Thanksgiving at sea part 2

Our second stop was in Grand Cayman. We did an island tour that took us around the island, stopping at a rum cake factory, a new shopping area that had a lookout tower where you could see the whole island and then we went to a place called Hell. Yes, you read that right, we went to Hell. I have to say, I was disappointed with Hell, it ended up being a dumpy tourist trap shop. Evidently, the area got its name from a dead coral reef that is there (it is all black and jagged looking).  That area looked pretty cool and was definitely Hell’s only redeeming quality; this was a stop we could have done without.


After getting out of Hell, we were dropped off at Tiki Beach which is located on 7 mile beach. We spent a few hours there, swimming in the water and watching para sails fly by. The beaches and water were beautiful, it is nice to be able to stand in the water and watch all kinds of fish swim by. We would definitely go back to Grand Cayman, possibly rent a condo or something and spend a week wandering around the island and snorkeling. The only problem that I had with GC is that everything is very expensive; that is mainly a function of the fact that they import everything, from gas to food to building supplies. It is hard to imagine that everything has to be shipped in, but that definitely explains why it is so expensive.

Our third cruise stop was in Cozumel, where we went on an off road adventure to the jade cavern. As you can imagine, I selected this excursion. The excursion description said to wear old shoes and clothes that could get dirty. Dirty was the understatement of the year. Once we got to their facility, we hopped into what they called an xrail, but I would just call it a dune buggy. They took us on a bumpy/muddy/rocky road about 50 minutes to the Jade cavern. Karen drove first, however the lack of power steering made it a bit of a handful for her. There were several times where she yelled for me to reach over and help her steer… and at one point she did run off the road and stuffed us into the bushes. The buggy took the abuse and, to her credit, several others in our group had similar adventures. We hit some mud puddles along the way and got a little dirty, but we both had a good time.

Once we got to the cavern, we were able to swim in jade green water that filled most of the cave while bats flew overhead. Karen opted to stay out of the water and she watched from the shore. The guides also offered the opportunity to do some cliff jumping and I ended up jumping off 15 and 30 foot high cliffs into the water. We also swam through a tunnel to a “hidden” cavern that was pitch black and full of bats. It was cool and kind of creepy at the same time. I don’t think Karen minded the fact that she missed out on the bats.

On the return trip, I was driving,  hitting every puddle that I could find. Then the guides took a turn that we didn’t take earlier and we ended up on a different road. We continued down that road and went flying around a corner to find a massive (probably 40’ long) mud pool directly in our path. I floored it (of course) and we hit the pool at a pretty high speed. That created a wave that went away from us, but then returned to coat both of us in mud. It was awesome… Karen had been holding onto the grab handle at the front of the buggy, which left her shirt sleeve hanging down. That provided an ideal route for mud to flow up her sleeve and into her shirt. That did not go over well with her, I just laughed. This was, by far, the most fun we have ever had on an excursion. Unfortunately, we left our camera in the locker at the start (because we didn’t want it to get wet) so we don't have any pictures of the adventure.  We did have the guide snap this photo before we started to wash off:

As you might imagine, the clothes and old shoes that we were wearing ended up in a garbage can. The description should have said "bring clothes that you will throw away."  Once we got back to the ship, it took two more showers to get all the mud off of us and out of our hair. That night was one of the “formal” nights, so we went from muddy to suit and tie/dress. We definitely went from one extreme to the other.

Friday was another day at sea, filled with eating, pool time and more eating. We woke up Saturday morning as the ship was docking back in New Orleans. We took a bus tour of the city that ended at the airport. We were able to catch the end of the Georgia game before flying back home. It definitely was a great trip and we can’t wait to go on another cruise. It definitely will not be another 5 years before we do it again.

Thanksgiving at sea

We decided to spend Thanksgiving and our 5 year wedding anniversary where we spent our honeymoon, on a cruise ship.  We had talked about doing another cruise for a while, so we bit the bullet and signed up for a 7 night western Caribbean cruise on the Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas.  We booked the trip at the end of May, it seemed like such a long time until the cruse.

The cruise sailed out of New Orleans, LA on Saturday morning, so we flew down to NO on Friday night and spent the night.  We rolled out of bed early and walked down to the famous Cafe Du Monde for some Beignets.  Fried dough covered in powered sugar = breakfast of champions.  Mmm, mmm, good.

After breakfast, we roamed around the french quarter, walked back to the hotel to get our bags and then walked the 0.9 miles to the cruise terminal.  Karen wanted to take a taxi, I thought we could walk it (and I had read online that traffic gets bad at the terminal).  Walking turned out to be a good thing, as the cars were beginning to get backed up.  We strolled past all the traffic, dropped our bags with the luggage guys and were walking onto the ship 15 minutes later.  I got a laugh when we had to fill out and sign a health questionnaire.  Have you recently had a fever, sore throat, etc, etc?  Heck no...  who, in their right mind, would admit if they did???

We grabbed a quick bite at the buffet and then went to the theatre for a special Martina McBride concert that was given for those of us who had cruised with RC before (officially known as the crown and anchor society).  It was a great show (very private with only about 500 people in attendance) and a nice way kick off to the trip.  here is a photo I took of Martina (check out those shoes!):

After the concert, we headed up to the top deck to watch the ship push away from the dock and into the middle of the Mississippi river.  It is amazing how a 1000 ft. long ship can maneuver it self directly sideways away from the dock, spin 180 degrees in the middle of the river and then head towards open water. I had always thought that New Orleans was right by the Gulf of Mexico, however ships have to navigate over 90 miles of the river until they get to the gulf from New Orleans.  The trip down the river took about 9 hours, unfortunately it was dark so we couldn't see much.  After going to sea, we spent two days cruising in the gulf on the way to Jamaica. 
Here is a summary of our two days at sea:
Wake up, go to the main dining room for breakfast,  hang out by the pool, either eat at the pool (they grilled something pool side every day) or go to the dining room for lunch, take a nap at the pool or in the room, roam around the ship, eat a 5 o'clock snack at the snack bar (dinner wasn't until 8pm), roam around some more, shower and prepare for dinner, pose for pictures with the ship photographers (Karen's addiction), eat dinner at the main dining room, go to a show at the theatre, and then go to bed.  Wake up and repeat...  Tough life, eh?

As you might have noticed, our routine on board revolved around FOOD... which, of course, happens to be one of our favorite part of cruising.  Karen can have seafood when ever she wants and when we are done, we get up from the table and do not have to pay the bill!   On the ship, you have a few options for dining: you can either order room service, go to the buffet, the cafe, one of the specialty restaurants (more $$$) or go to the dining room.  We have found that the best food and service is at the dining room, so we go there for most meals.  At breakfast and lunch, you get sat with whoever walks in the same time you did, so it is always a different group of people.  Everyone that we met at a meal was really nice, and it was fun to "run into them" on the ship later on and hear how their trip was going.  For dinner, we were sat at a table with 2 other couples; the group hit it off right away and we had a great time together.
When it comes to the food at dinner, they will keep feeding you until you ask them to stop.  Seriously, order what ever you want.  Do you want two appetizers because the both sound good?  No problem.  Two entries because you can't decide between the two?  Sure thing.  Do you want one entree instead of an appetizer and then another entree for your meal?  No questions asked.  (I did that one night, the chicken entree for appetizer and prime rib for the "meal") Was something so good that you want another?  Coming right up.  On lobster tail night, everyone at our table, except me, had a second round of lobster tail.

The first night at dinner when I placed my order, I requested extra veggies instead of the potatoes (I don't like potatoes).  When the food came out, I had a plate with my entree on it PLUS a full size plate of veggies.  This became a routine, our waiter knew that I didn't want the potatoes and he always brought an extra plate of veggies.  I always got a laugh out of it, because it was a big plate of veggies.  At dinner, you always have the same waiter, so you develop a relationship with them during the trip.  It is like Cheers where they always know your name.  If you waiter sees you in the dining room during breakfast or lunch, he'll come over and chat with you.  We really enjoy that aspect of being on the ship. 

One night we all ordered the "trio" dessert plates, which, per the name, had three different items on it.  We all liked the chocolate cake the best, so they brought out another plate of the chocolate cake for us...

I don't want to think about how much weight I gained on this trip... 

We arrived at Jamaica and pulled into a new port that RC built in Falmouth.  We didn't book an excursion for this port and that ended up being our biggest mistake on the trip.  We thought that we would roam around the town some, but after exiting the fenced in port area, we walked about one block and then turned around and headed back to the safety/comfort of the port area.  We didn't feel exactly threatened, but people kept coming up to us wanting to braid Karen's hair, or show us something over there, or take us somewhere in their cab.  It was pretty overwhelming and I can see why RC has fenced in the port area.  There were a select group of stores in the port area, which we walked through and then went back to the ship to pick up the routine listed above.

Here is a picture of the ship towering over the buildings at the port there:

This post has gotten long, I'll post the remainder of the trip later... who's ready to go on a cruise with us???

Improving?

Things seem to have improved since last week’s post, starting with the quick trip to Athens, GA that Karen and I made over the weekend. Within an hour of landing in Atlanta Thursday night, my dad’s explorer was sitting in the chick-fil-a drive through… Dinner time! It was so nice to have a fresh, hot chicken sandwich, order of waffle fries and a tall to-go-cup of lemonade. I managed to drag Karen back there Saturday morning for breakfast too... Eat more chicken!

The main reason for the trip was so we could be at my sister’s 40th birthday party. The party was a surprise party on Friday night, so she didn’t know that we (and one of her friends that lives in Maine) were coming into town. It was good to see some people that we hadn’t seen since we moved AND there was birthday cake. I love cake. The party was another strong dose of birth control for me, as there were about a dozen kids, romping around in a birthday cake frosting induced buzz.

The big event in town on Saturday was the Georgia/Auburn game at 3:30pm. We went downtown around 10:30am and the place was already full of people dressed in red and black, with a few faithful, soon to be disappointed, Auburn fans in blue and orange. You just can’t beat the energy of a SEC college town on game day; it is one of the parts of Athens that I miss. Even if you aren’t going to the game, the vibe downtown is always really nice. Illinois States’ mediocre teams don’t create anything close to the draw; I can barely notice a difference around our on game days Saturdays vs. non game days. Ticket prices for the UGA game were in the $160’s and up (each!), so we opted to watch it on TV with my family. Georgia crushed Auburn and it was entertaining to watch my 5 year old nephew cheering and calling out the players by their names. However, don’t get all “see, kids are fun and great” on me because of that comment. That time with him was not nearly enough to undue the mental damage created by the dozen kids the night before.

On Sunday, my parents dropped us off in Norcross,GA and we had lunch with a few of my friends from the Atlanta area. This is a great group of guys that I have been hanging out with for years; we all share a love of cars, sarcasm and food. When I lived in Georgia, the first Friday of the month was reserved for meeting them for dinner. Every month, like clockwork, everyone showed up for dinner, followed by hours of hanging out in the restaurant parking lot talking about cars (unless it was too cold outside). It was such a monthly habit that Karen knew not to attempt to make plans with others that night, I already had plans. I have yet to find any people that come close to them up here in Illinois, Obviously they are also high on my list of “things I miss” about Georgia.

After lunch we were off to the ATL airport and were back in IL by 5:00. After landing in IL, we ran to the auto parts store to pick up some hydraulic fluid for my floor jack. I got it operational and then proceeded to pull the dead starter from the 626. I installed the new starter Monday night after work and the car is operational again (knock on wood). After fixing the car, I went to curling (busy night). Since we were on a losing streak, we reconfigured our team order and went out on the ice to face the remaining undefeated team in the league. The shakeup of our lineup must have worked, as the Phenomenal Husbands of Doctors pulled out a surprising upset by scoring 3 points in the final end to win 7 to 6. Everything is more fun when you walk away with a WIN.

Karen and I are closing in on our 5 year wedding anniversary… in a way it seems like it has gone by fast, until you consider that in that time period she has earned her PhD and we moved halfway across the county. I guess those two events themselves are a lot for 5 years! If you have trouble reaching us around our anniversary, it will be because we will be relaxing here:

I miss Daylight Saving Time

Outside our house this morning it was dark and the temperature was below 32 degrees. Neither one of those are good motivators for getting up out of a warm bed when your alarm goes off in the morning. At 5 pm, when I leave work, it is dark outside. Not a good motivator for going outside to work in the yard or get some exercise. Basically, I am blaming the DST change for the sour mood that I have been in this week.


On second thought, there are a few other reasons:


Karen’s car, a 2001 mazda 626 with 174,000 miles on it has been copping an attitude lately. Evidently it wanted to go visit its friends at the mazda dealer, as it lit up the check engine light. I pulled the codes with my scanner and it showed a transmission issue. I don’t mind attempting most auto repair tasks, but the transmission is one of the places where I draw the line. After two visits to the dealership, they said she was good to go. Karen doesn’t quit trust it now, so I am driving it. After work Monday night, I parked it in the driveway because I was going to head out to curling later. (see update below)


After dinner, I got into the car to drive to curling and the damn thing wouldn’t start. GRRRRR. To make matters worse, it was sitting in the driveway, blocking the Honda that was parked in the garage. I had to put the 626 in natural and roll it down the driveway enough so that Karen could maneuver the Honda around it and out of the garage. Now it is parked halfway down the driveway and I have to work on it outside. Great.


If I had parked it in the garage after work on Monday, instead of “saving” a couple openings of the garage door by parking in the driveway when I knew I was going back out, it would probably be fixed by now (or at least properly diagnosed). Unfortunately, it is now dark outside after work (see rant above) and it rained on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday night’s effort to get the starter pulled out of the car was thwarted by:


a. A floor jack that wouldn’t lift the car like it is supposed to (You guessed it, something else to fix)
b. A bolt holding the starter to the engine/transmission that won’t come loose.
c. Outside temperatures near freezing with a cold wind thrown in for good measure. Neither of which are good for finger dexterity when working on a car.

As of right now, the 626 is still sitting motionless in the middle of our driveway. Any normal person would have called a tow truck by now, but not me… I’m bound and determined to fix it myself. Self-inflicted torture, I guess?


As for curling, we lost AGAIN. As you might guess, I am quite disgusted with (and tired of) losing. Next week, we are going to shake up the order in which we all throw to see if that helps things.

Amongst all of this bad crap, at least I have a vacation coming up (very soon) that I am looking forward to. I am going to have to focus on counting down the days in order to try to remain positive…  Sorry for the "downer" update.