Last year Dave's parents gave us a call. They asked if we were interested in going on a family vacation with them to the Caribbean. We had thought they might ask (getting things like luggage and snorkel gear for Christmas are little giveaways;)), so of course we said yes! Since the trip was so far off in the future we didn't really give much thought to it and since we had never been to the Caribbean or on a cruise, I have to admit that we really didn't have any expectations. All we cared about was time with the family and lots and lots of sunshine. And let me just say, our trip delivered! It was so relaxing, rejuvenating and fun! We loved our time with family and being away from "work" for a week. It's a miracle that neither Dave nor I did ONE bit of work that week. We just soaked up every minute together! A bit of fair warning, this will be a long post! But there's so much to share from our trip, I really didn't want to split it into several blog entries. I hope you enjoy a recap of our fabulous time together!

We started the week off in San Juan (new San Juan) while waiting for our cruise ship. As Dave and Stephanie waited in line for our room, they served free champagne! It was a great way to start the week and gave me a good chuckle when the lady next to them though Dave and Stephanie were a couple;)

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Our first port was the US territory of St. Croix. It kind of reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean. This was one of the less inhabited ports that we visited. It was quaint and quite lovely. We look a bike excursion in the morning down the coast of the island, had a imaginary competition with a few Canadians;), and then enjoyed the afternoon wandering Fredrikstad.

Our ship was HUGE. Look at how tiny the people are!

This house's foundation was made of our ballace brick, brick that was used to help balance ships as they traveled to the islands from places like England.

Sorry Elaine, I hope you don't mind me posting a picture of you enjoying a glass of wine! It makes me smile and giggle every time and reminds me just how much fun we had together!

Our next port was St. Maarten, my absolute favorite port we visited. It reminded me a lot of Key West: laid back, lots of bars and restaurants, and of course t-shirt shops:) We docked in Phillipsburg, which is on the Dutch side of the island.

In the morning we hit up the beach and in the afternoon we wandered the streets of Phillipsburg. And in fairness to my mother in law above, yes that is a picture of me eating THREE desserts at dinner.

Following St. Maarten we headed to Antigua, an interesting little island with lots of British influence. We spent the morning with our taxi driver who took us all over the island on our own private tour! Below is Shirley Heights, with sweeping views of Antigua!

Our cabby was really excited to tell us about the camouflaged house on the rock cliff below. It's home to Eric Clapton, can you see it?

Shirley Heights was an old British fort that protected Nelson's Dockyard, in the harbor below. The dockyard once housed the British Fleet.

Impressive huh?!

We ended the day with beers at Cheers in the port. I love this picture of me and Stephanie, Dave's sister. I often joke that I married Dave for his sister and I'm so grateful they were a package deal;) Love finally having a sister!

Our fourth port was St. Lucia. We spent the morning wandering downtown and trying to avoid the relentless vendors:(

I was SUPER excited about St. Lucia, mostly because I've always wanted to visit since watching the Bachelor! (HAH, yep I just admitted that;)) While the port itself was not that fun, we were able to take a snorkel tour to the Pitons, which was pretty amazing. The boat ride up and down the coast was a highlight of the trip for me!

Our last official port was Barbados. Since we spent the ENTIRE day at the beach (Dave got sunburned HEAD TO TOE lol) I didn't bring my camera. This is one of the only pictures from that day. It was one of the prettiest beaches, ever!

On the last day, our cruise re-docked in San Juan and since our flight wasn't leaving until later in the afternoon, we spent the day exploring Old San Juan. Old San Juan is just one of the coolest places. Little nooks and crannies are every where with an abundant amount of places to explore. I truly loved this place!

Thanks so much for taking a journey back with me! And an even bigger thanks to my wonderful in-laws who made the trip so amazing.

I hope you're starting to feel that warm sea breeze blowing in! I'm just going to keep looking at these images until it's 80 degrees again! Hurry summer!