March 2012 Goals

 I'm setting goals again, can you believe it?!?  To bring you all up-to-date on my weight loss and exercise...there hasn't been much of it going on.  I didn't work out at all last week and I've been haphazardly counting my calories.  So, I've made a deal with myself, I decided that I'm not going to count calories for a little while.  In reality I cannot count calories for the rest of my life, it's time consuming and kind of annoying.  Therefore in March, I'm running an experiment of sorts and trying to make healthy eating decisions instead of counting.  I'm planning to workout more then I have been but no more then I have in the past and see what happens.  While I won't have to totally say goodbye to these:

I will have to say hello to a little more of this:

Without further ado, my March goals are:

1. 10,000 steps for at least 20 days.
2. Exercise at least 20 times.
3. Eat out less then 20 times.
4. Put laundry away as soon as I fold it.
5. Book at least 4 Thirty-One parties for April.

Cruising the Bahamas - Friday

And we're almost home!  I don't know about all of you but I am always ready to go home after a vacation.  There's just something about my own shower and bed that makes life better.  Anyway, we were up early, met for our last breakfast on board then grabbed our bags and headed to customs.  Mark was nice enough to help this elderly lady with hers since she couldn't see the fine print.

We made through customs pretty quickly then grabbed a cab to Ft Lauderdale.  We had reserved a rental car from Enterprise and had plans to wander the city for the afternoon because our flight didn't leave until 8pm.  We had a little bit of a wait at the rental car depot but we made it to the beach in no time.  I wasn't really in the mood to lay out though, it was very windy and the sun was spotty.  Joe and I decided to take a walk down the strip and check out the restaurants and stores.  We stopped at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co and joked around with the bench out front, Joe was obviously thrilled to be posing...

After a little while we returned to the beach with a brand new kite!  We figured what better way to take advantage of the wind?  Unfortunately it started raining moments after we sat down.  We ran for cover and ended up in a restaurant with 2 for 1 giant margaritas and mojitos.

We enjoyed our drinks and had a few appetizers to kill some time.  Soon the rain stopped so we headed back to beach.  The boys put the kite together and tried flying it but the winds proved to be too strong, at least it killed an hour or so.

Kat and I watched them run around and go for a swim while trying to keep warm under our newly purchased Ft Lauderdale beach towels.

After a while we got tired of the wind and decided to check out the rest of the city.  We drove around neighborhoods looking at fancy boats and awesome architecture before deciding to take a walk through a more upscale shopping area.  We stopped for dinner at Rocco's Tacos where I got a free margarita for checking in with foursquare!

After dinner we stopped at a Kilwins candy store on the way back to the car.  I had a waffle cone with banana fudge ice cream.  It was SO good, the perfect way to end my vacation eating spree.

Oh right, Joe had a chocolate covered twinkie, I swear this is his "it's delicious" face.

We got back to the airport before 6pm and entertained ourselves with various electronic devices before boarding the plane and finally getting back to cold NJ around 10pm.  Thankfully we still had the weekend off before returning to work, it was great to be able to sleep in and unpack!

It was a really relaxing trip, I really don't feel like I had anything super exciting to share but we had a nice time.  It was the first trip Joe and I have taken with another couple and it was super fun!  We'll definitely be vacationing with a group again!

Cruising the Bahamas - Thursday

Ok, time to finish talking about vacation.  Angela put me to shame by blogging her entire trip to Ireland within 2 days of getting home...  

Thursday was our last full day on the cruise and we were going to spend it relaxing.  We docked at Norwegian's private island, Great Stirrup Cay, around 8am.  After breakfast we made our way to the tender boats to be taken ashore.  Because the island is so small they don't have a place for the ship to dock so we had to take smaller double decker boats over.

We quickly grabbed a couple of chairs in the sun, close to the water and settled in to get our tan on.

The boys really enjoy snorkeling but Kat & I aren't fans.  We've decided it's because we're control freaks and can't stand the feeling of the mask.  Anyway, they swam around for a while checking out the local wildlife while I read and Kat napped, hahaha, no pun intended.

Joe and I booked a kayaking excursion for the late morning/early afternoon but can you believe our fancy underwater digital camera broke right before we left?!?  It is supposed to be water tight but went dark while Joe was snorkeling and when he brought it out to show me the battery compartment was wet!  We're hoping that the manufacturer will be able to fix or replace it.  Needless to say we don't have any pictures of our kayaking excursion.  It was pretty fun though, we paddled around to the other side of the island, saw some lizards, sting rays, conchs, sea cucumbers and starfish because heading back around for lunch.  We had worked up quite a hunger and were ready to eat!


After lunch Kat & I lounged some more and the boys snorkeled some more.  Later we hit up the straw market for souvenirs and before we knew it it was time to head back to the ship. 

We stopped to take a group picture with the entrance sign.

Which appeared to start a trend.  Mark must have stood there for 15 minutes taking every pictures for every family that came past.

We were all hungry by the time we got back to the ship so we went straight to our rooms to get read for dinner.  Joe wanted to get a few pictures of the sunset so he went down to the main deck while I finished getting ready.

That boy really is talented!  We had one last dinner in the main dining room, stopped at the on ship store to pick up Joe's duty free scotch and a few other souvenirs before calling it a night.  We had to get everything packed up because we would be back in Florida in the morning and off the ship by 9am. 

Style Saturday

~ Monday ~
sawdust sweater-knit coat - Old Navy
sea salt tie-hem drape shirt - Old Navy
black skinny pants - Gap
pink flats - Zappos

 ~ Tuesday ~
pink gathered sleeve tweed jacket - The Limited
dark pink sculptured ruffle shell - The Limited
cassidy khaki flair pant - The Limited
necklace - Honora
belt - ??
patterned bow heels - Naturalizer

~ Wednesday ~
maroon cardigan - Express
converse one star womens floral genova top - Target
charcoal pants - Gap
black kitten heels - Nordstrom

~ Thursday ~
necklace - Honora
red striped seamless tank - The Limited
colorblock cardigan - The Limited
tan pants - The Limited
brown wedges - Macys

~ Friday ~
heather gray basket-weave sweater - Old Navy
gray cami - New York & Company
raspberry skinny jeans - New York & Company
studded bow flats - Gap

Cruising the Bahamas - Wednesday

Day 3 of our vacation was in Nassau, Bahamas.  We were up and at the gym before breakfast, I did 2 miles on the elliptical!  Then Joe and I met up with Mark and Kat for another delicious meal at the rear deck buffet, seriously, those were the best waffles I've ever eaten, before heading off the ship to enjoy another day of fun.

It started raining almost as soon as we were off the boat and it kept raining on and off all morning.  We made the most of it by walking from shop to shop looking at jewelry.  Well, Kat & I were looking at jewelry, the boys were drinking beer from paper bags.

We came across a plaza that Mark swears was honoring Tommy Bahama...we took a couple of pictures with a canon that was next to the statue.  We were all getting a little antsy by this point and luckily mother nature must have noticed because the sun came out!

While we were window shopping in one of the many jewelry stores the boys asked where to get good cigars; the sales person told us to go to Graycliff.  I somehow missed this entire conversation and was totally confused when we started walking up hill, away from the touristy area.  Kat finally clued me in and we decided not to complain since the boys had been good sports during all the jewelry shopping.  


I wish I had taken a picture when we walked up to this place but I was busy trying to to get run down by the crazy Bahamian drivers.  The entrance is amazing!  It sits back from the street behind a little wall.  We were not expecting the gorgeous hotel behind the trees!  We asked the concierge about cigars and he led us through the building and out into a sitting area, we were already blown away by the landscaping but it just kept getting better.

We were stunned by the beauty of the grounds, it's obvious the hotel is old but it's been taken care of.  When we passed this pool we gasped and the concierge told us we were welcome to stay for the afternoon and enjoys drinks while we lounged.

After a little more walking we were shown the cigar rolling room.  There were three cuban women that sit at old desks and roll cigars all day.  I'm pretty sure this was Joe's favorite part of the entire vacation!

They showed us how they roll the cigars and explained in broken English what all of the materials are.  Joe responded in broken Spanish and tried to ask questions before thanking them for taking their time to talk to us.

The guys then headed to the onsite cigar store and while they shopped, we enjoyed some time by the pool.  While it was tempting to stay and lounge at the hotel all day we were hungry and their prices were steep so we decided to take a walk down to the beach and try to find a "fish fry" some of the locals had mentioned.

The walk to the beach was longer then we anticipated and when we asked how much further to the fish fry we were not thrilled with the prospect of trudging along any longer so we stopped and set up camp by another little stand.  Mark, Kat & Joe decided to order some jerk chicken from one stand but I'm not a fan of spice so I went with a conch fritter platter from another.  I ended up the big winner because my platter was large enough to feed all 4 of us!

After lunch, Joe did some snorkeling while the rest of us soaked up some sun.  Soon it was time to start the trek back to the boat again.

We stopped at the pool when we got back but the sun was already fading and it was getting cool.  We decided this would be our "fancy" night for dinner and went back to our rooms to get ready.  Upon return to our room we found a cute little turtle...

We used Joe's camera to take some pictures of the bunch of us but it was hard to pose with people constantly coming up and down the stairs.

We managed one decent group shot.  It's hard whenever other people use Joe's camera because they don't always focus right and from what he tells me the lighting was hard to work with as well.

Joe regularly has issue with water in his ears.  He says it's been happening since childhood and he can usually clear it up with a little rubbing alcohol.  Unfortunately we didn't bring rubbing alcohol with us.  He went to the doctor's office on the ship but it's only open from 4-5:30!  When we tried the help desk they gave us a couple of alcohol prep pads which Joe then rung out into a spoon and poured into his ear!  Worked like a charm though.

After another yummy dinner in the main dining room we wandered the ship a little, had some tea, listened to some music and then of course, headed to bed early.  This time it was an Elephant!