Everybody loves towel animals!

Cruise to the Bahamas!
We recently took the girls on their first cruise, and we had a blast! While our quarters were cramped, the girls loved life aboard the big ship. We played trivia (and totally rocked the Harry Potter and fairy tale themed rounds), enjoyed three big song-and-dance shows, played a couple rounds of mini-golf, played in the pool and on the water slides, and ate lots of good food (We also took the opportunity to make them try all kinds of new foods including gazpacho, raw and fried oysters, mussels, frog legs, and escargot. Raw oysters were the only thing they found truly revolting). 

Daddy and Bug (with her sisters' assistance)
squared off on the super-sized chess board.

When the girls weren't hanging out with us, they checked into Camp Ocean, where they got to make friends with other kids on board, create crafts, learn about ocean animals, and make a 3-foot tall paper-mache volcano (which they got to watch erupt on the last day at sea).

Daddy even talked the girls into making their international musical
debut on the karaoke stage! After doing Daddy & daughter duets
with each girl, they all joined forces to belt out Let It Go!
(The girls started the song with their hair in neat little buns that
they pulled loose at the appropriate moment. The crowd went wild!)

One evening we made time to find a good spot to simply sit and enjoy the sunset. Gorgeous.

We also made two ports of call: Princess Cay and Nassau, Bahamas. Princess Cay was a great beach day. We headed in the opposite direction from most of the passengers and found a lovely bit of uncrowded beach to relax and play on.

There were hardly any breakers, so we actually managed to get
the girls to do some open water swimming! They loved it!
(Monkey and Lion are in the photo, but Bug got out there too.)

We also climbed to the top of Princess Cay's observation tower.

Upon arrival in Nassau, we also ditched the tourist crowd and walked about 3/4 of a mile through the city to get to Fort Fincastle, a British fort built in the late 1700s to ward off pirates. A tour guide gave us a brief history of the fort and led us up the watch tower to point out local landmarks and a variety of native trees.

Our guide demonstrates how big these original canons are by
getting Daddy and a couple other men to help him rotate it.

They decided to try out the fort's prison cell.

We headed back to the dock via the Queen's Staircase,
a canyon and steep stairway dug using slave labor
to provide an escape route from the fort.
Now it's a tourist attraction for visitors and
a fitness challenge for locals. 

Before getting back on the ship, we made our way through the Straw Market, braving the hawkers and the haggling, and we all came away with some lovely souvenirs.

This was a great trip, and we made so many good memories. Now we're on to the next adventure!