Vacation part 2

Hopefully you caught my first vacation post Vacation Part 1. If not, get to it already, would ya!?!

I left off with our first night on the boat. We explored the ship, ate yum yum food and enjoyed the sea from our private balcony. We slept with the balcony door open that night and listened to the sound of the sea... sounds awesome, right? I won't lie, it was awesome. It's okay to be jealous, I would be too.

The next day was a full day at sea. I was looking forward to sitting in the sun. All I wanted to do was soak up the sun and listen to my music. And because I had no one to answer to I did just that. It was so lovely! We also explored more of the ship, ate more great food (the wonderful thing about the food is that it is always available!) and scheduled myself for some spa treatments for the following morning. I know this all sounds super duper fabulous and it definitely was but the best part of the whole day (probably the whole trip) was watching the sunset with Jeremy from the adult only lounge which was in the very back of the ship. There were maybe 10 other people in the lounge, it was very quiet and peaceful. We reclined in a deck chair for two and enjoyed a cocktail as the sun set and then moved to a hammock for a short nap.

The next morning I went for my spa treatments before leaving for Grand Cayman. The spa treatments were terrific with a capital T. Had breakfast and caught the tender that took us to the port. If you are not up to par on your cruise lingo, don't worry I wasn't either. The ship was too large to dock at Grand Cayman so they use smaller boats called tenders to take people to and from the port.

Here is that husband of mine with our ship in the background:

Enjoy some more pictures of Grand Cayman:

Shoreline

Grand Cayman port

See the yellow object (not the yellow and blue one) by the ship?
That is the tender, it looks so tiny but it could probably carry 150 people. 

The water is so beautiful

One more

We mostly walked the sidewalk by the shoreline and visited the shoppes. When we got back to the hotel we had a visitor in our cabin:

The housekeeping staff came into our cabin every evening (while we were at dinner) to turn down our bed.
They would also leave a towel animal and mints. Here we are with our elephant friend. Oh and don't bother judging me for wearing a bandanna... I heard Jack Sparrow was sailing the Caribbean. I know he likes bandanna wearin' wenches.

After we visited Grand Cayman, we went to the adult only lounge again. We found a couple lounge chairs and relaxed before getting ready for dinner. I have to tell you about this lady we sat next to. She was probably in her 50's. She had a nice figure, wore rings on every digit, bracelets on both wrists, anklets on both ankles, a huge tattoo on her lower leg, a permanent tan and a feather in her hair. She remained in the same position the entire time we sat there. She was sprawled out with her head slumped over to one side. Before we left I checked to be sure she was still breathing. She was. What makes it funny is that at around the same time the next day we saw her again. She was in a different lounge area, wearing a different swim suit, but she was in the exact same position. We were beginning to think they were filming a sequence to "Weekend at Bernie's".

That evening we had reservations at the on board steakhouse, Golden Fleece. The food was superb! I had the french onion soup, a sirloin and this little beauty:

A slice of Hazelnut Cheesecake. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was so big I could only eat about 1/3 of it.

Jeremy and I after taking in about 75 lbs of food.

The next day we set out for Cozumel. We got a late start to the day and decided to skip the excursions. I wish we hadn't because there was a private beach party that would have been so much fun. A small boat takes people to this beach and there you can relax on the beach or you can play on different inflatable objects in the water. They huge slides and trampolines. Oh, that beach would have brought out the inner child in me. Instead we walked through the shoppes at Puerta Maya. One thing we discovered is you should never wear a sports themed t-shirt. Jeremy wore a Viking's shirt (shush, we know they suck but they try their best lol) and many vendors called to him and tried selling him sports themed items. It was humorous and annoying at the same time. After we shopped a little, we enjoyed a daiquiri and an appetizer from Fat Tuesday's. The outdoor restaurant sits right on the shore so we were able to enjoy the water and buzzing activities as we sat.

Sunset that evening:

The next day we stopped in Belize. This stop wasn't as good as we had hoped. The locals were very pushy and made our visit a little uncomfortable. I do have a good story to share though.

Nascar race to the beach, we spotted a burned out van on the side of the road... that was disturbing considering the fact that this driver was making me so nervous I could have peed my pants.

Finally we arrived at the beach! Whew, one trip down, the return trip to go (the return trip is even more interesting). The beach was very nice. Unfortunately, I only brought my small camera and the battery died, which is bizarre because it was fully charged before we left. We swam and lounged in the sun.

After we were done Henry came to pick us up. I didn't mention it before but he drives a small, older Camry. He pulled up and we see he has another couple in his car. Like I said, Jeremy is a tall guy. The guy in the front passenger seat was probably just as tall. There was no way Jeremy or this other guy (not that he even bothered trying) was fitting in the backseat. Henry's solution: "Jeremy, you drive". After a little convincing, Jeremy got in the driver's seat and Henry got in the back with me and the other lady. Small world fact, this other couple lives about 2 hours away from us! So Jeremy drove the 20 minutes it took to get back to the port. If you knew my husband this would make you laugh and say "only you, Jeremy".

Here is our towel animal that day:

Our next stop was Honduras. This place was marvelous! We woke up to this view:

and this:

And this:

I could hear the passengers on the balcony next to ours talk about this ship.
They were saying something about a war. I was excited to learn more about it.
But ... the information we found said it was intentionally sunk. The little bit I read about these ships was interesting though. There are other sunken ships in this bay, too.

We bummed on the beach at this stop. We didn't have to take a taxi or get harassed by the locals. This was my favorite stop. The beach was right there and no one was eagerly trying to sell us fake coach purses or handmade rugs.

Enjoy these pictures:

Most evenings on ship we enjoyed shows. We watched a game show, another show similar to the Newlywed Show and some insanely talented dancers and singers. One night the boat was rocking quite a bit and these dancers didn't miss a beat. We played Bingo a few times and tried out the casino. We also watched karaoke a few times, which I love. I use to sing with my friends back in my wild child days but not so much anymore.

I also did a lot of people watching, a favorite pass time for me. People are strange and it's fun watching that strangeness unfold. I witnessed and overheard many funny and interesting things.

These last 2 photos were taken as we flew out of Tampa.

So we've been home from almost 2 weeks now. My tan has faded and my dark circles have returned, but the weather is amazing so I am not complaining!

Once again I have posted a mile long post... if you made it to the end, thank you and I hope you enjoyed it!

Melissa