honeymoon – FueledByLOLZ

Cruise Ports

May 6, 2015 Hollie

The recaps of the honeymoon have been so sporadic the last two weeks. It shouldn’t really matter and I’ll get to them all eventually. So many blog topics, so little time (I joke…).

To keep myself organized here is what I’ve Recapped so far:

Key West

The Cruise

The Cruise Food

The last chapter of the honeymoon posts is the actual ports and islands we visited. We went to Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maartin.

Nassau is the easiest to recap because we only stayed in Nassau a few hours. We spent the time shopping and just walking around the town. We bought souvenirs but other than that didn’t go very far. Honestly we enjoyed that a lot.

In St. Thomas we walked around even more. I don’t think I have walked that much in a very long time. We walked around the area and even walked to the other cruise ship port (about a mile away). It was great to see the island and see what was going on by foot. St. Thomas is also where we stopped at Glady’s Café (diner review this weekend). By the end of the day I was so exhausted! I have never fallen asleep that easily!

Grilled mahi mahi at Glady's Cafe (the photo does not do it justice) — Grilled mahi mahi at Glady’s Cafe (the photo does not do it justice)

At the final port we visited, St. Maartin, we decided to do an excursion. We went kayaking and snorkeling. I am not coordinated at all and we shared a kayak.

The group instructor said “we do not provide marriage counseling after the tour”. HA! We had a great time and saw a lot of fish and creatures. The fish were not as bright as I imagined but it was awesome to take our underwater camera around and look at things.

I floated like a log while T dove down underneath to the bottom. Honestly I still think that is the most swimming I’ve done in a couple of years and I had a life jacket. It made me realize I still don’t miss swimming.

I will take selfies while T paddles the kayak

After snorkeling, we were starving. I think swimming for 1 minute makes me hungrier than running for 100 minutes. We stopped at a local café. We toured around (by foot again) and looked at various shops and markets. There is so much shopping on the Bahamas, it’s overwhelming.

I really enjoyed each of the ports we visited. One major thing I like about cruises is the ability to see other areas for a little while and move on. You get to travel and don’t have to plan a lot!

Questions for you:

Have you ever been to any of those islands?

Do you enjoy snorkeling?

Cruising

April 30, 2015 Hollie

We ended up going on 7 day cruise on the Royal Caribbean: Oasis of the Seas. When we booked, we had no idea that the Oasis of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world. Including the crew, the ship had about 6,000 people on board.

Being on such a large ship meant we never ran out of things to do…As I said earlier, we opted to spend our cruise relaxing. We didn’t want to be doing something all of the time. That is overwhelming! Neither of us like giants crowds and weren’t looking to go to the 12:30 am (yes am) singles meet and greet. That is some people’s thing but wasn’t ours. We relaxed, drank and just enjoyed life and our honeymoon. It never felt overwhelming or too crowded though (which was nice).

As runners it was nice to be able to go for runs (on treadmills) next to each other too. Part of the reason I do like treadmills is we could run our own pace and do our own thing but still talk.

Some random Cruise events:

I was somehow nominated to be a judge for the “Worlds Sexiest Man Contest”. I had to sit in front of hundreds of people and judge the contestants. It was a comical show and when they asked me what I looked for in the “Sexiest Man” I said he had to be able to booty pop. So in the contest I became the judge of good booty popping and even got to show the cruise how it was done…it was an hour of my life I’ll probably never forget.

Dancing on stage showing them how it's done... — Dancing on stage showing them how it’s done…

The Cruise Ship also had a .43 mile long track and had a sign that said “joggers don’t forget to stop and stretch”. I found it hilarious and had to take a photo with it. I actually used the treadmill more often than not because I found it easier to run without getting motion sickness (like running around in a circle while moving).

Don't forget to stretch — Don’t forget to stretch

We went to quite a few shows including an aqua show. It made me (almost) miss swim meets and seeing divers perform. It took me way back to my swim team days when I would watch during swim meets.

My personal favorite nights on board, were the formal nights. Everyone got to dress up and look fancy. I always love a good excuse to wear a really nice dress so this was perfect.

Posing with the towel animal afterwords.

The cruise was a lot of fun and I cannot wait to go on another one. It was my third cruise and certainly the best to date.

Questions for you:

Have you ever been on a cruise?

Where has been your favorite vacation spot?

Personal

Key West

April 28, 2015April 26, 2015 Hollie

I guess I’ll do honeymoon posts before the Wedding…because that makes complete sense right? Since professional photos take time, I want to wait for those before posting about the wedding.

I won’t recap every single thing from the Honeymoon because that would be another 10 days of posts. For our honeymoon we decided to take a short trip to Key West followed by a 7 day cruise. Together we spent about 10 days away. We really enjoyed seeing many different places and areas.

Before boarding our cruise we decided to head down to Key West. I’ve been to Key West twice (once on another cruise and once for a swim team training trip). T had never been before!

We landed at Fort Lauderdale and drove the (close to 4 hours) south to Key West. It was a really enjoyable and pretty drive.

We didn’t have any big plans in Key West and just enjoyed that. We walked around and enjoyed various aspects of the area (from the glass bottom boat to the “Better than Sex Dessert Bar”). We are both very laid back so we felt no pressure to have everything planned to the minute. That isn’t our style at all.

The first order of business was to buy these t-shirts.

Some other activities we enjoyed:

Watching Dolphins and creatures from our glass bottom boat

We went to several restaurants including the Banana Café (diner review to come)

Our favorite restaurant was the famous dessert and drink bar “Better than Sex”. It only serves dessert and drinks. Since we both have a huge sweet tooth we had to go. Plus how can you not go to a restaurant titled Better than Sex?

We decided to order the “Cookie Nookie”. It was a cookie cake topped with chocolate and caramel sauce as well as whipped cream. It was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had.

I ordered a chocolate stout and T ordered the “Cream in my coffee”. Both drinks were really good and came with a chocolate rim. They melted chocolate and decorated the rim of the glass.

Something we also enjoyed was the different areas to run. When we first arrived to Florida, we were not used to the heat at all. It was a struggle for us to get acclimated but once we did it made for great running. I haven’t run in a sports bra in what seems like forever. My favorite run was running to one of the local beaches and back, it was a beautiful view and a gorgeous run in general. I am already wishing I was back.

We also ran to the Southern Most Point of the US. Whether you run there or not, it’s something you must visit while going to Key West.

As you can see, we had such a great time in Key West. I really enjoy the area and it’s somewhere I really enjoy vacationing too.

Questions for you:

Have you ever been to Key West?

Have you ever been to a dessert bar?

Personal

Quick Recap of the Month of Real Life

April 27, 2015April 27, 2015 Hollie

The last month has been a whirlwind and I honestly don’t know where to begin. I got married…I went on a honeymoon (which was the most fun of my life) and now today I’m back…back in real life. I did a lot of stuff that will never make the blog. I made a lot of memories that won’t be blogged about…

To say these last few weeks were incredible is an understatement.

Between my wedding, honeymoon and my new found enjoyment of running injury free, I don’t really know where to begin blogging. So here is a little recap of the last month and I’ll break it down at a later time.

Wedding:

For T and I, our wedding was perfect. We got to see a lot of family and friends and enjoy the evening with them. Everything went perfectly (thanks to my wedding planner and vendors). We didn’t have to worry about anything and could just enjoy the entire evening.

I did a post about our wedding here.

Here are just a few photos (more to come):

Honeymoon:

We went to Key West, Florida for a few days followed by boarding a cruise. We both really enjoyed doing this and we felt like we did a lot of fun and new things.

In Florida, we rode a glass bottom boat and saw dolphins.

In St. Maartin, we went kayaking and snorkeling.

I somehow ended up dancing and booty popping on stage for the “World’s Sexiest Man” competition. That is a lolz post in itself…

In summary, the 10 day honeymoon was perfect for us and that is all that matters. We didn’t stay up until 3am drinking nor did we drink every single night (but we did indulge and spent 10 stress and worry free days). We came back to NJ still married and that is important…

Running:

I posted a long winded summary yesterday but right now I’m running injury free (knock on wood). I made a few mistakes along the way from racing to not seeing a specialist sooner but I’m excited to begin running well again. During our honeymoon, we ran together most days. It was hot, we weren’t acclimated to the weather but it was really enjoyable because I was running injury free.

Since I won’t get to writing a post about running goals for a while, my major goal of the summer is actually participate in 5-10ks versus talking about running them and never signing up. I think reworking my turnover and not focusing on 20 mile runs will be beneficial for my body. Who knows where the later summer and fall will take me but I will approach that topic at another time.

My 5k PR of 18:35 from 2 years ago...something I have not been able to touch since... — My 5k PR of 18:35 from 2 years ago…something I have not been able to touch since…

Long story short, it was a great month for everything. I’m excited to be back and begin “Real” real life. Thank you everyone for their love and support. It truly means a lot to both of us.

Tag: honeymoon

Cruise Ports

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Cruising

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Key West

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Quick Recap of the Month of Real Life

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