News Flash: Christmas is Over!

I often have a hard time giving up Christmas. It's my favorite holiday and there is so much build-up, with the decorations, Christmas programs, shopping, music, etc., that by the time it's over, I feel like a junkie coming off a drug cold turkey. I often get depressed after Christmas. I resist the end by refusing to take down decorations. Once, I left the tree up until Valentine's Day. Last year, I had found an anti-depressant that had worked wonders with me. I had no "post-Christmas let-down." I took the tree down two days after Christmas. But, with all my life changes this year, I had insurance changes too and had to give up my anti-depressants.

I had thought this year might be easier on me since we decorated slightly earlier, giving me more time to enjoy the season, and since my life is significantly better than it has been in the past. But, the busyness made it fly by. First there was the divorce/court, then our wedding, followed closely by our trip to California. After that, we had our Christmas, Christmas with my family in Wichita, the kids went to their dad's, and Christmas with Scott's mom. You'd think all that Christmas celebration would have lengthened it for me, but it didn't. After all that, it was off to our honeymoon cruise. We got back and January was more than half over and I begin to wonder where the time and the season went.

We finally had time (and I was motivated and had conceded) yesterday. It was time because with the construction of the addition to our house, we are rearranging rooms and furniture and buying some new. We bought some new couches the other day at Nebraska Furniture Mart so we had to make room to move things around. We put away the decorations and today put the storage tubs back in their place in the basement.

While my new life situation has significantly reduced my stress and depression levels, I have always had a tendency towards depression. Maybe inherited, maybe just me. So, don't judge me if I still listen to Christmas music or watch Christmas shows to get me through!

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 9 (well, technically, it's still my cruise blog, even if we're not on the ship anymore!)

Non-cruiser’s Log, Day 9 (1/17/10)

We got up at 3:30am, thanks to Scott. I had my alarm set to weekdays! We got on a shuttle at 4am and headed to the Miami airport. Side note: I am concerned about any airport whose abbreviation is MIA….

It took a long time to get through security because the line was LONG. They finally opened another line and things started moving faster. We finally got through a little after 5am. We ate a little breakfast, then went to the terminal. We boarded and flew to Charlotte, North Carolina. The only time I have ever been in North Carolina was back when I lived in Tennessee and we went to Cherokee. The mountains are beautiful. I miss the south.

We had a 3 ½ hour layover in Charlotte, so we pulled out the laptops and visited Chili’s for my favorite chips and salsa! I am a little miffed at Chili’s because they took away one of my favorite dishes, the chicken bacon ranch tacos. Now they have these mini corn tortilla tacos and they are not very good. Anyways, I digress…

We finally boarded the plane and headed for home. We got there in no time and took a shuttle to where we parked the car and took off for home. The kids had made "welcome home" signs and had prepared a little "welcome back" lunch complete with streamers strung here and there, party hats, and those funny blowout noise makers. I had a great time, but I am glad to be at home. I really missed the kids. I had the best time, just sharing the pictures with them and having Billy fall asleep in my lap. There's no place like home!

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 8

Cruiser’s Log, Day 8 (1/16/10)

Well, it’s all over now! Sniff! We woke up docked at Miami. We got ready, finished packing, and went down to our final meal in the “Garden Café.” We said goodbye to Garry and took his picture. Then we gathered up our things and went down to the “Starlight Theater.” We got stickers to identify us as being on a tour. Then we went out to deck seven and headed out. We walked forever until we got to the baggage (we had sent out two of our bags last night) area and collected our bags and headed to customs. That was a joke because they didn’t even look at my birth certificate. He took our customs forms and asked where we were born and what we were bringing back with us. We mentioned a few items and he said okay, and sent us on. When we left the “terminal,” someone directed us to a tour bus. They loaded our luggage on and we got on and headed to the Everglades.

Scott had been wishing we hadn’t signed up for the Everglades tour, but I am glad we did. For one, I enjoyed it. For two, it sort of extended our vacation past the ship and made the letdown a bit easier.

All along the bus tour, the tour guide talked about Florida and Miami and the Everglades. Not sure I retained much of that info as long as it took me to hear it! When we got to the Everglades Safari Park, we were ushered to a fan boat. Our guide was a comedian. He introduced himself as the janitor and said that his boss wanted him to drive today and that he hoped he could do it and would watch what the other guy did to make sure he was doing it right. We went past a small island at the beginning that had 3 alligators on it, really close to my side of the boat! We rode the boat for a while and saw lots of birds. When we were almost back to the beginning area, we saw four more alligators. After the boat ride, we went through a small museum, which basically had aquariums with snakes, lizards, and turtles in them. Then we went to an alligator show. There were six alligators behind a fence and the guide went in and fed them and showed us different features. It was pretty entertaining how they had different personalities and how they reacted to petting and being fed, etc. At the end, the guide brought out a two-year old alligator that was two feet long. Then we walked around a pond and saw many alligators and species of crocodiles. I didn’t know that Florida is the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators live together in nature. They said there are a 1.5 million alligators in the Everglades now. We saw 39 total today. The one thing I can't figure out is why they serve alligator meat in their restaurant if they are all about conservation. Makes me wonder how that gator met his end!

We ran into a guy from Wichita in the parking lot. What a small world. We loaded up and headed to the Miami airport. Our flight isn’t until 6am tomorrow, so we found a hotel that had a shuttle service. We were picked up and taken to the Fairfield Inn and took advantage of the free wi-fi and got caught up on our Facebook. We really wanted a burger, but everything was a little farther than I wanted to walk, so we ordered pizza and all the trimmings and camped out. It will be early to bed tonight as our shuttle will head out at 4am! Just vegging out, watching TV and playing on the internet. We were talking about how well we did without internet access while we were gone, but I teased that as soon as we had free wi-fi at the hotel in Miami we pretty much ignored each other the rest of the day. Scott said, "well, no, I sent you an instant message!" Apparently, it was too much trouble to turn around and talk to me! Ha, ha!

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 7

Cruiser’s Log, Day 7 (1/15/10)

I woke up once in the night at 2:30am to go to the bathroom. We got up at 7:30am, got ready, and went to breakfast at the “Garden Café.” After breakfast, we went down to “Bar City” to get tickets for the tenders to shore. I would have thought that since this is Norwegian’s private island (Grand Stirrip Cay, Bahamas), they would have a dock, but they don’t. I got tickets for boat three, but that was really kind of silly because as soon as we got back up to the room so I could change into my swimsuit and put in my contacts, they called for boats one, two, and three and herded us all onto whatever boat was there. I was hustling to get ready to go and when we got down there, there were a ton of people and it took forever to board. Finally we got on the tender and headed for the island.

The island isn’t as nice as I was expecting but it was still okay. It was nice to be on the beach on a nice day for a change. When I got up, I thought we were going to have another bad weather day because it was cloudy, no blue sky showing. But by the time we got on the tender, there were patches of blue, and by afternoon, it was only partly cloudy. The temps were in the low to mid 70s which may have been a bit cooler than we would have liked. As long as we were out of the water, it felt fine, nice combo of sun and breeze. But in the water, it felt icy! I tried a bit of snorkeling, but didn’t care for it. Partly I think the cold water made it hard to breathe, but mostly, I felt a bit claustrophobic in the mask and would panic. I did short dunks to look at the rocks and the fishes, but there really wasn’t that much to look at either. I had wanted to get an underwater camera to take pictures while snorkeling, but they weren’t available on the island--should have planned that one ahead, but they had told us we could book it all on the island. But since there was not much to see, it wasn’t that big of a loss. The one thing I didn’t like about the swimming area was that there were so many rocks and uneven ground, I stumbled a lot and dashed my toes a couple of times. I can’t believe I forgot and left my aqua socks at home!

We got out and laid out in the beach chairs until we were dried out and hot, then ate beach BBQ, then went back in the water again. We got out and laid out again, but the sun was getting too hot and I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad, so we boarded the next tender back to the ship. Plus, we had sunburned quite a bit more! Which is fine for me because at least I will go back with some color! The funny part is that I sprayed my shoulders with sunblock to keep them from getting more burned since they were already red, but now, I have a weird splotch that is lighter than the rest, complete with a drip pattern!!! Hilarious! I should have sprayed in the shape of a smiley face or something! Sun tattoos! We’d spent about four hours out there. We were delighted to find the latest towel sculpture that our steward had made for us in our room, two swans forming a heart, with my rose in the middle and a note, saying “happy honeymoon.” We ate some of the cake from the night before and watched “Kung Fu Panda” and Scott took a nap.

I went downstairs alone to get a drink refill, drop off a employee review card for our excellent steward, and redeem my coupon for a free route itinerary map. When I returned to the room, I “watched” the movie Vantage Point and skimmed through the book Scott had gotten last night from David Naster. Finally, I woke Scott up so we could go to dinner. We packed a bit, then went by the shore excursions desk to get a t-shirt that came with our snorkel rental for the day. Then we went to dinner at “Garden Café.” After dinner, we went to the bowling alley. We thought it might be interesting to bowl on a moving ship. We did terribly (we decided we do better on the Wii), so we quit after one wretched game and went back to our room to pack some more and get ready for bed.

Tomorrow is bittersweet. I feel sad that our cruise is over because we have had so much fun and it’s been so relaxing. And who knows when we could do this again. In a lot of ways, I feel like this has been a once in a lifetime trip. But on the other hand, I miss the kids, even if they probably will drive me nuts within the first few hours of being home. And truth be told, I guess I am a bit homesick. I miss my routine and my things.

A few items in retrospect. One thing I didn’t enjoy much about the cruise is how commercial it is. It doesn’t seem to be about relaxing and vacationing as much as it is about selling. Shops everywhere. They really push jewelry, both on the ship and at St. Thomas. Several of the TV channels are even dedicated to shopping or spending money in some way, shape or form. I suppose that if they didn’t push the extras so much, the fares for cruises would be higher, but I felt like I was living in the Home Shopping Network.

I had read that most people tend to overpack, so I tried hard not to. I succeeded in that quest…I UNDERpacked. I ran out of clothes and had to re-wear ones that I hadn’t dirtied too much. Also I had assumed there were certain things that I could find easily, such as contact lens solution or cotton balls. Nope. The only store that sold necessities was closed more than half of the trip. We finally found some contact lens solution in St. Thomas.

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 6

Cruiser’s Log, Day 6 (1/14/10)

Since today was a day at sea, we didn’t worry about getting up with an alarm and I decided I would sleep at late as I could. Apparently I needed some sleep because I had another 13 hour night! Wow! Scott got up at 8am, but I didn’t get up until 11. I got up once to go to the bathroom and thought it must be morning (Scott was in the sitting area with the curtain pulled to keep the light from bothering me), but I didn’t care and went back to bed. I felt bad for making him miss breakfast though, but he said he wasn’t that hungry and had eaten a box of Fruit Loops he had swiped from the dining room a few days ago.

I got a shower and we went down to lunch at the “Garden Café.” After lunch, we came back to the room briefly, then went down to the “Crystal Atrium.” It’s a beautiful room that is two stories high, so up above you can see the restaurants on the next deck up. There is a “Java Café” there, the customer service desk, the shore excursion desk, the shopping consultant’s desk, a giant screen, an area for entertainers, and plenty of cushy places to sit. It is beautifully decorated with a glass sculpture, funky chairs, crystals, and a gorgeous ceiling of pink, purple, and blue (my favorite colors) tiles that look like waves and lighted and twinkling icicles in the center. I bought some t-shirts at a table set up in there (buy two get one free) and then we sat there for a bit. We decided to go to a towel folding demonstration, so Scott stopped by the customer service desk, while I went by our room to drop off the t-shirts and pick up my camera and our daily newsletter that outlines all of the activities for the day. I saw that there was a session in the “Crystal Atrium” where we had just been with a comedian that we had mentioned the night before that we wanted to see. So I went up to the “Spinnaker Lounge” to meet Scott. I asked him which he would rather do and we decided to go back to the “Crystal Atrium.”

To my delight (and Scott’s disappointment), the comedian was not being funny, but was speaking about writing and publishing books! So I enjoyed that while Scott fell asleep. Not to worry though, we are getting a DVD of the towel-folding!

We went back up to the room and I started sifting through receipts and gathering stuff together to fill out customs forms. Scott went down to the casino for a bit and I packed up a few things and sat on the balcony enjoying the view, the rocking, the sounds of the waves, the cool temperatures (around 75 degrees), and wrote on my laptop.

I am learning a few ship terms along the way. We are forward, which means we are toward the front of the ship. The back is called “aft”. Middle is obviously “mid-ship”. I had been confused about the left and right, but I think I have it down now. We are on the “starboard” side, or right of the ship. The left is the “port” side.

When Scott came back, we got ready to go and went to the “Teppanyaki” restaurant, which is a Japanese steak house. You know, the kind where the chef cooks the food in front of you, and as Scott says, includes dinner AND a show. I was a little apprehensive because I am such a picky eater. I don’t like much Asian food because they use so many vegetables in their dishes and I don’t like veggies much, especially not cooked ones, except corn and potatoes. Today is our one month anniversary and Scott had a surprise prepared for me: they delivered a red rose to me at dinner and said “happy anniversary!” Everyone at our table said “aw!” It was really fun watching our chef cook. Dinner wasn’t bad. I was adventurous and tried everything, including seaweed. I really liked the chicken in creamy mustard sauce! I could have eaten a whole plate of that. The staff there was great and picked up on our anniversary and brought us out a cake and sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and took our picture.

Afterwards we went to the casino for a bit and I played slots and won nothing and Scott won a little bit at blackjack. We went to get our pictures taken just to get a free itinerary map. Then we went up to the “Spinnaker Lounge” and watched the comedian David Naster that we heard earlier actually do comedy. We found out that he lives in Kansas City and is partial to firemen, policemen, paramedics, and nurses. Scott talked to him afterwards about some people they both knew and he bought his book, “You Just Have to Laugh,” about true stories that turn a hard situation into something humorous.

We went down to the “Garden Café” for a “chocoholics buffet” which was fun, not only because of the chocolate, but because of the chocolate and ice sculptures. Then we went back up to the “Spinnaker” to see a game show called the “Liars Club” which is basically like the game Balderdash. The three panelists, the cruise director, David Naster, and two other comedians known as Sharkbait gave definitions to obscure words and the audience had to figure out who was lying. It was hilarious, but my favorite part was when Sharkbait did an impression of our captain. It was precise, down to the captain’s favorite phrase, “have a smashing day!” and his Norwegian accent.

We tried to stick around for another game show called “the Quest”, but it really wasn’t thrilling us and we were tired, so we went back to our room.

Scott again stayed up reading and I went to bed around 12:30am or so.

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 5

Cruiser’s Log, Day 5 (1/13/10)

Wow, has it been five days already??? Yesterday was the halfway point, so I guess so. Sometimes I lose track of what day it is. I believe this is Wednesday.

The alarm woke me up this morning. I slept all night through. I guess all the walking yesterday wore me out. We arrived at the time my alarm was set for, so when I looked out the balcony, we were in the harbor at Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

We got dressed and went down to breakfast at the “Garden Café.” Then we returned to the room and got our swimsuits on and gathered our things and went to the Stardust Theater to await our tour. When it was our turn to leave, we boarded a “tender”, several of which I guess are kept on our ship. They are enclosed boats that they use to ferry people back and forth between the shore and the ship when the ship is anchored away from a dock. When we arrived on shore, we were taken to another open-air safari-style bus/taxi and driven a short distance to Dolphin Discovery for our dolphin encounter.

This was the highlight of my week! I LOVED this excursion. If I had it to do again, I might have rather done the “dolphin swim” which give you a bit more interaction with the animals, but I still loved it. I think they said they had 18 adult dolphins and three babies that were born in August. We saw the babies being fed by trainers in another pool area. We stowed our things, got into life vests, and watched an orientation video. Then we headed to the pool and climbed down a set of stairs to a submerged platform. We spent 30 minutes or so in the water, with the dolphin doing tricks and coming by us for us to touch him. The trainer showed us different parts, such as the pinhole ears and how to tell a male from a female. Ours was a boy named Al, by the way. And we each got to be kissed by the dolphin, kiss the dolphin back, and shake “hands” while we were photographed and the whole thing was videotaped. Of course they make a fortune off of that, since it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and if you are in the water, you can’t very well take pictures or video unless you have someone out of the water with you.

After we were done, we took the taxi back to the dock and the tender back to the ship. Since we were already in our swimsuits and the boat was less populated than usual, we climbed in the pool for a while. The thing that I love about the pools is that on both sides of each, there is a wide area, sort of a ledge, that is only 2-3 inches deep. I sat there and was able to soak up the sun, but since I was sitting in the water, I kept cool. It was a beautiful day, around 84 degrees and mostly sunny. I think I added to my sunburn slightly! After a while, we went up a deck to the “sun deck” and I laid on my stomach to get the other side toasted and to let the sun dry me off for a bit. When I got too hot (my suit is 95% black), we went down to the “Garden Café” to eat lunch. Well, that is, after we explored that deck for a little bit. It’s the sports deck and there was shuffleboard and giant chess, a golf cage, and a basketball/soccer/tennis cage.

After lunch, we came upstairs and I showered and Scott took a nap. I got ready and sat watching the scenery as we headed out to sea and played my DS again. Then Scott got up and got ready and we went down to the photo gallery to buy a new memory card for the camera! We went through about 600 pictures and videos! Anyone want to come see slides of our vacation? LOL, just kidding.

Then we went to the Stardust Theater for a murder mystery dinner. I had never been to one, but always wanted to. We were put in a group with Jeff and Debbie and one set of their parents, Greg and Mickey (the other set of parents were in another group). They were from Olathe and were really nice and we had a great time. Jeff played the part of Les Baggs, the escaped convict. Debbie was Nadia Seymour, the model. Greg was Chief Wiki-Wiki. Mickey was Leilani, the hula dancer. I was Holly Day, the wife of a billionaire and Scott was Joey Breakers, the surf dude and murderer! It was a lot of fun. Except I had to go home with a murderer!!!

Then we got a drink refill and headed back to the room to veg. I tried to run to the shop upstairs to get some aloe since we are both sunburned from this afternoon, but they were closed. So we played gin rummy a bit

I marvel at certain things. Like how a huge plane that weighs so much can stay in the air. Or how this gigantic ship that holds nearly 3500 people including the crew and all the sundries that we need and want can float without sinking. We are really moving tonight. We have 800 miles to go to get to the Bahamas Friday, so we are traveling at 21 and a half knots (24-25 mph), when we were going 15-17 (17-19 mph) usually. Yesterday since we weren’t going far, we only went about four knots (four and a half mph). By comparison, 21 knots is fast and the boat is rocking quite a bit.

We went down to the “Garden Café” for a snack since dinner was fancy and a bit skimpy and since I am picky and didn’t care for the offered appetizers and picked out parts of the dessert. We came back upstairs and Scott was teaching me how to play Texas Hold ‘Em. Then we watched Kung Fu Panda on the movie channel, but I fell asleep towards the end, so Scott tucked me in with some Tylenol PM. We had to set the clocks back one hour, so I went to bed at 10 and he stayed up reading. It’s funny, I used to be the one to stay up late, now I am the one going to bed early.

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 4

Cruiser’s Log, Day 4 (1/12/10)

I woke up in the middle of the night, coughing and choking, so I got up for a while. We were passing by San Juan, Puerto Rico at the time. After my throat felt better, I went back to bed.

When I woke up, I looked out the balcony and saw a small little rock island going by. We got ready and went to breakfast at the “Garden Café”, then we went back to the room and got ready as we were docking in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The weather was beautiful! Blue skies, sun, and warm temperatures! But, of course, we weren’t going to the beach!

We collected our things and went downstairs. We were docked between a Carnival cruise ship and a Princess cruise ship. I thought our ship was big enough, but Princess was even BIGGER! And I heard later that there was another one that was even bigger than that! I can’t even imagine! We joined a group going to Coral World and took an open air taxi to the other side of the island to Coki Beach. We were a little disappointed in the park, but it was okay. We saw little sharks and sting rays. Then we went in an observation tower that reached below the sea and we were able to go down and look at the fish, etc. We saw sea turtles and iguanas. We took a break to sit and we called Sue to check on things at home because we were getting AT&T service. I had forgotten the two hour time change and the kids were still at home before school, so I was able to talk to them! I was so happy! The longest I have gone without the kids is four days and I can hardly get through their weekends with their dad without talking to them.

Then we went in an area to see different fishes, lobster, etc. in little aquariums and they brought in two sea lions, which was fun to see and made the trip worthwhile. Then we finished up a little nature trail, bought a couple of things in the gift shop, and headed back to the taxi. Our driver, Agnes (cab number 1110, which we remembered since our room number is 11010), took us back to the pier. From there, we walked around the Havensight Mall which is right next to the docks, and did some shopping. Then we caught another open air cab to the downtown area, which wasn’t far and only cost us $4 each.

We walked around redeeming coupons for free stuff (mostly jewelry) and shopping. We also stopped by the post office and mailed some post cards to the kids. We walked and shopped some more. We thought we had to be back at the ship early because we had signed up for a murder mystery dinner, so we headed back via taxi and went up to our rooms and showered. But, we realized that we had the dates wrong. The murder mystery dinner is tomorrow night. Oh well, we were pretty tired from walking and the sun, so we were pretty happy to be in. I painted my nails with my new nail polish from Del Sol, which changes colors in the sun. Then we went down to dinner at the “Garden Café.” Since it was early, it wasn’t very busy and we got a nice table right by the windows with a beautiful view of the bay and the sailboats and the coast of Charlotte Amalie.

After dinner, we refilled our drinks and went back to our room. We sat on the balcony as the ship departed and watched St. Thomas fade away and the beautiful sunset until it was dark. Then Scott took a nap and I watched P.S. I Love You on the movie channel. I am so glad that we have the balcony room. I don’t mind being in my room when we have such a spectacular view and a door to let in the fresh sea air. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have an interior room and not be able to see the outside except in the common areas.

I guess I was wrong about the Caribbean sea. I guess we will be in the Caribbean for a while in the middle of the night. Our little loop to kill the night before we dock in Tortola tomorrow. And I was reading in our excursion description that our trip tomorrow includes being in the Caribbean sea.

I was flipping channels after my movie and found out that there was a 7.0 earthquake and strong aftershocks in Haiti, which shares its island with the Dominican Republic, which is where we were yesterday. Pretty scary that that is so close. They are saying it was felt as far away as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (which we passed by 2 nights ago), and that there were initially tsunami watches for Puerto Rico (which we passed by last night and are still not far from) and the Bahamas (which is where we will be Friday). I am wondering what time exactly the earthquake occurred because twice while we were shopping today, I felt like I was still on the ship, because it felt like the floor moved beneath my feet. I had to do a double-take and realize I was on the ground, not the ship. I blamed it on “sea legs.” But over dinner, Scott said he felt the same thing. It makes me wonder if we felt it there in the Virgin Islands. So devastating for the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, but I am so thankful for God’s protection for us.

I tried to wake Scott up to go get a snack, but he was near comatose, so I went out by myself. I went through the “Garden Café” and grabbed a few pieces of this fabulous bread that tastes like a soft pretzel. No, really, REALLY soft! And I got an apple along with the bread to take up to the room in case either of us got hungry again. Then I went to pick up our portraits that had been taken Sunday night. They also had up our picture from that morning, leaving the gangway, encountering some friendly pirates. It was a good picture and it’s hard to get pictures of us both together and since it is our honeymoon, I would like more of us together. So I bought it. I refilled both of our drinks and walked around some tables set out with $10 watches, pashminas, purses, and wallets. I didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without, so I headed back to the room.

I played my Nintendo DS for a while (Dr. Layton’s Diabolical box) and then we ordered some dessert from room service. We were watching two other cruise ships from our balcony not too far away. We had seen two others in port today, but had heard that there were two more somewhere. It was interesting to see their lights in the dark. I sometimes feel a bit panicked when I think of how deep the ocean is or how we are out in the middle of it and how I don’t swim very well or that there are sharks somewhere. But it helps when I can see land nearby or the other ships. When I saw the other cruise ships, I asked Scott if we were circling the wagons. Maybe the “pirates of the Caribbean” were upon us! I went to bed and Scott stayed up reading.

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 3

Cruiser’s Log, Day 3 (1/11/10)

I didn’t sleep so well last night. I had back and abdominal cramps most of the night. I wish I had brought some Tylenol PM. I took some simethicone, some Pepcid AC, and some ibu profin. I went to sleep around 1:30am, but woke up again to go to the bathroom. I woke up again at 4am and couldn’t sleep, so I sat up for an hour. I went out on the balcony and saw that we were surrounded by fog--I think we were passing near Cuba then. Then I sat and played Bejeweled on my phone until I felt sleepy again. I woke up again at 7 and decided that I’d had enough. I got up and looked outside and saw that it was beginning to get light and there was a body of land beside us. I checked the captain’s log TV channel and saw that we were running parallel to the north side of the Dominican Republic. It was about sunrise, so I wanted to watch, but we were sailing towards the sunrise. I could watch it on TV, which has a channel showing the view from our forward deck. I watched the island take form as the light increased.

Scott got up and we got ready and headed to breakfast. We again ate at the “Garden Café” (enjoying the view of a beautiful little island that a man nearby thought must be Cher‘s private island!), then we went back to our room to change into our swimsuits and get ready to go. We went down to the Starlight Theater and waited for our tour to be called. It took a while, but when it finally was called, we headed down to deck 4 and went out to our boats. We had anchored out in the harbor and boats came up to the ship to pick us up. I didn’t know this, but the part of the Dominican Republic that we were at was a peninsula jutting out from the mainland. We were surprised when our boat took us back to the little island that we had been admiring! It’s called Cayo Leventado. We got off the boat and began walking through the shops to get to the beach. All of the proprietors were trying to get us to stop and look at their merchandise and buy from them. “I give you a great deal.” We finally ended up buying a shirt for Billy and the guy talked us into a dress/coverup for me. That is the part I like the least. I feel sorry for them and wonder if they live in poverty, but I can’t support them all and they are all so pushy.

When we got to the beach, the weather was nice, but it was cloudy and windy. We sat in beach chairs for a bit, then went swimming, I have to interject what I said before, that I have never seen an ocean (except while flying over it) and have certainly never been swimming in an ocean. It was scary and fun. I was scared at how deep it could get beyond the shallows because I am not a good swimmer. And scary because I was thinking about things like sharks in the water. We alternated sitting on the beach, swimming, and beach-combing. We collected lots of shells and interesting rocks and some pieces of coral. We also saw a crab being tossed by the surf. I tried to get a picture of him, but the waves were so rough that he would get washed back out before I could focus on him and snap the picture. Then it started to rain. I didn‘t mind so much because it was still warmer than home and since we were already wet from swimming, rain didn‘t really bother me. But the wind was pretty fierce and our towels got wet from the rain. I decided it was warmer to get back in the water, so we stayed out there for a while. It stopped raining and the wind stopped blowing, but when it started raining again, we headed back to the ship, after spending maybe three hours there. When we got back, we showered and went to lunch at where? You guessed it, the “Garden Café!” Then we came back to our room to relax.

I was so tired and Scott took a nap, but I didn’t want to because I wanted to be good and exhausted so I would sleep tonight. But I couldn’t keep my eyes open, so I eventually succumbed. When I woke up, the ship was moving and the Dominican Republic was getting further away.

Interesting point: I didn’t realize that we are never (I think) actually going to enter the Caribbean sea. I know these are the Caribbean islands, but we are actually staying in the Atlantic Ocean.

Scott wasn’t feeling too well, so we sat around and watched TV for a bit. After a while, we went through the shops, asked a question at guest services and went to look at our portraits taken last night. We found a few we liked and ordered them. We pick them up tomorrow night. Then we went in search of dinner. We decided to go to the “Indigo,” one of the main dining rooms. The food was good, but the service was pretty bad. It took less time to get our food than to get someone to take our order, no one took our drink order until our meal was done, and we waited nearly 30 minutes after our meal was done before we got our dessert.

We walked through, checking stuff out, getting drink refills. Then we returned to the room to rest because we both forgot to put on sunscreen and even though it was RAINING, I got a sunburn! Even though Scott isn’t red, we thought that might be the reason for his feeling ill. Our steward is not feeling well, so we have a temporary replacement, Rommel, and he exchanged our beach towels for us, saving me a trip back downstairs. I am praying our swimsuits and my sarong and beach bag dry out by tomorrow morning!

I feel a little weird being so disconnected from the outside world. I wish I could talk to the kids, but the charges are like $6 per minute. I am also scared of an emergency, not that it would help us to know about it, and them not being able to reach us, because we didn’t leave any numbers to the ship. We thought we would leave our cell phones on, but when we found out that text messaging data transfer rates were $19.95/1 MB, we decided to turn them off to keep from being charged a fortune. I feel like an irresponsible mother.

I had thought with all my worries and fears in the beginning that I was not cut out for travel and maybe I should give it up. But I am really enjoying this trip and don’t really mind that we haven’t seen the sun or that it’s been raining or some bad restaurant service.

We watched House and The Bucket List and Scott read. Then we ordered room service. That’s the great thing about being on the ship--room service is free! After the food was gone and the movie was over, I went to bed and Scott stayed up to read.

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 2

Cruiser’s Log, Day 2 (1/10/10)

I woke up again at 7:30am, but decided to roll over and go back to sleep. This is our day at sea, so there is absolutely no reason to get up early. We finally got up about 9am, giving me a total of 13 hours of sleep (minus the three times I woke up in the night)! I guess I needed that!

I had worried about being seasick, but I haven’t had any trouble at all. The rocking of the ship almost gives you a dizzy feeling. It makes you feel kind of floaty (I know, duh, right?) and is sort of soothing and relaxing. I have never had an alcoholic drink in my life, but the word “tipsy” comes to mind when I want to describe the feeling of being on a moving ship.

We got ready and headed off to breakfast. We ended up eating at the same restaurant, the “Garden Café.” We split up, agreeing that whoever reached the area we sat in last night, would grab a table and wait for the other one. I got my food and headed that way, looking for Scott. I kept walking around and couldn’t find him or even an empty table anywhere near our place from last night. I overheard an employee saying that this was the breakfast rush, that everyone sleeps late today, and that there was more seating down further. I kept walking and looking, but didn’t see Scott or an empty table. I ended up at the doors to the outdoor deck. By this time, my food was cold. I was sure Scott had found a seat and I was just missing him, so I gave up, sat down outside and started eating. I finished quickly and went to the bar to buy a Pepsi and headed back inside. I finally found him, plates in hand, looking for me. He hadn’t sat down and his food was cold. I felt horrible. I ate without him while he was still looking for me! We got him some fresh, hot food and headed back outside. He ate and I got an unlimited soda upgrade, more food, and then he got an unlimited soda upgrade. $50 bucks each but individual sodas were $2.24 each. After we finished eating, we headed back to the cabin to relax a bit and I sat at the desk, blogging and enjoying the view with the sliding deck door open. I wanted to write on the balcony, but was worried about a sudden jolt sending my laptop flying overboard! Scott said I was a chicken!

At some point, we met our cabin steward, Garry, who is quite funny and says, every time he sees us, “Yo! Scott! Robin!” We thought the bed runner would make a good beach blanket, so he went in search of some smaller ones for us and delivered them to our room later in the day!

We walked around and explored a bit more. It strikes me that the ship is like a cross between a hotel and a mall, with some entertainment thrown in. Kind of like the Crown Center in Kansas City, with the hotels attached, all the shops, and even a movie theater. We have multiple bars and restaurants, a spa, a bowling alley, lounges, pools, a fitness center, an arcade, a theater, shops, etc.

We seem to be stuck in a rut already as we again ate at the “Garden Café.” This time we ate together! They had really cushy booths and it was near the window with a great view of the ocean. An elderly man offered to take a picture of us together.

We again strolled around and checked out the shops. Then we went to the theater to hear “Flash” Gordon give a talk about shopping in St. Thomas and received lots of coupons for free merchandise at the shops in St. Thomas and also raffle entries for drawings for prizes from the shops.

Afterwards, we showered and changed into nicer clothes and went out for formal portraits to be taken. Then we went to dinner. We were going to eat at the fancier restaurant (break our monotony), the “Summer Palace,” but when we got there, we looked over a menu posted outside and we didn’t see much that we would care for, so we decided to go to “La Cucina,” the Italian restaurant on board. Scott had the chicken parmesan and I had a seared salmon which was really good.

We walked around after dinner and saw that the pool and hot tubs were nearly empty, so we decided to take advantage of it and changed into our swimsuits. We stopped at the gift shop and bought a tote bag, then went by to see “Flash” Gordon to get a couple of vouchers, refilled our drinks, and went to the hot tub. We spent some time there and then retired to our room to relax and watch a ship TV channel, where they had recorded the bar’s “game show” called “the Not-So-Newlywed Game.”

For a late night snack, we tried to go to the “Great Outdoors” eating area, but the food selection wasn’t that great. I ate a bit, while Scott watched me. Then we went to get drink refills and found the “Blue Lagoon Café” where we found a better selection of food, but worse service (which is bad since the “Great Outdoors” is a buffet, no service!). Then it was back to the bar for another refill, a quick stop at the customer service desk to ask a question, then to check out the arcade where Scott played a round of Guitar Hero. After that it was back to the room for the night where we changed our clocks ahead one hour and watched some TV.

My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 1

I debated back and forth about whether to post all of my logs in one post or spread them out. I think for the sake of adding pictures, I will post them one at a time, so bear with me.

Cruiser’s Log, Day 1 (1/9/10)

We actually got on the ship! Let the fun and relaxation begin!

Well, first things first, I was panicked and nervous that we wouldn’t get to the ship on time. Our plane was arriving in Miami at 12:45pm, our cruise departed at 4pm. No problem, right? Well, everything I read said we needed to be on board 2 hours before departure and that check in would take 30-45 minutes. That narrowed down our time! We landed in Miami early (about 12:20), so I was happy. But we were so early that another plane was at our terminal, so we were stuck waiting. Of course this problem was compounded by the fact that I had to go to the bathroom reeeeeeeeeeeeeally bad and hadn’t been able to for a while because turbulence had necessitated the captain leaving the “fasten seatbelt” sign on. So, I was beginning to be in pain and getting anxious about the time.

We were able to get in to another terminal finally, and we got off the plane and headed towards baggage claim. I found a bathroom. Then we waited for our luggage. And waited. And waited. It was nearly 45 minutes that we stood there waiting (after the walk to the baggage claim and the bathroom breaks). It was 1:40 when we headed to find a taxi and I was so worried we would arrive late and they wouldn’t let us on the ship.

The taxi ride was about 20 minutes and we were able to see a bit of Miami. I found it interesting that the Port of Miami is in downtown Miami. I would have thought downtown would have been more inland, but it’s not. It was amazing driving past all the cruise lines’ docks and seeing the huge ships and the yachts at the marinas.

I should mention that it was foggy and raining in Miami. We had come in search of sun, but I didn’t really mind because even with a temperature of only 45 degrees, it sure beat the temps and weather conditions in Kansas City! The morning we left, I think it was seven degrees. Which was an improvement from the day before when the HIGH was one degree and it was still snowing. This season, so far, we have had 23 inches of snow! The average for the whole season is 20 and we still have a couple of months of winter to go! Let’s not even talk about the wind chill because it’s been terribly windy as well. So, 45 degrees felt like a heat wave to us, and who cares about precipitation that is not frozen in nature!

So, we made it to our port, checked our suitcase, went through security, filled out a health questionnaire, and headed to check-in. I was glad to see there were so many other people still making their way through. It made me feel like we weren’t so late after all. In fact, I had seen a guy from Norwegian Cruise Lines at the airport picking up someone from our flight (possibly the people from Kansas City that we saw on both of our planes and now on the ship). I was sure they wouldn’t turn away anyone that they had gone to the trouble of picking up at the airport. We started checking in and when we presented our birth certificates and driver’s licenses, the lady handed us a memo that said we would not be able to return home by air in the event of an emergency since we didn’t have passports. She gave us our room card/on-board credit card, our room assignment, more paperwork and sent us up to board. I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

I had read that it was hard to find your room aboard cruise ships, but it really wasn’t. We knew we were on deck 11, so we pushed 11 on the elevator and when we got off, there were signs indicating which direction to go for which room. It was quite a walk, but we got there. I had also read that the rooms were teeny-tiny, little more than a small box. I don’t know if it's just because my hubby sprung for the balcony suite or what, but our room is not that small. There’s room to get around, lots of storage space, a queen or king size bed (not sure which), a decent-sized bathroom, a pull-out couch, a desk, and our balcony with deck chairs. Pessimistic me wondered what a balcony would entail, a view of the pool or the galley or something interior. It was great to find that the balcony was actually exterior and we could really see the ocean and the islands!

We came in and unpacked our carry-ons and explored our room a bit. We sat on the balcony for a long time, watching the sea gulls, taking pictures of Miami, etc. We read our daily newsletter and the information binder, and watched a little of the TV channels that gave us info about the ship. Then we had a lifeboat drill. The alarm sounded and we got our life jackets out of the closet and went downstairs to the theater, which was our rendezvous point. We heard info about what to do in case of emergency, then we were released. We went back to our room and put away the life vests and sat down. I was reading over some more info, when I felt like something was bumping underneath me. I thought I was imagining things until I looked out over the balcony and noticed a shore landmark had gotten closer, so I realized we were moving. We stood on the balcony, watching everything, waving at boatmen and people on shore, and took pictures. We backed out, turned around, and headed out to sea. It was sort of mysterious when we left because there was fog on the water, so it looked really cool!

Once there was nothing left to see but water all around us, we headed in and got ready to leave the room in search of food. We had only eaten a brunch in the Dallas airport. I’d only had one sausage McMuffin all day. I was starting to get a headache and with the waves being pretty choppy, I decided to head off any problems by taking some Dramamine and some ibu profin. We walked around, exploring a little bit and eventually found one of the many dining rooms, the “Garden Café“. They have food, buffet style. There are a few restaurants on board that charge a cover fee (specialty restaurants), but for the others, you just go in and start eating--the cruise fare covers your food! We ate a good meal and explored a little more. We went down to the “shore excursions” desk and signed up for some activities in our ports of call. In Samana, Dominican Republic, we will be doing the Cayo Levantado Beach Escape. In St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, we will be going to the Coral World Park. In Tortola, British Virgin Islands, we will be experiencing a Dolphin Encounter. We haven’t booked anything on the cruise line’s private island of Great Stirrip Cay, Bahamas yet, but will likely do some snorkeling there. When we get back in to Miami, we have booked a tour of the Everglades.

After that, we went back to our cabin. It was only about 8pm, but since we had been up since 3am, we were exhausted and took showers and went to bed early. I loved leaving the balcony door open and getting the fresh air and hearing the waves. Along with the gentle rocking, I was asleep in no time. That is, of course, after the cabin steward came in and dropped off our daily newsletter, scaring me to death! I had heard a knock, but had been dozing and was too sleepy to make out where it was coming from and what it meant. After two knocks, he came right in. I was disoriented, so just laid there, and I heard him say, “here is your daily newsletter, sorry, good night,“ and he left without me even seeing him! Anyways, I woke up at 11 to visit the bathroom and again at some point in the middle of the night. At that time, I guess Scott couldn’t sleep so he was up reading, but had pulled the curtain that separates the bed from the sitting area, so as not to disturb me.

Thoughts From Un Avion...or...Details of My Wedding

Saturday, January 9, 2010

As I type this, I am somewhere in the neighborhood of 39,000 feet over the Texas/Louisiana border. I am on-board a Boeing 767, headed for Miami, the end of my flying journey (for now anyways), but only the beginning of the real journey. My new husband is sitting two seats away from me (do I smell? Ha, ha), sleeping, and we are headed for our honeymoon cruise. Yes, we got married nearly four weeks ago, but what with the kids, Christmas, a trip to California, we had to put it off. I have never been on a cruise before. Heck, I have never even seen the ocean or a beach except for when I flew over it on my way back and forth to Germany over a decade ago. I am landlocked or a land-lubber or whatever you want to call me!

So, am I excited? I should be. I have always wanted to take a cruise and see the Caribbean. After Christmas vacation and four consecutive snow days, I am ready for a break from my three children. A honeymoon alone with my new husband! But the truth is that I am nervous, scared, and I feel guilty. I feel guilty for leaving my children for eight days. The longest I have ever been away from them is four days. They may get on my nerves, but I still love them and they need their mama. I feel bad not being there and being pretty much incommunicado. What if my son misses me and wants to say hi? Eight days is a long time. I know everyone says that I deserve this, but I feel bad about running off without my children. I feel a general unease, worried that something will go wrong while I am gone. Guess that is the control-freak in me. Nothing will go wrong as long as I am there to hold it together. Silly, I know, but admitting it is half the battle, right? I’ve felt like that my whole life, which I guess is why I am such a homebody. Of course, I have had instances that made it seem true, but that’s a whole different therapy session right there!

I suppose the nervousness and fear is partly related to that. I am getting more nervous about flying the more that I fly. I didn’t used to mind, but it bothers me more these days. My main reason for fear is that I feel like Murphy’s Law has singled me out. Anything that can go wrong usually does go wrong for me. I have a supreme fear that we will be denied passage on the cruise once we get there because we do not have passports. Everything I read says that if you are making a “closed loop voyage”, you can present a birth certificate and driver’s license instead, but I still worry as they highly recommend having the passport anyways. I have had a hard time getting excited because I don’t want to picture myself on a ship or a beach, just to have that beautiful little daydream dashed to pieces, when they refuse us passage and we are stuck in Miami. There are worse places to be stuck, but still, it ain’t no cruise! I’m protecting myself from severe disappointment. Even now, I am having a slight panic attack, sure that I have forgotten Scott’s birth certificate, though I know that I know that I know that I checked and rechecked our paperwork.

My overactive imagination sees a hurricane stranding us on an island and our only form of rescue is by plane, but we can’t go because Homeland Security won’t allow anyone to enter the U.S. by air without a passport. Or finding out there is a dire emergency at home and we can’t get there, stuck on the cruise, having no fun worrying about what’s going on at home.

I know that worrying will not change anything. I know I should stow it because worrying about the kids isn’t going to keep them safe or make them behave for my new mother-in-law. I know worrying isn’t going to get us on-board that ship or prevent any hurricanes. I know that what worry will do is to make me miserable and probably physically ill. And rob me of my joy. But once the fear monster is here, he’s hard to get rid of.

So, while I wait for Murphy to find a way to “get” me, or else find a way to relax and enjoy myself, I thought I might reflect on my wedding, as I promised previously, when I told the tale of us.

I had been waiting for my divorce to finalize for a long time. I never thought I would be someone who is waiting for one marriage to end so I can immediately begin a new one. I hadn’t planned on even dating at this point, let alone planning a wedding. But you know what “they” say about the best-laid plans. I cringed every time someone asked when the wedding was going to be and we said we didn’t know and if pressed further, we had to admit I was waiting on my divorce to finalize. I felt like such a hussy or something equally nasty and rumor-worthy. It didn’t do to try to explain that I thought I was divorced when Scott and I started dating or that I had signed three or four sets of divorce papers (it’s all a bit fuzzy nowadays) or that I had actually been divorced for three whole hours before my idiot lawyers got in the way. I had originally planned to stay the course and be willing to go the distance on the divorce case. But, I was growing tired of the whole situation, as was everyone else, and we started to feel a time crunch. We had a lot of things that were occurring in rapid succession. Christmas coming, family going out of town for the holidays, Scott was trying to take 60 days leave for our marriage and honeymoon, a trip to California hinged on whether we were married or not, and then there were the taxes. We wanted to get married by the end of the year to help Scott out at tax time. He will take a big hit this year with the inheritance he liquidated to be able to pay for the addition to the house and buy many other things that we both needed and wanted. If we were married, he could claim me and the kids on his taxes and it would help him out a lot. The least I could do for all he has done for me. The window of time was closing in on us. We figured out a prime date (December 14) and held our breath to see if things would be accomplished by then. Nothing seemed to be moving. We would think the papers were going to be signed, then they weren’t. On and on it went, while time was passing us by.

December 7, my lawyer took them to court again, with the hopes it would be final by the end of the day. I still don’t know what happened there, but it didn’t get done. With a week to go, we needed some answers. Scott had gone ahead and put in for leave, so we were afraid that if we kept waiting, the 60 days would be gone before we knew it and there would have been no wedding or honeymoon! So, I called my lawyer and said to make them an offer they couldn’t refuse. I offered to forgive more than $10,000 in back child support in exchange for an immediate signing (and the agreement for him to come to Kansas City to pick up the children). That little parenthetical statement was more than just an afterthought. For one, if he stops showing up or even just can’t make it one weekend, my lawyer advised me to show up anyways, to keep him from claiming I hadn’t shown up. I’d rather drive across town for the next 14 years than all the way to Emporia. And two, I felt it would take the focus off the quick signing--if he knew the why, he would drag his feet just to mess with me. But between two lawyers involved, it was less than immediate. I ended up having to present my proposal to him myself. He agreed and I sent him to see his lawyer. New papers had to be drawn up. But I couldn’t get a hold of my lawyer. He left word for me to call in the morning, Thursday December 10. When I called, he had gone out of state to his son’s wedding and his assistant knew nothing about it! She found my file and a revised copy of the papers, so she emailed it to me. I printed, signed, scanned, emailed it back to her. She hand-carried it over to the other attorney, with a letter (per my urging) stating that the condition to this deal was that it had to be signed by a judge by close of business Friday, meaning he would be responsible for filing it. This worried me to no end as he is a bumbling idiot. She promised to call me when she heard anything. So I got no calls. Obviously we couldn’t just show up Monday and get married with no prior arrangements, so we had gone ahead and booked a chapel and a photographer and prayed that we hadn’t just wasted that money. I checked with the assistant Friday about noon, after spending a nervous morning, fretting about it. She called the other attorney to check and it was a good thing she did because apparently he needed a swift kick to remind him that this was a limited time offer. The day wore on and we were sweating bullets. We finally heard that he had called their office around 4pm from the courthouse, requesting vital statistics from their file. We assumed that he wouldn’t be at the courthouse filling out these kinds of forms unless he was actually filing the papers, but I guess I am a pessimist because I could picture him dropping dead of a heart attack, before he got the papers filed or losing them between the first and fourth floors! I hated to get married on an assumption, but this was cutting it way too close for my comfort! We went to the Jackson county courthouse Monday morning and got our marriage license. On the way back, I got an email, saying that my lawyer’s assistant had found a voicemail from the other attorney dated Friday after she’d gone home, confirming that he had filed the papers. Later in the day, she let me know that she had actually received them and she overnight mailed them to me and they were waiting on the doorstep when we came home the next morning!

On to more pleasant subjects! We had talked about getting married at the courthouse, but we found a historic chapel that we thought would make a beautiful backdrop for wedding photos. We invited a select few, but with the last-minute nature of our wedding, the only ones able to attend were our mothers (and a couple of crashers, ha, ha--his mom’s three friends). We would have loved to have shared our day with our friends and more family, but we were also fine with the way things turned out. Scott sent me to get a mani/pedi that morning. He had asked me if I would have my nails painted blue, since that was our wedding color. I had planned on getting a French manicure (and he later concurred), but thought, “sure, why not?” After all, nothing about this was traditional!

Our moms had come up the night before so my mom could make last minute fittings on my dress, which she made. She made my first wedding gown too. So, while I was getting my nails done, they sat at our house and played Wii bowling! I wanted some nail art also and since we were having light snow flurries (nice touch, like God throwing rice!), I opted for a snowflake to be painted on my thumbs and big toes. Everyone seemed to be fascinated and intrigued by this and I think it garnered as much attention as my dress! The kids were picked up from school early and we all got ready and headed for the chapel. We had pictures before the wedding started. It was strange for me. I think I had a hard time realizing it was for real because the setting was so intimate with so few people there. It seemed no different than before the wedding started when we were all milling around and snapping pictures. Very informal.

We had designed our own service. We walked in on one of our favorite pieces of music, Canon in D. We picked Scripture readings, etc. We kind of snickered because we hadn’t been specific about the exact passage we wanted from Ephesians 5, but thought saying it was the part about husbands and wives would be self-explanatory. Imagine our surprise when the preacher started reading an earlier passage that had little to do with marriage.

The preacher had told me to suspend being a mom for the service and not worry about what the children were doing or try to direct them, as they were a part of the wedding party (Arrena was my bridesmaid, Kimmy the flower girl, and Billy the ring bearer). I took his advice and didn’t worry about them. Billy took that as an opportunity. Apparently we were boring him as he was yawning in one of the pictures and in another, I discovered that he had put his ring bearer’s pillow to good use, laying on it on the steps behind me. When we watched our video, we could see him vigorously shaking his head back and forth, so I assumed my mother was vigorously telling him to “come here!” and he was refusing! Oh well. We didn’t care. It was a family wedding and informal and I don’t think it took anything away from it. Even made for good memories!

Scott had wanted to do a sand ceremony instead of a unity candle. I had never heard of or seen one, but it was really interesting. We bought different colored sand (blue and white) and poured them out of separate glasses into a combined vase (which incidentally had the initial “D” on it). It symbolizes becoming one because you can never again separate all the grains of sand. We engineered the wording on the sand ceremony as well as for our vows. We also had a ceremony to present each of the children with a family medallion necklace to show them how important to us they are and that they were a part of our special day and our family.

When it was over, we took more pictures. It was like the papparrazzi around there. Six adults besides the wedding party and each had a camera in hand! Then we headed home to change and went to Olive Garden for an informal wedding dinner. We said goodbye to everyone in the parking lot and went to a beautiful bed and breakfast in town and vowed to have a real honeymoon later on. And here we are! En route to the Caribbean! Stay tuned for cruise blogging!