11 years ago
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
FYI
I just wanted to give myself a little pat on the back and let you all know that our Blog is finally up to date! Yes it is true we finally took the time to tell you what has been going on in our lives. To be honest I am surprised anyone even reads this blog because I have been neglecting it. Now you are probably going to have to pace yourself because we just entered six new posts today! If you want to read all the new ones at once you are going to need a lot of extra time. Nathan and I are a little long winded when it comes to blogging. Now that we are all caught up I will try my hardest to let you know whats up in a timely fashion, not two or three months later, because most of you actually care about whats going on in our lives.
Remember the Alamo
While Nathan was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma I came to visit him and we went to Oklahoma City's Bricktown where they have this little riverwalk and you can take a taxi boat around and see parts of the city. It was fun and romantic. We decided since it wasn't practical to drive seven hours each way up to Oklahoma we would just head on down to San Antonio where Oklahoma City got the riverwalk idea.
After our amazing stay in Austin we drove down to San Antonio where we were staying at the Drury Plaza Hotel, not quite as nice as the Driskill but still nice and right on the riverwalk. After checking in we decided to take a little nap because we were so tired from the day before. We hung out until around 5:30pm and then headed down to the riverwalk. It was amazing. There are so many shops and restaurants right along the river. We walked down the riverwalk just taking in the sights and sounds and stopping occasionally to read menus at restaurants to see where we wanted to eat. After walking for 30 min we got tickets to the river cruise and went on a 30 min cruise of the San Antonio river. I was amazed to find out that the riverwalk was built around the San Antonio river's natural course and only a few sections of the riverwalk are man made. I thought that it was just some canal that they had built for the purpose of having the riverwalk. The tour was nice, we learned quite a bit about the city and some of the buildings.
After the cruise we walked up to the surface streets and checked out the Alamo at night. It was pretty cool. You can still just walk right up to the building and it is right in the center of town. After checking out the Alamo we walked down to the mall were we had dinner and we hoped to get some of our dessert. Unfortunately, after dinner we were too full to eat ice cream. Instead we walked around until we were ready for dessert and the creamery was closed. We then walked back down to our hotel so we could check out the city lights from the 20th floor. It was pretty cool. They have a pool up there and a hot tub and you can see most of the city. After checking out the lights we called it a night and went to bed.
The next morning we checked out of our hotel and drove down to the mall. We had breakfast and then got tickets to The Alamo IMAX. It was an interesting show but not the best IMAX I have ever seen. After we watched our show we stopped by the Creamery for Birthday Cake Ice cream with sprinkles and walked down to the Alamo. During the day when the Alamo is open you can walk through the mission for free, you can touch the walls ( they ask you not to) and see artifacts that people have donated. It was pretty interesting. After we moseyed on through the mission and the outer courtyard and gift shop we decided it was about time we headed back up to Killeen. We had a great trip and it was sure nice to see and do things that we both really wanted to do before Nathan leaves. It was a great anniversary weekend. I can't wait until we get to spend another one together!
After our amazing stay in Austin we drove down to San Antonio where we were staying at the Drury Plaza Hotel, not quite as nice as the Driskill but still nice and right on the riverwalk. After checking in we decided to take a little nap because we were so tired from the day before. We hung out until around 5:30pm and then headed down to the riverwalk. It was amazing. There are so many shops and restaurants right along the river. We walked down the riverwalk just taking in the sights and sounds and stopping occasionally to read menus at restaurants to see where we wanted to eat. After walking for 30 min we got tickets to the river cruise and went on a 30 min cruise of the San Antonio river. I was amazed to find out that the riverwalk was built around the San Antonio river's natural course and only a few sections of the riverwalk are man made. I thought that it was just some canal that they had built for the purpose of having the riverwalk. The tour was nice, we learned quite a bit about the city and some of the buildings.
After the cruise we walked up to the surface streets and checked out the Alamo at night. It was pretty cool. You can still just walk right up to the building and it is right in the center of town. After checking out the Alamo we walked down to the mall were we had dinner and we hoped to get some of our dessert. Unfortunately, after dinner we were too full to eat ice cream. Instead we walked around until we were ready for dessert and the creamery was closed. We then walked back down to our hotel so we could check out the city lights from the 20th floor. It was pretty cool. They have a pool up there and a hot tub and you can see most of the city. After checking out the lights we called it a night and went to bed.
The next morning we checked out of our hotel and drove down to the mall. We had breakfast and then got tickets to The Alamo IMAX. It was an interesting show but not the best IMAX I have ever seen. After we watched our show we stopped by the Creamery for Birthday Cake Ice cream with sprinkles and walked down to the Alamo. During the day when the Alamo is open you can walk through the mission for free, you can touch the walls ( they ask you not to) and see artifacts that people have donated. It was pretty interesting. After we moseyed on through the mission and the outer courtyard and gift shop we decided it was about time we headed back up to Killeen. We had a great trip and it was sure nice to see and do things that we both really wanted to do before Nathan leaves. It was a great anniversary weekend. I can't wait until we get to spend another one together!
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Driskill
While I was still a bachelor, a few of my friends and I made a trip down to Austin for a night. We walked up and down 6th street, the main street where all of the people hang out on the weekends. I had a fun time with my friends but the one thing that really made an impression on me was one amazing looking building. I asked around and found out that it is called the Driskill Hotel (Don't tell Rebecca that its haunted). It looked so awesome! I knew immediately that I would one day take Rebecca there. However, due to the time crunch and the pricey look of the place, I figured that it would be a while before I got a chance to go there. When I got home the next day, I got online and checked it out. It looked even better on the website than I remembered. I checked out all of the rooms and saw that they had a few suites that were absolutely amazing! I checked the availability but there was nothing, so I pretty much gave up figuring that the suites are probably always booked. When Rebecca moved down here, I told her about it but we never gave it much thought until our two month anniversary came up.
When discussing what we should do for our anniversary and last big event before I deploy, we thought that it would be fun to go back to Oklahoma City where the romance all started. It sounded fun, but a flight would be kinda expensive and the drive would take forever. That's when Rebecca remembered The Driskill. I was so excited when she brought it up. We immediately checked it out online and called them. The only room I really wanted to stay in was the Renaissance Bridal Suite. Amazingly, it was available for the night we wanted. I was sold. I didn't care what we had to pay, we were going to stay there. We booked our room and they asked if there was a special event that we were celebrating so we told them it was our anniversary. Two months counts, right? They told us that they would make a note of that and they would have chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling cider delivered to our room whenever we want. A few days before the stay, I also called and made reservations at The Driskill Grill. Rebecca and I were so excited for our weekend. There was just one thing I had to do first. PT
Friday's PT was ridiculous. Every once in a while, the squadron holds a "Power Check." This is just a smoke session followed by your regular PT test. I was dreading this thing but couldn't wait to get it over with so I could get on to our weekend. So, on Friday morning, I woke up at 0430 so I could get all of my gear ready and make it to squadron by 0515. Rebecca said she would be waiting for my text so she could get breakfast ready. I didn't think anything else was going on the rest of the day so I told her I would be home around 0900 for good. Boy was I wrong.
The Power Check started with a relay around a mile and a half track wearing all of our body armor which weighs a ton. After that, we marched/jogged 6 miles with all of our gear. An hour and a half later we made it back to the track to complete our PT test. Finally, after the PT test, which was around 1030, I was notified that there was a mandatory briefing for Staff Sergeants and above as soon as everyone was done with the PT test. Then, after the briefing was over at 1115, I was told that I had to go to another briefing with my company commander at noon. I was so disappointed that I didn't get to go home for my delicious breakfast. A little after 1300, I finally managed to escape and came home to my beautiful wife with a delicious breakfast waiting for me. I was dead tired and sore from PT but super excited for our night.
I took a nap for a little bit and then we got ready to go to Austin. Traffic was horrible close to Austin so we called to have our dinner reservations pushed back a little. We arrived at The Driskill around 1800. We checked into our room and quickly ironed my clothes and got ready for dinner. The dinner was the nicest we have ever had. It was so fancy, it was ridiculous. We both ordered something from the second course menu and a main course. I had the lobster bisque and some lamb chops while Rebecca had a quail and some delicious filet mignon. Before our dinner was served, we were served amous bouche to "tease the palate" and also some bread. Our food was delicious and the service was unbelievable. However, the best part might have been something that I overlooked. As we were handed our menus, Rebecca noticed that each of them said "Happy Anniversery Mr. and Mrs. Kroger" at the top. It was very cool and they let us keep them as a souvenir. We skipped out on dessert (for then) and headed up to our awesome room.
Our room was great, but the bathroom was amazing! It was all marble and we had a huge jacuzzi and an amazing shower. I couldn't wait to get into the jacuzzi and relax my sore muscles. We hung out in that for a while until we got too hot. Then we headed out on to our balcony overlooking 6th street and cooled off while watching all of the people. The weather was absolutely perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better night during the summer, let alone the middle of January. After watching the sun go down and making fun of crazy people on the street, we had built up an appetite for desert. I called room service and they promptly brought us my chocolate cake and Rebecca's pumpkin cheese cake.
We had the most amazing night. It was so nice and relaxing. The dinner was amazing, our room was unbeatable and the jacuzzi and the balcony were just incredible. It was so nice just to hang out, relax, and spend some good quality time with Rebecca. That night will go down as one of my best nights ever.
The next morning, we reluctantly checked out of our hotel and drove to the Texas State Capitol, the largest of the state capitols. We walked all around the inside and looked at a lot of old paintings. We also checked out some nice cannons that they had on the front lawn. It was very cold that morning so we didn't stay too long before we headed south.
When discussing what we should do for our anniversary and last big event before I deploy, we thought that it would be fun to go back to Oklahoma City where the romance all started. It sounded fun, but a flight would be kinda expensive and the drive would take forever. That's when Rebecca remembered The Driskill. I was so excited when she brought it up. We immediately checked it out online and called them. The only room I really wanted to stay in was the Renaissance Bridal Suite. Amazingly, it was available for the night we wanted. I was sold. I didn't care what we had to pay, we were going to stay there. We booked our room and they asked if there was a special event that we were celebrating so we told them it was our anniversary. Two months counts, right? They told us that they would make a note of that and they would have chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling cider delivered to our room whenever we want. A few days before the stay, I also called and made reservations at The Driskill Grill. Rebecca and I were so excited for our weekend. There was just one thing I had to do first. PT
Friday's PT was ridiculous. Every once in a while, the squadron holds a "Power Check." This is just a smoke session followed by your regular PT test. I was dreading this thing but couldn't wait to get it over with so I could get on to our weekend. So, on Friday morning, I woke up at 0430 so I could get all of my gear ready and make it to squadron by 0515. Rebecca said she would be waiting for my text so she could get breakfast ready. I didn't think anything else was going on the rest of the day so I told her I would be home around 0900 for good. Boy was I wrong.
The Power Check started with a relay around a mile and a half track wearing all of our body armor which weighs a ton. After that, we marched/jogged 6 miles with all of our gear. An hour and a half later we made it back to the track to complete our PT test. Finally, after the PT test, which was around 1030, I was notified that there was a mandatory briefing for Staff Sergeants and above as soon as everyone was done with the PT test. Then, after the briefing was over at 1115, I was told that I had to go to another briefing with my company commander at noon. I was so disappointed that I didn't get to go home for my delicious breakfast. A little after 1300, I finally managed to escape and came home to my beautiful wife with a delicious breakfast waiting for me. I was dead tired and sore from PT but super excited for our night.
I took a nap for a little bit and then we got ready to go to Austin. Traffic was horrible close to Austin so we called to have our dinner reservations pushed back a little. We arrived at The Driskill around 1800. We checked into our room and quickly ironed my clothes and got ready for dinner. The dinner was the nicest we have ever had. It was so fancy, it was ridiculous. We both ordered something from the second course menu and a main course. I had the lobster bisque and some lamb chops while Rebecca had a quail and some delicious filet mignon. Before our dinner was served, we were served amous bouche to "tease the palate" and also some bread. Our food was delicious and the service was unbelievable. However, the best part might have been something that I overlooked. As we were handed our menus, Rebecca noticed that each of them said "Happy Anniversery Mr. and Mrs. Kroger" at the top. It was very cool and they let us keep them as a souvenir. We skipped out on dessert (for then) and headed up to our awesome room.
Our room was great, but the bathroom was amazing! It was all marble and we had a huge jacuzzi and an amazing shower. I couldn't wait to get into the jacuzzi and relax my sore muscles. We hung out in that for a while until we got too hot. Then we headed out on to our balcony overlooking 6th street and cooled off while watching all of the people. The weather was absolutely perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better night during the summer, let alone the middle of January. After watching the sun go down and making fun of crazy people on the street, we had built up an appetite for desert. I called room service and they promptly brought us my chocolate cake and Rebecca's pumpkin cheese cake.
We had the most amazing night. It was so nice and relaxing. The dinner was amazing, our room was unbeatable and the jacuzzi and the balcony were just incredible. It was so nice just to hang out, relax, and spend some good quality time with Rebecca. That night will go down as one of my best nights ever.
The next morning, we reluctantly checked out of our hotel and drove to the Texas State Capitol, the largest of the state capitols. We walked all around the inside and looked at a lot of old paintings. We also checked out some nice cannons that they had on the front lawn. It was very cold that morning so we didn't stay too long before we headed south.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Giddy Up!
As most of you know Nathan and I have been married for two months. In some ways I can't believe it has been two months already, in others I sit here and think its only been two months? Since our "anniversary" fell on a Thursday we made plans to officially celebrate on the weekend, but I still wanted to do something special for Nathan. I decided to surprise him with a yummy hot breakfast after PT. So when Nathan got up at 0530 to go to PT I got up and ran down to Wal Mart to get some supplies. While I am digging around for supplies Nathan texts me and says "oops no PT today its Thursday be home soon." I was like dang it, oh well I finished what I needed to do and headed back home. Nathan just barely beat me home and sent me a worried text wondering where I was. I told him I was out picking up a RX and I would be home soon. When I got home, I went in and said, "Happy anniversary." He was like, "oh I forgot." I have to give him a pass since it was just our two month anniversary. Anyway, I asked him if he wanted me to make him breakfast, he said sure since he wasn't that tired. Ha, that boy passed out five minutes after I tucked him in and headed out to make breakfast. I made him Breakfast burritos and gave him a cute little card. Now some of you might be wondering what the title of this blog has to do with anything. Well don't you worry your pretty little heads I am getting there.
After a yummy breakfast to start his day Nathan headed off to work and I headed to the laundry mat to do our laundry. After working for a few hours he was done for the day so he decided to plan a little something for us to do together since it was such a beautiful day. It was 80 degrees out with only a slight breeze. He scheduled a trail ride for us out at the Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area (BLORA) on Ft. Hood. After setting everything up he came out to the laundry mat and helped me fold all the clothes and we headed home to get ready for our little ride.
To tell you the truth I was excited but kind of nervous. Horses and I don't really get along. Ever since girls camp in '96 when the horse headbutted me, gave me a concussion and a black eye, horses try to kill me every time I ride them. Okay, so I might be over dramatizing it a bit, but that is what it seems like to me. Even though they are out to get me I still love horses and wanted to have a great time on the ride. When we got there it looked like we were going to be the only ones on the ride but 10 min before the ride was supposed to start seven more people showed up. After everyone was there they decided which horse you were going to ride. Nathan hasn't really ridden horses and I haven't ridden in a while so we both got fairly easy horses. I was a nervous wreck once I got on the horse but knowing animals can sense fear I tried to convince myself that I was in control, not the 500lb animal I was sitting on. Let us be serious here, we all know if that horse really wanted to do something there is nothing I could do to stop it.
After calming myself down enough where I felt somewhat in control we headed out on the trail ride. I was content going one speed...slow! My horse on the other hand seemed to dislike the distance I was putting between him and the horses in front, so occasionally he would break out into a trot to catch up. At one point when we were going on what I would call a roller coaster for horses or a series of little hills and valleys I swear my horse tried to buck me off. Nathan, who was behind me the entire time says my horse's feet never left the ground he just had a lot of momentum from the hill and it took him extra time to stop. I say he reared up when I tried to slow him down and Nathan was just at the wrong angle to see it. After 45 minutes of him trotting to catch up and me pulling back the reins saying whoa he finally got the picture and just went one speed really slow.
Besides being stressed out the entire ride I had a really great time. Nathan and I got to see some of Fort Hood's most beautiful country which was juniper and oak trees and a ton of cacti. It wasn't the most romantic way to spend our anniversary but we had fun and we got to spend some time together. These days that's all we really want, even if we can't sit right for a few days cause our bottoms are sore.
After a yummy breakfast to start his day Nathan headed off to work and I headed to the laundry mat to do our laundry. After working for a few hours he was done for the day so he decided to plan a little something for us to do together since it was such a beautiful day. It was 80 degrees out with only a slight breeze. He scheduled a trail ride for us out at the Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area (BLORA) on Ft. Hood. After setting everything up he came out to the laundry mat and helped me fold all the clothes and we headed home to get ready for our little ride.
To tell you the truth I was excited but kind of nervous. Horses and I don't really get along. Ever since girls camp in '96 when the horse headbutted me, gave me a concussion and a black eye, horses try to kill me every time I ride them. Okay, so I might be over dramatizing it a bit, but that is what it seems like to me. Even though they are out to get me I still love horses and wanted to have a great time on the ride. When we got there it looked like we were going to be the only ones on the ride but 10 min before the ride was supposed to start seven more people showed up. After everyone was there they decided which horse you were going to ride. Nathan hasn't really ridden horses and I haven't ridden in a while so we both got fairly easy horses. I was a nervous wreck once I got on the horse but knowing animals can sense fear I tried to convince myself that I was in control, not the 500lb animal I was sitting on. Let us be serious here, we all know if that horse really wanted to do something there is nothing I could do to stop it.
After calming myself down enough where I felt somewhat in control we headed out on the trail ride. I was content going one speed...slow! My horse on the other hand seemed to dislike the distance I was putting between him and the horses in front, so occasionally he would break out into a trot to catch up. At one point when we were going on what I would call a roller coaster for horses or a series of little hills and valleys I swear my horse tried to buck me off. Nathan, who was behind me the entire time says my horse's feet never left the ground he just had a lot of momentum from the hill and it took him extra time to stop. I say he reared up when I tried to slow him down and Nathan was just at the wrong angle to see it. After 45 minutes of him trotting to catch up and me pulling back the reins saying whoa he finally got the picture and just went one speed really slow.
Besides being stressed out the entire ride I had a really great time. Nathan and I got to see some of Fort Hood's most beautiful country which was juniper and oak trees and a ton of cacti. It wasn't the most romantic way to spend our anniversary but we had fun and we got to spend some time together. These days that's all we really want, even if we can't sit right for a few days cause our bottoms are sore.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Winter Formal
Finally, Nathan and I got to go to a real Military Ball. We went to two of them together at Central and were pretty excited when we had the chance to go to First Brigade's Winter Formal on January 14th. The two previous balls I went to were small. They probably had 100 people and they were both catered by Centrals Dining Services, think cafeteria food. Anyway, this ball was for the entire brigade which means there was around a thousand people and they hired a real caterer.
As an officer, Nathan was required to go. Lucky for him he just has to wear his fancy smancy dress blues and his stetson and he is ready to go. I on the other hand had to find a dress. Let me tell you, it is nearly impossible to find a dress without breaking the bank here in Killeen! Sure I could have driven to Austin, Temple, or Dallas but I put off looking for a dress until the week before the ball. I finally found a dress at a decent price at a small shop in Harker Heights. I liked it and Nathan liked it, but I knew it's zipper was on it's last leg and there was some boning that was poking me in the chest, so I tried to talk the lady into lowering the price. She was like, "oh no the zipper is fine blah blah blah." I was still looking skeptical so she dropped the price 20 bucks and we called it good. I had to take it to get it altered because it was like 8 inches too long. While we were there I told the lady, "oh and this boning is poking me and the zipper has some issues if you could fix that too that would be great." She was like, "sure come pick it up Tuesday."
Tuesday rolls around and Nathan and I plus his parents who were in town stop by to pick up the dress. Guess what, I tried to get it on and the zipper wouldn't zip and the stupid boning was poking me in the chest. I was ticked. The lady was like oh we need to get a new zipper, but they promised to have it done the next day. Luckily, when Nathan and I stopped by the next day the zipper was fixed and the dress was the perfect length.
Speaking of disasters, like any girl I wanted to look nice for the big night. I was going to be sitting at a table with all of Nathan's coworkers and friends so I decided to get my hair styled. Being new in town I just went online and found someone that I thought would do a good job. All I wanted was for the lady to style my hair, and by style my hair I mean straiten it and make it have some body and look nice. She did the worst job EVER. When I looked in the mirror there were pieces that were still wavy and it had no body and she wasn't willing to do anymore. So Nathan and I paid her the 30 bucks she charged to wash and blow dry my hair and I went home and fixed it myself. I just wish I could bring my wonderful hairstylist from Bellingham down here with me. After I fixed my hair Nathan and I got ready for the big night. Nathan and I got into our duds and I pinned my spurs onto my dress to keep the boning from poking me all night, and we were ready to hit the town.
Nathan and I showed up at the convention center and got our pictures taken then moseyed on in to the room to find our seats. The room looked great. We had chocolates and a Garry Owen centerpiece as well as yummy salads and desserts at the table. I really enjoyed the ball. There were toasts, the grog bowl ceremony, delicious dinner, speeches by the brigade commander and the First Cav Division commander, and dancing. Nathan and I both agree that this was the best military ball by far. We had a lot of fun hanging out together and we even danced a few slow dances. After being there for three hours we were both pretty tired and we decided to head out since Nathan had to work the next morning and I, well I was just tired.
As an officer, Nathan was required to go. Lucky for him he just has to wear his fancy smancy dress blues and his stetson and he is ready to go. I on the other hand had to find a dress. Let me tell you, it is nearly impossible to find a dress without breaking the bank here in Killeen! Sure I could have driven to Austin, Temple, or Dallas but I put off looking for a dress until the week before the ball. I finally found a dress at a decent price at a small shop in Harker Heights. I liked it and Nathan liked it, but I knew it's zipper was on it's last leg and there was some boning that was poking me in the chest, so I tried to talk the lady into lowering the price. She was like, "oh no the zipper is fine blah blah blah." I was still looking skeptical so she dropped the price 20 bucks and we called it good. I had to take it to get it altered because it was like 8 inches too long. While we were there I told the lady, "oh and this boning is poking me and the zipper has some issues if you could fix that too that would be great." She was like, "sure come pick it up Tuesday."
Tuesday rolls around and Nathan and I plus his parents who were in town stop by to pick up the dress. Guess what, I tried to get it on and the zipper wouldn't zip and the stupid boning was poking me in the chest. I was ticked. The lady was like oh we need to get a new zipper, but they promised to have it done the next day. Luckily, when Nathan and I stopped by the next day the zipper was fixed and the dress was the perfect length.
Speaking of disasters, like any girl I wanted to look nice for the big night. I was going to be sitting at a table with all of Nathan's coworkers and friends so I decided to get my hair styled. Being new in town I just went online and found someone that I thought would do a good job. All I wanted was for the lady to style my hair, and by style my hair I mean straiten it and make it have some body and look nice. She did the worst job EVER. When I looked in the mirror there were pieces that were still wavy and it had no body and she wasn't willing to do anymore. So Nathan and I paid her the 30 bucks she charged to wash and blow dry my hair and I went home and fixed it myself. I just wish I could bring my wonderful hairstylist from Bellingham down here with me. After I fixed my hair Nathan and I got ready for the big night. Nathan and I got into our duds and I pinned my spurs onto my dress to keep the boning from poking me all night, and we were ready to hit the town.
Nathan and I showed up at the convention center and got our pictures taken then moseyed on in to the room to find our seats. The room looked great. We had chocolates and a Garry Owen centerpiece as well as yummy salads and desserts at the table. I really enjoyed the ball. There were toasts, the grog bowl ceremony, delicious dinner, speeches by the brigade commander and the First Cav Division commander, and dancing. Nathan and I both agree that this was the best military ball by far. We had a lot of fun hanging out together and we even danced a few slow dances. After being there for three hours we were both pretty tired and we decided to head out since Nathan had to work the next morning and I, well I was just tired.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Trooper for a Day
I always told Rebecca before we got married that being an army wife has some duties and responsibilities. However, it also has its "perks." Besides going to FRG meetings and tea get togethers that she "absolutely loves," she also got to earn her spurs at 1st Brigade's Trooper For A Day. The U.S. Cavalry has a long standing tradition where troopers go on a Spur Ride to earn their spurs as a symbolic right of passage. After earning one's spurs, the trooper can wear them on his boots. Silver spurs symbolize a completed spur ride, where gold spurs are earned in combat. I never thought that Rebecca would earn her spurs before me, but earn them she did.
The event took place on Saturday, January 10th. They day before was gorgeous, as was the day after. However, the day of the event was miserable. Despite the uninviting weather, Rebecca put on my uniform pants and braved the cold. When we arrived at 1st Cav HQ, all of the wives were signing in and getting their shirts and breaking up into squads. Rebecca was in Blackhawk's squad along with my company commander's mom and a five enlisted wives. There was a mass formation with a few high ranking people giving some introductory speeches and then the PT started.
The wives began warming up by jogging in place and then stretched out before the exercises started. I must say that Rebecca was awesome at push ups. All of the other wives were on their knees by the second set, but Rebecca did perfect push ups the entire time. She did regular push ups, wide arm push ups, and close hand push ups. I was amazed, as were some of the wives. The girls went on to do some side straddle hops (aka jumping jacks), the supine bicycle (aka supine tricycle), and flutter kicks, just to name a few. Once most of the girls were exhausted, the PT session ended and the squads moved on to their first stations.
Our first station was Battle Drill 6: Enter a building and clear a room. All of the wives here given real M4s and shown the basics on how to load a magazine and fire the weapon using blanks, of course. They practiced entering a room using a glass house and then did it for real in a wood house complete with terrorists to shoot at. Rebecca did a great job but the other girls kept running right in front of her while she was trying to shoot at bad guys. After all the terrorists were taken care of, we moved on to the next station: The Grenade Course!!!!!!
This course was to test the wives' ability to accurately throw grenades at targets. There were artillery simulators, machine gun fire simulators, and a whole bunch of smoke around the course used to provide a combat environment. The first target had two bad guys standing next to each other. Each wife got 1 or 2 points depending on how close they got the grenade to the bad guys. The next target was a machine gun bunker. The ladies had to run up to the bunker, pull out their grenade and throw it in the bunker. The last target was a trench with a bad guy in it. Although, there was so much smoke blowing in our faces, it was hard to tell what they were throwing the grenades at. Rebecca's team was one of the best at the grenade course.
The third lane was the marksmanship course and a timed disassemble and assembly of an M4. They had a line of terrorist looking bad guys wearing MILES gear. All of the weapons had lasers mounted on the barrels and every time a blank round was fired, a laser was shot at the receptors that the bad guys were wearing. Rebecca hit 10 out of 10 targets! After the shooting, the girls were then shown how to field strip an M4 and put it back together in under a couple minutes.
The last event was the medivac lane. The wives had to treat a wounded soldier's wounds and pull security while moving the casualty to a humvee ambulance. Then they sent up a request for medivac and waited for the Blackhawk to arrive. After it touched down, the girls carried the casualty up to the helicopter and loaded him in the back. I know that Rebecca is around helicopters all of the time so she was used to it, but that was easily the best part of my day! After the helicopter left, all of the wives assembled together for a final formation. During the formation the wives received certificates and pins showing that they earned their spurs. Rebecca's team was also awarded a coin for having the fastest time at the medivac lane! After the awards, the commander of 1st Brigade spoke and other people talked forever while we waited to be released. Everyone agreed that this was the most realistic part of the whole day.
After the wives were finally released, Rebecca and I headed for home, skipping out on the BBQ. We got home and I cooked some pancakes, eggs and sausage to warm us up after being frozen all day. And that is the story of how Rebecca earned her spurs.
The event took place on Saturday, January 10th. They day before was gorgeous, as was the day after. However, the day of the event was miserable. Despite the uninviting weather, Rebecca put on my uniform pants and braved the cold. When we arrived at 1st Cav HQ, all of the wives were signing in and getting their shirts and breaking up into squads. Rebecca was in Blackhawk's squad along with my company commander's mom and a five enlisted wives. There was a mass formation with a few high ranking people giving some introductory speeches and then the PT started.
The wives began warming up by jogging in place and then stretched out before the exercises started. I must say that Rebecca was awesome at push ups. All of the other wives were on their knees by the second set, but Rebecca did perfect push ups the entire time. She did regular push ups, wide arm push ups, and close hand push ups. I was amazed, as were some of the wives. The girls went on to do some side straddle hops (aka jumping jacks), the supine bicycle (aka supine tricycle), and flutter kicks, just to name a few. Once most of the girls were exhausted, the PT session ended and the squads moved on to their first stations.
Our first station was Battle Drill 6: Enter a building and clear a room. All of the wives here given real M4s and shown the basics on how to load a magazine and fire the weapon using blanks, of course. They practiced entering a room using a glass house and then did it for real in a wood house complete with terrorists to shoot at. Rebecca did a great job but the other girls kept running right in front of her while she was trying to shoot at bad guys. After all the terrorists were taken care of, we moved on to the next station: The Grenade Course!!!!!!
This course was to test the wives' ability to accurately throw grenades at targets. There were artillery simulators, machine gun fire simulators, and a whole bunch of smoke around the course used to provide a combat environment. The first target had two bad guys standing next to each other. Each wife got 1 or 2 points depending on how close they got the grenade to the bad guys. The next target was a machine gun bunker. The ladies had to run up to the bunker, pull out their grenade and throw it in the bunker. The last target was a trench with a bad guy in it. Although, there was so much smoke blowing in our faces, it was hard to tell what they were throwing the grenades at. Rebecca's team was one of the best at the grenade course.
The third lane was the marksmanship course and a timed disassemble and assembly of an M4. They had a line of terrorist looking bad guys wearing MILES gear. All of the weapons had lasers mounted on the barrels and every time a blank round was fired, a laser was shot at the receptors that the bad guys were wearing. Rebecca hit 10 out of 10 targets! After the shooting, the girls were then shown how to field strip an M4 and put it back together in under a couple minutes.
The last event was the medivac lane. The wives had to treat a wounded soldier's wounds and pull security while moving the casualty to a humvee ambulance. Then they sent up a request for medivac and waited for the Blackhawk to arrive. After it touched down, the girls carried the casualty up to the helicopter and loaded him in the back. I know that Rebecca is around helicopters all of the time so she was used to it, but that was easily the best part of my day! After the helicopter left, all of the wives assembled together for a final formation. During the formation the wives received certificates and pins showing that they earned their spurs. Rebecca's team was also awarded a coin for having the fastest time at the medivac lane! After the awards, the commander of 1st Brigade spoke and other people talked forever while we waited to be released. Everyone agreed that this was the most realistic part of the whole day.
After the wives were finally released, Rebecca and I headed for home, skipping out on the BBQ. We got home and I cooked some pancakes, eggs and sausage to warm us up after being frozen all day. And that is the story of how Rebecca earned her spurs.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Texas Or Bust
After Nathan and I had our fabulous Honeymoon we had to head down to our apartment in Killeen, TX. We spent the two days after our honeymoon at Nathan's parent's house in Tieton opening presents sorting through all of our loot and deciding what to take with us to Texas because all of my junk plus all of our presents and Nathan had to fit into my little ranger.
After what felt like a game of Tetris we finally had all of our junk packed up into the ranger. We packed some sandwiches for the road and headed out around six pm on Monday December 1. We just wanted to get on the road and get on our way. We made it to Boise, ID after six hours of driving. We used my handy dandy GPS to find a hotel and decided to get on the road around 10 the next morning.
After a "yummy" continental breakfast we headed out for Provo, UT. We made it to Provo around 2 pm and decided to walk around and look at the BYU campus, book store, Y mount terrace, and the art museum. After walking around for a while we stopped at the Brick Oven for yummy all you can eat pasta and salad! After sufficiently stuffing ourselves we decided that we would drive until 9pm then call it quits. We ended up driving to Moab since we wanted to see Arches National Park the next day and we figured it would work out perfect if we just spent the night there and then started our day off with a tour of the park.
The next morning we got up and headed out to the park. It was beautiful. We knew we couldn't see the entire park so we settled for the short loop which took us past quite a few arches but we didn't get out to where the famous delicate arch is. We will just have to make it out there when we have more time. We mostly just drove around the park and stopped a few times to look at stuff and snap a few pictures. We did take a short hike out to three arches. It was actually nice weather for the first week of December. After about two hours of exploring the park we decided to head out and continue on with the rest of our drive. We drove from Moab to the Four Corners Monument. I must say I was less than impressed but I think that it is just because it was the off season. There were only like two vendors there and no Indian fry bread! After doing the required standing in four states at once we headed out towards Albuquerque, NM. We made it there by 9 pm and ate dinner at Tony Romas and even though we were pretty tired from our long day of driving and exploring we decided to drive for another hour or so just to shave some time off of our 12 hour drive home. We stopped and got a hotel about an hour outside of Albuquerque. The next morning we got up and headed out as early as we could make ourselves get up. We drove through some interesting little towns. I never realized Texas grew so much cotton and they have tons of wind farms.
We finally made it to our little apartment around 6:30 pm. I was pleasantly surprised. We live in a decent little one bedroom apartment that is fairly close to post although not all that close to where Nathan works on post. After unpacking all of my junk we soon realized our nice walk in closet wouldn't actually hold all of my clothes and Nathan's but we have figured out how to make it work. Since we made our epic drive, we have just been hanging out down here in Texas enjoying each others company!
After what felt like a game of Tetris we finally had all of our junk packed up into the ranger. We packed some sandwiches for the road and headed out around six pm on Monday December 1. We just wanted to get on the road and get on our way. We made it to Boise, ID after six hours of driving. We used my handy dandy GPS to find a hotel and decided to get on the road around 10 the next morning.
After a "yummy" continental breakfast we headed out for Provo, UT. We made it to Provo around 2 pm and decided to walk around and look at the BYU campus, book store, Y mount terrace, and the art museum. After walking around for a while we stopped at the Brick Oven for yummy all you can eat pasta and salad! After sufficiently stuffing ourselves we decided that we would drive until 9pm then call it quits. We ended up driving to Moab since we wanted to see Arches National Park the next day and we figured it would work out perfect if we just spent the night there and then started our day off with a tour of the park.
The next morning we got up and headed out to the park. It was beautiful. We knew we couldn't see the entire park so we settled for the short loop which took us past quite a few arches but we didn't get out to where the famous delicate arch is. We will just have to make it out there when we have more time. We mostly just drove around the park and stopped a few times to look at stuff and snap a few pictures. We did take a short hike out to three arches. It was actually nice weather for the first week of December. After about two hours of exploring the park we decided to head out and continue on with the rest of our drive. We drove from Moab to the Four Corners Monument. I must say I was less than impressed but I think that it is just because it was the off season. There were only like two vendors there and no Indian fry bread! After doing the required standing in four states at once we headed out towards Albuquerque, NM. We made it there by 9 pm and ate dinner at Tony Romas and even though we were pretty tired from our long day of driving and exploring we decided to drive for another hour or so just to shave some time off of our 12 hour drive home. We stopped and got a hotel about an hour outside of Albuquerque. The next morning we got up and headed out as early as we could make ourselves get up. We drove through some interesting little towns. I never realized Texas grew so much cotton and they have tons of wind farms.
We finally made it to our little apartment around 6:30 pm. I was pleasantly surprised. We live in a decent little one bedroom apartment that is fairly close to post although not all that close to where Nathan works on post. After unpacking all of my junk we soon realized our nice walk in closet wouldn't actually hold all of my clothes and Nathan's but we have figured out how to make it work. Since we made our epic drive, we have just been hanging out down here in Texas enjoying each others company!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
The Honeymoon
As you already know, Rebecca did an amazing job planning the entire wedding by herself in Washington. Meanwhile, in Texas, I only had one responsibility: The Honeymoon. Rebecca told me that she wanted the destination to be a surprise and that I had complete control over where we would go. At first this was awesome! However, I started to get very nervous after I saw what an amazing job Rebecca had done with our wedding. While Rebecca pulled off an entire wedding, all I had planned was a measly honeymoon! What if we missed our flight? What if there was a hurricane or something?! All I wanted was for my part of the whole thing to go off without a hitch so that my new beautiful bride could relax like she deserved.
We woke up the day after our wedding at the bed and breakfast in Selah. We had a delicious breakfast with the rest of the guests and then headed out. We first drove back to my parent's house in Tieton to drop off Rebecca's dress and my tux. After we managed to escape from my parent's house, we drove to Yakima to run a couple errands before we needed to drive over to Seattle to catch our flight. The plane wasn't supposed to leave until around 5:00pm, so we were not too hurried. After lolly gagging around Yakima, we set off over the pass. So we wouldn't have to leave Rebecca's truck at the airport all week, we decided to drive to my aunt's house in Tacoma and then have her drop us off at the airport. I don't know where the time went, but by the time we were looking for the exit to my aunt's house, we were already late. As luck would have it, we missed the exit and had driven almost all the way down to Ft. Lewis. We turned around and found the exit and finally made it to my aunt's. We immediately got into her car and rushed off to the airport. Five minutes later we were stuck at some train tracks waiting for a train. Just great!
We had time to make it to the airport and board the plane, but only if there were no lines. I couldn't believe that our honeymoon was going to be ruined before we even got there! But don't get me wrong, I still had faith. We got to SeaTac and to the computer kiosk to check in, but of course, it didn't work. Our tickets said that we were on one airline but it was operated by another. We figured that we must have to check in at the actual airline that we were flying on. So, we ran, with all of our luggage, what seemed like a quarter mile, all the way down the the other airline check in station just to find out that we were right the first time. We ran all the way back, which seemed like a half mile, to the first check in station. This time we talked to an agent who checked us in and we were through to security. Our luck had changed. The security line was not long at all and before we knew it, we were at our gate with about 15 minutes to spare. It wasn't the most relaxing way to start our honeymoon, but at least we made it.
Our first flight took us south to Los Angeles. We then flew over night to Miami. Our next flight took us down to the lovely island of Barbados. From Barbados, we flew in a small plane west to Union Island where we were met by Maurice. Maurice loaded our luggage into a small minivan and then drove us down to a dock about 200m away from the airport. We boarded Maurice's boat and headed to our destination, Petit St. Vincent.
The boat ride took about 20 minutes. During that time, the sun went down and Rebecca still didn't know where we were going because we were sitting in the back of the boat facing Union Island. As we got off the boat, Maurice bid us farewell, and we were greeted by the island's staff. We immediately boarded one of the little golf carts that they use to get around the island and we were taken away to our cottage. On the way to our island home, the people driving the cart showed us where the main office was and other important places on the island.
It was hard to see exactly what the island looked like because it was so dark, but it was easy to tell just how small it was. When we got off the boat, we were on the Caribbean side of the island. We drove about 50m over a little hill and arrived on the Atlantic side of the island. This is the side where all of the cottages were. In all, there are 22 cottages on the island. We stayed in cottage number 8, which was right on the beach. As we arrived at the cottage, they showed us how to use the flag system. Near each cottage, there is a bamboo flag pole with a yellow and a red flag. When you have a request, you fill out a request form and slip it in a little container attached to the flagpole. You then raise the yellow flag and the staff will oblige to your request. If you don't want to be disturbed, you simply raise the red flag. Our cottage was huge. It had one room with a sitting area and a bathroom on one side and then another room with two beds and another bathroom on the other side. In the middle was a patio with a table and some beach chairs. In between our cottage and the beach was a hammock, and some more beach chairs.
Immediately after we arrived at our cottage we ordered dinner. The second thing I did after we arrived was walked through a screen door. Two sides of our cottage were sliding glass doors with screens on them to keep bugs out. At night, the screens were really hard to see and so I walked right through one of them busting the whole screen out of the door frame. Not to worry, we simply filled out a repair request and shortly after, a man came to replace the screen. I was told not to feel bad. The man said that it happens all the time and even Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, walked through a screen there.
After the excitement with the screen door, we had to concentrate on more important things like breakfast. Every night, you fill out another meal request for breakfast. You tell them what time you want to eat and they will bring whatever you want to your room. Of course, if you preferred not to eat at your cottage, you could always go to the restaurant for a meal. We had our first dinner that night delivered to us. After finishing our dinner, we got some much needed rest.
The next morning, we woke up to our breakfast being served on our table just outside of our bedroom. After breakfast, Rebecca went for a walk around the island as I went to the main office to plan events for the rest of our stay. After that, we walked over to the Caribbean side of the island for some snorkeling. We got pretty hungry while snorkeling, so we caught a ride back to the restaurant just in time to get some lunch. That night, we got dressed up and got a ride over to the Caribbean side again to have a nice dinner on the beach. When I planned the dinner, I just thought that you get served dinner at one of the little tables at the beach, which you do. However, they also have a whole bunch of lanterns hanging up all around the table. It was awesome! We got there a little early in hopes of catching the sun set but we missed it. The dinner was great and the atmosphere was unbeatable. It was paradise.
Every morning, including the next morning, we had breakfast delivered to our cottage. It was awesome! You could get almost anything you could think of. We also liked having it delivered because it would force us to get out of bed so we wouldn't spend our whole vacation sleeping. After another amazing breakfast, we got ready to go snorkeling on a tiny sand spit just a few minutes away by motor boat from our island. We got to the small island with all of our snorkeling gear and a picnic basket that was made for us. We spent about 2 hours snorkeling around the island and just hanging out on the sand. When we got to the little island, there were a couple small cruise ships anchored just off shore which made the island a little crowded. Eventually, the ships and the people left leaving the island to just the two of us. Sadly, our ride showed up shortly after to take us back to our main island.
That night, I planned to have dinner served to us on a dock on the Atlantic side of the island. Prior to our dinner, we strolled over the the Caribbean side again to try and see the sunset. We made it there in time, however, the sun set behind another island so it wasn't as good as we had hoped. After hanging out on the beach for a little while, we got a ride back to the other side for our dinner. The dock had lanterns leading us out to the end where there was a little covered area where we would eat. After a few minutes, our dinner was served. The Atlantic side of the island always has a good breeze which was a little bit annoying but helped to keep pesky bugs away. After dinner, we strolled down the beach back to our cottage. We stayed up for a while playing card games. We eventually went to bed in order to get some rest for our plans the next day.
We got up on Thanksgiving, our last full day, and again ate a delicious breakfast. We got all of our snorkeling gear together and put on sunscreen and headed down the the main dock. We were taking a ride on a schooner out to the Tobago Cays for some great snorkeling and lunch. The wind was blowing against us the whole way out to the cays so it took quite a while to get there. Once we got to the cays, we got off the sail boat onto a small motor boat and went up to the best snorkeling spot. We swam around for quite a while looking at all of the coral and fish. At one point I spotted a huge fish and swam over to Rebecca to ask her if she wanted to see a really big fish. We both swam back to see the big fish and that's when she realized it was a shark. We didn't spend too much time looking at it and quickly swam away. After seeing the shark, we got some crackers to feed the fish. Some of the fish were very aggressive. One was so hungry it bit Rebecca's finger and actually broke the skin.
After feeding the fish, we went snorkeling in a different spot where all of the turtles hang out. We saw so many turtles! It was amazing. After we had enough snorkeling, we boarded the schooner and had a great lunch. After lunch, we headed back home. The ride was a lot faster on the way home with the wind to our backs. We headed back to our cottage and cleaned off and get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We decided that we should have dinner at the restaurant with other people at least once while we were there and what would be a better time than Thanksgiving? The dinner was great. You could order anything and everything on the menu that you liked. They had all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods and more. After dinner, we went back to our room for our last night in paradise.
The next morning, we got up and packed all of our things for the trip home. After breakfast and lunch, we boarded Maurice's boat and headed back to Union Island. We got on the same small plane and flew the hour trip to Barbados. Although we were on our way home, our honeymoon wasn't over yet. We had one last night in Barbados before we headed back to the United States. After landing in Barbados, we took a cab to our hotel right on the beach. Our room was brand new and quite nice. We watched tv for a while and then had a nice dinner and desert by the beach at the hotel restaurant. I think the best thing about the hotel was that they had an air conditioner right above the bed. The next morning we took a cab back to the airport and started our long journey home. Everything went smoothly and we made it back without a hitch.
I couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon. Everything went as planned and Rebecca got to relax in paradise. I just wish we could have stayed a little bit longer.
We woke up the day after our wedding at the bed and breakfast in Selah. We had a delicious breakfast with the rest of the guests and then headed out. We first drove back to my parent's house in Tieton to drop off Rebecca's dress and my tux. After we managed to escape from my parent's house, we drove to Yakima to run a couple errands before we needed to drive over to Seattle to catch our flight. The plane wasn't supposed to leave until around 5:00pm, so we were not too hurried. After lolly gagging around Yakima, we set off over the pass. So we wouldn't have to leave Rebecca's truck at the airport all week, we decided to drive to my aunt's house in Tacoma and then have her drop us off at the airport. I don't know where the time went, but by the time we were looking for the exit to my aunt's house, we were already late. As luck would have it, we missed the exit and had driven almost all the way down to Ft. Lewis. We turned around and found the exit and finally made it to my aunt's. We immediately got into her car and rushed off to the airport. Five minutes later we were stuck at some train tracks waiting for a train. Just great!
We had time to make it to the airport and board the plane, but only if there were no lines. I couldn't believe that our honeymoon was going to be ruined before we even got there! But don't get me wrong, I still had faith. We got to SeaTac and to the computer kiosk to check in, but of course, it didn't work. Our tickets said that we were on one airline but it was operated by another. We figured that we must have to check in at the actual airline that we were flying on. So, we ran, with all of our luggage, what seemed like a quarter mile, all the way down the the other airline check in station just to find out that we were right the first time. We ran all the way back, which seemed like a half mile, to the first check in station. This time we talked to an agent who checked us in and we were through to security. Our luck had changed. The security line was not long at all and before we knew it, we were at our gate with about 15 minutes to spare. It wasn't the most relaxing way to start our honeymoon, but at least we made it.
Our first flight took us south to Los Angeles. We then flew over night to Miami. Our next flight took us down to the lovely island of Barbados. From Barbados, we flew in a small plane west to Union Island where we were met by Maurice. Maurice loaded our luggage into a small minivan and then drove us down to a dock about 200m away from the airport. We boarded Maurice's boat and headed to our destination, Petit St. Vincent.
The boat ride took about 20 minutes. During that time, the sun went down and Rebecca still didn't know where we were going because we were sitting in the back of the boat facing Union Island. As we got off the boat, Maurice bid us farewell, and we were greeted by the island's staff. We immediately boarded one of the little golf carts that they use to get around the island and we were taken away to our cottage. On the way to our island home, the people driving the cart showed us where the main office was and other important places on the island.
It was hard to see exactly what the island looked like because it was so dark, but it was easy to tell just how small it was. When we got off the boat, we were on the Caribbean side of the island. We drove about 50m over a little hill and arrived on the Atlantic side of the island. This is the side where all of the cottages were. In all, there are 22 cottages on the island. We stayed in cottage number 8, which was right on the beach. As we arrived at the cottage, they showed us how to use the flag system. Near each cottage, there is a bamboo flag pole with a yellow and a red flag. When you have a request, you fill out a request form and slip it in a little container attached to the flagpole. You then raise the yellow flag and the staff will oblige to your request. If you don't want to be disturbed, you simply raise the red flag. Our cottage was huge. It had one room with a sitting area and a bathroom on one side and then another room with two beds and another bathroom on the other side. In the middle was a patio with a table and some beach chairs. In between our cottage and the beach was a hammock, and some more beach chairs.
Immediately after we arrived at our cottage we ordered dinner. The second thing I did after we arrived was walked through a screen door. Two sides of our cottage were sliding glass doors with screens on them to keep bugs out. At night, the screens were really hard to see and so I walked right through one of them busting the whole screen out of the door frame. Not to worry, we simply filled out a repair request and shortly after, a man came to replace the screen. I was told not to feel bad. The man said that it happens all the time and even Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, walked through a screen there.
After the excitement with the screen door, we had to concentrate on more important things like breakfast. Every night, you fill out another meal request for breakfast. You tell them what time you want to eat and they will bring whatever you want to your room. Of course, if you preferred not to eat at your cottage, you could always go to the restaurant for a meal. We had our first dinner that night delivered to us. After finishing our dinner, we got some much needed rest.
The next morning, we woke up to our breakfast being served on our table just outside of our bedroom. After breakfast, Rebecca went for a walk around the island as I went to the main office to plan events for the rest of our stay. After that, we walked over to the Caribbean side of the island for some snorkeling. We got pretty hungry while snorkeling, so we caught a ride back to the restaurant just in time to get some lunch. That night, we got dressed up and got a ride over to the Caribbean side again to have a nice dinner on the beach. When I planned the dinner, I just thought that you get served dinner at one of the little tables at the beach, which you do. However, they also have a whole bunch of lanterns hanging up all around the table. It was awesome! We got there a little early in hopes of catching the sun set but we missed it. The dinner was great and the atmosphere was unbeatable. It was paradise.
Every morning, including the next morning, we had breakfast delivered to our cottage. It was awesome! You could get almost anything you could think of. We also liked having it delivered because it would force us to get out of bed so we wouldn't spend our whole vacation sleeping. After another amazing breakfast, we got ready to go snorkeling on a tiny sand spit just a few minutes away by motor boat from our island. We got to the small island with all of our snorkeling gear and a picnic basket that was made for us. We spent about 2 hours snorkeling around the island and just hanging out on the sand. When we got to the little island, there were a couple small cruise ships anchored just off shore which made the island a little crowded. Eventually, the ships and the people left leaving the island to just the two of us. Sadly, our ride showed up shortly after to take us back to our main island.
That night, I planned to have dinner served to us on a dock on the Atlantic side of the island. Prior to our dinner, we strolled over the the Caribbean side again to try and see the sunset. We made it there in time, however, the sun set behind another island so it wasn't as good as we had hoped. After hanging out on the beach for a little while, we got a ride back to the other side for our dinner. The dock had lanterns leading us out to the end where there was a little covered area where we would eat. After a few minutes, our dinner was served. The Atlantic side of the island always has a good breeze which was a little bit annoying but helped to keep pesky bugs away. After dinner, we strolled down the beach back to our cottage. We stayed up for a while playing card games. We eventually went to bed in order to get some rest for our plans the next day.
We got up on Thanksgiving, our last full day, and again ate a delicious breakfast. We got all of our snorkeling gear together and put on sunscreen and headed down the the main dock. We were taking a ride on a schooner out to the Tobago Cays for some great snorkeling and lunch. The wind was blowing against us the whole way out to the cays so it took quite a while to get there. Once we got to the cays, we got off the sail boat onto a small motor boat and went up to the best snorkeling spot. We swam around for quite a while looking at all of the coral and fish. At one point I spotted a huge fish and swam over to Rebecca to ask her if she wanted to see a really big fish. We both swam back to see the big fish and that's when she realized it was a shark. We didn't spend too much time looking at it and quickly swam away. After seeing the shark, we got some crackers to feed the fish. Some of the fish were very aggressive. One was so hungry it bit Rebecca's finger and actually broke the skin.
After feeding the fish, we went snorkeling in a different spot where all of the turtles hang out. We saw so many turtles! It was amazing. After we had enough snorkeling, we boarded the schooner and had a great lunch. After lunch, we headed back home. The ride was a lot faster on the way home with the wind to our backs. We headed back to our cottage and cleaned off and get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We decided that we should have dinner at the restaurant with other people at least once while we were there and what would be a better time than Thanksgiving? The dinner was great. You could order anything and everything on the menu that you liked. They had all of the traditional Thanksgiving foods and more. After dinner, we went back to our room for our last night in paradise.
The next morning, we got up and packed all of our things for the trip home. After breakfast and lunch, we boarded Maurice's boat and headed back to Union Island. We got on the same small plane and flew the hour trip to Barbados. Although we were on our way home, our honeymoon wasn't over yet. We had one last night in Barbados before we headed back to the United States. After landing in Barbados, we took a cab to our hotel right on the beach. Our room was brand new and quite nice. We watched tv for a while and then had a nice dinner and desert by the beach at the hotel restaurant. I think the best thing about the hotel was that they had an air conditioner right above the bed. The next morning we took a cab back to the airport and started our long journey home. Everything went smoothly and we made it back without a hitch.
I couldn't have asked for a better honeymoon. Everything went as planned and Rebecca got to relax in paradise. I just wish we could have stayed a little bit longer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)