Our Last Blog

July 13, 2014

Good afternoon, readers! This blog is being written many hours earlier than planned from my house. I'll tell you more about that a little later.

Yesterday was a stressful day! Our boat docked around 7:45 am and of course we were running late as usual. We scurried upstairs to scarf down breakfast. We were going to be first to disembark because we were carrying out our own luggage. We ate as quickly as humanly possible, but every time the announcements came on, I scrunched up because I knew I was going to have to throw away good food and run down to leave our vacation.

We actually finished breakfast and we were headed down the elevator when the announcement came. That gave me just enough time to check the room over and make sure we didn't leave anything behind. Once we were all packed up and ready to go, we began to wheel our suitcases away. Goodbye Carnival Glory! Goodbye vacation! Goodbye lack of responsibilities!

Only about a minute into our journey to disembark the ship, we stumbled across a lady who was having so much trouble pulling her wheeled suitcase. Seriously, she was basically just dragging the suitcase on the side of its wheels. Ricky offered to wheel it down and she gladly accepted. Once we reached customs, Ricky gave the lady back her bags and called our driver to come get us from the port.

"Who is this?? What? Why are you calling me so early?" The driver replied. Ricky answered back in a calm voice, "we are calling because we have transportation arranged! Come pick us up." Long story short, over an hour later, they finally came. Seriously. We sat on the curb, in July, in Miami for an hour. Y'all I was so upset. The driver did not get a tip on this ride, I will have you know!

In the van on the way back to our hotel, we met some really cool people. First there was a couple from Houston. Both of them were teachers and we believe they were on their honeymoon. We weren't sure but when we got back to our hotel and saw the Texas car with just married on it, we were pretty sure that our new friends had just gotten married. They were at the same port as us but they had gone to the Bahamas on another ship. The wife was in school to become a principal (and currently a PE teacher) and the husband taught high school. Wow!

Another family in the van with us was a family from Raleigh. How funny is it to be sitting on a van with someone who is practically your neighbor all the way in Miami? I do think it is odd that this happened to us twice on this trip. One of the daughters is going to NC State this year for the first time. Awesome! This family had traveled to the US Virgin Islands on their vacation.

After our ride back to the hotel, we got in our car and we drove and drove and drove and drove for what felt like forever! Last night, we arrived in Charleston, South Carolina. Last night when we arrived, we went downtown to look around for a little bit. The houses in Charleston are so beautiful! I absolutely love this city. You know I hold it special to my heart since we got married here. After walking around for a little while, we went to dinner at our favorite BBQ restaurant: Sticky Fingers! It was absolutely delicious, as usual. There was a group of men sitting at the table next to us. One of the guys was hardcore flirting with the waitress. He even told her that his name was John with a J. Come on people! That's just cheesy! She laughed it off and walked away with a smile on her face. I think she was trying not to tear him down. We left before we saw if it went any further, but I am sure he left with no phone number.

After dinner, we went back to our hotel. We stayed in that Charleston Plaza in North Charleston. Apparently, we didn't get the memo that this was a no sleep hotel! The hotel was beautiful and it was actually in a really good location. I did not realize, however, that there was a massive family reunion going on! African Americans really know how to throw down at a family shindig! We need to take some tips because the last family reunion that I had, only about eight people showed up and it was potluck. We had no T-shirts, no hotel, no DJ, and definitely no big shindig! All we had was fried chicken and mashed potatoes. This was a real party! But with the fact that there was a real party going on, meant that there were almost no parking spots, an extremely full pool, and loud music until 3:00 am. I should have just joined them! :-) It seemed like a great party. We white folks need to take some pointers!

This morning, we drove down to downtown Charleston early to be able to walk around for a little bit. We made it all the way to the market and began looking around for some great souvenirs to buy. If you've never been to Charleston, this needs to be one of your top priorities when you make it down. They have the most wonderful handmade crafts at the old market.

Shopping at the market was going great until the bottom fell out. I had no idea that it was going to rain the way that it did! Seriously, there was no rain and all of a sudden the entire city was flooded! I finally figured out why they call the Charleston area the Lowcountry. There was so much water from all of the rain that the market began to flood. There was about 8 inches of water standing in the street. I had my brand new tennis shoes on and I was not about to walk out into that river. What was I going to do? After waiting for about half an hour to see if it would stop, we realized that it was not going to stop any time soon. We decided that we either need to build an ark or get out of there. But again, I had my brand new tennis shoes on. That sweet husband of mine picked me up on his back and piggybacked me across the street! Be jealous ladies. :-) He got me all the way to the sidewalk of an area where I could walk without getting water on my shoes. Then, because it was still raining, he walked all the way to the car, which was parked about a 15 minute walk away, drove all the way back to where he left me, and picked me up so I wouldn't have to walk in the rain. I have an amazing husband! We were planning to stay until about 2:00 pm but after the rain began, we decided to leave early. Seriously, there was no reason for us to stay if we couldn't even walk around. We began to head home around 12:00 pm.  Check out how high the water is on this lady -- and this was way before it started to flood the market and get really high.  The second picture shows a "sink hole" at the sewage grate.

The ride went by fairly quickly because we are still listening to our book on CD. We've made it almost to the end of the book Allegiant and it definitely made the five hour trip pass a little faster. Then something ridiculous happened! Right before we made it to South of the Border, we saw a "low speed" chase go down. It was crazy! A police officer came off of the exit ramp with his lights flashing. There was a truck in front of him that seemed oblivious to the fact that there was a police officer behind him trying to pull him over. He would switch lanes and switch lanes again and switch lanes again, and all the while the police officer stayed right behind him. He just flat out refused to pull off of the side of the road. At first we thought but it must be an old person who didn't realize that there was a police officer behind him because he wasn't going very quickly. Then, we realized that he was so close to the South Carolina/North Carolina border that he must have thought he could cross and get away! The police officer stayed behind him for about 7 miles before we reached the North Carolina border. Once we crossed the border, the South Carolina police officer pulled off of the exit ramp and the truck continued to slowly drive down the highway. We were like, "what the heck? Is he really going to get away with this?" After a few minutes, we saw the passenger of the truck reach into a cooler through the back glass window of the truck. She reached in, picked something up, and tossed it out of the truck onto the highway. We assume that it must have been drugs. I still don't understand why this truck did not just pull off of the road. I mean, I guess the other police officer had their license plate number so they were caught anyway but still... About 10 minutes later, we began to slow down on the highway. We saw that this was due that to the fact that two police cars were sitting on the shoulder of the highway; one of them was parked sideways like it had cut the truck off and the other was behind the vehicle. One other person had pulled behind the truck and was getting out of his car when we drove by. They had both the driver and the passenger in handcuffs and they were leaning them both on the truck. The woman had mascara all over her face from tears of fear I suppose and the husband looked like he was just completely out of it. Ricky rolled down the window like he was going to scream that they had thrown the drugs out but I quickly rolled up the window and screamed "don't get us kilt!!!" Not even killed, kilt!! Besides, I'm pretty sure that the nosy person in the car behind him was already on top of that. Nonetheless, Ricky found another way to make sure that the information was passed along. This way did not involve screaming out the window in front of a criminal who could easily find us and come after us. Thank goodness!

The rest of the ride seemed pretty ordinary after the crazy chase we encountered. When we arrived home, we pulled up in the driveway and noticed that our sweet neighbors had mowed our grass during our two week adventure. We literally have the best neighbors in the world! We were very surprised and excited to see that that was one less chore Ricky had to do before we went to bed tonight. I will tell you who is happy to see us tonight, Mikata! I sure missed my sweet girl. Harley was a little bit happy to us but he didn't quite show the same enthusiasm that Mikata showed!  Alley (our outdoor cat), was just ready to be set free from the basement for some sunshine.  :-)  I am glad to be home with these sweet pets of ours.

And that is that. Another wonderful vacation for the books. This one will definitely go down in history as one of my favorite vacations ever! We had a wonderful time and we are so thankful that you followed our adventure on our blog. You are the best! Thanks again for keeping up with us and we will be sure to write another blog when we plan our next adventure! We love you all!!

Love,
Amy & Ricky

Free Day, Sea Day!

July 11, 2014

Good evening folks!

Today was the last full day of our cruise. Boohoo! I am not ready to stop being on vacation. I always get post vacation blues at the end of any vacation. Now I guess I need to start thinking about the next adventure! :-)

I really love sea days because that usually means that there are no deadlines and time constraints which is nice sometimes! First this morning we decided to go to an informational session about the history of the Caribbean. It was interesting but Ricky enjoyed it a lot more than I did. I like learning and everything but when given the choice between history and laying at the pool, I pick the pool any day! We learned about Columbus coming to the Caribbean and taking some of the natives back home with him as a gift to the queen. We also learned that the queen did not like this because she saw people as valuable individuals and not as property.  She made him return the natives to their home.  Go queen!

After our class, we decided to go to the casino for a game of trivia -- Hunger Games style! I thought I knew a lot about these books until I played this game. There were some seriously obsolete questions that I had no idea how to answer. For example, how did President Snow gain control before the books began? Ummmm, he killed someone I guess? Apparently he poisoned the former leader. I don't remember that! Ask me important stuff!

After I bombed The Hunger Games game by only getting 11/20 right (the winner got 18... Seriously, you have too much time on your hands buddy!), we moved on to a guess that tunes game. It was all 90's songs and my hubby knows music like the back of his hand. We had this! The first song came on... "You are my fire... My one desire..." Ohhh ohhh! I knew this one! I want it that way! Yes! Next, I heard the familiar drums of Enter Sandman. Ricky easily had that one! Then, I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down! Ahhhhhh I can sing the whole song but what was the name of it? Man! Somethng about a bathtub, I think. (Tub Thumper - missed that one!) At the end, we got 14/20 which was pretty good I thought! Unfortunately someone else got 16/20 so we did not get to walk away with a prized piece of ship on a stick! Rats!

Next came one of the most exciting parts of my entire vacation. I've had my eyes on this wonderful contraption all week. I had gazed longingly and in anticipation for days. Finally, the time had come for me to take a turn on the waterslide. Yes, I realize I am a grown woman. Yes, I realize these are for kids. And yes, I realize there was a line of ten children (I hear what I am saying!) waiting before us. But you know what? I don't care! It was totally awesome!

We ran (okay walked fast) to the top deck and took off our shoes. We stripped down to our bathing suits and put away our shoes and clothes. We waited and finally, it was my turn. I felt the butterflies in my stomach that fluttered with excitement. I grabbed on to the top of the slide and waited for the monitor to give me the okay. Three, two, one... Go! I pushed off and felt the slide beneath my legs. I felt the water splashing up over my toes and I clenched my fists in excitement. This.was.awesome! It was so much fun that we went down about five times. I wish I had a waterslide in my backyard! It was amazing!

After our fun waterslide experience, we headed to dinner. After dinner, we were able to see one more movie at the seaside theater. This time we saw Gravity. This was a great movie but I was surprised at the events in the story. We were able to get a seat down low tonight which was so much better. There was way less wind and way less noise -- well except for this one family who wouldn't stop talking but they left after about 15 minutes. I guess they changed their mind. It was a great movie and I loved watching it under the stars and under the beautiful moonlight.

The last thing we did tonight is we went back to The Ebony Cabaret. The Cowboy Comedian and John Wesley Austin were both back tonight with brand new shows. The Cowboy Comedian always begins his shows by asking military members to stand up and be recognized for their service to our country. I think that is awesome! Both shows were very funny and we enjoyed the shows.

Our towel tonight was a heart and it was so cute! We took a picture with all of our towel menagerie.

Tonight will be our last night of our cruise.  We will arrive in Miami around 8:00 am tomorrow. We have decided to disembark by self assist meaning we will be taking our own luggage off the boat. That is way easier and it gets us off the boat way faster. I will say that I am looking forward to being in Charleston tomorrow and seeing my sweet animals on Sunday but I am not looking forward to ending my vacation. Wahhhhhhh!

Amy & Ricky

 

 

A Grand Time in a Grand Cayman

July 10, 2014

Current Location: Georgetown, Grand Cayman

Good evening from one of the most beautiful places in the world!! We have seriously found a new favorite vacation spot, behind Hawaii of course. This place is absolutely immaculate.

Before I get ahead of myself going on a tangent about the beauty of this wonderful place, let me tell you about our day. We actually didn't dock this morning until 10:00 am but we had until 6:00 pm to get back to the boat. Before I go any further, let me tell you that we did not have the same drama today that we had yesterday with shopping. We had enough time to get all of our wonderful souvenirs, T-shirts, and crafts.

At the beginning of our day, we began by meeting at The Amber Palace as we normally do for our  excursions. There was a guy in there who was in charge of making sure everyone went where they were supposed to go and he was hilarious. As soon as we walked in, someone yelled out "hey, have you called my tour yet? Hey, hey, have you called my tour yet?" The guy looked right at him and didn't say a word. The rude guest yelled out again "hey, have you called my tour yet?" Without missing a beat, the employee said to him in a wonderful south African accent, "yes sir, I do speak English." Then he proceeded to tell him that had he been on time or had he paid attention, he would know whether his tour had been called. That's what I'm talking about! Tell him how it is.

We giggled about how angry he was but it didn't damper his spirit. As soon as the rude guy stopped yelling out, the funny guy continued to call tours. One of the tours was called Turtles, turtles, and more turtles. Another was called Turtles, turtles, and more turtles deluxe. Two funny things about this: the first is that he pronounced deluxe as doo-lukes. Second, is what he said about why it was called deluxe. "Why is it deluxe?" He asked. When no one responded, he said "oh they must serve you lunch. What do you eat? Turtle soup?" :-) Of course, he was simply joking.

He also told us about all the people we left behind at ports previously in the week. He told us to make sure that we were on time because the Carnival Glory would not wait for us. He said that if we plan to be late, we need to make sure that we had our cameras out so that we could take a nice picture of the Carnival Glory sailing away in the distance. He also told us that he would wave to us from the top deck. Then he proceeded to get very serious about wearing sunscreen. He said "people, you must reapply your sunscreen. You can't think that applying the sunscreen first thing in the morning, getting in and out of the water, and then not applying it again will be enough. You people will come back looking like lobsters. I'm just saying, it's happened to me before."

He definitely brightened my morning. Finally, our entertainment called for our tour: stingray city, hell, and turtles, turtles, and more turtles. "Whoohoo" I called out. We walked to get in line with the other guests to make our way down to the bottom deck of the boat. Once we arrived on the bottom deck, we were escorted to the customs area where we checked out and headed for the boat that was going to tender us to the port. This was another port that wasn't big enough for our big ol' cruise ship to park it's big butt. As a result, the Cayman Islands government had to send a tiny little boat out to pick up about 100 guests at a time and tender them back to the port. This time, we were able to park a little closer so it didn't take nearly as long to arrive at the dock.

Even from the dock, I could tell that this island was absolutely beautiful. There were beautiful buildings, wonderful attractions, and fabulously decorated areas as soon as we arrived. We met up with our tour guide whose name was Michael. He looked just like Denzel Washington! Seriously. Even he said "if you lose me, just tell them that you are looking for Denzel!" The rest of the city did not disappoint. It was possibly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I was very surprised at this news because I've never heard anyone say that they are going on a vacation to the Cayman Islands. I've heard people say they were vacationing in Belize but now I question people who vacation there instead of the Cayman Islands. There was no poverty where we went on our tour. Now that is not to say that there was no poverty on the whole island but we definitely didn't see any.

After we toured the city (and realized how many familiar businesses there were -- KFC, Burger King etc.), we stopped at a place called Hell. Yes. Hell. Denzel, I mean Michael, stopped so we could see the limestone rocks that gave Hell it's name. They were very scary and he said that this is what some people thought Hell might look like so this is where the name came from. Seriously cheesy but there was a devil walking around Hell taking pictures. Don't bother scrolling to see that picture because I refused to take a photo with someone who was dressed up as a devil walking around in a place called Hell. Come on folks! I wasn't trying to get struck by lightening!

As you can see, we did take a picture with the statue against my better judgement but that is totally different than taking a photo with a wanna-be devil! I also did buy a shot glass and a postcard from Hell. You could also have your passport stamped in Hell but we didn't. The funniest thing about this place was how everyone that worked at the center kept saying Hell. Please excuse my language because y'all know I don't use these words, but let me explain. They would say "How the hell are you? Where the hell are you from? What the hell is up?" It was funny to hear them ironically use this word so many times. The neat part of this place is that despite the name, there were scriptures and Christian messages painted on the building.

After we saw Hell, we went to the Tortuga Rum Factory. Here, we got to buy souvenirs and try samples of rum and rum cake. I am not a huge fan of rum but I do love cake! :-) We didn't  buy any rum or rum cakes but we did pick up some souvenirs. By the way, did you know that many people (not us) buy alcohol while they are at port because it is so much cheaper than it is in America. Even more people (again, not us) buy diamonds here because of how inexpensive it is. I tried to get Ricky to buy me a necklace but he was not excited about buying a necklace that costs as much as our car payment -- haha!

Next, it was on to a fun part of our day. We went to the turtle farm where we learned about the history and life cycle of turtles. There were so many cool things to see here! First, we went to the breeding pond where the turtles weighed several hundred pounds and were an average of 55 years old. In addition to the pond, there was also a "beach" where the turtles could lay their eggs in the sand. Michael told us that hundreds of eggs are laid on the artificial beach each year.

After the breeding pond, we went into the hatchery where we learned about hatching baby turtles. Did you know that the temperature of the hatchery is what determines the gender of the hatched baby? If they set the temperature below 86, males will hatch; but temperatures above 86 degrees call for females to hatch. I thought this was so interesting! He said that's why girls are hot. Haha! We saw the little, sweet, baby hatchlings and we got to observe a real monster sized shell!

Near the end of our tour, we came to my favorite part of the tour -- the interactive part! I got to hold young turtles!! It was so cool! They start to freak out a little when they are first being picked up, however, the trick is to cradle their necks and gently rub your finger on the bottoms of their necks. I don't know why this worked but for some reason, it calmed most of the turtles down and comforted them. Now you know!

After the turtle farm tour was over, we headed to another super awesome pier to catch a boat. Our boat was called clear waters and it took us out a few miles into the ocean. Once we drove a few miles out, the boat stopped and we arrived at Stingray City. Even though we were way out in the ocean, the water only came about chest high. The ground was smooth and sandy and there were visitors waiting for us... Hundreds of beautiful and spontaneous stingrays! We were told it was good luck to kiss a stingray so we were among the first in line for a smooch! :-) the stringrays also let you hold them which was insane. They are so heavy! They are smooth underneath like silk, but they are rough on top like sandpaper. They also have this huge thing called a barb sticking out of them. I steered clear of the barb because that my friends, was the end of Steve Erwin! The stringrays would literally swim right under your feet and past your legs. They would brush up against us and just keep swimming. We learned that stingrays eat by sucking their food up like a straw. They have suction that is 15 times stronger than a vacuum. I am glad none of them thought my hair looked tasty! :-) We spent about an hour snorkeling and swimming with the beautiful stringrays before it was time to head back.

Once we got back to the port, we had about an hour to mosey around. We went to the Harley Davidson store first and can I just say? Holy COW! Best Harley Davidson store I have ever seen. There were at least 8 shirts that I wanted to buy so badly! Since the are between $35-$60 a pop, we decided to just get one each (and leave some for next time! :-) ) and it was such a hard choice. I finally decided on a pink one (shocker!) and Ricky picked out a black one (never would have guessed that --- not!) and then we hit the road.

We looked around for a bit but couldn't find the craft market. I asked directions in a gift shop and I am pretty sure she purposefully gave me the wrong directions. Ricky said it was rude to basically walk in and say "I won't buy your stuff, but where can I find hand made stuff?" If I was a local, it would make me happy, but I guess she didn't agree. We walked for what seemed like forever before we asked a gentlemen on a bench. "Hey, he looks like a local ask him!" I told Ricky. Well, apparently that fool was not in the right state of mind because he started mumbling words and just was not helpful at all. We kept walking and came to another local who again led us astray. She led us to one lady who was making bracelets. Not the craft market by a long shot! By the time we walked all over creation, we were pretty much out of time at this port. Two days in a row! What the heck?! We went back to the port with four minutes to spare. When we arrived though, there were literally hundreds of people waiting to board. We asked the police man if we were in the right line because they were supposed to stop running tenders at 5:30 pm. He told us we were and he said that if would be a nice long wait to get back aboard.

I had a crazy idea and I was pretty sure Ricky would not be cool with it. I asked the policeman how far away the craft market was and he pointed right to it. Guess what? It was only about two blocks past the Harley Store which is where we originally began searching for it. I don't regret the walk though because we got yo see a lot of the port. Back to my crazy idea... I asked the cop how long he thought it would take to get yes through and he responded with "a looooooooong time, probably!" What if we just went and tried to rush back? Ricky was definitely not on board at first but after I did some convincing, we dashed over to the craft market. It was super small, but there was a little girl playing with a drum and it was like we had our own private entertainment! We ended up buying a little handheld drum for my classroom and a hand carved/gorgeous turtle. I think this was a perfect souvenir for our fabulous day in Grand Cayman!

After we picked out our turtle, we had to high step back to the port. What if we didn't make it? The line definitely looked shorter! Oh no! Please don't let us be one of those folks that our cray cray friend spoke of this morning. We didn't even have our passports! Knees to chest, knees to chest, knees to chest, go, go, go! Finally, we could see that we were going to be just fine so we chilled with the high stepping. We told the cop that "whoohoo! We made it." He was glad because he said he wouldn't have stopped them if they started to leave! :-) We had to wait only about another 15 minutes or so, so it wasn't too bad. It wasn't a covered area to wait in like Belize so it was pretty warm. Also, there were no piña colada samples like in Belize. They were passing them out from across the street when we were there. FYI: there was a mom in front of us with a 13-14 year old and he picked up three samples of hard liquor. Three! First of all, how selfish, and second, I can't believe he did that right in front of his mom.

Anyway, we took 15 minutes and then the boat was ready for us. After we got back to our stateroom, we smelled like ocean sweat and reptile toes so we HAD to shower. It was elegant night again, yahoo! After we bathed, we got ourselves ready and headed down for a rushed evening of portraits. Again, the wait for pictures and dinner wasn't too bad. Check out the lovely picture we bought from elegant night!

We also went to our last show tonight, Latin Night! Those performers are just amazing. I can't believe how talented they are and how many songs they have to memorize. It was wonderful. My favorite
show of this week was the Motown one, but I've truly enjoyed these performances!

When we got back to our room, we found a cutie bull waiting for us. Ni Wayan is spoiling us, I tell you!

At the conclusion of our evening, we had a new comedian on board to see. His name was John Wesley Austin and I swear I have seen him before. I wonder if he was on our cruise last year maybe? He was another cowboy and he had some hilarious dance moves. His show was also very R rated! He was pretty funny and we enjoyed ourselves.

Tomorrow, we will have a day at sea and we are thinking about seeing the last two comedians again. They both said they never repeat shows so we think it will be pretty funny again. Today has been exhausting and I am looking forward to bed time tonight!

Good night friends!

Amy & Ricky