Blake Shelton & Friends Cruise Day 4

Day 4 of our 7 day journey, stop / port number 2 was in St. Thomas another Virgin Island. We had a snorkel / scuba dive excursion booked for today. We were looking forward to it and pretty excited but unfortunately that didn't last to long. 

We took a windowless taxi bus across the island to what we were told was a private beach that only local residence come to. (and of course the tour we were on) We were broken down into 4 group and we were number 3 I think. We were able to snorkel around the area were we were while we waited for our turn to scuba dive. After pretty much fully exploring the area around us, we saw the first group of scuba divers coming past us. That's when it accrued to us that we were going to be scuba diving right were we were snorkeling. Which mint we weren't going to be seeing anything different or remotely even worth wild. The sea life was extremely sad, we saw a few colorful fish swimming around and a few random creatures but nothing overly exciting.  

Our tour guide / instructor was so rude and really had no clue what she was doing. She was extremely bossy and talked way to much. This was a first for Nancy & I but Sarah had scuba dived before. She was telling our guide about it her experience in Hawaii and she basically said "yeah well that's there and that's not how we do our beginners course". She was extremely snarky and had way to may rules / policies that she didn't even follow. We enjoyed our time together the 3 of us but it really didn't go much further than that. 

 She had showed us a hand signal to make if we were having problems or if our ears were bothering us. Well unfortunately my ears started giving me problems, I tried fixing them like she showed us but it just didn't help. She told us to tell her (not the others in our group) and she would go with us to the surface. I tried toughing it out for a bit but finally it just became unbearable. I make the hand signal to her twice, while she was looking right at me. Let me tell you she just gave me the "ok" sign and kept going. I was so frustrated, I was almost in tears it hurt so bad. 

I slowly made my way closer to the top of the surface and it kind of helped a little. Only to come back down for a picture with the girls. I couldn't get all the way down though, I blame it on the frustration of my ears and the heavy crap on my back. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we would have had a better instructor and a better place to dive. 

We weren't the only ones complaining about how awful we though she was. The others on our tour were as well. In fact we ended up canceling our excursion for the next day because if it was anything like today we didn't want to waste our money. 

We did have some fun with it, so it wasn't a complete loss. 

 Back on the ship and ready for the evenings show. I absolutely love this picture of Nanc. and I :) 

  Up on the main stage was the all time famous Neal McCoy.

Let me tell you the man can dance, he's got moves like you wouldn't believe and for being as old as he is that's pretty impressive. He completely stole the show and rocked the ship. He by far put on the best show the whole week. Many times we said the cruise should have been called "Neal McCoy and Friends Cruise" I can't wait to see him again next year on the cruise. (fingers crossed all goes well and he's back again)

 The nights not complete with out a bottle of wine and a couple mixed drinks. The bartender outside the show door asked us if we wanted her to go ahead and get the bottles of wine and have them ready for when the doors opened. Is it sad that they know us all to well, not at all.....she got us our wine. :)

 Enjoying the evening with the Spouse & Nick. 

 The guys who ran security at the main stage were awesome. We got to know a few of them and would hang out with them early into the mornings after the last show. They had a tough job keeping all the crazy fans back behind the reserved seats and from coming down front during the show to take pictures. It made for some good laughs and great people watching. 

Matt with the hat is Nicks (above) brother. He was the main stage production assistant. He ran the stage if you will and helped put everything together, so each show went off with out a hitch. He had to manage getting each band / artist's equipment on and off stage and set up. We wanted to show them all some love one night so Sarah made these fabulous signs that we held up through out the show. We got a few laughs and thank you's out of it. These guys worked far to hard with little appreciation. 

 Larry & I from "Her & Kings County", who doesn't love a curly mess of hair. lol Their band was more of a rock-ish-country mix, with 5 guys and a girl. They are actually coming to the South soon and I'm hoping to try and make it out to see them. 

In the Bliss lounge that evening it was a silent night dance party. Pretty much what that mint was everyone wore head phones and the music played through them vs through the speakers in the lounge. So you had people out dancing on the dance floor, in their own little world to the songs played in there head phones. Everyone was listening to the same thing, but standing in there in the moment and its dead silent but you have people on the dance floor makes it pretty comical. Nancy and I got out there and danced to the Cupid Shuffle and did a little country two steppin but that was about it for me. It was hard to keep them on when you were dancing, I kept having to pull them back up. You would see other people kinda head bobbin to the beat and some singing along. It made for some good laughs. Surprisingly enough it was actually a big hit and went over pretty well. Thankfully though they only did it that one night. 

I've never heard of a silent dance party before, have you??? 

My day with the "W" girls!!!

The morning started off with this QT pie and breakfast!!!! 

Followed by this sweet one, doing my hair. She said she was going to make me look like Rapunzel because I had long hair. She's so cute and has such a imagination. 

We had a adventure ahead of us today for sure, visiting some very old creatures!!! To the HEARD Museum we went, located in downtown McKinney. It was a perfect day to be outside, not to hot and not to cold at all. It was a outside nature park, were they several different dinosaurs on display. Life size and animated as well, listed on a plaque was the details telling us about them. (size, weight, what they ate) It's crazy to think how long ago, dinosaurs walked the earth. It was set up very similar to a scene taken out of Jurassic Park.  Little Gigi had so much fun, she was a little hesitant about going near the dinosaurs at first. But she eventually warmed up a bit and started asking questions and pointing out different things on the Dino's. 

Also included in the museum they had a very mini zoo with a few animals. Mostly rodents that you don't see often, you know the ones that live in creeks and under the ground. 

There was a butterfly house but it wasn't as pretty as we were hoping. There were more butterflies outside the house then there were inside. (when I went to DC a few months back, the butterfly house we saw there was so neat) There really wasn't more than 2 or 3 different colors ones here either. It was pretty though and the kiddo had fun running through the flower garden. 

This is one that I saw inside, more of them looked like this. 

After we finished up at the museum we headed down further into McKinney for lunch at a place called Spoons Cafe. It was pretty yummy, I finally had some good Texas Brisket. Its just not the same in the South, must be a Texas thing. lol. From there we walked around the downtown square checking out some of the local shops, one including a candy store. 

Little Gigi, went to Preschool later that afternoon and I got to meet her teachers and see her class. She's grown up so quickly in the last year since we've left Hawaii. It really is true when they say time flies. In what seems like a blink of a eye she will be another year older. 

I had such a great time hanging out with the W girls and catching up, meeting baby A and exploring the city. Nothing better than being reunited with such awesome people. One thing I love about the Army, I've made some amazing friendships. Can't wait for our adventures together next week!!! 

~DAY 356~

road trip

DAY 74

On today's agenda we have a mini road trip for the hubbs and I.

We ventured out for a two hour drive to Charleston, SC to see what it had to offer. With out any plans or time frame we were at the mercy of our trusty GPS. There were two sights that I wanted to see while we were there and anything we came across on top of that was just icing on the trip.

Prior to our arrival we stopped at a gun store so the hubbs could have a look around. He left with out the purchase of one though. They had a few he was interested in but nothing that he wanted right then.

Once we got into Charleston, found parking downtown we decided to talk a walked around the pier. Oh the ocean again I can see it and feel the COLD breeze, ummmm this is nothing like Hawaii :( tears yes please. I was heart broken although I knew it wouldn't be like Hawaii at all, I think a bit of me wished it was. For some reason I though since we were closer to the coast that it would be warmer NOT. Another tear for me because I'm hatting this cold weather it totally sucks.

We made our way down the pier taking in what was beautiful scenery all around us. We came across the first of my two must see's!!!! It was a Pineapple water Fountain that my dearest Crystal told me about. It was so neat and just as she describe from top to bottom it looked just like a giant pineapple made up of smaller ones.

From there we continued to walk through downtown Charleston looking at the different boutiques they have and cafes. We came across a awesome kitchen / cookware store that I could have spent hours in, sadly we were meter parked so we were on a time line so to speak. We went through a local street market were they had tons of vendors set up selling anything from local cook books, jewelry, hand weaved baskets, SC themed items and so much more. There was also a horse drawn carriage going though the streets, hearing the hooves of the horse clonk against the street was to cool.

On to our next adventure was must see #2, which we actually saw when we got into Charleston. It was the Cooper River Bridge known as the longest suspended bridge in the Western Hemishpere. It was giant and a beauty to drive across I was in awh. I don't know that I have been on a bridge of this size before other than the bridge that leads you from New York into Manhattan. While we were talking about it Gabe has to mention that he has been on the highest suspended bridge, in Colorado. Of course he has he lived there for a good bit of his life when his parents were stationed at Ft. Carson. "One day One day" we will go back together and I to will be able to say the same but until then I was loving the view of the Cooper River Bridge. There's a path that runs along side of it from the on ramp down to the other end that allows you to walk, jog or run it if you please. From here you were able to see all of Charleston, the harbors and beyond it was awesome. There were was a good amount of people walking along the bridge when we were going across and only about 3 runners that we saw. We though about walking it but decided to save it for a future visit. There's a 5k bridge run across it the last day of March I "might" do it but I am suppose to leave town that day so we will see.

Our last stop before grabbing lunch was at Mount Pleasant Palmetto Islands County Park. It's a nature - oriented park that is great for families of any kind. It's built in what they call a "tropical setting," with bicycle paths, boardwalks and several picnic areas through out. The park includes a two acre pond that is more like a swamp to me. There is a 50 foot observation tower that offers breathtaking views of the tidal creeks and salt marsh. It was a "hike" getting up so I decided to take the easy way down THE SLIDE. Your able to go kayaking through the marsh and we even saw a few fishing boats on the water as well.

We really enjoyed the park, just walking around and being together. This trip was something we both really needed, it allowed us to get OUT of Columbia and see what else SC had to offer. Knowing that there is hope and there is greater things past these city limits gives me hope.

We stopped for a late on our way back home at a place called Smokey Bones that had some not so sweet sweet tea, nothing a little sugar couldn't fix. It turned out to be a FABULOUS day and I'm so happy we decided to do this.

We are already talking about our next day trip to another city near by. The possibilities are endless its just taking some getting use to.

Taking A Walk ......

DAY 31

.....On the wild side of things.

A day out exploring a new park is the way we ended up spending our Sunday. Sesquicentennial State Park is a National park here in Columbia, don't even ask me how to pronounce the name of it because I have no clue we just call it the S park. With a 3 mile trail that runs around the 30 acre lake and another 5 mile bike trail as well as many smaller trails that run through the forest area you can't get board at Sesquicentennial Park maybe lost lol. During the summer months part of the lake is roped off for swimming as well you can rent paddle boats to do a bit of exploring around the lake. The paddle boat sounds fun but I'm not so sure about swimming in the lake it doesn't look so clean.

We had fun following the arrows leading us to the different openings to the lake area, crossing 4 different bridges and passing a few creepy creatures along the way. It would be a great place to take the dogs and let them run around and explore the only crappy part about it is they have to stay on their leash. They have a dog park inside the park as well but the other crappy part about that is you have to pay for a yearly membership to take your dogs there. (same goes for the dog parks out side the S park, you have to pay a yearly membership, granite its not much but still seems a bit strange if you ask me)

I was doing some looking on line when we got home this afternoon and there is a 5K race that runs through Sesquicentennial Park in the spring and I think I might look into running that one.

All in all it was a great day and we took loads of pictures and made some great memories together. :)

Tantalus Drive

This was a beautiful drive that Gabe & I had done back when we rented the jeep how ever it rained on us. I suggested to Crystal & Adam to do it before they left & they were all over the idea. It was so gorgeous and the weather was just perfect. The road is 10 miles long and wiggles and winds up the mountain through a pretty forest above Honolulu. Reaching the top at 1,610 feet, in the process you will be able to see Honolulu at new heights and its true beauty. There are several look outs through out the drive that offer different views of the Leeward side of Oahu.
I did find "MY SPOT" along the drive were if I ever need to just go relax and get away from it all and have myself a little quiet time. Pu'u Ualaka'a State side Park. It over looks a 25 mile swap of the Oahu, from Barbers point all the way past Diamond Head to Kahala. Its true beauty you have to see for yourself to really take in. I can't wait for Gabe to get home so we can take the drive together again and I can show him "OUR SPOT" on top of the mountain.










This was the afternoon after Gabers left and I have to say riding around in the back of a convertible mustang was a nice refreshing felling for just a brief moment as my heart ached in pain, hoping it was all a dream and I would soon wake up. OH how I miss him so dearly and would give anything to have him home in my arms.