Life with the LaRue's...

This year we decided to spend our one year anniversary on the tropical islands of the Bahamas. We were able to exchange our timeshare in Vegas for a week in Freeport, Bahamas. What could be better than a week in paradise?

Our adventures began from day one Saturday, Oct 11. While waiting to board our first of 3 flights to Freeport, we were informed that the battery on the plane had been left on all night and was drained. It was undetermined how long before a backup battery would get there. While waiting in line just in case the flight got cancelled, the time changed from a 6:30am departure to an 11:15am departure. With only a 2 hour connection time in Dallas, we would miss our flight to Miami. We were re-secheduled on a flight through Chicago instead. While waiting to board that plane, there was a 20 minute delay because the cabin was too cold! Crazy oregonians!

Once in the air we knew it would be cutting it close to make our connection in Chicago to Miami. Our flight was leaving at 2:10 and we were off the plane at 1:57. We made a mad dash to the plane and were the last on the flight. Gotta love the looks:) Once on that flight, the captain informed us of a slight delay due to weather in Miami. Well, at least we would make it there. Once in Miami we had a short time to get some dinner before boarding the plane to Freeport. We only had to wait 10 extra minutes on that flight waiting for the flight attendant to show up! Once in Freeport we had the wonderful surprise that our luggage was somewhere else. Fortunately for us we pack our bathing suits and an extra change of clothes in our carry on. Something neither one of us had done before.

The next morning, Sunday Oct 12 was our anniversary. While Jason was taking a shower, I decided to put all of our valuables in the safe. Money, credit cards, passports, cameras, ect. Somehow during the process I locked the safe before entering the code. Oops! We made a stop at the front desk on our way to breakfast to let them know. They said they would send someone up to open it for us. We decided to go to breakfast in the meantime. We didn't feel comfortable with the idea of someone getting into our safe without us there, so I went up to wait for them while Jason waited for the food. I called the desk and they said someone would be there in 5 minutes. Apparently 5 minutes in the Bahamas is really 20! I sat there for awhile, no one showed, so I went down to let Jason know what was going on. He said that he would go wait and I could bring his breakfast. So, I sat there and had breakfast by myself. I asked the waiter if we could charge it to the room and he said we had to pay because they weren't associated with the hotel. Great! So, I sat there waiting for Jason to come back with some money. He showed up after about 30 minutes, they microwaved his omlette, we paid, and decided to go check on our luggage.

It still hadn't arrived but it was on it's way. We thought that we would go for a swim while we waited. The pool was very beautiful! Complete with slide, lazy river, caves, and swim up bar.

Earlier that morning, Jason discovered that the shower had no lip to hold the water in, so all the excess that couldn't go down the drain, ran onto the bathroom floor. Good thing there was a second loft upstairs with a shower. We would just have to use that one instead. Once we got our swimming stuff, we went back down to the lobby to see if our suitcases were there. Apparently the cab that was bringing them over got a flat tire! Oh well, we were going for a swim. After playing in the pool for a few hours we went to the desk and our luggage had finally made it! Yay!

We took it back to the room and proceeded to fall asleep. We woke up at 6:30pm realizing that we had signed up for and paid for a bonfire that night starting at 6:00pm! We rushed to get ready, Jason tried the upstairs shower, only this time to have it turn ice cold on him halfway through! It then proceeded to drip all night long! We would talk to the desk in the morning. We went to the bonfire dinner/firedancing party. The food was good but the fire only burned for about 15 minutes. Then the fire dancer came out with a plate of fire, did a couple twirls, and that was that. I must say, kind of a waste of money! We both thought that it would be more of an island experience thing. Oh well!

The next morning we needed to go on a grocery run to get some food for the week. Before the bus left we told the front desk about the shower misfortune. She said to check back when we got back from shopping. We went to the local grocery store...makes you appreciate America. We spent $17.50 on a pack of bottled water! Everything, thanks to things being imported, was really expensive. A gallon of ice cream was $11.00! We opted to not buy that:)

When we got back to the hotel the lady at the front desk told us to pack our bags, she had a new room for us! We got the keys and took the groceries up. This new room was much bigger than the other, and a slight step up. We now had a little kitchen table, big balcony, full refrigerator and freezer, a master bedroom, and a weird weightroom with some dumbells and a rowing maching. Don't know! We went to check out the bathroom....there was a lip in the shower! Things would be good now. The interesting thing about this hotel was that it looked like a place that Fred Flinstone would live in, complete with stucco cabinets and counters.

We signed up for snorkling on Tuesday but it was cancelled due to bad weather. We spent that day playing volleyball in the pool in the rain. It was pretty entertaining! The next day, Wednesday, the snorkling trip was cancelled again because of mechanical failures on the boat...it broke down. While hanging out at the pool we met some people who have been to the hotel many times...don't know why! But, they filled us in on a reef called Deadman's Reef that is the best on the island. We decided that we would give that a try on Thursday.

Wednesday night we had signed up for an all you can eat wine and cheese sunset cruise. How romantic! We got dressed up and headed to the dock. There we realize that our cruise was going to be on the ferryboat that shuttled people around the harbor. Ha! Then we see the plate of cheese and veggies sitting on the boat. Two plates of food for 35 people...and, it was out in the sun! Ha! After making a run over to Port Lucaya, the ferry came back to pick up the sunset cruisers. We are slightly amused at this point but are feeling a bit ripped off. $50 a person is a lot of money! We get out and start sailing around the harbor. We have some cheese, crackers, veggies, meatballs, wings, and a bahama mama. About 25 minutes into the cruising, the boat breaks down out in the harbor. Of Course! We start drifting into the sides of the harbor, bounce off, and start floating back out into the middle where they drop anchor. Shortly after a boat shows up to drag us back to dock. We managed to have fun though!

After the successful sunset cruise, we headed off to the local fish fry that they have every week. The food was really tasty! We had a whole fried fish, some rice, and some potato salad. Finally, something worth the money!

Thursday we rented a scooter and cruised around the island. We went with a couple we had met there, Melissa and Andrew. They were there on their honeymoon but decided to spend time hanging out with us! We experienced many of our adventures with them. Once we had the scooters, we headed out to Paradise cove for some snorkling. The scooters and the snorkling were super fun! We saw sting rays, tons of tropical fish, coral, and even a baracuda! Once I get the underwater camera pictures scanned onto the computer, I'll add some on here. The beach there was beautiful, not like the one by our hotel which was covered in seaweed and rocks. This beach looked like what you'd find in the Bahamas. White sand beaches and palm trees. After a couple hours of snorkling we headed back to the hotel. It rained on us for a little while on the ride home, but it was still fun!

Thursday night we headed down to the port for some dinner. We decided on Chinese food. We'd heard that it was great food so we decided to try it. I had gotten sick with a headcold at the beginning of the week so I of course couldn't taste a thing at dinner! I guess that it was very tasty food though! It was off to bed early that night since I've was feeling terrible and Jason had started to come down with the cold as well.

Friday was our last full day there. We hung out at the pool for most of the afternoon. We played a couple pool games and I won at Bahamas viser! We also saved a little lizards life that was drowning in the pool. It became our friend and hung out on us for while. In the evening we headed to Port Lucaya for a lovely Italian dinner and some entertainment. We even got to hold a Parret! Then it was time to head back to the hotel for our last night.

Saturday morning began our long travel home. We set the alarm to get up at 7:30am so we could pack and head to the airport. I rolled over and looked at the clock around 7:15am and the next thing we knew, the electricity shut off in the room. It was out in the whole hotel. At least we were awake! We packed our stuff and headed out to say goodbye to the people we'd met. We had to carry our heavy suitcases down four flights of stairs because the elevators weren't working...we needed a little exercise. We got in the taxi and headed toward the airport. We were stopped a couple miles from the hotel because of a race that was taking place. Once the runners took off, the cars decided to use the shoulder of the road to drive on. We got to the airport in one piece:) We checked into our flight, grabbed a snack, and hung out for about an hour. Once we took off and were cruising toward Miami we noticed that there was smoke coming out of the air conditioning vents in the plane. I know that's not normal! At least it was a short 30 minute flight! In Miami we had some lunch and boarded our plane to head to Chicago. We had a 50 minute connection time in Chicago. What's with the short connections on the trip! The captain came over the loud speaker to inform us that there were some mechanical problems with the lavatories that needed to be looked at. Little to say, that set us back 40 minutes. The flight attendants filled us in that there would be people at the gate to help us with connections. We were pretty sure we were not making our flight home to Portland. We got off the plane and had 5 minutes to get to our flight. As we were passing the attendants they asked if we had a connection and we said yes, Portland. "Oh, that plane already left. You've been booked on another flight leaving in 2 hours." Ah! So, we now had time to make some phone calls, have dinner, and catch our flight to Portland. We made it to Portland and so did our luggage! Good thing too..Jason had to fly out Monday for Holland!

So, little to say we had quite an adventurous trip. We won't be visiting the Bahamas again, but we did manage to have a fun time despite everything. Just thought we'd share our adventures with you!

A few months ago I (Jenn) decided to take some cake decorating classes. I've always enjoyed art and baking so I thought that it would be a fun to combine the two. The best part is that you get to eat it when you're done! It was a lot of fun learning the different techniques with cake, icing, fondant, tools, etc. There are so many things you can do. Some of it is actually a lot easier than it looks. I would love to have a cake decorating business someday. It would be so much fun to be able to make a job out of a talent. Maybe someday! These are the cakes I've made so far.

This is the first cake I made during class