Thanksgiving 2009

Western Carribean Cruise

Ports of Call: Ft. Lauderdale, Grand Caymen, Cozumel, Roatan, Bahamas

For Thanksgiving we took a Carribean cruise with my parents and Barrett and Tiffany. We had a great time! The ship left out of Ft. Lauderdale, and stopped in Roatan, Cozumel, Grand Caymen, and the Bahamas. We had a great time at dinner every night with the whole family together. (Lincoln actually did very well, sitting through a formal dinner most nights. My mom brought a whole bag of toys and "surprises" that he always looked forward to.)

We went on Princess Lines, and the ship was wonderful. There were several restaurants (the steakhouse restaurant was great, and Lincoln especially enjoyed the pizza and ice cream parlor--I think he had pizza at least once everyday). Another fun feature was "movies under the stars" which they showed on a huge TV screen up on the top deck. (Sports and movies were also on during the day, but the ambience was better at night!) Linc enjoyed swimming and playing in the kids' club. I went to the spa one day for a wonderful pregnancy massage, and Andrew enjoyed some training programs offered at the fitness center.

Linc thought sitting out on the balcony was "very very cool" because "maybe we could see whales or fish" (his words)...to my knowledge he saw no whales, but he did see some dolphins one afternoon.


Some pictures from dinner:

I mean, seriously, who doesn't love a little boy in a tie?! It was a struggle getting him to wear it, but he looked so darn cute.

Linc really loved his bunk in our cabin. We thought he'd never go to sleep!

Thankfully, we wore him out most days :)

Grand Caymen was probably our favorite stop because of the gorgeous water. (Although I keep asking myself-WHY do we seem to take beach vacations when I'm pregnant?? Must be because maternity swim suits are so awesome....)

Anyway, our family joined a sailboat charter and went snorkeling and swam with the stingrays. (We were all a little surprised by the size of the stingrays! I know I was expecting small stingrays - maybe the size of a dinner plate...not stingrays that were 4 or 5 feet across.) Lincoln loved the boat ride, and liked the stingrays (as long as he didn't actually have to touch them :) Once we got back to the island Barrett and Tiffany bought him a stuffed stingray ("Stingy") which he loved and carried around for the rest of the trip. (Stingy also made several trips to "show and tell" once we got back from the cruise and is, as I type this, sitting on Linc's bed along with all his other stuffed animals.)

snorkeling

In Cozumel, the weather started off nice, but turned into a torential downpour. My parents, Linc and I had visited a museum, and were headed to go shopping when the storm hit; we ended up just heading back to the dock and having lunch. We were luckier than Barrett, Tiffany, and Andrew, who were on a dune buggy / snorkeling excursion. They FROZE and spent much of the day taking shelter in a little beach bar.

In Roatan, Honduras we hired a private driver and guide who took us around the island. We stopped and did a little (forced) souvenir shopping and then went to a farm that had monkeys you could pet, parrots that would sit on your arm, etc. It was entertaining. (To everyone's amazement, my mom actually let a parrot land on her arm--if you know her, you know she absolutely detests birds.)

After visiting the "wildlife" we went to a beach club. The water was absolutely gorgeous! (Unfortunately we spent most of our time there sitting in the restaurant waiting on our lunch order, but we did get a chance to swim for about half an hour.) Linc enjoyed playing in the sand, and it was actually the only "beach" time we got on the cruise since our stop in the Bahamas was canceled due to weather.


This photo was worth the whole trip!




At the beach club

Some of my favorite memories of the trip:

--Linc dancing along to a calypso band by the pool, to the delight of the band members (who came and danced with him) and the hundreds of people on the pool deck below, watching.

--Andrew and I got some time to just relax together, thanks to my parents who watched Lincoln for a few nights on the trip!

--Nightly dinners with my wonderful family!

--Lots of time to just relax and read!

It was a wonderful trip.