For those of you that don't know, we went on a cruise last week that left out of Galveston, went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, then back to Galveston. The kids stayed with Grandma so it was just the 2 of us and we had a GREAT time! We got sick the week before we left, fevers, coughing, just the typical cold/flu virus that had been going around. For me it turned into an asthma attack and I actually had to go to the emergency room for a breathing treatment, then Paul got sick the next day, then Brian and finally Aaron the day we were leaving. We felt bad leaving my folks with sick kids, especially with everything else they are dealing with (my dad just started radiation treatment) but we also knew they were in good hands.
Thanks again to my parents for all your hard work. My mom got sick while we were gone too! Thanks also to Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tom for dropping us off at the cruise terminal and for helping my folks while we were gone.
We were on the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas and it is an awesome ship.
We had a cute little room with an ocean view, spent lots of time reading, playing games, and just relaxing. We ate GREAT (probably ate more than we should) and did almost everything there was to do on the ship. We swam in the pools, soaked in the hot tub, bought art at the art auction, took a massage class in the spa, took a class on a dominoes game called 42, saw a nice Broadway singing and dancing show, saw a magic show, saw an ice skating show, watched the fun Love and Marriage game show (like the newlywed game but with a newlywed, a couple married 20 years and a couple married 60 years), took part in a game show, ate at Portofino's (the nice Italian restaurant on board), ate at the Johnny Rocket's on board, ate at a midnight buffet, and lots more. There was always tons to do, but we relaxed and only did the stuff we wanted to and just played games and read a lot of the time.
At our first port, Montego Bay, Jamaica we took a bus ride up into the jungle and rode a series of 6 zip-lines through the canopy. It was amazing! Luckily neither Paul nor I are afraid of heights, but it was safe and we had a lot of fun.
Our second port was Grand Cayman and we took the tender boats in and our tour was a snorkeling excursion with 2 stops. The first stop was at a coral reef teeming with colorful fish. We were able to just snorkel and look at the beautiful coral and amazing fish. The second stop was not at sting ray city, but at a location 10-15 ft. deep where they routinely feed the sting rays so we again were swimming and snorkeling with the sting rays. They were HUGE. Larger than my arms outstretched and they ate squid out of my hand and swam around with us. We each got to pet them and kiss them (for luck) and we loved it. The water was just amazing and it was definitely our favorite port.
The third port was Cozumel, Mexico. The excursion we booked was to Passion Island (Isla Pasion) which is where they filmed a Corona beer commercial several years back...imagine white sandy beaches and a beautiful view. While on the island we ate a great buffet, shopped for our souvenirs, read our books, took walks on the beach, played in the water, and just relaxed. It was a lot of fun.
We did miss our boys and were glad to see them when we got home. Life is finally starting to get back to normal now. I was in charge of New Beginnings (a church meeting) last night and had a large group of young women and mothers (and some fathers) over to my house for a sit down dinner. Now that it is over I will get back to the business of putting my house in order. We look forward to having more friends over for dinner, playdates and games. If you live close please come over and play with us! We're officially ready for guests!
