10° and snow to 100° and sand…

I just realized that it’s been almost a month since my last post…where does the time go? I know you have long awaited the update on our cruise and I apologize that it has taken me so long to get this posted, but between the internet not working at home and trying to play catch up at work time just got away from me. Well, last night I spent about 2 hours writing and organizing my pictures for this blog and about half way through the entry the internet decides to shut down on me and I lost everything so we will try this again…
We really didn’t know what to expect on this vacation, with Ammon’s work they giveaway two trips a year and we were one of the lucky ones to receive a free trip. The trip was a 7 day Caribbean cruise our stops were Cozumel, Mexico Roatan, Honduras, Progresso, Mexico. We were also scheduled to stop in Costa Maya but because of Hurricane season last year it destroyed the pier and they say it will be up and running for next season. We wanted to share with you a few the highlights of the trip, hope you enjoy… Warning this is a long one I will not be offended if you don't read this!

To start the trip off our bus broke down about 20 minutes away from the port we waited about an hour for another bus to come. Once we arrived they took us through security and onto the boat. We were scheduled to depart at 5pm. Well, our group was still going through security at 5pm so it was kind of fun to think we were literally the last people to board the ship!!
As soon as we were settled in our room we went to explore the boat. We were just in awe at how big the ship was, we later found out that we were sailing on the biggest cruise liners in the world. It had 15 levels plus cargo. It was absolutely amazing! Every night at 8pm we would head on down to level 4 for our 5 course meal, they would have a new theme every night. I was a little worried about the formal stuff but I got to tell you this was the thing I looked forward to everyday.
We had picked 3 different excursions… our first one was a clear kayak and beach snorkel combo. Well, we get ashore and find out that they wouldn’t let Ammon snorkel because of the diabetes and we tried to tell them that we couldn’t scuba dive and that snorkeling was alright but they wouldn’t budge. So we enjoyed the clear kayak for about an hour and then enjoyed the rest of the time on the beach. Hey we did get a free drink out of the deal. So we cashed it in for a bottle of water! Our second excursion was swimming with the dolphin in Honduras, we drove through the rough part of Roatan and arrived on this beautiful beach resort. The story was that an American came down in 1995 bought some land along the beach and turned it into just this beautiful beach resort. He did well! We have a few pictures of swimming with the dolphins that I will post at the end. We had a really good time. After the dolphins we took a taxi over to Tabayana Beach. The drive itself was an adventure there were times I didn’t think we would make it! Once we make it back to the boat we decided to walk through the town, once we were out of the security of the boat this little boy started walking and talking with Ammon, telling him what the different building were. We told him we were looking for a store called Yaba Ding Ding and he lead us right to the store waited outside for us and walked us back to the boat. He was our little tour guide. We gave him some money got a picture with him and he was on to the next tourist. Our third adventures was the Chicken Itza Mayan Ruins… this was amazing as you can tell by the pictures. I only wish we would have had some more time to spend exploring.
After Progresso, Mexico we were on our way home. We had a whole day at sea before we were back in Galveston, Texas. The last day was kind of cloudy and somewhat windy. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the motion sickness thing ( for those that don't know my history, I get sick so fast, for example I get sick just rocking in a rocking chair. I have problems!) Well, I have to tell you the first day I didn’t think I was going to make it. It thought to myself this is going to be a long week. The Dramamine wasn’t doing its job so we made a trip to the medical station. I purchased a set of blue wrist bands. I know attractive! But the idea was to place the white ball on your pressure points on your wrists. After wearing those for about a day I’ll tell you what I was cured. The rest of the trip was great! At first I thought that I would have never enjoyed a cruise, but after this experience I am definitely hooked! We sat by a lady at lunch that had been on 37 cruises.
Well, we are back to reality, peeling from our sunburn and just trying to get through these last few weeks of the winter! We had heard that we missed one of the biggest snowstorms is Spanish Fork. Welcome Back!!