Cruisen Part 3

You better Belize it! 

Belize did not disappoint. We heard so many different things about Belize...do the cave tubing, don't do the cave tubing, they have the best snorkeling, do the zip lines. 

We decided to snorkel. And it was AMAZING! 

First we took a 45 minute boat ride out to the island Caye Calker. We had really good tour guides that gave us so much information. They were a cute married couple, they were so fun.

Our first stop was to see the sharks and string rays. I thought I would be freaking out a little more then I did. The nurse sharks reminded me of carp.

We got to pet the sting rays, I don't think anyone wanted to pet the sharks.

It was pretty crazy, while we were out a barracuda started circling us. It was kind of scary. Our guide told us to just give it space, but it kept getting closer and closer. It ate a fish right in front of Josh. That is about the time that we got out and went to our next snorkel spot.

The Mesoamerican Barrier reef. The water was so clear, probably clearer then most swimming pools.

The pictures really don't do it justice. It is by far the best snorkeling I have ever done! Even twenty feet up you could see to the bottom easily. We saw a large puffer fish, an eel, a baby star fish, which I got to hold, beautiful coral, and a lot of other fish.

 After the snorkeling we went to the other side of the island and fed the tarpons. It was crazy, we would hold a fish over the water and they would jump out and eat it right out of our hands! 

 Then we went to lunch, we got hamburgers and they were pretty good. It was crazy walking through the island. Most of the houses we saw were small little shacks, most didn't even have glass in there windows.

Going to dinner with the group was always fun. We loved our waiters, they were so nice. The food was pretty good.  It was fun getting to try foods that I would probably never try otherwise. I tried the lobster, escargot, a fish of some kind. I liked the food...but I like most food. :)

Our last stop was in Costa Maya.

Jaime and Matt went and did more snorkeling, the rest of us decided to go to the Chacchoben Ruins.

This is Edifice 24 it is a medium to large stepped pyramid with a central stairway leading to the top. There are three separate levels and the top level with the remains of a temple.

They were amazing! Our tour guide, David and Abel (bus driver), were really good, we went with Native Tours.

David was so knowledgeable he gave us so much information that I could never remember it all.

This is a strangle tree.

Earliest human settlements in the area of Chacchoben, have been dated at around 1000BC. Studies made during the excavations suggest that the site was abandoned and reoccupied a few times, being finally abandoned at around 1000AD. Most structures that have been restored were modified several times during the occupation period with the most remarkable modifications dated at around 300-360AD.

He took us over to the area where the people actually lived.

 You could still see some of the paint on the stucco with a hand print in it. Also he was finding pieces of pottery on the ground. So much so that I was thinking maybe they just came and broke some pots so us suckers believed it was the real deal. :)

We hiked up these massive steps,

At the top of the stairs there was this huge ruin. David told us that each layer was a new generation. On this particular ruin there was over 16 generations that had worked on it! Amazing!

It was really cool to be able to see these amazing ruins.

Costa Maya was good to us.

Our ship was big, but there ship was bigger! When we see out ship by it's self it seems so big, next to others it seemed pretty small.

We loved it though.

After Costa Maya we had a day at sea, and honestly I can't remember what we did. 

I'm sure we played cards and ate food, but other then that I don't recall.

We were up early ready to get off the boat and get home. We missed our babies!

We had a couple of hours to kill before our plane was to take off around 2, so we took a trip to the Fort Lauderdale temple.

We were able to get in and do some work. We seemed to have taken them by surprise, they were not ready for us. They had to scrounge up some workers to come and help us, that took about 30 minutes. We started to worry about catching our plane.

After the temple we headed for the airport only to see that our plane had been delayed two hours! After waiting around for a couple of hours it was announced that it was delayed another two hours!
Apparently a food truck had run into the plane! In the end our flight ended up being cancelled. Then it seemed Frontier had lost every ones luggage. We waited hours for it to finally come. Some who were able to find other flights were missing them because they were waiting for their luggage!
When Mikes family showed up for their 7 o'clock flight we were still at the airport trying to figure out how we were to get home. The next flight Frontier had for us wasn't until Tuesday! We finally ended up getting some food vouchers for dinner and eventually a voucher for a hotel, and the airline gave us a voucher for $400 for another airline. We were able to find a Delta flight home the next afternoon. By this time I just wanted to get home. The flights we were able to get were very full! We were lucky to get on them. There were a lot of people not so lucky. Good job Mike and Matt for standing in line forever and taking care of us!
My dad came and picked us up from the airport and we finally got home Saturday night. We were surprised to see that almost all the snow was gone! When we left there was still several feet in our yard. Pleasant surprise, I am very ready for Spring.
It was so fun to reunite with the kids and give them all the souvenir we got them. We had so much fun, but it is always nice to come home.

Cruisen Part 2

 It was nice having a day at sea and it was perfect that it landed on Sunday. We were able to sleep in a little. When I say we, I mean me, Mike is not one to sleep in.

I woke up around 9 and got ready and we headed to brunch around 10.

After brunch me and Mike played some cards, California Speed, Mike killed me.  Matt and Josh did a little rock climbing. I didn't even attempt it, I was afraid I would hurt myself. They did good though.

 We took a nap for a couple of hours, then went up to the top deck to play cards, hand and foot, with everybody. Before dinner we went to the show at 7, this night it was another comedian only this time he was also a juggler named Adam Kario.  He was funny and a really good juggler.

After dinner we went up to the top deck and watched Dr. Strange. Even with sleeping in and taking a nap I had a really hard time keeping my eyes open.

 Our towel animal this night was a cute little elephant.

 We were pretty excited for Cozumel. It was another early morning. We went on a dune buggy ride through the city to the San Gervasio Ruins. 

 We didn't have a lot of time here, but we were able to go on a little tour.

 We saw a lot of lizards. 

 They may have stole the show.

 The ruins were cool, but it was fun spotting the lizards.

 On our way back to the buggies we took a second to hold some macaws.

 Mike took a turn driving the dune buggy, we did a little off roading. Then we stopped by a tequila factory! I tried to get our guide to take us to a bakery instead but that didn't happen. I don't think our guide liked me very much. After the tequila factory we switched and I drove again, just when I was just thinking how nice it was to be a passenger and not stress about driving on the roads. 

 We drove back to the beach where we started and ordered lunch then went for a little snorkel.

 It was pretty good. Probably some of the best snorkeling I had ever done.

I even got to hold a baby ray! That was the best part.

Lunch was so good we had fajitas. Yum.

 Then we tried to do a little shopping which turned out to be way more stressful then it was worth. I am horrible at telling people no, I think they knew it. Mike had to get me out of there quick. But not before I bought Viv the cutest little green dress and Bensen a fun little wrestling mask/cape. On the way back to the boat there was more places to shop, so all the kids got t-shirts and musical instruments, oh and Jaycee got a pretty blue dress. I also got a t-shirt and Mike got a hat. Like I said, it's like they saw me coming from a mile away.
Back on the boat we got shower and went to the show in the theater. This night it was a guy singing oldies songs. Dinner was always fun, and it was nice trying different types of food that I otherwise would probably never try. There was a lot of dishes with mushrooms which I like so it was fun to try them.

Thank you Cozumel we had a blast!

Cruisen Part 1

We went on a cruise February tenth through the seventeenth. Randy and LouAnn, Sarah, Josh, and Jaime and Matt came with us. We caught a flight Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in Miami around 8 a.m. 

 We got on the ship around 11 and set sail headed to Key West around 5.

 We were all set up to have a later dining time, so we didn't eat until 8:30! That was a big change since we are usually in bed by around 8:30.

We did enjoy the sunset our first night aboard.

 Before dinner we went to the Welcome Aboard Production Showtime. 

Then it was off to dinner. Luckily we were able to get a table all together.

After dinner we were beat, we went straight to bed. We had to get up early for Key West in the morning.

We were one of the first ones off the boat Saturday morning. Jaime, Matt, Josh and Sarah all decided they wanted to go para sailing. Me and Mike opted out of that one. While they were out we walked around the docks and did a little shopping.

 When they got back we drove out past the southern most point of the United States. Then me and Mike went to Hemingway's house for a tour.

 It was pretty interesting. We found out he was a pretty big ladies man. He was married at least 4 times. He wrote a lot of his stuff in the years that he was in Key West.

 He liked animals and didn't believe in getting them spayed or neutered. So he had a lot of cats, not just any cats, 6 toed cats.  They were the weirdest things, there thumbs were opposable and everything. I think they said they have 57 cats right now!

 We also learned that he was a good fisherman and could catch a swordfish almost every time he went out.

 After Hemingway's house we did a little shopping, got some souvenirs for the kids, then we headed to the little Whitehouse.

 President Truman spent quite a bit of time there along with several other presidents since.

 We had a great day in Key West. A lot of walking, but we had fun. On our way back to the ship we stopped for some Key Lime Pie...we heard it was a must. It was ok, I was expecting pie and what we got was more like cheesecake. 

 Back on the ship we had a late lunch, then headed up for a ping pong tournament. Matt is the only one to make it past round one. But we all still had fun.

We got all dressed up and around 7 and went to the theater for a comedian, his name was Al Ducharme. He was pretty funny.

 Then we were off to dinner. The food was ok. It was always fun to see what our towel animal would be. This little doggie was so cute.

Now we were ready for a day at sea.