Cruzin' Along

Let me catch you up on last week.02-11-13

I woke up about 3am on Monday morning and decided to take that time to call Hong Kong… well, to skype.  I was doing an assignment for a company there and wanted to connect and to get more information.   So I visited a bit with the editor and then went back to bed.

Monday and Tuesday were preparation days.  Monday I went for a short time to do clay with Marian.  We glazed some pieces and tried some new ways of doing glaze.  In the evening, we went to the Empty Nester’s Family Home Evening.

Tuesday I played catch up.  I finished the Hong Kong piece and they liked it and decided to hire me to do 2-4 emails a month.  I sent off version 4 of the financial introduction.  We packed for our trip.

Wednesday we drove to Andy and Kera’s.  It was fun to visit them and the children. They are all growing.  Hard to believe Charlotte will soon be three!  Tom fixed a few things, played with kids, and napped.  I wrote some stuff and read stories to kids.  Kera made yummy bread!

Friday we drove to Rebecca’s.  We got there in time for Tom to get a sticker on the car and for us to watch their little Mardi Gras parade.  Here we see the result of don't ask don't tell policy revocation... well, not really.  They are JROTC.

 Riley with her bead collection. And a lollipop

 Joshua was marching in the parade. We saw pictures of Rebecca’s night time venture to a Mardi Gras parade.  I got my own beads!  I think half of New Orleans escaped by going to Disney world.  The other half came on the cruise.  Lots of people on this cruise are from right around New Orleans.

Saturday, I decided I should have brought more than one skirt for dress up night.  So we went Thrift Shopping.   I got a couple of skirts and some blouses. We had lunch and then Dan took us to the ship. … where we had a pre dinner snack… and then a great dinner.

 Our state room.  The piano bar.

 Bird's eye view of the ship. (Callie is in the hot tub.)

View looking down five flights at the atrium of the ship to service desks and lounge.

 Ship at Cozumel.  I'm in the brown shirt holding my hat against the wind.

Sunday we were going to have our own “church,” but the water was a little rough, and the ship was traveling faster than usual, and we were toward the front of the ship… and I got green around the gills.  I was pretty useless. I tried lying on the top deck, midship in a pool lounger, but it was fortunate it was close to a bathroom.  Finally Tom got me some Dramamine.  I decided sleepy and useless as better than pukey and useless.  I slept until about 4 and then felt pretty good… good enough to eat lobster for dinner.  And they have this melted chocolate cake served in a ramekin with ice cream on the side.  Mmmm.

Sunday evening we stopped to help the Carnival Triumph that had a fire in the engine room.  We went along side her and ferried food, water… and likely more booze over to help them out.   It took from about 5-10:30 of ferrying the little boats back and forth.

 That was why we’d traveled faster than normal.  That was why the port thrusters (that felt like they were just under our stateroom floor) kept roaring and throbbing from 5-10:30 as they adjusted to stay near the other ship. [Little did we know that we’d get home before they did, and they’d be on national news for days… eclipsing the State of the Union speech.  An accurate indication of our warped priorities.]

We got into Progresso just a little late, but it was fine.  We went to see the Dzibilchaltun ruins.   Try saying that three times quickly.  (dzeebil-chal-tan)  We had a Mayan tour guide and learned of the lack of fertility of the local soil.  It was an interesting site.

 This guy was posing for a photo  It looked so awesome we had Callie run up and do the same... a little less impressive.

 They had a cenote or watering hole caused by an underground cave falling in to reveal the formerly underground river.  People swam in it.  I tucked my toes into it and they got nibbled on by little fish.

I saw some fantastic Mexican pottery.  I thought about buying a sink… but didn’t.  Now, I wish I would have.  Although I’m not sure I’m willing to turn our upstairs bathroom into Mexican decor.

We ate dinner in the dining room every evening.  It was fun to sit at the same table and visit with the same people and be served by the same server—who remembered I didn’t want a lot of ice in my water.   I thought the food was tasty and of a good variety.   They offered unusual fare to try so I had escargot one night, alligator fritters another, and frog’s legs as well.  I’ve decided you put enough butter and garlic on it and almost anything will taste great.

Tuesday we landed in Cozumel.  Tom and I scheduled a horseback ride in the jungle past Mayan ruins and an old town.  We were on our own to get a taxi there and back.  We were very slow getting off the ship because of another ship coming in and the gang plank being pulled up.  So we lost an hour there. Fortunately our gig was at noon and we arrived in good time.  We did ride through "jungle".

  We stopped at a small town… with plenty of shops to lure one into… and saw a small Mayan ruin.   It was pleasant to see deer, iguana, birds, butterflies and flowers and have a quiet serene ride.  Sore seat bones by the time we got back, though.

I decided to go onto the adult’s only deck and soak in their hot tub.  On the pool deck about 10,000 kids immerse themselves skin-to-skin in the hot tub.  There, I was the only one in the tub. Nice.

Rebecca used her time to swim with the manatees and the dolphins. They had a very good time, too.  When we booked, not through Carnival, it saved probably 50%.  But it was a little more stressful knowing we had to make sure we were back on the ship on time.  At Cozumel, we had three people sprinting like mad to make the ship before it left dock.   The ship stayed 15 min past the announced departure… so maybe they don’t just leave you behind.  But I don’t want to find out the hard way that they will.

Our steward made great towel animals, and so we thanked her and rated them.  We got to pose our figures on the shelf for the duration of the cruise.  She was pleased we liked them.

 Callie was the ice cream kid.  I think she had eight ice cream cones one day.  A very happy child.

It’s always interesting to spend the day at sea and have the weather get chillier and chillier as we headed north.  I was able to check emails a few times on the trip.  Wednesday night we get an email saying the Main St. house had a fire.  Really?  What happened?  How bad?  Don’t know.  We can’t call.

Thursday morning we got back into port and learned it’s not too bad… we think.   But we return to a zillion phone messages.  “Hi.  I’m the person assigned to your fire claim.” “Hey, I’m the inspector coming to check your house fire at 10am today.”  Which day was that?  Just a little stress to end the trip with.  I assume it will all work out.

We got off the ship and through customs by about 10:30. Dan and Riley picked us up and took us to Rebecca’s house.  We did laundry, I did some work and we visited with kids.

Friday we left about the same time the kids left for school.  We made good time and had an uneventful trip home.  We listened to the last book of the Eragon series as a book on CD in both directions of travel.  24 CD’s and 31 hours of listening!!!  We made it through disk 10 by the time we pulled into our driveway.  I will need to get the book to finish.  That way I can skip the complete and thorough sensory details and descriptions…and move on to the action.

It was good to sleep in our own beds.  Saturday we did laundry, again, went through mail, did some shopping, and generally got ourselves settled.  We checked out the Main St. houses.  One part of the front wall was burned and discolored with a doggie door sized hole burned through the inside wall as well. One window was damaged.  In the mean time, the buyers of the Minnesota house backed out—too much work with the theft damage and all.   At least the title is mostly cleared.

I worked for a while on some articles I wanted to finish by this pay period.  Didn’t quite get them done.  But I prepared my lesson for Sunday.  This is my first week to teach the Teacher Development class.  I’ve had to prepare my own curriculum based on Seminary and the new Youth teaching programs.

Today’s class went well.  Now I have blogging and writing to missionaries.  And the cruise is just a dream and a memory.