Carnival Inspiration Day 3

We were in Grand Cayman on our third day of the cruise. We had signed up for a tour of Hell, Turtle Farm and Stingray City. The morning started early as we had to meet at 8 am. Getting on our tour bus was pretty smooth and we had a great tour guide, Grayson. He grew up on the island and loved it. Our first stop is a town called Hell. Mostly it is a tourist shop, a post office and these strange formations in the rock.

After visiting hell and sending some post cards, our next stop was a tortuga rum shop and then we were off to the turtle farm. The turtle farm started over 60 years ago when a group of green sea turtles were rescued. There are still some original green sea turtles at the farm. After learning about turtles and the farm we got to hold turtles. You would reach into a small pond with both hands and grab a turtle out of the water. Sometimes that would flap their front legs against your hands trying to get away. All of us held the turtles - although it was a tie between the boys of who liked doing it the most.

We learned after dealing with the flapping that if you pet the turtle on their chin they relax and will stop flapping. Things I wish I would have known but fun to see how chilled out they got.

The bigger turtles we got to feed. They had big buckets of turtle food on the side and you grabbed a handful of food (think dog food cause that is what it looked like). The turtles would come up to you knowing that is what they were getting and you could throw the food in and watch them eat.

After the turtle farm, we went on a boat out to stingray city which is a sand bar where the sting rays hang out. I used a waterproof camera so I will have to post the sting ray adventure on another blog.

Just some quick thoughts of Grand Cayman - we all enjoyed it. It was safe and the people are so nice. They go out of their way to ensure to help. My husband asked about a new cell phone company he had heard about and saw signs about and Grayson was kind enough to actually drive us past the corporate office even though it was two blocks out of his way. We would definitely visit the Cayman's again.

Carnival Inspiration Day 2

I don't have any pictures from our day at sea. But we did have fun relaxing in the sun, going to the newlywed game, and dressing fancy for dinner. We have some formal pictures from that night so once I get a copy I can post that. Dinner was lobster and most of us had more then one at the table. Some even had three. It was good.

Carnival Inspiration Day 1

Our morning of the 20th started out pretty easy - just finish packing and visiting with mom and JB who came in the night before. We took a shuttle to the port. With six people and all their luggage it was a good thing and well worth the $11 a person they charged. Parking at the port is $14 a day so we almost ended up even. Our shuttle was early so we got through the hassle of boarding the ship pretty quickly. We decided to find our rooms first and drop off our carry ons. Even though our rooms said they wouldn't be ready till 1:30 pm when we went at 1pm they were ready. The Inspiration is an older ship but was given a face lift last year. The rooms are normal size carnival cruise rooms as well as the bathrooms. They didn't spend a lot of money updating the rooms but they are still nice.

After dropping our luggage, we were all hungry for lunch so we headed up to the Brasserie grill for the buffet lunch. My first stop was the sandwich station where they do panini's. I had a ham and cheese. It was ok - personally I didn't like the bread and I learned later that they would do it on any bread. Also the ham wasn't warmed so I just started ordering grilled cheese on white and I was much happier. I also made sure to stop for some ice cream here. My last two cruises I never got ice cream because I was always so full. It worked for me because I didn't have ice cream the rest of the cruise.

After eating, we decided to work off the calories and explore the ship so that we could get to know our way around. The first thing we wanted to find was the adult only deck area. It is located at the back of the boat one floor down from the grill. The adult only area has cushioned chairs. This is my husband enjoying the comfort and quiet.

Because the ship was still docked we saw all of downtown Tampa from the back of the ship. This is a great picture of JB and Mom. The day we boarded the ship was Mike and Becky's five year anniversary. I would say judging from this picture that the fire is still there.
In exploring the ship, we also got to see all the Christmas decorations. There was even a gingerbread village. At four, we did the muster drill and set sail. The drill seemed a little long but that may be because we were out on the lido deck and it was hot with no chairs to sit. Once the drill was done we relaxed in our rooms for awhile. Then it was time to go enjoy the sunset. I am very glad we got the late sitting for dinner because we would have missed the sunset and going under the sunshine skyway bridge. Here is a cute picture of my brother Mike and mom enjoying the sunset.
Between the sunset and bridge we made a quick break to go get jackets and long pants. At the front of the ship with the wind blowing it was much colder. Below is a picture of mom, Mike, Becky and me as we watched our ship go under the skyway bridge. It is a big deal because depending on tides the ship will sometimes miss it by only 2 feet. The tide was lower for us and we had a whole 7 ft. We had dinner that night in the Mardi Gras dining room. We had a really wonderful waiter and it was fun because the six of us had our own table. Bruce and I decided that this was the way to cruise as eating with strangers is not one of our favorite things. Plus we laughed so much - I think we were known as the rowdy table. Here is a picture of Mike and Becky enjoying their dinner of fish and lasagna. I had steak which was done medium rare and was really good.
After dinner, we went to the show. It was a variety show with the dancers and the comedian. It was ok but nothing that I thought was special. I was tired though so after that I headed off to bed.

Just some additional thoughts about the ship - some of the areas are beautiful and feel new. The Brasserie grill needs to be updated and the purple "worms" taken out. That would make it feel bigger and brighter. The adult only area needs its own bathroom and bar. The candlelight lounge and dining rooms are beautiful and they really have done a great job with those. The ship overall was much nicer then the Sensation the other ship that we have sailed so yes we will be looking forward to taking another chance to get away on it when the opportunity arises.

Cruising for Christmas

I was lucky enough to go on a 5 day cruise for Christmas with my family. Here are one day worth of pictures. I will blog more stories and pictures when time allows. For now I am spending time with my family.

Carnival Inspiration 2008_12_23

Visitors from Utah

While my cousin was visiting from Utah, she took time out of her trip to meet Bruce and I for lunch. We had a yummy lunch at Olive Garden. The waiter was awesome with the kids bringing a whole bowl of olives!

It was so wonderful to catch up with family and meet my cousins friend. Bruce enjoyed the rock game the girls created - they would fill his hands full of rocks and then have to empty them just to fill them back up again. (Yes we still will not have kids of our own but we will adopt all cute ones for a day or two to give parents the much needed break they deserve.)

Thank you so much Lindsay for taking time out of your vacation for me. I really appreciate it as I love keeping in touch with family and it is hard to do so far away.

Turtle comes to visit

Bruce's nephew, Michael (better known as Turtle) came to visit during Thanksgiving. He lives in California and the last time Bruce and I saw him was our Christmas Montana trip. We got to visit with him the Saturday before Thanksgiving and even if it was a little chilly outside -we had to were jackets - it still felt good to be outside. Doesn't he look chill in his shades?

This is a picture we took of Shirley the same day. She looks chill in her shades too but she is 10 times more beautiful. Sorry Turtle!

Opposites Attract

Here is a list of items that I have in common and not so much in common with Bruce.

Opposites:
1. Get 'er done - I like to work at top speed to get everything done and cross it off my list. Bruce likes to take his time enjoying the process.
2. Techno geek -Bruce could spend hours reading about the latest technology and his favorite magazine is wired. I try to read it and it makes me go cross eyed. I would rather read real life stories or gossip magazines.
3. Number Games - I love numbers and love looking at them which is why I make a great accountant. Bruce wishes he would have studied more math in high school.
4. Space and Time -Bruce has great spacial abilities. He can eye something say a pot of water and say oh that is 3 cups and when I get out the measuring cup (because I can't even guess how much water) it is 3 cups. He can also do this with time. So when we are on the beach and have two hours of parking before we have to pay more he knows when our two hours is up. I would be running back and forth to check how much time we have left.
5. Patience- I feel your pain Diana. I can't wait to find out all the secrets and Bruce loves torturing me. But I can't even keep a suprise from Bruce for long. I give up after 20 minutes and just share.

Similarities:
1. Shopping - Yes we both love to shop. Maybe that was one of the reasons I knew I met my dream man because he would rather shop then watch sports.
2. Warm Weather - At this time of year it is hard to say but I really don't miss the cold and snow I much rather have my nice Florida weather. Good thing I let Bruce talk me into moving to Florida.
3. Family - Both of our families mean a lot to us. Spending a day or evening with family is fun to us.
4. Goals and Ambitions - We always talk about where we see ourselves and where we want to go. I don't think I would have gotten as far as going back to school if Bruce hadn't continued to talk to me about what I wanted to do for the rest of my career. One day we will have that house on the beach! But for now it makes since to be where we are.
5. Community - We both believe that we have to do our part to make our world around us better and keep it as nice as it is. We just bought mulch for the bushes around our building because it looks better with mulch and our condo association is going through changes and doesn't have money for that stuff. We have also become more green and will probably continue to change as our world needs us to.
6. Cats - How could I not mention our Sparky! He has opened us up to so much love and he is so fun to make fun of. We are constantly laughing when he chases his tail or pretends he is dying just so we give him treats. Of course the dying thing works because we always cave in and he gets treats.