We
first met in Kansas City near the airport the night before we flew out
to Miami - which was Thursday August 13, 2009. We flew out of KS City
on August 14th. J drove A down & then I took her home
afterwards before coming on home.We had to be at the airport early! Then we are in the gate & hear a kid of about 12 sobbing horribly! We finally get on the plane late & find ourselves sitting in front of the family with the sobbing kid! Just before the door is shut, the parents take the kid & get off.
We arrive in Miami, get our car & drive to West Palm Beach to my in-law's house until Monday AM. A's friend L, who was also her maid of honor, meets us there. We have a wonderful relaxing visit. The girls & I even getting in their pool, me knitting on my 1st pair of socks, etc.
Monday, L leaves & then we leave. Our ship sails at 4 pm, I believe. We get to Miami, drop off the car, get a taxi to the docks, check our bags (1 duffle bag gets destroyed - the entire end ripped off, but I think they manage to find if not everything, then nearly everything! - including an ugly shoe that didn't belong to us!). Before the ship (Royal Caribbean's Majesty of the Seas) sailed, we got our first mojito! That felt so decadent to me!
This cruise, we didn't have an
y
sea days, Monday left Miami, Tuesday in Nassau, Wednesday in Coco Cay,,
Thursday in Key West & Friday back to Miami. Even with wearing
my knee brace, A & I managed to walk approximately 9 miles
across Nassau & saw many terrific sites. We did a little
shopping and then we stopped in a local restaurant & had a late
lunch before heading back to the ship. Then we got another drink
& went out onto the deck to relax as the ship sailed, until it
started sprinkling on us.Tuesday was Coco Cay -
a privately owned island owned by Royal Caribbean. A wanted to
snorkel, I was originally intending to try to walk the nature trail
about it, but after she was stung by jelly fish several times &
considering how much stress I had put on my knee the day before, we just
decided to head back to the ship and then go & enjoy the
massages that we had arranged for the day before. Of course when we got
to the spa, we found out that had mistakenly put us down for the exact
same things so while they had told us before that we wouldn't be able to
be together for them at that time, the
y
had actually put us into the same room. So we got it corrected on what
we each wanted & it all worked out - I got scalp, neck,
shoulder, back, foot & ankles massages - she got a total body
exfoliation, milk bath, scalp, neck & shoulders, I believe.Thursday was Key West. We walked a lot again while we found Hemingway's home, the Little White House and the Southern most point of the US. We even got to see the 6 toed cats of Hemingway's and then we had a late lunch & drinks at Sloppy Joe's before heading back to the ship.
Last year when we had cruised, we felt we had very rude & horrible tablemates & so we only tried eating dinner with them 2 of the nights, then gave up. This year, we had 2 great couples we shared a table with & we not only had dinner with them every night, we also all stayed at t
he
table talking way after everyone else was leaving! The one couple had
just gotten married on Saturday before we cruised & they were
from Kansas City. The other couple was a longer married couple from WI,
if I remember correctly.Friday we caught a taxi to the airport & tried to get our tickets moved to standby so that we could leave earlier, but were unable to. So we spent a lot of the day in the airport in Miami. And we seemed to have som
e
of the worst luck when it came to people on the planes! We ended up
sitting with a couple who were having an argument! So when the
attendant said they needed to move 2 young kids out of the exit row -
A & I volunteered to take their places! Then we were also
able to spread out a bit & enjoy ourselves.We were late leaving Miami, so barely made our flight in Detroit - she ran ahead & I came behind because of my knee. We were the last ones on the flight I think, but we made it. We got into Kansas City, caught our shuttle, got the va
n
& headed to her house in MO. Saturday morning, we got up, I
got ready & headed to Iowa to visit my natural dad's youngest
brother's family - got about 30 miles out & A had changed
her mind, so I went back for her. Ended up not getting to my uncles as
early as I thought, so a cousin & his wife had to leave, but we
did get to see 2 aunts, 1 uncle and 5 cousins before we then headed back
to A's. I got up early on Sunday & hit the road home.
Made it home about 5 pm & was able to get the dogs before
unpacking & getting ready to head back to work on Monday.
I can't wait until I can cruise again!
:-D
Jessica, the good part of this laptop is that since I bought it refurbished, it was only $298 on Dell's web site.