All Aboard!!!

A few weeks ago (I know, it has taken me a while to find the time to post this) Grant and I had the time of our lives on a cruise to Mexico! We left little Lydia with my sister that lives in Bountiful, caught a red eye flight to Florida, arrived at 9 a.m., and headed out!

We weren't aloud to board the ship until at least 2 p.m., so we decided to kill some time in FL with a rental car. The rental company kept wanting to confirm that we were returning the car the same day (apparently they don't have many customers that rent a car for just a few hours), and they might have given us some funny looks, but we didn't care. We loaded our luggage and hit the road for Miami. We had brunch and made our way down to Miami beach. It was so nice to have a few hours to relax. We just walked the beach for along time, hand in hand, our feet in the sand and waves---you know, the stereotypical lovey-dovey stuff. :)

We found some really cool shells, saw way more human skin than we ever thought possible or ever wanted to see, and saw a few jelly fish that had washed up on shore.
I was really glad we decided to go down to Miami beach before boarding because we didn't really get much time to do that at the two stops on our cruise.

Our first stop was at Key West. We went Snuba Diving there---a combination of scuba and snorkeling. There's a tiny raft that holds your tank, then a 20 ft. tube attached that has your mouth piece on the end. It was nice because we didn't have to go through all the certification you need for scuba diving, but we got a little taste of what it could be like. We had a guide that swam along in front and our little group (there were five of us) followed behind. We saw a lot of lobsters, a few crabs, different kinds of fish, and some coral and sponges. We also saw a big conch shell with a crab or something still living inside. We had an underwater camera and motioned for our guide to take our picture with it, but he held the camera backwards and so instead we have a nice lovely picture of his goggles and part of his nose. I'm still trying to get those pictures scanned into the computer---once I do, I'll share those too.

We got finished snuba diving with some extra time to roam around before we had to be back on board. We walked the streets and window shopped. I have to say that walking around Key West really made me appreciate the dryness of Utah---I had forgotten how miserable humidity is! But we had fun anyway walking around and goofing off.

Our next stop was Cozumel. The waters there were beautiful! So crystal-clear blue. We really wanted to just jump right off the boat and do a cannon ball into the water.

We took a high speed ferry from Cozumel over to mainland Mexico and went on a tour of the Mayan ruins. It was interesting and see all of the architecture and structures that were still standing. Grant was fascinated by it all. It's too bad we didn't get to go inside any of them, or even touch anything. But you could still see some of the stone carvings and even some color on the walls.

The doorways were all very short---they think the Mayan people had smaller bone structures.

Up on the hill at Tulum.

They think this building was used for religious worship. It sits at the top of the hill and is the largest of all the buildings.

This was also a really hot, humid day, so on our way back to the tour bus we stopped and got some cold, refreshing coconuts. Grant was telling me how good they were, so I had to try it.

One of the many towel animals that housekeeping left in our room each day.

One of the evenings at the restaurant was a formal night. Grant didn't care all that much, but I thought it was fun to get all dolled up and "go out" for the evening.

Grant's GQ pose.

Every night Grant and I would walk the deck after dark. It was kind of weird not to be able to see ANYTHING out in the distance. No city lights, no land, nothing! But it was really cool to see the waves made by the boat. Grant loved this little tradition each night---I liked it, but it was always REALLY windy at night! It made me feel uneasy at times, feeling like I was going to blow off the deck at any moment!

We really had a lot of fun on the cruise. It was a nice get-away. It was a 4-nighter, just the perfect time to escape our everday responsibilities, but short enough that I didn't get too dramatically homesick for Lydia. She had a blast with her cousins and didn't even notice that we were gone! It took her a while to adjust to being an only child again. :)

Maybe someday we'll go on another cruise. It seemed liked everyone we met on the boat had been on at least three! So I told Grant we have to keep that tradition going. :) That is, if they let us on the boat again! On our last night of the cruise, Grant decided to go on a "self-guided tour" of the boat at 2:30 in the morning (I know, right? Who wanders around a ship in the middle of the night?). So it's not very surprising that his actions were a little suspicious. He went down to the bottom level where all the employees' rooms are and all the main workings of the ship are located. There are signs on most of the stairwells stating that only employees are allowed, but aparently not on all of them. Grant managed to find that one stairwell and helped himself.

Now remember, I was asleep during all of this, so I am innocent. Grant said he wandered around for a while and didn't go anywhere where signs were posted. He passed a lot of employees and no one said anything to him. Finally, he was stopped by some security people. They asked him if he was an employee then asked his name and room number and told him to go back to his room. When we woke up in the morning he told me this story and we didn't think anything more of it.....until we got a phone call in our room. They wanted him to come up to the security office right away. It was practically a scene from a movie. You know, the whole dimly lit room with one bright lamp over a table, and a man across the table interrogating you to no end. The guy told Grant he was "ex-military" (an intimidation tactic, if you ask me). he was rather rude to Grant and didn't listen to his side of the story at all. They booked him for tresspassing and that was the end of it. We don't really know what that means---is he going to be flagged if we ever want to go on another cruise? Is he on the national terrorist watch list? Only time will tell, I guess.

Anyway, that was our exciting and stressful adventure. The cruise was a blast and I'm ready for more. Maybe in another ten years or so. Sorry for the long post. Once I get our scanner figured out I'll post the pictures from our snuba adventures.