So I've been a little MIA from responding to a few emails and from blogging, but there's a good reason. This month, Liz's brother and sister-in-law are celebrating their 10 year wedding anniversary and to help them celebrate, they invited everyone on a cruise through the Caribbean. It was just what the doctor ordered seeing as it's been the coldest December on record in Raleigh.
We flew down to Miami, FL, and since neither Liz nor I have been there, we spent 3 days hanging out and touring the city before the cruise. Then we boarded the NCL Epic for a 7 day cruise. We stopped in Costa Maya, Roatan Honduras, and Cozumel Mexico. I will go into more detail as the pictures are shown below. Liz will upload the rest to picasa soon.
The first day in Miami it was overcast and kind of cold with scattered showers. So we took a bus tour of Miami and then took a boat tour of the Miami harbor area. That was money well spent in my opinion. We were trying to decide what to do that day and I'm so glad we decided to see Miami that way. I would have felt bad just hanging out on South Miami Beach the entire time.
Gearing up, getting ready to get on the boat. This is the second time that Liz and I have had a chance to hang out with John and Gilly. They are awesome, fun-loving people and we really enjoyed getting to know them better. I think having 5PM cocktail hours is going to be a cruise tradition for us now.
We boarded Saturday afternoon and one of the funnest parts of the cruise is when you first get on and run around trying to discover all that the ship has to offer. Liz pretty much had the ship map memorized so it was common to hear "oh and up here we have...". I didn't do any studying prior to embarkation.
This had to be the sweetest part of the ship. They had 3 freaking slides on the top. They were known as the "yellow", "green", and "purple" slides. The yellow was sweet because you took a tube down into the toilet bowl. The green one was awesome because it was incredibly fast and also took you over the edge of the ship. The purple was kinda slow but completely enclosed.
Over the edge. Totally awesome.
The Epic is known for it's size. It is 19 stories tall and you can tell just how much we towered over the other ships in the Miami port.
They also had a climbing wall in the back of the ship along with a full size basketball court. This picture is of Callie scaling the wall. She was often referred to as "Spiderman" because she went up as if she was crawling. I'm not convinced she's holding on to anything in this picture.
We first went to Costa Maya Mexico where we went to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins with our two nieces, Brynn and Callie. They were so incredibly easy to hang out with. They are mature well beyond their ages. Not to mention, Brynn was speaking almost fluent Spanish to our very impressed tour guide. She rocked the house. Here we're sitting on the first pyramid, which is the best way to experience them.
Here's the biggest ruin we saw. It's sitting on a 3 story shelf or plateau and then was built on top of that. The pyramid was built to track the sun so the natives could tell what season it was and when the rainy season would arrive. The girls are standing in the altar area where the human sacrifices were made. Fortunately we arrived about 1400 years too late. Usually the top of the pyramids are built with the altars for sacrifice, but since this one was for the sun, they put the altar at the bottom.
The pyramid above was built for the planet Venus. The explanation was not entirely thorough so I can't go into much detail, especially using words that make me sound coherent.
After the tour, we were standing around wasting time and got bored. And being bored makes me want to throw children. Brynn is doing her best impression of Superman.
Next we arrived in Roatan Honduras and this was definitely my favorite stop on the trip. My favorite excursion was the mayan ruins, but this island was so gorgeous we had to hug each other and stand still for a few seconds.
Here are the newly weds + 10 years. Hillary's ridiculous negotiating skills got the 12 of us a taxi for the day for $70, not too shabby! Apparently the secret is to walk away, act like you don't care, and get a ton of offers. Sounds simple but it's not very easy to do.
After we took a taxi to and from the beach, we walked around the town and found a bar with $1 beers and a sweet dock in the back. Here are Liz's parents enjoying some lounge chairs, clear water, and gorgeous weather.
Somehow this is the only picture we have of Nick and Natalie. Nick is Hillary's brother and it was so nice to finally meet Natalie. They are totally awesome and we have so much in common, like enjoying cruises and having fun. Who'd have thought? I also love my facial expression in this picture. I don't know what I was doing.
Here are Liz's parents taking a break after walking around Cozumel. You might not be able to tell from this picture but there is a big ship in the background.
Enjoying the last few moments before we had to get back on board for the last time. Next stop... Miami again. Big Bummer.
Liz and I are such cruise fanatics and we can't wait to take our next one. It was so much fun and we seriously enjoyed every person in our group. You'd think in a group of 12 that at least SOMEONE would butt heads, but it was a drama-free, relaxing week.. I think we're feeling cruise withdrawal right now. Here's the full crew:
