Vacations!

My husband just got a new job where he will work two weeks on and have one week off.  And he will be making enough for us to do some fun things and travel.  I am so excited!!!  Granted I am 5 months pregnant, but I think I can still get around just fine.  For the most part I don't even feel like I'm pregnant, which is nice.

So here are my goals:

I am hoping we can drive out to the Guadalupe Mtns.  I think they are in New Mexico right by us.  That can be our first trip on a week off.

Maybe we will fly to the Grand Canyon and hike around.  He has never seen it so that will be cool.  I hiked to the bottom after high school with some friends.  I don't think we will do quite that much though since I'm pregnant. :)

We might fly to Yellowstone and rent a car to drive around in.  I drove through it with my mom and brother and it was really, really cool.  I hope we can stay at this hot springs hotel again that we had stayed at.  There is a pool there that is like 90 degrees.  It was so cool to swim in it. :)

My all time dream has been to see New York, so hopefully we can fly up there at some point before the baby comes.  That is the only major city I have not been to in the U.S. 

I have been to L.A. of course since I went to college in L.A. county.  I've been to San Diego many times since my uncle lives there and my grandma was there.  We went to Sacramento for a state youth conference when I was in high school.  I had a summer class up by Berkeley and got to drive all over San Francisco when I was there hiking etc.  I haven't been to Portland hm....ok so that's another one.  I've been Seattle many times.  Our ship docked there that I worked on so I got to walk around down town a few times.  I got to go up the needle tower thing too.  It was $17 just to ride the elevator to the top.  I almost didn't do it cause I thought that was too pricey lol. 

I've been to Vegas a lot.  I have an aunt that lives there and we went every Christmas to see her in a play she would be in at her church when I was in high school.  Very cool city for sure. :)  Just as cool as it looks in the movies lol :)  But not the best place as far as how it influences people I think. 

I've been to Miami.  My family flew there before a cruise.  We played mini golf the day we got off the cruise and I remember thinking to myself, "Wow I would never live here.  It is way too humid."  I was like sweating constantly. :)  I've also been to Honolulu, HI; Sydney; Omaha; Kansas City; Oklahoma City; Lincoln; Salt Lake City; Denver; Topeka; Des Moines....and I think that's it so far. 

And just last week I got to see Houston, San Antonio and almost Austin.  Eventually we will see Dallas, TX I'm sure. :)  I've been to Chicago with my mom.  But the four cities that really matter I think are L.A., Chicago, Houston and New York  :)  Those are the biggest I think.  So New York is next on my list. :)

We might do another short cruise before the baby.  We just did one to the Bahamas but maybe something closer next time. 

Eventually we want to do a cruise around the Hawaiian islands.  That has always been a dream of mine too.  It was to just do a cruise with someone I love.  But also to do the Hawaii cruise with someone I love.  Hawaii is very romantic and beautiful for sure. :)  The prettiest place in the world I think.  :)

A huge dream of mine also is to do a cruise in the Mediterranean that hits Rome, Italy, but that might be more like something we do in the next 5 years. 

A cruise around Asia would be cool that goes by Japan and China etc. :)  I love, love, love Asia and Asian culture etc.  I've been to Taiwan twice and loved everything about that place. :)

Cruising really is the best way to travel.  It's the safest and the cheapest.  All your food is already paid for.  You get to meet tons of new people, especially if you do open seating, so you can always sit by new people at dinner.  That was the best part of our last cruise for me. :)  I loved meeting and talking to all the new people.  We met about 5 different couples over the cruise.  It was nice to talk to people about the different jobs they did and life experiences. :)  Most of the people we met were Christian also which was really cool. :)

Also you get to be out in the open ocean half of the time which is so cool!  I've always been a huge, huge ocean person.  So much so that my original goal was to become a Marine Biologist.  But I struggled with Chemistry so that didn't pan out sadly. :)

If you get on a big ship you can barely even tell you're on a ship; as in it hardly moves or rocks at all.

The crowds are the only annoying thing but I've heard some ships are better and not as crowded, like the Princess cruises.  We went on Carnival and it did seem to be a bit crowded.

My first cruise when I was about 19 was with my mom and step dad and a friend.  It was on a Royal Caribbean ship.  That was a very nice ship for sure!  Very open and spacious.  I never felt crowded.  And they had a rock climbing wall on the top deck.  So cool :)

There is actually a cruise line that has adult only ships.  P and O I think it's called.  We might check that out next cause kids running like crazy all over the ship can get a bit annoying lol.  :)

It's nice that there's always something to do.  Every hour of the day you can be somewhere on the ship doing something. 

The shore excursions are fun and you feel totally safe and taken care of on them.

We didn't go to a whole lot of shows.  By the end of the evening we just wanted to sit in a hot tub and relax which was nice. :)

Cruising is a very neat experience to be sure.  I highly recommend you go on one and have some fun. :)  You can get cruises as cheap as $250/person for like a 3 night cruise down to Mexico.  Totally awesome :)  Go cruising man :) lol

After my first cruise I had sooooo many dreams that I was back on a cruise ship.  But in my dream they were different, as if I had designed the ultimate cruise ship in my dream or something. 

Like one ship had basically a lazy river on the top deck that wound all over the top and there were trees everywhere lol :)  There is a ship now that has a garden on board.  How cool is that. :)

And they even have one that has a zip line running over the top of the ship.  lol the things they think of. 

Another ship in my dream had an exquisite bar and dinning room on board.  It was probably something I had seen in a movie once.  But I woke up thinking, "Wow how cool would that be!" lol

We went on another cruise as a family when I was about 21 and then when I was 25 I worked on two different cruise ships with children.  I did one for a month in Mexico and one for 2.5 months in Alaska. 

Alaska was pretty cool.  The sight when you are docked in Juneau, the capitol, is quite breath taking indeed.  There's two huge majestic mountains right in front of you.  It looks like a painting.  One of them has a waterfall or a type of river running all the way down the middle of it. 

When I was off one day in Juneau I went on a little hike by myself and tried hiking up this river going down the mountain thing.  I got about half way up the mountain and had to turn back when I would have had to climb a short rock wall that was totally vertical.  There was no way around it.  But hey at least I can say I made it that far. :)

One of the ports is cruising by a glacier up in Alaska.  The coolest thing is hearing the ice break off from the glacier.  It sounds like an incredible thunder.  I mean huge, huge chunks break off and fall into the ocean.  It's pretty crazy. 

Alaska is pretty much a rainforest in the summer.  I went on a lot of hikes and the forest ground is almost spongy because there is so much rain in the summer there.  Everything is just as green as it would be in an Amazon rainforest, but nice and cool. :)

Everyone says it's the cruise they want do before they die, and I got to do it 10 times already lol :)  Praise Jesus :)  God is so good to me :) 

But Hawaii and Mexico are more my type of climate.  I was a bit bummed about how cloudy it always was in Alaska.  I love the sunshine, and I love snorkeling. :)

 Snorkeling is the BEST in Hawaii and I have now gotten to snorkel in Hawaii, the Bahamas and even the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.  But Hawaii is the coolest place to snorkel.  The white sand beach in Kona, Hawaii is the best in the world as far as I know.  I think they call it Turtle Beach, because there are a lot of sea turtles there. :) I followed one around for about an hour when I was snorkeling once.  That was pretty funny. :)

It is an amazing place to be sure. :)  A place I definitely want to head back to again someday. 

I got to live by that beach the whole summer when I was 19 cause I was babysitting my cousins and they live there.  Man was I lucky lol. 

Every evening when I lived there I took a picture of the sunset over the water too.  But then when I got back I was like, "Ah all these pictures look the same." haha ;)  Funny how that works out.

I got to drive around the big island one day too with my grandparents.  I'm glad I got to do that since my grandma isn't around anymore.  We stopped at every waterfall we came across to take pictures.  I'm a huge fan of waterfalls.  More so than anything else really. 

Well and dolphins, river otters, sea otters and penguins.  I love anything relating to the water really.  I love any animal that can swim. :)

It is pretty cool that I have family in like all the coolest places.  I have an uncle who has always lived in Alaska.  He is a salmon fisherman among other things.  I have an aunt in Vegas and I always thought that was cool. :)  I have an uncle in San Diego.  I have another uncle in the bay area of Cali.  And I have an uncle in Hawaii.  All the best places for sure. :)  And the majority of my family lives in the OC. :)  Sunny southern California with the best weather in the world really.  They are so lucky and they don't even realize how lucky they are lol. 

I wonder why none of my family ever ventured to New York though hm....maybe cause it's a bit crazy there.  I would like to visit but probably never live.  I worked in a call center for my last job and my hardest callers were all from New York. :( 

My nicest callers were from California, Colorado and Oregon.  I have always wanted to live in Colorado.  Maybe someday. :)

May the adventures continue!  And thank you so much God for blessing me and that I have gotten to do all these things and go to all these places!  May you use me to be a witness for you everywhere I go! :)  Amen :)