DAY 6 CURACAO 8-4pm APRIL 20

Since we would be here at 8am, I set my alarm for 7am. If you noticed in this review, it's a little different than previous cruises, where I'm usually up 1 1/2 to 2 hours earlier than the posted time of getting off the ship. Well, I changed it up a little this cruise. I decided that 99.99% of the time, we are able to get up, get ready, get breakfast, and pick our things up in the room and be ready to go...well, a little earlier than needed and usually end up sitting around killing time waiting to get off. But, I've always been a planner and I've always been punctual. I like to plan for the unexpected and allow myself to compensate for things that "could" possibly go wrong. I don't like to divert too much from my plans or schedule (unless it's just super fabulous or my thoughts change in the moment). I'm the type of person that can be 20 minutes to my job and I'll always leave 1 hour ahead of time...just in case. Another factor is, with only the 3 of us cruising this time, it's a little more relaxing and laid back and I don't have to do any "compensation" for other families (ah hem...Kendra).

So 7am it was for us today and we were up to the buffet to get our normal breakfast...omelettes and a side of pig...only the bacon police was in full force today and stingy with the bacon. I just didn't have the patience to insist on more and I probably even did a quick eye roll as I walked away.

This has been our daily routine just about all week after discovering real eggs can be had quicker than fake eggs.

Of course we can't forget these...another "tradition" this cruise for me.

As we finished up breakfast, my son texted us with an update on the break-in at our shop. He had a lead...a pretty good lead. I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier in the review about a kid that stole from us back last summer, went down the street to the skate park and bragged about his new "purchase", only for the kids there to know that this wasn't true, brought the item back and he got banned from the store for life...IF he never returned we wouldn't press charges.

Well, the day before the break-in, the kid showed up with another kid, banned kid stayed outside, new kid came in, checked out one of the several bikes stolen, then walked out.

The new lead now pointed fingers to the banned kid and his "friend". (We would spend several hours after today's excursion researching this kid and "possible" known friend).

(Fast forward ahead, after we returned home...long story short, our camera's showed both of them, how they did it and we hunted him down. Let's just say most of the local kids scared him to death, dad found out, contacted the police and had the police escort the dad and the son back to our shop WITH the stolen bike to be returned. No questions were allowed to be asked by the hubby and he was told "We are dealing with it". Fast forward a few more days, and we are on the trail of the other kid with name, parents name, pretty much their life history of crime and drugs, where they have lived from house to house over the last 12 years, family members and addresses, evictions...and boom! Private Investigator must have been on the trail too and sat outside their house only to bust them getting out of the car....let's just say the police showed up with the other bikes...in parts. Taken apart to sell individually so as not to be "identified or noticed". Yea, obviously not this kids first time in this rodeo. Both are 14 years old. So...now we wait to see what is going to happen to these juveniles. Yes, we got the stolen bikes back, but they can no longer be sold as "new" and are used with scratches from riding...and we are out a few busted windows. Sigh.

Thought I would just catch up everyone that was interested in the ending of that. Sorry for the diversion.

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We pulled into port AT 8am. So guess what? That means Carnival is not on time. Is this some doing of Kendra since she didn't get to come?

We wouldn't be able to get off until 8:30am. Ugh.

So today we are going diving...for the second time in our life (at least us, not Sakari). To see my review on our day diving the Tug Boat, click the following tab below. There's some amazing pictures in that review.

After the dive....

It was 1:55pm, according to my watch, and we piled in a different company truck and headed back to the port. However, like always, the hubby had been talking "shop talk" when Ro asked us what we did for a living. He said his little brother was a skateboarder and there was only one skate shop on the island. He asked if we would like to go by and check it out on the way back to the ship. Sure...we had plenty of time still. So off we went.

Along the way...taking pictures OF COURSE.

We arrived at the skate shop in about 10 minutes and the hubby needed a picture of it with him in it.

We went in to check it out. The owner was at the front desk. I was trying to conceal that I was taking pictures, so they didn't turn out too well. I didn't want the owner thinking something weird was up. I know if someone came in and started taking pictures in our shop, we would be weirded out.

It was a small store that carried skateboards and parts, surf boards, and shoes and clothes. Nothing too big and nothing compared to ours. It reminded us of when the hubby first started his business years ago and only started with one item...skates.

We headed out back to check out the attached skate park. It was small but cute.

The local kids were having a blast and I did see information on the walls about them having "camp" there.

The hubby finally introduced himself to the owner and told him where we were from and that we owned a shop too. They chatted for awhile, he gave the hubby one of his business cards with his website to check out (which happens to be a bad website that doesn't even work) and he copied down the hubby's website as well.

Then we were back in the truck and off to the port.

Here is the graveyard and it's like most places in the Caribbean and they are buried above ground.

I seen an opening coming up and took a chance and managed to get the shot like if we were standing right in front of it not moving.

I could see our ship in the distance and knew we were about to be on the winding roads that felt like we were just going in circles.

The "boys" started talking car talk and Ro was telling us about how the people there liked to fix up hot rods and such. We spotted an old car on the side of the road and the hubby was telling him just how much people back in the states would pay for that, fix it up, then sell it for tons of money. Ro was amazed.

Ro also told us about one person on the island had a Lamborghini shipped there and the roads are just too bad to drive it on, so once a week, the owner will pull it out of his garage, clean it, then put it back away. He doesn't even drive it for fear of messing it up.

We started talking "house talk" with Ro and he told us you can actually buy a house there for around $30k I think he said. It's not one of these nicer homes...but he said it wasn't in the ghetto either. Hmm, that makes me wonder what you could actually get for that amount. Summer home anyone?

Maybe this is what you can get for that amount...a "fixer-upper".

There were a lot of cute homes there and I also noticed many had "names" on them.

Is this a prison or something?

School?

Ro mentioned that this was their local hospital. It looks like it's getting a make-over.

Movies.

We arrived back at the port around 1:26pm, said our goodbyes, thanked Ro for an amazing day, and gave him our tip. Then we were off to do a little shopping before getting back on the ship.

I was able to find myself a magnet that I liked

Then we continued on to the other shops.

I wish I could somehow collect money from each port, but I never take the time to find a way to get some of the local money. This was a good idea and this guy at this shop actually makes these himself. I wish they all did that.

I believe it was around $3 or $5 or something like that and when I ask him with the exchange rate how much was it really and I think he said about $2.50. Hey, I was ok with that just to have some of their money to put in my scrapbook.

Sakari was on a hunt to find a shell jewelry box. She had seen them in Aruba and new that she wanted one. They were actually pretty hard to find, but the guy with the money actually had some behind his counter and showed us. This is what she picked out. He gave it to us for cheaper than the price he had on it.

We were finishing up our cans of pop before getting back on the ship and Sakari decided she would go over and sit on the rocks to wait on us and play with her new shell box.

We headed back to the ship at a little after 2pm. We went up the ramp, we put our things in the x-ray machine and walked around and picked them up. I was secretly preparing my "I had no idea my daughter put a conch shell in my bag" story...but they never said a word. Then I would endure the "see, you lied to me about that mommy, you CAN bring shells back with you!" Ugh...ok, so you got away with it this time, it doesn't always happen like that.

I'm happy she was able to bring it back. She's not one that just collects them to be taking them. She actually displays them in her room and we also use them for projects as well.

As soon as we got to the room, our towel animal for the DAY was waiting on us.

We showered and went food hunting...only to find our options were...pizza of course.

I have become quite fond of the quattro pizza...I mean what choice do I have?

Hubby got a pepperoni and we all shared...but Sakari just wasn't too interested in pizza AGAIN. She took a few bites and said she would rather wait to eat with the kids.

We then headed upstairs and met up with Thrilled, who was now bff's with one of the guys that was up on stage during the hypnotist show (and his wife). We all got to know each other and we had a blast talking. They were a wonderful couple! The hubby took Sakari to the kids club to play for an hour (then they would close for an hour). We were still talking during that entire hour and it was time to go pick her up already.

I did see this circling the ship several times at some point.

I was starting to wonder if we were about to have an evacuation.

We continued to talk with our new friends and getting the scoop on how he felt during they hypnotist show and we had such a good time. It was now officially time to drop Sakari back off at the kids club for her dinner. We all decided to split up and thrilled went back to get her daughter talked into going to eat with Sakari. Sakari was so happy to see her and off they went to eat.

We headed to the casino for awhile. I wasn't doing the best and thrilled was skipping around like a frog on the machines. Wait...what's in your drink Kia? LOL I did end up winning $44 that day on the "Asian frog" machine. But that would be the extent of my winnings.

We had decided to go to the Punchliner comedy club at 7:30 that night. I knew it was the "kids" version, but that's really the only option we have because the adult version is usually after it's time to pick up Sakari.

This guy would go around the audience and pick kids and tell them to stand up, tell their name, and what they wanted to be when they grow up. Most he could find something funny to pick on or revert to the "father's" line of work. He kept us laughing and the kids made it funny.

After the show, we headed to Pixels to get our pictures from Aruba and Curacao. We could not find our Aruba pictures. We had tried the day before with no luck either. The staff told us to, once again, try tomorrow because sometimes they get stuck together or moved around.

Since we really didn't eat all of our pizza and just wasn't into it, we thought we would try out the MDR again. Once again, we would wind our way around only to find out that we were on the wrong side and wrong floor. Ugh! Well guess what...we are walking in and around again!

As we were walking through the dinning room, I heard this voice...it was a familiar voice...I just knew that Thrilled was somewhere in the area. I looked around and there she was, sitting with another couple at dinner. LOL

We walked up to give them our names and got a "We'd be happy to seat you...but after you go back to your room and change your shirt sir". Um wait what? It's not formal night is it? "No, but you can't have sleeves that short". ......... "Um ok, what about that person. And that person. I guess it's ok for them?" We got a few stutters from her and we walked out during one of her mid-stutters. It's just weird that they have different rules for different people. He was not wearing a muscle shirt and it was just a tee shirt with shorter than normal sleeves. They are so weird.

I guess we'll have to head to the buffet again.

Once again, they would have the same noodles. I'm seeing a trend here. BUT, they did have shrimp tonight, so that was satisfying. I even managed to get the hubby to eat some. I also noticed they had the yummy bread pudding again. But when I bit into it, there was something with a different texture in it. I pulled it out...it was an apple. The hubby laughed and said "um yea, it said apple right on it". I guess I missed that part. It was still good, but I liked the plain better from the other night.

We went out on the deck to relax a little and then it was time to pick up the munchkin from the kids club.

I have no notes after that and can not tell you what we did. My guess is that we were so tired from our scuba diving that we just headed back to the room and went to bed.

Sakari would decide to do a quick drawing and then Zzzzz occurred.

This concludes our day in Curacao. :D