Last Day-Orlando

Back in the US and I got to see this pretty face!  I've known Becca for nearly ten years back when we were both in Kentucky.  Becca married a guy in Florida and now has three beautiful kids.  So glad I got to catch up with her a meet those precious babies.  We spent the afternoon at the beach and lunch at Ron Jon Surf Shop.

Such a great 9 days!  Why do vacations have to come to an end..guess that means it is time to start planning another one :o)

Last Day at Sea

We spent our last day doing what vacations are made of--relaxing!  We bought a spa pass that let us do mud baths, saunas, steam rooms, and rain forest showers!  It was sooo nice!  The last day the ship had the chocolate buffet.  By this point I felt so sick from eating for 7 days straight that Nick was sure to eat enough for the both of us!  Of course we had a great dinner in the dining room and stayed out late enjoying all the entertainment on the ship.  

Haha--Nick will probably kill me for putting this picture on here, but I have to save this memory, right?!?!

Yummy chocolate

Frog legs, anyone?  He enjoyed them so much he had two servings.

Last night at dinner together

Our great servers in the dining room.  I can't imagine being away form my family for 9 month at a time with limited communication.  These three were fabulous!  Mungi, on the far right,has been a server for 20 years with Carnival!  

My least favorite part of the trip, packing to go home!!  You have to have your bags outside your room the night before, so we were sure to wait until the last minute :)

Costa Maya, Mexico and Chacchoben Mayan Ruins

Port 4: Costa Maya, Mexico.  We had yet another day of rain in store for us.  In some ways it was nice because it dropped the temperature down by about 20 degrees, but it also brought the bugs out.  Thank goodness I had bug spray with me.  We were excited to go see some Mayan Ruins on this excursion.  After an hour bus we arrived to an area of ruins that had only been recently excavated.  Just like with the caves in Belize, I can't believe how much they let you walk on them!  We loved hearing all about the Mayans way of life and how these massive temples were built.  Pretty incredible to see first hand.  On the bus ride back to the city in poured rain--literally I thought the bus was going to go sliding off the road.  We ran in a downpour through the city and down about a mile long dock to get back the cruise ship.  We were literally dripping wet---every piece of our clothes had to be wrung out and we threw away our Nike's.  All we could do was look at each other and laugh when we got back to the room!

Costa Maya has a massive circular pool right in the center of town with dolphin tanks surrounding it.  These dancers provided entertainment as well.  I enjoyed watching them while waiting for Nick to buy a pair of baby crocodile boots!!!  It goes without saying, that was his graduation gift :)

Here we are on the steps of one of the ruins

I didn't realize there were so many temples at this site, so it was great to spend the day touring all the ruins.  I recommend everyone should visit if they are in the area.

The tour guides literally let us climb all over anything we wanted!

Me on the edge of one of the temples, overlooking the land below.  This area is extremely flat, so anytime you see a mound of dirt or hill the odds are very high there are ruins underneath that haven't been excavated.

These things were massive!  Hard to believe that these were built without bulldozers lifting the rocks up.

The ruins weren't the only huge things---look at this tree!

Here we are standing on one of the larger temples at this site

Behind us is called the "baby temple".  Baby, meaning it is the smallest temple on the site.  The backside of the temple still had some of the red clay paint on it that the Mayans would draw characters on.

Here is an altar across from one of the temples were sacrifices would be made.  The altar was huge!!

Nick at an entrance to one of the temples

Here we are after our 20+ minute run back to the boat--dripping wet.  So funny.

Showered and ready for dinner!

Again, Costa Maya is one of those places we have to come back to.  There is a huge beach resort area with so much to do, and the just an hour bus ride away there are 100's of site of Mayan Ruins.  I loved learning all the history of the area and hearing about the Mayan calendar that ends this year :)

Roatan HONDURAS

Port 3:  The beautiful Mahogany Bay of Roatan.  Roatan is one of the little islands that makes up Honduras.  The morning started off a little rough for me, as I got an eye infection and after a painful, sleepless night of eye swelling and spasms, I decided I better go see the ship doctor.  I waited only 5 minutes, got right in, he had all he needed eye equipment, showed me how to use all the medication I needed to put in my eye, and was friendly at the same time!  The doctor's visit plus the medicine was $147 well spent because the day and night prior I thought my eye was going to spasm out of my head!  If only we got medical care like that back home  :) 

So the doctor told me no swimming, snorkeling, and whatever I do, do not get eye wet!  We were determined to not let this put a damper on the day so we still went to the beautiful Tabyana beach.  I spent the day napping, reading, and spent $20 on a ocean side hour massage!  Nick was excited to go swimming and snorkeling (Roatan is known for having the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world after Australia).  He loved it as he saw all sorts of varieties of fish even though the water wasn't as clear as it usually is from all the rain they had been having.  We went to a few little shops on the way out and I bought a vase that was made by the indigenous people out of the local clay dirt.  I love it!  Also, in Honduras they are known for all the things they make out of mahogany wood.  We bought a nativity set made of mahogany and coconut.  I can't wait to put it out around the holidays.  All in all a great day!

Welcome to the island of Roatan

Tabyana Beach--we saw all kinds of 'fruit loop' toucan birds here. 

The softest white sand you have ever put your feet in!

The darkness in the water is the coral reef.  Sadly, it was a pretty overcast day so you can't tell just how blue the ocean is.

It didn't stay cloudy all day tough--the sun came out as we explored the port area and shops.  Love this picture with the cruise ship in the background.

One of our favorite things to do is to splurge and go eat on the 12th deck restaurant.  For a $30 fee you have a seven course meal of all kids of goodness.  Soup, salads, seafood, steak, side dishes, and oh that cheesecake at the end!  Nick is about to devour that 18oz porterhouse steak.

 I went for a smaller cut of meat, that Nick still had to eat 1/2 of.

We were so full after that great meal we decided we better go to the Lido deck party to dance off a few calories.  I could be entertained for hours just watching Nick dance.  He gets so into it and has such a great time.  Love him :)

Oh, yeah--making the congo line :)

As expected we loved Roatan.  I would love to come back just for a trip to spend more time here.

You betta' see it to BELIZE it

The second port was Belize City, Belize.  Love this place.  I had been here once before but it was sooo incredibly hot and humid that it was a blur.  So an overcast and slightly rainy day was actually nice for a change.  We picked an excursion that had us on a 40 minute boat ride, driving Landrovers through the jungle, and then exploring caves that were only recently found about 10 years ago.  We had such a great time in Belize.  The people are so friendly and I love how they speak!  Any word that ends in "-er" they replace it with "-a".  So in the blog title it says..."you betta' see it to Belize it."  If you were to say better, they would have looked at you like you are crazy!

On the boat ride we saw a barracuda, tons of fish, huge lizards, and even a crocodile!

Here is what one of the huge lizards looked like.  They blended in with the tree branches very well and they were all over the place.

We got of the boat at  beautiful farmer's grove of trees.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but I loved seeing all the surrounding flowers and plants.

We shared the Landrover with one other couple.  Nick is the passenger in the picture, as the driver was on the right side--so it was a little more difficult to figure out the stick shift :)

I did not want to drive!  Instead I had a bumpy ride in the back through all the muddy trails of the jungle.

After about a 45 minute ride of dodging tree branches and holding on for my life, we made it to the base camp where we would hike to the caves.  This is when the rain started!

And, man did it sure rain!  Nothing like a hot jungle rain to make your clothes stick right to you.

The caves were pretty remarkable.  They only were discovered about 10 years ago and I was surprised at how much they would let you crawl all over the rocks and explore on your on.  After seeing a HUGE spider and too many bats to count, I decided to stay close to the path.

After a rainy afternoon it was nice to come back and clean up for the night.  Dinner was great each night, and we really lucked out by getting such a great couple to eat dinner with.  We of course went to the entertainment and comedy shows each night, and was so tired by 1am we collapsed in bed only to do it all over again the next day.

Cozumel, Mexico

After a day at sea, we arrive in the first port of Cozumel, Mexico.  We didn't plan an excursion for the day, but after talking to the couple we eat dinner with they told us of a great beach that they take a taxi to and spend the day.  We decided to tag along, and we were so glad that we did--Paradise Beach lived up to its name!

Good morning!  Waiting take the elevator for breakfast.

Drew and Kristen were the couple that we ate dinner with each night.  He played basketball for Boston College and was huge.  Too funny watching a 6'11 guy trying to squeeze in a tiny mexican cab.

Such a great beach.  Loved spending the day here.

Nick and Drew enjoing the water toys

Headed back to the ship after a great time (and one of the few sunny days the whole week)

Headed to dinner

Cozumel was so great.  I'm glad we had a beach day and then spent some time walking around all the local and touristy shops.

Western Caribbean

I "demanded" that we go on a graduation celebration vacation (say that 3 times fast..whew)!  Nick said, "No, I just really want to start working, I don't need a vacation."  To which I said, "I just spent the last 4 years putting your through school, I NEED a vacation!"  Needless, to say I was persistent and got my way.  We love going on cruises--get to go to different places, not worry about hotels, food, or how you are going to get there.  Nothing better than getting room service and waking up in a different country!  We spent 7 nights in the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Dream, which is their biggest new ship.  We loved every minute of it and decided that every part was going to be no stress-aka-no talking about the future!  :)  Always have a great time with this guy by my side.

Here we are right when we go on the ship

 Nick getting a sample massage in the spa

Love that we got a balcony room

 Sunshine and relaxing was what the week had in store for us

These 3 things was all I needed to keep me happy!

 I think my profession should be professional traveler/vacationer and my hobby should be dental hygiene!  Next posts:  Cozumel, Belize, Roatan Honduras, Costa Maya