Lucky I'm in LOVE with my Best Friend: Cruising!!!

Ok, if you know Brad at all you probably have heard him say "I'm never going on a cruise, I get sea sick." Seriously, we've had this conversation over and over. I think cruising sounds ideal, he thinks it sounds awful. But then, one sweet day in the fall, his boss pulled him aside and surprised him with a cruise for the two of us (and his co-worker Tom and his wife). Brad's first response even to a free trip "Dude, I really don't want to go on a cruise." Lucky for me, Collyn told him to suck it up and get on the boat. So, after a few months of letting the idea settle in (and buying a couple boxes of Dramamine), we were both excited to go on this awesome vacation.

Sprinkler Supply (one of their suppliers) organized the trip and brought us over all these goodies the week before. We were really getting spoiled.

We left on Friday, January 25th for Ft. Lauderdale and spent the night there before boarding the ship the next afternoon. We were cruising on Royal Carribean's Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship on the ocean and it did not disappoint. It was massive, carrying over 6,000 guests and another 2,000 crew members. Besides the theaters, restaurants, and pools, it has two wave riders and rock climbing walls!

Our first port was in Nassau, Bahamas. We spent a few hours snorkeling, but had to be back on the boat pretty early in the afternoon. Not my favorite place, but I was really impressed with the water, it's exactly the color everyone talks about. Even in the major port, right next to these huge ships, the water is turquoise blue!

We quickly found one of our favorites spots on the ship was the Solarium at the front of the ship, awesome views but surrounded by glass to block the wind. We spent a lot of time lounging here.

The next day we were in port at St. Thomas, USVI. We booked a bus tour/beach excursion and I loved it. Being a bit of a nerd, I really liked learning the history of the island and how it became a US territory as we rode around looking at the sights.

After the bus tour, we were dropped off at this beach - Magen's Bay. It was really beautiful.

Side note, there are iguanas all over this island... on the rocks by the port, in the trees, everywhere.

During our day at sea Brad and Tom and Katherine took advantage of the rock walls and wave riders. Brad was pretty good at the body boarding, but the stand up surfing kicked his buns! Sprinkler Supply set up a private event on the wave riders one night and it was really fun to see the guys trying it out. Some of them were really good, but they all crashed hard.

On the fifth day we stopped in St. Maarten, my most favorite place. Everything about this island was beautiful! The port was clean and nice, the downtown was just a ten minute walk away, and we had the most fun on our catamaran excursion.

We sailed halfway around the island and stopped twice to snorkel, although these were the only fish we saw. :) But we swam up to the beach and really just had a great time.

Our last two days were at sea and there's not much to say about that as it was cold and windy, but our experience on the ship was great. The shows were a lot of fun. We enjoyed the comedy club and newlywed game the most. Dinners were excellent. I was so sad coming home, having to actually think about making food again. Our waiters Herb and Dan were awesome. Herb memorized our likes and dislikes immediately, bringing out a baked potato to Brad with every meal instead of cheesy mashed potatoes or extra cooked carrots to him and Tom just because they loved them. Brad and I joked often that we wished we could bring Herb home with us.

The service all over the ship was superior. They made me hot chocolate when it wasn't even being offered, our room was always spotless, in fact the whole ship was always spotless. I could go on and on. It was a really good vacation.