Customs

Well I'm in the Seattle airport awaiting a connecting flight. I know what you're thinking, and yes, I'm off again. I'm headed back to florida for a little bit, I'll be back on the island again by Monday. I just have to talk about customs agents for a minute because I think they don't get enough credit. Everyone complains about them but I love them. I've never had a bad customs experience. Even today, I was selected twice for random extra screening and all of my customs agents were great. The first one joked and laughed with me and we had a lovely time. I think that they have a job that sometimes sucks but if you are happy and co-operative with them, then in my experience they are the same way with you. Call me crazy but I always have fun going through customs. And I got a special screening test today that I've never had before, they wiped my hands with a gun powder residue pad and then scanned it!! It was just like CSI, I was so excited!!

Niagara Falls

So we left Toronto and headed to Niagara Falls for the day! The way the buses worked out, we got to Niagara at noon and then would be able to leave in the evening for Winnipeg! So we spent the day at the falls. When you get into Niagara, the area around the bus stop is the 'old downtown' area and it's kind of like something out of a zombie movie! It's all boarded up and desolate. No people anywhere. We opted to walk to the actual falls and by the time we got down there, it looked more like civilization again. The falls are stunning!! Absolutely gorgeous! Then there's this random street called Clifton Hill that is like a little mini Las Vegas that just appears from nowhere. It also reminds me of highway 192 in Florida. Crazy buildings and haunted houses and massive dinosaurs coming out of buildings and stuff. Totally random. Massive tourist trap. There's also a few lovely parks and things that we wandered through. Overall I really enjoyed Niagara Falls, I would like some more time to explore it!!  

Toronto

So we just left Toronto. It was lovely. I enjoyed it a lot more than I did the last time I was there, probably because I had some friends to show me around. We had a lot of fun wandering around during the day, we went to Chinatown and all over! Then we went for dinner with some of my friends from Banff, it was so nice to see everyone!! I enjoyed Toronto. I think I could live there, I like how much is going on all the time!  

Ottawa

We have spent the last few days in the capital of our lovely nation!! When we arrived, my lovely friend Alysn picked us up from the airport with her two kids! I haven't seen her in a few years so it was a really fabulous reunion! We spent some quality time catching up while the kids (and Derrek) napped. The first night we went on a really cool walking tour of Ottawa and heard a bunch of ghost stories and stuff. The highlight was a hostel that used to be a jail!!! We got to go up to the top floor and see the cells and they were so tiny it was crazy. The jail was eventually shut down because of the inhumaine conditions!! So cool. It also has this awesome gallows that was the site of the last government sanctioned hangings in Canada. SO COOL!! If we hadn't had a place to stay I would totally have wanted to stay there! Apparently for a long time they had an offer at the hostel where if you could spend the whole night in one of the cells your night was free. However noone ever made it though a whole night so they stopped doing it. I bet I could last a night.

The jail cells!!

The location of the last sanctioned hangings in Canada!!

Aly and little Jasmine! Bedtime stories!!

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Bus Adventure

So we are on a bus! We were waylaid a bit in Moncton but we are now back on track and are on a bus to Montreal!! That is a 15 hour bus trip, just so you all know. It's been fun. And wierd. There's always interesting folks on busses. Currently there's an intoxicated French man talking to himself about how we all 'Le text message' too much. So that's fun. About 3 more hours left until Montreal. I love how noone speaks English here, it makes me practice my French. C'est Bien!! I also forgot to mention that we spent our last night in Moncton at a lakeside cabin belonging to some friends of mine. It was gorgeous!! The lake was lovely and warm. There was a thunderstorm too, and the sound of the rain on the roof was so soothing and wonderful. I have some photos!
 

Bye bye orlando!!

So, we are sitting in the Miami International Airport waiting to head to Bermuda. It's wierd to leave Orlando. I don't really feel like I've left for real. I still feel like I'm on vacation and will come back to the lodge soon. I had everyone write in a little book for me before I left and I read what people wrote on our flight here, it's overwhelming the nice things that people had to say. I really feel lucky to have made such amazing friends. So here are some photos from the airport while we wait!!   

New Orleans

I have so much to say!!! I need to get all you lovely people caught up!! New Orleans, let's start there! I LOVED New Orleans!!! It's amazing. The whole city has so much character and heart!! It's like you can see history unfold right before your eyes!! There's still some places where you can see the leftover damage from Hurricane Katrina, and then there's buildings that are brand new and massive. I spent most of our time there just wandering the streets and taking pictures. I love jazz so I also wandered into as many little jazz bars as I could find. Bourbon St is unreal! People everywhere, drinking on the streets, people I'm balconies flinging beads into the street, it's like everyday is Mardi Gras! There's a really cool walkway thing that's along the Mississippi river with shops and restaurants. I also adore Cajun food!!! It's so flavorful and delicious!! I am so happy that I had a chance to visit this amazing city before I leave the states!!!

Gorgeous buildings!!

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Bourbon Street!!

The architecture is so fabulous!!

Exposed brick everywhere!!! This is in one of the hotels I stayed at

Crazy voodoo piano in a store in the french quarter

Crazy animal on the wall in a store in the french quarter

The ceiling in a fabulous cajun restaurant!

I adored this building. So much character

My favorite gate!

Hotel room

Really tall building in the sun!!

Quaint little shop's in the french quarter

They get a little angry when you try on the masks and take pictures of yourself in the store!! Whoops!!

In the arts district

SO MANY MASKS!!!

Steamboat that goes up and down the Mississippi

Warehouse district

The Mississippi River!

Run down building in the art district

As you can see, I LOVED New Orleans!!! Everyone should go!!

St. Augustine

One of my favorite things, as you know, is traveling! So it's really cool to be in a different part of the world is getting a chance to explore it! So I happen to have five days off and I'm on a little road trip! Today we are in St. Augustine, tomorrow we head to New Orleans! St. Augustine is actually the oldest city in the US and is absolutely gorgeous! It's got so much history and beautiful architecture! It was founded in 1596 (I think) and it's lovely. Theres an amazing fort where we actually got to see Men dressed as soldiers shoot a real working cannon!! So I thought I'd share some photos!  

Late

It is very late and I've just finished some homework and I'm about to drift off to sleep, but I did want to share with you a photo of us on our cruise ship because I know you've been dying to see one! What, you haven't? Too bad, you're seeing it anyway!

Aren't we precious!! So much fun!

Nassau

So it's day 2 of our Norwegian Cruise experience. I'm still loving it! This experience is solidifying my desire to work a term on a cruise line. We had so much fun at the White Party last night. There was dancing and ice sculptures and I think I'd be an excellent activities director!!! Id also just like to mention how fabulous the gym facilities are. All the cardio equipment have tv's on them (I watched Pirates of the Caribbean last night while bicycling) and massive windows so you can see the ocean. There's also a driving range, ping pong tables and a basketball court. In fact I'm going to go practice my golf swing right now!!
Moral of the story is that I don't want to get off this boat!! We were on the island of Nassau today, it was amazing! So beautiful. There's an amazing resort there called Atlantis that we wandered through, GORGEOUS!! I love the world, there's so many amazing things to see!!
 

Great Stirrup Cay

So night 1 on the cruise has passed. We made it to Miami with great success its so nice to be out of orlando. A few days off will be lovely. Our ship is massive!! It's so crazy how many decks and people and activities are inboard. Night 1 was lovely. There was a sail away party on deck 11, with DJ's and dancing and whatnot. We hangout on some deck chairs and suntanned and enjoyed the beginning of our mini vacation. This is my first cruise. Everyone always talks about the food but you really don't understand until you are here. There is so much food everywhere all the time!! And really good food too!! There's fresh fruit and veggies everywhere!! It's amazing and so nice to have that kind of stuff for once. Today we took a boat to Great Stirrup Cay! Its NCL's private island and it's lovely. The girls got some snorkel gear and went snorkeling. I swam along with them but didn't get snorkel stuff. I also fell asleep with my hand on my stomach in the sun and have a hand tan print on my tummy. Seriously. Epic fail. They had a massive BBQ on the island for us for lunch, again, so delicious! I'm currently back on the little boat headed back to the ship so I can go to the gym. There's absolutely no cell service here, which is a fabulous idea but I'm not sure when I'm going to get a chance to post this. No worries, I'm on vacation. The water here is amazing, so blue and warm. I spent a majority of my day just swimming around. I love water, I could swim forever. Tonight we want to play bingo and go to a dance party they are putting on. Should be fun.