ANCHORS AWEIGH!!!

Stitch and I at Castillo San Cristobal in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Still at Castillo San Cristobal in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Stitch and I had fun making friends with a seagull in St. Thomas

Still in St. Thomas.  We had a cool balcony where we could sit and relax each day.

Stitch and I were saying goodbye to St. Maarten as we were leaving port.

Stitch and I were watching the sunset while leaving St. Maarten

This was our second day out at sea.  It was really cool, but I shouldn't have watched

"Titanic" a few days before we left.  It was really eerie to think that we were out on open waters

with NOTHING around for hundreds of miles.  OOOOHHHHH!!!

Hey Everyone!

Ready to hear about my latest adventures???  Well even if you're not, I'm going to tell you anyway.  About a month ago, Mom and Dad took me on a really awesome vacation OUT OF THE COUNTRY!!!  Can you believe that?  They even needed to get these things called "passports" and I had a great time making fun of their pictures to identify them (shh... don't tell them I said that).  Tee hee!!  I don't know why, but they didn't make me get one.  Oh well, maybe next time.

The cool thing is, we didn't fly but instead we "sailed" out of Bayonne, NJ.  The folks were really happy that they didn't have to go into NY to get to the ship.  Oh, and don't call it a "boat."  It's a "ship."  My grandma & grandpa on Mom's side went with us, and since grandpa was a "Navy" man, I thought he was going to feed me rotten bananas when I called it a "boat."  I like grandpa though and he told me all about how he served on a submarine in the Mediterranean many, many years ago.

Like I was saying, we sailed on a ship called "The Explorer of the Seas" which is part of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.  Mom said I could take a buddy with me, so I brought Stitch.  I was going to bring him anyway, but he can sure be a pesky little thing and kept bugging me to take him.  It was okay though because we didn't go anywhere without each other, and had a lot of fun. 

Overall, the trip was fabulous!  But I wish we had more time to sightsee on each island we visited.  I'll name them in the order we reached "Land Ho!"  First we sailed to Bermuda.  It took us about two sailing days to reach the island, but we made it through "The Bermuda Triangle" A-Okay obviously.  Mom had been there already but Dad hadn't.  She filled him in on a lot of the historical things that unfortunately he wouldn't get to see on this trip.  The water looked amazing and I really wanted to go swimming, but we didn't have enough time.  Note to self:  Ask Mom & Dad if we can go back someday.

Day 3 -- 6:00 PM -- We're on our way to our next destination

Day 4 -- STILL SAILING

Day 5 -- 12:00 PM -- We arrive at our next island destination

This island that we visited is a little tricky.  You see, although it's all technically one island (meaning all one piece of land), two countries actually own and share it.  So that's why I'm saying that we visited two islands or two island nations.  Our ship docked on the Dutch side of the island called St. Maarten, but we took a bus tour which also brought us to the French side of the island called St. Martin.  I know, tricky huh!?!  One island, but two capitals.  I'm not telling you the capitals because that's one of your summer reading club challenges!!!  HA! HA! HA!

Even though both sides of the island do speak English, I'm glad Mom didn't make me get off the bus in St. Martin because I would really have had to know some French.  Both countries accepted the U.S. Dollar, but St. Martin's (French) main currency is actually the "Euro."  Again, we didn't have much time to explore.  But overall it was nice to visit.  Now back to the ship.

Day 6 -- 8:00 AM -- We arrive at our next island destination

Now this island, both Mom & Dad really enjoyed and said they would LOVE to go back to.  Not only is there so much history there, but the beaches and views were spectacular.  Stitch and I even had fun feeding some seagulls off our stateroom's balcony.  The island I'm talking about is St. Thomas.  We took an awesome bus tour and our driver gave us a lot of historical background.  One of the things he pointed out was "Drake's Seat."  Did you know that Sir Francis Drake was actually considered a pirate?  Apparently Drake used this "seat" as a lookout point to spy on ships coming through the channel.  This way he and his men could pillage them and send back their "booty" to the Queen of England.  Continuing on our tour, our bus driver asked us if we knew which islands are the four "U.S. Virgin Islands."  Can you name them?  He stopped the bus and was able to point out some of them to us of in the distance.  Then showed us spectacular views of several beaches.  One in particular "Magen's Bay Beach" which is on the north shore of the island, is considered one of the top ten beaches in the entire world.  Oh, if only we had more time!  Note to self:  Ask Mom & Dad if we can visit this island again very soon.

Day 7 -- 8:00 AM -- We arrive at our Final Destination (no sillies, not the video game) before heading home

Now this was really neat!  While Dad was snoring away, Mom woke up and brought us out on the balcony just as we were docking.  When I looked to my left, I saw this really cool, old looking fort that was up the hill.  Since we had only until 12:30 PM to go exploring, Mom jostled Dad out of bed so they could get going.  Where are we you ask?  San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We disembarked ("got off" for all of  you "landlubbers") at about 8:30 AM (boy Dad is really slow) and started walking north towards the fort.  We got a little lost a long the way because the streets would be cut off by buildings.  Thanks to Mom's keen sense of direction (not only does she love maps, but she knew a little bit of Spanish just in case), we made it to the fort.  This historical, national landmark is called "Castillo San Cristóbal."  Unfortunately we were only able to visit this one landmark because we had so little time (oh, whoa is me) but it was really cool to walk around.  Did you know, that Castillo San Cristóbal is the biggest fortification built by the Spanish in America. It's construction began in 1634 and took approximately 150 years.  The Park Ranger there even told us that this fort was used more for protecting invaders coming in to the city by land.  The other fort that we didn't get to see Castillo San Felipe del Morro, was built to defend against sea attackers.  She even told us about San Cristóbal's most infamous prisoner.  Ask Mom if you'd like to hear that story.  But I'll tell you this much, he was actually a priest!

Another thing we saw a lot of while walking around the fort was iguanas.  I think they're really cool and they look like Godzilla.  It seemed as if they were guarding the fort.  Stitch and I even saw one on top of the fort wall that was looking out at the ocean.  Even with all of the people (and monkeys, and aliens) gawking at him, he did NOT flinch and inch.  Actually, because we were in such tropical climates once we reached the islands in the Caribbean, we were told that the iguanas are "native" creatures on each island.  They tend to keep to themselves and hide mainly in trees (and forts).  Oh well, it's time to head back to the ship.  Even though we had such a SHORT time in San Juan, we all loved it.  I don't need to make a note to myself to ask Mom & Dad to go back.  I already know that they want to.

Day 7 -- 1:00 PM -- SAILING AGAIN

Day 8 -- STILL SAILING

Day 9 -- 7:30 AM -- We docked in Bayonne, NJ


The time went really fast, but overall we had a really great time and I can't wait to go on my next adventures!!!

See you soon,
Sock