Bonaire Vacation

Day 1 - Saturday September 26
N, EP, E, and I arrive in Bonaire at 8am, after leaving Boston at 7pm the night before. I didn't sleep on the plane, and E didn't get much sleep, so we get some breakfast and go to bed. Get up at 2pm and go snorkeling. EP's mom, dad, sisters G and L, and L's significant other, M, arrive. Relax for the rest of the day, have dinner with the whole gang, and call it an early night. Day 2 - Sunday Sept 27
Up early with the sun. Have breakfast, then head to the dive orientation at 9am to learn about the SCUBA facilities at Buddy Dive. Get our equipment and go for our first dive! N's ears weren't cooperating, so we end up continuing the dive without him. See tons of fish, including the Blue Parrot fish below. Drive south to the slave huts in the afternoon, then to the windsurfing side of the island, and back to the resort in the early evening. Day 3 - Monday Sept 28
Up early again. Have breakfast and head out for dive 2 in the morning, dive 3 in the afternoon. This is how most of the vacation goes until the day before we leave. Dove at Buddy Dive reef, saw a wreck during the afternoon dive, and some 4ft Tarpon's. Also found a Coral Banded Shrimp.
Day 4 - Tuesday Sept 29
Up, have breakfast, and head out for diving at Windsock. The dive site has a beach entry, probably the only beach on the whole island! Makes it easy to get in and out. I see an octopus, but E misses it, and also scares it into hiding. I get a picture though! We see a school of Blue Tang that will continue to show up at every dive site for the rest of the trip. That afternoon, go snorkling with the whole gang at Klein Bonaire, the island just off the coast of Buddy Dive. We see 4 turtles (and the school of blue tang), and have a good time. In the evening, go to Casa Blanca for dinner with the whole gang. It's an Argentinian Steak House, but they have very good salad and baked potatoes for me. E says it's the best steak he's ever had.Day 5 - Wednesday Sept 30
I wake up to E wishing me a happy anniversary! We have breakfast with EP's mom (the rest of the gang has gone deep sea fishing), then head to Windsock to dive. EP's mom comes along to snorkle and hang on the beach. See a bunch of eels today! After the dive, EP's mom buys us lunch (happy anniversary!) at the pool bar. In the afternoon, we go to Bachelors Beach to dive. Find a swirling school of hundreds of silver fish, that tries to school with us when we swim through. Very cool! That evening, we head into town for our anniversary dinner at the local Mexican place. Food's so-so, but it was nice having a night to ourselves.Day 6 - Thursday October 1
Up, have breakfast, and head to Oil Slick Ledge for a dive. Ledge is right, we have to jump into the water from about 12 feet up to get in. See some barracuda, a Queen Angel Fish, and a puffer fish. There's a ladder to get out, but that's no fun, so Evan takes some more jumps into the ocean once the gear is off. That afternoon, head to 1000 Steps (there's really only about 70) with N and EP to dive. The reef here is the best yet, we see a new kind of tiny blue shrimp. EP finds an octopus that she shows us when we come back in. The walk back up the steps with all of the gear makes it seem like 1000 steps! On the way back, take a drive on the 'bike path', which is a dirt road that goes over the mountain on the island. It's a fun drive, with very nice views of the desert island.















Day 7 - Friday Oct 2
Up early, have breakfast, and head north to go diving at Tolo reef. Best reef so far, too bad it's our last dive (we have to stop 18 hours before flying). We dive with some others from TN, and see a Spotted Drum and some squid (VERY cool!) Spend the afternoon having lunch, doing a bit of shopping, and swimming in the ocean. E and I watch the sun set from the pool bar, then have dinner alone, sitting by the water at a table for 2. Our first truly romantic meal here.
Day 8 - Saturday Oct 3
Did I say we got up early during the week? We're up at 4am today, so we can catch our 4:45am shuttle to the airport. N, EP, E and I stagger to the front desk, load in the vans, and head off to sit in the airport until our flight boards at 7:30am. Fly to Houston, arriving late. Rush through customs, security (thank goodness for friendly travelers that let us skip to the head of the line!), and immigration, and run to the other side of the terminal, stopping only for a quick bathroom break and to grab lunch to go. Arrive just in time to board our flight, whew! Fly to Boston, find out our luggage is still in Houston, fill out the baggage forms, and head home.

Epilogue - Monday Oct 5
2am, our luggage arrives. And I have to get up for work tomorrow? Ugh!

Pregnancy impatience

While on vacation, I was thinking that I didn't really feel pregnant. I felt normal. Then near the end of the vacation, on the 2nd to last day, I had my first serious bout of morning sickness. Nothing too bad, just sent me running to the bathroom during breakfast, but it passed. Then the flight home, I had the worst bout of air sickness I've ever had. If that's how people feel, I can't believe they keep flying!

When I returned home, I discovered that I definitely feel pregnant, every day. And I'm not too happy with it. It's not morning sickness, it's all-day sickness. I'm totally exhausted, I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to keep putting in a full day of work and still be awake enough to drive home. And my chest so sore, it's uncomfortable to walk down stairs fast. And I'm surprised nobody at work has said anything about my recent chestiness, it's not like they were small to begin with!

On top of all of this, I want to tell people. E and I decided that we would tell family when we returned from vacation, but wait to tell others until after the first prenatal appointment. Which is on Oct 20. That's like 2 weeks away! Argh!

Vacation!!!!

The bags are packed, the house-sitter is sitting, and we're going to Bonaire! Woo Hoo!!!! I might post while there, since we'll have wi-fi, but might be having too much fun to blog, we'll see.

If you want to check out where we're going, this is the place:
Buddy Dive Resort

Queasy

I'm 5 weeks and 4 days pregnant, and very queasy. It's started, the 'morning' sickness. Except its now 2pm in the afternoon! And yesterday, it was 11:30 am. So far, it's just feeling blech, no actual sickness. Hopefully it'll stay that way for a while, I've got a vacation to go on in 3.5 days!

Cruisin' to Cozumel

Let me start by telling you that I'm claustrophobic. So it was with some trepidation that I agreed to go on a 4 day cruise from Miami to Cozumel. I figured it was an opportunity to find out whether I could handle the confines of a ship. I'd have a roommate (not E) and no choice in cabins. Should be interesting, n'est pas?

I started by talking with my family dr, and getting some "just in case" panic drugs. The warning label pretty much said, don't plan on doing anything for a few days. I figured someone could carry me to the plane if I ended up taking them, right?

The trip started on Thursday, early (for me) in the morning with a drive to Worcester airport. Yes, Worcester has an airport! The group I went with charted some planes, and we quite literally had our own airport. They even opened a special snack shop for us, since the airline wasn't going to feed us. We flew to Miami without incident, and then took charted buses to the port terminal.

It was about 1pm when I boarded the ship and made my way to my cabin. And that's when the panic attack hit. The hallway was small, the ceiling low, and it was very long. I got to the cabin and broke down. But the cabin itself was fairly large, had a big window to the outside, and had my wonderful roommate, SS, who let me finish freaking out in peace. Then she took me up to the open air deck for some food. And things got a little better. But I never did get used to that hallway.

We had our mandatory lifeboat drill, (did you know, women and children first really is still the rule?), and then I spend most of the afternoon on the open air deck. That evening we set sail, had a reception on the open air deck at sunset, and then dinner. By 9pm SS and I were feeling the early morning, and by 10 we hit the sack.

The next day we had a bunch of morning activities, and unfortunately I had a migraine. I stayed in my cabin most of the day, only coming out for some air and dinner around 6. We were arriving in Cozumel at 10pm, so I took a whole bunch of migraine meds, and we went into the tourist trap. The good thing, the fresh air made me feel better. SS and I had fun finding gifts for our families left at home. By 11 my head was feeling much better, but we were both tired, and had a 9am activity the next day, so we called it a night.

Of course, nobody else on board did. The partying and bright lights finally died sometime around 3:30am, and I was able to fall asleep. And then I awoke to a horrendous, building's falling down around you, BOOM! Followed by another, and another, and another... My sleep-deprived mind finally figured out that it was waves. We were crashing through them. Our cabin was in the very front of the ship, so as the ship crested a wave, it would slam back into the water. So much for sleep, it's overrated anyway.

Saturday morning at 9am we had our last scheduled activity. And it was so sunny and beautiful, I went up on deck (I needed AIR) and sat there on a beach chair all day. The winds were wiping, about 30mph, but I found a lee and had a great time reading my book and talking to people as they passed by. My 30 SPF sunblock kept me burn free, except for the spot I missed on my ankle and my ear, I always miss somewhere.

That evening was our dressy reception and dinner. I had bought a new blouse and was looking pretty girly in my skirt. We had some drinks, went to dinner, and then hit the dance club. SS and I danced our toes off, with a friendly group of friends and strangers. I even got the DJ to play Relax for me, my favorite dance song. The lack of sleep was catching up fast, and I new if I stopped, I'd be done. So we danced, and danced, and danced.

That night, the BANG-ing had lessened to every once in a while, so I got some much needed sleep. The following morning we had to be up so SS could disembark, she was on one of the first off the ship. I was supposed to disembark at 1:45, then re-embark, then disembark again at 3 (port rules are so funny). They had food, and I'd been thinking I'd wait until I got back on board to eat, needed to be full for the foodless flight that wouldn't get in to Worcester until 8pm... But around 12:30 I was hungry, so I figured, OK, I'd eat, then have a snack before leaving. Good thing, because at the first disembarking, we never got back on the ship. Instead we sat on the charted bus. And sat. And sat... Turns out the plane had mechanical issues, so they were getting us another plane, and expecting a 1 1/2 hour delay. But did they let us back on the ship? No.

We finally headed off for the airport, and when we arrived, we pulled up to the security gate (charters don't go out from the main terminal in Miami), and they waved us to the side. Where we sat and waited, and waited, and waited... We had 3 busses of people when we left the port, but only 2 arrived at the airport, and they wouldn't let us enter until we all arrived. Ugh.

When we finally got to the plane, they rushed us through "security", a few tables set up with people to rummage through our carryons and others to wave us down with a wand. Very strange, my knee didn't set off the wand... For those that don't know, I have metal in my knee from and ACL reconstruction and have a habit of setting off metal detectors. Especially wands that are supposed to be more sensative. Not that I was going to tell them that!

We finally headed home, and got 2 bags(!) of chips on the plane, which almost everybody devoured (I think a lot of people were going to eat once they got re-embarked). I had some snacks I'd brought with me, and I offered to share with my seat-mates, so we were probably the least hungry of those on the plane. Hypoglycemia comes in handy sometimes...

At 9:30 my friend MB and I left the airport, and I was home, saying hello to E and the kitties by 10:45. All in all, DEFINETLY not the worst trip home I've had!

On the last day when I was waiting for my turn to disembark the ship, people were asking me what my favorite part was. I couldn't figure it out then, but I have now. Towel animals.

Vacation

We had a great time in the Bahamas! We went to the beach, SCUBA diving 3 days, horse back riding along the beach, and had fun playing Backgammon with our friends that were there with us.

The house where we stayed

E and me on the Pier at Taino Beach

Gold Rock Beach at sunsetN, L, E, and me riding on the beach
E, L, and me playing Backgammon