Antigua 2011 Daily routine

I've found that for vacations, I tend to wake up at the crack of dawn.  I'd be up at 7 AM.  It's odd.  Then I realized w/o TV or internet, I'd be in bed early and sleeping at around 9 PM.  This vacation was no exception.  I enjoyed every morning a fresh breakfast at 7 AM and headed off to the lovely beach.  The beach was awesome, especially with our floaties to relax on.

Around noon, I'd head off to lunch and avoid the hot hot sun.  Afternoon, I'd happily by the private pool by our room and enjoy my books.  I read over 40 books which is was awesome.  This vacation was relaxing and fun.  I was able to connect with Brian again, just the two of us.  I love our vacations together.

Antigua 2011

This year for a Caribbean trip, we go to Antigua.  We went to a Sandals resort for two week.  It was relaxing.  Here are some of the pictures of the place.  It isn't as big as some of the other places I've gone.  Here's my review of the resort on Trip Advisor.

 

Christmas 2010 Everglade park

The trip felt as if I went on a birding outing.  We saw birds at the different various parks.  Here are a few.

Christmas 2010 with the family

This year, we went to Naples, Florida.  Brian and I had been hoping it would be really warm in Florida since it is in the South.  Well, we were wrong.  They had a freak freezing below average Christmas.  The windows were all frosted with NO ice scraper.  The airboat ride was so cold.  This is the fourth vacation in a row that we have had unseasonably cold weather.

It all started in Dominican Republic.  The first day was too hot for me and I asked for just a few days of cool weather for me to adjust.  The weather dropped 20 degrees, the humidity disappeard and it rained for 5 days.  Then in Galapagos, I was afraid of overheating in my thick wetsuit so I hoped it wouldn't be too hot.  The water was unseasonably cool in the mid 60s and lower.  There wasn't a single sunny day to heat our black wetsuits.  In Seattle I thought, I want to go snow showing in the mountains.  I didn't expect us to have a freak blizzard accumulating inches in snow that stopped traffic for over 5 hours.  So... this last trip this year, I thought, what could go wrong?  It can't be that cold in Florida.  WRONG!  I'm starting to think I bring a chill with me everywhere I go.

Seattle Gourmet Food Tour

The second food tour was the "gourmet" one.  I didn't like it as much as Pike's Market but the tour guide was still great.  He wore a kilt!

The pizza here was really tasty.  They canned many veggies and used it as decoration all over the restaurant.

There was some amazing truffle oils at this Italian specialty store.  I purchased several little ones and truffle salt.  The lemon curd was amazing.

 The owner of the specialty store.

 The most gross and unhygienic alley on the way to the Pike Brewing Co.  People covered it with chewed gum.

Food at the brewery

We went to the Four Seasons Hotel which was amazing.  The food was pretty good and the hotel was lovely. 

The Buffet!

This is the last stop at the Gelato place.  It was delicious!

Seattle Mt. Rainier

The beaver is almost done.

This was the nicest fox I've ever seen.  It came right up to us, begging for food.  I felt so bad.  I wanted to feed the little guy.

Brian fed the birds