Hang’n out in the Midwest
July 22, 2010 Category: Albino Bowler No Comments »
Over the 4th of July weekend my husband Terry and three children, Max, Emmy and Maggie made the drive to my hometown of Columbia, Missouri for a surprise visit to my mother. I have 4 sisters, and they all made the trip as well, making it the first time we’ve all been at home together in a couple of years. Of course, when Dan mentioned that the Albino Bowler had yet to visit the Midwest, I thought this would be the perfect introduction to people with fine values, unmatched hospitality, and unblemished spoken English.
As we were driving from St. Louis to Columbia, I was trying desperately to think of somewhere that the Albino Bowler could be photographed to represent Missouri. All I could see for miles was corn and
soybean fields, as one of Missouri’s main industries is agriculture. So we stopped to snap a shot of Emmy with the Albino Bowler and soy crops as far as the eye can see. Then something occurred to me as I was snapping a photo of vegetation–this could be a really boring trip for the AB. The destination was not an exciting place, at least not on the level of China or Greece or Nicaragua, so we were going to have to improvise with activities and people.
The first activity was horseback riding. While the Clydesdales in St. Louis were off filming a beer commercial, My Little Pony was a cheerful alternative. The AB was secure in his masculinity riding his pink mare with yellow hair and big, pretty eyes. I even overheard him exclaim “I’m on a horse” once or twice while trying to remove his green bowling jersey.
Needing a little more action, the Albino Bowler dialed the X-factor up a notch when he discovered Max’s sweet Kawasaki Ninja ride. After ripping around the soy fields and then through the streets of Columbia, nearly missing a brush with the law, his ride was cut short. The Bowler was using the only toy Max brought with him on the journey from Tennessee. Max doesn’t like to share.
I mentioned earlier that the purpose of the trip was to spend time with family, namely my sisters. The Albino Bowler had the opportunity to meet my four younger sisters, their children, my aunts, uncles, cousins, mother, grandfather and Grannie Lavonne, who all converged on my mother’s home for an impromptu family reunion. He really enjoyed how close we all are, though he was glad that all of the kids riding in his car back to Tennessee are above the age of 3.
The 4th of July wouldn’t be complete without fireworks. We went to the Mizzou football stadium, home of the Tigers, to watch a great display. We thought the Bowler was with us and that we could get a fantastic photograph, but being the cool guy that he is, the Albino Bowler was back at home making his own fireworks. He used his social media networking skills to meet up with other plastics in town, namely Barbie and her friends.
Since this was a family trip, we will end the story there. While the location may not have been a travel hot-spot, it was great quality time with the Barnett (maiden name) family in Missouri. Happy Travels!
– Becky Finnegan
Tags: Albino Bowler, Columbia, Missouri, Soybean Fields
Kathmandu and beyond: Bob Seger was crazy!
July 1, 2010 Category: Albino Bowler No Comments »
After leaving China (click here), Holly, the Albino Bowler, and I headed over the Himalayan mountains to the Kathmandu valley in Nepal. It is fairly safe to say that I’ve been to and stayed in some pretty dirty places… but I’m pretty sure that Kathmandu takes the cake. Bob Seger was apparently crazy… Kathmandu, while it sounds neat, is not really a place you want to go. I am glad I can say that I’ve been there, but I don’t know that it is real high on my list of places to go back to! 
We did make the most of our time there however. We stopped by two durbar squares as well as several temples and monasteries, including the Swayamhunath temple complex… yeah… good luck pronouncing that one right. The tourists have nicknamed it the “monkey temple” because it is easier to pronounce and because there are monkeys running around everywhere. This particular place was the most interesting to me because it was set up on top of a mountain overlooking the Kathmandu valley, and it had a giant stuppa with the ‘all seeing eyes’ of Buddha on it (don’t ask… I just thought it looked neat).
Lucky for us, Kathmandu was not the reason we wanted to go to Nepal. We actually came to Nepal to 
go on a safari and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Mount Everest; both of which we were able to accomplish. Safaris in Nepal, specifically in the Royal Chitwan National Park, are a bit unique from your typical safari… if there is such a thing. Safaris are done here, not in a jeep (although you can do that if you want), but on the ultimate offroad vehicle… an elephant. Yes… we rode on the back of an elephant through the jungles of Nepal. I still laugh every time I say that because it seems so preposterous.
Chitwan National Park is known for its diverse wildlife; including several types of deer, monkeys, crocodiles, elephants, one horned black rhinos, and the ever elusive Bengal tiger. The two national parks in Nepal are actually supposed to be your best chance at seeing a Bengal tiger in the wild, however according to our guide, they have become very scarce in the past couple of years in Chitwan… we didn’t see any. We did however get to see all the other animals I mentioned with the exception of the wild elephants, and from what the guides were saying, a wild elephant is not something you really want to run into while you’re riding another elephant. I’m kind of glad we didn’t see one. The rhinos on the other hand, were quite the spectacle; and one of the nice things about being on the back of an elephant when you encounter one, is that they’re not scare of you. We literally rode right up to them! THAT was an amazing experience. Also while in the park, we had the opportunity to ride in a handmade canoe down a river as well as a few walks through the jungle looking for wildlife… one such outing had us within 50 yards of a rhino. While I was in a tree snapping pictures of the rhino, a mongoose unknowingly walked right up to Holly and our guide Brahma! Once it realized what it had done it quickly changed course, but it was a neat thing to see.
While not out on safari, Holly and I had the opportunity to do a couple of really neat things. In the mid morning to early afternoon hours, it is extremely hot and muggy there. By this time, all the wildlife has found a nice cool place to hide, which makes viewing them very difficult. Since there isn’t anything else to do, the owners of the elephants take them to the river to splash around… and yes, you can go join them. This is something else that makes me laugh when I tell people; you can go swimming with the elephants. Definitely the experience of a life time. The handlers will bring the elephants over to a mud bank so you can climb up… bareback.. onto the elephant. They then walk the elephant down to the river and let them splash themselves off, while you’re on their backs… so of course you get drenched. They also will lay over sideways into the river, tossing you in, unless of course you’re fast enough to move around on him… I of course was not. I could go on for hours, this was absolutely amazing.
We also stopped by the elephant breeding center; this is where it all starts for the working animals. The elephants are bread here and trained here. It was quite the entertaining thing to watch the baby elephants play around, they are quite mischievous! One actually smacked Holly with its trunk! I guess he wanted some more grass from us. Funny stuff (well, funny because it didn’t hurt).
Till next time, happy travels!
– Dan Thompson
To see more pictures from this trip, click here and select the 2010 – Nepal link from the left.
Tags: Albino Bowler, Chitwan National Park, Dan Thompson, Elephant Safari, Kathmandu, monkey temple, Nepal, Royal Chitwan National Park, Swayamhunath
Five continents down, two to go: The Albino Bowler goes to China
June 19, 2010 Category: Albino Bowler 1 Comment »
Every once in a while, something happens while on a trip that makes it memorable… and maybe not in the best way. Well, this was one of those trips, and what happened was we (and by we I mean ‘I’) left one of our cameras on a plane; and two weeks worth of pictures are forever gone. Luckily we had two cameras, but as is always the case, there were lots of memories on that camera that we didn’t get with the other. So to my friends in China; Lily, Mr. Yung, and Kevin specifically whose pictures would have appeared here, I apologize. Those memories will be with Holly and I forever, but unfortunately no one else will get to share them with us. That being said, we did get some great pictures of us, and great pictures of the Albino Bowler… so lets continue.
My wife and I have been talking about going to China for some time, and this spring we finally made it. Of course the Albino Bowler wouldn’t miss a trip like this, so he tagged along as well. As exciting as
China sounds, if we’re completely honest, China was a bit intimidating at first. For starters, it is completely on the other side of the planet from where we live, and secondly it seems their culture is so vastly different than ours that you really just don’t know what to expect. After having been there though, I can say that there is nothing to be worried about. We found the Chinese people to be as friendly and accommodating as any people we’ve ever met; and while their culture is very different from ours, it is a very colorful and interesting one. If you’re interested in history, this is a great place for it… because they have a LOT of it.
To start off the trip, my wife and I flew in to Beijing. We got to visit such famous places as Tiananmen 
Square, the Forbidden City, the Olympic Park, and several other places. We also got to spend a morning at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall; and yes, it is as impressive as you would imagine it is. As you’re standing on the wall, it stretches as far as the eye can see in both directions like a ribbon laying across the mountains. After returning the from Great Wall, we stopped by the Olympic Park and saw the buildings where a lot of the 2008 Summer Olympics were held including the Birds Nest and the Water Cube. Michael Phelps should be proud. The Olympic Park was really a neat place. They have music playing and families were there walking around together, playing games and flying kites. It is the kind of place you could just mill around people watching for hours. If you do decide to hang around, prepare to feel like celebrity… people will want to have their picture made with you! This was quite entertaining. Our guide Lily explained that a lot of Chinese people come here from towns well off the tourist circuit and consider it a souvenir to take home a picture of themselves with a westerner.
Leaving by train from Beijing, our next stop was Xi’an, which is the closest big city to the terracotta
warriors. If you’re not familiar with the terracotta soldiers, the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, spent a lot of his time as emperor preparing for his own death. As part of this preparation, he had an army of literally thousands of clay soldiers built to protect what would later be his tomb. This, to me, was absolutely fascinating. The army was completely destroyed less than a year after the emperor’s death and then rediscovered in 1974 by a farmer, who was actually at the museum the day we were visiting (‘No Pictures Please’). Since the rediscovery, a painstaking process has been underway to reconstruct and preserve the warriors.
The next stop on our China adventure was a city named Chengdu. The major draw to this city for us was the fact that there is a Panda Breeding and Research Center there, and what trip to China would be complete without a panda encounter of some sort? To get the most out of our panda experience, Holly and I signed up for their ‘International Internship’ program, which ended up being our favorite day in China. For starters you get to go behind the scenes and meet the pandas. We then went into the panda enclosures (with the pandas elsewhere) and cleaned up their bamboo scraps so they could be weighed. Next, the pandas were moved from their cages to the enclosures.. and it was cage cleaning time! Yep.. we cleaned up panda poo… it was all in the name of good science though as the poo is collected and weighed and compared to the amount of food that was given / left over to get a good gauge as to how much the pandas were eating. The one positive to the whole thing is that the pandas eat bamboo almost exclusively, so their poo doesn’t really stink that bad. Holly about lost it once… but we were good after that. In addition to the cleanup duties we also got to prepare their food AND feed it to them, and yes… we got to have our pictures made touching one. That in and of itself made the whole thing worth it. Randomly enough, while were at the Panda Breeding Center they were filming The Amazing Race ‘China Rush’ there! How cool is that? We actually had a really great picture of my wife with the Albino Bowler and an Amazing Race clue card that one of the contestants had left behind, not to mention better pictures of him and a panda… but yeah… those were on the other camera. Very cool experience to say the least!
The last stop in China for us was Lhasa, in the beautiful Tibetan Autonomous Region. Visiting Tibet has been a dream of mine for some time, and I was not let down at all. Remove the political pretense, and this is one of the most beautiful and interesting places we’ve been. While in Lhasa we got the chance to visit the stunning Potala Palace and several other sites of religious significance to the Tibetan people and we got to sit in on a debate between the monks in a courtyard at the Sera Monastery. We had no idea what they were arguing about, but it was clear that they were very adamant about the stances they were taking! Also in Lhasa I continued a growing trend in my travel experiences… I got sick! The 11,600 foot elevation got to me the third day we were there and it turned a fun experience into a very scary one… luckily though it was the day before we left, and the cure for altitude it going to a lower altitude… and that we did!
We’re done with China, but stay tuned because our travels are not over yet; next we head to Kathmandu in Nepal!
– Dan Thompson
To see even more pictures from this trip, feel free to head over to danandholly.com
Tags: Albino Bowler, Beijing, Chengdu, China, Lhasa, Panda Breeding Center, Potala Palace, Terracotta Soldiers, Terracotta Warriors, The Great Wall, Tibet, Tienenman Square, Xi'an
Nicaragua: It is probably not what you think
February 23, 2010 Category: Albino Bowler No Comments »
Whatever you may have heard, Nicaragua is a great place to visit. Sure, you occasionally need to bribe a policeman and there are many areas of the country that you shouldn’t go without armed guards, but don’t let that spoil your fun. My wife, Larry and Mitzi Bodie and myself took off for an adventure in Nicaragua and it paid off big time. To start with, we rented a beach house that is reminiscent of a Columbian drug lord’s castle complete with its own light house tower and armed guards. The trip wasn’t all about drug lord style pampering however, we also got to do a little good for the community as we took supplies to two different schools and spent time working with a medical missions team. Larry and Mitzi pulled more than their fair share of work there. Mitzi was the triage nurse while Larry help dentists pull teeth! Kimberly and I weighed babies to ensure they received the right amount of medication.
We spent a day visiting Leon and Grenada which are 15th century era town with some unbelievable architecture and history. We took a lot of pictures from the top 
of the Cathedral. We couldn’t believe they actually let people go up on the roof. On a different day we hiked to the top of Cerra Negro volcano and sand boarded down the volcano. Over and hour to hike up, 20 seconds to ride down. The ground was so hot in some places that you couldn’t even touch it.
When we weren’t visiting old downs and different volcanoes, we spent our time at the beach house. The ocean side pool was awesome but we really enjoyed the ocean. It was a different type of beach that we’ve ever seen before with the rock walls, cliffs, and swimming holes made by all the volcanic rock.
To sum it all up, it was the best vacation we have ever had, and I think the Bodies concur. We plan to go back in October of 2010 and take a crew to help us build some houses as well as enjoy all the rest Nicaragua has to offer. The people are extremely happy and welcoming and the country has so much to offer it is amazing. One day it will start to become over developed and start to lose its wonderful culture so get there before it’s commercialized!
– Chad Quesenberry
Tags: Albino Bowler, Nicaragua
Better Late Than Never
January 18, 2010 Category: Albino Bowler 1 Comment »
So I was reviewing all the awesome trips that the Albino Bowler had been on during 2009 and it occurred to me that there were some pretty important things that transpired that did not get properly documented… and that ain’t cool! I promptly started harassing people for material and I finally started getting some responses. Here is what I’ve dug up so far.
The month was May of 2009 and the Albino Bowler went on an epic journey to the top of Mt LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This actually marks the first time the Albino Bowlers trip was fully documented in video (and set to John Denver music to boot!), so I’ll let the video tell the story. Prepare yourself…
Special thanks to Jason Graf for putting the video together and awesome pix! Great trip!
– Dan Thompson
Tags: Albino Bowler, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Mt LeConte, thealbinobowler.com
A Very Claris Christmas (Party)
December 24, 2009 Category: Albino Bowler No Comments »
Anyone who has ever been around our company or stopped by our offices knows that Claris Networks has a very unique culture and atmosphere. We pride ourselves in being a light-hearted and fun place to work… and quite frankly our Christmas parties reflect that as well. This year we did things slightly different and had the get together at our offices; oh, and we had a ping-pong (sorry Andy; “table tennis”) tournament and RockBand throw down. Yeah… that’s how we roll. Obviously the Albino Bowler wasn’t missing out on what was quite possibly the best Christmas Party ever.
The ping-pong tournament turned out to be a wild success. It was a single elimination tournament and then the final two played to the best of three games. Much to Zac’s dismay, the tournament came down to a tale of two Daves… David Stilwill and Dave Sagraves, with Sagraves taking the top title and walking away with the prize money. Make no mistake though, it was an intense battle all the way to the top; with Jay Norris even breaking out his table tennis alter-ego, Arlandro; complete with headband and sunglasses.
If you weren’t playing ping-pong or out on the porch, chances are you were engaged in an epic game of RockBand. This particular video game has been a part of our company’s culture for a while and this is actually the second appearance it has made at a Claris Christmas party. It seemed that the second go around people were a lot less shy about grabbing the microphone and belting out some lyrics… which always makes the experience more entertaining.
All in all I think everyone, including the Albino Bowler, had an awesome time at the get together. The food was awesome, the entertainment was great, and best of all we all got the chance to hangout and goof around for several hours. Good times indeed.
Have a Merry Christmas everyone!
– Dan Thompson
Claris Networks and the Albino Bowler would like to say a special Thank You to our friends Jay Waggoner and Co. over at Veristor for sponsoring our Christmas party. Thanks guys!
Tags: Albino Bowler, Christmas Party, Claris Networks, Ping-Pong Tournament, RockBand
NoSHAVEmber: Fun with Facial Hair
December 8, 2009 Category: Albino Bowler No Comments »
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I don’t know who came up with it, or when and where it started… but fellow employee Jay Norris introduced the office to NoSHAVEmber (you may have heard it called “No Shave November”) this year; and being the bunch of nerds that we are… it caught like wildfire. The idea is simple: you don’t shave for the entire month of November. Now several people took this a little further than others. Some, like Zac, didn’t touch a razor to their face nor scissors to their hair all month long. Others, like Jay, decided it was acceptable to shave your neck… just |
| not your entire face. It was actually a pretty amusing little experiment. We found that some people, like Samat, still can’t grow a beard… and we’re quite sure that Jeff is actually Santa Claus (we think it all turns white closer to Christmas). I, on the other hand, could not last the entire month. I made it 8 days and had to give up. I came to the realization that having a beard and being completely bald looks quite ridiculous… and is quite itchy to boot. All in all we apparently generated enough buzz about the whole thing that local radio personality Kim Hansard from Star 102.1 wrote a commercial about it for |
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a local business that does laser hair removal (listen to it below)! Now THAT is pretty funny stuff in my book.
Do you know someone who participated in NoSHAVEmber? Post up in the comments section and link to a picture! We’ll all enjoy a good laugh I’m sure.
– Dan Thompson
Tags: Albino Bowler, Claris Networks, Dan Thompson, No Shave November, NoSHAVEmber, The Albino Bowler
Its football time with the Tennessee Titans!
November 28, 2009 Category: Albino Bowler 1 Comment »
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Okay, so I have a couple of things to admit here… 1) I’m not the biggest football fan in the world and 2) I’ve never been to a pro sporting event of any kind. Well… unless of course you count our local hockey team. I will very rarely turn down the opportunity to try something new though, so when our friends Jay Waggoner and Ashby Lincoln from Veristor invited my boss Aaron Sherrill and I to a Tennessee Titans game, I was fired up… and so was the Albino Bowler!
Aaron and I met up at the office and made the relatively short drive over to the stadium in Nashville. I had heard for years that the pro football games lacked the intensity of college football, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that there wasn’t any shortage of excitement around the stadium… the fans were out BIG TIME. |
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After walking around for a couple of minutes, we caught up with our friends and headed inside. Now, Aaron had actually been to a couple Titans games before, so I think he had an idea of what we were in for when they said “VIP treatment”, I on the other hand had no clue. After having had the “VIP treatment” though, I can tell you with all certainty that if you’re going to go to a pro football game… this is how you do it! We were setup with an executive suite to watch the game from; complete with all the food you can eat, all the drinks you drink, and of course, a pretty darn good view of the action on the field. Oh… and if you happened to miss something (like the tons of bad calls the refs were throwing down), there were a couple of big screen TVs to catch the replays on. Now THIS is sweet! |
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At the end of the day the Titans barely lost to the Houston Texans, 34 to 31, but there was no shortage of entertainment. I’m also pretty comfortable saying that there was just as much intensity and passion with these football fans as any I’ve run into at the college games in Neyland Stadium here in Knoxville. I don’t think they could have gotten any louder (and thankfully so because you would probably be well served with some ear plugs as is!). Aaron and I had a great time and it was definitely a fun experience! Thanks again Jay and Ashby for the invite!!
– Dan Thompson
Tags: Aaron Sherrill, Albino Bowler, Claris Networks, Dan Thompson, Nashville, Tennessee Titans, Veristor
Cruising the Caribbean: Part 2
September 28, 2009 Category: Albino Bowler 3 Comments »
This is the second post in a two part series. You can find part 1 here.
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Barbados: Out of all the islands, Barbados was the one I was the most disappointed by. One of the main problems with the island was that the ship was docked right in front of a huge industrial yard and it was very ugly. We had no excursions planned for the day so we just stayed on the boat the entire day. I found that there was a ping pong tournament on the ship at 12:30PM so I went to it. My brother and I also competed in the mini-golf tournament |
and he beat me! I ended up winning the ping-pong tournament though so it was a good day. My mom and I were bored after ping-pong was over so we went down to the shopping plaza next to the ship. It didn’t really have that much but I did end up buying some sand and shells for my girlfriend, Roslyn.
We got back onto the ship and went to eat sushi, dinner, and played some games in the casino. I did VERY well on the Blackjack tables. My brother also did very well but didn’t know when to quit and ended up losing all of his money for the night. I turned 20 dollars into 117. I realized that Blackjack was awesome at this point and decided that it would be my game of choice for the remainder of the cruise.
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St. Lucia: The ship docked in St. Lucia the next morning at around 10:00AM. We had already eaten breakfast so it was time to go do our next excursion which was a Canopy Tour (Jungle zip line). It was yet another long bus ride but totally worth it. We were able to make it to the zip line area but it was so humid (duh, it’s a jungle). There was a giant tiki bar at the start of the tour where they showed us how to put on our harnesses and helmets. The only problem I had with it was that they |
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made me wear a hairnet, even though I had very short hair, so most of my pictures look stupid. There were 11 zip lines to go on total and each of them went higher off the ground. The very last zip line we went on was about 600 foot long, 250 foot in the air and we reached speeds of about 50 miles an hour. It was an absolutely incredible excursion and probably my favorite of the entire trip.
My mom and I made it back to the ship and ate some sushi. You may be wondering what my brother has been doing since we were in Dominica. Well, a month ago, he broke his leg completely through both bones. He had to have surgery and they put a steel rod in his leg. The only two excursions he was able to do were in St. Thomas and Dominica. He spent the rest of the trip laying in the room and watching TV (yes I know, stupid).
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That night, when we went to dinner, Scott and Tom had a great idea. Everyone at our dinner table decided that we would hijack an entire Blackjack table at the casino once we were done eating. This turned out to be an awesome idea since all of us did incredibly well in Blackjack. I ended up turning 40 dollars into 148. Once again, my brother didn’t know when to quit and lost all of his money again. Either way, we had a great time. |
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Antigua: Antigua was our most busy island. My mom and I had planned 2 shore excursions in 1 day for this island. In the morning, we were ATV’ing. It was VERY fun because we were on trials that drove through the country side and could go very fast on the ATVs. It was a very beautiful island with lots of palm trees and historical buildings. One of the stops we made while ATV’ing was at an old plantation windmill. It was built in 1850 and was still standing. We were able to |
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get back to the ship just in time to go back out to do our 2nd excursion, horseback riding! It was a quick drive to the beach where we were going to do the excursion. My mom and I have plenty of experience horseback riding since my grandfather used to own horses so it wasn’t anything new to us. We were hoping they would give us free reign of the horses but the guides made us stay in a line and we couldn’t even make the horses gallop. Otherwise, the guides would yell at you. The horseback riding was the worst excursion we went on just because the guides were very unfriendly. My mom and I both agree that we would’ve been fine if we had just done ATV’ing for that day. We still enjoyed the beach after the riding was over. We had also made a tradition of trying the local beer of the island. I got a few Albino Bowler pics of him with the beer and on the beach. |
Dinner that night was amazing as usual. Our dinner table decided to hijack a Blackjack table again for the night. My luck was not so good and ended up losing 40 dollars on the table. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
St. Kitts:
We arrived in St. Kitts at about 10:00AM. I wasn’t expecting much out of the island because my mom had been there 12 years earlier and said it was a very run down island. I was completely surprised when we pulled into the island because it was the most beautiful one of all the islands we had been to. Not only that, but it had the best shopping center as well. We decided that we would definitely be visiting it before we went back to the ship after the excursion. Everyone met right outside of the ship for our last excursion which was Nature Kayaking. This one was my pick because I wanted to do something to work off the massive amounts of food that we had eaten all week long.
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It was a nice bus ride to where we were kayaking. The bus driver was incredibly nice and had a lot of knowledge about the island. She even stopped the bus in the middle of the road so we could see some of the monkeys that live on the island! We eventually made it to the starting location for kayaking. First, we went snorkeling though. It was fun; there were a ton of black sea urchins everywhere. Once everyone was tired of snorkeling, we got into our kayaks and made the 2 and a half mile trip along the edge of the island. The entire time, my mom complained because she actually had to paddle to make the boat go. I kept pushing her to paddle and we eventually made it to the stopping point. As soon as I stepped into the sand, my feet felt like they were on fire. The beach was all black sand and it was extremely |
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hot that day so it felt like we were trying to walk over lava. We made it to the shack on the beach and found that the excursion guides had set up a local fruit feast. All the fruits on the plate were from the island. I tried a few that I had never had before such as papaya. It had some of the best pineapple I have ever had. Once we finished eating, we rode the bus back to the ship.
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The shopping in St. Kitts was amazing. We went through many stores and eventually found an ice cream shop. As if we weren’t fat enough already, we got ice cream cones. I ended up buying the most stuff out of 2 of the shops. We eventually got tired and went back to the ship. Later that night, I took the Albino Bowler around the ship and took some pictures of the various places I had spent the most time. This included the casino, internet café, sushi bar, and main lobby of the ship. I also had our waiters and our entire table take a group photo with him. |
San Juan (Again):
The ship pulled back into San Juan at about 8:00AM. We had to go through the debarkation process which is usually pretty easy (it’s just a lot of standing in line). We ate at the San Juan airport and prepared to go home.
Overall, this was one of the best vacations I have ever had. It had great people, great excursions, great food, and was very relaxing. Till next time!
–Zac McKinney
Tags: Antigua, Barbados, Kayaking, Puerto Rico, San Juan, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Zac McKinney
Cruising in the Caribbean: Part 1
September 28, 2009 Category: Albino Bowler 4 Comments »
It was finally my turn to take the Albino Bowler on vacation again! Carnival Cruise Lines graciously allowed AB to come onto the ship for the entire ride (ok so I didn’t ask for permission, I just took him). The cruise was 7 days long and visited 7 islands in the southern Caribbean. The home port for the ship (Carnival Victory) was in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was an incredibly long flight (3.5 hours from Atlanta to San Juan) but luckily there was a LCD TV’s built into the back of the seat in front of me. We arrived in San Juan on time and headed to the hotel.
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San Juan: My mom, brother and I woke up at around 8:00AM and ate breakfast. We were unable to board the ship until about 1:00PM so I just sat around and read a book. Once we were on the ship, the real fun started. One of my favorite places on the ship was the deli. It opened for lunch as soon as we boarded the ship. They made a delicious turkey sub for me. After we were done eating, we went up to the top of the ship and took some pictures |
with San Juan behind us. The ship pulled out of the dock at 9:30pm and we were on our way to St. Thomas!
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St. Thomas: We were able to sleep in on the second day but still had an excursion. We went to the top deck of the ship to eat breakfast. I really enjoyed the omelet stand on the ship. They cooked it exactly how you liked it. Once we finished breakfast, we explored the ship some more. I checked out the casino and sushi bar since they were right next to each other (they weren’t open though while we were in port). My mom, brother, and I got ready for our excursion at about 1:00pm. While we were waiting, I snapped a shot of the Albino Bowler next to the ship. |
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The boat arrived to pick us up for the underwater motor scooter excursion shortly after. It was a 30 minute ride out to where we would be snorkeling and using the scooters. They went through a quick tutorial on how to steer the scooter and divided us up into two groups. The crew was absolutely hilarious that were running the excursion. Once of the girls that went with us was terrified of fish so as soon as she jumped in the water, the owner of the boat threw a TON of goldfish (the snack, not the actual fish) around her. |
She was swarmed with yellow striped fish within seconds and screamed so loud. Everyone on the boat was laughing about it. The motor scooters were a blast. We were able to go about 20 feet down and still breathe normally. They didn’t go very fast but we were able to see a ship wreck and some very beautiful coral.
After about 3 hours, we loaded up and went back to the ship. We all prepared for dinner and to meet the other diners at our table. My mom and I had decided that since everything on the cruise (except alcohol) was completely free, we would try as many new things as possible. We started going to the sushi bar every day at 5:00PM when it opened and trying every single thing that was available. The first day was barbequed eel and believe it or not, it was VERY delicious.
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We went to dinner and met 3 of the 6 other people at our dinner table. Their names were Michele, Tom, and Scott. All of them were from New Jersey and they were some of the coolest people the entire cruise. All of us got along with no problems and we had dinner over conversation about the excursions we had done that day. We were also able to meet our main waiter, Alexander, and our assistant waiter, Pospita. They were also incredibly nice and did a great job serving us the entire week. |
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Shortly after dinner, we went back to our rooms and fell asleep from a very long day. The ship left port at around 5:30PM to head for the next island so we were already on the way before dinner.
Dominica:
We woke up as early as possible and found we were already in port at Dominica (pronounced Dom-a-ne-ka). We all went up for breakfast but had to eat quickly because our excursion was an early one. We finished eating and went down to deck 0 to get off of the ship. As soon as we stepped on to the island, we heard a guy playing steel drums. We found our excursion guide for river tubing and waited for everyone to arrive there. Everyone piled into a bus and we made the long trip to where we would be river tubing (1 hour and 15 minute drive). Once we were there, everyone had to put on life jackets and helmets. The river tubing guides gave some instructions and told us to just relax when we hit whitewater on the river.
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Everyone formed a line to get into the river with a tube. Once we were in, it was very relaxing and clam so I took out the Albino Bowler to get a few pictures before the whitewater part. The water was colder than I had expected but still felt great. We were on the river for about 2 hours and had a great time. We stopped on the bus ride back and tried some local rum punch (it was VERY strong and delicious). We got back to the ship and prepared for dinner. |
We still had time before dinner so my mom and I decided to go to the casino and learn how to play some of the games (the first few nights of the cruise they host a teaching session and show you how to play 2 or 3 games). We learned how to play Roulette and Blackjack. I decided that Roulette was not my kind of game and stuck with Blackjack. The casino host, Paul, taught us everything we needed to know about Blackjack. Of course, the version he showed us was Face-Up Blackjack, in which the casino has better odds of winning. Luckily, Tom and Scott from our dinner table knew exactly how to play the regular version of Blackjack and told us how to adapt what we had learned to the regular game.
| The other 3 members of our table showed up for this night’s dinner. They were also from New Jersey, not far from where Tom, Michele, and Scott were from. Their names were Janette, Gabriella, and Tom (yes we had 2 Toms).
Stay tuned for part 2! –Zac Mckinney |
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