Oh my, it’s been a long, long, long time since I’ve been on this piece of the Internet.
Honestly, I am so surprised by how many people have inquired about my absence. Probably 100+!
I really have no excuse other than what everyone else experiences…..busy, busy life!! It’s taken me a little long while to figure out my schedule since school restarted. I’ve also had so many life changes that I have no idea where to even begin/what to share. I guess I’ll take that a post at a time, but I will be more regular at posting. Please, contain your excitement.
When I left off we were heading on vacay and it was amazing!!!!!!! Amazing x1000! This past cruise was definitely our favorite cruise. The ship was phenomenal! We debated over and over prior to booking….big ship with islands we’ve previously visited or smaller ship with new-to-us islands. FTW we went with the former choice. (Yes, yes, I teach high school…)
What also made the trip incredible were the excursions! Here are some highlights from our four stops:
Haiti: Beach Day.
It is such a shame that this gorgeous island has so much poverty. What’s even more shameful is that some of my fellow gym friends were on the other side of the island serving on a mission trip while I was chilling on this beautiful beach….anddd I just publicly outed myself. Fab.
Water toys
Dragon’s Breath Zipline—very fast zipline! 60+mph! We did it a few years ago.
Beach huts
Beautiful island
Jamaica: Zip lining and climbing Dunn’s River Falls!
I didn’t take my phone through the water falls, so I don’t have pics. I will say that it was a cool experience….but, I wanted to go-go-go and our tour guide kept slowing us me down and taking us on the boring safe route.
Grand Cayman: Sea Turtle Farm & Dolphin Swim!
The adult sea turtles were HUGE and their habitats were incredible.
I was obsessed with the baby sea turtles and spent a long time playing with them in their pools.
Then we spent an hour in the dolphin pools.
Dolphin pools and the Caribbean Sea
AMAZING!!!!! It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. We were in a huge pool with 7 other people, a trainer, a dolphin, and her calf! The baby was precious and we played fetch with him and a beach ball. The trainer would give arm/hand commands to the adult/mother dolphin and she would take turns pulling us all over the pool. UGHHH I want to relive that! I also want better pictures of it!!!! Of course, the trainers, etc would’t let you take your camera into the swim area b/c they wanted you to buy their pics at $35 a pop. Well, I “outsmarted” the system by taking pics of the computer screen while we were viewing our pictures. I then got busted and kicked off the premises. Bye-bye Dolphins.
Cozumel: The Amazing Cozumel Race!!!!!!!!
Typical me…pre-race and I was determined we would be team #1!
You MUST do this if you go to Cozumel. Let me restate that. If you want to run 5 miles in 101 degree weather lost through the Espanol-only speaking streets in the heart of Cozumel with a partner you MUST do this. (That should be a clue that I signed us up for this excursion and had to force Philip to participate). Seriously, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!!!!! The tourism department of Cozumel created their own version of the TV show The Amazing Race. You work in teams of 2-4 people and race against 30+ teams (other cruisers, resort vacationers, even locals). Everyone met in a central location where we were given rules (no taxis), a map of the city, a copy of the Mayan alphabet, an initial clue, and a cell phone from another decade for emergencies.
Just like the TV show, there were challenges, detours, obstacles, etc!! The race took us deep into the city of Cozumel and forced us to venture to some places we never would have on our own–such as a meat market, a fabric/clothing factory, a science museum (lets just say that I dominated those Latin clues!!), a history/war museum, and soooo much more. At one point we had to dive to a suken ship to retrive a clue, shuck an ear of corn, ask locals random questions (reminder…..they only speak Spanish and we only speak southern English), and another time we had a required stop where I had to get a Henna tattoo (that was used later as a big clue).
Using the Mayan Alphabet to decipher our next clue. That was HARD!
Yum…
HURRRYYYYY! That’s all I kept saying to him!
Dive site w/ the ship in the background
1.5 hours later we were done and we placed third! THIRD. third. third. PISSED. First place went to a local couple. WTH? Cheaters! They live in that city! Disqualified. Second place went to a family from a Carnival ship with a high school son who was in Spanish 4 and some track star dad. Unfair advantage. Disqualified. 😉
Camera flash fail as we received our medals.
Seriously, it was an amazing experience with 5-stars all the way around. Even Philip loved this exerting excision. We worked so well together and I definitely plan to do another one in another country one day. The tourism department told me that it’s beginning to catch on world-wide in major destinations. DO IT!
Just for fun….two more vacay pictures. Us at a formal dinner and the surprise towel “man” our room service attendant left us one night. Philip is the one that found it and he screamed. Don’t let him tell you otherwise b/c he is lying! It was hilarious!!!!
Andddd now I am super depressed that that trip is a thing of the past and I just started 9-week #2 of 4…..that is talk that perhaps only students and teachers will understand.
How about some Izzy pics? She is absolutely adorable and she is full of personality. She’s a really good, well-behaved, friendly cat and loves the dogs—especially Warrior (our chocolate lab). This pic was taken in August after she got spayed. 😦 That cone was so pitiful and when she came home she clung to him for comfort.
Well, that’s not very cheerful. How about pics of her favorite daytime sleeping spots…sinks!? Yeah, I dunno…
At night she prefers my head/hair. Yes, I woke up around 1am and snapped this pic simply out of curiosity as to how she was laying on me.
Yeah, I’m real cute at night with my hair in a Peeble’s ponytail…..someone please tell me you caught that reference…
Andddd you’re welcome for having that theme song in your head for the remainder of the day. 🙂
I’ll be back with a recent life update soon!
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