Our next stop was Curacao (pronounced something like "kyur-a-sow").
A couple of funny things about this island....
I had NEVER heard of it.... but the older kids had. There is a book called "The Cay" that they all read in middle school that begins in Curacao. I read it on this trip and it was fascinating to be able to really picture what the author was talking about in my head.
The other funny thing.... I had never heard of this place but in the span of a two month period we visited there, my parents visited there, and my sister Regina and her family visited as well. Am I the only one that thinks this is a little strange?
Grandma and Grandpa were tired of waiting for us so they set off to explore the historical neighborhoods without us.
They were smart not to wait as I got us all turned around several times. I apparently need mountains to orient me!
The ship docks right next to the historical down-town area by Fort
Amsterdam. The walls were really thick and delightful. We wandered
around this area for a while. We felt like we were in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.
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| See how thick the walls are? |
The walls were really beautiful. Can you see all the different fossilized sea life in the stones below?
After exploring Fort Amsterdam we crossed the famous pontoon bridge. I love this kind of thing. A floating bridge on boats? Awesome!
As we crossed we viewed the beautiful dutch style houses painted in bright Caribbean colors.
We wandered around the downtown area, seeing the government buildings, visiting the central plaza, and shopping at some of the stores.
We were in Subway getting lunch and a cold drink when we ran into Grandma and Grandpa.
We did some shopping with them and wandered around town some more. We really didn't have a plan for the day besides to wander and I really enjoyed it. We found a store that was selling soccer jersey's for an amazing price. Nathan was pretty excited. He got two different jerseys to add to his collection. I know one was for Real Madrid.
I told Darren I was not going to leave Curacao until I saw the pontoon bridge open (or until the last whistle for the ship came) and we were in luck.
The bridge slowly swung open and several large sailboats and pleasure craft came sailing out and into the ocean. We were even more delighted when a large military type ship went through. The officers were so cute with their navy Bermuda shorts and knee socks. Awesome!
After the bridge closed again we headed back to the ship. Grandpa paid a street musician to sing us a song about a family from Utah. It was totally cheesy but memorable.
Good times!
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