From Hot to Cold in One Short Trip

I wasn't ready to leave the wonderfully warm and beautifully blue southern Caribbean but I didn't have a choice; however, it isn't as cold this week as it was while I was gone. I was lucky that I missed the worst weather we have had this winter. Yay! I must admit, reluctantly, that it's good to be home again.

The trip started on a negative note at OHare when my suitcase was overweight and I had to remove a few pounds. Fortunately, it was easy since I had four books in the outside compartments and I could move them to my carry on bag. It still left me with 51.5 lbs but that was okay with American Airlines but it meant I wasn't going to be doing much shopping. Strangely enough it was still overweight on the return trip but they let me have 52.5 lbs so I didn't have to remove anything. I bought a hand scale but it broke before I weighed the suitcase.

It was hot and humid in San Juan after a heavy rain but we were there for sunshine so it was perfect. We walked around Old Town for a while and then sat outside the hotel restaurant with a Margarita and enjoyed the warmth. All we had time to do in San Juan was take a trolley ride around the city but I was able to see the forts even if I couldn't go inside. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't wander around inside them. We went to the cruise ship so early (11:30 a.m.) that we were lucky to find time for the trolley ride.

The ship, Celebrity Millenium, was nice but not as nice as last year's Equinox. The room was good size and the balcony was lovely. I spent a lot of time sitting out there reading during the day and late at night. I just hated being inside when I didn't have to. Much of our time seem to revolve around dining and I sure did my share. The meals were good: lots of seafood. I went to some talks on the islands and their history and some scrap book classes. The scrap booking was fun but who knows if I'll follow through and add pictures to what I started.

We went to Tortola, St Martins, St Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Aruba and Curacao. My favorite tours were the butterfly farm and the natural rock bridge in Aruba and the Hato Caves in Curacao (discovered it was pronounced Curacel, how embarrassing). All of the islands were beautiful so I enjoyed them all, some more than others.

I read Sophie Hannah's The Dead Lie Down, the one I liked best in the series; Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin; Saturday's Child by Ray Banks and The First Wave by James Benn (either could have been the B book for Kerrie's Alphabet Meme but the internet was too slow to do a review), Tom Franklin's Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter; and I started Laura Hildenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival. They were all good but I liked the last two the best.

And that is end of the saga of a wonderful trip filled with enough good memories to sustain me until spring. The days are getting longer so it won't be long until------it's SPRING!!!