

I thought this next one would be a really cool picture, but it ended up just looking confusing. For what it's worth, we are standing inside a kaleidoscope. It was pretty impressive as we could see hundreds of reflections of us. Unfortunately, in the photo, it looks like I'm taking a picture of a dirty wall.

He spent a good 10 minutes at this wall, rearranging the pipes and tubes to see how a ball would roll down them. It probably would have been even better for him had he been a couple of feet taller.

Here are a few random shots taken in front of other exhibits.

Finally, the hurricane booth! In the weather/climate section of the Science Center, there was a booth you could stand in that would simulate winds up to around 75 mph. When we first got there, the line was huge since there was a camp group or something. However, about 10 minutes after we got there, a movie started on the first floor and the room emptied out completely. As a result, Lucas and I were able to experience it about 5 times in a row before some other people started showing up. As you'll see in the following photo and video, he got a kick out of it. Me too, to be perfectly honest.

So that's Orlando. We didn't get any other pictures since the rest of our entertainment was riding in buses and going to a nearby mall. Thrilling stuff! Tomorrow, the cruise photos begin!

One quick comment to wrap this up: I would highly recommend the Orlando Science Center for anyone who has a free day in Orlando between Disney parks. It's affordable, and as you can see from the pictures, a heck of a lot of fun for kids.