After a little on-line research at home to plan our port days on our cruise, I discovered that from our scheduled stop in Tortola, BVI, we could take the ferry over to the Virgin Gorda Baths. The Virgin Gorda Baths are an area of beach where huge boulders, dropped there by volcanoes long, long ago, have created a natural playground of grottos, caves, and sand to swim in, snorkel and explore.

We planned to take the ferry over, and then get a cab to the beach, as we’d read on-line. The ship also offered an excursion, but it’s always cheaper on your own, and you can stay longer or leave earlier if you want to. On our short walk from the cruise pier to the ferry, you are always approached by taxi drivers and tour organizers, among them was a man with his own boat, trying to gather a few groups to take to the baths for the day. We jumped on his boat with two other families, and he brought us directly to the beach. He charged us $45 each, and $20 for the kids. All in, slightly less than the ferry plus cab price, way more direct, and on our own schedule. The boat ride was really fun, just hang onto your hat!

He brought us right on to the sandy beach of Devil’s Bay, and arranged to pick us up again at 3 pm. We hopped off the boat onto this amazing beach.

We had a great time building sand castles and enjoying the scenery.

The snorkeling was amazing. Along the edge of the big boulders, there were lots of rocks underwater that created ledges, and nooks and crannies for fish. Just floating above on an air mattress and looking through the mask was the best snorkeling I’ve ever experienced, like being at an aquarium. Even along the shore, the water was so clear that you could look down at your feet in the water and see fish! Beautiful.

Around lunch we decided to hike over to the other beach where there was a little lunch place. Our boat driver had told us there was a fun path to follow. It was an amazing adventure.

We followed the path through the rocks.

In some places there are wooden stairs and ladders to climb.

In other spots there are some ropes to hang onto as you climb.

It is so beautiful, although some one was a little worried about running into a sea monster.

We had a really fun time exploring. We made it over to the other beach for a little lunch and tree climbing.

Our boat picked us up right at the beach again, and it was a fun ride back to the cruise ship.

If you ever get a chance to go here, it’s really an incredible place. Look out for Dion, our boat driver, and tell him I say hi!

I was raised by campers, but then I married a non-camper. He’s made up for it by taking me on vacations where you stay in a nice hotel -so I can’t complain. But, this summer, we’ve actually been camping! This is already our third time out, and we’re considering actually investing in a tent next (thanks to the family and friends that have helped us out with loaners up until now). Last week my husband had to work, but 3 other moms, and all 8 of our kids headed out for a couple nights of tenting at Coburg Beach, a great beach about an hour away.  Here’s just a few of our crew, waiting to head back to the beach.

One of the other moms, my friend Kendra, had this great camping box, and I thought you all might like this idea too.

It’s a tackle box, and kitted out with everything you need in your camping kitchen!

Inside are all the treasures. One of the coolest little things, is old film canisters, turned into spice holders. The salt and pepper are also film canisters, with special lids.

She also had some sugar and cinnamon.

There was camping cutlery, as well as a mini wisk, and some serving pieces, and a measuring spoon and 1/4 cup.

There was also some dish soap, restaurant sugars, and moist towelets, a mini sewing kit, bullion cubes, twist ties, candles, matches and bag clips.

What a great idea. Any restaurant take-out items, like mustard, relish and ketchup, or peanut butter, jam, or honey small packages would also be good. Or maybe some tea bags, or a film canister of instant coffee, and coffee whitener. And for the spice lover, how about a mini bottle of Tabasco sauce and some red chilli flakes! Anything non-perishable and small that your family likes could be added!

Thanks for the great idea Kendra (and Greg!). Life is a party, even when you’re camping if you pack a little sugar and spice!

Last weekend, for the long weekend, our family joined a bunch of friends for a group camping trip to Sandbanks. My husband is not a camper, so I had to reach way back to my girl guide days, and pull out a few tricks!

Before we went I made these fun fire starters. You begin with an empty egg carton, add old dryer lint, and cover in wax. They worked great.

You just let the wax dry, break them into 12 individual cups, and light the cardboard corner to start your fire.

We went to Sandbanks Provincial park. I had never been there before, and it was beautiful. Despite the cold water, the kids had a great time the first day playing at the very sandy beach.

And the second day we all went to the sand dunes together, they were awesome. There was a hard core bocce ball tournament, and some pretty serious swimming, and playing in the sand too.

All that play made everyone hungry! A highlight of the trip for me was some of the fun outdoor cooking we did. Our friends made tin foil dinners.

They were filled with various versions of potatoes, veg, and meat to make a complete meal. The very first version of t.v. dinners? sans the t.v.

Chicken with tomato, and potatoes, mushrooms and carrots -yum!

One family used a tin pie plate as the base of their dinner, clever!

Over at my site, we were making baked potatoes, and corn-on-the-cob over the fire. Well, actually the potatoes are all wrapped up in foil and in the fire, amongst the coals. They didn’t burn at all and were delicious!

Dinner was delicious, supplemented with a few roasted hotdogs for some of the 11 kids that we had between the 6 families.

The coolest meal -by far was the bacon and eggs in a paper bag. The last time I did this I was about 12 camping with the girl guides, but it was just as much fun at 30 something!

You start out with a regular old brown paper lunch bag. Using thick slice bacon, you rub down your bag a little, and line the bottom of the bag -takes about 3-4 slices. Then you crack your egg on top, add a little s & p, and fold down the top of the bag.

Then you put a stick through the top and hold it over some hot coals for about 10 min. until it’s cooked!

Mine turned out great!

There were a few, shall we say, “mishaps”. Don’t get it near a flame or the top will catch on fire!

But he still ate it! Such a good sport!

Try it on your next camping trip. Hope you had a good long weekend too. Long weekend + great friends + lots of fun + great food = life is a party!

One of the joys of cruising is the amazing food! I had been looking forward to it for weeks, and I wasn’t disappointed. The ship has lots of dining options, including a cafe, a buffet, the formal dining room and room service. I had even viewed the room service menu on-line here before we left! One of the other great joys of cruising is that there is also something your kids will like available as well.

Here is one meal in the dinning room.

I started with an appetizer of creamy mushrooms in puff pastry.

My husband had the fishermans salad, with shrimp, salmon and scallops.

My in-laws tried the cream of asparagus soup.

For main course, I had the prime rib, served with oven roasted root vegetables and baked potato.

My husband started eating his lobster tail before I could get a picture, but he said it was delicious

For dessert, I had the cherries jubilee. Yum, yum.

My husband had the dessert trio, with a mini rum soaked sponge cake, a mini flourless molten chocolate cake, and mini cheese cake. Everything truly is better mini!

This was one of 12 nights worth of amazing, delicious food.

Another food highlight was the amazing fruit and vegetable carvings on the buffet tables. It’s amazing what a skilled person can do with a watermelon. I usually think melon balls are fancy!

Some of the displays incorporated all kinds of fruits and vegetables.

Incorporated in this buffet was an ice cream station. I love the simplicity of the big cardboard containers of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, surrounded by ice. This would work well for any at home ice cream bar, just on a smaller scale.

The food certainly was delicious, and all the wonderful new things I tried definitely inspired me for my next dinner party. I feel so very blessed that life is a party…at least when your fortunate enough to be on vacation!

I have been away on vacation. My husband and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage in April, and to celebrate, we went on a cruise to the Caribbean like we did for our honeymoon! It was wonderful to escape the snow, and enjoy the beaches! We had a wonderful time on a 12 night cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas, with our two little girls, and my husband’s parents.

We left from New York, and went to 6 Caribbean islands.

It was wonderful. I feel well rested…and very full! I didn’t take nearly enough pictures on the trip, but I did have one wonderful experience that I grabbed the camera for, and thought that you my blogging friends would love to see; a behind the scenes tour of one of the ships serving kitchens. Can you believe that they prepared and served over 160 000 meals on our cruise alone! We ate very well indeed.

This is one of the main dinning rooms serveries; there are three. When you walk through the main doors, there is a dish washing station, so that the dirty dishes never have to come in contact with any food prep areas.

The next area, was the cold service line. Salads are prepared on one side, and placed in a double sided refrigerated unit, for waiters to retrieve on the other side. It’s all very efficient.

On the prep side, they were preparing shrimp cocktail for that nights dinner.

They were delicious, I had one as an appetizer that evening.

Beyond the cold service area, was the bakery area. The smell there was wonderful. The ship makes all it’s own bread and pastries, and they are in abundance. Every meal includes both bread and sweet pastries. We joked that it was going to be hard to go back to not having dessert with breakfast! My girls loved fresh donunts every morning, and I loved the Danishes.

Pictured here is some of the bread dough waiting to be shaped into buns for the evening meal. They use no preservatives in their breads, and keep them only two days. Leftovers are used for bread crumbs.

Next we headed over to the hot line. The chef pointed out one of the unique qualities of ship ovens, the doors are made so that they side back out of the way and stay in place so they can check the meats cooking without any danger of the moving ship jostling the door closed into the chef causing a burn. Things you never think of on land.

All along the hot side, were different stations for the eight or so different entries offered each night.

I noticed this sign on the wall about how to set up a bread basket. Every thing was done exactly right, every night.

This last area was a beverage station, complete with filtered water, juices, pop, and the LARGEST coffee maker I’ve ever seen!

All the food on the cruise was amazing, and it was really fun to get a little peek behind the scenes in one of the smaller serveries.

Tomorrow…I’ll share pics of some of the amazing food.