Sunday, Michelle and I started our first Caribbean cruise. We took the Carnival Magic on a seven day cruise with stops in Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico. Our cruise was fantastic! Our first three days were spent at sea so we both had a lot of leisure time. We sat on the deck reading, ate A LOT of fantastic food, played games with the other passengers, and so on. Michelle was very patient with my football games, too. I watched several bowl games our second day on the boat while she went to the spa and wandered around the ship.
On Wednesday, the 4th, we stopped at our first port, Montego Bay, Jamaica. A couple months earlier, Michelle and I chose our 'Excursions' for our cruise. At each port we chose one activity recommended by the cruise line to stretch ourselves and make more memories. In Jamaica, we went ziplining. We took a bus through Montego Bay to a beautiful forest off the coast, put on some harnesses, and went flying through the trees like Tarzan. (Except our flying was a little safter.) It was pretty scary for both of us, but afterwards we felt so happy! Take a look at this video of Michelle on her final ride.
The next day we stopped in the Cayman Islands and went swimming...with dolphins and stingrays. A van picked us up and took us to a special cove on the bay where Michelle and I got to rub a dolphin's skin, watch her do tricks in the water, go swimming by holding onto her fins, and even get a kiss! Then we took a boat out to a sandbar dubbed 'Stingray City' because there are so many of these fish living out there. While we were there, we also got to pet stingrays, feed them, and even kiss them. The kiss wasn't that great, but the rest was thrilling!
Our last port was one of Michelle's favors to me because when we stopped in Cozumel we went to some Mayan ruins for several hours. I learned a lot about Mayan culture that day. I also found out that Mayans don't really believe the world will end on December 21st, their cyclical calendar will start over. Our tour guide warned that we will have strange weather that day, though. After our tour, we stopped at a nice beach for about an hour, but the weather was getting a little chilly so we stayed out of the water.
After three days in a row of excursions, we spent another day and a half on the boat going home. We went out for a nice dinner in one of the specialty restaurants on board, attended an art auction, and just enjoyed the peace of having so many people to take care of us. The day we arrived back in Houston the port was closed for several hours because of some heavy fog so we enjoyed an extra meal on board, and were just grateful for a little extra quiet time on our own.
But wait! Our vacation isn't over yet!
After our cruise was over, Dad and Debbie were waiting for us at the pier. We spent five more days with them in Houston and had a blast. The girls were very patient and let dad and me watch the NFL playoffs the night we arrived. We also did a lot of shopping for ourselves and our family in Korea. We went to the dog racing tracks and ate king crab on Galveston Island. We took a road trip to a town with roads named "Any Way", "That Way", "This Way", etc. and looked at my dad's airplane. We also went to a fantastic steak restaurant one night thanks to a nice Christmas gift from my brother's family.
All in all, Michelle and I had two fantastic weeks abroad. It is always hard to say goodbye, but we've already started making plans to meet again in Hawaii in two years. Until then, we have a lot of great souvenirs, pictures, and memories to help us remember January 2012!
