We were off to the Western Caribbean for a week with our good friends Erin and Jason.  We took off from Galveston Bay and sailed the friendly seas on Royal Caribbean to Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.

First Stop: Cozumel, Mexico

We had a short day in Cozumel, since we had to be back on the ship by 3:30 in the afternoon, so we high-tailed it to the mainland to meet up with our tour guide from Helaman Tours.

We would highly recommend taking an LDS tour of Tulum if you get the chance.  It was very interesting to see the influence the people in the Book of Mormon had on the ancient Mayans.

It took two hours to get to the ruins in Tulum, so we only had about an hour tour, but it was plenty of information to take in.

The beach at Cozumel was beautiful, but we only got to briefly look at it.  I would love to go back and spend some more time there. One thing we neglected to do was eat some Mexican food.  Our tour guide provided us with Subway for lunch which was good, but I would have liked some nachos.

Second Stop: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Our excursion to go swim with the Stingrays was canceled because of rough waters, so we ended up shopping and laying out on the beach.  Grand Cayman was by far our favorite place to stop since it was so beautiful and the people were nice and didn’t bother us or try to sell us stuff.

Too bad we left our camera on the ship.

Third Stop: Montego Bay, Jamaica

We decided to do a zip line shore excursion in Jamaica through our cruise line.  It turned out to be a super fun morning!

There were a total of 5 zip lines going from tree to tree in the jungle.  The last one was the longest (1000+ feet) and hung about 230 feet in the air.  It was sweet.

The roads in Jamaica were very scary, and I felt like our bus was going to fall off the edge.

After our zip line adventure, we decided to head back to the ship for lunch.

Then we were off to the beach.

This is called Doctors Beach in Montego Bay. It was pretty, but it was ridiculous that the entry fee was $5 a person.

Our home away from home: Voyager of the Seas

Back on the ship

Jamaica was our third and final stop, then we had two fun days at sea!

We sat in on a digital photography class and in doing so, we missed the fruit carving class, but we were able to grab a couple of pictures as the instructor was packing up. The ship had one man doing all of the fruit carving for the entire ship, including all restaurants and buffets! I want that job.

We also sat in on a napkin folding class, cooking class, and learned how to fold our towels into animals.

Here’s the Casino Royale.  It was inconveniently located on the fourth floor right in the middle of the ship, so we either had to walk through it or go a floor above it and come back down to go into the theater for the nightly performance.  We usually chose the latter since it REEKED like smoke.

Except maybe this one time

The Royal Promenade

The go-to spot in the ship for food, shops, and hanging out.

Formal night

Table 281 with Erin and Jason

Overall the food was pretty good.  The appetizers were probably the best part. A couple of nights we ordered two appetizers because we just couldn’t decide on one.  My favorite were the cold fruit soups. Fernando ordered Escargot one night and I was pressured into eating one (even though I told him he was unkissable for doing so). It wasn’t as horrible as the thought of it was.

We bought the Royal Caribbean cookbook which includes several of the recipes that we loved. Last week I made lime orange glazed salmon with a tomato compote. It was pretty fabulous if I may say.

And the warm chocolate pudding which is more of a molten cake

Our waiters singing to us on our final night

Halfway through the trip we discovered the game room located on the 14th floor of the ship. They provided a bunch of games and playing tables.  I played Othello for the first time and was schooled on several occasions.

Ferd on formal night posing with his date

So will we cruise again?

Ferd seems to think so.

And I’d have to agree.

I love spring time. You get all the benefits of summer without the nasty hot weather. For example: strawberries!

Costco had these amazingly huge berries yesterday and I had to have them. Then, when we were leaving, I spotted these cute miniature angel food cakes. So yum!

We’ll be eating these for a while since we had to buy so many.

Such is life.

P.S.- Cruise pictures to come shortly. I’ve been very busy with work, but it looks like I’ll be having a lot more time on my hands so I’ll be blogging much more! Including another day or two of domestication posts.

When I’m at work, I think to myself,

“When I’m a stay-at-home wife, I am going to be diligent about going to the gym for at least an hour every day.”

Well…today, thanks to the Catholics (my boss), I got the day off. And what did I do?

I put my apron on and made Fernando breakfast, then went back to bed for an hour.

I bleached my teeth and painted my toes.

I spent an hour figuring out what to make for  lunch and dinner. I thought, “Since I’m at home all day, Fernando is going to want something nice.”

I thought about going to the gym, then went to Costco instead.

I put my apron back on, made fresh squeezed lemonade with lunch.  Fernando joined me. He said, “I like your apron”.

I cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry and sewed a quilt.

Wearing the apron, I made dinner. Only it took too long to cook, and Fernando had to leave with the missionaries.

Sadly, it sits untouched, getting cold.

But I’m not hungry…I’m tired…and my feet hurt…so I blog…

…wearing my apron.

Fool Proof Lemonade Recipe

You’ll never want that sugary fake stuff again.

1 C fresh squeezed lemon juice

4 C water

Simple syrup:

3/4 C sugar

1 C water

A wonderful kitchen handbook

Dinner- skillet lasagna

(recipe to follow: haven’t tried it so I don’t know if its good)

The apron

courtesy of my friend Erin (the picture doesn’t do it justice)