This is the MASSIVE cruise ship. It's the second biggest in the world. 138,000 tons; 1020 ft long; 158 feet across, holds 3400 passengers and has an ice skating rink, mall like area, rock climbing wall, basketball court, everything....... Navigator of the Seas, Royal Caribbean. Too big for me. 

a little more about the cruise...

Ok, so I am tired of telling people about the cruise so chances are that if you are important to me, you've heard something about it!! ;) I'll briefly tell you about the other two places.

St. Marteen: This island is half French and half Dutch and it looks like Northern New Mexico(oddly enough!) My dad and I did an excursion here together. It was called the "Loterie Farm Treetop Adventure." We got to swing from the trees and down zip lines in the rain forest. It actually was fun, but not worth the money. The best part was that the workers were begging for tips at the end. They were totally laying on the guilt trip, saying this guy dropped out of school and to do everything you can to help him, blah blah blah. And ultimately, we got back on the bus and we saw the same guy getting into a brand new red Mercedes. The people in general on this island were pretty rude!!!

Bahamas: The Bahamas... ah yes. We got off the ship into pure chaos of herds of cattle, er, people, blindly wandering around looking for their excursion guide. There were these huge men screaming in burly voices the name of the excursions until everyone got organized. We took a ferry to a coral reef and went snorkeling. Well, before the ferry left, there was this big, fat, pink redneck guy who was having a fit b/c his family wasn't there yet. They finally showed up and he started freaking out and yelling at his family at the top of his lungs in front of everyone. Of course, I had to be the one sitting next to him. He was acting like such a baby and his daughters fiancee and him almost got into a huge fight. they had their fists up and the fiancee was yelling, "I have NO respect for you!" It was exciting!! It's funny to watch rednecks fight. YEAH! Maybe they'll kill each other and there will be two less Bush supporters in the world!!!! :) The whole way to the reef, fat redneck man had his arms crossed like a 2 yr old. The reef was cool, lots of neat fish. The water was choppy from the tropical storm and someone saw a 4 ft shark. I wish I saw it! On the way back to the ship, this guy all of a sudden started walking next to me, trying to git it.. I was NOT wearing any revealing clothes, just a tee shirt walking along. This guy starts striding beside me yelling, "your breasts are beautiful! Wow! Look at them! Are they real?" and repeating himself over and over. "You come back at 9 o'clock. I will buy you a drink and you will not refuse," insisted sthe extremely annoying creature . I sped up and was walking pretty fast, but he would not go away. After a few minutes, i finally looked at him and started waving in his face and saying, "buh bye....... buh bye......" until his nasty ass retreated. Damn! I went into a shop moments later and this other guy looked me up and down and said, "Wooooowwww." GOD! Have some freaking tact! At this point in the cruise, I had had it with idiotic guys. what does he think? I'm going to rip off my clothes and do him right there? JEEEZ!!! After that, I hightailed it back to the ship. I was so sick of that shite!

I may write more about the cruise in a month or so when I get back from Europe! YEAH! I actually have a notebook with the funnier highlights from just chilling on the ship, and there are quite a few good stories. I leave for Europe tomorrow for 3 weeks. I'm going to Paris, Hungary, and Italy. It should be a GREAT time! It'll be nice to get away from doing nothing at work! ;) ha My wrist is getting better... I actually rode this morning. Yep, got up at 5:30 AM. It was actually nice since it wasn't a million degrees out. And yes, if you are wondering, chode man was out at 6 AM. I was chilling, enjoying the morning and this guy has to try and pass me in his freakin' aerobars. He went by, bobbing up and down, glancing back occasionally. Whatever. Gimme a break...I can't get away from these guys...not even at 6 in the morning. I am looking forward to my trip, but also looking forward to getting back and TRAINING and RACING again. Seriously, this season has been a total crap shoot with me busting my knee, traveling, fracturing my wrist, and then traveling again. Next year it's on. those bitches better enjoy their time now b/c it's all over for them!!!!

I found a place in Boulder. That place really is freaking ridiculous. Standard price for a 1 bedroom is 600-800/ mo...and that is for a hole in the wall. I saw a ton of 470 sq ft apartments for 600!!!! DAMN. I found one that is a little older, but it's 560 sq ft for 550/mo. The big move is Aug 17. Should be cool,but a HUGE change. Change is good, right? I am looking forward to living in a community that is all about cycling. SWEET.

I'll see you guys in 3 weeks. Hopefully I will be a little more cultured when I get back instead of a guarded American. ha!

This is in the rain forest in Puerto Rico. 

Too many glasses of champagne..... (on the cruise) 

UGHH, I'm such an IDIOT!

Aiight. So the cruise was a BLAST!!! I have tons of funny stories about idiots everywhere including my cabin boy calling me drunk very early in the morning and a man chasing me in the bahamas b/c he thought my breasts were beautiful. So that's a taste... the cruise went to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and the Bahamas. I'll break it up by location...

Puerto Rico: we docked at 2 and we took a bus to the rain forest. My whole family went on that excursion. We were on this crowded bus with this annoying as hell little brat in the front who I wanted to throw out the window. Her big, fat mom had no discipline for her so she continued to annoy everyone on the prolonged bus ride due to bad traffic. An hour and a half later we rolled up in the rain forest. It was beautiful and lived up to its name(yes, it was raining). We only got to stay there for 40 min but got to hike around and see a waterfall. I also had to hike up beside the waterfall and retrieve the crying brat I talked about earlier b/c her mother couldn't make it. The whole bus ride back, the bus driver was fantasizing about food and pointing out every kmart and jcpenny on the way.

St. Thomas: ahhhh... so I did this excursion without any of my family and there were 8 other people. We took a ferry to the island of St. John to take an eco-hike. On the way there, the ferry driver was pointing out these huge houses owned by michael jordan, madonna, kenny chesney... rich bastards! St. John's is 2/3 Caribbean National Forest and also a pretty small island. There is school up to middle school, but if the kids want to got to high school, they have to take a 45 min ferry ride in all sea conditions to St. Thomas. We arrived at St. John's and there was this beef jerky vagrant guy standing there with torn up clothes and a walking stick. He was to be our guide and was a very strange individual. For example, he said, "That glop you put all over yourself to protect from the sun is damaging coral reefs. Never touched the stuff." Well, obviously. We saw tons of hermit crabs, anols(lizards), a mongoose, and there are also wild donkeys on the island. The hike was lush and green, but it was a joke. We went to Honeymoon Beach...the 7th rated beach in the world rated by National Geographic. It was very nice until it started raining and we had to leave(after 40 min). After that we toured a sugar plantation/resort and took the ferry back to St. Thomas. As we were pulling up, the Kon Tiki Party boat was next to us manned with my brother ready to party by himself! (I went on that thing like 4 years ago..it has huge jugs of unlimited rum punch). I got off the ferry and some guy asked me if I wanted to go on the Kon Tiki for free. I was STARVING b/c I missed lunch, but who can turn down free rum punch? So I hopped on the boat...it was pretty fun. It took us to a beach to hang out for 45 min and then on the way back the party started. The bartender liked me so he was filling my cup halfway with rum and then adding spiked rum punch to it....so after a few of those and no food in my stomach, I was completely incoherent and barely made it back to the ship. these guys I met let me call Adam on their cell phone although i can hardly recall what I said to him. I took a shower and fell asleep in my towel on my bed until my brother came in and then I actually went to bed and slept 2 hours, managed to get up for dinner, left halfway through, and went BACK to bed for another hour to get up at 11PM to catch the nightlife on the cruise ship(no one goes to bed before 1). I was so hungover and didn't drink for a few days after that.

I'll write about the other two places tomorrow. I came back and my first time out on my mountain bike in a month, I had a bad wreck and almost broke my ribs except my hand broke my fall...so now I'm in a brace with a possibly fractured and badly sprained wrist so it kind of hurts to type. DAMN. I can't seem to stay healthy... my knees also hurt from the damn exercise bike on the ship! I'm off to Europe next week for 3 weeks.... needless to say, I am not going to have much of a race season this year.

More tomorrow or later today.......(since I have SO much to do at work. I literally sit here every day with nothing to do except listen to the buzzing of the fluorescent lights and the soft hum of the computers slowly sucking the life out of me!) Pics MONDAY!