Green Turtle Cay=Heaven

  Early Sunday morning Pete, Gatsby, and I returned to Fairbanks International Airport after spending 8 days in tropical warm weather.  We started our adventure very sleepy but excited to leave the negative temperatures behind.  Even Gatsby was excited about riding in his 'box' for the next 14 hours if it meant he got to run and play in the sand:

Don't worry, he got out to exercise/go to the bathroom about every three hours.  After traveling from Fairbanks to Seattle, to Dallas, and finally to Ft. Lauderdale we were greeted at the airport by Pete's sister Maureen and his best friend John.  The next day we took an extremely small 6 person plane to Treasure Cay, a small island in the Bahamas

It was an extremely bumpy ride due to the wind but we all made it to Treasure Cay in one piece.  However, our traveling was  not done, we still had to take a ferry from the airport to the actual  island

And then we finally arrived, to paradise:

We stayed in a house with a lot of character that was about a two minute walk from the ocean.

  Kendall and Brett had a beautiful wedding on the beach with an incredible reception that followed (where I was able to show off my sweet dance moves).

I was able to take a day trip to snorkel and eat lobster on a remote beach, feed stingrays with my toes (which I completely hated and just the thought of it still creeps me out ever so slightly because I truly feared my toes were going to actually get sucked into it's little mouth).

I was able to have a golfcart be my only mode of transportation and have chickens and roosters live in my backyard that would start doing their wake up calls at approximately 1am despite the number of times I would let Gatsby loose to scare them.  I was able to see wild pigs, not ugly boars, but sweet pigs on my way into 'town' each day

I was able to bring Gatsby and see him in his version of Disneyworld, the happiest place on earth

And most importantly I was able to spend a relaxing week with Pete before his deployment where we could truly relax and not worry about the stress and struggles of the year to come.  We could just be us, where we are happiest: at the beach.

Like all vacations, they must come to an end and I must admit that I wasn't as depressed as you would think considering I was leaving tropical 80 degree weather to come home to snowy maybe above zero temperatures. There is something calming and relaxing about being home, even if that home is in Fairbanks, Alaska.  So I am going to return to work this week feeling rejuvenated by my bronzed skin and answering questions about how I got so tan, and make the most out of this month with Pete as we prepare for his deployment and be happy that the high temperatures have been around 20 degrees everyday since we have been home.  Life is good.