-- With Cherries On Top

Sunday, June 14, 2009

2009-07-01T17:16:00.040-05:00

Our nephew Nate is a really simple kid, just give him his Papa's shoes to play with.
Before it got really, really hot, we went exploring with the kids.

And we found the playground!

Maybe Nate will grow up climbing mountains too!

The Coke machine is in disguise!

At Fort Wilderness, you will see some wildlife!

The lake next to Fort Wilderness is also next to The Wilderness Resort, The Contemporary Resort, and The Magic Kingdom. It is all one boat ride away.

We got off at the Wilderness Resort to look around.

The water in this waterfall feeds into the pool. It comes all the way from inside the hotel.

I believe that this map is of Utah. It had a lot referencing to Powells on the map like a mountain and a lake. Chris's grandmother was a Powell.

An Indian Head-dress

The kids were getting tired after all the walking we made them do.
And it was turning into a really really hot day.

We stopped outside for a snack and water break. While we were there, we were surrounded by birds. Actually one bird flew right into Nate and grabbed his cracker right out of his hand. I'm afraid that birds are now on his bad list.

And we go back to the lake, back to Fort Wilderness, back to the pool.

We didn't get any pictures for Sunday night. We went to Chip and Dale's campfire sing-a-long. I believe that every kid there got to meet Chip and Dale. We stayed after the sing-a-long for the movie Bolt. It was a good movie, even though it was interrupted a couple of times by other kids being loud, people dragging coolers along the gravel covered ground, and by the announcement of a lost child. They did eventually find that lost child. He had went back to thier campsite without letting his parents know. At least that's what I overheard. But for a free movie, you cannot beat it.

Summer Vacation 2009

2009-06-27T14:51:00.020-05:00

We went to Disney World's Fort Wilderness courtesy of my husband's parents and thier camper. The kids went down with the grandparents and the camper and DH and I followed down the next day. We arrived there Saturday after lunch with the urgent request to get on down to the pool. It had a water slide. None of us had ever been on a water slide. Well, almost none. DH and I did have a childhod of going at least once to Holiday Beach in Douglas Ga back in the 1980's. But after sliding down a water slide or two and getting water down my nose, I didn't go back and stayed at the pond. I don't know about DH since all that is lodged in the very back of his brain. He does recall going down one or two.

Back to the current year, we arrived on June 13 and had a very fun time. I swear that we went to the pool at least once if not twice on every day until Tuesday, when we had to return home.

Chris's sister Julie watched the two boys here at the kiddy pool. The two boys were my son Josh and her son Nate.

While my two daughters Katie and Allie and I went to swim at the big pool with the big water slide.

My son Josh:

Why Yes

2009-06-26T15:31:00.003-05:00

I have been ingoring you, my blog. I really don't know why. I have managed to play two very good computer games this past couple of months. I have gotten on facebook many times to see what my relatives have been doing. I have went on my summer vacation, and it was very short. Almost two short.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to make tea in a coffee maker. I broke down yesterday and bought one. I'm without a stove so I could make my usual coffee maker which you pour boiling water thru the coffee. It is hard to explain. It's a little cone shaped plastic coffee filter that you put on top of a cup and put a cone shaped coffee filter and coffee into. Then you pour boiling water into it and it drips right into the cup. It's very simple. I like weak coffee and it makes it very good. I hate having to wash many dishes and a coffee maker. And an electric coffee maker gets very disgusting after a while from all the mineral deposits being left from the boiling water. But since I cannot boil water right now, I decided to buy a $10 coffee maker. It will be cheaper than many trips to starbucks.

I will be back soon to put up my pictures from this summer's vacation to Fort Wilderness in Orlando. It was fun!

Broadband and Money

2009-04-01T12:34:00.005-05:00

Yes, I have been stuck while posting about my cruise. We have been using dial-up for the past 12 years. I hate having to pay more for things that I enjoy when there is a cheaper option. And for the past 12 years, the cable company here was more expensive for broadband than was paying for a land-line phone and AOL. Yes, our cable company is expensive and it is a monopoly where we live. No one else has been allowed to provide cable for us. I hate monopolies because they do what they want when they want and charge what they want. I like competition because it keeps everyone in balance. There should always be at least 2 of everything to choose from like grocery stores, gas stations, doctor offices, dentists, etc. It keeps the costs down too.

That being said, it has finally gotten to where the cable company has come down on their price some. So we finally called and got broadband. We are now saving a whole $15. That's because we can now take AOL up on their free stuff instead of paying for AOL So yes, our cable company is still $10 higher than paying for our land line, and they just came down in price. If it wasn't for AOL's free service now, we would not be able to do this. Thank You AOL!

And yes, I do know about AT&T's high speed internet options. But I didn't know how that worked thru my phone line. And it was just now available here in this area. I think that's why the cable company came down in cost. I still have my Direct TV though. I'm not paying the cable company anymore money than what's necessary. Direct TV is still cheaper than them. And yes, we do like AOL a lot. We've tried many other dialup companies that are cheaper, but AOL comes without all that other junk like popups, spam, etc.

That being said, I was finally able to get the last of my cruise pictures online in just 10 minutes. In the past, every post had been taking at least 10 minutes for every picture I uploaded. So for a whole post, I have been spending like 2 hours on each. A big time waster, but it was worth it. It makes me happy to look back on my cruise at the faboulous stuff that we saw. And the beautiful nature that we observed. And I'm sharing it with anyone who stumbles upon this blog.

We had a ball on our cruise and can't wait to take the kids on one. If it was up to Chris, we would be taking them this next year or perhaps this year if the prices stay down. But Chris did himself in before he knew it. For Christmas he gave me the book by Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover. A lot of what Dave says in the book, I have tried before. I have came up with the idea of snowballing the debt back when I was a teen. I've never been able to implement it because there's always something I needed. I needed a new car when we were just married. I was tired of my used one breaking down every month even though we really could not afford it. Yes it did take us 6 years to pay off the first one and 7 years to pay off the second one. It seemed like everytime we got on our feet, something would happen. It would get to where I was afraid to pay bills because when the last check cleared the bank, Murphy would show up. Now I know about the Baby Emergency Fund (BEF) to keep Murphy away. So now we are not buying anything else we don't need. We are not taking any expensive vacations anymore. We will however still go camping with Chris's parents. That's not expensive and it's family time well worth it. However, it does look like we will be having to get our house remodeled this year and buy new appliances that are about to break. I will try my best to make sure we don't go overboard. Chris is not quite on board with all of this yet. But he does like the idea of us getting out of debt. He just wants all his comforts too. Sometimes you have to get uncomfortable to get somewhere. Sometimes, you need not to eat out so that you can save that money for a baby emergency fund. One thing we are working on is that we don't need to go to the Movie Theater every month. We can rent the movie. We just have to wait for it to come out. We are not very big on waiting. We are spoiled kids. Patience is a virtue. Patience will keep you out of trouble.

BTW, getting out of debt does not count the expenses of living like electricity, water, groceries. Those are monthly expenses that you don't have to pay. You have a choice there. Debt is the credit card bills, revolving credit accounts, house payments, car loans, etc. Yes even though we are poor people, we do have debt too. Too much of it for what we bring in, just like every other American out there. Yes we have been living the American Dream of having a credit card and other loans and trying to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. Or better yet, to pay for groceries and clothes and hope that you have enough money left to pay the person who is yelling the loudest because you are late on everything. Because you are not telling your money where to go, but you are allowing the money to dictate everything. Yes, we have been living on a budget for a long time. We had to. If we didn't the electric, water, and gas bill would have never gotten paid. It's that I've always had to budget down to the last penny, trying to get out everything that we could. The difference is that now that last penny goes to the lowest debt that we are snowballing on. And before you know it, its a whole dime that is going to the lowest debt. It does feel good when you come to find out that you are sending one dollar extra. It does feel good when you have money for every bill way before the bill is due.

So if you are out there, living like every one else, and have way too many bills, you have to stop and think. Is having a credit card to pay for groceries, then paying the grocery bill the next month the best thing to do. Is getting that car loan for a brand new car a good thing to do. Every car that we gotten on a loan has always had something to go terribly wrong on it before we got it paid off. Just to think, that if we didn't have the car payment to make, we could have taken better care of the car. Then the car would not be on it's last legs just when we get it paid off. It's a fact of life: Any car will break down when you need it to the least. That's called Murphy. Now a house is a different thing. Everyone needs a house. You need four walls and a roof. However, you don't need the fanciest thing out there. You need four walls and a roof. When you save up for it, you can have the best thing. But you need to save up for it.

It has always amazed me when I see people who make $100K a year who are struggling. I've always said that if I had $50K, we could live a whole lot better. We have never made more than $35K in our whole life. And that was when we were both working 40 hours a week. That didn't last long, because then we are too tired to pay attention to the kids, and too tired to do a budget, and the money just runs thru our fingers. America has lived on credit way too long. We need to get back to basics like saving for the things we want. Buying the things we can afford. Not hoping to pay off things 10 years down the road. Credit is the reason this economy is going downhill. We have way too much credit! We have no net worth.

It's time to tighten the ship so we can fly!

Last Bit on CocoaCay -- June 19, 2009

2009-03-31T17:43:00.010-05:00

After the walking all of the nature trail, we took the dirt road back to the main part of the beach. We had a lunch of hot dogs and hamburgers at the buffet of Blackbeard's Grille. It was okay food. The hamburgers were just barely done, but after all that walking, I was hungry.

We watched people playing a game of balloon toss while we ate.

It was somewhat hot, with rain clouds up above.
So I went for a swim.

The bottom of the bay was very rocky. That was not just sand, but very small rocks and huge rocks under the water. Next time we go back, I'm either renting a floating mat or snorkels and fins.

We did have live music the whole time.

After our swim, it really started to rain. We went to the shops and waiting for the downpour to quit, even though we were wet anyway.

If you can see, it was still raining when we left CocoaCay.
I took this picture, not knowing if I took anything because the camera display was broken.

So that's all for the pictures.

We went back to the ship and relaxed some. I managed to get in some reading with the book I borrowed from the ship's library. I read just enough of the book to get not interested in it. It was somewhat dull and boring, even though it promised of a mystery. Oh, well.

Chris and I enjoyed the night with our last supper on the ship. We managed to buy some pictures that the ship's photographer had taken of us.

Then the next day, we had to go back to civilization. The ship arrived at port in Cape Canaveral while we slept.

Onward to the Open Road -- June 19, 2008

2009-02-02T19:42:00.018-06:00

Blackbeard's Grave

Any buried treasure around here?

Fifth Part of the Nature Trail -- June 19

2009-01-04T13:37:00.009-06:00

Now, how did that seashell get wedged into that tree?

Now, wouldn't you want to put a house here too!

Nature Trail Birds -- June 19

2009-01-04T02:06:00.007-06:00

Fourth Part of the Nature Trail -- June 19

2008-12-11T15:26:00.011-06:00

Note to self: Get behind Chris when he has the camera!

Third Part of the Nature Trail -- June 19

2008-11-04T17:38:00.012-06:00

Another hermit crab: a pretty big one too.

A beach by ourselves thanks to the rain clouds in the distance.

Look at that ocean!

Break Time!

Back to the trail for some more.

The beach for the Kayakers, again cancelled due to the storms

Second Part of the Nature Trail -- June 19

2008-10-27T14:16:00.010-05:00

I don't know why, but I can always find a bucket in the woods.
Real, All Natural, Maybe Wild Limes!

Looks like a dried up sponge. It was hard as a rock!

Two hermit crabs: 1 seashell color, 1 green

Limey, it's limes again!

Yes, I do like nature shots

First Part of the Nature Trial -- July 19, 2008

2008-10-26T10:45:00.011-05:00

If you can see this little creature, it looks like a hermit crab. We had to look at our feet at every step to make sure we were not walking on these little guys. They were everywhere. I swear that Chris took 100 pics of these little crab things. They all had different shells on their backs in all kinds of color. This was one of the bigger ones.

A clearing. We can see the road that we will be walking back on.

I like how green this tree is.

I have thing for rocks, especially big ones.

I think something was in there!

Look at the chameleon! We saw several of these too.

Finding the Nature Trail -- June 19, 2008

2008-10-22T14:27:00.011-05:00

After getting on the CocoCay island, we decided that the nature trail would be the perfect thing to do first. It wasn't all that hot yet. Actually it was a little too cool for me to want to get into the cold ocean water. It like it better when I'm hot. The above picture is just a picture of how big the rocks were -- natural benches.

Beach volleyball anyone? Would have loved to do this!

The little kids race track area using those kid cars and jeep and such.

Taking a break before we hit the nature trail. It was a little bit of a walk to get here at the start.

June 19, 2008 Thursday -- Last Whole Day of the Cruise

2008-10-04T12:38:00.019-05:00

It's the whole day of our cruise. It started with the Midnight Buffet. It is also Chris's and my 15th wedding anniversary. Now we have taken a few days around our wedding anniversary for little trips, but by far, this one is the best and longest. Even our honeymoon was a little short trip of three days. We got married on a Saturday and had to be home by Tuesday at noon. So for our honeymoon we went traveling in Florida. We went down I-75 then across to Crystal River and up to Tallahassee and back home up 319 to south Georgia. We lived our first two married months in South Georgia. Nothing spectacular, just a stepping stone to get to Auburn. That was fifteen years ago. Now I'm thirty-five and finally have stepped my foot on foriegn land. Anyway on this June 19, 2008 we landed by CocoBay in the Bahamas. It's Royal Carribean's private island. It was a beautiful morning. Of course we slept in all the way to 8:00.

If I hadn't chopped off all my hair, I could have gotten it all braided for $100!

Now which way do we want to go?

Good thing we left most of our cash on the boat!

The Midnight Buffet

2008-09-27T17:03:00.010-05:00

Wednesday Night of June 18

2008-09-27T13:42:00.002-05:00

Boy do we look tired. Supper that night was a Venician feast. It was interesting with caesar salad, onion soup, and some really good steak roast. There was a good amount of seafood on the menu too, but I can only take so much seafood. I also had a raspberry pudding like dessert ontop a sugar cookie. It was good with real raspberries that were very sweet and not tart at all. Anytime I buy raspberries at the grocery store, they disappoint me because they are very tart. But these raspberries in this pudding was just like I believe that raspberries are suppose to be. I must have been spoiled growing up with fresh ripe raspberries that grow in the wild with our wild blackberries.

After this supper we attending a newly wed game show. It was fun. They picked three couples out of the audience. First they picked the oldest couple that had been married 60 years. Then they picked the newest couple out of the audience. They had only been married for two days. They must have gotten married on the ship. Then the audience voted among the couples in the audience that had been married for 35 years, you know a middle couple. It was very funny. One of the questions was how expensive was your first date. It was the men's turn to answer the questions first without the women there. The man in the newest couple answered $2. The price to get into the state park where they had a picnic. The man from the middle couple answered $11 for movie tickets. The man from the oldest couple answered $2 for tickets to a dance. I thought that was interesting. After this show, we went to see the midnight buffet. We didn't eat anything because they just didn't have anything there that was interesting enougth to wait in a very long line. So we took pictures instead. I will post them up here later.

Lazy Afternoon

2008-09-19T13:16:00.006-05:00

After all that walking we did at Nassau, we got back to the boat safe and sound. Then it was time to be lazy. Chris went off on the search for art while I enjoyed cooling off in the pool. I was surprised to learn that the pool was filled with chlorinated sea water. Talk about confusing the senses. My brain knows what pool water is suppose to be like and what the water at the beach is suppose to be like. Not to combine the both, but they did. Anyway after the pool, I got in a good nap.

Piano area

2008-09-17T17:09:00.005-05:00

This picture was shot from the fifth floor looking down at the piano. The top of the glass elevator is in the bottom corner. The piano is located on the third floor next to the winding staircase that goes up to the fifth floor. Wonder how many free cruises a good piano player can get in exchange for a couple of hours of work.

Chris's Search for Art On The Ship

2008-09-16T14:31:00.010-05:00

Art

2008-09-11T14:24:00.003-05:00

Ship Decorations

2008-08-17T23:25:00.019-05:00

Getting back to the Ship

2008-08-15T12:43:00.014-05:00

Sir Milo Boughton Butler

First Bahamian Governor-General in an independent Bahamas

Tribute to the Bahamian Women

Bahamas Flag in front of the Bahamas Port Building

My face is in the middle of the costume.

Something that's hard to find in the States, perhaps an ancient relic

Almost to the ship!

Didn't see this sign until we were leaving for the last time

Ruins

2008-08-13T12:22:00.002-05:00

At Fort Fincastle, we got hot and tired. We decided to walk in the direction of the ship. We started walking across parking lots where we could. At one of the parking lots we walked across these ruins. Chris asked the parking lot attendant what the ruins were. She said that they were from an old house of some rich people. There used to be a pool beside the house too. We don't come across ruins very much nowadays because they are usually torn down so some new plaza or shopping center can be built.

Fort Fincastle

2008-08-11T11:08:00.020-05:00

Not very far from the ship after all!

I really do like these red trees!

Queen's Staircase

2008-08-09T09:58:00.006-05:00

Okay, you can play the game of arranging these pictures into the correct order. It seems that I don't have the patience today to do it. Why didn't they download from the camera in the correct order?

Anyway, we came to the Queen's Staircase from the bottom. When we first approached it, it looked like an alley that was blocked off by some road closed thingamigs. You have to get past those to see this. It is awesome. When we got close to the top, an old guy in a wheelchair aproached the top. We stopped to get a breath, he told us that we were almost there. Our own personal cheerleader. When we made it, he told us the story of the Queen's staircase. To my best recollection: When Fort Fincastle was built, these limestone blocks were carved out to form an alley-way to safety for the governor when the pirates would attack. If the pirates could get ahold of the governor, they would have control of the Bahamas. They would then ransom the governor to highest bidder usually either England, France, or Spain. After Queen Victoria freed the slaves in the Bahamas, the freed slaves decided to carve these steps out of the rock out of graditude.

Now you may be wondering how our guide managed to get down from here to go home. He is not that crazy to get down. He goes down the hill on the opposite side. All around here is one giant hill.

This is definitely a place to visit if you are going to Nassau. Well worth the walk and playing dodge car.

The Journey to the Queens Staircase

2008-08-02T11:14:00.011-05:00

After seeing the straw market, we went to see some of the shops. The Del Sol shop was interesting with all the sun affected color changing stuff. We kept walking and found Parliament Square. Here is a statue of Queen Victoria.

The Garden of Rememberance. It is a memorial to the Bahamian soldiers from World War II. It was very nice. It is in between Parliament Square and the Library. The Library was closed so we didn't get to go in.

Public Health message.

We decided to walk towards the Bahamas Historical Society Museam mostly because it just south of the Queen's Staircase. The museam ended up being closed. This Zion Baptist Church was nearby.

The water tower is near the Queen's Staircase, but we did not go to it.

During our walk, we learned one thing. The people of Bahamas drive crazy-like. They have no rhyme or reason with their driving. They do have red-lights, but don't really use them. They have them set on the blinking red mode. Why don't the Bahama goverment actually use the red-lights to give everyone a chance to get to where they are going without almost causing an accident? One road we walked on to get to the Staircase was very narrow and didn't have any sidewalks. So we would walk and duck in between parked cars when a car went pass. When the road widen, we were at the Bahama Hospital. At least if we had gotten hit, we won't have far to go to get medical attention, lol.

Rockets, Pirates, and Frogs

2008-08-01T22:29:00.006-05:00

Around 1pm we decided that it was time to get a bite to eat. We left the resort and was trying to figure out what we wanted to do. This is one of the shops just outside the resort.
Chris couldn't resist getting his picture taken with a pirate. We had some of this rum cake on the cruise boat. It's pretty good. Better than fruit cake, but I'd still rather have some other cake. Anyway, we found Johnny Rockets restuarant in this shopping area. We had a Johnny Rockets restuarant on the ship, but we wanted to see a real one. It was pretty good. I had a Cheesesteak Sandwich with American Cheese and a order of fries covered with cheese. It was really good. And you know at Johnny Rockets, you are never too old for a smiley face.

We managed to find the ferry boat back to Nassau. We got off right close to the straw market. I didn't like the straw market. It's too crowded, too cluttered, and too smelly .It's not air-conditioned with hot sweaty bodies around. We did see the frogs nearby.

We walked a couple blocks and found the shopping area and another pirate.

Using a map we obtained from the free map stand at Atlantis Resort, we started our walk to find the queens staircase and other tourist stops. Let us be the real tourists that we are!

Decorations

2008-07-31T13:45:00.009-05:00

Underwater Lifeforms (or More Fish)

2008-07-29T00:26:00.013-05:00

Look! It's Nemo!

Base Camp at The Dig

2008-07-28T22:44:00.005-05:00

Misc Stuff at Atlantis

2008-07-27T17:06:00.011-05:00

Fish

2008-07-27T11:21:00.015-05:00

GrouperThat's a conch hanging out of the shell.

Moray Eel

Spiny Lobsters

2008-07-25T20:47:00.006-05:00

Below is a female spiny lobster. You can tell a female because she folds her tail under to protect the eggs.

Discover Atlantis -- The Dig

2008-07-22T22:30:00.021-05:00

The Dig

Atlantis Resort

Paradise Island

This statuary below represents an icon from the ancient civilization. Atlanteans placed written wishes in the holes within the wall behind the shrine.

This looks like amethyst. The Atlanteans would rub it for good luck. Perhaps I shouldn't have touched it because how good is it for your home to sink under the ocean.

You know, it's very tricky to get a picture of the reflection of the camera so good. This is where Atlanteans have hidden thier precious documents and scientific discoveries.

The submarine that the Atlanteans used to go under the city's foundation to try to fix the sinking problem.

Their underwater scuba suit.

The astronomy lab.

A helment that the Atlantean astrologist would use to see with.

Quartz on the walls.

Ruins

Georesanant clock

The amethyst rock again. It would look good in my living room.

We enjoyed our tour through the dig. It was very interesting. Of course, I believe that the story of Atlantis is the very first tall tale that has a published beginning. It probably is somewhat based on fact and then stretched. Just imagine how the story of Paul Bunyon is going to be stretched in ten centuries from now. Having grown up in South Georgia where the tales are stretched a lot by fishermen and hunters, I do love a good story.

Discovering Atlantis Art

2008-07-21T22:16:00.009-05:00

Wednesday June 18 -- Cruise Day Three

2008-07-19T21:47:00.007-05:00

Nassau, Bahamas

We woke up early on Wednesday like 7am. We had a quick breakfast and made our way outside the ship. We were to meet our group for the Discover Atlantis tour at 9:15. We wanted to get there early because we didn't know what kind of crowd there would be. Good thing too. The computers were down and the crew was writting down by hand everyone how were leaving. The line started on the third floor winding down the stairs to the first floor. We were outside by 8:30 and had time to look around.

Bahamas Navy Ship?
Neighboring ship.

Looking up at

Finally our group got together and walked about a mile to get to our ferry boat. At least it seemed like a mile. Here are some things we saw:

Nice to see that we are by some good people -- US Coast Guard.

Captain's Gala

2008-07-18T20:47:00.008-05:00

Day Two's supper was the Captain's Gala. We went to the Captain's Reception before the gala. There was a live band and a singer. Then Captain Johnsen come on stage and talked about Royal Carribean and about the Sovereign of the Sea. Then he introduced the crew to us. Looked like most of the crew came to the stage, at least everyone that I remember seeing.

Supper time was the Captain's Gala and we had some of the best food, but I really can't remember what we had. I do remember having a souffle for dessert. It was good, but I wasn't crazy about the sauce they served with it. After supper, we went back to our rooms and I put the dress I wore last night back on. It was definely more comfortable after getting stuffed on the good food. Chris just wanted to get rid of his jacket and tie. Also we were greeted by Fido, our first towel pet.

We went to see the show for the night. It was a musical review of music from the early 1900's to present. It was good. However, I did nod off a couple of times during the show. It was definitely time to call it a night after the show.

Coming into Port at Nassau

2008-07-17T11:30:00.015-05:00

Sovereign of the Seas had to stop within a couple of miles from Nassau to wait for two ships to leave the port since we were like 10 hours early.
Ahoy, I see land!

One of the cruise ships we had to wait on. You can see that it's a Disney ship.

Wouldn't be nice to own one of those little boats.

After a day or two of rain, we get a rainbow over Atlantis.

The Day of DoNothing

2008-07-16T09:27:00.006-05:00

On the way to see a movie at noon, we came across two chefs displaying their talent. One was decorating this lovely cake up above and another was making these animals out of dough. Two of them I could recognize as an iguana and a turtle. The other I have no idea.

Then we were off to see the made for TV movie Running Mates with Tom Selleck. Tom Selleck is a governor who is running for President. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see a currently at theatres movie or at least one that was just released on DVD. Anyway it was a good movie to watch on a rainy day. At lunch at the Wind Jammer we found this cute little guy made out of cantaloupe:

Later after lunch, we came across the towel folding demonstration. It was very interesting, but we forgot to take pictures of it. The rest of the afternoon we lallygaged around, mostly on the upper deck so we watch while we were coming into port at Nassau.

Cruise Day Two, Tuesday June 17

2008-07-15T20:59:00.011-05:00

Monday night we set the alarm clock to go off at sunrise. Alarm goes off, I hit it, roll over, tell Chris, and proceeded to go back to sleep. Chris thens decides to get up and leave me to my snooze. He took these two pictures of the sunrise.

Tuesday's Port of Call: CocoCay, Bahamas. About 7 I get up and dress in my workout outfit. It's been a long time since I actually owned a workout outfit. Chris and I get a Caramel Latte from Seattle's Best Coffee Shop on the ship and go to the upper deck to see the sights.

Looks like a pretty day. We go to the fitness center and we do a weird looking exercise bicycle. You know the ones that look like you are totally relaxing because the pedals are in front of your body, not below your body. After 10 minutes, I step on a treadmill that won't come on. So I find an elliptical. Took about 5 minutes to figure out the computer part and then worked out for 10 minutes and worked up a sweat. Chris did an elliptical also after doing some weight machines. We went back to the weight machines and do a couple of rounds on several machines. Not bad for our first time ever in a gym.

After shower and donning our swimsuits (with coverup for me) we head for breakfast at the WindJammer Cafe. Plans were to go straight to the island right after breakfast. About the time we are finished eating, the captain makes the announcement. The current slow rain that started about 30 minutes ago is turning into a major squall. So we are leaving to get around the squall and head on to Nassau. So we are having our day at sea, two days early.

This day went to the birds.

While waiting for the new revised activity schedule to be printed, I go cloud-bathing. Chris walks around the ship. I send him to the Library for a book for me. Looks like I will have time to do a little bit of reading.

Major big cloud, raining on the ocean, with a big hole in the middle of the cloud. Weird. The boat gets away from the rain.

First Night Cruising

2008-07-14T01:13:00.016-05:00

After the deck party and strolling around the ship, we came back to our room to find that our kids (with the help of grandparents for sure!) had ordered an anniversary cake to be delivered.
How nice was that!

Here at the Schooner's lounge, people could watch on the monitor where the ship, how deep the ocean was at the very spot we were at, and various other trivial info.

Another view thru our cabin window. We were about to go to Supper.

Chris taking a picture of the door and mirror which reflects him taking the picture while laying on the bed. How lazy was that!

We got dressed up for supper. Decided to dress up for every supper because it is our rare moments in life where we have the option. Of course, Chris forgot to use the flash for my pic.

Close to sunset.

After getting dressed, we went to see that night's entertainment. There was one show only of the Standup Comedian Hank McGauley. He was pretty good. Luckily this showing was also rated PG. Come to find out the next night at midnight was his adult only show. We ended up missing that one so we could get some zzzs.

We went to the main dining area for supper. Our dining room was the Mirage and we had table 14. We had a table for 4 to ourselves. It was nice. Next to our table, close to the window was a couple at a table for 2 who were celebrating their honeymoon. Three other tables near us was occupied by a large extended family having a reunion. The guys in that family were quite the characters. Each night, one of them would go around and offer each one some fresh ground pepper. I remember that I ate the Shrimp Ravioli with lobster sauce and Chris had the grilled salmon. After supper we went to the upper decks to see the night. Windjammer Marketplace is also on that deck.

Viking Art

2008-07-11T06:29:00.004-05:00

Other views of the ship

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Random art aboard ship

2008-07-08T19:20:00.007-05:00

Cruise Day One -- After Noon

2008-07-08T09:51:00.024-05:00

After unpacking, Chris and I went off to do the Treasure Hunt in the Centrum. The Centrum was the shopping area where all the little shops were. We had a list of questions to go around and ask the people attending the shops. After we filled in the answers, we put them into the drawing for several prizes. You had to be there to win. Several people wasn't so they would redraw. One person was drawn twice and the second drawing was declared not legal. One entry per person. If I had thought about it, I would have entered more than once to equal out the chances more into our favor. Oh well. Needless to say, we didn't win anything.

After the Treasure Hunt was done, we went to our room to get our life jackets for the Muster call. Good timing because there was a thirty minute warning we got to our rooms. We chilled out for about ten minutes and then proceeded to our Muster stations. People were already lining up. They made us line up in the middle of a lounge on the seventh floor. Looks like we were the only station not lined up on a deck. I imagine that we would be the last ones off the boat if there was a real emergency. When we were finally released, we made a bee-line for our room to put up the life jackets and then to the pool deck for the Sail Away Party. They had people near the band doing some dancing like the electric slide. Before you knew it, we were sailing!

Pictures of what we saw as we sailed away from port:

Man on a segway

This boat got right against us!

Miss Cape Canaveral boat

Random people doing the electric slide!

Mid-Florida Freezers

I think our camper was the one in the middle of the trees.

Our family wishing us Bon Voyage!

Our camera didn't give this view of the city any justice.

Last chance to jump ship!

Pictures of the Port before Sailing

2008-07-07T19:52:00.005-05:00

Mural of a whale and a sea turtle at Port Canaveral

Cruise Day One -- Our Room

2008-07-06T19:51:00.007-05:00

The view from our window. You can see the gangplank in the corner.

Unpacking. Amazingly they had our luggage there before 2pm.

Our room art.

Vacation Day Three / Cruise Day One

2008-07-05T23:01:00.007-05:00

June 16, Monday

Just the day we've been waiting on since Christmas when we booked the trip. Four night cruise for Chris and me on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas to the Bahamas. I slept late that morning since we were just waiting on the time to leave. I had just a little of organizing my suitcases to do. Then I helped Ms. Linda to a couple loads of laundry at the campgound's laundry mat. Our campsite was right beside our camper so it was easy to do. At 11:30 WF and Papa Tince drove us the 5 miles to Port Canaveral. There was already a line of people waiting outside in line. Our ticket said boarding time was at 1:00 pm. It was our first cruise so we didn't know what to expect. We figured that we could get there a little earlier than 1. We were just waiting to leave anyway. We could wait in line just as easy. It wasn't but a couple of minutes and we were inside the building going thru the metal detectors. Going thru metal detectors is not an everyday occurence for us. After going up the stairs to the second story of the Port, we had to wait in line for about 10 minutes. Before long we had our room key and was on our way to get on the ship. The ship was nice. Since it was before 1, we couldn't go to our room yet so we went to get lunch at the WindJammer Cafe. They had a little bit of everything. I wasn't very hungry so I had chicken paella with some yellow rice for contrast and some bourbon glazed pork. It was good. Then I tried some small bites of dessert of various cheesecakes. Chris ate various vegetable dishes that I can't describe. He didn't even know what they were called. It took him a couple of looks at the buffet lines to find the english name of the dished. Here's some of the watermelon art that decorated the buffet lines:

An eagle! It's face is obstructed by the glass covering the buffet.

Vacation -- Day Two

2008-07-03T19:21:00.000-05:00

Day Two, Sunday June 15 -- Father's Day

It was a beautiful sunny day in Orlando Florida. Ms. Linda cooked pancakes while I proceeded to burn the bacon. I'm not used to frying bacon in an electric skillet. It ended up tasting good. We got to sample Ms. Linda's newest creation -- blackberry syrup, Ihop style. It was awesome. Afterwards we packed up camp and drove to Cape Canaveral. We parked the camper at Jetty Park Campground. It was a nice campground right on the beach. After a lunch of ham sandwiches and a nap, we took the kids to the beach. The ocean was nice with the waves big enough to be entertaining. They actually had lifeguards out there too! I waded Katie and Allie out to their waists and watched the waves come in. It was fun trying not to get knocked down by the waves. There was not any undertow to be concerned about. Josh and Chris stayed on the beach. Josh does not like the ocean at all. He had rather play in the sand. He also looked for a couple of sea shells. When we walked back to the campsite, chicken and potato salad was waiting on us. It turns out that Ms. Linda and WF went to the store and came back with some excellent food. We slept very good that night. The ocean had worn us out.

Napping down I-75

2008-07-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

Katie enjoying her nap down I-75 somewhere in Florida.

Vacation -- Day One

2008-07-03T13:39:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, June 14, 2008 we loaded up at 5am and drove to Tifton Georgia. We then loaded up everything into WF and Ms. Linda's brand new camper and all piled into their SUV. Along for the fun was Papa Tince. As you can tell by the pics, everyone was excited. We were well on our way before noon to drive down I75 to Orlando, Florida. We did stop a couple of times including a picnic lunch at a rest area. It is nice to travel with a camper because could fix our picnic right there in the camper. Ms. Linda had cooked a ham early that morning so we could have real ham sandwiches. We arrived at Turkey Lake in Orlando around 4 pm. While WF and Ms. Linda could get the camper situated into a spot, Chris and I took the kids to the swings to play. After playing for about 10 minutes, the kids were ready to walk around the lake. By the time we walked back to the camper, everyone was arriving for our nephew Nate's birthday. We were giving Nate and his friend Rebecca a birthday party. Nate was turning 2 and I believe that Rebecca was turning 4. All the kids attending had a blast writing on a neighboring parking pad with sidewalk chalk. By the time the party was winding down, the stars were shining bright in the sky and it was bedtime.