Cruisin with the besties....does anyone even say besties anymore?

Spencer and I love a good vacation together, but there are times when its equally awesome to vacation with friends.  Now, vacationing with friends can be tricky if you don't all vacation the same way.  Luckily for our group of friends our cruise-cation afforded us all the ability to vacation our own way, but still afforded us lots of friend time!  We took an eastern Caribbean cruise with Carnival and couldn't have had a better time!
Spencer and I decided to fly into Nashville an extra night early and stay with Jamie and Kenny before we all flew to Miami the next day.  Ashley and Lew live in the Miami area so they graciously offered the rest of us a place to stay the night before the cruise.  Bek and Mike flew in at about 11pm that night, so it was  full house! 

heading to FL!

How cute are they?

Just waiting for Bek and Mike

The morning we left for the ship we went out and got some Cuban coffees (my first caffeine in 3 months at that point and the last caffeinated beverage I've had since) and then went about filling our sneaky booze bottles for the week.  Now, before anyone freaks out, we all still bought beer and wine and mixed drinks on board and would not have bought more if we hadn't brought some on, and if our booze ever gets taken away it will not in any way ruin the trip for any of us.  It is REALLY fun to be sneaky though.  I'm not going into any detail about how we snuck things on or how much etc, its just a fun ritual. 

For real, the best coffee....ever.

Our cruise went to St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, Nassau and Grand Turk and we had several days at sea to relax as well! 

Spencer and I stopped in Nassau on our first cruise and had a great day exploring.  For this trip we opted to get off the ship for a little bit, did a beer tasting, grabbed a few souvenirs and then got back on the ship to enjoy some time when it wasn't quite so crowded.  We utilized the gym and then hung out poolside until everyone else got back on board.

Street art

Pirate Museum!

We have a photo from our last trip to Nassau with a pirate that looks very similar..

Spence is trying to get money for drinks I think

hand carving, when we started watching this thing was a hunk of wood

Workin on the fitness

But also on the beer....

For our day in St. Thomas we mostly were together, Bek and Mike went off on their own for the first part of the day, the rest of us opted to head straight to the beach and commenced drinking some beverages in the ocean.  We spent most of the day there relaxing and playing in the water.  There was a pretty decent rain shower during the day which broke up the day.  Our main excursion we had booked for the trip was to do a night snorkel as a group.  It was a fantastic way to explore some sea life we wouldn't have seen otherwise!  This was probably the haziest of our vacation days, turns out rum punch in the ocean with minimal food is a bad combo for trying to write a trip report a year later!  I remember the ocean, I remember stopping for boozy milkshakes on our way to the snorkel, I remember being *REALLY* mad at Spencer b/c I thought he lost our towel clips -- again lots of rum punch, minimal food, I understand this is a silly reason to be mad-- and a variety of other tipsy shenanigans.  I'm glad we had some down time before the snorkel, I would have been sad if I'd been too out of it to remember that part!

Early in the day, Megans Bay is one of my favorite beaches!

Before our night snorkel

As we got off the ship

Our group after the snorkel, we had such a great day!

Grand Turk we opted for no excursion and the whole group trekked down the beach and lounged.  We rented chairs and umbrellas at a beach shack place, had some drinks and some food and just enjoyed the amazing water!  The beach shack had a resident dog we all played with, there were some big inflatable water towers etc that some of the guys climbed on, it was  very relaxing and perfect beach day!

Have you ever seen water this clear?

Footprints in the sand

Headed back to the beach

Puerto Rico the group split up, Bek and Mike did a stand up paddleboard rental, Jamie and Kenny went surfing while Ashley, Lew, Spencer and I wandered around the city, went to the Fort and did the self guided tour and then meandered back through the city on our way back to the ship. 

Standing guard at the fort

View from the fort

Gorgeous streets, I think Ashley took this picture

And we ended our day with drinks before we got back on the ship, had to have a mojito!

Our days at sea were my favorite.  Spencer and I opted for a balcony room (I like having access to the fresh air and the ability to get away from the crowds while still enjoying the ocean view).  We had a balcony on our first cruise and I really think it spoiled me for having any other kind!  I like to wake up and slip out onto the balcony to read before breakfast, or with a cup of (decaf) coffee.  Then we'd make our way up to the pool deck and meet up with the group.  There was mini golf, water slides,  and a variety of other ways to pass the time.  When we'd had enough sun or needed a break we parked ourselves indoors and played card games that we brought with us.  None of our group are especially into clubbing or extreme partying so night life was a little lacking for us.  We opted for the late seating for dinner as a group, to make sure that we'd always be able to sit together and so by the time we were done with dinner and had a few drinks we were pretty knackered.  We did see most of the shows on board, and had a blast with the professional photographers one night.  Its the only time I've purchased any of the pictures we've had taken!  I now have a group shot of the 8 of us on our wall where we're being goofballs, its a perfect representation of our dynamic!  While we were on board was March Madness, so Spencer and Mike especially were always looking for places to check scores and watch games, so we spent some quality time in the sports bar, we also celebrated St. Patricks day on board, complete with green hats and beads to keep pinching at bay! 

Bek may have thought we were changing out of dinner clothes before we went out....

Look at us crazy kids....I think this was probably like 10pm lol

Group shot of us at the "club"

Happy St. Pats day from the ocean

Game time after the sun!  We enjoyed Cards Against Humanity, Catch Phrase and a variety of other games in our downtime

The girls took some photos after dinner....

And the guys wanted to be JUST like us!

All of us together at dinner one night, we staggered seating every night so we all got a chance to sit by everyone over the course of the week!

So that was our first group vacation, we have a trip tentatively planned for March 2017, I anticipate more fun to come!

Our Second European Vacation, 2014 England

The 2nd half of our trip was to England.  We left Edinburgh and took the train down to Grantham to stay at Harlaxton for the night.  I studied abroad in 2004 at Harlaxton and Spencer has "gotten" to hear stories from that semester for the last 10 years.  It was fun to be back in the town and school 10 years later.  Seeing how the Manor changed over a decade was interesting, the computer labs were gone and they have wifi throughout the school now, the group that was there that semester didn't seem as rambunctious as I remember our group being in 2004!

Without a doubt some of my favorite college memories were made at this location.

The next day we took the train into London and checked into the London Marriott County Hall.  After getting settled into the hotel we took a the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour with London Walks.
That night it was back to our fav London bar, Euston Tap for some beverages and people watching. 

a view from Westminster Bridge looking at the hotel

during the tour we stopped at Abbey Road, getting a picture w out any cars was kind of a miracle!

Our favorite London bar!

Over the next few days in London we had a blast.  We went to the Tower of London (last time we walked around the outside but didn't go in) and saw the poppies being planted.  The poppies represent the soldiers that died during WWI.  It was overwhelming to see the numbers represented like that.  We also did an afternoon tea, it was a theme where all the foods that looked like they should be sweets were savories and vice versa.  Spence was a trooper, I think the champagne helped immensely.  Later that night we went out and saw 39 Steps, hilarious comedy show.  I found out via facebook that my cousins husband Mike was in town for business, he was staying pretty close to us so we decided to meet up after the show for a few drinks!  There's something really fun about getting to see people when you are on vacation that you normally don't get to hang out with.

A view from the Tower of London

A selfie at 39 Steps, such a funny show!

Our afternoon tea set up

The ravens at the Tower of London

the Poppies at the Tower of London

The next day we started the day at the Churchill War Rooms.  Both of us thought it was really interesting to see how they converted it to a museum and were still able to keep the "feel" of what it might have been like during the war.  We took a ton of photos because I knew my step dad would love it!  After the war rooms we walked through St. James park, did some people watching (my favorite pastime) caught the end of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, wandered around Trafalgar Square and finally settled into our afternoon routine of pub hopping.  After that we went back to the hotel and got changed for dinner and to go see Book of Mormon.  We were quite excited about this show, several of our friends had seen it and we knew we were in for a good night!

End of the changing of the guard

pub hopping!

such a good show!

The next day we met up with a friend who was living in the UK that I know from Baker and that Spencer knows from high school (small world right?).  She and her husband were living overseas because he plays soccer.  Kristin played soccer at Baker and was friends with another BU grad living in Oxford Kim.  Kim and I are sorority sisters  and figured that it was the perfect opportunity for all of us to get together, so we planned a day trip for Kristin Spencer and I to head down to Oxford!
We did a walking tour of the city when we first got into town and then Kim took us on a pub tour of the city in the afternoon, it was about the perfect way to see a city!

One of the main things we did on our last day in town was to head out of the city and do the Harry Potter tour at Universal Studios.  Spencer and I are both HUGE HP fans, we watch the movies at least once a year and I've read the books more times than I will admit.  It was awesome to see the props and sets and get a real understanding of how the "movie magic" happened for these films.  After the Harry Potter tour we went to Brew Dog in Camden for a few drinks

OMG its starting!

Harry Potter lived here!

I could go for a meal in the great hall...

Ahhhh we're here!

so many cool things to see

Who is up for some potions work?

refreshing butterbear for a break!

Diagon Alley!

After the end of the trip it was another SUPER  early flight home, we both look sad to leave the UK and exhausted from the trip, so I think the best image to leave is of us at a bar having  grand time!