Because of the changes to the itinerary on our November cruise, Peter didn't come home fully sated for cruising. He booked a 5 day Caribbean cruise for just him and I in January. I love cruising of course, but for me it felt a little too soon to be going on another cruise but it was nice to get away together.
Hugs for Emmalyn before we left for the airport
Hugs for Maxwell before we left for the airport
I'm going to miss my kids!
Of course the kids were fine... They got to hang with Aunt Brittany for the 5 days of the cruise. :)
Ready to get on our ship! Just have to ensure this crazy long line first...
We made it on the ship!
Facetime with Emmalyn at Maxwell's soccer game. :) (We tried to talk to the kids every day)
Grabbing some food to enjoy in our room
Peter played in a shuffleboard tournament
Gorgeous clouds at sea
Eating in the formal dining room for dinner
Loving the time together (and not having to deal with feeding kids!)
We have been on this ship before and have a picture in front of these lights. We tried to figure out what year that cruise was but couldn't figure it out.
Getting off the ship in Jamaica - our first time here! (We were supposed to go here in November but the itinerary was changed.)
Without the kids, we were able to do some more adventurous excursions. We decided to hike/climb Dunns River Falls. It's this gorgeous river adwater fall down the side of the island into the ocean that you climb up. As the guides were explaining things, I was getting a little bit nervous about whether I'd be able to do this.
At the bottom of the falls.
Oh yeah - you have to have water shoes in order to climb the falls. So, our bus from the cruise ship stops on the side of the road on the way to the falls and, no joke, the tour guide gets out of the bus and proceeds to purchase water shoes out of a guy's trunk on the side of the road. Felt really shady.
Okay, let's head up this thing! We had some great guides that showed us exactly how to get up the falls. At times we were a human chain with everyone holding hands and helping each other. I was super nervous about slipping and some of the steps were pretty high for my short legs.
Notice my fit bit - - -yeah, bad idea. Should have left it at home. It didn't work after wards.
We hike up this, through the rushing water.
Everybody hold hands
Turning around to look down
Romantic? Uh...more like awkward.
After Peter slide down a short bit of the slides into a deeper part.
Lots of people hiking up these falls
It was really pretty and for sure a unique experience. It was also cold but the day was nice and warm and you eventually got used to it.
After the falls, we were taken to enjoy a beach and some delicious local cuisine along with the always necessary for a Caribbean vacation--- rum punch.
Peter enjoying the ocean (even with no kids)
Love time at the beach!!!!
Our ship, the Norwegian Pearl
Beautiful sunset that we enjoyed during dinner
I still went and walked each night. Gotta get those steps in and stay committed - even when on a cruise! We usually set a goal to take the stairs as much as possible when on a cruise versus taking the elevators. With kids, that's hard because #1 - the LOVE the elevator and #2 - they just can't do all those stairs, or at least not very fast. This time we totally stuck to that goal and went the entire cruise without taking an elevator once!!!! Pretty proud of that.
The next morning we played, and lost, Bingo. Nice to enjoy a day at sea.
One thing I did today that was out of my comfort zone - I did some rock climbing on the ship. I've wanted to do it but always felt too fat to do it. Well, since I've lost some weight I'm was feeling like I might be able to do it. I almost lost my nerve multiple times (some stinking kids cut in front of me in the line and I didn't want to be a grumpy adult yelling at them about it). In the end though, I did it! I went farther than I thought I would and boy was I shaking when I was done. I did it all alone (Peter didn't know I was going to do it) because for sure if I failed, I didn't want him to see that. I was pretty proud of myself!
Ooh - alone adult time full of romance!
Haha - - nope...just silliness
Our other port on this 5 day cruise was Key West, which was one of the ports on our very first cruise for our Honeymoon. It was fun to go back and remember some of what we did and how different life/our perspectives/etc was back that. I was glad to be on US soil so I could Facetime with Emmalyn.
Brittany took Emmalyn and went to have lunch with the boys at school.
We were going to go ride jet skis/wave runners and do a tour around part of the island. The rental place was on the property of a really nice hotel (can't remember now which one...Ritz Carlton maybe? who knows). Anyway, we were able to enjoy their beach facilities while we waited for our tour to start.
My view when laying in my hammock. Paradise!
We totally lucked out because we were the only ones on our group tour so it ended up being a private tour with the tour guide!!!
Let's go!
The water was so shallow around the part of the island where we were that we could see the bottom during nearly the whole tour (and at most points could have jumped off the jet skis and stood in the water just fine. The water was perfect and nice and glassy which meant we could go FAST!
A little drive by of our ship...It's so huge!
I left lots of space between myself and Peter because I was freaked out that if we were too close some crazy accident would happen and our kids would be left without both parents. I don't think about things like that when the kids are with us... but, boy was I aware of it since they weren't here (if this plane goes down...)
After being a little bit timid for the first 5-10 minutes, I loosened up and had an awesome time!
Peter being crazy, I'm sure.
We were by a military base so there were military planes flying right overhead. That was pretty cool.
The guide found a star fish to show us
This is a sting ray
We also saw a nurse shark in the water which the guide was unconcerned with but had me pretty nervous.
Look at my speed - 44 MPH!
Because it was just Peter and I on the tour and we were both willing to go fast, the guide was able to take us to a lot more of the island than he can typically do on a tour which was cool.
After the tour, we walked around town getting food and shopping. We ate some amazing food at a food truck recommended by my friend Colleen - so yummy!
We ate some Key Lime Pie, of course!
We didn't have as much time to hang out in port after our excursion as we would have wanted but it was still great.
Beautiful Key West
Loving this little trip and our time together!
And again we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset at dinner.
Unfortunately this cruise didn't last forever and it was time to go home. :(
Beach/vacation hair and no make up...yes!
