Cuba!!! Part 1

 10 years ago last September the love of my life and I said "I Do" and embarked on an amazing journey together. There have been many mountains and some valleys, but God has blessed us with so much through it all and we, looking back and forward have so much to be thankful for. Well in honor of our big 10 year anniversary, we planned a week long second honeymoon of sorts, and as I am ever the heat loving, cold most of the time "I don't enjoy winter" type of person, Ryan promised me it could be somewhere warm!!  We have been saving for some time,and last fall, we made the arrangements to go to Cuba for a week long vacation this March. We have been counting down the days since January, and we got all ready to go this past week. My Mom and Dad said that they would take all of our girls for the time , and everything was set. The only hitch was that Ryan's birthday fell on our last day in Cuba and we wouldn't  get to be with the girls on his special day..well that had our 2 oldest in tears when they thought about it too hard....I think they flipped the circumstances around in their minds and decided it would be the end of the world if Daddy wasn't there on their birthday...whatever the problem, we planned to spend the last day of all of our family's being together celebrating Ryan's upcoming birthday...

                                          Here we are.."birthday breakfasts"!!

                                                ...and presents!!

                              Yay for new Coffee mugs!

                                                      New Pants!

                                               And for lunch dessert....His absolute fave...strawberry rhubarb pie!!
                                       After we finished up the celebrations..we got the van all packed up and hit the road to Grammie and Grampie's house!  We stayed the night there, got the girls settled ,and the next day  Ryan and I headed back home, where we got ourselves all packed up . We woke up the next morning,went to church, and right after church, got in Dad's truck.(we'd traded our van for his truck),and headed to Halifax....the airport..and Cuba!!

                                          Waiting for our plane  at the airport...sooo excited!!

                                                      We arrived late that night, so we didn't get to see much of our surroundings. But when we woke up the next day...we just kept pinching ourselves to see if it was real!!  We ate breakfast at one of 2 huge buffet restaurants . The selection was crazy. Some of the food was downright strange looking, but there was lots of yummy things too! Our favourite of the week was the custom made omelets. The chef stood behind his grill ,you chose the add ins and he cooked it for you right on the spot!! So good!!

                                                   Our first morning breakfast  still a little sleepy looking!

                                          Then we got down to the business of exploring! These were 2 of the many hotel units.

                                                I fell instantly in love with all the trees..some of them had little coconuts in them! I was hoping for big coconuts...and tried to devise a plan of how I could possibly get one and eat it...but no real great thoughts came to mind..so  that didn't happen much to my sadness while we were in Cuba..

                                                          This is inside our hotel building..It had a courtyard of sorts in the middle of it. They were all 3 stories high, and had the open courtyard in the middle with a balcony running all around.

                                              This is the inside of ours.

                                  Ryan hates this picture of him appreciating the view..so I thought I'd include it in our blog!! Hee hee hee..to his credit..he wasn't posing, and didn't know I was taking the picture!...

                                                  Lots of feral cats around.Very friendly and they made us miss Emmy as she adores cats

                                This is Ryan's favourite picture of me from our vacation...me scouting around in the woods trying to find lizards,and baby cactuses ...or anything else interesting!! " Scrounging" as my Dad calls it!!

                                                I loved this huge cactus tree! I couldn't believe how big these tiny baby ones grow that they sell in the stores around here in Canada.

                                                     Here is the size I'm used to seeing around here!!

                                       Another thing I thought was funny was seeing all my house plants as outdoor trees! We have this one in our church by the piano!

                                       One thing really neat in Cuba is all the old cars everywhere. I guess they take amazing care of them, and without the snow and salt, the cars last and last...They use them as  taxis, and we saw hundreds of them lining the streets.

                                                 Again, me and the trees!!

                                              Here is my favourite beach comber!! They had these shelters all over the beach     as shade for everyone.        

                                       These guys were definitely a favourite of mine! Pelicans...all over the place at the beach.They were so cute!

                                            They would fly over all of us,hover, then dive head first into the water after fish, resurface, and gulp their fish down their gullet.

                                                      That little splash is where one just disappeared after his prey

                                                       Here is one mid dive.

                                             Here was another find of mine coming from the beach. He didn't want me getting too close. but I got a good picture before he hid under the boardwalk.

                                                   These little guys were everywhere. I wished the girlsies were with us because I wanted to show all these new creatures to them! So I took lots of pictures to show them.

                                                                Loving the water!

                                                               We had so much fun getting dressed up every evening for Dinner. It was a week,of feeling spoiled and pampered.The gardeners upon seeing us ladies would often pick a flower from the bushes and hand them to us, so everywhere  you looked ladies of all ages were wearing flowers in their hair.

                                                 We had a favourite settee in the great room lounge area,that we would go every evening after supper to chat and enjoy the evening. There were no windows or doors in the main building so the breezes blew in and it was lovely!

                                      I had to take a picture of this to show Ryan..It was in the ladies bathroom in the Main Building. From the floor to the ceiling and it was like a sculpture,as part of it stuck out of the wall..I loved it!

                                       More pictures of the same bathroom, there were always fresh flowers everywhere..so beautiful!

                                                   Another picture of my beachcomber! Every morning after breakfast we would walk the beach for miles and find shells...lots of beautiful shells! Now this picture has a great story..Emily bought Ryan a little coffee travel mug for his birthday for 1$ from a fundraiser "Send a kid to Bible camp" bring and buy sale we were a part of. She was so excited for him to take to Cuba and he would fill  it every morning with hot chocolate and drink it on our beach walk. The locals flock to the beaches and try to sell their shells, starfish.. jewellery...hats,crocheted beach cover-ups whatever they have to the tourists. Well we were walking one morning, and a young guy selling giant starfish asked Ryan to trade his mug for a starfish, Poor Ryan, he loved his mug , but it meant the world to the guy to have this plastic travel mug, and so he traded..knowing Em would love the starfish and understand being able to help out a destitute  person who might not ever have the chance to have a coffee mug of their own. So This is the picture I took right after his big trade!

                                            Me with my cup filled with shells that we had found.

                                                  This was me every night while we were in Cuba....with a sweatshirt on! I, as silly as this seems ..froze in the evenings! I had asked several people who had been, if I should bring warm clothes and they said  "no"..and laughed at the thought ..well once that sun went down.and that breeze came up..my goose bumps came out and over my pretty sun dresses and jewellery I threw on the only thing warm I had..the old hoodie I'd worn to the airport! Poor Ryan just laughed at me...So...if you ever go...and are of the cold nature...bring a nice cardigan to complement your pretty dresses and nice jewellery!!

                                   He still loved me hoodie and all!

                                                       Inside the main building .

Ryan on "our settee"