We're Back!

What a great vacation! I warn you...this will be long. I tend to go into a lot of detail about things. So if you don't want to read all of it, you can just look at the pictures. I'm hoping to get those put on here in slideshow fashion within the next few days. I guess I need to tell you that I have a problem. It is a weird cumpulsion, if you will. I take self portraits a lot. Ok, quite a lot. I think it is fun to take my own picture at various places. Now, my 2nd confession for the evening: I took a lot of pictures of my feet too. I'm planning on doing a scrapbook page about what my feet did on our cruise. In all reality, looking at some of my feet pictures, it really is what my view was like! So, now you know my odd picture taking obsessions.
As for our trip...IT WAS GREAT! Cruising is definately the way to vacation. You unpack once & get to travel to different places in your hotel. Not to mention that they take really good care of you along the way.
Friday the 17th we FINALLY got on the road by about 5:15. That was 2 hours later than we were hoping to leave. We made it to my parents' house by around 10:30. Spent the night there & then got up at 5 Saturday morning. We left by 6 & got to New Orleans cruise parking by 12:30 or so. The whole boarding process took a while, but we were on the ship by a little before 2. We went & checked out our rooms & dropped off our carry on stuff. The room was nice. We had bunk beds (it was cheaper that way), a tv, a desk with some drawers, a closet, & the bathroom (which was fairly roomy for a stateroom bathroom!). Then we headed to "Windows On the Sea" dining room where we ate a late lunch & met up with the rest of the family. When we finished we wandered around the outside decks & I called the girls. After our safety Muster we met Mom & Dad & Carrie & Levi on the Serenity Deck (no kids allowed there) & got in the hot tub. Before long it was dinner time. I took pictures of all the food I ate at dinner times, so you'll see those in my slideshow. The food was yummy & Marcelino, our head server, was wonderful! We went to the Welcome Aboard show that night & then hit the sack! It was a LONG day, but fun.

Sunday we had breakfast brought to our room. I liked doing that so I didn't have to get up quite as early as I would have in order to get to a dining room. We had a family church service in one of the piano bars (kind of sacreligious, I know) & that was nice. We even had a few people join us. After that we ate some brunch (it had been a few hours since we'd eaten in our room) with Mom & Dad. Then I went & put my bathing suit on & we headed up to find a lounge chair in the sun so I could read & Paul could sleep. We finally found some out on the main deck & enjoyed a couple of hours up there. We watched a guy do some ice carving. I think it ended up being 2 dolphins. We eventually found more of the family & hung out with them for a little bit. Finally it was time to get ready for dinner. Sunday night was the formal night. Paul looked great in his tux & my dress looked nice too I thought. We took some pictures before dinner & then went to the dining room. Lobster was on the menu that night & Marcelino brought me 2! What a guy! After dinner we left the night show (I don't care for the nasty dancing they were doing or looking at those dancers butts) & ended up doing karioki. Yeah, that was bad. My sisters, Robin & Carrie, & I attempted to sing "Respect". Ya know, you think you know all the words to that song. Nope. Not really! When all the words were coming across the screen we found out that we knew far fewer of them than we thought. Oh well. I guess that is what karioki is all about...making a fool out of yourself. Too bad I couldn't blame intoxication for our performance!

Monday was Progreso, Mexico! We hired a van to take 8 of us to see some ruins that were about 30 minutes away. That was pretty neat & we took lots of pics. Then we shopped in the touristy open shopping area. At lunch time we ate at a place Tommy found & he ordered for us (it was very handy being in Mexico with someone who could speak fluent Spanish!). I had floutas & an empanada, Paul had tacos. All was yummy & no one got sick later, so that was a success! Later we took a bus tour of the city of Progreso for $2 each. We sat up on the top of the bus (it was one of those open double decker type of things) which was nice. When that was over we shopped for a few more things & then headed back to the ship. We found most of the family up on the Water Works deck (that's where the waterslides were). They had one big 4 story tube-like slide & 2 straight parallell slides that we raced down. I did the big tubular slide once. I apparently am more claustrophobic than I thought. I couldn't breathe in there! Weird. Anyway, we had fun playing up there until it was time to go get ready for dinner. I think Paul went to bed early that night because he didn't sleep well the night before. I went & did a Latin dance class with Dad. Mom didn't want to do it for fear of breaking her ankle again! I think everyone did that except Robin & Leon. When that was over I headed to bed too.

Tuesday was Cozumel, Mexico! We had breakfast in one of the dining rooms that morning. I really enjoyed that. Then we got off the ship & got a taxi & headed straight for Paradise Beach. For $10 a person they had a bunch of beach "toys" that you could play with. There was a big floating iceberg that you climbed up & then jumped off or slid down. There were 2 trampolines which were fun to play on since they are floating. It made the whole trampoline experience very interesting! There were kayaks, snorkeling equipment, & palm tree climbing. Mom & I got a massage for $20 which was fantastic! When we were finished telling Dad how great it was he decided to have one too. Paul played a lot on the iceberg. I went out to the trampoline for a little bit. Then Paul & I got a kayak & paddeled around for a while. When we finished with that we tried the snorkeling. Remember how I said that I must be more claustrophobic than I thought. Yeah. This is a good example of that. I got all my stuff on & got in the water & stuck my head under & COULDN'T BREATHE!!!! I tried. I honestly tried. I couldn't catch my breath or breathe normally. So while Paul swam around & enjoyed it, I waited for him up on the pier. Glad I didn't pay $60 to figure out that I can't snorkel! After a few hours at the beach we decided to go check out the shopping in downtown Cozumel. We wandered around down there with the guys all saying "Hey, pretty lady! Look! Almost free!" & after a while we decided to go back to the port. We walked through a few shops there & then had a snack (we never ate lunch) at the "Three Amigos" before getting back on the ship. We ended up on the Serenity Deck in the hot tub for a while before having to go get dressed for dinner. After dinner was another show with a comedian that I thought was a jerk so we left. We ended up playing cards with Mom & Dad, & Carrie & Levi in the Library. That was fun. Paul went to bed again, but I finished the game. Then at 11 the Mexican buffet opened up out by the pool so we decided to try it. I had a taco in honor of Paul (he loves tacos). I finally went to bed after that.

Wednesday was a nice day at sea. Sunny & warm! We decided on breakfast in the dining room again. I like for people to wait on me! Then we went to a towel folding class. Every night we had a different towel animal on our bed & this class taught us how to make a few of them. They even have a book you can buy that shows how to make them. That was a fun class. Then it was bathing suit time & to the waterslide deck we went! In all reality, I was tired & wanted a nap in the sun. That is exactly what I got too. Sleep burnt. It wasn't too bad, but RED! Eventually most of the family ended up there & we played on the slides for a while. Paul & I then went to an art auction with Mom. We got tickets for several drawings when it was over. Mom won a Carnival photo album with pictures of the ship in it. I won a $650 piece of art!! ME! I never win anything! We had to pay $35 to have it shipped to us, but that's ok. We'll also have to have it framed. So, that was fun! When we left there we were hungry since we didn't eat lunch. So we decided to try the food by the pool & had cheeseburgers. They were yummy. Paul & I decided to play a game of putt-putt golf before having to get ready for dinner. I won by 3 strokes! After dinner we went to the closing show in hopes of it being good as it was a tribute to the Beatles. No such luck. I thought the whole thing was weird then they had to throw in some butts (which didn't even fit into the dance or anything, they just turned around & there were their butts. No class.) & NASTY dancing. Why ruin the Beatles that way?! I was mad & left again. Anyway, we had fun visiting & playing cards after we left.

Thursday morning we ate breakfast in the buffet dining room & then got our stuff & headed for the long lines of customes. It actually went faster than I thought it would. Once we got to our cars & got everything loaded up we drove through the French Quarter. We never got out since it was raining. Then we found a really cool OLD cemetary that we walked through & took some neat pictures. (Fortunately the rain let up so we could do that.) Then we headed home. It sure seemed like it took forever to get back to Mom & Dad's house, but we finally made it there by 5:30. Mom made some yummy chicken noodle soup for dinner, we looked at all of our pictures, & then hit the sack! (One thing I must mention here...I was wearing shorts & a t-shirt all day Thursday. When we got to El Dorado...it was COLD! That was sneaky for winter temps to come in just in time for us to get off our warm weather cruise!)

Friday morning we left at about 8 & got to Rogers around 1:30. We dropped off Carrie & Levi & then went to get our girls. The best thing about our trip were the hugs we got from the girls when we got home. They were so funny hugging us & going back & forth between us. Once home we passed out all the goodies we'd gotten for them & then Paul had to go to work! Poor guy.

Anyway, it was a fantastic trip! I loved being on the cruise with my siblings & my parents. I think that made it so much more fun. Hopefully we can do this again in a couple of years!

Here are some teaser pics of the fun we had: