COOKin' Down South: Bermuda!

Not only did we get to go vacationing with two of our most dearest friends,

We also got to see some beautiful sights.

We stayed in Manhattan for one night.

Walked to Ground Zero,

Ate in Little Italy,

and slept in Chinatown. - craziness.

We also flew, by car, past other sights (i.e. the Empire State Building, Radio City, Central Park, etc)

Our driver was so aggressive and fast,

that we only got to see most of these sights for .5 seconds. =)

He did good though.

Not one accident.

Not one dent.

Only saw one vehicle fight.

And got to hear many horns a blasting.

And we made it to the Comfort Inn safely!

Thanks Honey for your awesome NYC driving skills!!

Then it was on to The Norwegian Star.

Where we were at sea for a total of 4 days.

We visited the beautiful island(s) of Bermuda for 2 1/2 days.

Drove on the wrong side of the road on scooters for 2 1/2 days,

And got to see some of the most beautiful beaches and landscapes I've ever seen.

I only have 574 pictures documenting our trip.

But luckily for you, I'll trim that down.

I'll categorize our trip.

And I'll try not to oversaturate you with pics.

I was a little overwhelmed when I first realized how many pics my friends and I took.

I'm making a memory book of our trip,

so I'll try to keep all of those "private jokes" to a minimum.

We had such a good time laughing, relaxing, and having a blast.

So, here is a summary of our trip to NYC & Bermuda:

Day 1 & 2 - Manhattan

After a very long car ride, we drove into this mess. Brake lights as far as the eye could see.

This building is a Home Depot on Jersey's side right before the Holland Tunnel.

And in case you didn't know where to go at this point, the handy dandy sign above told you. =)

View of Manhattan from our hotel window.

The whole gang touring NY

Me & Ellesha

Matt & I . . . He's so silly.

Jeff & Ellesha

I call this the Ghostbusters Building. Can you see the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in his sailor suit behind it??

The wavy warpy building.

This remnant of a building was a few blocks from ground zero around City Hall.

A memorial made from the leftover material of Ground Zero. Beneath it was a metal book with all the names of those who died engraved in it. Very touching.

At Ground Zero. We were standing beside it, where they are going to build large water fountain memorials. The new tower (on the left) is almost completed.

Twisty Balloon fountain. Just strange, but intriguing.

Parking . . . Ingenious.

Eating Italy style

It was really tasty. Two satisfied customers.

And we did feel welcome.

View of the NY skyline from our hotel window.

And the other view of the NY skyline from our hotel window.

Crime! This bike has been stripped beyond belief, but yet it is still chained to the post.

Since we were staying in Chinatown, there were an over-abundance of Asian people. We walked through this large area where people were stretching, exercising and doing Yoga. Ellesha couldn't help but join in the fun.

We were told that Chinatown was the dirties place in Manhattan . . . We couldn't agree more. This was the main scene throughout the streets there.

Found ourselves a subway station. We had to check it out.

A pay phone! Who knew they still existed??

Luckily we were stopped at a red light, so I was able to get a pic of The Empire State Building.

The Macy's Building

Radio City - The only reason I was able to get this shot, is because I was taking it through the front windshield. My man can DRIVE through NYC fo' sure!

A drive through Central Park. Never knew you could actually drive through it.

Day 2 - Leaving NYC on the Norwegian Star

On the ship's top deck, leaving NYC

Ready to have more fun!!

Neat clock on the Jersey side of the Hudson River

Our ship went right past the Statue of Liberty

At the Oasis part of the ship. Love palm trees even when they are fake!!

Jeff & Ellesha (and Matt's head) as we go past the Statue of Liberty.

Pretty bridge that we went under on the Hudson River. (Where Sully landed his plane last year) Don't know what the name of the bridge is called.

Goodbye NYC!!

Ellesha, me & Matt

Jeff & Ellesha

Food:

Since this is mostly what we did while we were at sea,

I thought I'd post these pics next.

Matt is a taster . . . if we didn't see his fork or hand flying over to our plates, we knew he wasn't feeling well. All of us had food sampled from him at one time or another.

This was probably my most favorite meal there.

We gave up on using utensils . . . it took up too much good eating time.

This buffet was displayed as we pulled out of the harbor leaving Bermuda.

Not-for-eating chocolate displays

Couldn't eat these either . . .

. . . Nor this one . . . [sigh]

Jeff & Ellesha dining without us. They probably needed the break. hehe (we got separated the last full day at sea)

Ordering two (or more) main entrees was popular with the boys at every meal.

Going nuts at the chocolate buffet is what we did (ok, maybe just me). =)

Can anyone say "Lobstah!"

Another delicious meal down the hatch.

My favorite dessert on the ship, Blueberry Cheesecake. Yum.

Entertainment:

Under copyright laws we were not allowed to photograph the entertainment acts on the ship (which were excellent), but we did get plenty of pics of our own entertainment.

Playing Yatzee in the most coveted bar (just to clarify - not by us) on the ship. Ellesha won while reading a book. Grrrrrr....

Matt & I were selected to have a twist-off with two other couples.

We were the first couple to dance (and were accused of being drunk!! we were absolutely 100% sober thank you very much!)

We won first place!

And were presented with this gift bag of goodies.

Me being my goofy self, and Ellesha supposed to be being goofy, but always managing to smile beautifully as the picture is snapped.

Shuffleboard with the guys.

It's surprisingly difficult to play while you are being tossed a couple feet one way, then the next.

We learned how to dance salsa. The instructor used Ellesha as her dance partner.

Jeff & Elesha doing the Salsa!

Matt & I salsa-ing

We found this cool bug on the ship - a stow away. Ellesha made me take a pic of it.

In the Stardust Theater after our formal dinner.

Formal dinner self-pics

Diddo

Jeff & Ellesha waiting for the show at the Stardust

Chairs were hard to find on the deck. You had to fight for them.

And once you found one, you had to cling onto it for dear life.

Although we weren't part of this show per say, we did watch it and learn the tricks.

Ellesha working with Devil Sticks - Her favorite!

Matt learning how to juggle

Ellesha practicing with a Chinese Yo-yo

An intense game of chess. They must have stood there 20 minutes thinking it was the other's turn.

Matt finally won (thanks to his smart wife!)

And what do all gracious champions do?? Beat the other on the head with the game winning piece!

What time is it?? "Bingo Time!"

Eager to play and lose. =)

Our Bingo cards all ready to be played

Jeff was one away from winning. =(

Ellesha playing the first game

The Norwegian Star:

Everyday we had origami towels on our bed. Here's our penguin.

An Elephant

Getting our pic with the bunny

Our bunny

Jeff & Ellesha got a stingray

Cuddling with the stingray

Our monkey hanging from the entertainment center

Our froggy

And last but not least The Swan

The lights in the hallway of the Stardust Theater

Chandelier at the Stardust

Sitting toward the front looking at the back of the Stardust Theater

The stage set for the first show of the cruise.

Dancer & Singers stage at the Stardust

Our Room Number - by the end of the cruise we finally could remember it.

Our cabin's bathroom - weird I know, but that's what we are. :)

Our cabin

Ice sculpture at the chocolate buffet

Our daily newspapers

That's the cruise line we were on. :)

The monitor in our cabin showing us coming into NYC's port

The Oasis at night

The Grand Atrium - This is first room we entered when boarding the ship.

The glass elevators behind the Java Cafe in the Grand Atrium

At the top of the elevators looking down into a section of the Grand Atrium


Escape Plan? Run!!! I forgot to get a picture of the exit sign where the little man was running away from the ship. It was pretty much telling you to bail ship. It was very funny. . . but not so much when I type it. . .

Bermuda:

A British phone complete with Germs!! Where are the hand-sanitizers???

Beautiful scenery

Our first day on Bermuda

"Eve" - the place where we rented our scooters that couldn't go over 20mph.

Beauty

And more beauty

First day of fun in the sun!

With the love of my life (that's a heart in the sand fyi)

I'm going to call this one "Suckface". One of those private jokes I just couldn't resist.

Reefs. We climbed all over these. Ouch!!!

Weird bug things on the reefs.

Beautiful landscape

Mr. Crabs! This pic doesn't show it, but this thing was huge!! Scared me half to death!

Exploring more beaches with my hubby.

I love palm trees!!

On top of a rock looking out into the sea.

St. George's port

We were eating at a restaurant on the port of St. George. When you looked straight down, you could see red coral and lots of fish.

A very old church (can't remember the name of it) that never was completed and then started to fall down.

Someone's beautiful backyard in St. George.

Walking the very skinny streets of St. George

Love the flowers there!

A Bermudan lady let Matt pick a flower from her garden for me.

St. Peter's Church - The oldest church in the western hemisphere. Ellesha must have been obeying the ship's exit signs here.

These boys are always getting into trouble!

More beautiful scenery

They conquered the cliff

Taking their scooter test before being allowed to drive on the left-hand side of the road in Bermuda.

Ellesha with the Norwegian Star in the background

Me & Ellesha

Being silly in front of the Dockyard Fort

Matt & me

This beach was just plain beautiful. Loved the color of the water and the lone rock.

Making shadow puppets on Jeff to give him a funky tan. We were told more than once on this trip that we were crazy.

Paradise

And more paradise

Jeff & Ellesha on their scooter in paradise.

Matt & I on their scooter (ours was parked off to the side in the grass)

Geeky pose with the Norwegian Star

Buds

Kissing . . . again.

The Norwegian Star at Port

Map of Bermuda. We were docked where the big red dot is. . . we drove our scooters all the way to St. George on the upper right side.

Maniacally performing brain surgery.

And it was a success! (This coral rock looked like a brain)

Clock tower at the Dockyard Fort

Glass Beach

Sad, yet beautiful. It is named glass beach because all the glass bottles thrown into the sea, end up here on the beach. They are smoothed out from the water and beautiful.

This pic is looking to the right of Glass Beach

Glass

Looking for a blue piece of glass. Ellesha & I both found one tiny piece in all that glass.

Neat looking fish that I'm pointing toward. They were bright red and black.

Ellesha gathering glass.

Hamilton lighthouse at night.

Looking at the ship from Hamilton

At our favorite beach - Horseshoe Beach and getting burned!

We met Warren while leaving Horseshoe Beach. He is a school teacher and gave us a great history lesson on Bermuda.

Saying Goodbye:

This tugboat was named "Powerful". You could fit hundreds and hundreds of these in our cruise ship. We mocked it until we realized it had pulled our cruise ship out from the dock without us even feeling it.

St. George as we were leaving. It took an hour and a half to cruise from one end of Bermuda to the other - had to avoid all the rocks in the water.

Ellesha waving her last goodbye to Bermuda. Sad indeed.

Where we were docked while in Bermuda.

Happy and burnt. The building from the pic above is behind Matt's head in this pic.

The ships wake with Bermuda behind it.

So sad to be leaving.

But not THAT sad obviously!

Waters on the outer edge of Bermuda.

Saragasso Sea waters. It's known for its beautiful royal blue color due to the Sargassum seaweed in that area. The Saragasso Sea is the only sea that is not bordered by land. It is bordered by currents. Fun-fact for the day.