More Cruising

Bored yet?

Too bad. I have more to write! :)

Monday and Tuesday of the Cruise

Monday was a day at sea. We were headed to a couple of islands just north of Venezuela. The seas were a smidge rougher today. But overall, there wasn't a lot of big waves during the week. I find the slight swaying of the ship to be comforting. Hubby found the slight swaying to be a little challenging when he was running on the treadmill in the fitness club on board. :) But he loved the view. The treadmills looked out over the front of the ship.

I slept in on Monday. After I got up, Hubby showed me the fitness area and I made an appointment in the spa for a massage later that evening.

We hunted around for the rest of my family. They were on one of the upper decks laying in the sun with the incredibly strong winds. We hung out there for 20 minutes or so and I had had enough of the wind.  Hubby and I went to the buffet for some lunch.

We listened to a band in the main part of the ship and read. I read a total of three books on the cruise and Hubby read 2 1/2 books. Hubby gave me a Kindle for my birthday and this is what I brought with me. I just loved using it! It was great to have 25 books in such a small device!

I told my dad that he and I had a date on one of our balconies. I gifted him with a little baggy of blue jelly beans.

 Random, huh?
 Back story needed:
When I was in junior high and high school we spent most spring breaks skiing in Colorado. I'm sure more than one of those was near Easter so Mom would bring some jelly beans along as a snack. I remember riding up the lift with my dad munching on the jelly beans. On a whim, I tossed a white jelly bean into the snow below the chair lift. Dad asked me what I was doing and I said I wanted to see if you could see the white jelly beans in the snow. Silly, I know, but Dad and I joked about it for years afterwards.

As I was getting ready for this cruise, I was remembering the spring breaks my mom and dad celebrated their anniversary on the slopes, which then reminded me of the white jelly beans. Suddenly I had an idea and was off to the store to see if I could find some blue jelly beans. Why blue? Well, because the ocean is blue! My  plan was to toss the blue jelly beans into the ocean.

Silly, I know, but Dad and I had a good chuckle. :)

We decided to not toss them over the side since the balconies on the levels below us stepped out and we didn't want to wing someone with a blue jelly bean. :)

Anyway...

Monday night after dinner I went off to have my massage. I enjoy massages, but also find them to be incredibly awkward. (For obvious reasons.) (This was no exception.) I was a little annoyed at the end when I realized that the spa people were more interested in recommending products than anything. I had $150 worth of products "recommended" to me.

After the massage I drug myself (I was terribly relaxed) to the upper deck to find the rest of my family. Most of them were up there so we could watch a movie. The ship had a big movie screen out there to watch movies under the stars. So cool. We watched Life of Pi. I really enjoyed it despite the wind. Although, I wondered about watching a movie about a shipwreck while on a ship. :)

(This is a shot of the movie screen from a couple of nights before when the movie showing was Skyfall. We had better seats when we watched Life of Pi.)

Monday was a late night to bed, but we didn't need to be off the ship until after noon the next day, so it worked out okay.

Tuesday found us docked in Curacao (cure-a-sow). Such a pretty island! (I think I said that about Eleuthera, but was true for Curacao, too!)

Hi Sister-in-law and Brother!

These islands are part of the Dutch Antilles. You can certainly see the Dutch influence in the architecture. We loved all the colors of the buildings.

Our excursion today was on a semi-sub.

What you can't see from this photo is what was underneath.

We all stuffed ourselves under there and had great views out the windows to see the amazing underwater world.

 Not the best quality of photos since they were taken through windows. But they remind me of what we saw.

Our guide said he was going to go feed the fish and and next thing we saw was him in scuba gear along-side the boat!

The fish sure knew what he was up to.

I have to admit that I got tears in my eyes looking at this wonder. I considered it such a privilege to be able to peek into this under-water world that God created. I felt like He was overwhelming me with blessings to see this part of His world. What a mighty and creative God I serve!

It was nice excursion. Our bus driver drove us around and told us a lot of the history of the place. We always enjoy learning the history of a place we are visiting. The bus we were riding in was soooo small! The aisle was so narrow that everyone had to turn sideways to get down it. And I will just say it's a good thing that I am married to the guy sharing the seat with me... ;)

At the end of the tour we were dropped off near a shopping area. We sat and watched this ship heading out to sea.

 Can you see the man climbing down the ladder on the side of the ship? He eventually got on the smaller boat that was along-side. Yikes!

 This was a late night departure from Curacao, but Hubby and I were back on the ship for dinner. We were about a half and hour later for the seating, but since it was just the two of us, it didn't really matter. We enjoyed even more personal attention from the waiter. :) I finished my meal with the best lemon sorbet I have ever tasted!


I was amazed at how we would run into other family members on the ship. There were around 3,000 people on board, but we would inevitably find some of the family.

Next stop was Aruba.

More to come...