Caribbean Getaway

What a wonderful trip, I'm pretty sure it helped me regain my sanity! hahaha I'm going to attempt to keep this at a "not too long" length, but I tend to be pretty windy in my blogging, so we'll see.

1/2/10 Travel to Puerto Rico
Our trip started at 5:00 on a Saturday morning. The trip through the San Diego airport went without any hitches as did our flight to Atlanta. We entertained ourselves with the onboard trivia game for a good portion of the flight. Atlanta gave us a special treat in that it was 32 degrees farenheit when we arrived. We had lunch, and somehow convinced airport officials to let me relieve Valencia out on the tarmack...something that has not been allowed since 9/11. Go figure. From Atlanta we finished our flying and arrived in much warmer and much more humid,, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

My parents had planned for us to stay the night in San Juan and have Sunday morning and afternoon to explore the city before boarding the ship. We stayed at the Isla Verde Marriott. (Isla Verde is a part of San Juan). The hotel was still decorated quite festively for the Christmas season (all Hispanic countries have a major celebration on Jan 6 for Epiphany, or "3 King's Day" as they call it). There was a live band playing in one of the hotel's bars and there were people dacning EVERYWHERE, including the main lobby, haha It was quite the party!

Upon checking in we were given coupons for free drinks from one of the bars, so we dropped off our luggage in our rooms and went to go get dinner and our drinks. My mom and I both enjoyed a mojito, pretty good and not too much alcohol. The atlantic ocean serenaded us as we ate our dinner out on one of the patios. By the time we finished eating, we were all plenty ready for bed.

1/3/10 San Juan and the Caribbean Princess
Sunday morning la familia arose at a decent hour, ate breakfast at the hotel buffet, and set off for our adventure around the city. Our cab driver Eric took us through the districts in New San Juan and dropped us off at El Morro fort. El Morro dates back to the 16th/17th centuries when Puerto Rico was a part of Spain. It is also where some of the Die Another Day James Bond movie was filmed. After leaving El Morro, we had a thorough walking exploration of Old San Juan before meeting up again with Eric and heading to the ship.

Our check in time before boarding was expedited thanks to having Valencia and in no time we were up eating lunch at the buffet.

Our fabulous room steward Ariel helped us get setted, and sent us in the right direction to find Valencia's potty station for the trip. That's seriously been the most frequent question I've been asked "how did she go potty on the ship". They had several small wood boxes with woodchips int hem, basicay like a giant litter box.

And then it was time to get ready for dinner. We had first seating in the Palm Dining Room. Our table was right by a window, which gave us great views on a couple of the evenings. Our servers were wonderful, Anya (from Ukraine) and Borche (from Macedonia). Highlight from dinner #1: prime rib. Following dinner I went with my parents to a flamenco and classical guitar show by Juan Carlos and then to the Sail Away party with my dad and Steve.

1/4/10 St Thomas
The ship docked bright and early Monday morning in St Thomas, thus we arose bright and early to eat breakfast in the Coral dining room, change into our swim gear, and head ashore for our "Champagne Cruise". The tour company bused us across the island in an open air bus, to the dock where we met our crew for the excursion: Johnny, Eric, and Joe of The Adventurer (who informed us they weren't classy enough to call their trip a "champagne cruise" but instead a "booze cruise" lol).

This catamaran ride was I think Valencia's favorite part of the entire trip. We let her sit on deck with us and watch the water go by. She was in doggy heaven. Our guides took us from St. Thomas to St. John's, another of the US Virgin Islands, where we had time to snorkel, swim, or hang out ont he beach. I did a little of all 3, but mostly hung out on the beach.

On our trip back to St. Thomas is when the party really started. Our crew broke out the fruit platters, mimosas, and rum punch, and we rocked out to classic rock and Bob Marley all the way back to shore.

Before getting back on the ship, my mom and I did a bit of shopping. We bought a pair of sterling and larimar (a local stone) earrings from a native lady named Mandla. Once back aboard we grabbed some pizza from the pool deck, and had a nap.

Monday was the first of our formal nights, so all of us got snazzed up and headed down for night #2 of amazing food. Highlight of dinner #2: nutella icecream. We took a family portrait in the Mezzanine, watched the champagne fountain get kicked off, and went to a comedian show. After the show, my dad and I played Jeopardy trivia with several Canadian ladies on our team.

1/5/10 Dominica
Another delicious breakfast was made more fun by our server with the sweets tray "Sugar, for my honey?" (directed to Dave, lol). The island of Dominica gave us our sudden Caribbean rain shower experience, as we dashed to the shoppping warehouse by the dock. I bought a woven straw hot pad type mat and several kinds of spices.

I had a nap back on ship, then lunch with the family in the dining room. After gazpacho, half a cheeseburger, and some delicious Italian icecream, we set off for snorkeling trip #2. This was also a champagne snorkel, but champagne in this case referred to bubbles int he water due to volcanic activity. It was pretty neat, plus we got to see the site of some of the Pirates of the Caribbean filming.

Highlight of dinner #3: key lime pie

We opted for the hypnotist show Tuesday evening and then did some shopping out int he mezzanine.

1/6/10 Grenada
Unfortunately, by the time we got to Grenada, it was evident I had caught a cold and an ear infection. I seem to have this habit of getting sick on family vacations now. I still enjoyed the day, but was a little sleepier throughout it.

Our tour for the day was a driving tour of the island. Our tour guide Luther took us to Fort Frederick, a volcanic crater lake, to see a local lady who is very knowledgeable about spices, and to a beautiful waterfall. Grenada has a very old timey Dutch look and feel to it, which makes it a very cute place, and very very green.

The ship was in port shorter Wednesday because we had quite a ways to go to get to our next port. We were back aboard for lunch (pizza again) and icecream from the pool deck, and then (you guessed it) nap time.

Wednesday was Italian night for dinner, including proscuto, nippy peach soup (favorite soup of the trip), veel scalopini, and tiramisu.

1/7/10 Bonaire
Bonaire is another Dutch West Indies island. We explored some shops in the town nearest the dock and then took a taxi over to the best snorkeling beach I have ever seen. The water was so incredibly clear I couldn't believe it. If you waded out to about waist deep, and looked down, there were your feet, and TONS of fish. We had lunch on the beach before returning to the ship for a nap.

Highlights of dinner #5: lemon strawberry sorbet, and I tried ratatouille

The show Thursday was my favorite of the comedians on this trip. Afterwards we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding in our stateroom.

1/8/10 Aruba
The fifth and final port on our cruise was Aruba. Aruba and Bonaire were my favorites of the ports. We took a bus from Oranjstad to Palm Beach. Palm Beach is along where mos tof the main resorts in Aruba are. After we'd had our fill of beach time for the day, we explored one of the nearby resorts, and went back to the ship to shower, change, and have lunch

I went back into town with my parents to do some shopping. While there, my dad and I picked up soem phrases in Papmiento (the language of the island, a mix of French, Dutch, Spanish, and a few others). My mom and I got matching necklaces from a jewelry shop on the way back to ship.

Friday was our second formal night. Highlight of dinner #6: feasant with challots.

We took a second family portrait, and had a Lindsey/Valencia photoshoot, which made a lot of people in line very happy.
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In lieu of a show, my parents and I went to the "newlywed/Not so Newlywed" game, amusing, but slightly awkward at times.1

1/9/10 At sea
The finald ay of our voyage was spent entirely at sea (making our way back across the Caribbean from Aruba to San Juan). We arose a bit late and got breakfast from the buffet. Down in one of the dining rooms was an "outlet sale". Basically they put on sale stuff that has been in inventory for a looong time, lol. I did get a cute shirt from it though.

Then came an activity I'd never done on a cruise before. I went to the ship doctor (for my ear). They gave me some antibiotics and ear drops fo the infection.

I then joined my dad and Steve for morning trivia, which we won! We went to the Crown Dining Room for the "Pub Lunch" I got cottage pie, basically like shepherd's pie. After lunch it was time for a nap, and then more trivia, which was a lot harder, but still fun.

My mom, Dave, and I went for afternoon tea. I love afternoon tea, my favorite part is the scones with jam and cream. Mmm

Our final dinner was "American Night". I had a Caesar salad and New York strip steak. Teh highlight of the evening was the "Baked Alaska Parade" and then of course, eating the baked Alaska, yum! And our final show of the trip was a variety show. Two different comedians and a hypnotist, lots of fun :)

It was a great trip, very relaxing. Plus, we met some great people. Like the deaf couple who also have a service dog (but didn't bring it) and the Romanian waitress at the table next to us in the dining room.

Can't wait for our next family adventure :D

Surviving Bootcamp

Today is the last day of SLP (Speech Language Pathology) Bootcamp for us first year MA students at SDSU.

Thank goodness

It has been a crazy two weeks. Last week we had class from 8:30-4:00, with a lunch break in the middle, every day. Bootcamp is designed to get all of the grad students up to speed and at the same starting point before regular classes and clinic start. We've had our diagnostic methods and clinical methods classes, and have been meeting with our clinic supervisors.

I am so thankful I have the background from Biola. I feel so much farther ahead than a lot of the other students. Most of the Diagnostic and Clinic methods classes have been review for me, plus I'm not spazzing about clinic like everyone else is. Biola's comm disorders program is amazing!

I'm super excited about clinic, scared about classes though. I'm registered for 19 units. I never took more than 17 a semester at Biola! AHHH!!! I'm also having a bit of a difficult time adjusting to being in a public school again. Hearing people talk frankly about "hooking up" isn't exactly what I'm used to anymore. *sigh* Welcome to the world Lindsey.

Anyway, I had a very nice relaxing weekend (despite the crazy heatwave we're having). Raelene and I had dinner at Ruby's Diner Friday night, window shopped at Express, and came back to do a bit of facebook stalking. Saturday I got to hang out with a couple of friends from a ministry I was in freshman year, and spent the rest of the weekend staying cool and hanging out with Anja and her boyfriend James.

We tried out The Rock on Sunday, and decided we're a lot more comfortable with the Flood, as opposed to a rock concert rather than a worship service.

Oh and Tad helped me fix my computer so I can upload pictures to the internet again, so I'll be adding pics to my last few entries if you want to check them out :)

One more class, and then a four day weekend, yay!

Girls' Weekend

What happens when your dad and brother go out of town, your best friend is in town, and you have keys to an empty condo?

A really fun weekend with the girls!

When my dad and Steve decided they were going to go to my dad's family reunion in Chciago, my mom and I decided we should have a mini vacay down at the condo, and since neither of my roomies are moved in yet, I thought it would be a perfect time to invite Becky to come see it.

We kicked off our vacay with a stop at my new favorite frozen yogurt place L'Amour de Yogurt and then headed down to Mission Valley. I spent some time unpacking and settling in and we made a grocery trip to get some food for the weekend. Once the groceries were unpacked, we made the short drive (I love being central to all the fun things in SD!) to Old Town for dinner.

Friday night is the best time to be in Old Town if you're looking for fun! We had dinner at La Pinata, a family favorite for as long as I can remember and walked along the shops listening to live Mariachi music.



My mom dropped us off at the condo and went home for the night since Dave had come down for the weekend. Meanwhile, Becky and I took the opportunity to check out the pool and jacuzzi. Honestly I can't remember the last time I was in a swimming pool, but I remembered Friday night how much fun it is to go swimming on summer evenings. THe only downside was the water was extremely salty, kinda gross. Hopefully it's a bit better once the summer craziness dies down.

We topped off the night by watching Top Gun, one of my all time favorites that Becky hadn't seen yet.

Saturday my mom and Dave brought one last piece of furniture down and then joined us for lunch at Outback Steakhouse. Yum good eatin'! Becky and I spent the afternoon exploring IKEA, and determined next time we go, we should actually have something in mind to buy. Perhaps then we won't end up dizzy and headachey afterward, lol.

We both crashed for naps when we got back to the condo. Once we had both resurfaced we made up a Ready Made Asian salad (neither of us were extraordinarily hungry thanks to lunch at Outback, hee hee) and munched on that out on the patio. Raelene came down to join us after she got off work. I gave her the tour of the complex and the condo. We chatted and hung out for a bit before deciding to go walk around Fashion Valley.

Basically we just window shopped. By the time we got there a lot of stores were closed or just about to close. But it was fun to walk around and chat. After seeing Dippin Dots (which regrettably was already closed!) Becky and I were craving a cold treat. It took a bit of driving around, but finally we found our way back to the Ralph's center my mom had taken us to on Friday and we tried out Paradise Yogurt. Becky and I shared a "hurricane" which is kind of like a Blizzard from DQ. We got cheesecake yogurt with oreo, coffee, and chocolate syrup mixed in. It was tasty, but rather expensive.

Raelene dropped us off and headed home and we headed to bed. Sunday morning we packed up and met my mom at church. The afternoon was pretty chill, I think we all got a bit bored. Dave had rented a couple movies, so we watched The Man Who Knew Too Little which was really funny. Sunday evening was my last concert with the Poway Community Band. My grandparents and Kim, Jordie, and Maddison came down for it, which was great, I love having people come to concerts. :)

The post concert evening was spent watching TV and Becky headed for home this morning. It was a great weekend. I'm really excited to be spending more time down at my condo and for my roommates to move in. Until then, I have a bit more packing up to do here :o)

Top o' the Morning to Ya!

Happy St Patrick's Day! A day originally to celebrate St. Patrick chasing the snakes out of Ireland, now a day for Americans to celebrate *something*, wear green, and in secular culture, go drink at a pub. Gotta love Americans :)

I am very excited about my plans for today (no, they do not include a pub, thank you very much). Tad is currently in Seattle waiting to catch his plane to LAX. Knowing this will make it very difficult to sit through Spanish Literature this afternoon. Raeleen agreed to take me to pick him up. He's flying in just in time for our "St. Patrick's Day Funkship Cruise" All Hall. Have I ever mentioned that I love Hart?

Tad will be here until next Monday. He really enjoyed Missions Conference two years ago when he came, so we thought we'd bring him for it again. Other plans for this week include an interview at Chapman (hopefully on Thursday, that's been a little bit of craziness) and hanging out with Amy, Donna (the yellow lab) and Dave at the beach on Friday. I still have a lot of homework looming over my head, but I can take a couple days off to not think about it.

Anyway, I'm off to enjoy corn beef and cabbage or "Luck of the Irish Green Mac & Cheese" in the caf. God bless

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Last Friday and Saturday was our spring floor retreat. There were about 15 of us who went, which in my opinion is a good number for a "large" group. We went to Shanelle's house in Valencia, so I was quite happy to take Valencia somewhere that bears her name. Charlotte had made CDs for each car to listen to on the drive up, gotta love random 90s CCM and Disney songs, haha.

There was a surprising lack of Friday evening traffic on the 5, so we made it in pretty good time. Shanelle's house is really nice and her family was very welcoming to us. Upon arrival we took some time to relax with chips and salsa and a few teen magazines. I should mention that our theme was "sleepover" in case that might clarify a few things. We made personal pizzas for dinner. It's amazing to me the variety the caf has for pack out meals. Anyway, we enjoyed pizzas and just hanging out.

After dinner we played a couple rounds of Truth or Dare Jenga (always interesting, espeically with Biola people) and several rounds of Twister in our pajamas. There were definitely some fun photo moments in there. :)

Let's recap, random 90s music, chips and salsa, pizza, truth or dare, twister, teen magazines...what are missing? More junk food and a movie! We made some pretty amazing icecream sundaes and watched "Made of Honor" Interesting movie, good for a sleepover, enjoyable enough, but I don't know if I'd necessarily opt to watch it again. After the movie some people wanted to watch another one, but about half of us (who had the "sleep deprived college student" mode kick in) opted to go to bed. I was very glad I did the next morning when I heard they had watched Edward Scissorhands, I hate that movie, but that's for another discussion.

I definitely got way more sleep that night that I had in quite some time. In the morning we had our caf pack out breakfast and slowly got ourselves ready to head back to school. We stopped at a mall foodcourt for lunch and then trekked back to homework land.

Really fun relaxing weekend, I needed that. In the meantime, I'm feeling fairly alright with my wschoolwork load. I read about 200 pages this weekend, but enjoyed all of it. I highly recommend reading "When God Weeps" by Joni Earackson Tada, it's amazing, a little intense, but amazing. The news for the week is that I'm on the waitlist for acceptance into San Diego State. I'm #4 out of 28 on the list, so I'm really hoping and praying that means I'll get in.

Enjoy a few pictures from the weekend :)


Discovering that Twister is a little difficult with six college students at a time

When TGIF-ing Becomes Necessary

I have decided I greatly enjoy using TGIF as a verb, it's fun :)

Yesterday marked the end of my first week of the interterm Statistics class I am taking, and I couldn't have been more ready for a weekend. It was quite apparent, as I spent the second half of my four hour class yesterday fighting the urge to space out, that I needed a break from numbers. God is good and gracious, and my class ended about an hour early, quite a blessing.

Needing some time for my brain to find a place to cram all of the new math related information, I did absolutely no homework yesterday, and it was glorious.

After class I ran some errands on campus. I checked my mail and was pleased that at least one of my community college transcripts had come. (I absolutely need the other to be in my mailbox Monday so I can send my admissions packet for the comm disorders department at SDSU) I checked up on a few things online and tidied up my room before going to the caf to meet Christine for lunch. It was great getting to catch up with her and not worry about time pressures. After lunch we went to the house in Fullerton she's living in, which I had yet to see.

It's a beautiful house, and a really great living situation. There are 3 other people renting rooms, but Christine has her own. The landscaping around the house is incredible. The man who owns the house with his wife is retired and does all the landscape stuff himself. I was very impressed. After having the tour of the house, Christine and I retreated to her room and watched One Night with the King. Amazing movie, I would highly recommend it. I love the story of Esther. It's definitely one of my favorite books of the Bible, and the movie was done in a very artistic way, yet still true to the story. I discovered in some reading tonight that the movie is based off a book (besides the one in the Bible, that is). I think I'd like to read the book.

By the time the movie was done it was time for us to return to campus. I did more little things around my room and then had "family dinner". A group of people in Hart are taking turns making dinner for everyone during interterm. You only have to make dinner once, and it's a great social time. Dinner was followed by a trip to Berry Cool with Krista, and upon my return to the dorm I happened in upon a Mary Kay party. I haven't been to one in quite a while, so it was fun getting to do a facial and hear about the new products.

And by the time that was done, I was ready for bed, without having to wake up at 7 to get ready for class :)

so, the probability of One Night with the King and Berry Cool and a Mary Kay party, relieving tension from 20 hours of math class in one week equals 100%