Cruisin' to the Caribbean

Going on a cruise has always been on my bucket list.  I knew I'd probably only get one shot at it, for the time being anyway, and thus wanted to go on the best possible cruise. And that best possible one was a 7 day Southern Caribbean cruise leaving form Puerto Rico and docking at 5 different islands - St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten - with only one day on the ship.  It was incredible.  Originally I had planned on going with my Utah roomies Amy & Allison.  Unfortunately that didn't work out so I got some other peeps together and there ended up being 8 of us total.  So much fun!

The best thing about a cruise is that is completely stress free.  You don't have to decide where to eat dinner, what to do that evening, where to stay, or how to get to the next island.  It's definitely the way to go for island hopping.  Although, it's probably not my favorite way to travel, it's something you gotta experience.  And it was exactly what I needed after an extremely stressful year of PA school.

Getting to Puerto Rico was a nightmare and I will never buy a cheap ticket again if it means this is the way I'll be traveling.  I flew from Portland to Los Angeles with a 4 hr. layover, then to New York where it was tightly scheduled with a 30 min. layover.  I even double checked with the airline and they said it was plenty of time as my gate was only 4 gates down.  HA!  Too bad we sat on the plane for at least 20 min. due to technical issues.  I didn't even land at JFK until after my flight was scheduled to leave.  That didn't stop me from pushing my way from the back of the plane to the front so I could be the first one off.  I got re-routed on a later flight so I got to have another 4 hr. layover.  By the time I got to Puerto Rico and met my friends on the ship I had been traveling for 24 hrs.  But hey, if that means a week of sunshine and warmth, I'm ok with it.

Here's the whole gang on one of the elegant dress up nights.....

Rob, Nicole, Danielle, Kristina, Candace, Lacee, Nate, Janelle

Our first stop was St. Thomas.  A friend recommended that we take a ferry over St. John since 2/3 of the island is a national park with some amazing beaches.  Between taxis and the ferry it probably cost about $25 each way, but it was totally worth it!  It was gorgeous.  Never have I seen such crystal clear water.  There was also some snorkeling we did around the huge rocks you can see in the water.  A few of my friends even saw a shark!  This was definitely my favorite beach out of all the islands.

Our CRAZY cab driver, but don't worry we left in one piece

The next day was a day at sea on the ship.  We mostly just lounged about in the sun, went down the slide a few times, and ate to our heart's content and then some.

Barbados was day 3 and probably my least favorite.  The people are pretty harsh, or at least that's how they come across.  Yelling at each other for taking their business (us).  At least we saw a pirate ship!

These next pictures I didn't actually take since I lost my camera that day.  It had fallen out of my pocket in the taxi on the way to the beach.  Fortunately, the same driver was planning on picking us up AND the guy selling us snorkeling gear knew the taxi driver so he called her and she found and held on to it until she came back to get it.  Whew!  That was scary to realize I had lost it!  We went snorkeling on a double decker boat (I really wish we had taken a picture of it!  There were a couple beach chairs upstairs to lounge on).  On the snorkel tour we saw a ship wreck (my excitement was dashed to pieces when I found out after asking how it wrecked, that it was placed intentionally.  Really??) and then we snorkeling with 5 or 6 sea turtles.  They were huge.  And they would swim right by you, touching as they passed.  Not to mention I touched them quite a few times.  Amazing!

Then we took a quick stroll through downtown and ran into a physician with his wife, a nurse, from Texas.  Danielle and I talked to them for quite a while.  The wife was concerned about Danielle's bright red sunburn.  Thus the conversation started.

Day 4's stop was St. Lucia, one of my favorite days, because..............we went zip lining!!  Another thing I've always wanted to do.  The adrenaline was pumping.  We weren't as high up as I thought we'd be from the ground, but it was high enough.  We went from line to line and zipped across the air.  There were a few surprises along the way.  At one point, we had to swing on a rope from one platform to another.  It was hilarious to watch the few people who missed and swung backward.  The second surprise was repelling, which was basically just dropping about 70 feet in mid air.  My favorite part!  I love that feeling!  I could be entertained there for hours listening to people's reactions - screaming, yelling, laughing, cursing.

St. Lucia has two very famous mountains, or twin peaks, called the Pitons.  I was disappointed we didn't get to see them while we were on the island, but.......I noticed them at the dinner table as our ship was cruising away, a breathtaking view of them.

St. Kitt's was our next stop, which was very similar to St. Lucia - both very mountainous and jungle-y.  We took an island tour, van style, of the town, some old sugar plantations, and botanical gardens with a monkey stop on the way.  This cute little guy came in our car (money making business you see) and wondered from person to person.

This is a unique view since the Atlantic Ocean is on the left and the Caribbean Sea on the right.

After our fun exploring, we went to the beach, a black sand beach with a cute little grill/shack selling jerk chicken and burgers and wondering wild monkeys everywhere.  Wish I could have enjoyed it more, but unfortunately the sun didn't want to come out that day.  Nicole ended up getting stung by a lion fish while snorkeling, which resulted in a sausage like giant swollen middle finger.  There was nothing much to do except ice and hope it wasn't poisonous.  We almost left early to take her to the hospital.  She's fine though.  We went to the medical center once we got back on the ship.

Our last stop and another one of my favorites was St. Maarten, a combination island, split between the Dutch and French.  The other islands weren't very developed and so this was a huge contrast to the previous 4 islands.  It almost felt like we were in California or something.  Most everyone had booked a snorkel trip, but $60 seemed like a lot to me, so Candace and I just went to the beach instead, where I met some older gentlemen who asked if I had a boyfriend.  Bahaha, no it wasn't like that, they were nice.

We then met back up with the rest of our group (and got a French chocolate filled croissant on the way).  Some of us then walked the full length of this beach and then some (prob like 3+ miles).....

....to end up here.  This was my absolute favorite!  It's called Maho Beach and has an airport with the run way literally coming right to the beach.  Watching planes come in to land is amazing and they are flying just above your head.  And then when the planes take off, they go in the opposite direction and blast this incredibly fast burst of wind towards the beach.  We're talking like immediately knock you over if you're not holding on to anything amount of wind.  In fact, it says, "Do not stand.  Danger.  Jet Blast."  So of course, I stood and held on to that fence for dear life.  What an experience!  I couldn't even open my eyes or put my head up.  I'm surprised my swimsuit even stayed on, it was trying to fly away too!

Then we ended with some tasty mango smoothies.  We had been looking all week for these.  You'd think they'd be easier to find while in the Caribbean.  Good timing finding them on the last day at the very end of the day - perfect ending to our cruise.

A few more pics of the last night of our cruise.  Our waiter at dinner was from the Philippines.

After getting off the ship from our 7 day cruise, I think the majority of us were just ready to head home, especially since we kept noticing the ground sway even when we were on land.  Gotta love those sea legs.  But we still had a full day ahead exploring Puerto Rico!  I was excited to finally have the opportunity to use my Spanish!  I spoke to a couple different cab drivers, all of whom were impressed that not only I spoke Spanish, but that I spoke it well.  It's great to receive compliments from the native speakers.  Nicole and I got off the ship early (since we only had carry ons) and took a taxi to church.  We stayed for the whole block to wait for the rest of our gang who were stuck on the ship until their number was called.  It was an English speaking ward, but fortunately there was also a Spanish speaking ward that I went to for sacrament meeting as well.  The ward was an interesting dynamic - it was mostly young couples.  Half of the ward were FBI or other government officials and the other half students (medical, dental, etc).  Looked like a fun ward to be in.

After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, meeting up with everyone else, and relaxing a little, we took off to explore Old San Juan.  I love the architecture with the bright colors - almost felt like I was back in Europe.

We spent a good chunk of time at El Morro, a fortress protecting the city.  As you can see, we had a good time exploring.  There were tons of people out flying their kites on the lawn in front of El Morro.  I loved it.

Saved the best for last....couldn't pass up this photo op!

I just competed in my first ever TRIATHLON

Somehow I managed to let my friend, Trent, talk me into signing up for a triathlon.  Distances:  500 yd swim, 12 mile bike ride, 3.1 mile run.  I have ALWAYS wanted to do one (on my bucket list), however I knew it was going to be tricky with school and the amount of studying I do.  I asked my family's advice and the majority of them discouraged me from not doing it due to time constraints.  Well, it's a good thing I didn't listen!  I always work out 2-5 times per week anyway, so what's a little more consistency with it?  It can only help improve my health.  Yes, it was going to be tough to fit in the training, but thanks to my training partner, Russ, we managed to stick with it for the whole 11 weeks of training.  It was amazing the amount of endurance I built up.  I used to not be able to even run a 5K without stopping once or twice to catch my breath.  Now I can pump one out in no time!

So 4 of us ended up signing up for the Beaver Freezer Triathlon, which was in Corvallis at Oregon State University.  We drove up the night before and stayed at a friend's house.  Our start times were 7:00 am, 7:00 am, 7:35 am, and 8:25 am.  So we got up at 5:00 am, left by 5:30 am and got there by 6:00 am.  It was so dang cold!  About 32 degrees.  FREEZING!

Pre-race photos:

So I set up my bike and gear in the transition area and booked it barefoot in my swimsuit with a towel to the pool, which a was a little ways away.  Now, that was cold, but remember....I wasn't even wet yet.  The worst was yet to come.  For the swimming portion of the triathlon, they assigned 4 people to each lane, sending each competitor off in 5 increment seconds.  If you wanted to pass the person ahead of you, you had to tap their feet and then wait till you got to the wall till you passed.  I was a little nervous about this since I figured I wouldn't see the person ahead of me until I actually ran into them.  Ha!  Fortunately for me I had the WHOLE lane to myself.  Booyah!  My friend, Katie, was in the next heat after me so she was there cheering me on, which I really needed.  That first 200 yards was the hardest part of the whole triathlon for me.  Partly because it was so early in the morning and partly because I was anxious about the whole event since it was my first one.  I mean, I'm competing with over 600 people and you know me.....I'm very competitive.  I definitely wanted to be higher up on the list of finish times.

After swimming the 500 yards (it got much easier after those first 200 yards), I got out of the pool and booked it back to the transition area, all the while towel drying myself while running.  I love the challenge and energy of the transition.  You gotta get your biking/running clothes on as well as shoes & helmet, and quickly hydrate at the same time.  You also have to make sure you buckle your helmet before getting on your bike or you are disqualified.  Fortunately this triathlon had a category for mountain bikers so off on my mtn bike I went.  Of course my time ended up being slower because of it, but not in comparison to people in the same category.  Next time though, I will for sure have a road bike!  Competition, people!  It's all about the competition.  This was perfect for a first triathlon though.

Here's a map of the 12 mile bike ride.  Now that I was wet, and the wind blowing past me on the bike I started getting a little cold.  My fingers and toes went numb about halfway through.  We just biked out on the road along side the cars with cops and volunteers directing traffic and keeping the road clear so we wouldn't have to stop or slow down.  There were some inclines and a few hills, but really the biking portion didn't seem like it was 12 miles long.  Seemed like it was a lot shorter.

Getting off my bike was one of the most challenging parts.  Everyone told me that it takes a while to get your legs back and they feel like jelly for a while.  Psssh, I didn't really believe that or think it would happen to me.  So I immediately started jogging after getting off the bike.  Bad idea.  Total jelly legs.  In fact, the person in front of me was walking.  Heck, I'm competing....I'm not gonna walk!  So I kept jogging.  Maybe a mistake as I felt like I could have rolled an ankle or something but I stuck with it.  All I did was drop my bike off, ditch the helmet, take a quick swig off water and off I went for the run, with my legs trailing behind me trying to catch up with my upper body.

The 3 mile run consisted of 3 laps around campus.  It took one complete lap for the strength in my legs to come back.  My breathing pattern I changed like 3 days previous was perfect to keep me going and not feeling like I was out of breath.  The shocking part was, my knees usually start hurting after biking/running long distances, but I didn't have any problems whatsoever and still don't.  I ran just over 10 minute miles, a little slower than I would have liked (would have like to get under 10 minute miles).  Crossing the finish line was a little anti-climactic since I was the first heat to finish (about 8:45 am) and not many people were there yet, nor my friends.  Lucky for Russ, he got to bike and run in the sun AND have all his friends cheer him over the finish line.

Post-race photos:

It was AMAZING though!  I loved it.  Did I give it my all?  Yes and no.  I thought I did.  But looking back, I definitely could have pushed myself harder and wished I would have, but.....at the same time, this was my first triathlon so I didn't really know how much energy to conserve for the next event.  But I do now!  Let me just say, it was NOT nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  In fact, I didn't have to stop or slow down even once, which was my main goal.  I also wanted to get a time between 1:30:00 - 1:45:00.  I'd say I was close enough with a FINAL TIME of 1:45:29.  I'm pretty happy with that, though, as my first triathlon and being on a mtn bike.  And....I wasn't even sore afterward at all, not even the next day, not even 2 days later (today).  Everyone is pretty surprised.  My training really was perfect and really prepped me well.

So the way they keep track of your times (down to the second) is with a chip you wear around your ankle.  There are mats that track your time every time you run over them.  And it figures that I was the absolute farthest away from the mats in the transition area.  I loved the challenge and adrenaline though!  I already want to do another one, this time in open water and with a mountain bike.  Maybe this summer.....

For my final placement and times, checkout the Beaver Freezer website.  Here's a summary:
Kristina Anderson
bib number:    1004
age:                28
gender:           F
location:         Tigard, OR
overall place:  49 out of 72
division place: 7 out of 13
gender place:  23 out of 40
time:               1:45:29
swim:             13:22
transition 1:     4:28
bike:              54:13
transition 2:     2:08
run:               31:17

Spring Break...

...and boy was I ready for a break!  I spent the weekend with the family and the week with friends.  I also had a goal to catch up on studying, but of course that didn't happen.  When I have a break I have learned to take full advantage of it!  Fortunately I didn't suffer too much this last week at school.

The whole purpose of going to Utah was to meet my new niece.  She is the cutest ever!  Most of my family was in UT the whole week prior to when I got there so fortunately we overlapped on the weekend.  And that meant it was just me to hold the little one for the whole week I was there.  Couldn't get enough.  I'm already planning when I can go back and see her.

I also loved seeing my other niece.  The last time I saw her she was barely learning how to crawl.  Now she's running all over the place and talking up a storm.  She even learned how to say my name during the 2 days I saw her.  Booyah!  She is so hilarious!

So the majority of my time was spent eating out with friends.  Best of both at the same time!  The good eats consisted of Cafe Rio, J Dawg's, Malawi's Pizza, Kneaders, Texas Roadhouse (first time!), Zupas, and In-N-Out.  I got to see Beth (Spain roomie), Allison & Amy (my favorite roomies), Abbey, Danielle, Mary (friends from the ward), Xaviera (Chinese teacher at Maeser), and my friend Brian.

I also stopped by Maeser to see some of my favorite students and eat lunch with them.  They were so excited! They all want me to come back for their graduation, which I would love to do, but I won't be able to with my rotations starting up in May.  This is how cool these kids are.......

And best of all, I got to see my absolute favorites, the sisters!!

Oh, and I can't forget.....the Donavon Frankenreiter concert w/ my friend Sariah!  My 5th concert in 4 months.  I LOVE LIVE MUSIC!!