Cruisin' in the Caribbean

We didn't really tell many people we were going; we just went. It all began last April when I attended a national principals' conference in Nashville. John had a ticket to come with me, but because of work couldn't come. We had an airline credit we had to use by October 24 so of course we had to plan a trip. Yes, we had to spend money to save money. We didn't decide where we were going until a few weeks before we left.

We flew out Wednesday night, October 8, at midnight, to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We boarded Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas ship about noon on Thursday. We were tired from little or no sleep on the plane the night before so Johnny had a nap on the pool deck while we waited for the ship to sail.

We set sail about 5 p.m. By the time we went to bed at 11 p.m. that night, we were exhausted! The ship docked in Key West, Florida the next morning about 7 a.m. We opened our eyes at 10 a.m. As most of you know, I have major sleeping issues so 11 hours of sleep was a miracle to me. I haven't slept that much since high school.

We got off the ship and went to an Art Gallery. They had an incredible 25 feet 3D replica of American Gothic. The main art display inside was 3D icons. Very cool.
Our next stop was the Mel Fisher Museum. Mel Fisher was a diver who discovered the wreckage of several ships from the 1600s & 1700s. He discovered quite a bit of gold, silver, and other treasures. Very interesting. Here's Johnny with the silver bars:

That night was the formal night for dinner. I never went to prom, so this is my formal dance photo. You gotta love a man in a tux!

The next day we docked in Cozumel, Mexico. We had signed up for an ATV jungle ride. It was cloudy when we started, but soon it was pouring down rain. We were riding through deep puddles, soaked and muddy. We saw a Mayan water hole, and some other stuff. I just remember how fun it was to blast through the puddles. Here's my dry, before shot:

Ride, Johnny, ride.

Here's the post, mud-soaked photo. We threw our shirts away when we got back to the ship - there was no hope for them to ever be clean again.

After the ATV ride, they took us to a private beach. John soaked in some sun and tried to dry out while I went snorkeling. I saw some super cool fish, a very small blue shark, and great corral. The next day we spent "at sea." We laid out in the sun and relaxed for some much-needed down time.

They assign you a table for dinner so we sat with the same couple every night. They were from Long Island, New York and were both educators. We got along well. Our head waiter (standing next to me) was Sayit from Turkey and our assistant waiter (next to Johnny) was Eddie from India. Very nice guys.

Each night when we went back to our room, our "stateroom attendant" had a different animal made from towels on our bed. The last night it was wearing John's sunglasses. Very cute.
The ship got back to Ft. Lauderdale Monday morning. We got home about 9:30 that night to find our house at 59 degrees. Apparently we had missed a snow storm while we were gone. Brrr. As always, it's good to go, good to be home.