I LOVE VACATIONS!

To Celebrate our ten years of wedded bliss, Kevin and I booked a Cruise to the Carribean. Our anniversary was back in July but due to little baby Emmitt still needing his mama, we booked the trip for January. The whole vacation was absolutely incredible. I loved every minute. It was completely stress free- no cleaning, no crying, no cell phones, no cooking or planning or stress of any kind. It was the longest we had together been away from the kids since having kids. My mom extended her New Years visit to tend our kids, making the whole thing possible... thank you mom!

So here's the travelog with pictures for your viewing pleasure...

Day 1 Friday January 6
Our flight to Fort Myers Florida was at 6am, so we had to wake up early. For some reason though, I didn't even need my alarm clock to wake me :) (Thats a joke because truthfully I had been waking up at like 5am for a month in anticipation of Christmas and then this trip- I just get too excited to sleep.)

us on the plane

Anyways, our Cruise didnt depart until Saturday so we decided to take advantage of this chance to visit with our BFF Melissa Whitchurch /Bennett, who I have been friends with since I was 11 years old and who I hardly ever get to see anymore, but will always, always be one of my dearest freinds. We arrived at their place around 1pm, ate lunch and set out to see the sights of Naples (where she lives with her husband Andrew who is attending Law school there). We started out with a local Orange grove where we sampled a variety of delicious oranges. I never even realized there were so many kinds. They were all delicious especially the fresh squeezed orange juice- AMAZING!

And then we were off to the Naples Pier for a walk down the beach, pleasant conversation, and a beautiful sunset:Thats Andrew, Melissa (and baby to be), Me and Kevin on the Pier.

Here I am holding up the Pier :-)

I guess we had to make up for our lack of kids by acting a bit like kids ourselves.

This one was taken right before the sunset- which happened at exactly 5:50 (which for some reason fascinated the guys).

Then we walked downtown Naples and ate dinner at a great place called YABBA's. It was so so fun! Naples has a lot of charm. If you ever get the chance to visit- do it!

And we finished off the night with "the best thing I ever ate" (you know that show). I wasn't even hungry, in fact I was very full, but my ever persuasive husband talked me into sharing it with him and it was so good. Monkey bread topped with coconut custard. Sounds a bit weird but seriously it was SOOOOO goooooooood!

Thanks for having us Bennett family! We had a blast!


And on to the Boat...

Saturday January 7,

We left the Bennett Family in Naples right after a delicious breakfast and headed to Fort Lauderdale. We drove through the Everglades and stopped to see if we could see any "wildlife."
We saw some vultures and a crane. That was as cool as it got.
Then we were off to the airport to return our rental car and take a shuttle to the Port where we arrived at almost the exact same time as our cruise buddies, Jacob and Laurie. It was so fun to see them and be on the boat. We had talked about doing a cruise together for a long long time and we were amazed that we actually pulled it off. Hangin out with them on the ship was a blast!Once onboard, we kicked off our cruise diet of excessive food intake at the Windjammer buffett. Food was good and abundant. Then we checked out the ship and our rooms and tried a bit of everything including the Flowrider (simulated surfing machine), hot tubs, pools, jumbo ESPN screen, ice skating rink, and mini golf- yes we did all that on the first day.

Our nightly dinners in the main dining room were a definite trip highlight. Our waiters were Fernando from the Phillipines and Joaquin from India. They treated us very well- tolerating our excessive food ordering as well as honoring our requests for them to "entertain." Fernando did magic tricks and even brought out his guitar to play (and sing) for us. They were wonderful! We also had some great table companions- the Thomas' of course as well as our new friends, Bob, Judy and their grandson Ky. I'll be honest in that we at first were not thrilled to be seated with an older couple and a child but once we got to know them we just loved visiting with them each night. We even had some fun political and religious discussions that went really well. They are some amazing people.

So here's all my dining room pictures- not necessarily in any chronological order but you get the idea...
Our Table #501

Fernando

Well I'll save all my many many food pictures for my scrapbook but suffice it to say that there was a lot of food and a lot of really good food. This picture above with four different desserts in front of Kevin is pretty typical of what our table looked like all the time. Our table-mates Bob and Judy joked that the cruise wouldn't want us back because we didn't gamble or order any alcohol but we did eat all the food :)... got to get your money's worth right?

And the Travelog goes on...

Sunday January 8

I got up early and walked around the track on the upper deck and got to watch the sunrise.

Kevin came looking for me and we walked a bit more together. I loved having so much time with my sweetie! It was like a 7 day date. Bliss!

Then we were off to breakfast... yum!

And then on to tackle the rock climbing wall with Jacob and Laurie...
This was a lot harder than I expected it to be. The first time I did it , I slipped and struggled and hurt my arms- but by the end of the cruise I think I got the hang of it.

And we also got in some flow riding. We all four gave it a good try. The men were pros and while I had fun at first, my repeated injuries from being thrown by the water against the backboard coupled with my new most embarassing moment ever, left me with a bit of a bitter feeling toward the "Flowrider"

one of my many bruises

Most of this "at sea" day was spent laying out by the pool- reading, chatting, sleeping and drinking our honeymoon favorite- lava flows (virgin of course).

That night was "formal night." So here we are in our formal attire with Jacob and Laurie.
Then we were off to our first show "Up in the Air." The Thomas' took this picture of us without our knowing. I guess those early mornings were catching up to us.
And after that, as you can probably guess, we called it a night.

Un "Belize" able

Monday January 9

We woke up in Belize. When we stepped out onto our balcony it was already so warm out. We had to rush to get off the boat right away to meet up for our excursion. We had booked to go cave tubing and zip lining.

We tendered to the dock and then met up with our tour guide (Karim). We loaded up in a van and drove through Belize City and then through the countryside to the rainforest. It was all so incredible to see and experience. Our tour guide was great- very funny and informative.

This is us on the dock in Belize City.
And here we are all suited up to go ziplining through the rainforest. We went on 6 different zip lines. They were fast and fun and had an amazing view. It was almost unreal.
This is Jacob ziplining. Most of the pictures we took ziplining didnt turn out all that well since we had only brought disposable cameras (in case they got stolen or lost or wet).
After our ziplining, we loaded up with helmets and tubes and trekked through the jungle- getting some great tour guide enlightenment along the way. Then we came to the river that went through an incredible enormous cave and off we went.They hooked our tubes into groupings of 6 and then they paddled and steered us along- pointing things out as we went. I dont have any cave pictures because it was too dark but you'll just have to trust me that it was really neat.
We toured the caves for about an hour and then at the end, there was a little cliff or ledge that you could jump off of. Kevin and Jacob did but Laurie and I decided to pass.If you look hard you can see Kevin jumping off.

Then before heading back to Belize City, we enjoyed an authentic Belizean meal of rice and beans and chicken. It was good. We ate with our tour guide and of course we took a picture but of course those darn disposables just don't always turn out- so this is what we got:One of our Belize tour highlights was spotting two different mormon churches there. The first one just looked more like a house but it had our plaque on it and then we also saw this one:

Belize was a beautiful place.

And for entertainment, we enjoyed watching a "Love and Marriage" game show. They chose from the audience the newest married couple, the longest married couple (70 years) and then an in between couple. Then they asked them questions like in the Newlywed game. It was hilarious! I think that was the best entertainment on the entire cruise.

Cozumel

Tuesday January 10

In Cozumel we decided to tag along with the Thomas' who had booked a dolphin swim at a National Park called Chankanaab. It was a great place to spend the day. It was only about a ten minute taxi from the Port, and it was beautiful, had a nice beach area and really really great snorkeling.

Here we are with our cruise ship behind us. (there was a photographer taking our picture that told us "don't overdo it") I dont know what she was talking about... too much hugging? really?
We did some souvenir shopping near the Port. Unfortunately the hats just wouldn't fit in our suitcase.Chakanaab had some great photo ops. It was beautiful there.


During the cruise, Kevin earned the nickname "cruise boy" after he boasted about his abilities to eat large amounts of food and then be hungry again a short time later as well as his ability to get a really bad sunburn and then heal quickly the next day. It was a funny joke that was added upon when he got this odd shaped sunburn on his stomach with a very white patch in the center (his super hero insignia we called it).
We have heard that this place had the best off shore snorkeling around and so we rented some gear to try it out. It was great- we saw tons of cool fish and some great reef.

Back on the boat we got ready for what was called "white night." Everyone was supposed to dress in white. We did the best we could and we even matched so well.
Check out the cool rainbow.
Our Entertainment that night was an adaptation of the Broadway show "Saturday Night Fever." The music and dancing were excellent. The content wasn't to our liking but overall a great show.
Then came the midnight buffet with ice sculptures, and fruit carvings galore. Again, I'll save the bazillion pictures for the scrapbook. There was a lot of music and "partying" on deck too.
And then when we could eat no more.... we went to bed :)


All Good Things Must Come to an end...

Wednesday January 11
This was our last full day at sea. It was cool and rainy. In the morning there was some time spent on the flow rider and the rock wall. We moved on to the hot tubs and swimming pools for a bit. Then we had lunch at Johnny Rockets, which was a lot of fun.After lunch we got dressed and watched the Ice Show. Pictures were not allowed but it was very impressive what they could do on such a small rink. It was a really good show! After that the rain really started to come down and there was thunder and lightning so we spent the time on the balcony of our stateroom watching the lightning and filling out our customer satisfaction survey and sadly packing up our stuff :(
Oh So Sad. But by this time we were anxious to see the kids- though maybe just maybe you could have talked us into a few more days...
Well unfortunately the next day we left the ship bright and early only to find at the airport that our flight was canceled due to weather in Chicago. Long story made short- we tried several different flight options and waited standby a couple of times but ended up spending the night in St. Louis and not getting home until Friday. Oh well. Great memories were made. And if you feel like you just didn't see enough of our pictures ;-) you can check out the complete set here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115737969703256625794/CruiseJanuary2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPb_j__EuJLXFg&feat=directlink