Honeymoon Cruise to the Caribbean October 2011

Josh and I chose to go on a cruise for our honeymoon. I wanted to go to Europe, but we decided to save that for another time. So we flew down to Miami and boarded our cruise ship, the Carnival Liberty, and headed off for a 7 day cruise to The Caribbean! Our first stop was Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas which is Carnival's private island. We had two excursions this day, horseback riding through the ocean and swimming with the stingrays. We also visited St Thomas, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands where we swam with the dolphins, San Juan Puerto Rico where we went zip lining through the rain forest, and Turks and Caicos where we went snorkeling with sharks! I'm usually not a beach person but I had such a great time! We will definitely be going on a cruise again sometime soon!

~ Steff ~

Welcome to Miami!

Good Morning, San Juan!

Ziplining in San Juan

Ziplining in San Juan

Fountain in Old San Juan

Old San Juan

Blue cobblestone streets in Old San Juan

Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

view from our hotel balcony in South Beach, Miami

Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas

St Thomas at sunset

St Thomas at sunset

Niagara Falls and Toronto July 2011

So the stress and the craziness of wedding planning was getting to us and we needed to take a mini-vacation. Josh and I went to Niagara Falls for the weekend and we also drove up to Toronto for one day. Our first day, we drove to Fort Niagara which is on Lake Ontario north of the falls. The next day we crossed the bridge into Canada to see the Canadian side of the falls and to go to Toronto. Driving through Border Patrol into Canada was hard because the officers were really rude (I guess we looked like we were trying to smuggle drugs!). Once we got over the border it was smooth sailing all the way to Toronto, until we came to a dead stop on the highway about 10 minutes outside the city because a car had caught on fire! Once we made it into Toronto, we took a tour of a castle called Casa Loma. It was constructed in the early 1900's and is now a museum and has also been the site for the movie X-Men. We also went to the CN Tower, the world's 5th tallest free standing building. The view from the top was amazing but we had to wait in line for about 2 hours to get up there! They have a glass floor that you can stand on and see all the way to the street below, Josh was too scared to stand on it, but I wasn't! After we were safely back on the ground, we took a ferry out to the Toronto Islands. We had a busy day! The rest of the time we spent at the falls. It was A LOT of walking but they have a trolley there that takes you around. We went on The Cave of the Winds which walks you down on platforms underneath the Bridal Veil portion of the falls. We got soaked! Then we went on the Maid of the Mist, a must if you are visiting Niagara. We had such a great time!

~ Steff ~