Day 1: Travel day. I hate travel days. I hate, hate, hate flying. To make matters worse, the bar wasn't open before our flight (too early), so I couldn't even have a beer to quell my nerves. And, yes, I would have had a beer before 7 AM if I were about to go on an airplane. Flight, transfer, and boarding were pretty uneventful.Day 2: Day at sea. Poor little B spent the first night with a high fever. I took him down to the medical center in the morning. Strep had returned, accompanied by a bad ear infection. Antibiotic prescribed....as well as an order to stay out of the sun because of the fever. Nothing like staying out of the sun on a tropical vacation:( But, he was a trooper and stayed with my parents (who spoiled him with ice cream and presents from the gift shop) while we took the girls to the pool. The water was freezing so Navy Bean spent her time in the hot tub while dh and I took turns on the waterslide with M. B was feeling better by the afternoon so we enjoyed a nice dinner.
Day 2: First stop: Grand Caymans! After a long, hot wait in the caged waiting are (for lack of a better way to describe the area they made us wait in for our tour), we took off to the Turtle Farm. We saw some seriously gigantic turtles and were even able to pick up and hold a few of the smaller guys. Then we walked over to the Dolphin Encounter. Everyone but my grandpa got in the water to play with the dolphins. We pet them, kissed them, danced with them....everything but riding them:) I enjoyed this, but it was a little stressful with little Navy Bean freaking out when she noticed there were little tropical fish swimming around in the pool. She was okay with the giant dolphin, but not the little fish...hmmmmm?!?! So, she sat on the edge for the last half. B ended up getting out as well because he was cold. I'll admit, the water WAS freezing....but, seriously, how often to you get to play in the water with a dolphin. I guess kids just don't appreciate that kind of stuff when they're 8.
Day 3: Next stop: Isla Roatan, Honduras! We spent the day at the Mahogany Bay Beach. It was absolutely gorgeous. We had two cabanas for the 8 of us, complete with bar and food service, an air conditioed hut with couches, lounge chairs, hammocks...the works. We took a chair lift to get to the beach and had an awesome view of the coastline. The kids loved spending the day playing in the water, snorkeling, and building sand castles. My favorite memory of this day was the reggae singer that approached our cabana with his microphone. I forget the first song he sang....but do remember the uncomfortable look on dh's face as the guy had his arm around him singing:) Then he asked my grandpa for a request. I forget the song my grandpa requested, but what he sung was NOT it. He kept saying "Okay mon, I got it. I got it". Then he busted out with "Like a Rhinestone Cowboy". Maybe because we said we were from Tennessee? I don't know, but it was hilarious. The look on my grandpa's face=priceless!
Day 4: Belize. No exclamation point for Belize. Yuck. We anchored at sea and had to take a long tender into port. That was probably the prettiest thing about Belize. Once we got to the dock we were told not to leave the caged area unless we had a tour. We did, but we had to leave the "safe" are to find the building as we had booked a private van to take us to Altun Ha, the Mayan Ruins. After being harrassed by some lady wanting to braid all of our hair, we found our driver and quickly hopped in. We had about a 45 minute drive out to Altun Ha. It was bad. Talk about poverty. Even the homeless in the US don't have it as bad as most of the people there. It was so bad that B asked if there was a place we could go on the internet to find a way to donate money. It was a good lesson for the kids, but very depressing. Altun Ha, however, was beautiful. Well maintained, clean, and comfortable (well, we were as comfortable as you can be when there are military men walking around the park with machine guns). The ruins were amazing. Our guide was a wealth of information. I don't think this was the kids favorite excursion, but hopefully they learned a little something. We are actually studying Belize for our geography group this month and we are planning to do our presentation on Altun Ha. Anyway, we climbed an insanely tall building with Navy Bean and B. There were no rails and the stair were very steep....almost staright up. Going up wasn't so bad. But once we started to head down, I panicked. I didn't realize just how steep it was...and we had a 3 year old with us! So, we had to go down on our bottoms. I think I would have gone down that way even if the kids hadn't been with us. Scary stuff, but gorgeous views. Back on the ship that night, we took the kids to the show "Far From Over" after dinner. It was a tribute to the 80's! Yeah, I know, how lucky can a girl get?!?! Dh wasn't as impressed and my dad wanted to know why they didn't play any good music.....
Day 5: Cozumel, Mexico!! This was a FUN day:) We rented two jeeps. Dh drove one and my dad drove the other. We followed our tour group through the streets of Cozumel....which was strikingly beautiful in contrast to Belize! Our first stop was at the "PeePee Station". Love it. There was a public restroom and a little store. The guy tried to rip me off, but that's okay...I got my bracelets in the end:) Next we headed to the beach. It was a little cloudy and windy, so we didn't do any swimming. M sat lounged on the beach and got a henna tattoo on her ankle. Navy Bean and B played in the sound, gathered shells, and splashed in the water. We stayed about an hour and a half, got back in our jeeps, and headed to another shopping area. Here we bought a fresh coconut so we could try the coconut water. Despite the fact that I HATE cocnut, the water was pretty good. M and I were the only ones that took more than one sip, but at least the kids can all say they tried it. After our tour we walked around the tourist are near the dock. The girls got their hair braided (and the lady didn't have to stalk me!), we bought a few souverniers, and had a delicious lunch at Fat Tuesdays....complete with balloon hats for everyone:)
Day 6: Last day at Sea:( This was the last day of our trip. B was crushed. He spent most of the day whining about not wanting to go home. We had planned to spend the day at the pool since B hadn't had much time in it, but the waterslide was closed due to high winds and, as I mentioned, the water was freezing. So, we ended up letting Navy Bean go to Camp Carnival for an hour (the only hour spent in there), got B a skull airbrush tattoo, took M to a Michael Jackson dance class, played around in the arcade, and took all three to a bear making workshop. That night we had a cake for B's bday, did a little dancing with the kids, and spent another hour down in the medical center. Oh yes, we did. M had gotten staph infection from a bug bite. What made it even more awesome was that by the time it was really swollen, the medical center was closed and we were fortunate enough to pay the after hours fees. So, $211 to look at her foot for one second and confirm what I already told them I thought it was. Ugh.
Anyway, we had a great time and can't wait to go on another cruise!!!!
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