Vacation Part 1

I wanted to start this post a few days ago but after a week of no computers I really have little desire to get sucked back into cyber world. I haven't been feeling any creative juices flowing. Since I want this post to be interesting and fun I needed to wait until I was "feelin" it. So here is my attempt to brag about my super fabulous super awesome vacation. I am sure I will go on and on and on. Feel free to skim through it. If nothing else, enjoy the pictures.

This vacation was a surprise gift from Roy and Avner (click here to read). It was a 7 day cruise. We had 4 scheduled stops, Grand Cayman in Cayman Islands, Puerta Maya in Cozumel, Belize City in Belize and Roatan in Honduras. We also had 2 full days of cruising the sea.

The airport we flew out of is about 1 1/2 hours away from our house. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00am on Sunday. We decided it would be best to stay in a hotel close to the airport so we didn't have to get up so early (rising before the sun should be against the law). We parked our van at my bff's house (she was also my partner in crime at the embryo transfer in La Jolla and my wonderful nurse for the days I was on bedrest) and they dropped us off at the hotel after a fun dinner at Cowboy Jack's. My recommendation is the BBQ Chicken Pizza... delish!

Me, Carrie, Carrie's hub Kirk and my hub Jeremy

me and Carrie

Sunday morning came early and we headed to the airport. I love the excited feeling of leaving for a trip. The airport was pretty slow and we got through the lines fairly quickly. Is it just me or does going through security make you feel like a criminal? On my last trip to CA my carry-on bag was searched because it appeared that I had a some sort of explosive in my bag. Gang, take another look at me... do I look as though I would be carrying explosives? I guess you never know. Better to be safe than sorry but I couldn't help feeling a little offended. Turns out I was not packing a bomb, it was my USB cord along with a deck of cards playing tricks on the TSA.

We started boarding the plane at about 6:20 am and left right on time. I like to pretend I am a good flyer but I am only a so-so flyer. I don't physically or verbally freak out and I don't get sick but with every little bump and sound I have an inside voice that screams "what the hell was that". By the way, I am the same way in an elevator. This flight was no different... a lot of "what the hell..." and "are we there yet". I do enjoy taking pictures from the plane...

I think this was somewhere in Georgia

 I love the blending of sky, clouds and land in this one

 We arrived in Tampa around 11:10 am. We took a shuttle to the port and went through customs and the boarding process. We called home knowing that we wouldn't be talking to our kids for a few days. We boarded the huge ship at about 1:00 pm and went off to find our cabin. The ship is beautiful and very grand. We had no idea how to find our cabin so we asked a staff member, DJ zen, who was standing at the elevators. His help was not so helpful but after 10/15 minutes of searching we realized he gave us wrong info. No worries we finally figured it out and didn't have to camp out in the halls. The room was great. It was a nice size and had a balcony (so sweet).

Here are a few pictures of the port from our balcony:

And here are a few as we sailed out of Tampa:

 And it wouldn't be complete without a dorky picture of me

Bye bye Tampa:

Hello cool bridge:

Our first night was spent exploring the boat. There was a lot to discover and we couldn't complete the task in one evening. We went to eat at Truffles Restaurant. This is where we had most of our evening meals. The food was very tasty! We discovered a scrumdiddlyumptious (yes, I had to look up the spelling) dessert called "Warm Chocolate Melting Cake". If you like chocolate then this dessert is for you. It was a small chocolate cake (as if that isn't obvious) with a melted chocolate (again obvious), almost pudding like, center and side of vanilla ice cream. We had this almost every night for dessert. I did switch it up a couple of times. The dinners are so wonderful. You choose an starter, main course and dessert. The servers stalked from afar and cleared plates, silverware, etc as soon as we were done and assured us our next course would be available soon. Can I just say how nice it is so be served warm, delicious meals and to not have them interrupted by spilled milk or some kid screaming he doesn't like the food set before him?

Throughout our stay we got to know one of the servers, Kamal. He was a great guy. We talked to him in length one evening. He is from the Philippines. He is married with one son and another baby due in May. We found out some interesting facts:

* They work 6 months on 3 months off and about 12 hours a day 7 days a week. Ummm... no thank you!

It took me a few days to write this post so I will stop here and post again soon about the rest of the trip.

Melissa