Kotor, Montenegro

 Our second cruise day we woke up in the bay just outside of Kotor, Montenegro. It was a tender port so we ate our breakfast on the back deck and it was so beautiful out there, then we waited our turn to get on a boat. We didn't have a tour in the morning so we were relaxed and it was nice. We got off and walked around old town for awhile. We did a little bit of shopping and got a pastry and saw a few old churches and palaces. Then we decided to head back out to the port so we could do our boat tour. 

 

 

 

It was us and a family of six that we thought were church members but we didn't want to presume so we didn't say anything. We rode for about an hour out of the bay (past our ship by quite a ways) and out to a Soviet submarine bunker that was covered in graffiti. Our tour guide wasn't stellar and didn't give us a lot of info so it was a quick stop. Then we kept riding out to these caves. The tour was supposed to go to this one particular cave called the Blue Lagoon but before we started the lady told us that just that morning the police had come and told them they couldn't go in there anymore because it was too dangerous. Later I heard that it was weeks ago but whatever. Our guide took us past that one and to another cave where we could get out and swim for awhile. It was so beautiful and blue and we could swim into the caves and Curtis and Josh and even Lily did some jumping and it was just amazing; one of my favorite things we did all week. 

Afterwards we were riding back in to the port and we stopped at a little church on an island in the bay. It was super pretty even though it had kind of a suspicious story behind it and they wouldn't let Lily and I in because we were in our swim suits with cover ups that they didn't deem sufficient to enter the church so we waited for the boys outside. It was back on the boat that one of the daughters in the other family saw Lily's BYU dance camp bag and asked if she went to BYU. Lily said she was going in the fall and the girl asked, "Are you LDS?" and when Lily said yes, she was so excited and said, "So are we!" It was so funny that we had thought they were but talked ourselves out of it because there are good people and families all over that aren't part of our church and then to find out they actually were was just kind of funny. They had four kids 13 and younger and Josh and I kind of gave each other a look at one point on the boat ride that we had done a good thing in not bringing Emma and Brandon. They just weren't ready for a trip like that one yet and it was so nice not to really have to parent the whole time. Anyway, the boat ride was great (it only would have been better if our guide had given us more information but I suppose he thought it was tough to talk when going so fast on a speedboat). 

 

We went back into Old Town and Lily and I got gelato (hazelnut and Lily got chocolate) and we bought a few things we had seen earlier and then we had to take the boat back to our ship. It was a bit earlier than normal so Josh and I went to the pool for awhile and that was nice. Then we got lemonade and watched as we pulled out of the bay to head back north to Croatia. It was a really beautiful day;we were blessed with such great weather the whole time. I loved being out on the water so much and it was neat that I could read a lot of signs in Kotor. Most everything was in English too but their language looked enough like Ukrainian that I could get the gist of it, which was cool. That night we ate later at the Irish pub (great views!) and listened to Josh's favorite band and I did some researching on the history of Montenegro. 

This cute little light on the island with the church reminded me of Michelle :)  I also just realized that my family has a lot of good pictures that I don't have so I need to figure that out.