Cruise: Day at Sea and Cozumel

Monday was a Day at Sea.

The girls and I went to a craft class in the morning.

We got to make greeting cards. Pretty fun.

We also played several rounds of trivia and Trivial Pursuit.

Caroline and I took second place (after a couple of tiebreak questions!)

in a Harry Potter trivia.

The view off my balcony.

I love being out on the ocean.

My relaxing little haven.

They had a chair that reclined and

plenty of room for my long legs.

The kids played mini golf.

Brandon made friends quickly and we hardly saw him on the ship

after this first day. He was always off hanging with the other teenagers.

Caroline is particular about which kid club activities she likes.

She'll choose one or two a day and usually has fun,

but doesn't want to stay longer than that.

Whit didn't like the teen club much and hardly spent time there.

Dinner in the formal dining room that was elegant attire.

We got all dressed up and got our portraits taken.

Andrew and the teens ate lobster.

There was a REALLY long wait to get into the dining room.

And our service was not great. Boo.

Andrew and I went out afterward and listened to acoustic guitar, which was fun.

TUESDAY: Cozumel!

We LOVE Cozumel.

We've been here several times now and know

exactly what we want to do.

Instead of booking an excursion through the cruise,

we just take a taxi to Chankanaab and spend the day there.

Oh, how we love this place.

It is affordable, beautiful, and there's so much to do.

We got there early and pretty much had the place to ourselves.

We had our choice of beach chairs under a cabana.

We plopped our stuff down, got sunscreened up,

and immediately started snorkeling.

The snorkeling there is just fantastic.

When we're not there, I wonder if I've built up the memories

to be better than it really is.

But it REALLY is so good.

And the beauty starts AS SOON AS you step in the water

and put your mask in. Fish and coral everywhere.

This year we got to see a cuttlefish, which was kinda cool.

We also saw a sting ray and a big barracuda,

but I didn't get good pics of those.

Look at all those sea urchins!

Taking a break.

We didn't pay to swim with the dolphins this time.

BUT, we did get to go on a free little walking tour around

the dolphin habitat. We were NOT allowed to take pics.

But we got to see a BABY dolphin that was adorable.

And we even got a "kiss" on our hand from a dolphin

and got to see some spectacular jumps.

We went back to the sea lion show.

It's always fun.

Care Bear got her kiss at the end.

We shared some nachos and coke on the beach.

I made Whit do cool jumps and dance poses on the beach for me.

Crab

One of my favorite fish.

It was a PERFECT day of snorkeling and lounging on the beach.
Andrew is reading John Stockton's autobiography.

I'm reading Tales by Shakespeare.

We took a taxi back to the port.

The teenagers and I did a little bit of shopping.

I mainly wanted to get another big bottle of Mexican vanilla.

Love hanging out with these fun kids!

Dinner was just me, Drew, and Whit that night.

Whitney and I had A BLAST dancing to Rollin' On a River

at our dinner table. Andrew was *slightly* embarrassed of us.

He and I sat out on our balcony after dinner and watched the stars go by.

The night sky at sea is stunning.

We saw two satellites and I saw a big shooting star.

We also went to the family comedy show.

The comedian was just ok.

He lived up to our stereotype of the family show:

lots of potty humor and child abuse jokes.

He did have a few really funny lines.

But he was TOOO loud.

Like hurt-your-ears loud.