One week, four new ports, three casinos... uh oh...

Well everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a while but things have been pretty busy around here.

Anyway, a while ago we did a special one week charter cruise for the Royal Bank of Canada that took us down into a part of the Caribbean I had never visited before. We went to San Juan, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Nassau, Bahamas. It was very nice to see some new places, and Jack and I had a lot of time off the ship together.

In San Juan (see photo above) we visited the casino near the port and each won a few hundred dollars playing blackjack. It was (needless to say) fun. Then the next day in St. Maarten we won a few hundred more each. So far so good, right? Then the last day in Nassau we went to the infamous Atlantis casino where we ..... LOST, of course. I lost $125 and Jack lost pretty much everything he had won, but none of his own money so he was still happy. I played some $15 dice (!!!!) which wasn't that great, since I wasn't willing to spend enough money to have a real chance. Oh well, it was all fun anyway.
The tiny streets of St. Maarten

... and the beautiful beaches.
One thing that makes St. Maarten interesting is that the island is actually divided in two and each half is owned by a separate country. St. Maarten, the side that I visited, is owned by the Dutch, and St. Martin, the other side, is owned by the French. It is the smallest island in the world to be partitioned into two nations. Of course, they exist peacefully together and it is said you can pass from one side to the other without even realizing it.

I found some cool shells here (which of course I will drag home and add to the other thousand shells I have dragged home from all over the world).

Dinner on the beach.
Tender ride into St. Thomas.

These bus/taxi things are everywhere.

My man :)

This is the Atlantis resort and casino in Nassau, Bahamas. This photo was taken pre-gambling, when we were still feeling optimistic about our visit, haha.



We saved $10 for the taxi ride back to the ship (good thing too). It was a fun day, even though we didn't win.