Fisher Caribbean Cruise - Day 3 (Barbados)

On Tuesday morning, we woke up to the beautiful green island of Barbados. Since our excursion (snorkeling) wasn't until the afternoon, I decided to go for a run around the track up on deck. I had a beautiful view of the island for my entire run, but the track was only .16 miles around so it got a little monotonous after the first 15 laps; not to mention, it was hot and humid up there. I pretty much gave up on running for the rest of the week. I decided walking around the islands on our excursions would have to suffice.

Barbados (a scene from Greg & Renita's 'Best of Barbados' tour)

That morning, Greg and Renita took a tour of the island with plans to be back in time to take all three children while Ben, Caitlin, Jeff and I went snorkeling. Well, their tour guide had other plans. They got back way later than planned, creating a little chaos and some mild panic, but the kids were handed off on the pier and we still managed to make it to our bus with time to spare.

Waiting in vain for Greg and Renita at our designated meeting spot.

Luke LOVES his cousins! He gets so excited every time he sees them and he loves to hug them. Unfortunately, "hug" usually winds up meaning "tackle" since Luke is so big and his cute cousins are pretty tiny - especially Becca.

During the hand-off, I was waiting at the bus stop, prepared to delay them if necessary. A couple of friendly girls were waiting with me and they insisted I taste the local cuisine with them. They had a plate full of fried fish cakes. I really wasn't interested - 'fried' and 'fish' are two of my least favorite things ('cake' is another story), but the girls insisted and it actually wasn't bad. Probably one of the most unhealthy things you could eat, but not bad.

After a short, crowded bus ride to the dock, we boarded the boat that would be taking us to our snorkeling destinations - two ship wrecks and a sea turtle extraveganza.

Packed bus

Our crew. They were pretty fun. The guy on the left was a hilarious dancer and the one having a drink exposed my gullible side when he convinced me that he had baked the banana bread (the complimentary snack they gave us) himself that morning.

Ben and Caitlin

Jeff and I. We sat as close to the front of the boat as possible.

The boat ride alone made Jeff and I so happy! We loved looking out over the beautiful blue water and feeling the cool breeze and ocean spray as we rode through the waves. Jeff said, "That's it. Now I have to get a yacht. I have to."

We totally posed for this picture like cheesy cheese balls, but this is probably what a candid picture would have looked like if Caitlin had grabbed our camera without me asking her to.

Oh, I just love the ocean (and this one is candid).

By the time we got to the site of the first ship wreck, we were all dressed in our snorkeling gear, rubber flippers and all. A spot on my left foot was rubbed pretty raw by the end of the day, but flippers are really fun to swim in. Jeff and I made the right choice sitting at the front of the boat - we were the first ones into the water.

Getting into our snorkel gear

It was a really incredible experience swimming over the ship wrecks. It was so peaceful and quiet under the water and there were a million beautiful little fish swimming all around the wrecks. It was so cool to swim right through them. And it was amazing to look at all of the details of the sunken ships and try to imagine them before they sank. One of them sank way back in 1919.

Caitlin and I appeared a little foolish during the transition between the two ship wrecks. When our guide announced that it was time to swim over to the second wreck, Caitlin and I were both so confused because we thought we had already seen both ships. Well, it turns out we were swimming against a really strong current that was continuously pushing us back and we had seen the same wreck twice. Embarrassing.

Jeff and I climbing out of the gorgeous clear water and back onto the boat after seeing the ship wrecks.

Next stop was an area abounding in sea turtles and we got to snorkel with them! Our crew lured them over with food that looked like paper-thin, dried seaweed. About 10 turtles came over for a snack and a couple of them were really big - like, I-could-grab-onto-it's-shell-and-it-would-take-me-for-a-ride big! And these turtles were not shy. They swam right through our big group of snorkelers to get to the food. I got my hands on a turtle's shell four different times and Jeff did the same. It was so cool to see them so up-close in their natural environment. I could see every detail of their cute little faces. Cuteness and seeming gentleness aside, our crew warned us not to put our fingers near their faces because they might bite. Once, I thought I might have to save Ben from having a toe chomped on when I saw a hungry looking turtle getting awfully close. It was a false alarm, but one turtle in particular, did start getting a little too aggressive, so the boat captain caught him by the shell and swam him out to sea. The turtle was so mad. The captain was holding him upright so that his head and front fins were out of the water and the angry turtle was snapping and slapping the water frantically the entire time he was being removed from the area.

Obviously, I couldn't bring our camera on the snorkeling adventures, but here is a pretty accurate picture I found on the internet.

Our final stop, after another lovely boat ride, was a gorgeous beach with beautiful clear blue water and white sandy beaches. Jeff and I played in the water the entire time we were there. We did clumsy acrobatics, played childish games (run from the beach into the water and keep running until you trip, swim up towards the shore and see who can get the farthest without touching the sand, etc.), and brought back the old Dirty Dancing lift that we perfected (sort of) a couple of summers ago. When Ben and Caitlin came out to join us, they pitched a very convincing argument as to why we should move out near them and buy a house in Fairfield. It was actually quite effective (as I am typing this over a month later, we are in the process of purchasing a house in Fairfield).

The beautiful beach

While Ben, Caitlin, Jeff, and I were on our excursion, Steven and Kyle were on a very similar one. I'm pretty sure the only difference was that they took a catamaran instead of a motor boat.

Kyle and Steven

Steven is so regal.

Beautiful view of the island

That night after dinner, a crazy thing happened: Luke started walking all on his own! Up until this point, Luke had taken several steps at a time, but only with someone ready to catch him. That night, at 13 1/2 months old, Luke just decided to just get up and start walking down the hall with no one in front of him. The ship was even rocking pretty hard that night! He was so excited! Check out a video here!

Here are a couple of screen shots from the video:

Jeff decided this is a sign that we really need to get a yacht one day. His son has sea legs!

When it was time for bed, Jeff and I tried to put Luke down, but he was so excited about his big night that he went completely crazy, hyper, giddy for a solid hour before finally crashing.

Happy walking boy!