I'm on a boat man

Alright, here it is. A timely post about our cruise. There are a LOT of pictures, so enjoy. I will give a description of most. We will start by working thought the four stops:Aruba, Curacao, Dominica, and St. Thomas.
First Aruba. We went on a short tour around the island. The first stop was a rock formation, which we are standing on with our friends Kerri and CJ below. You get a good view of the center of the island.
Below is a landscape including some type of volcanic formation, probably a cinder cone
We also stopped at a small chapel , the first church on the island, very small. neat.
Afterwards we went to a light house and then had the bus driver drop us off at a beach that had some snorkeling. We had borrowed some equipment which we are modeling below.
This is the beautiful beach we laid around on and enjoyed the water and snorkeling. It was a great place to relax.

The next stop was Curacao. We started the adventure with a kayak trip in the Spanish bay. there was some expensive houses, the "stormy plauss," a sea urchin which we were able to hold and some mangrove trees. We stopped at a beach in front of a resort under construction and then paddled back. The boats and our paddling companions are below. After the adventure in the bay we went to walk around the picturesque Willemstad, capital of Curacao. The buildings are all painted very colorful and looked nice in the shopping district. Rach is posing across the bay from the main shopping area below. You can also see the floating pedestrian bridge behind her, which had been moved when we tried to return. Luckily they offer a free ferrying service when the move the bridge so we didn't miss the boat. Another church, this one with a little curacao flare
Another picture of the colorful buildings.
That night Rach and I spent a set amount on gambling. We held on to our early luck and walked away $6.50 richer. Woo hoo. Check out those quarters.

Next stop was Dominica. Below is Rachel and I on the trail at Morne Trois Pitons National Park. The hike was beautiful with lots of great plants.

There were a lot of tropical flowers. Included are the lobster claws below...
...and the red ginger

I was able to swing a vine tarzan style... I do look a little bit like a monkey.THe highlight and destination of the hike was the 300 ft. tall Middleham falls. They were gorgeous and tropical. From the lookout we could not take a picture of the entire falls, so mentally piece the next two together and you'll get the idea.



Somewhere along this ridge was a spot about 40 feet high where our guide jumped into the pool below. I ran into a good picture of him jumping when I was trying to find the height of the falls. He didn't let us try the big one, but there was a 15 foot jump which I dove off. You can see another person climbing up. The place I jumped from was the large rock just above my left foot (not the left side of the picture, but the foot that is my left foot and is on the right side of this picture). It was fun. The water was cool. The power of the falls were loud. Swimming across the pools I couldn't breathe if I faced the falls because the spray was firing across by the mouthful.

Here is Rach and I posing by the falls, and it looks like she is showering.
On the way back we saw a unique site. In '79 hurrican David hit the island an more or less stript the island of most the vegetation, which means that, amazingly, most of what we saw had grown in the last 30 years. One survivor of the storm was the tree that fell over but still grew, ya know how when trees fall over, but then th branches becom the new tree, like that. The funny thing is that when it fell over it landed squarely on this empty school bool bus. Crazy.
The last stop was St. Thomas. A beautiful island. We more or less just hung out at the beach and bought a couple souvenirs at this island. We made our way over the top of the island to Magen's Bay. Behind us is the main bay, I forget the name. It has a couple small islands hanging out in it.
Here is that same bay. Here is a picture of the edge of Magen's Bay. It was a gorgeous beach. Some locals originally from the U.S. were having a beach party and drank a lot. because of this they felt generous and offered us drinks and brats and such. It was a good way to spend the 4th of July.

Alright, more about the boat activities. Here is a collection of dressing up pictures. The fancy meals had us dressing up in fancy clothes. This meant that we took a lot of pictures. Here is a bunch of them. First is Rach and I with free champagne. Here is Rachel and Jenni Timmer, another day.
The whole group at dinner.
The thoughtful gentlemen.
Me and Eric
Rach and I again.
and again.
The ladies of the crew.
Rach and I in the dining room.

The whole group at the table. Now for food. We ate a lot of it. Here is a sampling. First is a fruit parfait and the classic Tiramisu.
Me and two entrees.
Rachel's shrimp something.
Rachel and I excited about our desserts.
mmmm.. tasty.
chocolate something special.
There was a lot more, but this is the oversized blog entry version of our wonderful trip. Hope you enjoyed.