An Island Adventure: San Juan Puerto Rico

Waiting at St. Croix airport

It wouldn't be a Hayley and Lizzy adventure/trip with something going wrong! Our flight for San Juan was scheduled to depart at 215 Monday afternoon. Problem was that we worked the night before, and of course I overslept! Woke up at 1230, showered packed and hit the car to go pick up Reggie, our third musketeer. Okay so we get to the airport, have about 30 min till the flight leaves, and we have to go through Customs. What the crap? We are going from one US territory to another? Who knows. So we make it through customs and security, after stressing for like 20 minutes, and find out our flight had been DELAYED! Maintenance problems. At first they told us it would be 7pm before we could leave, but they were able to get another plane there by 515! We also each got a $12 voucher for snacks. Really?  $12 for 3 hour delay in an airport smaller than Montgomery?! Oh well, we got TONS of snacks :) So we finally got our flight, flew to San Juan, and landed! We then headed to the rental car place got a car and headed our awesome hotel!

Goofing around

Photoshoot

We were irritated again once we got to the hotel just thinking about our flight delay and the fact we lost so much time of being able to enjoy this hotel. It was 8pm by the time we got checked in and took our stuff up to the room, so of course we were starving by that point. The hotel had 5 restaraunts, so we had plenty of options. We looked at all the menus, and found one that looked good and had a veggie selection for Reggie. After dinner, we took a stroll along the grounds, out to the beach.Next comes the part where I freaked out! We headed to the casino, and of course the woman at the door wanted to see only my ID, and of course it was no where to be found! I bet the lady thought this girl isn't 21 and shes just pretending to have lost her license. So anyway, we retraced our steps outside and Reggie found it with his hawk eyes! LIFESAVER!!!  So, we went back to the casino and I proudly showed my 27 year old ID :) Reggie and I watched Hayley go from machine to machine, play a few slots, and lose some money. Then it was time for me, her good luck charm, to choose the slot machine. We ended up winning her $20 back and then some!! Woohoo!! Next it was on to Roulette, we decided to only spend what we won, so she bet $10, that didn't last long. We don't have that type of luck.

Well grandpa, Reggie, was getting tired, so we dropped him off in the room and then headed out for a photoshoot around the hotel. Keep in mind it was about 130am, and we had only had about 3 hours of sleep in 36 hours. So delirum was the name of this game! We walked on the beach, around the pool, stopped at the bar, got in trouble for being on the counters at the bar, hugged a palm tree (my fav thing to do when I'm sleeped deprived), etc. Pretty much had a blast in Hayley and Lizzy fashion! So finally around 3, we made it back to the room and crashed!!

About to head out on The Beast

The Beast Stats

The next morning we all woke up and headed for breakfast. Reggie and I had the most amazing omlette ever, and some awesome fresh fruit! After we stuffed ourselves we took one last stroll around this amazing hotel and thought about all the fun things we could have done had we not had a 3 1/2 hours delay :( Oh well, we still had a blast as usual! After getting our bags, we headed to concierge to figure out how to get to the Zip Line, Toro Verde, only to find out we were 2 hours away!!!  Oops. And we needed to be there in 1 hour. So we headed to car and Reggie put the Hyandai Accent into ful drive! We were doing some fast and furious stuff, okay maybe not, b/c grandpa was driving haha. So we get there around noon, get checked in and they tell us our tour starts at 1pm. We figured it out that if it started on time, we could do the tour and make our flight at 7pm. Whew! Well, that was if everything "started on time." I guess Puerto Rico was on island time also. It didn't end up starting till around 1:45, so instead of being able to go on 2 tours ("The Beast", and the Zip Line regular tour) we were only able to to The Beast, which is fine since it is the longest and highest Zip line in the world! Just wish we had had time to do both. Well I won't bore y'all with the rest of this blog, as some of you might be bored already, but we had an amazing time, made it back to drop off our rental car and make our flight in plenty of time (for once!). Our next adventure is to St. Thomas this weekend with Hayley's parents! Till next time!!

View from The Beast

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Happy June 7!!

June 7th was a day of firsts and happiness! Okay, so not the "happiness" and "firsts" some people would think of. Our happiness was finally moving into a condo with airconditioning and our firsts was cooking veggie lasagna and baking an apple pie :) Not as exciting as you would have hoped I'm sure. First off moving into our new condo. On wednesday we got our keys to the new place (only two doors down from the original), but we were too tired to move on Wednesday, so Thursday it was time for the big move! I packed up all my stuff and headed the long 10 feet to our new A/C!! Next it was time to pack up all the food and bring it over! Next it was time to clean, and I decided we would wait and clean another day!

So now onto our firsts...So our new friend Reggie's (travel nurse in the ED) birthday was yesterday, but since he had to work day shift and we had to work night shift, Hayley and I decided to fix him a birthday dinner with desert. Now he is a vegetarian, so we had to come up with something non-meat. Hayley decided to cook veggie lasagna! She did a good job too if I do say so myself! Reggie's favorite desert is apple pie, so my lovely mother gave me a good recipe for a homemade apple crumble pie. I did a good job too if I do say so myself, haha. So we had a little birthday party on Thursday night in our new home, with our new friends, and our first veggie dinner and apple pie and we were all very happy! I'd say it was a good day overall!

Well, until next time!

Hayley and Lizzy

First week in Paradise!

Hanging out at Chenay Bay

Sunset

      So we have been in St. Croix, USVI for 1 week now. Pure paradise, and we get to work here for an entire assignment! How amazing is that? We arrived last Sunday, May 13 on a "crop duster" as Hayley calls them. Our plane ride from St. Thomas to St. Croix was on an 8 passenger plane and there were 9 of us so I got to be the co-pilot! If only I really got to fly it! Oh well. So once we got our luggage, we met the realtor at Avis, got our cars and headed to our condo, driving on the left side of the road. This is going to take some getting used to for sure! So we finally made it to our condo (without and accident), and walked into what felt like a sauna! Our condo is completely open to the outside with a screen in porch and NO air conditioner. We are in the process of trying to move condo's right now, so hopefully in the next few weeks we can move to somewhere a little bit cooler.

    Well anyways, all last week was orientation and we also headed to the beach almost everyday afterwards. We've met a bunch of cool travelers, and one happens to be from Mobile, Al, Dana! Dan is from Pittsburgh, Reggie is from Boise, Heather is from New Hampshire, and Sheila from Nebraska. We've all had a blast hanging out and getting to know each other this week/weekend. 

Dana, Elizabeth, Hayley, Sheila, Heather
Reggie, Dan

Hayley, Sheila, Dana, Heather, Elizabeth at Chenay Bay

     My friend Elton from college came to visit this weekend and we tried to show him a good time. Was a little hard since we hadn't even been here a week, but I think we succeeded! Thursday we headed to Chenay Beach and then Cheeseburger and Paradise, Friday we snorkeled outside of our condo, Saturday headed to rainbow beach http://www.stcroixtourism.com/beaches/rainbow_beach.htm and did dinner at our condo and Sunday we headed to Buck Island http://www.gotostcroix.com/buck-island and then Monday he left. We had blast with all the snorkeling, and have seen some sting rays, sharks, baracudas, lobsters, along with tons of tropical fish and reefs. This island is absolutely beautiful!

Elizabeth ,Hayley, Elton, Reggie

      Yesterday Hayley, Reggie, and I decided to go and see the beer drinking pigs of St. Croix http://www.stcroixtourism.com/montpellier-domino-club-st-croix.htm. Apparently this is a major attraction for St. Croix. You pay a dollar per person to see these huge pigs and then $2/beer for them to drink (o'doule's non-alcoholic beer). You shake up the can and then toss it to whichever pigs jumps up first (watch some videos online). It will then poke a hole in the can and drink the beer, then spit the can out. Interesting to see one time, but I probably won't do it again. Anyway, after that we headed to eat dinner then back to the beach until sunset.  No more fun stuff until after the weekend. We all work this weekend Fri-Sun night. We've had an amazing first week at our new assignment, so until next time!

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Pacific Coast Party! Hwy 1

Salmon Creek Falls

First off, I will apologize for the long blog! So Hayley and I had a few days off in a row, so we decided to go on one final road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway. We started Monday morning (too early!). We drove to Santa Barbara and ate lunch and walked around. I had an amazing breaded Ahi Tuna, rice pilaf and cole slaw. Hayley had some shrimp scampi, french fries and cole slaw. We ate at the Santa Barbara Harbor outside on the patio at Brophy Brothers Restaurant. A great recommendation from our friend Nicki! If anyone is every in Santa Barbara looking for a place to eat, I highly recommend it! So off we went up the coast.

About and hour after lunch, we became super tired! I think they put something in our food! Or, maybe it was bc we only slept about 5 hours the night before. We stopped at the Hearst Castle, but decided not to do a tour, bc it would take to long and cost too much money. So instead we looked at it from afar. There was a starbucks in the visitor Center, so we bought ourselves coffee (my first time!) I asked for something that didn't taste like coffee, a hazelnut latte or something. Pretty disgusting, but it did wake me up! On the road again! Along the way we found a random waterfall on the side of the road (not sure the name of it). it was about a 1/2 mile walk to it. We have mastered hiking (in shorts and flip flops!) We took a few pics and then hit the road again. The Pacific Coast is beautiful with all the cliffs and rocks. It was picturesque! We stopped a few more times to take pictures on the side of the road and then finally made it to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and found the only waterfall on the West Coast that falls directly into the Pacific Ocean. It was beautiful. The water was turquoise and the waves were crashing on the coast. It was a very peaceful place to be! Next stop Monterey (our place of rest for the night).

McWay Falls

We (well I, I will take full responsibility) booked our Monday night at a Bed and Breakfast called the Inn on Del Monte. Once we finally found it, we walked in to check in and the owners wife was high as a kite! She couldn't speak clearly, hair look a hot wreck and was in a complete daze. What did we get ourselves into?? So we got settled into our room, changed clothes and then we headed downtown to eat dinner! We went to Monterey Harbor, and was hoping for a good chicken sandwich or hamburger, but pretty much all we had to choose from was seafood. I guess that's what you get when you eat at a fishing harbor! So we ate at an Italian seafood place. After dinner we walked through a few shops and then headed back home. We had to wake up early for our whale watching tour!

At Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

So began our sleepless night. When we walked back in the front door, the owners wife was asleep on the couch and jumped up when she heard us. So creepy. I mean, go to your bed woman! There were cameras all over this Inn. I swear we were being watched all night! Even the rooftop had cameras! As we were trying to sleep, we kept hearing noises, so Hayley dared me to go downstairs and see if the creepy woman was still on the couch. She wasn't but as I was walking back up the stairs, someone came busting in the front door. It was probably her outside getting high, thinking she was about to get caught. Anyway, as the night went on, Hayley had the bright idea to read reviews on YELP. Bad move. Almost no good reviews with many of them stated hearing creepy noises such as footsteps up and down the hall and chains. Then we got to the terrible breakfast part! AHH i need breakfast! Anyway, we finally calmed down, and headed into dreamland.

Humpback Whale Tail!

The next morning we headed down for our mystery breakfast. It was a small piece of banana nut bread (pretty good), some weird meat, 2 strawberries, and a tiny slice of some kind of potato egg casserole. Oh yeah and two champagne glasses of orange juice. Needless to say on our way to the Whale watching tour, we hit up McDonald's. So on to our whale watching tour. We went out on the Princess Monterey Whale Watching Tours, and we did exactly what the name says: watched some whales, along with some other sea life. On our way out of the harbor into the Monterey Bay we found hundreds and hundreds of sea lions! Once we got out to the open water, out came the whales. Humpback whales to be exact! It was soo incredibly neat! Lots of amazing pictures!!!  Lastly we saw hundreds of dolphins, swimming right up next to our boat! We had an awesome time! Check one more thing off our bucket list (not sure if it was on there, but now it is). Once back to the shore, we headed back to get the car and get back on the road!

Golden Gate on a clear day

We headed up the coast saw some more beautiful cliffs, light houses and such, and finally made it to San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge (for the 4th time). This time, it was clear blue sky, sun shining and no fog! We finally saw the top of the Bridge! We continued on to hit up the Muir Redwood Forest before dark. It was getting late and and we were super tired (from being up all night waiting for something to get us) so we just briefly walked around the entrance, took some quick pics, and then headed back to our hotel (which we book an hour before).


We rested up in the hotel, ordered some pizza, got cleaned up and then headed to our friend Kevin's bar a few blocks away to hang out!  We had a blast as usual. Right before we closed up, Hayley and I played a game of pool (not sure who won, probably her). Then Kevin decided to play a game against us, and we of course cheated so we could win :) We left from there and headed for some early morning breakfast (I was starving as usual). One of Kevin's friends me us there and she got the most amazing chocolate shakes! Hayley got a patty melt and fries (I think), and I got an omelet (my favorite breakfast item) with some potatoes. Of course this place didn't have grits :(  We headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night! Such and awesome way to end our assignment here in California! We've had such a great time here, but we are sooooo ready for our assignment in paradise :) Next blog from the Caribbean!!!!!

Till Then

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

We're Seeing Stars, and more Stars!

So last week, Hayley and I decided to have a "hollywood" day. We did the Hollywood Walk of Fame, passed by Grauman's Chinese Theater, Madame Toussads Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not, The Guiness Book of World Records museum, and the Hollywood Wax Museum. We were super exhausted after it all, but man was it fun!

On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, we found so many stars! Winnie the Pooh, Rugrats, Christina Aguilera, Alan Jackson, Kiefer Sutherland, the Beatles, Julie Andrews, etc. So many, I can't even name them all. Of course I had to take my picture and be a real tourist! We searched and searched for George Strait (Hayley's lover) but never could find it and later on found out he doesn't even have a star!! What in the world?? Anyway, we ended up not even walking the full thing b/c it is 18 blocks, we probably only walked about 12 of those blocks (our feet were hurting by the end of this day).

Next it was time for Madame Toussads. While there we danced with Beyonce, googled at George Clooney (okay maybe that was just me), judged with Simon Cowell, Yelled "Action" with Steven Spielburg, joked with Jim Carey, Chilled with Will Smith, interviewed with Ryan Seacrest, thought really hard with the Godfather, Shoot some people with Clint Eastwood, etc. We saw soo many celebraties it was unreal :) We also skate boarded with Tony Hawk, golfed with Tiger Woods, Cheered with Sue Silvester, Box with Roxy, and Moonwalk with MJ ! Whew, what craziness and how tiring that was! Next up, Ripley's museum.

The Ripleys museum was just like many of the others we've been to. It had some crazy stuff you wouldn't think was real, and also had some fun puzzles to solve. Also there were pictures on the walls made out of crazy things like junk mail, candy and some other things. We didn't take many pictures here, but definitely tried to solve the puzzles and read up on the craziest stuff! We also saw a statue of the fattest man in the world. At his heaviest he weighed in at about 1400 Ibs! That's like 13 of me! Geez! Well, it off to the Guiness book of world records now!

Here at the world record museum, it began with music records. Most albums sold, Most downloaded song, most singles sold, concert sell outs etc. Kinda boring stuff. Then we got to a part of stuff that wasn't important and kinda of stupid. Person who walked on his hands the longest difference, woman with the longest hair, person who ate the most hotdogs in a minute, person with had the longest horizontal jump, guy who drank the most ketchup bottles in a minute, etc. I mean does anyone really care? Next was Food :) Now that's what I'm talking about! Biggest vegetables, biggest ice cream sandwhich, largest pizza ever made, Beer with the most alcohol content, etc. That was fun to read about, and it made me a tad hungry! The last part was movie information, kind of like the music part. So we learned a lot of uselss stuff pretty much :) Last but certainly not least, we were off to the more celebraties at the Hollywood Wax Museum.

This wax museum had some different Characters in it. We got to stand on the Titanic with Leo (Ill never let go Jack), Blink with I Dream of Genie, show our muscles with Hulk Hogan, Sing with Elvis, Chill with Hue Heffner, Hang-10 with TMNT, and kick some booty with Charlie's Angels!. Oh how could I forget, did a Vita-veta-vegimen commercial with Lucy Recardo too! Haha. I mean, I don't think we could have met any more celebreties in one day than we did that day! It was awesome :)

To end the day, we decided to have some Sushi! It was delightful! We sat at the bar and watched him make it for us! Spicy Tuna Roll is one of our favs, and we enjoyed watching it be made. He also made one that looked super yummy, so we asked him what is was. Albacore something? Anyway, I then saw hime making something really small and I told Hayley someone was getting jipped, little did we know, he made us a sample of the one we said was yummy! Wasn't that sweet :) So we ate our yummy sushi and headed on our way home. Great end to a great day! Till Next Time

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Could Only Happen to Us!

We had last night all planned out: 1. Dinner 2. Car Wash 3. Workout with Jillian Michaels, 4. Wash clothes, 5. Movie/Scrapbooking, and 6. Clean our disaster of an apartment. Okay, you know our "plans", so this is what actually took place..............

Just hanging out in
Alberton's Parking lot

It started out just another regular night for us. Steak dinner at Black Angus (we sure do love the $39 campfire meal for two) and then to Target, to buy another Jillian Michaels workout dvd. On the way to Target we stopped at a car wash to give Cammy (my car) her shower we have been promising her for weeks!! We splurged and got her the $11 wash, look out Tundras, this Camry is looking sharp and sparkly. So anyway, on to Target.  While there we bought us two workout dvds (Jillian Michaels and Zumba) and some "weights" (water bottles, real weights cost to much!). So far so good right? Once we got home, we added more money to our laundry card (yes we have to use a laundry facility just like we are back in college), and headed down to throw our clothes in the washer. All seemed to be going good so far. So while our clothes were washing we walked to Albertson's to return a Redbox and rent a new one to watch while scrapbooking. Hayley had sent me a code for a free rental so we were excited (love free stuff). Only problem is we didn't think to bring a credit card to use in case we kept it longer than one night. So of course, no movie for us. We didn't want this to be a completely wasted trip (her redbox was already charged another night since it was 1030), so we used this opportunity to have some fun  (see above). Once we got home we realized we had no dryer sheets, so of course we then walked up to Von's to grab some. Once getting back from the store the clothes had about 8 more minutes, so we went upstairs and put in both workout dvds to decide which on we wanted to do. After watching both, Jillian it was. So we grabbed our laundry card and headed back to the laundry room to dry the clothes. Halfway done putting clothes in dryer, "Holy Crap Hayley, I forgot to grab the keys. We are locked out!" Yes we got locked out of our apartment and it was around midnight!!!!!! NO phone, no keys, no nothing (except our trusty laundry card). What to do? We walked to the front to see if there was an emergency number posted anywhere, of course not. We memorized the main desk, grabbed some pooper scooper plastic bags from the mail room, propped open a few gates (you have to have a key to even enter the complex), and walked BACK to Von's. Hayley called the main number to see if there was a maintenance emergency number. She left a message "The is Hayley Harrison. I live in apt 307 and got locked out while doing my laundry. If someone could let us back in that would be great. I don't have my phone, so I had to walk up to Von's to use theirs. If you get this message We will be the two girls just roaming around the apt, and hanging out in the cabanas."  So how do you think this worked out?  No one ever came. We folded our laundry and brought it with us to the cabanas. Luckily we washed sheets and towels, b/c boy was it cold last night. Good thing we had both used the bathroom prior to this fiasco b/c the bathroom by the pool are locked. We only saw a few people during the night, and of course no one was willing to help until around 6am when we saw a lady we had met our first weekend here. She offered for us to come to her apt, but we politely declined (not wanting to impose). I'm not sure either of us slept at all! It was freezing, the benches were short, and my whole body hurt! Finally around 730 a maintenance guy came to unlock the cabana (yeah we climbed the gate) and was able to go get the master key and let us in! Well there's our fun filled night of being locked out in the freezing cold with no phones! What did people do without phone? Now we know, wait around for someone to finally come along and help. Anyway, I had some cheese grits and steak for breakfast and then it was off to relax for us (not before watching The Voice from last week and talking to Hope-Happy Birthday again!!!) Hope everyone elses Monday night was a little less adventurous than ours :) Well we are off to the LA Kings Hockey Game!  Till Next time!

~Hayley and Elizabeth~

Out and about in LA

Freezing at the beach

Well, we have now been in LA for 3 weeks, and it's been an awesome few weeks so far! I'll begin with our trip out here. We left early the morning of January 25, stopping in Texas Wednesday night, and staying with my friend Charlie and his wife in Arizona on Thursday night. Thanks so much Charlie! We decided to split this California trip into 3 days instead of just 2, haha.We arrived to our Burbank apt on Friday January 27. We absolutely love it! So many things are within walking distance: Grocery store, drug store, red box, restaurants, and a karaoke bar. We haven't yet sung, but hopefully by the end of this assignment we will build up the courage to sing our hearts out (doubtful, I know). We started our hospital/floor orientation the following Monday, and were finally on our own the next week. We aren't big fans of this hospital, actually we hate it (won't get into that here, since blog is supposed to be about all of our fun adventures!), which has us enjoying our days off even more than usual!!!

Girl's Night Out with Carly

Chad and Ian playing in cold water

So I will now continue on to tell you about some cool people we've met. Our hospital doesn't have many nurses our age, so we were pumped to meet Carly, another traveler that works on Hayley's floor and she's from Alabama! She came to watch the American's Got Talent LA auditions with us. That was pretty neat, however, Carly and I were completely exhausted since we worked the night before. Well worth it though :) We were also excited to meet some non-LAish people, Chad and Ian. They are roommates from a small town in Oregon and went to the University of Oregon (we won't hold that against them). They are pretty cool, so we decided to keep them around, haha. We took a trip to Manhattan Beach with them (will never go to that beach again during traffic!), which ended up being terrible b/c the football they brought was completely flat, and it was cloudy and cold outside. Good thing for blankets to wrap up in and snacks to eat (to keep our energy up). Hopefully next time we head to the beach, it will be nice and toasty!

In line at the Price Is Right

Our roomie V-day Dinner

A few other things we have done while here: A taping of Price is Right. No, we didn't actually get on the show, but I'm pretty sure we had our 5 seconds of fame and we got a free Grammy CD, so we won something right?! :) That same day we also went to a taping of "Whitney". Has to be one of the funniest shows, and I loved seeing them shoot the entire show in front of us. Pretty cool! For Valentine's we decided to be each other's valentine, and go out for a steak dinner! Stupid we know, but hey, that's us. Plus it was a dang good steak! Well I think that's about all. This past weekend we headed to Laguna Beach and Disneyland as an early B-day present to me, but that will just have to wait for another blog. So sorry to leave y'all in suspense like that, it's cruel I know! :)
Till next time,

~Hayley and Elizabeth~