Cruise 2017

Ahhh...a much prettier ship this welcomed us year.

We always try to get our timing right so that we miss the spring break crowd. But this year, we unexpectedly hit Mexico's spring break! All announcements were in Spanish and English. All conversations around us were in Spanish and even the ship music was of our southern friends' taste. It gave us a very different experience than we were expecting.

Finally on the cruise ship, underway, and still answering work email? Silly Adam.

This ship had a couple of waterslides! I liked this one. It shot us out almost straight down. And then on our way up the wall we thought we were going to hit the edge with our feet. But no. It was quite a thrill!

On deck every day a server walked around with a fruity "Drink of the Day." You could either get it with a shot of alcohol (usually rum) or not. I loved it! I tried all of them. And the nice thing...the virgin version was inexpensive. A much better deal than the virgin drinks on Carnival. (Below: the Master Card drink...basically strawberry and mango.)

 First stop: The island of Roatan, Honduras.

We took a taxi to the other side of the island to spend some time on the beach—it was our only beach day. We had a great driver who took us to the least crowded part of the beach and he introduced us to his friend who took us out snorkeling for an hour at only $15 bucks a head. An excellent price that offered up GREAT snorkeling.

Below is our beach set-up.

 

From my photos you can't tell how awesome the snorkeling was. (No worries, the camera has officially been fired. For the third year I was sorely disappointed in the quality of images and even worse with the video. Gah! (Should a GoPro be on my list...? Surely. Surely it should.)

Have you seen these new snorkeling masks? Both Adam and Marla slapped down the money and tried them this year. Adam was VERY pleased with his. He said it makes snorkeling much easier and you never get water in your mouth.  Both he and Marla say it's worth the price and it took the anxiety of snorkeling completely out of the equation.

Below: As we swam passed these people I had a good chuckle. This is how NOT to snorkel.

Below is the view from our seats before the beach filled up with tourists and vendors. (Very close to Fosters West Bay.) Ugh, the vendors were extremely annoying here. I don't mind saying no to each person once. But I don't want to say no every single time the same person passes me throughout the day. No way.

 We walked down the beach until we couldn't go any further. This is Tabyana beach.

I didn't realize Belize was a tender port (the ship doesn't dock near shore so you have to take a tender in and spots are limited.) People who have scheduled excursions are first off the ship. We didn't do an excursion so we didn't get off the boat soon enough to find one within our timeframe. I was REALLY hoping to go cave tubing. But instead we took a tour through the city and into the jungle to feed wild monkeys. I don't recommend it. Belize is not a lovely city with a lot of drug related crime and the monkey thing was meh. But hey.

Above: Cashew and its fruit. (The fruit is above, the nut grows at the bottom.) We tasted the fruit, pretty good! Below: There's a tiny baby on this mama.

The monkey was cute! It wrapped it's tiny little hands around my fingers and pulled my hand up to its face so it could eat.

We took a short walk through the jungle, it was so hot! And I got bit several times in a neat little line on my tummy too, and by who knows what. How fun, I love souvenirs!

Back on the ship we played a lot of Farkle.

I'm always worried I'm going to loose my wedding ring at the beach—so I finally decided to go ahead and buy a vacation ring—talked the other girls into it too! I love it!

Next up Cozumel. This was our second time here—for our visit this time, we took a water taxi inland to see the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum. I was excited and curious. I hadn't even made time to do any research so I had no expectations.

The campus was amazing! I wish we'd had more time to explore. To my disappointment we didn't have time to get close to many of the structures.

 Iguanas were to be seen EVERYWHERE.

We had a cute little tour guide. (He reminded me of my Grandpa C.) He came with a lot of information, was friendly, and was prepared with printed illustrations. The history of the people was interesting to hear, especially when combined with some context we get from the Book of Mormon (which also is a historical record a well as testament of Christ). Very cool.

I panned over the area with my camera, click here for a short view. Password: hellotulum

A lovely beach was just on the other side of the ruins. Alas...we ran out of time and didn't go down for a quick dip.

 And then...back to the boat.

We finished things off with fancy dinners, leisure time...

 ...and a movie on deck. Can you guess which one? Mom? This is the very beginning.

Again, it was a lovely, lovely trip!

I usually put together a slideshow including photos from our friends—then we all get together and watch it a week or so after getting back. It's always fun. A lot of the images are repeats from my post but if you'd like to see it anyway click here and enter the password: cruising2017

The Proper Arranging

For my birthday, I got schooled in the basics of flower arranging and stem care.

And I LOVED the result! Peonies are one of my favorite flowers and I've wanted to use these yellow Crespedia (Billy)Balls in something for years. The color combination made for such a happy arrangement!

It went with me to every room I occupied and took up far too much space on my computer desk, but truly, it's nice having your face stuffed in sweet scented blossoms while working.

Later...I couldn't stop obsessing about making more. Plus I'd purchased a vase (or two) in Florida that I just HAD to fill.

The trail where I run has so many varieties of wild flowers and greenery that I had a terrible run the next week—looking at everything with new eyes. So, I gave in and swiped up enough ingredients to make a couple of new creations—Adam patiently helped. He's so good to me.

I might not be that good at it...but I can't stop thinking about making more. I like having something new and creative to do that's NOT on the computer. I will be forever grateful for having been taught this new skill. It's a gift that keeps on giving (in more ways than one!)

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Sunshine

Have you been to Destin, Florida? It's quite lovely and the sand is white and remarkably fluffy.
Wait, wait...I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not going to post a lot of photos because I had enough video that I wanted to try my amateur hand at that instead. So here we go, click here and enter the password: sunshine

We stayed in a condo for three nights that overlooked a private beach. Though, we had a bit of a mishap—I broke the shower—real good. The water was scalding hot and wouldn't turn to cold and also wouldn't turn off. Eeee! I'd broken a screw, an antiquated and irreplaceable screw.

It would have been nice to NOT have to check on the status of the shower every 4-5 hours. And in the end, we ended up showering about a half mile away in a different condo the whole time we were there. Parts had to be ordered and the wall had to be opened up on the other side to get it fixed. Oh well. Oh well.

We planned all of our time to be on the beach. So, we reserved our seats for the next couple of days and slathered on the sunscreen.
The ocean conditions were flagged yellow, then red on our last day (hazardous) so the waves were rough enough to have some fun in and get some exercise!

For dinner we had some FANTASTIC seafood. I'm listing them here for future reference:
The Boathouse: (Loud bar ambiance, money and bras stapled to the walls.)
Yellow Fin Tuna Stake, medium rare. Excellent.

Bochamps: (Finer dining, a lot of seating on multiple decks outside by the doc.)
MUST get the Oysters Bochamp / baked with caramelized vidalia onion, Alabama feta, and house-made bacon marmalade.
Also MUST get the Pan Roasted Gulf Grouper / feta cheese soufflé, garlic braised local spinach, house made Alabama tomato jam, citrus butter.

At night from our balcony we saw people ambling around on the beach with flashlights. They weren't so much as walking somewhere—it seemed they were looking for something. We discovered they were ghost crab hunting. They're the same color as the sand so you have to be quick. It's fun for families. (A site online recommended that you deck your kids out with glow sticks so you don't loose them in the dark.) After catching the crabs, you can let them go or take them home and cook'em up. We hear they're good.

Traveling back to Destin is on my list. I've never had the opportunity to stay at a beach like this for longer than a few hours...and this was the place to do it. It really is everything the songs say it is. Sigh. Happy Face. Sigh again.

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Cabin in the Middle of Nowhere Texas

A work friend of a friend offered his cabin in Laneville to six of us for a weekend this spring. It was a tiny, cozy, little thing with a loft upstairs (community sleeping, yay!) a toilet room (that held us hostage) and a bedroom downstairs with a full bath, living room, laundry, dining area and small kitchen.
We banished the loud snorers to the downstairs bedroom. Heh heh.

We went exploring.

And shot guns and a crossbow lazily from our seats on the porch. We also played around with some tannerite off-site.

The guys spent hours fishing and floating around in a paddle boat. They caught three fish so we had fish tacos one night. I finally learned how to gut and clean one—can't believe I'd never had the opportunity to do it until then.

The owner left us the keys to his vehicle to get around—adding to the wonderful laziness of our weekend.

Then at night we lit a bonfire from the logs that had been stacked for us and we were instructed to burn.

The flames were enormous—and terribly hot; it melted a glass bottle. We couldn't get close enough for s'mores. Not at all. In retrospect, I'm not sure the blaze was totally safe...it was in close proximity to a tree....

But how awesome! Here's a little video (same one from my Instagram) Tap on the image below:

We very much enjoyed the get-away. I have gratitude for people who are kind and offer special places like this to strangers like us.