Beaches, Boats, and Harry Potter

I got to spend the last 10 days of Oct on a family vacation. It was awesome. We spent 2 days at Universal Studios, FL. The best part of this was Harry Potter World. When you first enter it it's like walking into Hogsmeade...and it really is, they have the shops and everything you can go in. It's super sweet. We even got butterbeer at the Hogshead. (If you're not a HP geek and don't understand these terms, don't worry 'bout it). Then there is the castle, which isn't full size but is still huge. It has a ride in it, but to get to the ride you walk through a lot of the castle and it's awesome. It feels completely legit. We completely geeked out and bought wands and robes and everything. We're cool like that.

The last night at Universal I was forced to attend Halloween Horror Nights. It was Jared's B-Day, and that's what he wanted to do, so I went along. It was awful. Ok, it really wasn't THAT bad - and if you enjoy scary things, you'd probably love it, but I don't plan on going back anytime soon.

After our days at Universal we set sail on the Carnival Dream. It was a 7 day cruise down through the Bahamas and the Caribbean.



Yes, that is a giant waterslide. It was pretty fun, but we only went on it a couple times because it was always crowded with little kids. We did spend a lot of time lounging on those deck chairs though.


One of the nights was a Halloween party/costume contest. Good thing we'd bought costumes at Universal!

Our first stop was Nassau, Bahamas. It would be an awesome place to stay and vacation. We mostly just wandered around the Atlantis resort.


Our second stop was in the Caribbean at St. Thomas. We went snorkeling with sea turtles here. I didn't get any pictures of it though, since my camera is fairly nice, and I didn't want to risk dropping it in the sea. It was my first snorkeling adventure. And I liked it except for all sea water. Gross.

Our third and final stop was St. Martin. We just spent the day on the beach/in the ocean. The weather and water were perfect.


This was successful only after many many failed attempts. But they got it eventually!

Every night on the cruise we had a fancy 3 course meal. Delicious.



In between all of those adventures there was a lot of eating, and a lot of lounging, and some bingo tournaments (we collectively won multiple times, I got $115) , karaoke, and comedians. All in all it was a super good time.

Cruisin'

So awhile back my Wingman and I decided we should get the gang together and go on a cruise for spring break. It was a great idea.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Wingman concept, or more specifically, do not know my Wingman - This is Jess Mays. She is awesome and without a doubt the greatest friend I've ever had.


So, now that I've officially talked up my Wingman, back to spring break -

I'm really glad we decided to do this because it was an awesome trip with a lot of good friends and I'm glad I got that time with them before I move out of the country.

We set sail on the Carnival Paradise out of California and headed to Catalina Island where we rode bikes, ate seafood, and just shopped around.


That night was a formal dinner. It was great because it's actually the first formal dinner I've been to with our Air Force guys that we didn't have to wear our uniforms and got to actually dress like girls.


The next day we headed to Ensenada, Mexico. It was way awesome, and thanks to our native speaker, Kirk Smith, we got awesome deals on a lot of stuff.

Me and Echols with our new blankets, and you can't tell in this picture but I'm actually wearing two watches I just bought.

The last day was just spent hanging out on the ship. It was good times all around.

There is so much more I could write about but I feel like I don't want to make this too lengthy, so this will have to do for now.
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