Our Caribbean getaway continued......

Heaven on earth: Miami, Florida

Since Ry was little he has had an obsession with Miami. He said he loved the colors, the warmth, and the football teams......don't ask me why. So you can imagine when our plane landed in Miami, he was sooooo excited.

We decided to stay in Miami a couple of days and also go on a cruise to the Bahama islands

We stayed at the Richmond Hotel. I love Miami's architectural style. I think it is soooo balanced. The colors and the sleek lines add to their detail. The Richmond rested right on the beach. We went through the pool out to South Beach. The temp was a cool 82 degrees. I couldn't believe how happy my skin was to feel the rays of the warm sunshine. Thank you thank you....

South Beach is so full of hot bod's and tan people. Everyone was so in shape and so darn tan! Ry and I couldn't figure out if people had jobs because everyone was at the beach.

I love my Miami bling hat. It fit the occasion quite nicely.

Ry could sit for hours on South beach and relax. We both enjoy hangin' out and doing N O T H I N G for hours. It was soooooo nice.

"The National Hotel!!" This is Ry and I's favorite place to stay in Miami. It is the nicest hotel ever. You wouldn't believe how amazin' the pool is. Because it is so nice the price has shot right up to over $500.00 a night! SO we just gazed into it's gates and remembered the good times!

So the first night we went to eat at the funnest outdoor restaurant on Ocean Drive! After a hot day at the beach, the first thing I asked for was an ice, cold, diet coke and guess what: No Soda! What! Then I ordered a salad with ranch on the side and guess what: No ranch. "Only oil and vinegar, mam."What?, where was I? Not Salt Lake that's for sure. I supppose they wanted us to order wine and all of that "fine dining stuff" but no thanks! I was disappointed as I munched on my tart salad and gulped it down with water. :) So much for fine dining!

What's ironic about this story is (last week) Salt Lake was voted the healthiest city in the entire nation. Salt Lake has the "most fit" people and guess who was voted the fattest: Miami! huh? I only saw tan, buff people everywhere! Kudos to us Salt-Lakian Hot-Momma's! :)

Miami had a boardwalk that went for miles....runners, bikers, people on skates.. I thought what nice way for all these Miami people to start their morning, then I sadly thought of what I would be doing in Utah and I got depressed thinking of shoveling all the cold snow off the driveway! I then knew I should enjoy my moments here!

Ry and I hangin on the beach all day absorbing the ever important Vitamin A! No skin cancer here! ( BTW, I never put sunblock on once! No way I was going to stop my tan)

The pics are not in order, so this is what we did: After staying in Miami, we left the port of Miami and went to Cococay Bahamas one day and then went to Nassau Bahamas the next. We then spent another day in Miami after the cruise. So here are lots of pics of our cruise.

Paradise Island in Nassau Bahamas. The Atlantis Resort was so fun to walk around and see! We had to pay $90 a head just to step foot on their property and see their famous aquarium and beach! It was well worth the money.

Oh my, what in the heck was that? I couldn't believe my eyes. The Atlantis Aquarium was so amazin'. I have never seen fish like that so up close. Ry and I stayed for a long time watching them.







Bahamas, yay! Seriously so so fun and so so warm. We were so happy! It was crazy to be out of the cold snow and we kept thinking of everyone back home in the cold Utah snow! S A D!

For the record, I got in the water twice! Once to Kayak and once to swim. It has to be like a 1000 degrees for me to get in the water because my body temp never warms up. I didn't want to miss out so I got in! Ry got in every day and swam and swam.....






Oh this is a pic of the cute guy that sold me my purses. He was so sweet and gave me the "best price of the day" cuz I was his best customer. :)






The shopping was fun in the Bahamas. We went to the "straw market" and I bought a few purses and what-nots. It was fun to see their culture and walk up and down the streets. We saw the hospital where Anna Nicole and her son died and we saw lots of celebrity homes. One of my fav's was a church with the most beautiful, sweet, voices singing hymns. Ry and I stopped and listened for awhile. It is awesome that all types of worship and religions can be everywhere in the world.



The church we went to!

When we went Kayaking, there were ginormous starfish and Conk shells all over the beach floors. It was sooo cool to see all of the marine life. I am holding two conks. Don't worry our guide put them back when we were done.

Ry's conk came out for a visit! The guide said he had never seen that happen. It looked like a huge, slimy snail. Ewwww.

The water was so clear and so blue. The sand was so creamy and white. It puts the California beaches to shame.

We kayaked for a couple of hours. We almost paddled half way around the island. Our tour guide told us about the history of the Bahama islands and all of the pirate stories. I loved the history of the islands, it reminded me of the movie, "Pirates of the Caribbeans!"

The beaches were beautiful! We went to the other side of the island away from all the people and just layed out in the quiet, peaceful, sun.










View of our ship from Coco Cay island!

We took a jungle walk. The vegetation was thick and dense and full of ginormous lizards. scary.









Ry and his best friend: the hammock!!

So here is our teeny, tiny, room on the ship. We even had an upgraded room! It sure didn't seem like it. It was soooo small and we could barely move in there. Good thing we didn't spend much time in there!

I had curly, bahama hair! What? I had lost most of my curl with each pregnancy but the Caribbean air bounced it all back! I miss my curls, they are soooo easy to maintain.









Fancy dinners...no thanks! We only went once. We prefer hangin' out alone and chit chatting with ourselves over a nice gourmet, buffet dinner on the ships top deck. The food wasn't too bad for ship food but I felt so sick eating all 3 meals and snacks in between. I ran every day but it didn't help all of my 1000 pounds of extra food I consumed! Yuck!

Oooh they had Escargot on the menu as their first appetizer! Seriously, snail? snail ? Who eats a slimy, wet animal? Not me, I don't even eat Seafood let alone a snail. The lady at the next table was soooo drunk and I watched her eat 6 of them!

I have to admit one day I was C O L D! Temp in Nassau: 81 degrees. still a little C H I L L Y!

Thanks Ry for the trip! We had such a great time together. We rarely have time alone with no kids, so this was a miracle to have 6 days together! It was fab to venture the heavens of the earth on our ship and visit all of the exotic places! WE had quite the journey and for many more to come... .L O V E Y O U B A B E!