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.

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.

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

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).

     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.

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

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.

    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

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.

    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

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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.

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!

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. 

   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.

   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.

   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.

     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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   So it was time for another Albino Bowler adventure to a concert….this time Aerosmith!

   At 11:00am we all piled into my mom’s car for the long drive down to Atlanta.  It was 4 hours down to Atlanta, GA for the concert.  I spent the time reading a book and listening to music.  At around 3:00pm we met up with my aunt (Judy Fereday) at her hotel to head to the VIP party where we would be able to meet Joe Perry and Steven Tyler.

   We got to the outdoor amphitheater and waited outside the gates to be let inside.  The concert organizers had set up a giant tent with a food bar and Guitar Hero:  Aerosmith.  The first thing that my brother and I did when we got to the tent was play a little Guitar Hero.  After about an hour or so, they started calling people over to meet Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.

   We stood in line for another 30 mins and everyone started cheering.  Steven Tyler and Joe Perry walked outside for just a second and then into the room where you could get the autograph / picture with them.  They let everyone have a turn and the Albino Bowler got his first celebrity picture!  Let me explain what I had to go through to get this picture:  The rules were that you could only bring one item to get autographed.  Security made you put everything you had on your person on a table right outside of where you exited from meeting the band members.  They ran a metal detector over me and found the bowler!  Luckily, I thought fast on my feet and told them that was the item I wanted to have autographed (I actually wanted my backstage pass autographed).  So they let me through with the bowler.

   When it was finally my turn, I told Steven Tyler that I had an unusual request.  He asked me “What would that be?”.  I asked him if he knew what a Flat Stanley was and he replied with “I have no idea what you are talking about.”  I tried to explain to him as quick as possible and pulled the bowler out of my pocket.  I just explained I needed a picture of them both with this doll.  Steven Tyler replied with “Whatever floats your boat, man.”  The photographer gave me a funny look but took the picture anyways.  I also got my backstage pass autographed by both of them.

   After that was over, we went back to the party and picked up a free beer.  Shortly after, ZZ Top went on and did a great job.  They played almost all of their really popular songs like “Tush”, “Sharp Dressed Man”, and “La Grange”.  There was an intermission right after for Aerosmith to set up.  We ran out and got some frozen margaritas because it was so HOT.

   Once we got back,  there was a giant Aerosmith curtain hung up.  They started the concert and dropped the

curtain.  Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were directly in front of my for most of the concert (we were in the 2nd row).  I took some great pictures.  Unfortunately, the concert was cut short by 5 songs because Steven Tyler’s voice started to go out halfway through the concert.  It was still an awesome concert though.  They played some of the really good songs that weren’t on the playlist online like “Mama Kin”, “Train Kept A-Rollin”, and “Janie’s Got a Gun”.  Overall, the entire experience was amazing and I will remember it for the rest of my life.

   We drove home after the concert and I got home at 4:00AM.  I got a quick shower and went to sleep because I had to be back at work at 7:00AM the same day.

– Zac McKinney

 

Special thanks to Zac for the celeb pic!  You only got one picture with the guys from the band, and Zac committed his picture to the Albino Bowler.  Outstanding!

– Dan Thompson

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    Over the long Easter weekend, fellow thealbinobowler.com contributor Zac Mckinney and I decided to drive down to Starr Mountain to do some rock climbing.  Starr Mountain, which is just outside of Etowah, Tennessee, is home to some AWESOME climbs and is also just a beautiful place to hang out… always makes for an enjoyable day.  The cliffs themselves are very exposed, so while the start of the climb may just be 60 feet or so below you, the Hiwasee river valley is directly behind you making it feel like you’re hundreds of feet up.  That takes a little getting used to, but luckily you’ve got a 5.6 climb (read: very easy) called “Pleasing to the Touch” to get warmed up on.  It feels epically huge while you’re on it, but the generously placed monster holds will have you feeling right at home in no time.
    After a little warm up session; me, Zac, and the Albino Bowler decided to focus our attention on a climb we had been eye-balling last time we were there called “Men Without Hats”.  This particular climb is rated a 5.10 b/c (read: amateurs need not apply) and is the perfect crack climb.  The fun / tricky part about the climb is that the rock bulges out you about half way up and makes for some interesting lay backs.  Good stuff!  All in all it was a great day, save for a sun burnt head… that’ll happen though.
   Oh yeah… I almost forgot.  I had been telling Zac for about a week or so about my trials and tribulations with a new ping pong table my wife and I had purchased.  It’s not so much that there is something wrong with the table… but that my wife keeps beating me!  Zac decided he wanted to challange her and proved to be a worthy opponent; he beat her two games to one.  I guess I’m just not that good at ping pong.  :)

– Dan Thompson

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    So it is time for yet another Albino Bowler adventure, this time to the last AC/DC concert of the Black Ice Tour!  We all loaded up into my brother’s car at around 12:30pm on Saturday and prepared for the 2 and a half hour drive to Nashville.  Before we left, I took a picture of The Albino Bowler’s fan club sheet.

    Once we got to Nashville, we met my aunt at her hotel (she flew down from Maryland) and decided it was time to get something to eat.  We had a Japanese steakhouse in mind.  Once we got to the restaurant, we found out that it didn’t open for another hour.  We decided to just go park at the concert hall and find another restaurant to eat at.  Thanks to my handy Blackberry Curve, I was able to find a sushi bar 2 blocks from where we needed to go to see AC/DC.
    We sat down at Koto Sushi Bar, ordered 2 rolls of sushi and some Japanese food.  The meal was delicious and we decided to try some desert.  The Albino Bowler decided to try some mochi ice cream (rice ice cream).  It was actually pretty good compared to how it looked.  Next it was off to the concert!

    We walked into the Sommet Center and found our seats.  We were only about 10 feet away from the stage! The opening band was named “The Answer”.  They were pretty good, the lead singer had a very unique voice.  After

they were finished, AC/DC took the stage.  They played all of their most popular songs.  As soon as they came out on stage, fireworks started going off all over the place.  They opened with “Back in Black”, which is one of my favorite songs.  They also played “Whole Lotta Rosie”, “Hells Bells”, “TNT”, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”, and “War Machine”.  I took out The Albino Bowler whenever Angus Young (Lead Guitar) or Brian Johnson (Lead Vocals) got close to our side of the stage and tried to get a decent picture.  Sorry about the fuzziness on the pictures, it wasn’t easy to get both in focus.

     The show ended and AC/DC went off stage.  Everyone started cheering for an encore so they came back out and did “For Those About to Rock”, accompanied by firing cannons off the stage.  Overall, it was an awesome show and I hope they are able to do another tour.  We managed to escape the mobs of people coming out of the show and made it home in 2 and a half hours.

Till Next Time!

– Zac Mckinney

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    For you long time Albino Bowler fans, you’ll recall that a while back he did some rock climbing out west on El Cap.  Well, it has become somewhat of a Tuesday tradition at the Claris Networks’ office to head up to Look Rock for some good ole East Tennessee climbing (at least for a couple of us anyway)… so we decided to bring him along so he could brush up on his skills a bit.  It got a bit hairy at times (because Zac is apparently not to quick with learning cameras that have more than one button), and yes, the Albino Bowler’s arm broke off… again.  Donations anyone?  We desperately need a spare parts / stunt double.

    At any rate, if you’re familiar with East Tennessee, hopefully by now you’ve heard of the Foothills Parkway (it’s on the way to Deal’s Gap and the “missing lake” mentioned in a previous post). 
It’s a gorgeous drive, and just so happens to have some decent sandstone (by our standards anyway).  Stop off at the Look Rock overlook and have a look around… you’ll see the short trails snaking back through the woods (no pun intended).  Zac Mckinney, Jay Norris, and I tied off and headed up the cliffs… check out the pictures for the rest of the story.

– Dan Thompson

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Islamorada underwater extravaganza!

September 24, 2008    Category: Albino Bowler   No Comments »

 Day 4:  We went snorkeling today but the current was too strong to take the bowler out and get pictures.  When we got back, we took a few funny pictures in the pool at the hotel.  The Bowler decided he wanted to climb up a tree and get a good look at the ocean.  I got a few really good pictures of the sea life while snorkeling.  I am still getting a feel for this mask / camera.  It is very hard to line up shots with it.  Tomorrow is Scuba diving so there will be some great pictures!

Day 5:    We woke up early today and ate breakfast at the hotel.  I was excited because I am finally going to get to scuba dive which is something I’ve never gotten to do before.  I put the bowler in my pocket and we drove to the Holiday Inn where we were meeting our trainers (Jason and Heather).  We met them at the Holiday Inn pool and they showed us how to put together our scuba gear.  We got into the pool and they showed us to use the respirator.  They also taught us to clear our mask from being full of water, how to get your respirator back in your mouth if it were to be knocked out somehow, and how to tell another diver if you are out of air.  We took a lunch break and met the trainers again later in the day to do the real thing.

    We got onto the scuba boat with about 15 other people and the captain took us to the first dive site.  We went down to about 30 feet (the bottom) to see the coral.  Heather and Jason showed us around and took us to some cool stuff underwater.  There was a ton of fish, lobsters, and eels all around us.  The first dive lasted about 45 or 50 mins.  I was running low on air so we had to go back to the surface.  We all loaded up in the boat again and went to the 2nd dive site. 
   We went through the same procedure again and saw some more cool stuff.  I took the bowler out and got some amazing underwater pictures.  After we were done diving, we got back on the boat.  It was by far the most fun thing I’ve ever done on vacation.  On the way back to the dock, the bowler found himself a girlfriend. :)
Day 6:  Today is the last day of vacation and it is sad.  I will be happy to get home though.  I went fishing today and caught a 25 pound Kingfish.  About 10 minutes later, my brother caught a giant barracuda.  We ended up having a ton of fun on vacation this year.  The bowler had lots of good pictures and has now been to the entire Keys.  Everywhere from Islamorada to Key West.

– Zac McKinney

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Day 1:  We finally got to Islamorada and before we got to check into the hotel, we went to Theater of the Sea to swim with dolphins.  There were tons of animals at the park including some dolphins, parrots, sea turtles, sea lions, and big fish.  Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let me take The Albino Bowler with me to swim with the dolphins for fear that they’d eat him so he had to sit that one out but I did manage to get a good picture with him and some parrots.  After we finished swimming with the dolphins, we went to our hotel.  It is really nice and has 2 heated pools and 1 Jacuzzi!
Day 2:  We woke up and ate breakfast.  I put on my swimming trunks and we got on a charter boat to go fishing with 6 other people.  The Bowler had a great time out on the water and just chilled out while everyone caught fish.  Unfortunately, at the end of our trip, the Bowler had an accident and a fish tried to eat him.  Luckily, I was able to rescue him while taking a picture of his ordeal.  :)  
Day 3:  I slept late today and it’s a good thing, my sunburn is killing me.  I put on lots of sunblock and we went to play mini golf on the way to Key West (it was an 80 mile drive from where our hotel is).  The Bowler decided he wanted to play too.  I got a green golf ball because it matched his shirt.  After we were done playing golf, we drove the rest of the way to Key West.  The first stop was the most southern point in the USA.  There is a huge buoy on the ground to let you know.  The Bowler of course had to take this rare moment to get his picture taken.  The next stop was Jimmy Buffett’s famous Margaritaville restaurant.  I got a frozen strawberry margarita (best one I’ve ever had btw) and let the Bowler have a few sips.  We went back to the hotel and soaked it up in the pool afterwards.

– Zac McKinney

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    Today was the first day of vacation.  We made it to the airport at about 3:30pm today.  We had to wait to check our luggage so I started reading “I am Legend” by David Masterson.  I managed to get through a nice 57 pages before it was time to go eat.  The Albino Bowler was excited once we boarded the plane because he got to come out of his box.  It was a two hour flight so about 1.5 hours into it, I took the bowler out and started taking some pictures.  He apparently doesn’t like to fly because he got sick and needed a barf bag.  We landed at Fort Lauderdale at 7:30 and got our rental car (White Rav-4).  Gas is less expensive down here but still not cheap (3.50 a gallon).  Once we got to our hotel, the Bowler was tired so he laid down and went to sleep.

– Zac Mckinney

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