Vacation was AWESOME! Have to say, I am disappointed with my pics. Things were happening so fast, I often couldn’t get my camera in time. But so many stories... where to start?
Formal night, Sue & I wore our tuxes and were quite smashing. Around dessert, Steve surprised Nikki by having a small butter "dish" delivered to the table that had an engagement ring in it. He had her stand, asked if she would make him extremely happy, got down on 1 knee, and asked her to marry him. Although reeling in shock, she said yes of course; we all cheered. The dining room had cleared out a bit by then, but there were still many people there. A huge throng came over to congratulate them. I have a funny photo of Nik showing a cloth napkin with an impression of her face on it. (Mascara.)
Belize City, a lot smaller than I expected. No tall buildings really. Reminded me of the Central American equivalent of Presque Isle, ME. Zip line: Mom & Dad did it! Quite the feat! After the zip line, we dined at the "resort's" restaurant. (Resort: Think swanky cabins deep in the Maine woods, not like... some huge, palatial Club Med). We found the owner’s semi-domesticated howler monkey. Cynthia pulled the branches apart for us to get a better look, and he crawled out on her. She put him down. Nik reached down to pet him and he crawled up in her arms. Then I reached out, and he crawled up my arm, over my lap, up on my shoulder and wrapped his super-soft tail around my neck. Yeah, we know better. We’re lucky to have come back with our faces.
We were unable to do the cave tubing due to hi water. Sue was crushed, as you might guess. Our tour guides Nacho & Cynthia offered to take us to the Belize Zoo, but the parents were hankering to get back to the boat (where Mom was hit with a migraine and spent the night in bed). We "kids" spent some time at a flea market, practicing our haggling skills that Nacho explained to us. We quickly got overwhelmed by the "come look at my stuff!!!"
Cozumel: Sue spent the afternoon with my parents while Nik, Steve & I went snuba diving. We had a blast! I was disappointed by the shallowness of a snuba dive, but we still saw some beautiful coral and some amazing fish. Our guide handed us a sea cucumber. That's an odd being. I think Nik is hooked on underwater adventures now, too. Steve had problems with his jaw and couldn’t descend. (10 – 20 years ago, he had his jaw... rebuilt, so clenching on the regulator was too painful for him.) Next time, Nik & I will do a serious scuba dive.
In Cozumel, we had a very nice lunch in an authentic Mexican restaurant. Tiny, hole-in-the-wall place. Fantastic food, they spoke little Eng, we little Spanish. Luckily the menu had pictures and we recognized the names of certain items. The place came highly recommended to us by a pal of Nik’s and was fantastic. A great experience.
Cozumel, by the way, reminded me a lot of Bar Harbor. I really enjoyed it.
As an aside, those 5 Spanish lessons I had about a year ago didn’t help much. Steve’s parents are French Canadians, so on-board I was picking up bits of their conversations, and speaking phrases I remembered. Then on land, I got out of a cab and said, "Merci," followed up by a "Doh! Gracias!" Also, when I was asking for change, I said "Deux" and didn’t realize until I was on the boat I should have said "Dos." Duh.
Key West: Hot, hot, hot. (Well, the whole cruise was, but it bothered me most in KW. I guess the fact that I found the water in Cozumel refreshing says a lot.) We wandered around, went to Hog's Breath Saloon. Walked along Duval, rented an electric car so we could get to the Southern-most Point and back without dying from heat exhaustion. We also went to Mile 0 of Rt 1, as the other end is about 45 mins from Mom & Dad’s house. Unfort, I took a pic of the mile marker on the wrong side of the street so it says "End" instead of "Begin." Saw one of KW’s famous sunsets.
I didn’t get seasick, but our boat did do some serious rocking, and we hit some pretty rough surf. Sue used anti-nausea patches, and suffered some unique side-effects. Basically, she couldn’t see well enough to read. Got a swell pic of her in my Dad’s glasses. I would cruise again, and thought Royal Caribbean was swell enough, even though it wasn’t Olivia. The fam, though, is leaning more towards renting one of my friend’s condos in Vieques instead, if we can swing something like this again.
Sue & I had a hard time getting back due to the weather. We got to the airport WAY early (dumb ~ should have done an airboat excursion to kill time), and tons of flights were delayed so the terminal was full-to-bursting.
I didn’t want to come home... and am missing my afternoon totties. Pina colada, anyone?? Virgin or otherwise?
That, my friends, is the concise version of our vacation. Can you believe I’m capable of it? Wait til you see the ofoto. Lots of pics, but I need to scoop up some of Steve’s. He got some much better shots, but, well, he is a professional (video) photographer, after all.
