Cuba Day 13 (Minneapolis)

Since we were stuck in Minneapolis for a day, we decided to make the most of it and go to the amusement park at the Mall of America. It was probably the funnest day of our trip.  We all loved the rides.  Garret only threw up 2 times from motion sickness, but that didn't stop him.  He just kept on riding.  

 Teenage Mutant Turtle Ride

 Backyardigans Swings

 Sponge Bob roller coaster

 They had a really cool Lego store with life sized Lego structures.

Cuba Day 12

We are going home today. We are all really excited.  Cuba has not been our favorite trip.  Everything here is just harder than it should be.  Everything is completely inefficient.  When we got to the airport our plane was delayed and we were super worried that we were not going to make it out of the country.  There was a huge storm in Atlanta where our plane was coming from (and where we were flying to). We were running out of cash.  Americans can't use credit cards in Cuba and there are no ATM's to get cash from.  We thought we had taken a ton of money but everything was more expensive than we thought it would be. Thankfully the plane made it to Cuba.  We got to Atlanta, but had missed our connecting flight to Salt Lake.  Atlanta had had bad weather for several days, so they weren't able to get us on a flight to Salt Lake for several days.  They were able to get us to Minneapolis.  They said if we got there, we would have an easier time getting home.  When we got there late Sunday night, we were not able to get a flight out until Tuesday morning.  So we spend a day in Minneapolis. 

Waiting for our taxi to take us to the airport

 Views as we were driving to the airport

 This was the menu of all the food that you could buy at the airport.

 Cool elephant made out of spoons that I saw at the airport.  I really wanted to buy it but it was so expensive.

Cuba Day 11

Today we played at the pool in the morning and the beach in the afternoon.

 All the toys locked up

 There was a guy out kite surfing.  It was awesome to watch.

Cuba Day 10

We hung out on the beach in the morning and the hotel pool in the afternoon today. 

Front of the hotel

 Garret and Tanner enjoying the all you can eat food.  It may not have been the best, but it didn't stop them from eating it.

 Garret with one of his many ice cream cones.

 Enjoying a pina colada on the beach (non-alcoholic of course)

 Napping on the beach

 French fries at the hotel pool

 The kids were trying to knock the coconuts out of the tree.

Cuba Day 9

Today was very frustrating.  We drove from Trinidad to Varadero.  We had saved the best part of the vacation for last.  An all inclusive hotel that was supposed to have paddle boards, surf boards, kayaks, catamarans, hobby cat sail boats and more, plus all the food and drinks that you could eat and drink. We got there at about 2pm and our room wasn't ready.  They said it would be ready in about an hour.  So we had some lunch and hung out in the lobby.  Our room didn't end up being ready until after 6pm, and they didn't even give us the room we reserved.  We were supposed to have a family suite that had 2 bedrooms and a living room, but instead they just gave us 2 regular rooms.  The customer service was terrible.  This was supposed to be a 5 star hotel. The all inclusive food was sub-par, and they would never unlock all of the beach toys.  They said that it was too windy and there were too many waves.  This is the ocean for heaven sakes.  To say we were disappointed is putting it mildly.  The kids were really good sports and made the best of it.  We still enjoyed swimming in the ocean and the hotel pools.  And Garret loved the ice cream bar.  He ate a ton of ice cream cones at each meal.  

Breakfast in Trinidad at our Bed and Breakfast

The ladies that ran the Bed and Breakfast

More propaganda signs on the drive to Varadero.

We said goodbye to our driver when he dropped us off at the hotel in Varadero.

Having drinks in the hotel lobby.

The kids finally dragged their suitcases out of the room that they were holding them for us while we were waiting for our room to be done.  They got their swimsuits on and went swimming in the hotel pool.