Monday, April 7, 2014

More travel......Hawaii 2012, Vegas, Chartered a Moorings boat in the BVIs and the family cruise - 2013

Really?!?! August 2012 was the last post....
So much has happened....and then again not much has changed....

Hawaii in April 2012 was fantastic but as noted in my previous post was not so relaxing.

In 2013, surprisingly we were able to take 3 full spectacular vacations....
First, Vegas in March 2013....stayed at the Palazzo.  A fabulous stay for our first Vegas trip.
The food was amazing - from CarneVino to RED Sushi to Piero's to Wolfgang Puck's place in the MGM Grand.  All wonderful.
And to top off the trip, outside of the gambling and winning and shows.....we took a helicopter tour over the desert, Hoover Dam and the western rim of the Grand Canyon.  Probably the best view of it I'll ever see!

In late June/early July, we took another BVI bareboat trip - getting there and home were awful stories - I hate to relive those airport delays and will do everything in our power to avoid the San Juan airport in the future....but the sailing and the resort stay were outstanding!
We were so glad to spend one night at a marina - OH A/C How I LOVE Thee!

In late August/early September, we took a family cruise on Carnival.  The company with Mom, cousins, brother and Uncle was great.  We all met up for dinner every night and spent some good fun on and off the ship.  The highlight of this trip - and the reason for it in the first place - was to share together spreading my father's ashes at sea.
We had some of the most professional crew members on a ship I had ever encountered meet us at a specified time and place to bring us to a Crew Only area of the ship.  Each of us who chose to, had their own tube to throw into the sea....it was around sunset, it was very sad but added closure and was a special moment to share with family and was a very emotional but needed experience.
I am grateful that Carnival allowed us the opportunity to grant my father's wishes.
And afterward, we opened up a bottle of wine in one of the lounges and shared a toast in my father's memory.

These 3 vacations have amazing memories.....as we go into 2014 (and the first quarter already pretty much gone), we think forward and hope to have many many more wonderful vacations and experiences to share!  So far, this year we have started back sailing - yes it's been 3-4 years since our Thursday night racing series attendance.....the first 2 races, we sailed the first, booze cruised the 2nd one and hopefully this week we'll really get some momentum or find a good boat where we can both get our training-sea legs back on.

We are unsure of any vacation plans - April/May's NYC plans may not actually come to fruition as we have a very sick kitty that we are taking care of daily - we don't know what tomorrow will bring.  I feel I can get a spectacular deal - free flight (must be used by May 2014), I plan to Priceline the hell our of hotel rate and expect to beat any of my previous awesome travel arrangement pricing deals I've ever been able to find!  Hopefully, I can post in May with some good news that we were able to make the trip!

Til then....calm seas and Happy Sailing!

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