It is sad to see summer come to an end! We had a crazy summer with me getting hernia surgery, James was crazy busy with HUGE projects, and just plain old life. To end our summer we decided to go on a cruise with one of my best friends Alyson and her husband Christian. Thanks to my mom and my sister for helping us out with kids and dogs we got to take a MUCH NEEDED BREAK!
HERE ARE A FEW HIGHLIGHTS:
FIRST DAY: LEAVING MIAMI
GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND:
We decided to catch a taxi to a place called Cemetery Beach (because it is by the cemetery, where we saw grave diggers/robbers? and I swore I saw them throw a skull while they were digging-thus no pictures of them) and Snorkel. It was so fun! We love snorkeling. We were along a stretch of beach called the 7 mile beach. On the way back we decided to walk about 6 miles of the 7 miles along the beach (in the rain). It was fun and tiring. We almost missed our boat we had to chase down a taxi to take us back to port. The boats hold 3400 people, they won't wait for 4! Whew... Oh yeah ...the water really does look like blue jello! IT IS SOOOO COOL!!!!!!
James, Alyson and Christian and blue jello water
Cemetery:
THE BEACH:
Our secluded spot on Cemetery Beach, it was so peaceful. We made friends with a beach dog, he was so cute!
SNORKELING: So much fun and we didn't get eaten by sharks like I envisioned ahead of time-thank goodness!
James and I
Alyson:
Tired and sunburned at the end of the day-this is how every night was!
Roatann Island Honduras:
Here we decided to all go have a dolphin "encounter" in my mind encounter meant playing and swimming, in reality it was very controlled. I guess 300 lb. fish can be dangerous or something?! They were cute and it was tons of fun! They made all of their sounds with their blowholes, Averi would have loved it because she had a blowhole from her trachea hole that she made sounds with when she was a baby! She also clicked a lot. I think she was a dolphin in a previous life or something.
Aerial view of the resort with dolphins.
Beach cabins we plan on vacationing to someday!
Mom and baby dolphin....soooo cute!
I was getting sick of posing for pictures!
Tabyana Beach in Roatann, my VERY FAVORITE! There was a Reggae band playing, perfect water with perfect snorkeling. We love it there! We want to move there!
Snorkeling in Roatann: it was so much better than the Caymans. The water was clear, and there were so many more fish. No sharks either!
So romantic!
This is how I looked the whole time...clueless!
BELIZE: It was a beautiful country, but very poor. It was a huge eye opener for me to see that people actually do live in tin huts. It was also VERY HOT!!! I have never sweat so much in my entire life. James said it was a lot like Costa Rica (where he served his mission) I don't know if I could tolerate that for too long! We visited some Myan ruins called Altun Ha and then we went by boat down the river Wallace and got to see the jungle first hand. We saw huge iguanas and some howler monkeys, some of the local wildlife. VERY FUN!
James took these sunrise pictures from the ship in Belize while he was jogging (yes...jogging). He thought it would be fun to jog on board the ship, and I thought it would be fun to sleep while he jogged on the ship! We both enjoyed our time!
We climbed to the top of the Temple of the Sun God.
Good deal on perscription drugs without a prescription! We were dummies and didn't buy any though! I am kickin' myself now!
Mango tree! With ripe mangos.
River Wallace at the end we saw Manatee and dolphin swimming in the ocean-very cool!
River trip. We saw HUGE igunas, this one was as big as James! I'm glad we were in the boat!
Banana tree-brought back lots of mission memories for James from Costa Rica.
This is a common house style that everyone lived in. Usually they were up on stilts though to keep the critters out and let breeze in. IT WAS SO HOT!
COZUMEL MEXICO:
The last day to go on shore and I think we progressively got dumber each day as you can tell by our pictures! What happens in Mexico...
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| This is ginger-ale! |
The beach was crowded with lots of drunk people! We got a good people watching show out of it!
This picture was funny because I took it and then realized that the guy in the background was wearing his hat "wrong". It was so funny at the time!
Playa Mia beach in Mexico--VERY, VERY HOT!!! I got sunburned just taking this picture of my legs!
OUR FAVORITE SHIP MOMENTS:
Our ship.
Cute little creations that our housekeeper made out of our towells. Funny huh?
Nightly dining. Every night they had a show put on by our wait staff. They would get up and dance on tables and crack us up! Alyson had them sing Happy Birthday to Christian (his b-day was in Aug.) because when the Indionesian waiters sang it reminded us of the scene on Christmas Story when the Chinese guys are singing Christmas Carols at the restraunt! We would laugh our heads off!
The theatre where the shows were and where I found my Knight in Shining Armour!
We had the best time! I am so glad that Alyson invited us to go with them, they are the coolest! We loved dancing, sushi, napping, shows, and eating all week! What a great experience!
We were worn out, and missed our kids though. It is always good to come home after a great vacation. We got the travel bug for sure!
This is a picture we got on one of our formal nights!
