The art of demanding a passport stamp

In Man Vs Clocks A to Z of travel (which is a very interesting read and frankly impressive with the amount of work and time he obviously put into the post!) he notes that his passport doesn't have stamps to European countries because UK citizens don't get stamps there.

Oh. Em. Gee. Small confession here. I travel for the stamp. Ever since I was a kid if I could earn a stamp I wanted one. I wanted to have PROOF that I had travelled. Pictures don't count. Memories fade. But by gosh, stamps from foreign countries prove travel. That matters! This is one of the reasons I HATE that you get stamped in the first European country you visit. This means that I have a ridiculous number of French stamps when I haven't actually visited France in 10 years! I am hoping that when we fly to Paris, then stay for a couple days and THEN go to Morroco we can get a Moroccan stamp. I WANT A STAMP IN ARABIC!

Also, this is why I am not the biggest fan of cruising. I would be willing to wait hours in line if I could just get a stamp. In St. Maarten, I made Craig walk with me to the shipping docks (not exactly the nicest most touristy section of the island, I can tell you) to go get a passport stamp. It's not like we were the first people to ever do this. When we started walking down the narrow street with the chain link fences and stacked storage cars, people would ask us if we were heading to get stamped and then point in the general diection.

Which included a tiny, mobile home with a man leaning against the side in a uniform smoking a cigarette. I waved my passport about and asked if he would give us stamps. Without saying a word he grabbed both our passports, then went inside the building leaving us standing alone. There were a couple tense seconds where Craig glared at me because we had just FREELY HANDED over our passports to a stranger, before he came out and told us to have a good day in (I think) Dutch. It wasn't English or French I know.

Then as we walked away a car pulls up leaving the docks security area and asks us in very broken English if we are headed to a ship. I look at Craig who says yes and the man offers us a ride. Keep in mind that the walk was very very long but how could we explain to the seemingly nice man that we would rather walk the distance than get a free ride. So we slowly got in the car and to be honest I don't remember much. He talked some, but I was praying the whole time that we weren't just about to be national news about a missing couple. But he took us back to the ship exactly as he said and refused any payment for the ride.

It was another one of those crazy Andrea experiences you get when travelling with me. I think it's what my mother calls "God's protection for children and idiots."

See also: Picture I wish I had taken, Andrea's trips to the seedy parts

Counting down to the cruise

This January we are travelling with the little ones (not taking the teenager) on a Caribbean cruise. This is their Christmas present, and frankly if I had my way travel would ALWAYS be our Christmas presents! It's only a 5 day cruise and we have two ports, Falmouth, Jamaica and Labadee, Haiti. It's hard to describe Labadee to those who have never visited and I was happy to find this youtube from Travel with Kids that helps explain it.



I would love to create videos and such like this about travel for a job. Writing off or getting paid to travel is becoming my life long dream!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

How could I not take a picture of the rooster that was rounding up his hens while we waited for our ATV on St. Maarten?



I wonder if iguanas eat chicken?

Iguanas are the armadillos of St. Maarten

People not from Texas think armadillos are the neatest animals. So strangely fascinating. Those who live in Texas realize they are a garden and lawn destroying road hazard. I hate the buggers. They are nearly impossible to get rid of when you have one rooting in your garden to make a den and they can ruin a yard looking for grubs.

Initially I thought the iguanas on St. Maarten were fascinating but when Craig let a golf ball go because he didn't want to fight THIS:


in the brush for it, I realized they weren't as cute as one would believe. Notice the thing's tail isn't even all showing. It had to be 5 feet long.

Not pictured: Craig's white face and fast walk back to the golf cart!

Puerto Rico...tropical breezes or tropic diseases?

Prior to our March cruise, this is what would come to mind when I thought of Puerto Rico. America lyrics from West Side Story!

Puerto Rico

You ugly island . . .
Island of tropic diseases.
Always the hurricanes blowing,
Always the population growing . . .
And the money owing,
And the babies crying,
And the bullets flying.



BUT This is what I found when we actually went there!







This crazy mix of Caribbean and Europe. A friend of mine who was born in Puerto Rico told me the cobblestones in the picture above were counterbalance on the ships brought from Spain who would return home with tons of gold. The streets are older than America!

Needless to say, I plan on returning when I can spend more than 5 hours!

One-Quarter of the year is over and here's my first picture (I think)

So one of my resolutions was to post pictures of myself. So here I am on a cruise ship hanging over the balcony of the lowest furthest back balcony room you can get on the Sensation (portside I think)



And here I am right before getting my passport stamped.



This may seem like a minimal thing but last year when I went to the Bahamas with Kathryn I left my passport on the boat (as I was instructed to by my husband's aunt the uber-cruiser). Kathryn however took her passport with her and was able to get it stamped by the customs guy at 11pm 30 minutes before the ship left the port. Getting a passport stamp in Nassau is actually an interesting event as it is not required for entry and is basically hidden in the LAST room on the right after a loooooong empty hallway in a building over my right shoulder in this picture that you can't even see. Craig thought I was nuts dragging him to this place but he got his stamped too.

This weekend when I see Kathryn in NYC she promised to take pictures of me to share here. So of course I'm shopping tomorrow to get clothes that look fantasmic. Can't go to NYC with old clothes ya know.

If I could pay someone to shop for me....

I'd do it in heartbeat. I HATE SHOPPING. Any kind. From grocery, to shoe, to clothes, even jewelry. When I discovered qvc.com and internet shopping my wallet screamed because OMG I can click and click and have things delivered TO MY HOME without stepping foot in a store. Yeah Yeah welcome to 2010.

But even this method is tricky for me, because how do you know that it will match and the reds or blacks are just a bit "off" And then you have to send everything back and THAT gets expensive (although with gas prices today and me living 20 miles from a store it can be a trade off). Then in my mail box magic happened. I received a Spiegel catalog that was a miracle.

EVERYTHING WAS PLANNED TOGETHER!!!


No worries about matching, no stress about colors. It was all categorized for me as well...Natural, Chic, Elegant, etc. So of course I looked at the prices. Nothing this organized comes cheap right???? The one peices above were $39. THIRTY NINE DOLLARS???? I haven't spent that little on a swimsuit since I was 12 years old! So of course I bought two :)

And the clothes are nice as well. I bought the off the shoulder blouse below but realized I probably don't have a bra to wear with it...we'll see how it fits when it gets here...can't wair!!!

Cruise countdown....

Craig and I are taking a cruise in about 30 days to the Bahamas. This will be his first cruise and I have to say I'm a bit concerned. I wanted to list my concerns here so that when I get back I can address them and see if they were unfounded at all. His cousin wants us to take a 7 or 8 day cruise next year and I really wanted to dip Craig's feet in the cruising water before that big of a leap.

1. Breakfast food. This is our favorite meal and can easily make or break a trip.

2. Dinner Companions. Actually dinner in total. Sitting with strangers, the kind of food, the quality, I could go on....why are my top two concerns food???? Becuase that is the hell that is travelling with Craig. Food concerns.

3. Activities on Nassau. It's pretty commercialized and we want to getaway. So I have the Frommer's guide to find the more secluded beaches. Here's hoping.

4. The size of the cabin. I chose a balcony this trip but for the longer cruise am hoping Craig will say it was a waste of money so we can get an interior. This way we can save money to spend on alcohol...which travelling with family is alwas required.

5. Tipping. this is amajor sore point for Craig and the basis of all money made by the people in the service portion of the ship. I need to prep him now so he isn't freaked out that the tips are so big.

I am fully aware of how large my list is, but we are really bad at first time travelling. We like to go where we know things. My first cruise was ok but not the best thing ever and frankly it was the company that made it fantastic. SO this time I am going in knowing what to expect and hopefully will come away happier for it.

Free advice....comes with a price

Since I travel so much I invariable get questions about best deals and suggestions for travel. My personal favorite comes from people who want me to just plan their trip for them. Oh yeah, because I don't have enough to do raising three kids and a husband, owning my own company, and going to graduate school. I'd LOVE to plan your week long excursion to the far west spending no more than $50/night on hotels.

I like to talk to people about travel but I have to be careful because sometimes people cling to you like a bronc rider needing the NFR standings (how is that for my rodeo allusion for the week?) when they find out you travel and treat you like the Great Oracle of Delphi. I cannot plan your vacation people. Because I AM NOT YOU. I could send you on my dream vacation and it would drive you insane. Or bore you to tears. Or scare you out of your wits. I have no idea what you want to do on vacation because most of the time *I* don't know what I want to do on vacation.

Take a single place, Las Vegas. Sometimes we go to Vegas and all I want to do it chill at the spa. Other times I want to stay up all not gaming. Then other times I want to take in as many shows as possible. Vegas is a great spot to cover all of these. A cruise also offers a lot of options. A city like San Antonio does not. And frankly I don't want to hear your life story about how you need a vacation. I can help you with a specific, like a hotel recommendation that *I* like (translation: It may be your worst nightmare). Or why I travel on a certain airline (translation: Frequent Flyer Miles baby!) But I am not going to tell you what works for YOU. Only you can do that with years of experience and knowing yourself.

I've found that I'm not a big first time person. It is almost guaranteed that I will NOT enjoy a placew the first tiem I visit (exception Italy). I hated Vegas the first time I went. Thought I'd NEVER go back (and here I am almost a dozen trips later in 3 years). Cruising was the same way. Sometime I will share that exruciating trip but i will wait until my next one (in March) to compare. Becuase maybe it was because it was new and different that I had trouble and not the fact that I just don't like cruising. Who knows?

What I do know is that I love when people ask my opinion. The last trip to our favorite hotel in Vegas was "meh" and it made me realize that we can try other hotels there so we don't get bogged down. I immediately came home, joined the "clubs" of other hotels to get notification of sales and waited for the deals to come in. When my skin care person told me she wanted to get away in January I was quick to share not only the email I got from the Venetian about a great special but also the all inclusives email I received from Cheap Carribean since I know she loves Mexico.

Either way I am just giving suggestions and I HOPE she knows I'm not endorsing anything. Which I will, if they paid me enough and then I would have a big sticker over every post about how I'm a paid endorser for a hotel or a cruise. I'm willing to do that? Anyone willing to pay me????