Spring Break 2024 - Royal Caribbean Cruise Day 1 (Miami, FL)

 Our spring break was THE BEST!  We went on a Royal Caribbean cruise to two stops in the Bahamas and Jamaica! 

I kid you not when I tell you that my alarm was set for 12:55 am so we could catch a 2:20 Uber to the Logan Express for our 5:05 am flight. 5:05 AM!!!!!  Screw you, Spirit.  But these guys are pretty funny on the bus to the airport.

Naturally, when we were in the airport, we pointed out the sicked little kid in the entire airport and he sat directly behind Todd. Like, he could have sat ANYWHERE else on the plane... but nope. Right next to us.  But his dad was funny, photobombing our family photo!

Finally, we made it to Fort Lauderdale and then on to Miami, where we were staying at the Hampton Inn in Brickell.  We grabbed some hotel breakfast (after all, it was only about 9:30 am) and waited by the hotel pool for Ayala and Ellis to let us know when they were leaving.

We met up with them on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach - here are my clowns waiting among the palm trees.

Reunited and it feels so gooooood!  Happy hour started early on this particular day. Ellis and Natalie went off to check out some of the nearby shops (and the beach) while the rest of us... didn't!

I'm warm, I'm with a bestie, and I have a pina colada. Life is good.

But you knew this was coming next!!!

After spending a few hours enjoying some tapas and beverages in Miami Beach, we went back to the Brickell area to meet up with my Mom who landed from Tampa. 

I had a delicious Cortadito at Baires Grill! Thanks to Ellis for introducing me to this. I needed it, BAD. It was so good that even Grant and Natalie got one!

Dinner (even though I was pretty sure I would pop at this point from so much food and drink) was at Batch Gastropub at our hotel. They had a nice bourbon menu!

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to our beautiful friends (mostly because I needed to go to bed!) so we took a selfie in this mirror. I can't decide if my favorites are Ellis or my Mom... or perhaps Ayala paying for her parking in the background? Or maybe that lady photobombing us? Too hard to choose.

The next morning, we packed it up and hopped on the hotel bus that takes you directly to the cruise port. Are we moving onto the cruise ship? This is nearly the number of bags we had when we moved to Germany!

The traffic was bad on our way to the cruise port in the morning. I think it took us about 45 minutes to drive about 4 miles!

But alas, we made it to the cruise port. We passed the Virgin ship that my Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Dave literally got off of that morning!

And finally, we saw her! The Oasis of the Seas!

The boarding process was quick and easy and right now, my kids are about to start fighting about who will be the first one to get on the ship.

Natalie's reaction pretty much says it all about how big our rooms were, particularly when compared to the interior rooms we have always gotten in the past!

I got Todd the Happy Birthday package - which came with a decorated room and a cake on his actual birthday!  Here we are at room 11154!

We took the cutest pictures on Nana, Natalie and Grant's balcony. That water is super turquoise - and it really looked like that!

Bailey family selfie's must be taken as much as possible.

We dropped our bags off and headed straight for the fun things!  Natalie, Todd, Grant and I went to the Ultimate Abyss because my niece and nephew Greta and James said this was SUPER fun when they went on a cruise with Nana a few weeks ago (they were on Wonder of the Seas but it also had an Ultimate Abyss).

We got in line about 10 minutes before it opened and we were one of the first people to slide!  Here goes Grant!  

This slide was wicked fast - See ya about 10 floors down!

Todd landed at the bottom of the Ultimate Abyss last but he looks like he had a good time!

Whew, that is WAY up there!

Humans for scale in 0.5 on the Boardwalk. I'm glad our balcony faced the ocean rather than the interior!

Our next stop was Playmakers for a drink and a game of Jenga. Of course, there weren't enough Jenga blocks for a full game but we made it work anyway.

He's smiling now but he wasn't smiling when this tower fell and I won!!!

They have a series of wooden horses on the Boardwalk that range from a block of wood that resembles horse shape to a completely carved and painted wooden horse. They also have (not pictured here) a carousel for the kids.

The Rising Tide bar was packed as it rose up and down from floor five up to floor eight.

Eventually, we made it back to our room where our bags were waiting and we got ready to depart. We watched all of the other cruise ships sail past us and off onto their adventures.  The Carnival Celebration went to two stops in Mexico and Honduras.

Finally it was our turn!  Auf Wiedersehen, Miami!

Dang, Miami Beach was packed!

This is the actual color of the beautiful water. These two are pretty beautiful, too!

I don't know why I'm in Grant's room and he's in my room in this picture!

Adios, Miami!

We strolled down to Central Park to check things out - these two look like they're on an album cover.

I think we wanted to try every single bar on the ship, but I don't think it happened. I think we missed a couple but it was a good attempt though!

I don't know why this is still so funny to us!

After another cocktail, we all went to the arcade where my mom and I played a little skee ball!

Todd and Natalie played a racing game - I think Todd won this one (but she beat him in air hockey)!

Grant lost in a game of air hockey to his dad, but he beat me in another game.

We chose "My Time" dinner on the ship, but we thought that just meant we could show up at any time and immediately be seated for dinner. That's not what it means. You can show up at any time to get in line behind a bunch of other people and wait for a table to be open. No thanks. So when one of the workers asked if there was a group of 6 in line, I raised my hand and said, "Well, we have 5!" She gave us this card, and our waiter, Pely said we could come back every night at 6:45 and our table would be waiting for us. He was the BEST!  And 6:45 is a great time - not too early (if you're still on an island at 5pm, that time doesn't work, and who wants to eat at 9 pm?  Those were my options otherwise!)  We just flashed this card to the guy at the front and bam... we went right in for 6 out of the 7 dinners we ate when we were on board!

The hallways were quiet on the first evening after everyone grabbed their bags.

With our 6:45 pm dinner time, we missed sunset every evening, but we were still able to capture some light on the horizon.

At the end of our first day on the ship, Todd and I had a nightcap at the Globe and Atlas.  Next stop, Nassau, Bahamas and the Atlantis Resort!

Winter Fun in the Bailey House - Part 2

 Meh, it's still winter... still definitely not fun.

But we kind of had fun in the latter half of winter!

Over February break, we took a few days to tour some relatively close college campuses. First up was the University at Albany - and Natalie drove us there.  This was really a weird and surreal moment for me.  Why is this tiny baby driving me to a college that she might attend? No, that's not possible.

We all really liked the University at Albany!  It's one of the SUNY schools, and they give in-state tuition to Massachusetts residents so it's definitely a contender!

I think she fits right in!

We also made the long trek up to the University of Maine.  After we arrived, Natalie admitted it's a pretty long hike up there, but we really loved the campus. Even our UNH grad Todd (UNH is a rival of UMaine) liked it!

We stayed a hotel in Bangor at the Country Inn, and they had this little warning in the breakfast room.  He doesn't seem amused.

One of Natalie's favorite things at UMaine were these cute little delivery robots called Kiwibots that deliver food to the dorms if you don't want to go out in the cold. Kind of like a robotic Door Dash!

It was rainy but it wasn't overly cold in Maine, which it certainly could be this time of year.  Look, there's one of the little Kiwibots ahead of us!  Maine also gives a good financial package for Massachusetts students (if their grades are good!)

Our last stop on the three college tour was the University of Rhode Island.  This one might be a bit out of our price range, but we wanted to take a look anyway.

The URI campus is very hilly although it doesn't appear so here! It was a lovely day and a lovely campus.

Ranger Hall is the home of the Harrington School of Communication and Media, which if she goes there, is where Natalie would be having most of her classes.

URI has one of only like, two ZTA chapters in all of New England! They even have a house!!

I also spent a week in Rhode Island doing preliminary damage assessments from a couple of storms in January, which is always an interesting part of my job - and I got to see the ocean!

I also visited a pond where the dam had broken, leaving the pond completely and eerily empty. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before!

Someone found this on the ground and I took a picture to quiz my kids as to what it was.  Not surprising - they had no idea what it was!

On another weekend, Natalie and I took the train down to NYC to see Hadestown on Broadway! We left out of 128/Westwood and the whole experience was just so much better and less stressful.

We went through Mystic with the tall ships on our way down to NYC.

Hmmm. I think these structures might be in the coastal floodplain.

I have a literal mile long list of dumb little things I want to see in NYC, so right after we escaped Penn Station (and the naked man who was spread eagle passed out on the sidewalk), we headed over to the building where Nikola Tesla died!  If you recall, we saw his ashes in Belgrade! He died in this building in 1943.

The Empire State Building never disappoints, day or night!

I also really wanted to go to the corner of 39th and 7th to see Needle Threading a Button, an homage to the city's famous Garment District.

Also on this corner sits The Garment Worker, a statue modeled after artist Judith Weller's own garment worker father.

Come on, this is a pretty cool statue!

Natalie and I went to Gogi 37 for lunch in midtown for some Korean food and it did NOT disappoint! I had to try the Korean lager, Cass, which I opted for over Soju!

My girl, looking cute, waiting for Korean food before we went to the theater.

I had japchae with beef and it was AWESOME.

On our way north, we had to stop by the Line Friends store. WAIT. Are you telling me this is SHOOKY TOAST!?  I still can't believe I didn't buy this. I want this so bad.

There's an autographed Van in the store (yes, I know, we have seen this before) but I really loved that Jungkook drew a picture of Cooky and then crossed it out and tried again, HA!  His second version is actually much better, so I don't blame him!

Then we made our way through the always busy Times Square AND I SAW TAEHYUNG ON THE BIG SCREEN!!!!  It's so weird when I get more excited about these things than Natalie does (especially because he is her favorite!)

We finally made it to the Walter Kerr Theater to see Hadestown!

I didn't know what to expect - I had never heard of Hadestown, but it was incredible!  I mean, isn't everything on Broadway incredible??  The cast was magnificent... particularly Ani DiFranco as Persephone and Lola Tung as Eurydice. If you have a teenage daughter, you'll know Lola Tung from the show The Summer I Turned Pretty (one of Natalie's favorite shows, which is the whole reason we were here to see this particular musical). This was Lola Tung's last weekend in the role!  I really liked the spinning floor, much like the one they had in Hamilton. 

I particularly like the quote, "Hadestown sweeps you up in its joy." Only... it's a Greek tragedy.

Natalie *may* have also thought Jordan Fisher (as Orpheus) was cute!

I'm kind of partial to this guy (well, she is too!)

I was floored by the fact that Jameson whiskey was hosting a St. Patrick's Day green ball drop in Times Square, much like they do on New Year's. So funny!

I had never been to the big Macy's in NYC before, but they had a Starbucks inside where we wanted to go for one of the new lavender drinks. We had been to a couple of Starbucks that were sold out of it, but we were successful in our hunt at the Macy's Starbucks. I was ALSO successful in finding Jungkook modeling for CK!

No sooner had we gotten back from New York than I had to go to Orlando for the National Hurricane Conference. I really enjoyed watching the sign language interpreters - they would work for 15 minutes and then take a break, allowing another interpreter to work. It was fascinating for some reason!

I went out to dinner with the hurricane team - we were staying on International Drive where ALL the action is. No, I didn't partake in any of these!

One day for lunch at the conference, I went out by the pool and enjoyed this palm tree. Because it was still cold, wet and miserable back in Massachusetts.

My brother even drove over from Tampa to see me!  We had a most delicious meal of Indian food.

We wanted some ice cream, but weirdly couldn't find any ice cream shops so we settled on McDonalds - and strangely enough, their ice cream machine was actually WORKING!

Are you kidding me. I needed this empty row SO BAD for my flight home. Go away, everyone.  This is the nicest thing to happen to me on an airplane in a long time.

I thought this picture I took leaving Orlando was really cool. 

I didn't even manage any pictures of Natalie and her friend Kaavya when we drove down to Newark so they could see IVE at the Prudential Center. I did manage a picture of the Iron Man, which sits here because the New Jersey Devils play at the Prudential Center.

We celebrated Easter at Grammi and Bean's house. My kids are so thrilled that the Easter Bunny remembered them in their old age.

And last but not least, a nice Easter picture of the four of us at St. Peter's in Plymouth after mass.  

Let's move on to spring, shall we?