St. Maarten and Tenerife

After just one day on our trans-Atlantic cruise adventure, we had port! We enjoyed our breakfast buffet, then walked the boardwalk into St. Maarten.

Fun facts: this island is in the northeast Caribbean (approx. 190mi east of Puerto Rico). The 54 square mile island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands; they are roughly equal in population. It is one of the smallest sea islands divided between two nations, a division dating to 1648.

We only went to the Dutch side, but there, we found two geocaches. . .

and met a coconut merchant named Dexter who had quite an inspiring story about hard work and dedication... mixed with a lot of humor... he was great. Back on the boat we met these two... Tostin and Elisabeth. They came up to us laughing, and with German accents went on to tell us that we had stayed in their same hostle and been at the same beach in Puerto Rico! They were super fun and nice and we ended up chatting with them every day.

 After 7 days at sea, we made our second port call at Tenerife. This is the largest and most populous of the Canary Islands at 784 square miles. It is home to the oldest university of the Canaries, and also has the highest elevation of Spain, a World Heritage Site that is the third largest volcano in the world from its base, El Teide.

 We walked to the awesomely shaped "architectural symbol of the Canary Islands" the modern Auditorio de Tenerife.

From the view from there we saw rock paintings, seemingly honoring famous musicians.

We looked, unsuccessfully, for a geocache and made our way back to the ship in time for Wren to take his victory tour of the bridge after his team won the progressive trivia on the ship! Go international Mercorn!

(INSERT PHOTO OF THE TEAM HERE)

Big Fun on Maui!

I believe I've mentioned I've been occasionally house-sitting  Well one of the trades I received from my friend Mindy (for watching two delightful kitties and a cute apartment) was a year of free flights through Allegiant Airlines! I've had the opportunity to fly to California and back, offer a discount to a friend, and most recently, fly to Maui! Wren and I decided to go, and the idea was, cheap tickets, cheap vacation, and BIG FUN!

First off, our plane was delayed 5 hours, so we got to juggle and meet a nice guy named Eli from All Star Circus. He told us about Source Maui, a BurningMan-esque show on.... We ended up not going for transportation and weather reasons, but it sure sounded like fun! So rolling in around 2 in the morning, we just camped on a beach for a few hours until our hostel ride could get us... this photo above is us walking in the rain to the pick-up place.

Our next stop was a frisbee tournament (organized by a guy named Mustache Brook!) on Kapalua, right by the beach! Wren played frisbee, and I played on the beach =)

Here was our next camping spot, right on the water at camp Olowalu.

It was just a 10 minute walk from the snow cone store!

And at night, our little camp was gorgeous... and from there (and just about everywhere you see water), we saw so many wales breaching!

Public transportation was limited, so we hitched a ride into Lahaina, once in the back of a pickup truck!

Once in Lahaina, we went to see the largest Banyon tree in the US!

And this banana tree! I had no Idea this is how they were born!

Back close to our camp, we went geocaching! What a view, eh?!

Now we're bringing our little cache-prize (Sid from Ice Age) to Puerto Rico with us! All  in all, we had a super nice time exploring, lounging, eating and reading books... like the one I finished, a great adventure story titled, "The girl who circumnavigated fairyland on a ship of her own making". Check it out =). And thanks Mindy, for the tickets to BIG FUN adventure!