Cruise

Every time we take a vacation I always think that I should just blog about it day by day while we are on the trip so that I don't have to come home and try and write everything down. But, no matter how good of an idea it is or no matter how much it will save my brain from trying to remember everything or no matter how much it will add to the story because I won't get lazy.....It just never seems to happen. We've been home for a couple of weeks and I am just now getting around to it. 

So, if memory serves me right we left for our trip on the last day of school. When I went to pick Jordyn up (so I could collect all of her things and she could ride her bike home)  I was greeted with her face signed in sharpie by all of her friends. My friend had suggested that I get a t-shirt that she had seen at Wal-mart so that my family would have fair warning not to bug me on our 17 hour car ride to Galveston to catch our cruise. 

The trip wasn't off to a very promising start when the torrential downpour started and then proceeded to stay with us for the entire trip. It was so bad we could hardly see and there were signs everywhere that if there was standing water on the roads to turn around. We didn't realize until a couple of days later while watching some news on the boat that Texas was flooded and people had died. Luckily we made it through safely. The only real problem was that the luggage we had on a rack behind the car had to be brought inside because the plastic bags we put over them to try and keep them dry wouldn't stay on. It became a more cramped trip at that point.

 We ended up spending 2 nights in hotels. We left Friday night and didn't board our ship until Sunday morning. We stopped and got some yummy bbq in some small town along the way. The sign in the hotel window was from our stay in Amarillo, nice view eh? Getting through cruise traffic, parking, and then actually making it onto the boat is always a super fun process - not! It was still raining and we heard reports of bad weather in one of our port stops. I was determined not to let bad weather ruin our fun so we made the best of it. Luckily even though it was raining it was still really hot and muggy so being outside in a swim suit wasn't that big a deal.  

We got some pretty nice size rooms and we were at the front of the ship -which made for a nice ride without a lot of sea sickness. I also packed the ginger pills so that we didn't risk anyone not feeling well on the trip. The bathrooms on ships are really small and it was just barely bigger than the one we have in our RV, but I think the shower is actually smaller. We had 2 rooms with Jared, Ethan and Jordyn and 1 and the rest of us in the other. Technically someone over 21 was supposed to be in each room where there were kids, but we just had extra keys made to get around that problem. One of my favorite areas in our room was the window ledge that I sat in every morning to read my Book of Mormon. 

Ethan had the camera for most of the trip and he was having a ball checking out the underwater claims of it. Emma was actually getting mad that he always had the camera because he would take random pictures with it instead of things she thought he should be taking pictures of. 

We spent a lot of time just hanging out by the pool, in the room, or in the spa (me). We had 3 days out at sea. I tried not to eat my weight in food everyday and walked a couple miles around the track every morning and then sometimes again at night to try and stave off the 7-14 lb average weight gain. Emma and I even went to yoga one morning, but I wasn't as into it with the boat moving around, plus they charged 12 dollars for the class. 

 The kids loved the wave rider and the rock wall(not sure why I don't have pictures of that). We spent a lot of time waiting in line so the kids could have a few seconds of fun - which they loved. 

So this has been sitting here for a week waiting for me to finish. I guess it's time to finish this up. Our first stop was Cozumel, but we really went to Playa Del Carmen. We had a 45 minute ferry ride over and it made me really sea sick. Luckily I recovered and we managed to have the best time. It ended up being everyone's favorite excursion. 

It is a huge park with 4 activities to do. One of them was riding on these canoes through the cave. I spent most of my time frustrated with Jordyn. We had the natural ability to steer directly into every single wall. My neck and shoulders already give me grief and paddling with those little hand paddles was causing me serious pain. We managed to make it through with our arms all still attached.

We also got to just float along the underground river. It was pretty chilly temps - which you can tell by the look on Nate's face in some of the pics. I enjoyed this much more than the canoes. It was fun floating along through a cave. 

We also got to drive these ATVs. Emma was bummed that we didn't bring her drivers license to the ride so she couldn't drive. Everyone wanted to ride with Dad because he is a more fun driver than me. Jared spent the ride critiquing my driving. I went too slow under the waterfall making us get too wet and too fast in the puddles making us wet. He was seriously worried that we were going to contract dysentery or cholera from the water. I explained that I was just trying to up his enjoyment factor and that he needed to chill and that if people were getting sick with the water they wouldn't have any guests.  

Our favorite part of the day was the zip line course. There were 14 lines divided into 2 courses. I wish we would have had time to do both, but we didn't. We did get to do 7 or 8 lines. The last line of the day was through a waterfall and into the water. Going through the freezing water made me stop breathing and then I must have looked panicked when I came up out of the water because the guy asked me if I was ok then asked me my name then he said "Heather, you have beautiful eyes." Wow, thanks. I felt bad because I left and realized that I didn't even have the courtesy to ask his name because I was too thrown off. 

 Jordyn was pretty bummed that they kept making her ride with me. She wanted to ride with Nate but they were making sure there was enough weight for each of us to make it down the line. They made Jared and Ethan keep riding together as well. Emma and Nate were the only ones that got to ride solo- except for the 1 time they let Jordy ride with Nate I got to ride solo. We didn't discover what the big deal was all about until one of the last lines that was also one of the longest presented a bit of a problem for me and Jordy. It was pretty windy and we had a long way to zip. As we got closer to the end we started slowing down until we stopped. One of the guys had to hook up, hang upside down, and push with his feet off the line to come out and pick us up. When he reached us he hooked us onto him and then did the same thing to get us back. Thank goodness we got rescued. Jared told me how it was all my fault and that if I just would have pushed and pulled jordyn to and away from me I could have kept our momentum up and not needed to be rescued. It makes for a better story my way.

Our next stop was in Belize. We were surprised at how poverty stricken the country is. It was really bad. We also didn't know we were in for 1 1/2 hour bus ride to our excursion. It was painfully long. The excursion itself wasn't bad, it just wasn't awesome - especially for how long it took to get to it. It was a cave and tubing adventure. Our guide Israel was super nice and did a great job. There wasn't much water when it came time for the tubing part so the phrase of the day was "bottoms up." Not to be confused with the kind of bottoms up shouted when drinking and alcoholic beverage. This was to keep our behinds from dragging on the ground and getting us stuck. I love being outside and enjoying nature, so I'm always having a good time when I'm outside. As far as high adventure though, it really wasn't. It was everyones least favorite day. We did get to meet a cute newlywed couple who had forgotten to pack their camera so they were using a disposable - how sad! Nate and I laughed about it because he would have done the same thing - suffered through with a disposable instead of purchasing a new camera. I took photos for them so they could be together and then crossed my fingers that they turned out- because that's the way we lived for years - not knowing how any of the pictures were going to turn out. We were also that super old couple with a gagle of kids that I'm sure they were talking about. The most exciting part of this trip was when we were on the tubes. My feet are dangling in the water and I'm staring up at this massive cave wall and all the lush tropical surroundings and I wondered out loud if there were any snakes. The honeymoon girl nervously laughed at my remark and then we came around a bend and heard a loud crack and a rustling. What was it? A massive python who was now dangling above my head on a broken branch. I had a heart attack! Our guide seemed unfazed by the entire situation. I really thought that snake was going to land on me. He managed to make it up the side of the cave without falling - thank goodness! It makes for a great memory though.

Our last stop was in Honduras. This was the only port that we didn't have to take a ferry. We pulled right up to land. 

We didn't have much time to figure out what to do about lunch. The ship wouldn't be serving lunch until after our excursion and there were no restaurants on the dock. We would need to go further along the coast or go in land to get something to eat. We went to the area where everyone is trying to sell you an excursion or a taxi ride. It was intense. People just would not leave you alone. One woman I said no to 3 times about needing a ride from her. Nate decided that he would take her up on it and Jared freaked out. On the ship they had been announcing the rules for staying safe in Honduras. No taxi rides with unauthorized companies, watch out for pick pockets etc. He did not want to get into the van with the woman who offered to take us somewhere to eat. 

Poor Jared had a panic attack. He really thought we were going to be murdered. I was thinking about what I needed to do just in case she was taking us to some compound to be sold as slaves, but the fact that Jared was in such a state it made me calm and I actually thought the entire situation was hilarious. She was definitely shady. She said that she needed a dollar per person just to get out of the gated area. I could see her pretend to give the money to the guard. Then we started driving for awhile and I was just worried that we only had 1 hour before we had to meet our excursion. Emma decided to mock Jared's panic attack with a few photos to document our horror show taxi ride. When we arrived at the restaurant still in one piece Jared began to panic again because we were the only people in the restaurant. This was the only stop where we were on a different time zone than the ship. They were an hour early so it was only 10 am so of course no one was in there. The staff was very friendly and I just hoped that our taxi driver really was going to come back and pick us up like she promised. The service was incredibly slow and we began to realize that we were not going to get to eat. Another couple came into the restaurant and sat next to us. They were so happy to see another family because they were having their own panic attack. When we could wait no longer for our food and decided to leave the couple was like "no wait, you can't go and leave us here alone." We got our food in boxes and hoped that our taxi was waiting for us. It wasn't. Our waiter told us not to worry because his friend would take us back to port. Great. Well, friend wanted 40 buck to take us on a 10 minute drive. Nate negotiated it down to 20 and we were on our way. I ate a little of my food in the van so that I wouldn't get hangry while on our excursion. When we got back to the gate we saw our taxi driver with a van full of people. She started yelling at us that we didn't pay her and that she was coming to get us. Well at this point she was 30 minutes late and hadn't even left to get us. We argued with her for a minute while hoards of homeless men swarmed us. They started talking about how they told her that she needed to go back and get that family and they couldn't believe she did that to us  and oh by the way, you can't take that food inside the gate. Don't throw it away, give it to us. Whatever, have the most expensive lunch we've ever paid for and not gotten to eat- we were just glad to be back in 1 piece and on time. 

We made it safely to our meeting place for the most looked forward to excursion. The BOSS adventure. We took a short boat ride out to where we got to ride our own personal submarines. That picture of Nate on the ladder is because every time he had to pee he just went down in the water. He didn't even try to make it look like he was going to snorkel he just went down and went right back up again. There were 3 groups that went down in the scooters, so while you were waiting for your group you got to snorkel. 

We were the first group that got to go. It was a little scary trying to get into the scooters. You had to dive down blind and shimmy your way in. Luckily there was a diver there to assist you. I thought Jordyn was going to chicken out. She started to panic but I told her to trust the diver and she did. I was so proud of her. My scooter was broken and only wanted to spin me in circles so I looked like an idiot. I had a diver with me the entire time guiding my scooter where it needed to go. I got worried when I saw nate going back up - especially since he had the camera. He got claustrophobic and couldn't handle it so he didn't do it- so most expensive lunch and now we had to add buying the picture package. Most expensive day of the trip! I got dizzy and seasick, but stuck it out. The helmet is magnified and the scooter lurches around in the water so it was making me sick. My seasickness wasn't as bad as this poor girl who threw up in her helmet 3 times. Yuck! Now that's bad! It took me awhile to recover once we got back on the boat so I was the only one who didn't get back in the water to snorkel. 

Honduras is one of the best places to snorkel and scuba dive because of the reefs and all the beautiful fish and the clear water. The snorkeling was the kids favorite part of the trip. They had a ball. Getting back in the van on the dock for our excursion was painful as well because we had swarms of people pawing at us and begging us to buy things from them. It was crazy. They don't just ask you once, they follow you and ask you like 3 times and they touch you. You just have to keep moving. 

Getting on and off of a cruise is the most painful process ever. It can almost make you not want to go on a cruise - it's that bad. The weather was still rainy and stormy in Texas so we learned our lesson from the trip there and duct taped the plastic bags over the luggage so that it wouldn't vibrate off like it did on the way. Jordyn ended up having to sit next to wet luggage on the way so we took the time before it got too stormy to secure the bags so they could stay on the rack. Of course because we were super prepared that time it didn't really even rain. 

We were so done with traveling by the time we got off the cruise that we decided to just make the trip home in 1 day instead of stopping like we had planned. It was a super long day, but we made it home by 11 pm. Emma drove the last couple of hours with Jared sitting next to her in the front. My body was dying and so ready to get out of the car and into bed after having slept on the most uncomfortable bed for a week and then sitting in the car for 17 hours. But, everyone will tell you that we had the best time ever. Just looking at these pictures again is making me wish I could be out having more fun. 

It only took me like a month to post this, but it's finally done, Yay!