winning.

VCU's RAMpage of the NCAA Tournament has led to much discussion and some pretty hilarious commentary. In the spirit of fun, I present...

The two best VCU shirts to result from March Madness 2011.

      

• Whatcha talkin' 'bout Bilas?
• There goes my bracket!

GO RAMS!

shameless promotion.

Just a reminder, the VCU Final Four Chicago watch party is this Saturday, April 2 at 5pm!

All alumni and Rams fans in the Chicago area are welcome-- do me a favor and RSVP online before Friday at 5pm so I can get an accurate count to Wrightwood Tap.

RSVP online here.  Also, check out the VCU Final Four parties being hosted around the country.  RAM NATION!

watch party!

In the spirit of cheering on my alma mater, I'm hosting a Final Four watch party this Saturday.  If you live in Chicago or nearby and want to join, all are welcome!

VCU Rams vs. Butler Bulldogs Final Four Watch Party

Saturday, April 2, 2011 @ 5pm

Wrightwood Tap

1059 W. Wrightwood Ave

Chicago IL  60614

3 hour open bar (5-8pm): $15 pp

Wear your best black and gold and bring a snack to share!

mess with the the RAMS...

And you get the horns!

Congratulations to the VCU Rams on beating (the crap out of) the Kansas Jayhawks today!  We are now en route to our first ever Final Four appearance and it feels AMAZING!

GO RAMS!!!

friday favorites.

Today's Friday Favorites will be short and sweet, mainly for the fact that I'm in the middle of a 12 hour work day that ends at midnight.  My students love to over-program the end of the semester, so the next six weeks are pretty jam packed!

• Tungle - My aforementioned jam packed April-May schedule has me pulling my hair out some days.  Since I work in an office that focuses on student programs and events, I'm often not sitting at my desk, waiting for someone to walk in and ask me a question.  This can be frustrating to students, so I try to communicate my availability as well as possible.  Tungle has been a great addition to our office's scheduling structure-- it automatically updates from my Google and Outlook calendars and shows students when I'm available.  It even lets them propose meeting times when I'm free.  Accounts are free and easy to use!
• Football Fanatics - Don't let the name fool you-- this online store has TONS of great NCAA, NFL, MLB and NHL merchandise.  I've ordered from them several times (including the spiffy new VCU shirt I'm sporting today) and the 3-day shipping for $4.99 has been a lifesaver.  The best part is that the $4.99 shipping is a flat rate-- you can order as many things as you want and just pay $4.99 for the entire order's shipping!

Ok, with that, I'm off.  Grabbing some dinner before setting up for tonight's madness.  Think good thoughts as I try to stay awake until mindight!

crafty for a cause.

I am a terrible arts and crafts person.  I am a perfectionist in most parts of my life, but crafts are an area where I just do not have the patience.  I was always jealous growing up of my mother and sister (Pam at The Finder's Keeper), who both have amazing artistic talents... the furthest mine ever went was the occasional watercolor painting or doodle.  Artistry around me seems to abound-- my best friend, Meena Khalili Clifford, is also an amazingly talented illustrator and designer, to the point that she's already a professor in the field at age 29, and my friend Ellen is well-known around these parts for her Crafturday parties!

Anyway, I was approached at work today about a really cool project to help raise funds for Japan in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami.  Students Rebuild and Architecture for Humanity are sponsoring a paper crane project; every paper crane you make and send to them will result in a $2 donation to rebuilding the nation.

If you are crafty and/or possess paper folding skills, please consider contributing.  And if you do contribute, please fold a crane or two for me... for dear readers, I do not joke when I say my crafting skills are poor.

You see... my boss, Katie, and I attempted paper peace cranes last year.  You will notice neither is peaceful, nor a crane.  Happy Wednesday!

dancing days are here again.

As mentioned in my previous post, I went to college at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA (along with my fabulous friend, Amy over @ Sam I Am).  I graduated in 2003, right around the time VCU Basketball started getting hot-- they made their first NCAA tournament appearance in almost 10 years in 2004. Even though sports weren't a big deal on campus, I attended many a basketball game at the Siegel Center during my undergraduate years.  I rarely turn down a cheap event, and as students, admission was always free!

Anyway, fast forward through the next 7 years, and VCU has made three other NCAA tournament fields, including the famed 2007 thumping of powerhouse Duke University in the first round-- Duke's only first round loss since 1996.  Basketball has progressively gotten better and better, and VCU's school spirit has exponentially improved since I graduated.  It's a really cool thing to see as an alumni and supporter!

So now, here's the thing: VCU had a crappy February 2011.  They lost the Colonial Athletic Association tournament and finished out of the top 2 spots in the regular season.  And according to NCAA history, the CAA has never been given more than one bid to the big dance.  Things changed this season, though: the selection committee saw some merit in VCU and gave the CAA three bids for the first time ever.  This year, VCU was given one of those crazy new spots in the NCAA tournament that required a play-in game, despite being an 11th seed.  Critcism was rampant among sports writers and critics; the most infamous words coming from ESPN analyst Jay Bilas:

"I’ve seen UAB play. I’ve seen VCU play... All of the teams on the ‘snub list’ should have gotten in before those two. All of them. There’s a reason none of us brought up UAB and VCU as having a chance to get in — and it’s because they had no chance to get in. The committee has gone against their own principles."

In true underdog style, you can imagine how things have unfolded.  VCU beat USC 59-46 in the first round, winning a trip to the second round in Chicago, IL.  My excitement level was at about 110% when I realized this.
Seeing the opportunity to watch my alma mater play in the NCAA tournament was an offer I couldn't refuse.  The alumni association was offering tickets at a fair rate, so I purchased two seats for Jeremy and I.  The first game was Friday night; I headed to the United Center after work and picked up our tickets-- happily discovering they were prime seats: Section 113, and just about 15 rows off the floor!

As you may already know, VCU pounded Georgetown by a margin of 74-56.  It was a great game, but a little uneventful since the Rams absolutely dominated the entire time!  The win meant we also were automatically granted tickets for the next round's game on Sunday.  

We were rewarded in Round 3 with another victory-- VCU slammed Purdue (in a stadium FULL of Purdue fans, I might add), by a margin of 94-76.  It was an amazing feeling, because we witnessed history!  Sunday's win allowed VCU into their first-ever Sweet Sixteen.  For a team that "didn't deserve" to be in the tournament, we sure are shutting up all the critics at a rapid rate!

What team are you rooting for this March Madness?  I'm VCU all the way!  The only sad thing is that the next game, against Florida State, is being held on Friday night at 9pm CST... and I have to work on Friday night for a special event until midnight!  So, be sure to tune in to the game, cheer on the Rams and yell loud for me!

absence makes the heart grow fonder.

That was a much longer than anticipated blog break!  The last two weeks have been a bear, y'all.  What have I been up to?  In no particular order...

• Work
• Attempting to spend time with J
• Attempting to not fight with J about our limited time together
• Conference travel
• NCAA March Madness
• WORK
• NCAA March Madness
• Errands
• Sleep
  

I spent 5 days in Philadelphia last week for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators annual conference.  I work with student organizations, student development and event planning at a small, private college in Chicago, IL.  NASPA's annual meeting is a huge gathering of people who work at colleges and universities outside of the classroom-- in areas like student activities, Greek life, counseling, judicial affairs and so on.  I look forward to the conference every year; it's a great way to reconnect and energize about what I do.

The conference itself was fairly good, save for a few timing snafus and sessions that weren't exactly what I expected.  It was fun to be out of the office and meeting like-minded professionals for a few days. Philadelphia, however, was... a huge disappointment.  I had high hopes for the city, as I do for most places on the east coast.  I was sadly mistaken.  From our first cab ride, to hotel check-in, to restaurants and everything in between, we were largely met with loud, rude people.  The area surrounding our hotel and conference center went from ok to sketchy in a matter of blocks, making getting around in the evenings without a vehicle nearly impossible.  We spent most of our time in the conference events and at the few chain restaurants within walking distance.

Our last day in Philly, we did get to venture out and explore the city a bit more.  I had my first official Philly Cheesesteak (at Jim's) and we toured Old City.  Here are just a few pictures from our afternoon...

I returned to Chicago on St. Patrick's Day afternoon, headed home to change and then out for the evening.  In our old age, however, we only managed to stay out until 11pm!  It was nice to see Jeremy after 5 days apart and nice to be back in my city!

Tomorrow's update: March Madness!  You see, I am a proud alumni of a little school named Virginia Commonwealth University, aka VCU.  Possibly also aka that team that totally screwed up your bracket.  VCU is making an appearance in our first-ever Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.  The cool thing about all this?  I WAS THERE TO WITNESS HISTORY!  One of the second and third round tournament sites was sweet home Chicago, and I lucked out that VCU played two games in town!  I'll post pictures and stories tomorrow... for now, though, GO RAMS, GO!!! 

flip, flip, flipadelphia!

I'm flying out to Philadelphia on Sunday for 5 days. I'll be attending the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Annual Conference-- the yearly professional development meeting for people who work in Student Affairs. I always enjoy getting to conferences as a means to re-energize myself and gather some new ideas for making my work life easier!

Although I lived on the east coast my whole life and have visited New York City an infinite amount of times, I've never actually been to Philly! Any suggestions for places to eat, things to do or see? We've got a cheesesteak taste-off planned, as well as a map of historic sites to visit. But, do you know of any outside the box places that a first-timer like myself should try? We'll have a bit of free time on Wednesday afternoon to do most of our exploring, as well as some evening time on Monday and Tuesday.

In the least, maybe I can find Paddy's Pub and grab some milk steak with the gang from It's Always Sunny...

day 5: there's no place like home.

We woke up early on our last day in Cable Beach. Our flight was around 2pm, but we had to check out by 11am and wanted to be at the airport in plenty of time to navigate through security and immigration, as well as grab some lunch.

Jeremy wanted to get right to packing up, but I persuaded him to take one last quick trip down to the beach-- after all, when would we be able to enjoy a few minutes of relaxation on a powder-sand beach again? Probably not anytime soon! So, we got dressed and walked down to the beach and took a quick dip in the heated pool. It was a nice way to start the day, and a good way to calm ourselves before setting off on our whirlwind trip back to the states!

After our swim, we headed back to the room and got to the business of packing and cleaning up. Surprisingly, it didn't take too long-- I'm always worried about packing to come home, because things just never seem to fit the way they did on the way in!

We checked out right at 11, hopped in a cab and made it to the airport around 11:30am. We were pleased to find out that in Nassau, you actually go through a TSA screening and US Customs on site, instead of when you actually land in the US. The process was way less-stressful than I thought!

We had a smooth flight from Nassau to Philadelphia, but hit a few snags once on the ground. We decided to grab dinner while on our layover, which turned out to be a bad idea. We ordered cheesesteaks from Chickies & Ruths and thought we'd have a simple go of it. WRONG. Our simple order (literally, two cheesesteaks, thats it) took THIRTY SEVEN minutes. The staff was very sassy and unapologetic... not a good intro to the City of Brotherly Love! Once we finally got our sandwiches, we headed over to out gate for boarding... just in time to catch an announcement that our flight was being delayed. Apparently, there was a security breach on our list-- someone attempting to board presented conflicting ID, somehow was matched with the No Fly List, and ended up causing a BIG headache. The individual in question was pulled out of line and questioned by probably 12 people, ranging from Philadelphia PD to TSA to an Air Marshall. Yikes!

The delay finally got us on board about 45 minutes late. The fun didn't stop there, though. Due to our lateness, when we finally taxied out for takeoff, we got caught in some traffic. Meaning, we were 25th in line! By the time we had wheels up, we were 90 minutes late.

We ended up at O'Hare around 9pm and got home about 10pm. While it was nice to sleep in our own bed, I definitely missed pretty much everything about vacation! It was hard to believe we woke up in a different country and were back in our own home in the span of 14 hours. Hard to believe, and quite a bit sad!

day 4: island dreaming.

Our shuttle to the dock for our Powerboat Adventure to the Exuma Cays was supposed to arrive at 8am on Monday.  We were downstairs at the (twice confirmed) entrance for pickup at 7:45.  By 8:10, I started to get nervous.  I asked the bellman and he assured me the shuttle only picked up at our entrance and not to worry.

He was wrong.

At 8:20, he sheepishly approached us after getting off the phone with someone.  "The shuttle came 8 minutes ago to the upstairs entrance."

Instant tears.  I had been looking forward to this excursion for a long time, and I had a bad feeling that morning that something was wrong.  I hate it when I'm right in those situations!

Anyway, I called the travel company and they apologized and said they'd figure out what was going on.  About 15 minutes later, our bus arrived.  Apparently, the driver had forgotten two other couples further down the beach from us, too!

We ended up getting to the dock about 45 minutes late, but at least we made it!  We boarded the powerboat for an hour trip to the Exuma Cays-- specifically Allan's Cay and Ship Channel Cay.  I managed to curtail my seasickness by keeping my eyes closed and drinking lots of water when the seas were rough!

Allan's Cay was first up, where we were greeted with LOTS of hungry iguanas. Jason, one of our guides, gave us fistfuls of grapes and told us to have at it.  We stuck our grapes on the ends of some sticks to feed the iguanas-- they have sharp little teeth that you definitely don't want to nip your fingers!

Allan's Cay was also home to the most gorgeous water I saw while in the islands.  Perfect for a couples shot!

A short 10 minute ride away was our home for the day, Ship Channel Cay.  Our day long experience included all you could drink and eat, a pretty amazing package for poor folks like us!  Our first activity was watching Jason clean some grouper, which would later become lunch for us AND for the sharks and stingrays.  After that was done, it was animal adventure time.  

Stingrays were first, and I was terrified.  I'm not the most adventuresome person, and I have pretty bad luck.  I was convinced I was going to meet my end Steve Irwin style, so I was pretty skittish around these guys.  I did pet one a few times and managed to feed one before I hopped out of the water for awhile!  Jeremy, though, has no fear and loved the whole thing!  

After the rays came the sharks, which we weren't allowed to feed for safety reasons.  Although these were "small" sharks (lemon, nurse and reef), they were anywhere from 4-7 feet in length.  Plenty big for me!

After the shark excitement, we headed out for a short snorkeling adventure (yes, make the sharks angry and hungry and THEN go snorkeling).  Jeremy had never been before and I'd never tried it outside of a pool, so it was cool to experience!

All of our morning activity was rewarded with a huge lunch of steak, grouper, pasta, salad, veggies and fruit... with the best view ever!

After lunch, we lounged on the beach, swam and napped in the sun.  Our boat ride back got us to shore around 5pm and our bus dropped us at 6pm.  We were both fairly exhausted but decided to head out for one last meal to Arawak Cay, a popular local restaurant row.  Sadly, this was the most disappointing part of our trip-- the food was mediocre, the service was terrible, the staff rude and the prices were outrageous.  To add insult to injury the cashier argued with us about what we ordered and ended up charging us an extra $8.  It was a poor ending to a great day!  We actually were in bed by 830pm on Tuesday-- all the excitement of our trip and the anticipation of traveling home the next day was definitely weighing on us!

day 3: relaxation station.

We got to sleep in a little on our second full day in Cable Beach, since it was the only day we didn't have a scheduled excursion.  We still ended up getting out of the room and to the pool by about 10:30am, though!  We grabbed breakfast from Starbucks and headed right for the pool, early enough to get two prime seats by the bar and water's edge.

We sunned ourselves for about an hour, alternating between the chairs and cooling off in the pool.  We even tried out the waterslide in our pool, which I found a little scrapey, but Jeremy loved.  Around 11:30am, poolside Bingo started.  Jeremy won the first game and was rewarded with a Bahama Mama, woohoo!  

By noon, I could feel that my SPF 30 wasn't doing too much for my pale Scotch-Irish skin, so we decided to venture out for lunch.  We hopped across the street and grabbed a burger from a vendor and a few daiquiris from the Daiquiri Shack.  The Shack was amazing-- every drink was made to order with fresh fruit of your choice.  Drinks only consisted of fruit, cane syrup and rum.  For $6, they were definitely the best drinks on the beach!

After a few more hours on the beach in the shade of umbrellas, we headed inside to shower and decided to catch a jitney (bus) to downtown Nassau.  We arrived downtown around 4:30pm, when most locals were heading home for the day.  We spent about 2 hours walking around and souvenir shopping... didn't buy a whole lot because everything in the Bahamas is EXPENSIVE, folks!  Bottle of sunscreen = $20.  

We'd heard much ado about Senor Frog's, a spot especially popular with spring breakers, which made me hesitant to try it.  However, it turned out to be a great choice!  The restaurant was open-air, right on the beach and cruise terminal.  We spent our dinner marveling at the ginourmous Disney Dream ship in port.

While the food at Senor Frog's wasn't amazing, the drinks and atmosphere were!  We enjoyed a few margaritas, a congo line with free shots, karaoke and a few silly contests.  Our waiters were definitely the friendliest folks we met on the island and treated us well.  

 

After dinner, we hailed a cab back to the Wyndham.  It was a beautiful night, so we decided to spend some time in the hot tub and heated pool.  After two hours and 20 wrinkly fingers, we headed back to our room for some rest.  We needed lots of rest to prepare for Monday's excursion to the Exuma Cays!

day 2: just keep swimming.

Our dolphin trip was scheduled to leave the resort at 9:30am on Sunday, so we got up around 8am to wake up, shower and grab breakfast.  We took a little shuttle bus for the 6 mile trip to the ferry where our boat was departing, which gave us our first look at downtown Nassau, including the straw market and cruise ship terminals.  After checking in at the dock, we received wristbands for the trip and climbed aboard a double-decker boat.  It was a gorgeously sunny morning, and the 25 minute boat trip to Blue Lagoon Island was just the way to wake up for the day!

We arrived on the island around 10:30am and were immediately greeted by our trainers for our swim session.  We listed to a little presentation about dolphins and the island first, and then headed down to a floating dock for our program.  I was so excited I could hardly stand it-- I've always loved dolphins and I was beyond thrilled to have the opportunity for the swim!

Each participant was divided into groups of 10.  When you weren't in the water, you got to watch the other groups and enjoy the sun.  We were in the second group for our session, so we got to see what we'd be doing first, and then we hopped into the water to meet Salvatore, our dolphin friend for the day.




Our swim consisted of a few things: a dance, a kiss, a hug, a back and belly pet and a photo session.  Readers, it was seriously the coolest 30 minutes of my life.  I'm VERY glad we invested in a waterproof digital camera for the trip-- I was able to get some great candid pictures of us in the water!

Jeremy dancing with his new pal!

Dolphin kisses... fishy!

After our swim, we ventured around the island for a bit before lunch.  We visited with the sea lions, watched some baby dolphins being trained, played in the touch tank and took in some gorgeous island views.  By 1pm, we were starving, so we grabbed lunch and then laid on the beach and in hammocks while it digested. 

After we rested, we rented a water bike for 30 minutes and took a spun around the lagoon-- so fun!  

Pedal faster!

We ended our day on Blue Lagoon Island fulfilling one of Jeremy's country music lyric dreams...

I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand

Not a worry in the world, a cold beer (or, pina colada) in my hand

Life is good today, life is good today.

We headed back to Nassau around 4:30pm.  After arriving at the hotel, we went for a dip in the pool at sunset and then decided to try the Sheraton's Bimini Market for dinner.  We dined on the outdoor terrace and enjoyed the sea breeze and moonlight as we ate.  It was the most perfect first day of vacation I've ever had.

day 1: two tickets to paradise.

Flying at 6am is rough.  I wrestled with two options for being at the airport by 4am:

• Option 1: Go to bed on Friday evening around 7pm and sleep til 1am.  Get up, shower and pack, leave for airport at 3:45am.
• Option 2: Come home from work, pack and clean, go to bed at a normal time (10pm) and wake up at 3am, shower and leave for airport at 3:45am.

Option 1 sounded better initially, however, I'm a VERY light sleeper.  Jeremy didn't get home from work until almost 9pm, so I knew going to bed at 7 would mean I'd wake up as soon as he came in and not be able to rest well.  We ended up with Option 2, although we didn't get to sleep until almost 11:30pm.  Waking at 3am wasn't too bad, though, knowing that in 12 hours I'd be on a tropical beach!

Our travel was not without drama, though... most people who know me know that I'm pretty organized (I am an event planner and all), but that I have terrible luck when it comes to putting plans into place!  I'm also very bad at rolling with the punches sometimes, which can make traveling a little maddening for me.  

Anyway, we boarded our flight on time-- we were flying to Dallas first, and from there to the Bahamas.  We got settled, headed out to the runway and... nothing.  After about 10 minutes of sitting, the pilot came on to tell us two systems were malfunctioning and we had been instructed to return to the gate for repairs or an equipment change.  I immediately started getting anxious, because no one wants to fly on a broken plane and because our layover time in DFW really only allowed us about an hour of flexibility before we'd miss our connection.  Our connection, of course, was the only direct flight from Dallas to Nassau that day.

We returned to the gate and sat in anticipation for about 40 minutes.  We could see the mechanics working in the cockpit and eventually got the good news that we'd be able to leave soon.  We finally left the gate again, and our wheels were up about 55 minutes past our original departure.  

As we landed in DFW, we figured out we had just about 20 minutes to get to our gate.  Thankfully, the airport was laid out very efficiently and we managed to get right in line and on our flight.  Nothing like a little raised blood pressure to get vacation started!

Flying into Nassau was awesome-- I slept for about 45 minutes towards the end of the flight and woke up as we began the descent.  The water was the most awesome shade of turquoise I've ever seen, and I got so excited as we headed closer.  We hopped off the plane and into the hottest terminal I've ever been in; I guess the A/C wasn't working so well that day!  We walked for what felt like forever before reaching a few stops: first to customs where our passports were stamped, then a baggage check for our carry-on items and then we grabbed lunch before hopping into a cab.

Thelma, our cabbie, welcomed us to Nassau and drove us into Cable Beach.  I had forgotten that the Bahamas roads operate on a European system, so everything was reversed from what I'm used to!  The resort was only 15 minutes from the airport, and we finally arrived around 4pm.  Check-in was no problem, we were given vouchers for our two free excursions that our package included, so we made our reservations immediately.  We then headed to our room where we were greeted with a king sized bed and a balcony with a pretty awesome view.

 

We immediately freshened up from our flights, changed into our beach attire and headed down to check out the resort.  Our hotel, the Wyndham Nassau, shares its property and amenities with the Sheraton Nassau Beach, so we kind of got two hotel experiences for one!  We were able to use all the pools, hot tubs, beaches and activities at both spots-- pretty cool!  We spent some time exploring the grounds, but eventually grabbed a Bahama Mama from the beach bar and plopped into two beach chairs to watch the sun set.

We were pretty exhausted from our travels by about 7pm, so instead of going out, we ordered room service and snuggled in bed.  Part of being on vacation is getting to do things you don't normally do, right?  We munched on some pizza and chocolate cake and fell asleep early, ready to take on our first full day and our Dolphin Swim!

back to reality.

We're back, everyone!  We spent an AMAZING few days on Cable Beach, Nassau.  I truly cannot express in words how great of a trip we had-- we did so many cool things and saw some beautiful sights!  I will spend the next few entries detailing each day with a rundown of our trip and photos from our experiences.  Here is what we spent our precious days of relaxation doing...

• Saturday, 2.26: Flew from Chicago to Dallas, Dallas to Nassau.  Arrived at the hotel around 4pm.  Checked in, booked our excursions, explored the area, ordered room service for dinner and went to bed.
• Sunday, 2.27: Took a shuttle from our hotel to the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal, then boarded a boat for Blue Lagoon Island.  Spent all day on the private island, including our dolphin swim, lunch, sunning, swimming and water biking.  Relaxed around the hotel and ate dinner outside on the terrace.
• Monday, 2.28: Slept in a bit, relaxed by the pool and enjoyed the beach.  We also had fun on the water slide, played poolside bingo and swam in the ocean.  For the afternoon, we took a bus to downtown Nassau and explored some shops and sights.  We had dinner and many drinks at the ever-popular Senor Frog's, which was a BLAST!  That night, we enjoyed some serious hot tub time and swam under the stars in the heated pool.
• Tuesday, 3.1: Woke up very early to catch a shuttle to the Ferry Terminal again, this time for our trip to Allan's Cay and Ship Channel Cay.  We fed iguana's at Allan's Cay and then stingrays and sharks on Ship Channel.  Got to snorkel, had a great grilled lunch and lounged on the beach.  We were tuckered out after our all-day adventure, but headed to Arawak Cay, aka the "Fish Fry" for dinner and went to bed early (9pm!)
• Wednesday, 3.2: Went for an early morning swim, packed our goodies and headed to the airport.  We flew from Nassau to Philadelphia and then to Chicago.  After a few travel delays, we arrived home around 9:30pm.  

Look for upcoming daily breakdowns of our trip over the next few days... for now, though, here's a sneak peek at some photos!

 The view from our balcony, looking east.

Enjoying our time on Blue Lagoon Island.

The Daiquiri Shack, our favorite drink spot!

On beautiful Allan's Cay.