At Sea!

After chasing down one last fountain Dr. Pepper for me, Brad and I got to the Galveston port at noon. On a side note, I still don't understand how a cruise line expects to sail out of Texas and not serve Dr. Pepper. The airlines have all figured it out...why can't Carnival? But back to cruising. We lined up, filled out our health surveys, looked around to see if anyone looked suspiciously sick, (noticed people carrying on 12 packs of Dr. Pepper...smart, very smart), got our boarding passes and then walked onboard to begin our journey.

After exploring the ship and grabbing a bite to eat, I took Brad to the cabin that would be our home for the next week...all 150 square feet of it. He took it surprisingly well! I'm pretty sure he rationalized that it was like being on a European vacation, but whatever works! We unpacked, bumped into each other a few times and then made up first trek up the flights of stairs for our evacutation drill. I felt left out. My life vest didn't have the cool blinking light on it for in case I was floating in the Gulf waiting to be rescued. I tried to rationalize that the sharks wouldn't be able to see me either, but somehow it didn't provide much comfort. At least I had the super clean, brand spanking new, non swine flu and other cooties life vest. And yes, that is the lovely port of Galveston behind me. Ah, the smell of diesel is a great way to start a tropical vacation.

The rest of the day passed as pretty much any cruise vacation would...super stout drinks of the day with little umbrellas, a few dollars spent at penny slots, watching the ship pull out, enjoying 5:00 sushi, picking out an excursion, and pretty much packing in as much activity as you possibly can in a few hours. Dinner offered a small surprise though. I had mentioned to the booking agent that it was our anniversary trip. That night at dinner, all the waiters on our side of ship gathered round, sang Happy Anniversay to the tune of Happy Birthday, made us kiss in front of everyone, and presented us with the first of many, many, many deserts. We're not entirely sure what it was, but it wasn't half bad.

Finally we called it a night and met our first towel creature. I think it was a walrus.

We're BACK! and slightly more freckled...

Yes, that's right. We do still blog...at least for a while. Yes, I will eventually go back and post pictures and details of Aruba, London, and Seattle as well all the goodies about being newlyweds in a 50 year old house. First and foremost though, it's cruise time!

As our first anniversary approached, my 30th b-day passed and Brad's approached, I decided that we should celebrate with a quick getaway south of the border. I had spent many a long weekend over the past 15 years enjoying mother/daughter (and one mother/daughter/father) trips down to Cozumel as well as mother/daughter cruises to the same destination, but Brad had never been. I thought it was time my husband got to experience my little getaway and be able to join in on the Cozumel conversations. After a week of scouring the internet for good deals, we finally found the perfect cruise...the 5 day Carnival Ecstasy cruise to Cozumel and Progresso. It was the best of all worlds...Brad would get to see Cozumel and experience a cruise, we would both pick up a new destination in Progresso, and best of all, it was SUPER cheap.

For months, we talked about the cruise, the excursions, the drink of the day, the sites and attractions. We read up on Progresso, tried to find the best snorkeling spot in Cozumel, and started shopping for shorts, sunscreen and new flip flops. The excitement was uncontrollable, and the weeks seemed to drag slower than they had even before the wedding.

Yes, we discussed the whole drug cartel war going on in Mexico (remember that?). People were being beheaded! But none of them were American tourists that we knew of, and certainly no red-heads, so I felt we were safe. Regardless, we promised the parents that we wouldn't be going on any unauthorized journeys into the jungles searching for Mayan ruins just in case the drug people were waiting for us. And then one Friday night late in April, I flipped on the news and heard this little blip about a flu bug spreading in Mexico. Flu? Who cares? Big deal. They spent less than 20 seconds talking about it. Saturday, it was still just a blip. Sunday, it wasn't even on the news. But Monday? Ah yes, swine flu. Need I say more? Suddenly the world was forbidden from travelling to Mexico. Carnival and the other cruise lines stranded passengers on cruises to nowhere. Imagine just swimming in circles around the Gulf, waving to Cuba, Mexico and the oil platforms and tankers as you passed. AGONY! We were 2 weeks from travelling and they were cancelling all Mexico ports of call. What were we going to do?!?! I didn't want to just sail around for a week.

With a week to go, we finally got the news. Our 5 day cruise to Mexico was now...a 7 day to Jamaica and Grand Cayman! Go swine flu! (ok, not really go swine flu, but you get the idea). Off to Galveston we went!

Galveston was still a war zone from Hurricane Ike. I couldn't take pictures because I was too busy just staring. Entire blocks of homes were leveled to the ground or fenced off for demolition. Every home and building still standing was undergoing repairs. The old oak trees that once lined Broadway were either dead or sick. Stores still didn't have basic supplies. The old hotel that one stood on the water was missing a huge chunk of its wall and all of its bridge. And it was here where we began our adventure...