Caribbean Trip 2013 Day 6 (April 3, 2013): The Rope Hike v. The Flying Pizza

Yesterday was a great relaxing day. When Jenn and I got on the cruise we realized that having back to back beach days probably wasn’t necessary. So we instantly tried to figure out something to do on our last stop on the cruise, St. Kitts. From what the lady at the excursion counter was saying that one of the best things to do was hike in the rain forest. Jenn and I enjoy a good hike once in a while so we booked it.

So today marked our hike day which departed St Kitts at 10:30 AM. The way Jenn and I have been sleeping you would think that 10:30 would have been late enough but we made a 9:00AM wake up call to make sure we were ready. We ordered room service for breakfast got two smoothies each and had some bacon and waffles.

Breakfast came in around three minutes before we needed to head down to the pier to meet for our excursion. So we ate as much as we could and left the ship for our excursion. We jumped on board a bus and headed out to the rain forest of St Kits. Like most Caribbean islands it’s a pretty poverty stricken island outside of the tourist areas.

We made it to our stop and were given twenty minutes to walk around the botanical gardens, buy stuff from the gift shop, and get ready for the hike. According to the tour director the hike seemed like it was going to be pretty easy. However we got broken up into two different groups and we got the younger of the two tour guides and he had us go a new route. To make matters worse I didn’t bring any tennis shoes just my dress shoes so I used those and those looked ridiculous with shorts so I wore jeans. Not optimal attire for hiking in the rain forest but I made it through.

It was an incredible hike; we went through a ton of river streams, and lush areas. Eventually we made our way to by far the hardest part of the hike, which was an optional piece that everyone did. We went up a forty-degree incline that had you pulling on to ropes to get up to the top of the hill. It was a pretty intense climb and much of the group had a ton of trouble making it.

But eventually we all made it and had a nice descent from a small perch in the rain forest back to the start of the tour. It was an incredible hike, one that was a bit tougher then we originally thought but was so worth doing. I know both Jenn and I are so stoked we did it.

After we got dropped off back at the pier we made our way back on board. We ordered some room service and took some showers to clean off from the day. For lunch I tried the chicken wings and a cobb salad, while Jenn once again got her pasta bolognase.

After we got finished with lunch we headed back down to Wine Cellars. One of our favorite things to do is get a few ¼ pours of new wine to try. I went with a white and blush and Jenn went with red. It’s just a really relaxing place to hang out and the prices for wines aren’t too bad. After we spent a bit of time at Wine Cellars we went back to rekindle our lost game of checkers in the Game On area of the ship. The digital tabletop platforms were taken so we went with the old school checkers board and pieces. I gave a valiant effort but after my onslaught on Jenn was warded off Jenn squeezed out a victory. Or she may of smoked me it into oblivion, either way I fought the good fight.

We got done with Game On and headed back up to our room to get ready for dinner. Tonight we got to try our second of the four specialty dining rooms, the Lawn Club Grille. Out of the four we had no real idea of what to expect other then its on the 14th deck and is an outside eating venue. We arrived on time for our 6:30 PM reservation and were greeted to our table. The Lawn Club is a much more laid back environment, and specializes in grilling foods and pizzas.

We were then asked if we wanted to participate in the cooking of either grilling meats or preparing our flatbread pizzas. Jenn volunteered me to do our pizzas. So I obliged not really knowing what I was getting myself into. Needless to say they had me tossing my pizza in front of 50+ people and of course my skills as a pizza maker on a scale of 1-10 would probably be a 3 ½ - 4 range. Not too good, but I got a nice cheer from the audience anyways and am thankful that was the end of my cooking for the night.

I made Jenn and I a pepperoni and cheese flatbread that turned out quite nice. We then had the option to go to a salad bar, which I went for while Jenn didn’t. For drinks I had my favorite Stella while Jenn had our bottle from the first night of the cruise brought down so she could finish off that bottle with dinner. For our main course Jenn went with lamb chops and the shrimp and scallop skewers. I went with the filet mignon and the shrimp and scallop skewers. We also split the lobster mac and cheese, cream corn, and baked potato for sides. What’s neat about the restaurant too is even though we didn’t help in the grilling of the meats/fish, we got to watch the chefs prepare them right in front of us. The food was delicious; you can’t beat freshly grilled foods. To top it off Jenn and I had both got the restaurant specialty, vanilla ice cream on top of a warm cookie. It was an incredible meal.

After dinner we walked around on the top deck, enjoyed the beautiful sunset and headed back to our balcony and read over some of the previous day posts. We also did a quick recap of today’s fun events.

At this point it was time for the show both Jenn and I were most looking forward to this week, the comedian/magician, Scott Alexander. He was first found on America’s Got Talent where he made it to the final stages and then worked in Vegas. He sold me right when he came on with his Captain America t-shirt, but was actually a really good entertainer. Similar to the violinist a few days back I never once looked at the time and forgot I was even on a cruise ship. He was thoroughly entertaining and I know we both really enjoyed tonight’s show.

After dinner we walked around a bit and called it a night. We were both pooped from the hike, so we started watching Ruby Sparks but only made it half way through before having to turn it off and hit the sack. Today was the last stop and we have two at-sea days and then its back to life. Luckily we love at sea days so the next two days should be great.