Sunday, March 27, 2011

Ship to Shore

When we disembarked from our cruise ship in New Orleans last Sunday, we had 4 or 5 hours to spare before we had to drop Adam and Richie off at the airport. Since our car was still in the week-long pre-paid parking garage, we simply stowed our luggage in it and walked to the "Aquarium of the Americas." It was a great place to spend a couple of hours.

Jim, Jacob, and I returned to Houston to find a pool full of seeds that had fallen from our annoyingly large Live Southern Oak trees and a creepy, dead critter carcass in the yard. The temperatures in Texas were very warm - hot actually - but the three of us were only there to enjoy them for a few days. On Thursday, we headed back to Michigan where the low temperature dipped to 18 degrees - about 65 degrees cooler than the lovely high we had just experienced down south. Brrrr!

The kiddie area was awesome on our ship. We had no use for it, other than standing over it and admiring the beautiful blue wake.

Jacob liked the ship's driving range. Jim offered him some unsolicited advice.

Some cute penguins at the aquarium. They were very playful and animated.

Check out the schnoz on this guy at the aquarium!

I think it was a squirrel that met its demise on our deck.

Every spring we get zillions of these seeds in our pool. Luckily, the seed season only lasts about a month. This particular batch gathered only an hour after I had skimmed the water.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Vacation Photos

Here are some pictures taken on our cruise last week. We stopped at Costa Maya, Mexico, Belize City, Belize, Roatan, Honduras, and Cozumel, Mexico.

Our pretty ship. Go away clouds!

The iguanas apparently grow to be quite large in Central America. And I thought the critters in Texas were big!

One of our cute towel animals - was it a dog or a pig?

Jacob hung out on his balcony on a day at sea.

Adam found a place to catch a few zzzzzs.

A view of Mahogany Bay from our balcony at Roatan, Honduras.

Flamingos and Scarlet Macaws were right out in the open.

Jake, Jim, and Adam floated down an underground river. I wouldn't go because I thought the water would be too cold. I now wish I wouldn't have been so wimpy.

Jacob and Jim posed at a beautiful beach.

I finally saw a manatee! Two actually, but they would never swim near each other. The photo does not do this guy justice - he was huge!

Relaxing at our palapa (little hut with thatched roof) near Cozumel. We ate authentic Mexican nachos and drank Coronas.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Rolling Down the River

It is 12:45 a.m. and we are currently entering the mouth of the Mississippi River enroute to the port of New Orleans. It will take our ship 6 or 7 hours to chug up the river. I can't believe that our cruise is almost over. We had a great week and it definitely went by too fast. I had every intention of posting photos tonight, but the internet on the ship had other ideas. Service is terribly s-l-o-w, so the pictures will have to wait until we arrive back in Houston.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Cruisin'

Jim, Adam, Jacob, Richie, and I arrived in New Orleans on Sunday, eager and excited to start our week-long cruise. Unfortunately, our ship was delayed getting to the port due to the medical evacuation of a passenger on the inbound cruise. The ship had to divert off course to meet up with a Coast Guard helicopter from Key West, then it experienced engine problems as it tried to make up the lost time en route to Louisiana. Norwegian Cruise Lines did call to inform us of the change in schedule, but the day ended up being very long and, when all was said and done, we walked onto the ship about nine hours after we had anticipated.

Monday started off on a happier note, as we were at sea and enjoying everything that our ship had to offer. We ate, went to a magic show, ate, played ping-pong, ate, played shuffleboard, ate, sunned, ate, drank, ate, saw a Broadway show, and ate some more. On Tuesday we docked in Mexico, albeit quite a bit later than scheduled. Besides spending the day eating and going to shows, we also went ashore for a while. Jim and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary that day and our waiter at dinner sang "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" to us and gave us a small cake. Since we were already eating desserts, he offered to have it delivered to our cabin so we could enjoy it later. Well, the cake never arrived and we joked that the waiters tell every couple the same story, then just use the same cake over and over again. With all the food at our disposal, we didn't really mind losing our cake, even though it did look delicious and we all had a running debate going over what flavor it was.

On Wednesday, our ship anchored off Belize City. We hired a driver to take us to see the Belize Wildlife Sanctuary and show us around the area. It was an interesting port, yet very poor and quite run-down. We were happy to spend our tourist dollars there to support their troubled economy. Our tour guide was a 60-ish, knowledgeable man who actually was an old buddy & former schoolmate of the current Prime Minister of Belize. Talk about having friends in high places!

On Thursday we will be in Roatan, Honduras, where we intend to just relax in the port area and hang out on the ship. We have an all-day shore excursion planned for Friday in Cozumel, so it will be nice to take the day off Thursday to bum around. Our weather has been great - well if you consider 80s and humidity to be great. (I do!) We lost a few dollars in the casino this evening, and are off now to watch a late-night comedy show. I have taken lots of pictures and will post some when I update next.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Spring Break

Next week is Spring Break from school and we are hitting the high seas. Adam is flying from Denver to join us in Houston on Saturday, and with his recent overwhelming academic workload, it sounds as if a vacation is just what he needs. On Sunday morning, the four of us will drive to New Orleans, pick up Richie from the airport there, and board a ship. Among other things, I will not have to cook a single meal for anyone for seven whole days! Jim and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary while on the cruise. I will try to post some pictures during the week, but with the high price of shipboard internet - and the slow service provided - I will be happy if I am able to update even once. We will be traveling to several ports that we have never visited before, so I will be taking lots of photos that I can share after we return home.

Did I mention that I won't have to cook any meals for seven whole days?

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Rodeo

Tree and Emily flew to Texas on Friday for a long weekend visit. After 10 days of sunshine and temperatures in the 70s, the weather turned rather bleak as soon as their plane landed in Houston. We had planned to spend some time sunning at the beach that afternoon, but found thick fog and chilly temps in Galveston. Jim fired up our hot tub in the evening and we really enjoyed our soak in there - until the electricity went out. We had tickets to the Houston Rodeo for Saturday, so we weren't too disappointed that the forecast called for thunderstorms and a cold front that day since the festivities were held indoors. This was the first rodeo that any of us had been to and we didn't know quite what to expect. The price of the admission included all of the exhibitions, shows & events, an actual rodeo competition, and a concert. We had a blast and can't wait to return next year.

We walked through a huge convention center filled with vendors and livestock. And rope makers. The building was a bit stinky.

After the bull riders were bucked off their animals, the wild critters had to be lured back into their pens by some apparently non-intimidated rodeo clowns.

The cutest and most interesting rodeo event was the "Mutton Bustin'." Five and six year old children competed to see how long they could ride on the back of a running sheep.

This little cowboy made it a long way before falling off. Luckily, none of the children were ever trampled by the sheep.