Memorable Vacations and First Snow

What's your most memorable vacation?  It's really hard to say for me.  They have all  been good and that makes it hard to narrow down.  That is partially because the worst moment of vacation is better than the best moment working.  That's just a fact.  I know they say that about fishing.  But if you think about it, fishing and vacation are sort of the same.  Both are times spent in quiet contemplation... except of course while you are catching a great big fish or zip lining through a jungle.

I used to love the family vacations we all took together.  The bulk of those memories occurred in the backseat of a Ford, be it Fairlane, LTD or Granada.  Most of them while driving through Colorado.  No matter where we went, I always remember the parts when we were driving through Colorado.  I guess it's just a memorable state.  I have a friend who amazingly enough is able to remember back to when she was two.  I can't do that.  I am challenged to remember things I did yesterday.  I don't remember much from when I was four that wasn't recorded on Dad's 8mm movie camera and played over and over again throughout my childhood forever embedding it in my memory.  If it wasn't for that 8mm camera I probably wouldn't have any memories of one of the best vacations of my life.

When I was four we lived in Alvin, Texas.  Robbie, Ronnie and I had never seen snow and I guess Mom and Dad decided to pack us all up in the Ford Fairlane for a November vacation to Colorado in search of snow. For those of you who weren't fortunate enough to experience the beauty of the 8mm movie camera, I'll explain.  There was no sound.  So your Dad would stand in front of you with the camera running and you would stand at attention as though you were being photographed by a still camera and then he would say, "Do something!"  Your first response was to wave at the camera and say "Hi!!!"  Then he would say, "They can't hear you...." and you would start making faces.  My parents have reels and reels of 8mm film and about 40% of it is me and my brothers waving and then jumping around and making faces.  Anytime my Dad was on the screen, it means my Mom was filming and you can read Dad's lips in the footage saying "There's no film in the camera" over and over again just to mess with Mom.

So anyway, on this memorable vacation in November of 1967, they packed us and our coats and the 8mm movie camera up and we went off in search of snow.  There are movies of snow on the side of the mountains as we drove along in the car.  I suppose Mom filmed that as Dad drove which is really funny to me since she never wants to watch home movies because she says they give her motion sickness.  Seriously?  Maybe if she hadn't filmed from a moving car, this wouldn't be a problem.  But anyway, we finally stopped at a roadside park and we were all excited to get out of the car and play in snow for the first time.  Apparently, Dad got out first and turned the camera on to film all of us getting out of the car.  Robbie, my older brother, who would have just been turning 7 at the time got out with his arms sort of stuck out in the air.  He was wearing a bomber jacket and one of that hats with the flaps that come down over your ears.  After a minute Mom walked over to him and took his jacket off, turned it right side up and put it back on him.  He had put it on upside down with the collar around his waist in his excitement at seeing snow.  The whole family always gets a big kick out of that part of the movie.

I have to say that my parents were very attractive in this home movie.  Mom was really skinny and wore pencil capris's and a really cute winter white "leather looking" car jacket.  I say "leather looking" because it was the 60's we were in a Ford Fairlane and there is no doubt in my mind that Mom would not have spent the money for a real leather jacket.  But I would love to have that jacket now if I could pull it off like she did.  She had platinum blond hair and was really cute.  The incident with Robbie's jacket was really the only thing of any interest that took place at that first stop.

Later in the movie, we stopped to play in snow.  Once again, we all piled out of the back of the Fairlane in the movie and then the "fun" commenced.  There was a snowball fight.  For those of you who really know me, I was even less coordinated at age 4 than I am now, if you can believe it.  In the movie I am wearing a really cute little houndstooth coat with black fur trim that buttoned up.  I have a black fur muffler that goes around my neck and you put your hands in to keep them warm.  I was precious... right up until my dad threw a snowball that hit me right smack in the face.  Then I was a crying, screaming, bundle of 4 year old anger the likes of which no one wants to get locked up in a car with.  In the home movie, I was red and crying with a wet face (the snowball had disintegrated on impact and the cold, wet remnants had slid down my face into my coat).  Perhaps this was the moment when I initially discovered that I HATE to be cold and vacations are best if taken in a tropical climate.  To make me stop crying, my parents told me to hit Dad with a snowball, but again, I had no coordination, so I couldn't throw a snowball and hit the broadside of a barn, much less my Dad.  So finally, he bent down and I sort of rubbed a snowball in his face and everything was better.

The next footage on the 8mm film is of Ronnie attempting to walk on ice.  I must tell you that there are few things better than taking a 3 year old who has barely mastered the art of walking on a flat surface in warm dry Alvin, Texas and sticking him on a sheet of ice and watching him walk.  The footage of Ronnie walking in Colorado could entertain you for hours.  But to his credit, he never gave up.  Each time his feet slipped out from under him and he wound up on his back he immediately got up and tried again.  At times, if the fall didn't make you laugh out loud, the effort he put into trying to get back up and falling again numerous times will.  All of these years later, it is still one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Those highlights that were filmed on the movie camera are really about all I remember of the trip.  But they were great.  That trip, even though I was cold and probably whiny the entire time, is still one of my best vacation memories.  VHS cameras were not invented until much later and my Dad never got one until I was an adult so, we don't have talking home videos of us as kids.  All of ours are silent which probably makes the memories better.  After all, who wants to hear a screaming 4 year old whine about the melted snow sliding down her front?  Not me!

Top Ten Places to "Get Away From It All"

Getting away from it all.... that's the trick, right?  It's what we all strive to do on a regular basis.  Maybe the hardest part of getting away from it all isn't in the "getting away" part, but in figuring out what "it all" is.  For you "it all" might entail a tedious 60 hour a week job that becomes an 80 hour a week job if you count the hours of sleep that you lose over it each week.  To another person, it might mean the constant arguing with kids to get homework done, take baths and get in bed in a timely manner with somewhat clean teeth.  For yet other people perhaps "it all" is simply the constant motion and noise of a big city.

Regardless of what you are attempting to "get away" from, there is probably an ideal location in which you can escape.  For me, my ideal escape must have warm weather and salt water in the mix.  But maybe your get away is the slope of a snow covered mountain.  I haven't done a top ten list in a few weeks and I know that there has been a lot of clamoring for more of my top ten insight.  I know, you people starve for my knowledge.  So here are my thoughts....

10.)  Whistler, BC Canada - I don't care how warm and sunny the Caribbean is, just look at a few pictures on the Whistler tourism website and your troubles will begin to melt away.  Seriously, the picture below looks like one of those village scenes you display on your fireplace mantel at Christmas time.  How could you not want to be a part of that little Christmas village?  You can't!

9.)  Hawk's Cay Resort on Duck Key - Ummmm.... It's in the Keys.  Do you really need to hear more?  Okay then, how about this....  Not only do they have an exceptional conventional hotel and spa but the property also includes villas that you can rent by the week in which you have your own private pool just in case your "get away" does not include sharing chlorine with others.

8.)  Wild Dunes, South Carolina - I know what you are thinking... Who's taken over Susan's travel blog???!?!  But I'm still here.  Today's top ten list includes a little something for everyone.  Are you a golfer? Then perhaps you'll be interested in this top rated South Carolina golf course just 30 minutes from Charleston which incidentally is considered to be the the birthplace of golf in America.  There are only two words to describe this place - Beautiful and Peaceful!

7.)  San Juan Islands, Washington - On the day that I visited the San Juan Islands I had left my purse containing my credit cards, drivers license, money and lipstick in a Starbucks in Lynnwood and did not get it back until late that evening and STILL it was one of the most relaxing days of my life.  I'm just saying, this is a laid back part of the world.  In my mind, it would be the perfect place to rent a house for a week and forget that the rest of the world even exists.

Downtown Friday Harbor

6.)  Grand Wailea - Maui, Hawaii - Maui was voted "best island in the world" by Conde Naste readers for the 17th time this year.  The readers of the Maui News voted the Grand Wailea the best Resort, Restaurant and Resort Spa of 2012 which I guess means that the Grand Wailea is quite simply the BEST.  I haven't been there, but with all of those "bests" how can you possibly go wrong?

5.)  Santorini Island, Greece - Now, this is my idea of an island get away.  In fact, if I went there I'm not sure I would ever want to get back to here.  The Santorini 360 degree view on this site will show you everything you would need to know before booking your trip to paradise.

4.)  Blue Hole of Belize - Okay, you don't have to say it.  It is a hole in the water.  You can't stay there.  I understand that.  But there are a myriad of places on land near the Blue Hole where you can stay so that you can dive at the Blue Hole.  Just look at the picture below and tell me you don't want to experience this!  I dare you!

3.)  Overwater Bungalows in Bora Bora - Hey!  I didn't say these "get aways" were affordable, I said they were away and they are.  WAAAAAY away!!!!  How many times have you dreamed of going to a place like the one in the picture below?  Just imagine walking down those steps and into the crystal clear waters of the South Pacific.  You know you want it....

2.)  Christmas European River Cruise - What better way to get away from the hustle and bustle of a commercial American Christmas than by floating down the Danube in the luxury cabin of a riverboat as you stop in various cities to enjoy centuries old churches and villages?  I'm in!

1.)  Sugar Ridge - Jolly Harbour, Antigua - I have only two words for you.... All Inclusive.

I hope you have enjoyed my Top Ten Places to Get Away From It All.  I know I enjoyed looking them up on the internet.  Whether you agree with the order that I have placed them in or not, you must agree that any of them would be a welcome vacation.  Have a great Thursday!

Ahhhh... Grand Cayman!

Everything is set for my January cruise except that the wine package has not been purchased yet.  I think that will be done today though.  Then it is just a waiting game.  This is when the waiting gets tough.  When there is nothing left to do but think about how wonderful it will be the time really starts to drag.

Last night I dreamed that we had boarded the ship and gone to our cabin.  Our luggage had already been delivered to the cabin, so my travel buddy, Jenny unpacked and put all of her things away and slid her suitcase under her bed.  Then she left the room and I began to unpack and opened the closet door to discover that previous guests had left clothes, shoes and evening bags in the closet and there was no room for me to unpack.  But instead of calling the cabin steward to have it all removed, I started going through  and trying it all on looking for shoes that matched.  The worst part was that none of the shoes had their mates.  Just a single shoe from each pair was left behind except one cheap looking pair of size 9 shoes.  In the dream, I actually tried them on my size 6 feet just to be sure they wouldn't fit.

I'm not sure what all of this means except that the next 53 days will be VERY long.  When anticipating a vacation, I become consumed by it.  I can't help it.  I now have 53 days ahead of me in which I can spend each waking moment trying to decide how to spend my time in Grand Cayman.  You see, Jenny and I booked excursions for each stop except Grand Cayman.  We did this for several reasons but the outcome is that I now get to research and plan a full day in Grand Cayman.  I have been there a number of times.  On all but one visit there, I had excursions booked prior to leaving the ship.  The one time I was there with no excursion planned, I was traveling alone and had decided it was the place I would just wing it.  I am so glad that I did.  I enjoyed a wonderful lunch on a balcony overlooking the tender boat drop off.  The pictures below were taken from my table at lunch.

Okay, granted, the cranes do nothing for the view.  But this photo was taken 6 years ago, so they have probably been moved since.  Following lunch, I shopped.  I'll just tell you that lunch was the least expensive hour of the entire day.  I bought everything from rum to pendants and earrings.  Yes, you read that correctly, pendants... plural.  You see, I made the mistake of going to the shopping lecture during the day at sea before arriving in Grand Cayman in which the shopping guide talked about black coral which is only found in a limited number of places with the Cayman Islands being one of them.  She also talked about the shops where you could buy coin pendants.  Jewelry shopping is never a good idea if you don't have someone with you to talk you out of your purchases.  The coin that I purchased was minted in the 1400's in Genoa, Italy which is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.  I got a certificate of authenticity for it.  And yes, I drank the kool-aid.

I like Grand Cayman because it is one of those Caribbean islands where they drive on the wrong side of the road and English is the first language of the citizens.  It is also very pretty and there are a lot of neat things to do there.  On previous visits to Grand Cayman, I have gone to Hell, visited the Turtle Farm and been out to Sting Ray City.

 Hell is pictured to the left.  It is a small town outside of Georgetown that has a post office and a store and behind the post office and store, you see the rock formation in the photo.  The tour operator told us that they are not sure how the rock formation came to exist but the belief is that it was an old reef that came to be above water due to an earthquake or some other natural occurrence.  Whatever the case, it is a bed of grayish colored rock that you cannot touch.  You walk on a boardwalk above it and take your pictures.  The attraction is apparently in buying a post card and mailing it from the post office so that it is post marked from Hell.  I mailed one to myself.  Oh, the town was named Hell because when it was discovered by some Brit, he called it that because the rock is very jagged and cuts you if you touch it and he thought that this must be what Hell was like.

The Turtle Farm is one of my favorite things in Grand Cayman.  The photo to the right is my mom holding a yearling at the Turtle Farm.  They let you do that.  From what I understand, now you are also able to swim with the turtles in one of the tanks.  When we were there, this was not an option.  Some of the turtles are enormous.  I'm not sure why I like turtles so much, but I do and so I think this is a very cool place.  They also have iguanas and parrots at the turtle farm in case you want to see them up close.  Or you can walk through the tourist market in Georgetown and see parrots and iguanas at random stalls.

Sting Ray City is a really interesting experience.  When you read about the trips out there, it is described as "swimming with" or "snorkeling with" sting rays.  In my experience, the water at the sand bar is so shallow and there are so many people there that it is really more of a case of standing and wading in the water with sting rays.  Take a look at the picture below taken from our boat and you will see what I mean.

Sting Ray City is far enough from Grand Cayman that you can barely see land once you get out there.  Yet you are on a sand bar so the water is only about hip deep.  There are generally dozens of boats there which each brought dozens of people.  The sting rays come to the sound of the boats arriving because they know they will get fresh squid when a new boat arrives.  The rays do have barbs and they can sting, so you have top be careful to shuffle your feet through the sand rather than picking them up and stepping down.  Some of the ones we saw had a wingspan of 4 feet.  The one in the photo below was probably about 3 feet across.

There is also a rum cake factory you can visit in Grand Cayman and of course, the beaches are terrific.  Seven Mile Beach is one of the most popular beaches in the Caribbean.  I am not sure what we will do on this visit.  We have talked about renting a car and going to Rum Point Beach and maybe visiting the Turtle Farm too.  Jenny has never been there.  So it should be a lot of fun.  I'll let you know what we decide to do.

Oh!  I'll leave you with one more photo today.  This is the view as you come into Georgetown on your ships tender.  I love this view.  The building in the background with the sign that says Landmark is where I had lunch that day I was there alone.  I sat on the left corner of the second floor balcony.  I wish I was there right now.  Have a good day!

A Vacation to Recover from the Holidays?

Trips to spend time with family are precious and must be valued.  But once you are back home with all of the comforts and peace and quiet of your own home, do you sometimes wonder what you were thinking a few weeks ago when you were so looking forward to making that trip?  Holiday trips to spend time with family can be stressful even in the best of situations.  In the worst, we all hear about those family stabbings on the 10:00 o'clock news each year in which an argument broke out over a turkey leg and it wound up in fatalities. I'm not sure what makes us think that any single year might be different than others.  But they usually all turn out about the same way.

I am very fortunate.  I am one of the few people I know who truly enjoys spending time with each member of my family.  Some more than others naturally.  :-)  But I never walk away thinking, if I could only get Goober alone in a dark room full of knives.....  Even though I enjoy spending time with family I still found myself day dreaming during the second half of the Cowboys game about my upcoming cruise.  If you aren't already planning a vacation for late winter or early spring, I don't know how you were able to make it through Thanksgiving and especially that Cowboys game.  It is probably all that saved me.

You see for me, planning the vacation and the anticipation of it are half of the fun.  For months prior to a vacation anytime I am sad or stressed, I just go to my happy place where I imagine standing on deck 4 at muster as the ship pulls away from the dock and all of my troubles are left behind.  It's very therapeutic!  It works the same way with vacations that don't include a cruise ship.  Just imagine yourself turning off all electronic devices as the flight attendant points out the emergency exits and demonstrates the oxygen masks. It's the same thing.  Either way, all of your troubles are centered around your home and office and you are leaving them.

For me on a cruise vacation, I don't actually feel totally relaxed until I walk into my cabin the first time.  That is when all of the worries just turn to liquid and drip away.  I'll never forget the first time my nephew, Matt and I walked into our cabin on Rhapsody of the Seas in July of 2007.  I had booked the cruise late (less than a month prior to sailing) and requested a balcony but we didn't get a cabin assignment until we arrived at the terminal and still didn't know where the cabin was located until we found it on the ship.  It turned out to be on the aft port corner.  It was a large room with a balcony almost as big as the room.  It wrapped around to the side and had lounge chairs as well as a table and chairs.  When we walked in, we both went nuts!!!!  He called his mom immediately and I called my parents to let them know we were in the greatest room ever!  We each spent a LOT of time on that balcony that week.  Here are a few pictures of Matt on that balcony...

 Don't bother asking why all but one of these pictures were taken while we sat at the dock in Galveston either prior to sailing or upon returning.  I can't answer that question.  But they are the only ones I saw that were taken out on the balcony.  I have heard that the rooms with this wrap around balcony were done away with when Royal Caribbean renovated the ships.  If so, I am sorry to hear that.  It was the most fantastic room I have ever had on a ship.  In the picture below you can see that we actually did leave Galveston during this cruise.  You can tell that by how blue the water is that Matt is looking out at.

The photo to the left was taken as we returned to Galveston on the last morning.  I didn't want to leave this balcony.  Matt was probably anxious to get home to his then girlfriend, now wife, Melissa.  I just wanted to stay on that ship and keep anybody else from ever coming back into that cabin claiming it Mine!  All Mine!!!  But we did leave.  I have never found another cabin like that one.  I am sure that cabins like that still exist.  But not for the price of a regular balcony.  They are now probably part of a suite.

On my cruise in January which, by the way, sets sail in 55 days (I have a countdown app on my cell phone) we are staying in cabin 9692.  It is a balcony on the back of the ship.  But it is in the middle of the back.  It was the only aft facing balcony available and it did cost a little more than the other balconies.  But I hope that it will be worth it.  You see I normally end up with port side balconies which is not a problem except that I always wonder what they are looking at on the starboard side of the ship when they wake up in the morning.  With an aft facing balcony, I can turn my head from port to starboard and see what everybody on each side of the ship has seen.  I'll simply be the among last to see it.

My parents will also be on this cruise along with some friends from my childhood and of course my travel buddy who I'll be sharing a room with.  We also found out after booking the cruise that a friend Jenny and I used to work with and her daughter and friend will also be on board.  So, maybe one evening, we will have a big party on our balcony.  If so, I'll take plenty of pictures to post.  Otherwise, you just might see pictures of my travel buddy Jenny out there as we leave and return to Galveston.

Have a great week and if you need a trip to day dream about over the holidays as you spend more time with family, drop me a line!

Top Ten Things to Do in an Airport

With Thanksgiving this week, I am sure that many of you will be traveling to be with friends and family.  Holiday travel can be very tough especially if there are travel delays in airports or if you just have a long layover.  In this day and age of e-readers, smart phones and IPads, at least you no longer have to worry about running out of reading material.  But many of us have reached that point in an airport when you think that you just can't read another sentence.  Then what do you do?  Today's topic is 10 things you can do in an airport when you just can't read another sentence.  So sit back and enjoy!

10.)  Go to an airport bar and sit at the bar and order a drink.  The bartender will usually talk to you if he/she isn't that busy.  If all else fails, you have about an hour to sit and watch their TV before they start giving you dirty looks to give up your seat to someone who might order more than just one drink.

9.)  Make sure the smart phone, IPad, laptop, etc. all have good charges on them.  If not, find a charging station and plug in.

8.)  Are you traveling with small kids who have pent up energy that they need to expend?  Find an out of the way area and have them race one another.  Your fellow travelers will appreciate this.  You could do this for hours.  Please for the love of God, let them get their pent up energy out.

7.)  Balance your check book.  C'mon... seriously, when was the last time you did this.  Now's your chance.

6.)  Call your mother.  You know how she is always complaining that you never call....  well now you have time.

5.)  Pick 5 people out of the crowd and make up names for them and give them imaginary lives.  This can entertain you for hours.  During past flight delays I have been surrounded with people you would not believe!!!  You'd be surprised at how many people in the airport resemble lion tamers and spies.

4.)  Do you have a friend who writes a blog????  Perhaps one concerning her employment status or another concerning her new travel business which isn't quite off the ground yet????  Maybe you could catch up on her past blogs.  They are all out there in cyberspace just waiting to be read.  I know that we are trying to think of things to do since you are tired of reading, but this option is for those of you who are just tired of reading the book that you currently have downloaded.

3.)  Email your friend who has that travel blog and the struggling travel business with specifics on that spring or summer vacation you are thinking about taking.  Heck she is probably sitting in front of her computer right now and can get back to you with options before your flight is ready to leave the airport!

2.)  Find someone in the crowd about your size and age and challenge them to a moving sidewalk race.  I cannot even begin to tell you how entertaining this can be to the entire crowd at your gate.  But please, NO WAGERING!

1.)  Start creating random Top Ten lists.

The Stresses of Sightseeing!

I said that I would write about cruising out of Florida some more today, but I'm a little bored with that, so I thought I would mix it up a little.  If you were seriously looking forward to the additional Florida cruise information, let me know and I'll get back to it tomorrow.  Otherwise, we will take a little break from that topic.  Today what I want to discuss is sightseeing vacations.

In my opinion a sightseeing vacation can almost never be mixed with a relaxing vacation unless there are only a few sights worth seeing where you are going.  Maybe if you went to Ocho Rios for a week in a resort, you could hit the Dunn's River Falls and Bob Marley's house and then have the rest of the week for relaxing.  But my problem is that once I start the sightseeing thing, I can't stop.  For me it is all or nothing.  Once I get started there is really no stopping me until I get on the plane to come back home.  Even then I kick myself in the butt for the next year if there is a single sight that I missed.  

For instance, last year my travel buddy, Jenny and I went to Hawaii.  Our time there consisted of the following....  Immediately after checking into our hotel on the afternoon of the first day, we walked down Waikiki Beach for an hour or two before finding a place to eat, which wound up being the Jimmy Buffett's at the Beachcomber, by the way, that's where we were staying.  By the time we finished dinner it was late and we were tired after a full day of traveling so we called it a night.  The following morning we began exploring and in the next week we visited Hale'iwa, Kawailoa Beach, Waimea, Pu'u O Mahuka Heiau, Sunset Beach, Kawela, every wide spot in the road on Hwy 83 including stopping for multiple views of the Chinaman's Hat at different times of day and night.  

We also stopped at every point of interest on Hwy 72 including the Halona Blowhole and Makapu'u Beach. We hiked the Makapu'u Point trail.  We went up to the Pali Lookout and made two trips to Pearl Harbor, one in the rental car and another on the bus (never count on the bus in Hawaii).  We went to the Paradise Cove Luau.  We spent most of a day getting to and from Hanauma Bay and snorkeling there followed by an evening at the Aloha Festival street party.  We climbed Diamond Head and then had lunch at Duke's on Sunday just because that's the name of a Jimmy Buffett song.  After all of that we made it over to the Big Island for a full day of volcanoes, a black sand beach and beautiful scenery.  

Cramming all of that sightseeing into a week you might think that we couldn't possibly have missed anything, but you would be wrong.  That was more than a year ago and I am still kicking myself in the butt because we didn't make it to Manoa Falls.  If I went at this point after thinking about it for the last year, I would probably be disappointed since I have now built it up so much in my head.  But my point is that I that I don't think I have ever been on a vacation and come away thinking "I couldn't have spent another moment there....  I officially did EVERYTHING".  I'm just not wired that way.  When I leave a location, I want to know it better than the locals know it.  You can't do that in a week!

When we went to Seattle several years ago, I was disappointed that we didn't get to go to Olympic National Park and drive down the coast and make it to Mt. St. Helens.  Now I am aware that this would have all taken several more days than we had available on that trip.  But I still feel that we missed something important.  Read that last sentence again...  "we missed something important..."  Ugh!  We walked all over Seattle. We did the Locks Cruise.  We went whale watching in the San Juan Islands.  We went to Bainbridge Island for a day.  We went to Victoria, BC and visited the Buchart Gardens, had tea at The Empress and walked through Chinatown. Back in Seattle we ate lunch at the Pike Place Market after walking all through it and went to the top of the Space Needle.  We even spent an hour in Nordstroms and I hate shopping and still I feel that I needed another week there so that we could make it to Olympic National Park.

Don't even get me started on all of the things we missed with only one day in Rome!  A person could write an entire encyclopedia of all the things we missed in Rome.  I think if I spent a month there, I would still feel the same way.  Perhaps that is why I am not in a huge hurry to get back there.  I'm just so overwhelmed by all that I would have to do if I went back for a week and all that we would miss if we only had a week, that I can't make myself think about it.  

I think this is what makes your 8th or 9th Caribbean cruise so enjoyable.  I'll be going on a cruise in January to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.  I have been to all of these places multiple times.  I think I have been to Cozumel 10 or 11 times.  There isn't that much to see there.  In Cozumel, you go to the beach or you snorkel or you do both... end of story.  So, when I get off the ship in Cozumel, I exhale deeply and I am in a state of total relaxation for the entire day.  On this trip, we will do the Dune Buggy, Beach, Snorkel excursion.  I have done this excursion before.  I have also done the same excursion in a Jeep.  But you stop at all the same places and take the exact same route.  I could drive that dune buggy around Cozumel with my eyes closed.  Can I tell you how relaxed I am going to be in Cozumel this time around?  

In Jamaica, we'll be doing a catamaran snorkel excursion.  The most stressful part of that day will probably be when I stand up to do the Macarana on the catamaran as we head back to the ship.  Not that doing the Macarana is stressful, but you know, I'll have to move my mouth and feet at the same time and I have that little coordination problem.  Plus, I'll have had a few rum punches before I stand up. :-)  So, for me, I think you have to choose between a relaxing vacation and a sightseeing vacation.  I love both.  But for me, I don't think they can be combined.

Look What I Stumbled On....

I started out this morning trying to get information on Costa Cruise Lines since what I read yesterday said that they cruise out of Fort Lauderdale.  I don't know if I was reading old information on the Port Everglades website or exactly what he deal was.  But they do not currently have any ships sailing out of Fort Lauderdale.  However, they do currently sale out of Miami which is just minutes away.

You may recall that Costa is the cruise line who owned the ship that ran aground in the Mediterranean last January due to the Captain's negligence killing a number of passengers.  In the days following the accident it was discovered that they had done no muster drill during the cruise, it had been scheduled for the following day, so the passengers did not know where to go.  Reviewing their website today, it would seem that the cruise line is taking precautions to make sure that nothing like this happens on one of their ships again.  They have a video which details the safety precautions they take on board as well as the safety equipment that all of their ships are now equipped with.  It looks like they have launched several new ships in the last year or two which I suppose is necessary when you run your old ones aground and they go adrift off the coast of Egypt.  To the right is a picture of me at muster on a Royal Caribbean ship.... I find that muster is much more productive if you bring along a drink although on my last cruise, they didn't allow you to bring drinks.  Boooo!!!!

I was hoping to find out from Costa's website how big their ships are, but I couldn't really find any passenger capacity information.  What I did find, however was an amazing 18 night repositioning cruise from Miami to Savona, Italy with stops in the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Tortola, St. Maarten, St John's, the Canary Islands, Funchal, Malaga (Spain),  Marseille (France) and finally ending in Savona, Italy.  The price on this cruise starts out at an amazingly low $999 for an inside cabin with the price of a balcony at only $1,699 which they say is a 68% savings from their normal price on a cruise like this!  When broken down for a balcony, you are only paying $94 a night per person.  That is really good.  I'm lead to believe that Costa's ships are much smaller and more luxurious than the Americanized Princess, Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships that we are accustomed to which could make this an extraordinary cruise (assuming that the Captain doesn't get stupid and run the ship aground).  Now I don't see how anyone could take a cruise like that and not spend several days in Italy at the end of it.  So you would either need to be retired or have a ton of vacation time saved up to go on a vacation like this.  But wouldn't it be nice?!?!?! I know a few of you with retired parents and in-laws who this was just made for!  Take a look Costa Repositioning Cruise from Miami.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you throw caution to the wind and go jump on what could be an unsafe ship.  But it does seem like a bargain and with all of the bad publicity that they have had in the last year, it might be the safest time in the lines history to take a Costa Cruise.  This Costa thing has completely gotten me off topic today.  I was hoping to finish telling you about cruising options out of Fort Lauderdale and move on to other Florida ports.  Perhaps tomorrow we can do all of that.  For now, I will let you get on with your day.  Have a great Wednesday and give me a call if you want to send your mother-in-law on that Costa cruise....