Cruisin' in the Carribbean

After Match Day, Eric and I decided that we needed to do some serious celebrating. That Sunday we headed to Galveston to jump on a ship and leave our worries behind for 7 days. It didn't take us long to miss our "worries", but we knew they were in good hands! Eric and I have been planning our cruise for at least the last 7 years. Something always comes up and we've never gone, but we were not to be deterred this time. Life was not going to pass us by! After a few days at sea we realized that "life" was back home with our little monkeys. I was grateful for a new perspective and the cruise was a perfect refresher to send me back into the wonderful world of motherhood.

Cruise ships really are incredible. I still didn't know my way around by the end of the trip, much to Eric's dismay. How are you supposed to know direction when the walls are rocking all around you? However, it didn't take long for me to learn where the food was. No cooking or cleaning up meals for a whole week was pure bliss!

Here we are at dinner for one of the formal nights. We had our table to ourselves most of the nights, which we learned was a tender mercy of the Lord! At first we were disappointed for the lack of company, but the one night our table mates came left us full of gratitude! They were nice, but one of the ladies was a bit of a downer and they kept our beloved waiters hopping! We had another reality check as we got to know our waiters better. Asyis and Adi were both from Indonesia and were working on the cruise ship because they couldn't find work anywhere else. They work seven days a week for six months straight. Asyis has a wife and baby girl back home and Adi has a fiance that he left behind. As we talked to them, we could tell how much they missed their loved ones, and felt almost ashamed that they were waiting on us hand and foot for their livelihood, away from their families, while we vacationed away from our families because we didn't want to bother with them, without a care in the world. It sure made us grateful for the wonderful life that we have been blessed with. Side note: We were also feeling really blessed as we drove into Galveston and saw all of the destruction from the last hurricane. Favorite places we used to walk were no more and the apartment complex we lived in was half shut down, including our old apartment. Faithful friends had lost their homes and employment and were telling us how much we deserved this vacation. Humbling!

We had a running joke with the towel animals. I won't bore you with the details - just the pictures!

The three ports of call were definitely our favorite days. We'd wake up, spend the day on an island, come back, shower, go to a nice dinner, and enjoy the night show. We didn't get a whole lot of pictures, but it was probably for the best. I realized when I was flipping through them that we're not the most creative picture takers!

Our first stop was Montego Bay, Jamaica. This island, by far, had the most culture. We caught a bus with another group of people and went to a private beach after walking the streets for a little while. I had my first drug offer, but don't worry - I didn't accept! :)

The only beaches I'm very familiar with are the ones is Galveston. BIG difference! The water is so beautiful in the Carribbean and the soft, white,warm sand was next to heaven. A little girl found this starfish at about 3 ft deep.

The sunset was beautiful as we were leaving. I loved the Jamaican landscape and Eric loved that I said "Jamaican me crazy!" for the whole rest of our trip!:)

Handsomest man in the world!

Our next stop was in Georgetown, Grand Cayman Island. We had to tender on little boats at this stop. Here's our cruise ship behind us!

We booked our own excursion here. We went to Stingray City and snorkeling at the reef on a large catamaran with a very small crowd. Much better than our cruise sponsored excursion in Cozumel!

Eric was loving being back on a sailboat. If I would let him, he'd buy a boat, and live in the Carribbean for the rest of his life.

Stingray city was really neat, but I have to admit that I was pretty nervous. I never did feed them, but I did touch them and let them push me around. They were huge and they weren't afraid to push and shove!

Here's our tour guide, Chip, showing off a good one.

Eric loved the snorkeling. The reef was amazing! I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't been freaking out. I had a hard time getting the hang of it and was more than happy to return to the boat and breathe freely through my nose! The best part for me was the nice, relaxing sail back to shore.


Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico. We went on a Jeep excursion that took us snorkeling, to a Mayan ruin, to see crocodiles in the wild, and to a lighthouse. The excursion ended with an amazing Mexican Buffet. I think that Cozumel was my favorite stop. Since we were with a large group of people, everything was rushed, but I would love to go back and spend a week there sometime. Eric talked me into trying snorkeling again and this time I got it! It was a whole new experience and I loved it!

You can't tell, but I'm at the top of this lighthouse. The view was spectacular!

Eric got his paybacks by answering "Coz u smell" to everything after this stop!:)

We spent our last day at sea eating and relaxing and getting ready for the week ahead. We left Galveston, picked up the kids, and headed straight to AZ to start looking for a house. We had a GREAT vacation and are so thankful to mine and Eric's parents, who watched the kids so that we could go. They're the best!