27thDecember
Ahoy, Chickies!
Photo Op! Here’s the pier in Cozumel, a picture of Cozumel, and a picture of Little Sister and the twins.
7:30 am – I’m sitting here in the semi-darkness waiting for SIL to wake up and FIX ME SOME COFFEE cause I can’t find the coffee maker! Little brother left for work quite a while ago and everyone is still asleep. Hold on…I’m going to look for that coffeemaker again…
7:50 – Found the coffeemaker but the coffee is locked up…My nephew has Prader-Willi Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder and one of the symptoms is a strong and uncontrollable food preoccupation. We think we have it rough, chickies, but this little one truly can’t stop eating and all the cabinets and fridge have to be locked at bedtime to keep him from getting up in the middle of the night and eating everything. He’s such a sweetheart…found the coffee maker for me but told me he doesn’t have the combination to the lock on the cabinet so we have to wait until Mommy gets up.
I hope all you girls had a wonderful Christmas and got to spend time with all your loved ones. Things have been pretty crazy lately. I did a little blogging on the ship but not much. Too busy with other things. Then, when we were due to come back to Mobile on Christmas day, they encountered HEAVY fog. We were supposed to arrive and start debarking at 7:00 am but the fog was so dense, we didn’t get to dock until 7:30 pm. So, instead of spending Christmas Day at my brother’s in New Orleans, we spent it partying on the ship. We didn’t get to New Orleans until almost 11:00. We visited a few minutes and then went to the hotel. Since we didn’t get to spend any time together on Christmas, we decided to stay an extra day to have a chance to visit. It’s only a four hour drive from here to our place in Florida so we’ll head out in a couple hours.
As I said, I didn’t blog much on the cruise but here’s what I did write:
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
It’s 7:00 and I’m the only one up so far. We brought our little 4 cup coffeemaker and it’s sitting on the counter perking away. I’m trying to be real quiet so I won’t wake anyone up. We should be arriving in Cozumel in a couple of hours. The last time I was here was about 18 years ago. It’s going to be interesting to see the changes.
Yesterday, I had one of those days of total happiness and contentment. Increasingly difficult to find these days. We went to Progreso and spent the day. They told us to save all of our shopping for Cozumel because the prices and selection are much, much better. In fact, our “Holiday shopping expert” laughed and called Progreso “an aspiring fishing village”. Maybe that’s just what I needed…an aspiring fishing village. It was a sunny 82 degrees with a perfect tropical breeze blowing and we were strolling among the vendors and it occurred to me that I would have been happy to keep the moment forever. We’d already spent three hours or so at the beach, DH and I had full body massages under a hokey thatched roof on the beach, and we felt relaxed and limber and sun kissed. Forty-five minute full-body massages – 1 person $20.00 or 2 people $30.00. Vendors were strolling the beach and one of them brought us a couple of Coronas with lime for $2.00.
I bought two unique little handmade kites for $3.00 each and a bunch of bright colorful fruit at 3 for $1.00. I love those bright Mexican colors! I have a huge bag full of beautiful fruit for my kitchen table. I bought a swing chair hammock for $20.00 to throw up on porch of the cabin in Florida and four hand painted maracas for $4.00 for the little grandkiddies. I didn’t buy anything else. Just strolled and enjoyed the music floating in the air and the vendors hawking their wares. Walked along the beach and watched the pelicans diving for fish. A beautiful little Mexican girl around five or six years old smiled at me from the doorway of a shop and called out, “Merry Christmas!” As we walked to the plaza to catch the shuttle back to the ship, I realized how much I was enjoying myself and I didn’t want to leave.
We left port and headed out to sea and encountered some pretty rough water. The ship is swaying from side to side. I’m surprised that the waves are affecting a ship of this size but they are. They tell me that people are suffering from seasickness all over the ship. I don’t know…it’s never bothered me. In fact, I kind of enjoy lurching down the hallways. Little sister and I went out yesterday evening for drinks and we were walking down the aisle looking for a window booth to watch the sunset and the ship gave a deep roll and her chips went flying through the air as if she’d thrown them like confetti. We just giggled and plowed on down the walkway. I was shocked when we went to dinner last night. The dining room was practically empty and the few people who were there were talking about how many people were seasick. I noticed that the crew had placed seasick bags at various locations throughout the ship. We went to bed last night and rocked all night long.
While I’ve been writing this, I’ve felt the ship turning and the engine has changed so I assume we’re coming into port in Cozumel. Later girls!
Next Day…
Steven is in love…with Cozumel. The minute we left the ship, he couldn’t get over how beautiful it was.
I did a lot of shopping today. DH bought me a beautiful Tanzanite pendant on a silver chain and a ring with fire opals. I bought some gorgeous hand painted Marguerita glasses, a hand-painted parrot on a perch for DIL, etc. etc. It wasn’t quite as relaxing in Cozumel because it seemed like everyone wanted to go someplace different and we didn’t have a lot of time. That’s the problem with cruises…you only get to stay in port for a few hours. Right now, I’m heading to dinner.