Hampton Inn and Suites Miami Airport South Blue Lagoon

The night before our cruise we stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Miami Airport South at Blue Lagoon. This was a very contemporary hotel and most of the second floor was dedicated to a very nice breakfast eating area which is always complimentary with your Hampton stay. The eating area overlooked a second floor swimming pool and nice views of downtown Miami. The breakfast here was a little different than what I'm used to because instead of bacon or breakfast sausage, they offered a smoked sausage in a casing, which in my neck of the woods a little more traditional for lunch or dinner. Luckily, they still had the make it yourself waffles, which are always a hit with the kids and fill them up nicely so they aren't begging for something to eat before it's actually lunch time. Our room was a suite, which as usual with Hampton's, was very clean, nicely furnished, and updated with plenty of room for the 6 of us to stay. My friend, Becky, and her two daughters were staying in the room next door, so they were able to to allow our 7th family member to stay in their room. It costs only about $150 for 6 people to stay the night and a good breakfast for everyone, making it well worth the price. And the location was just near the airport and only about 10 minutes drive to the Port of Miami. The hotel staff was very accommodating by ensuring we had extra towels, blankets and pillows which are always in short supply with a large family. In addition, the next morning while we were finishing up breakfast, they arranged for 2 van taxis to be waiting at the hotel's entrance to pick us up to deliver us to the Port of Miami to our cruise ship. And if that isn't enough, at the very last minute we realized that we did not print enough copies of our bag tags for the cruise, so the front desk receptionist was kind enough to make a few more copies for us. I would definitely recommend all Hamptons for family travel and especially this one here in Miami at Blue Lagoon.

PS Don't forget to sign up for Hilton Honors (HH) too! We actually stayed here for FREE by using our HH points from previous stays!! It's easy to sign up, costs nothing, and easy to keep up with your reservations, and best of all easy to cash in the rewards!

2014 Summer Vacation Introduction

Hi travel fans! I just got back to Texas from my 2 week whirlwind 2014 summer vacation with a cruise on the Carnival Breeze and a few extra days in the Florida Keys. My next several posts will let you know my own personal experience about each of the places I visited which will hopefully help you plan your own family travel. Reggie and I, along with 5 kids, started out with our flight out of Austin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS). I like to use American Airlines, as they are usually on time, seem to have more leg room, and they are usually pretty good about changing seats and trying to keep us happy overall. When we got to our gate at the terminal, we were just waiting for our flight and who do we see but the famous Johnny football! Johnny Manziel himself was there sitting with a group of friends awaiting his own 4th of July flight out of Austin. Despite his bad boy reputation, he was very kind and posed for pictures with the kids. The girls were just too excited to post their pics to Instagram so all of their friends could be completely jealous of their chance encounter! The next time you're in airport make sure that you're looking around... you never know who you may spot.

Small Town Texas Mini Food Tour

SO...one of my favorite things to do in Texas is to drive through the small towns dotted all over the state,  look for a parking lot full of cars, pull in and park, go inside and generally you will find some of the best food you've ever had.  No chain restaurants for me.  I like to see the locals.  See their smiles, hear their Texas twang, and taste what they consider to be the best.  For Mother's Day 2014, I found myself in Victoria, Texas for a golf tournament for one of the girls.  It was really a pretty drive from Waco down Highway 77, and the perfect opportunity to visit all the small town eateries.

We had dinner in Palacious, pronounced Pa-Laa-Shush, Texas right on the gulf coast south of Victoria.  We jumped at the chance to rub our toes in the sand and have some fresh caught seafood...a true treat in my book!  We ate at a place called the Lumber Yard, formerly known as the Outrigger Grill.  It sits about a block off the water, but has a really neat, build as you go outdoor area with plenty of seating.  We got lucky and were entertained with live music by a young guy (I didn't get his name!) from College Station who sang a pretty eclectic mix that was really pretty good.  We waited quite awhile for our food, but the waiter was excellent at making sure our glasses stayed full the entire time.  The fried catfish and shrimp baskets were amazing!  Quite a bit of fish for the price, maybe a little skimpy on shrimp for the price, but the taste, including the fries, was spot on.  Other than a little mishap with the ketchup bottle--which resulted in the entire contents of the bottle on my plate and my shirt...it was worth the trip off the beaten path.

The next day we tried a little barbecue place in small town Hallettsville, Texas, called Wieting's BBQ.  This place was packed for lunch, and true to theory...another great small town place to eat.  The barbecue sandwiches were large and very meaty.  I liked how the chopped barbecue was more cubed than chopped, non-fatty, and with a good homemade barbecue sauce.  I had the baked potato, which was a good size as well, and perfectly cooked all the way thru.  My favorite part was watching the sweet little lady behind the counter...she looked as though she had run the place for many years...and she walked around with a fly swatter poised for attack.  I did not see any flies...but the employees never stopped moving either...not sure who she used the swatter on the most!  And other than another mishap with a glass of sweet tea--which resulted in the entire contents on my shirt, pants, and shoes...it was worth the trip off the beaten path.

San Francisco...My new favorite city

Better late than never...We finally took Brady on his "special 13th trip" about a year late, but he didn't seem to mind.  We promised each of the kids we would take them to any city in the continental US of their choosing around their 13th birthday just to have some one on one time with me and Reggie, to see a bit of the world, and to have a 3-4 day glimpse of what it feels like to be an only child.  Brady chose well in San Francisco, California.  We flew in from DFW to San Francisco and took the BART train from the airport into the city.  The train was very clean and moved really fast--only about a 20 minute ride into the heart of the downtown area.  We came above ground just one block from our hotel...The Hotel Whitcomb.  I chose this hotel because of its architecture, decent ratings, and history.  Formally a city hall building, it had beautiful wooden moldings and grand trim, but my favorite feature was the authentic Tiffany stained glass ceiling above the registration desk.  The check in clerk was full of helpful tips and explained the best modes of transportation for the activities we had planned.  He told us all about the history of the hotel and how the basement still has jail cells were prisoners were kept during its former use as city hall.  Luckily the MUNI bus stopped right in front of the hotel and after 24 hours of getting to know the schedules and layout of the bus routes, we had the transportation system down.  I have to give the City of San Francisco tons of credit because the buses and cable cars were always clean and in good working order (I wish I could say the same for the people riding public transportation with us!) and always right on time.  Our first adventure was the Ferry Building...oh how I wish we had a little more time here.  Not at all what I expected...with 50 (or more) places to stop and eat with an endless array of choices of type and size of foods...I could have easily spent many hours here.  We chose a cute little Mexican place and had tacos while overlooking the bay.  We then browsed around the craft booths around the outside entrance and even watched a brave little boy tap dance and play trumpet awhile.  We walked over to the cable car museum and then onto an actual restored cable car for a ride over to Union Square to start Emperor Norton's Fantastic San Francisco Time Machine Tour.  Emperor Norton was a real life San Francisco character...here is wikipedia's explanation of him:
Joshua Abraham Norton (c. 1819^[2] – January 8, 1880), the self-proclaimed Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, was a celebrated citizen of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 proclaimed himself "Emperor of these United States"^[3] and subsequently "Protector of Mexico".^[4]
Born in England, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa. He immigrated to San Francisco in 1849 after receiving a bequest of $40,000 from his father's estate, arriving aboard the steam yacht Hurlothrumbo.^[5] Norton initially made a living as a businessman, but he lost his fortune investing in Peruvian rice.^[6]
After losing a lawsuit in which he tried to void his rice contract, Norton left San Francisco. He returned a few years later, apparently mentally unbalanced, claiming to be the Emperor of the United States.^[7] Although he had no political power, and his influence extended only so far as he was humoured by those around him, he was treated deferentially in San Francisco, and currency issued in his name was honoured in the establishments he frequented.
Though he was considered insane, or at least highly eccentric,^[8] the citizens of San Francisco celebrated his regal presence and his proclamations, most famously, his "order" that the United States Congress be dissolved by force and his numerous decrees calling for a bridge crossing and a tunnel to be built under San Francisco Bay (similar structures were built long after his death in the form of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and the Transbay Tube).^[9] On January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed at a street corner, and died before he could be given medical treatment. The following day, nearly 30,000 people packed the streets of San Francisco to pay homage to Norton.
"Emperor Norton" himself took us all around downtown San Francisco showing us many amazing sites such as: The St. Regis Hotel at Union Square (famous and beautiful),  our own operatic concert on Maiden Lane, historic St. Mary's Catholic Church, Chinatown, Lotta's Fountain, The Palace Hotel, and even underground to one of the hidden tunnels where goods and people were smuggled along the Barbary Coast.  After learning a ton and ready to rest our tired feet, we rode the elevator to the top of Macy's Department Store to the Cheesecake Factory Restaurant.  We had delicious pasta dishes while overlooking the ice skaters in Union Square.  The next day we were up early (it was no pants public transportation day--sanctioned by the great city of San Francisco) and took the first cable car ride up and down the famous San Francisco hills and along Lombard Street to the fisherman's wharf area.  We spent more than an hour watching the sea lions at Pier 39...and the rest of the day eating and sightseeing, and shopping along the wharf. At 4pm we boarded the ferry for our Alcatraz Island tour.  We headed out right at sunset and had the most amazing and beautiful views of the sun setting behind Golden Gate bridge.  Alcatraz was our unanimous favorite in San Francisco as all three of us soaked up the stories and the sites all around the island.  It became dark while we were there and the prison came to life as the cells opened and closed making me jump with every metallic slam.  We visited the hospital ward and placed our hands on the same spot that Robert Stroud, aka Birdman of Alcatraz, once placed his (you can tell by the rubbed off paint on the bars over the window).  Spooky, but so surreal, to see such a beautiful place once home to some of the worst criminals.  Our next day's activities had us waking up really early for the trek to Golden Gate Bridge Park for our much anticipated Segway tour.  After an hour of training and practice on how to ride the segway...we were off and boy is this the way to travel!.  We managed to see all of Golden Gate Park in just a few hours and had a lot of fun doing it.  Our tour guide was fantastic and the segways were a blast to ride (and surprisingly easy to learn considering I am pretty darn clumsy on just my two feet!).  After the tour we had some really great pizza at Park Chow and hopped back on to public transportation to the pinnacle of the whole vacation...Golden Gate Bridge.  There are no words for the feeling you get walking to the center of this man made monster.  You can only get a feeling of wonderment and awe as you stand on the bridge and look up at the beauty of the towers or look down at the San Francisco Bay.  We marveled at the sites until sunset and the cold SF wind drove us back to the hotel to warm up.  We fell in love with the little breakfast place across the street from our hotel, Sam's Diner, and made friends with the cable car city employees who safely (after a near miss from an SUV not looking ahead and running a red light) delivered us back to Market Street.  We saw so much, but only whetted our appetite to return to see some sites all over again and to catch up on the ones we didn't make this trip.  I would recommend a trip to this amazing city to anyone...just be ready for the public transportation!
 

Carats in Cozumel

When we docked for our 3rd stop in Cozumel, (technically Puerta Maya), we seriously thought about staying on the ship and just relaxing for the day since we had been to this stop the year before.  But after lots of hype about Diamonds International from the onboard shopping specialist, Brook (he was a man with a girly name), we decided to put our feet on solid ground for the day and just shop around.  We attended all 5 of the raffles of the day given by Carnival at the various jewelry stores but didn't win a single one darnit!  I felt like a winner when we found the most gorgeous ring at the main Diamonds International...a 3 carat tanzanite surrounded by a carat of diamonds.  It is stunning.  I love how the tanzanite sparkles such a deep dark blue with tiny pink and purple points in the sunlight.  I love even more that it was a one of a kind design and that my hubby bought it for me!  definitely the BEST souvenir ever!  Next was his turn and we found him a silver coin from the sunken Spanish ship, the Atocha,  It was framed in 2 carat gold and he now wears it daily around his neck as a reminder of our trip.  It is a perfect fit for my Reggie, the history lover.  The kids each bought themselves a souvenir and I couldn't pass up a handmade hammock (which is now on the back patio and everyone's favorite spot to relax), a large bottle of Mexican vanilla and two large bottles of coconut rum--all tax and duty free!  The really cool thing is that Carnival has implemented a new program where as long as you shop in the stores that they "recommend", they will back your purchases...meaning the value of the ring, the coin, the hammock, etc are all refundable by Carnival if we are unhappy.  That definitely gives you peace of mind especially when purchasing 4 carat jewelry!  We of course had to stop by Fat Tuesday's before re-boarding the ship for some yummy frozen drinks (the kids had virgin ones of course) and to swing on their swings overlooking the water.  No fun filled by the book excursion, but a light day of strolling and shopping still made this a neat place to visit...again!

Jamaican Me Happy in Montego Bay

Our excursion here was thru Explorer Jamaica Transportation and another Tripadvisor tip led us to them....and oh-so glad they did!  Our driver, Tony picked us up from the cruise ship terminal where our family loaded up into a 12 passenger van--just perfect to see the sights on our own.  We decided that we wanted to SEE Jamaica our way and on our time schedule and Tony was happy to lend his services.  We first drove out to the Rose Hall Great House, while on our way Tony told us her story and about how she killed 3 husbands to acquire all of her beautiful estate.  The house itself it breathtaking and sits at the top of the mountain overlooking the beach and the ocean below.  We saw amazing landscaping (some being worked on by a local man with a "stinky cigarette" said the youngest) and an almond tree loaded with almonds the size of my PALM.  Crazy.  We marveled at the beauty of the estate and then headed into town for some souvenir shopping, a tour of the downtown part of the city, and then back up to the top of another hill to look out over the bay to see our ship docked and dwarfing everything around it.  The downtown area was much different than expected and simply put, there were people everywhere, not one of the standing still (I guess it was just too HOT).  Tony then drove us over to the Old Fort Craft Market where a handful of women sell their handmade crafts to tourists. I was a bit overwhelmed as all the women wanted you to pay attention to them and as I was trying to differentiate between this painting and that, I look over and my sweet husband is holding with a smiling baby girl.  Of course, my girls come running to me, now begging to take the baby home with us. GOSH..if only they knew!  I did wish I could help them all, buy something from everyone, but instead asked God to use my money to do good in the life of the women whose crafts I chose.  Tony then gathered us up and we headed over to Margaritaville for a Margarita of course, some live music, and water fun.  Brady was the only one brave enough to ride the slide from the top of the building and curving into the ocean where water trampolines and floating slides and climbing walls awaited for anyone ready to play.  Unfortunately the margarita wasn't that good and our bill was $40 for 7 drinks (no food), but Margaritaville IS priced for its atmosphere after all.  By this time we are hot and tired and ready for a nap...so right on cue Tony is there to take us back the the cruise terminal.  On our way the children noticied other children their age on the side of the road selling clumps of some kind of fruit.  When they asked Tony about it, he motioned to a boy to bring us some.

This is a guniep...we all gave it a try (AND NO ONE LIKED IT!)...the taste wasn't bad it was just trying to get past the slimy coating on the fruit inside the green hull.  But another adventure down, we headed back to the ship...knowing that we would watch the Olympic running events just a little closer having just been right in the heart of where the Jamaican people were.  Tony was such a wonderfully nice man--he made us feel safe, showed us the beauty of the city, and even gave us hugs before we left.  I recommend Explorer Jamaica Transportation and encourage you to plan your own day like we did to ensure that you soak up all the sides of this amazing place.

http://www.explorerjamaica.com/index.html

Reef, Rays, and Rum Point in Grand Cayman

Just catching my breath after our amazing cruise this summer...and the top of my list was our excursion during our day in Grand Cayman.  We booked our excursion thru Nativeway, who we found at the top of the list on Tripadvisor for about $60 for adults and $50 for kids.  They picked us up from the cruise ship dock and took us and several of our fellow passengers to a nearby marina.  They had two boats waiting for us and we were super lucky to be pointed in the direction of the "TrippinOut" ran by Captain Chris and Assistant Andrew.  We sat down and got comfy as we rode thru the canals and marveled at the beautiful homes, then we hit the open waters and raced towards Stingray City.  We were apprehensive to jump into the water-first because it seems so strange to have 3 foot deep water in the middle of the ocean, but second because the stingray were HUGE!  Crazy as it was when Chris got in the water, one of the biggest ones came up to him and "jumped" into his arms!  I truly believe this creature recognized him and he even said he affectionately named her big mama.  It takes a few minutes to convince yourself that these are truly gentle giants, but after they glide up against your legs a few times-it is evident that they are just curious about you and friendly.  We had the opportunity to feed them, to hold them, get our backs massaged by them and I even gave one lucky boy a kiss!  We spent almost an hour there and could have stayed forever just watching how graceful they are in the water.  We soon motored over to another local called Coral Gardens where we dropped anchor and snorkeled.  Chris and Andrew helped all the kids figure out their snorkel gear and in we went.  EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY CHILDREN WERE SNORKELING WITHIN MINUTES!  They took to it quickly and couldn't get enough of the underwater adventure.  One of the girls said it was just like putting her head in the fish tank!  I couldn't have said it any better....millions of different fish, coral, and even a barracuda stopped by to see what we were doing!  They had to force us back into the boat after about 2 hours but then we headed to Rum Pointe.  On our way there-Andrew called in our lunch orders and the food was waiting for us when we stepped onto the dock.   We had Mahi-Mahi, red beans and rice, corn and fried bananas...it hit the spot!  We ate on the beach full of palm trees and plenty of shade, clean bathrooms and showers, crystal clear water and white sand, hammocks and beach chairs, and a cash bar.  We swam and relaxed some more and thoroughly enjoyed our time here.  It was mentioned several times by all how we could easily live HERE!  After Chris and Andrew convinced us that we had to return to the cruise ship-we hoped back on TrippinOut for the ride back to the marina.  Somewhere in the middle of the ocean, Chris stopped the boat and Andrew just jumped in---we were all a little baffled when he suddenly came to the surface with the biggest starfish I have ever seen.  There are no words to describe what a beauty this creature was.  He carefully kept it hydrated while we checked it out and took pictures and then jumped back in to take it home.  We were sad to leave our boat and our new friends but truly feel that we had the adventure of a lifetime here.  The owner of the company, Sharon, picked us up and delivered us straight back to our cruise ship after a interesting conversation about how she got to Cayman and the business  and all.  I promised her I would tell all...and here I go...I will recommend Nativeway Watersports to anyone who wants to do any excursion in Grand Cayman!  They have the system down pat and enjoy what they do. 

http://www.nativewaywatersports.com/tours.htm