Beach Thursday!

Aug 26th and I'm so, so bummed that it is approaching the end of summer! :(  It has started to turn a bit cooler this week in Chicago and my flowers aren't flowering as much anymore.  But since my daughter is still on summer break, I thought we'd go down to beautiful Lake Michigan to enjoy the day.  Although I used to spend every weekend at the beach or on the Lake through my work at the Yacht Club, I haven't been down there in ages so I thought Beach Thursday would be a great day to go and bring my cute, awesome, fun little girl!  I'll have to actually post a pic while we're at the beach, because I can't find any that I took previously and don't want to use someone else's image from the web (copyright infringement!)  But feel free to post your own favorite beach pics or let me know a great beach that you have enjoyed going to!

Have a wonderful day! =)

Beach Thursday!

Thanks to finally learning Twitter (well, a teensy bit more than I did a few months ago!) I have been reading more travel blogs and making more connections online.  Wow, social networking is pretty cool! It's amazing how things have changed in such a short period of time. Now my daughter even wants a FB account! She's 9. I'm in trouble already. But I digress... I have some other comments on the whole social networking scene, but more on that in a future post I think.

But I was reading a travel blog (Isabelle's Travel Guide - @isabellestravel), and came across the idea of 'Beach Thursday'. So I credit this fabulous idea to her and you can read more here Isabelle's Travel Guide - Thanks Isabelle! So since I am also a beach lover, I thought I would start my own 'Beach Thursday' entry on my own blog. So here goes...

This picture hardly does it justice, but this is the beach at Norwegian Cruise Line's private island, Great Stirrup Cay, in the Bahamas.  We stopped here during our 4 day cruise on the Norwegian Sky (you can see the ship in the background of this pic).  As this was the first cruise EVER for my husband and I, we had such a fantastic time!  The private island was on our last full cruise day, and after a ship tour in the morning, we spent the afternoon at this little piece of private paradise.  We had a fantastic BBQ lunch, listened to fun island-y music, lounged on the lounge chairs, and snorkeled in the crystal blue water.  Wow, so fun!

While snorkeling, we saw eel, puffer fish, starfish, clown fish, coral, and lots of other stuff that I have no idea what it was!  After snorkeling, we had some time to relax on the beach and soak up some sun.  The sand was so soft to walk on, and the setting was just beautiful.  Too bad I'm too protective of my camera and getting sand or salt water in/ on it, I didn't take too many pics, but the memories of course will last a lifetime!  Would love to stop here again and spend more time... perhaps another cruise?!

NCL is actually expanding the features and amenities at Great Stirrup Cay and you can read more here:
NCL plans makeover to private island  I will be on the NCL Epic this October, but unfortunately she doesn't make the stop at Great Stirrup Cay :( but I look forward to exploring more beautiful beaches at stops on the Epic Eastern Caribbean cruise.... St Thomas, St Maarten..... Ahhhhhhhh  =)