Total Eclipse Roadtrip

 April 8 2024 has been on my calendar since I missed the last eclipse in 2017.

So we loaded up RV and headed to Southern Illinois.

We got a late start on Friday night and stopped overnight at a cute campground in East Peoria, Illinois right along the Illinois River called Carl Spindler Campground.

Our space had a view of the marina.

It was another 4 hours to our next camp spot, Gun Creek Campground.

Wow did we have a nice spot on the lake.

Enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

Chicken enjoying the view from camp.

The next morning I enjoyed knitting on my "eclipse" sock.

We only had one night here so we loaded up and moved to another campground on the same lake about 10 miles away. South Marcum Campground. Another Army Corps of Engineers campground. They have really nice facilities at their parks and for a reasonable price. This was a full hookup site for $26.

We got set up in time to have a nice campfire with more knitting.

The next day was all about THE eclipse.

From 1pm-3pm I was in my hammock enjoying the show.

The shadows from the moon covering the sun were really neat too.

Day turned to dusk in totality.

We had just over four minutes of looking directly at the full eclipse and it was breath taking.

We packed up after the eclipse was over and headed north for about 3 hours to break up our drive home. Another really cute campground on Sangchris Lake called Hickory Point Campground. We got there just before it got dark.

It was a perfect night for a campfire by the lake.

I got to wake up with a view of the lake from my bedroom window.

Chicken's last view before rolling back to DeKalb.

The next total solar eclipse is August 12, 2026. Next time we are thinking of traveling to Spain. Maybe combining walking the Camino with seeing another eclipse!

14 Islands in 14 days

 We visited 14 Caribbean Islands in 14 days and it was pretty spectacular.

This was a two week cruise from the Dominican Republic. We booked our airfare through the cruise line and the arrangements weren't ideal. Our flight left Chicago at 5am which meant leaving home at 1:30am! The flight from Miami to the DR had great views of the ocean.

 Upon landing in Punta Cana it was another hour on a bus to get to the port.

We were very happy to see the ship in port #1-La Romana, Dominican Republic.

We had an inside cabin on this journey since we weren't planning on spending much time in the room with all the ports. Boy was it tight especially with all our scuba gear. 

It was located at the very front of the ship. I have a terrible time knowing which way to go to get back to my cabin when on these ships. So this time I hung a couple of balloons so I wouldn't walk the wrong direction trying to find my cabin.

Here's the view from the stairs area. You can barely see them but boy did it help me make the right choice when returning to the room.

Here's just outside our cabin.

This trip was aboard the Sky. A Norwegian Cruise Line cruise ship. It was a small ship with only around 2000 passengers. Despite being built in 1999 the ship was very well maintained and it was given an updated interior a couple of years ago.

Port #2-Catalina Island, Dominican Republic (7am-1:30pm)

This was a tender port and the hours here were early and short. And it was cloudy. We picked up a tender ticket and a boxed lunch and headed to the beach. This spot is usually a Costa cruise stop and all the chairs were free to use.

Port #3-Willemstad, Curacao (11am-8:30pm)

Strange port times again but our ship had a really nice docking location in St. Anna'a Bay right across from the downtown area.

We booked a one tank scuba dive through Scubacao and did a nice easy shore dive at a site called Marie Pampoen about a block away from the dive shop.

Back from our dive we headed to Bario Bar for some drinks.

Next we made our way along the waterfront to try to catch the sunset.

Then a stop downtown for husband's favorite stop-Cielo Gelato. Gelato for him and a beer for me.

 It was time to walk across the Queen Emma floating pedestrian bridge to get back to our ship.

Port #4-Oranjestad, Aruba (8am-7:30pm)

Holy cow was our ship far from downtown area this time! It was half a mile just to get out of the port area at this docking location.

We boarded the city bus and headed up to Arashi Beach. We've been to Aruba several times before and they have great beaches but this was not our favorite. It was a really small beach with way too many people for us. And the entry to the ocean was very rocky and difficult to navigate. But we still enjoyed this mostly cloudy beach day with reading and floating in the ocean.

Look at all these clouds! It was day #4 and we had not seen much sun on this trip so far.

Port #5-Kralendijk, Bonaire (6am-1pm)

Ridiculously short port time at one of our favorite snorkel places. We hopped on an early water taxi over to Klein Bonaire for a long snorkel.

The water and marine life on the reef is just stunning here. But wow were there a lot of people in the water with us. So it wasn't one of our favorites this time. And we were still really wanting to see some sunshine!

We had just enough time to stop by Gio's. One of husband's favorites for cappuccino and gelato.

Port #6-St Georges, Grenada (11:15am-5:30pm)

Sunshine!! Finally! We hopped on a water taxi and spent the day on Grand Anse Beach.

Husband floated the day away in this beautiful water.

Port #7-Scarborough, Tobago (8am-4:30pm)

This was our first time in Tobago.

We booked an excursion through NCL to Pigeon Point Beach for the day. It started out good with beautiful ocean views.

We made a bad decision to book a "snorkel" tour from a vendor there. It didn't end up being snorkel and we wasted pretty much the entire day on a boat we didn't want to be on. We still had a good time hanging out!

Port #8-Bridgetown, Barbados (8am-4:30pm)

We grabbed a taxi to the beach and spent the day snorkeling and enjoying Carlisle Bay.

Port #9-Castries, St. Lucia (8am-4:30pm)

We booked a two tank dive with Dive Fair Helen for this day. It was a beautiful day underwater.

Port #10-Roseau, Dominica (8am-4:30pm)

Another beautiful day. 

We love this island for it's natural beauty. We booked a river tubing excursion and there were only 4 of us so it felt like a private tour!

Port #11- St. John's, Antigua (8am-4:30pm)

The weather was terrible this day and our snorkeling excursion was cancelled. It rained the entire day and it was 70 degrees which felt so cold with the winds.

We didn't bother leaving the ship this day and passed the time reading, playing card games, knitting and walking around the ship.

Port #12-Basseterre, St Kitts (8am-4:30pm)

We booked a snorkel excursion aboard a catamaran for the day. The storms left pretty terrible conditions for snorkeling but a day on the water is a great day.

We got back to port right before another storm moved in.

Port #13-Phillipsburg, St. Maarten (8am- 4:30pm)

We booked another snorkeling excursion for this day. We briefly sailed by Maho Beach, famous for the planes flying in and out overhead.

Not great visibility again but a beautiful view from onboard the catamaran.

Port #14- Tortola, British Virgin Islands (6:30am- 1:45pm)

With weird port times we booked an excursion through NCL to go to the baths on Virgin Gorda and snorkeling. Unfortunately Virgin Gorda had red flag warnings so we ended up not being able to visit there.

We ended up at Norman's Island. Snorkeling the caves and had a beach break at Pirate's Bite.

The next morning we were back at La Romana, Dominican Republic. It was time to take an hour long bus ride to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to spend a very long day and night traveling back to Illinois. Travel days are our least favorite days!

We were wishing we could have just stayed on board to visit those 14 islands all over again!