my caribbean trip

ah, i'm back.  i had so much fun.  i got a chest cold the day our ship left the port from san juan but i didn't care, i had fun anyway.  we stayed in puerto rico for one night, the people were really nice and it was pretty easy to get around, same with the other caribbean islands, you didn't really need to do excursions because there was sooo many non-cruise tours available.  from san juan the boat went to st. thomas in the us virgin islands, st. kitts, grenada, bonaire, aruba, and back to san juan. 

we mainly hung out at the beach or walked around town.  prior to our trip we pretty much picked a couple of spots to see in each island and went.  we were supposed to scuba dive in bonaire but because of my chest cold, i wouldn't be allowed to.  weather was humid by 10 am, food on crown princess was good but i was expecting more choices, cabins were clean and nice, and we met a lot of friendly people- mostly british and americans who are on their 8th or 10th cruise.  on the ship we watched movies out on the deck at night, watched a comedy show, and checked out their themed night parties. 

overall, it was an awesome trip and i'd definitely do another caribbean cruise.  i'd say the only downside is the limited amount of time spent on each island, the island hopping just gives a short preview and an idea of where you may want to stay for the long-term.  my favorite island was puerto rico because i loved the culture, it was sensory overload for me in san juan.  my favorite beach was grand anse in grenada.  the sand is so soft and powdery and the water is light crytal blue.  the beach was so beautiful that i didn't mind getting interrupted by the locals every 5 minutes asking if i wanted a foot rub, a drink, to buy spices, if i wanted to get my hair braided, if i wanted to buy handmade jewelry, or if i wanted to buy their handmade instruments, or being serenaded by guitar....  Magen's Bay in the US Virgin Is wasn't bad either, but the beach was fairly small.  like grand anse, aruba also had crystal clear blue water.  I think what surprised me most was seeing poverty in certain areas of the us virgin islands.  i guess in my mind, i thought it was one big island resort.

San Juan, Puerto Rico.  i fell in love with the city's architecture and the culture in general.  many of our cab drivers were from new york / chicago and never left PR, I can see why.  unfortunately we didn't get to visit el morro, one of the oldest fortresses. 

First night in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Druif Beach in Aruba.  It was a loooong walk to get here, and in the blistering heat.  The beach was okay, there were too many rocks near the surf. 

Kralendijk, Bonaire.  It was May 1st, their labor day so there weren't many locals in town or stores open.  Bonaire had colorful buildings like puerto rico and i definitely felt the dutch influence here.  Bonaire is considered to have one of the world's best scuba diving, and unfortunately I wasn't well enough to :(

My favorite beach - grand anse in grenada.  i had the most fun here.  Grenada is known as the land of spice.  I bought a lot of spices here as souvenirs. 

basseterre, st. kitts.  we spent about 1/2 hour on this island. it was very hot and i was still sick.

Magen's bay, US Virgin Islands.  We skipped on the shopping.  St. Thomas is well-known for duty-free shopping but i didn't want anything.   

The Countdown is on...

 we're leaving for the caribbean soon.  ugh, the anticipation is so high i can't stand it...we're pretty much ready to go and took care of things we needed to.  now that it's cold and windy again, i'm ready for some hot, scorching, migraine-inducing weather.  i hung out w/ my college friend nghia today in union square who i haven't talked to for a long while. it was nice to see him again.  

last weekend tim & i pretended to be sf tourists.  it was so nice and hot out so we went to the ferry building and had some gelato and took the F line over to the wharf.  we didn't stay very long, there wasn't much to do or see so we were out of there.  the next day we went to crissy field and hung out.  Here's some pictures we took...

                                                       trying to model,  haha yeah right!

                                            Crissy Field

chinese new year

2 weekends ago we went to chinatown to see the parade.  that was kinda cool, the rain didn't even bug me so much.  gavin newsom was in the parade and tim yelled out, "hey gavin what kind of gel do you use."  he didn't answer, but his hair wasn't the usual slicked back mobster style.  i think the rain and wind ruined it, lol. 

Last weekend a friend invited us to a "dinner party" at the imperial palace restaurant on grant and waverly.  it was thrown by the chinese - vietnamese association but we didn't actually know what it was for until we got there.  most the guests were a lot older and were formal - some wore sequined spaghetti strap dresses, some wore the chinoiserie dresses, guys in tuxes.  of course i didn't understand a word of what they were singing or saying.  We had to suffer from hours of ear screeching karoke before we were able to eat.  food ranged from lousy to okay- luckily we didn't have to pay.  people at our table were trying to sell us life enhancing drinks.  overall it was a very interesting experience.   

After that we went to etiquette lounge.  their decor is really awesome, not gothic but very old victorian, classy.  i wish i had a living room like that - i liked their huge, antique looking portraits that covered the entire wall.  it reminds me of those ones where you feel the eyes are moving and watching you, lol.  i didn't like the music at all. they were turning some mello, elevator and heavy metal 80's songs into dance remixes and it sounded so bad.  but sometimes the dj got it right.  their drinks were okay i just had a mai tai and a few sips of tim's saphire and etc.

3 day weekend

Yesterday I went to Hayes Valley.  I always rode by it but never had the chance to check out their stores, cafes, etc.  I was curious about Azalea after reading about it on yelp.  It was okay, the clothing store didn't have anything spectacular in there, and a lot of them were over priced anyway.  Bought a chocolate vanilla buttercream cupcake at Miette (spinoff of the Ferry Building store), and passed by the Blue Bottle Coffee Company (for Tim). 

They had some cool restaurants in the area, I'l have to go back and try Absinthe and The Crepe House.  Citizen Cake was in the area, I went there once and had one of their fruit parfaits.  It was really good, but I don't think they offer it anymore.  Depending on whether the stores are open or not I'll probably check out Castro or Cole Valley.  That's a section of SF I haven't really explored yet :)  

Ugh, I heard there was a Bloomingdales sale and I'm trying to avoid it.  We just booked our hotel in Puerto Rico and our caribbean cruise trip this spring is official so I better take it easy.  The only excursion we'll splurge on is scuba diving.  Omg I'm so excited...can't hardly wait.

weekend

i watched sweeny todd over the weekend.  it wasn't as bad as the reviews said.  i like tim burton and helena bonham carter's movies so i was curious to watch it.  the ending was kinda disappointing though-  i wanted to see the boy and Joanna get together...it's funny how harsh people were about HBC's singing.  it's like, her character's got a cockney accent and from the dodgy end of london.  she's not supposed to sound like charlotte church!

while tim shopped for jeans i headed for forever.  i found some cute stuff for a change.  oh and i saw sabrina, the audrey hepburn remake.  it's one of my favorite movies showing one of my favorite cities, Paris :)