20th ANNIVERSARY TRIP - Final night and day SEVENTEEN

All good things must come to an end.

We spent our last night of our trip getting everything packed up and prepared, saying goodbye to new friends, and spending some final time together.  We had a final dinner together complete with a chocolate buffet, and then went to our final show.

 

We went out on deck and took a few final pictures. The moon on the water was simply stunning.  The ship was really quiet and the ocean smooth.

One of the stations on the ship TV gives 24 hour-a-day statistical information regarding time, temperature, sea conditions, etc. One piece of information that they present is the number of miles we'd sailed.  In the eleven days we'd been gone we sailed 3,127 miles!

We were one of the last to get off the ship... we were not in any rush as we had a later flight.  We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then hung out in the ship lobby until we were basically kicked off.


We took a shuttle back to Fort Lauderdale and then flew back to Las Vegas. 

 
On the way back to Utah we were stuck on the freeway for a few hours as there had been a serious accident.  Plus it was COLD! By the time we drove home I think we'd all developed a cold.  It was GOOD to be home even though it meant going back to school and work!

20th ANNIVERSARY TRIP - TEEN CLUB

If anyone would have told me that on our trip Elissa would be running around the cruise ship dressed as a gorilla, I would have called them CRAZY.  Who knew it was my KIDS that were the crazy ones?

 

Elissa and Elizabeth really met some great friends this trip. Where the cruise was 11 days, they had a lot of time to get to know each other and be together.  Their group was from all over the United States plus Scotland and Germany.

By the end of the trip they were eating most meals together and spending the majority of their time with each other.  



They played board and card games, went on scavenger hunts, danced at the White Hot party, and had all kind of crazy activities like "Anger Games" (a play on "Hunger Games"), People bingo, and giant spoons.

Elissa and Elizabeth heading to the "White Hot" party on deck

 

 Their fearless leader was Teddy, an adventurous bloke from England.



Several darling boys started showing up quite often.... even at 1:00 in the morning. Weren't they surprised when Darren came to the cabin door?



Facebook and other social media has made it a little easier to stay in touch.  

Elizabeth is in contact with several of their group. Just today Elissa got a post-card from her friend Josh (which gave us fodder for a new round of teasing!!). Isn't this fun?

20th Anniversary Trip - Days FIFTEEN and SIXTEEN

We spent another two glorious days at sea while we made our way back to Miami.

We watched Cuba go by again and waved at Frank's family.

We played shuffleboard and ping pong.

We enjoyed the ocean breeze, the live music on deck, and each other.

I am not just holding a  cone for someone.... they were both mine!!!

One morning Nathan and I got up very early. We went out on deck and laid on deck chairs under the stars. It was amazing.  We went to the back of the boat to watch the sun come up.

Nathan chose sherbert for his dessert nearly every night.  When he couldn't decide between flavors, he would pick two.  We kept track of the flavors he consumed on this trip.... and there were EIGHT (lemon, orange, lime, coconut, strawberry, kiwi, raspberry, and pineapple). 

Nathan was EVERYWHERE those last few days. He and Darren decided to earn activity points by attending events around the ship. He learned to cha-cha, he attended piano performances on Gershwin, he attended game-shows and trivia events.  He was a man with a purpose. He packed his daily activity list everywhere and was consistently planning what he wanted to enjoy next.  

As for me, I was always in the same spot... on deck... reading and sunning.  It was simply GLORIOUS. For the first time in months my stress was entirely gone. 

One afternoon the ocean was really swelling which meant the water in the pool was swelling, too.  It would shift a couple of feet in depth at the ends and then crash to the other end.  The kids and I hopped in and rode the waves.  It was seriously awesome and hysterically funny.  One time it swelled so high it threw a girl out of the pool. I was actually really surprised they let us stay in.  TOO FUN.

We did not see Elizabeth and Elissa as much except at dinner. They were in full "teen-club" swing. I'll write about their adventures next.  They had a blast together and with their new friends they made.  They are still in contact with several of them now.

20th Anniversary trip - Day FOURTEEN

 

I would say that St Thomas is one of the main reasons we decided to include the kids on our anniversary trip.  Like St Maarten, we had been here before in 2009 with the Crowther's (side note... the 2009 cruise we went on did NOT originally include St Maarten or St Thomas. Our ship had an engine go out and so we were not able to go to St Kitts and Barbados as planned.  We were redirected to St Maarten and St Thomas which ended up being our favorite stops.  I remember actually getting a bit of cell service the night before we docked and hurrying to text Regina about where to go in St Thomas as we had not known we were going here and thus had not done any research. She recommended St Johns if there was time, and if not, Coki beach.  As usual she was right on).

We left the cruise port and got right on an open air taxi for Coki beach.  The ride is up over the mountain and they drive on the wrong side of the road.  Elissa said it felt like a combination of of the Disneyland rides "Jungle Cruise" and "Indiana Jones"  !

 

The beach facilities had been improved since we were there, with the addition of a beautiful public restroom facility with showers.  They were just starting construction the last time we were there.

We beat the rush to the beach and got a great spot under the tree.   

We immediately started enjoying the water.

Elizabeth and Elissa

 

Grandma Taylor and Nathan

This fish was probably our favorite one of the day as he would swim around our legs in the shallow area and eat biscuits.  He was actually quite long and shark-like.

 

Elizabeth spotted this octopus moving along the ocean floor. He was probably the size of a small platter. AWESOME.

 

We used up every dog biscuit we had.  One fish was so excited he bit my finger. I screamed which filled up my mouthpiece with water.  HA HA

We had gotten Nathan contacts right before we left just so he could more easily snorkel. It was totally worth the effort. He was in HEAVEN. 

 I am glad the kids are such good swimmers. In the future I will bring or rent life vests or buoyancy belts as they made me nervous when they would disappear from sight.  Lesson learned for what is hopefully a next time !

When we got back to port we had enough time to do a bit of shopping. I was able to buy the flag charms from "Little Switzerland" I had coveted back in 2009 when we were there. Now I just need to find a good bracelet.

Darren, Elizabeth, Elissa, and Nathan all said St Thomas was their most favorite stop of the trip. 

20th Anniversary trip - Day THIRTEEN

This was the second trip to St Maarten for Darren and I. We had been here in 2009 with the Crowthers.  We were excited to show the kids the island.

After posing for pictures in the visitor center, Grandma and Grandpa took the water ferry downtown to go shopping and we took a taxi to Dawn's beach.  This is the same beach we had visited in 2009 as we had heard it had some of the better snorkeling. When we were here last the waves were too rough but Darren and Brian had a blast playing in the waves on boards.



 


We rented a few chairs by Mr Busby's grill and enjoyed the sun and the sand and the surf.   The water was that amazing post-card blue.

The kids spent hours snorkeling. Nathan had left his junior size snorkel set at the visitor center (thankfully someone had turned it in) but he made-do with my set like a champ.


Elizabeth bought a darling beach cover-up from a vendor.

We enjoyed hot salty fries and cold strawberry daquiri's for lunch before heading back to the ship late in the afternoon.

 There may have been one other ship in port but I'm not even really sure if there was. The beach was very quiet and uncrowded. I was happy happy happy.

 It is about this time that I start thinking about selling everything and moving to an island!

20th Anniversary trip - Day ELEVEN

     We had a sea-day after Curacao, and boy did we need it.  I don't think anyone got up in time for breakfast! We worked on homework for a while before giving up and heading outside.  It was another beautiful day at sea. The only time it rained our entire trip was for a few minutes in Miami. The seas were very calm.  It is so easy to forget you are on a ship... until you walk by a window and do a double take because there is water outside!

 

 

Darren and Nathan played baseball and ping pong and hit golf balls.  We watched the culinary staff do an ice-sculpture. The girls took a few classes. Nathan played in a ping-pong tournament.

I bet you can guess what I did all day?

Yep.... I read and I slept. The girls joined me for a frozen drink in the afternoon.

FUN TIMES WITH MY FAMILY.

So grateful! 

Our only sadness was that Emily was not with us.