i just realized it is completely possible to have so much you want to include in one post & feel completely overwhelmed at the thought of getting it there.
we had such a fun vacation - it was just what we needed at the end of my last (very stressful) school year teaching and i'm sure brian needed a break from his job too ;)
we left galveston on sunday (6.8) & headed out at a whopping 20ish knots (about 24 mph so i'm told) towards jamaica. needless to say, you don't get anywhere very quickly at 24 mph so we didn't get to jamaica until wednesday. luckily, there was tons to do (or not do in our case) on the boat. monday and tuesday, we slept in - i think 10am was our average wake up time - and then spent the day at the pool or on our balcony. it was completely relaxing!
we woke up wednesday and opened our curtains to find jamaica on the other side. talk about a strange feeling! we actually got up at a decent time so that we could get out and explore before swinging through the trees on our canopy tour. little did we know there wasn't a whole lot to see near the port (i was supposed to be the expert having been there before - oops!!). we ended up waiting about an hour and then got on the bus with our driver ("buck"). he took us on a 45 minute windy and sometimes scary ride to the middle of nowhere - to be correct, to the middle of an orange orchard. our canopy tour was soooo fun but ridiculously hot (no air moves through the jungle). we then rode back into montego bay where we ate lunch at margaritaville, brian drank the traditional red stripe beer, and we headed back to the boat to leave for grand cayman.
the boat & my very own tarzan.
view from margaritaville & view from our balcony.
on thursday, we again woke up to a new place - this time grand cayman. we had to tender in (take little boats into the port) since the water wasn't deep enough for the ship to dock. brian and i shopped for an hour before meeting up with some of my volleyball players who were there on their senior trip. one of them has family from grand cayman and her uncle owns a bar there so we took the local tour of the island, played on the beach, and then ate at the pub. we had to be back on the ship early since it was pulling out at 3.
view down 7 mile beach & the ships from the beach.
volleyball girls & brian and i on the beach
view of 7 mile beach from our balcony on the ship.
friday, we were pulling into mexico while we were eating breakfast. once we got there, we met up with our excursion people who took us out in the middle of nowhere (catching a pattern here?!?) for our ATV tour. we had a blast (and got incredibly muddy!). then we were taken to a beach where we could snorkel and eat. the water was amazing -although it had been everywhere we had stopped but galveston. we had some of the best margaritas we had ever had there before returning to the ship.
our boat (the far one) & our twinky ship in port.
ATV tour.
snorkel beach & view of cozumel from our balcony.
saturday was another day at sea - and another day of nothing for us :) it felt soooo nice!
last night at dinner with our table & server, andrea.
sunday, my parents picked us up around 10 with rylea in the car waiting for us!! i was soooo excited to see her and she seemed a little happy to see us too. we had lunch with my family (even james was in town) for father's day. we then continued our tradition of napping established on the cruise with a nap that afternoon. this was followed by dinner with brian's parents.
the funniest part of coming home was the puppy. i'm not sure what she did while she was at nanny & vanpa's but she slept all day sunday and almost the entire day today. must be tough entertaining her aunt peaches and aunt baley!
napping with mummy & daddy.
** all of our pictures are posted on our picture site (link to the left) **
