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| Port at Fort Lauderdale Florida |
We started our “Anniversary tour” from Ft. Lauderdale Florida on Dec 3 Saturday at 2:00 pm when we boarded the Eurodam, one of the Holland America ships bound for the Eastern Carribean. I say anniversary tour because we have wanted to do something like a cruise for our 25th, 35th, 40th and 41th anniversaries but various reasons made it so it wasn’t possible. I want to write in detail, so that we can remember but that might be too much information for you and I understand, but that is my goal.
That's a warning.
We started with lunch and very good place to start it was; we didn’t even go to our cabin first, just lunch. Then we wandered the ship and tried to figure where things were. We had the late dining and so we wanted to know where that was and just generally walked around. There was a ship tour and we missed it so we did our own. Because LaVar had been several months on a ship before (though it was an aircraft carrier) he had a better sense which direction to go than me. We found a nice room with puzzles, games, internet (for a price we decided not to pay), books and a wonderful way to look out of the ship going forward. While LaVar was finding puzzle pieces for a very intricate puzzle I read a little bit in a Joyce Meyers book, “Eat the Cookie, Buy the Shoes”. She was basically saying, enjoy the things that make you happy, things that means "celebrating" to you, ie. Cookie eating, buying shoes, etc. without guilt, like I was feeling about going on this cruise, well not just cruising but scheduling a facial while on a cruise….. decadent. Well, that is why this message struck home, Ms Meyers was saying, enjoy the things the Lord has given you and be grateful for it, find beauty in it, share it, be Happy! Good message struck home. Off to the spa area for free giveaways. That was when the ship pulled out of port, we went to one of the upper decks and got blasted with the wind, but it was exhilarating to think that we were truly underway. On to dress for dinner.
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| Ft. Lauderdale from the 3rd deck |
We slept so well that night because the night before the cruise we didn’t. We worried about the things we forgot to bring, things we needed to remember to have handy, and all the “what if's”.
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| bar stool I thought was cool! |
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| gift from the facial spa lady |
The next day was Sunday morning, we had ordered breakfast “in”. LaVar remembered it was Fast Sunday. We decided to delay fasting a week. That morning I also booked my facial. I went to the (spa area) and met a nice young girl, Alexandra, from England who had great skin. She spoke so fast. She gave a nice facial and I felt pampered, for which I was grateful. I bought some products from her, I “bought the shoes”. I have been grateful for that too, it will last a good long time.
We read our scriptures and just pondered. I read again about the great and abominable church and reviewed “Robinsons” quote,
"In either the apocalyptic sense or the historical sense, individual orientation to the Church of the Lamb or to the great and abominable church is not by membership but by loyalty. Just as there Latter-day Saints who belong to the great and abominable church because of their loyalty to Satan and his life-style, so there are members of other churches who belong to the Lamb because of their loyalty to him and his life-style. Membership is based more on who has your heart than on who has your records."
I liked this quote a lot and want to remember it.
Monday, we were scheduled to go into port at Grand Turk Island and go on a Hidden Cove and Ruins, snorkeling tour. The wind had died down some but still spitting rain occasionally. We were up early and ready to go. We had breakfast early and the ship was late coming into port. We went up to the observation deck inside (the library place) and watched the ship go in. We got off with the hordes of people moving slowly down the stairs. We got our tour of about 13 people and boarded a small motor boat. There were two guides one was named “Lucky”, I started to get nervous, I scheduled this "hidden bay snorkeling tour" and I thought it would be a protected cove near a shore and we would just paddle around and if we chose not to we could go to the ruins. Well, Lucky told us that the wind was too bad to go to the cove and he would just take us out for about an hour and forty-five minutes. I started to really get nervous now because I am a swimmer but I can’t swim for that long without resting, like standing up! And this water was going to be too deep for that. The flippers were passed out and the masks. People sitting around had their own--good grief, we are on the wrong tour!! When I put on the mask I got claustrophobic and panic was just a short breath away. Tyler loves this stuff! I know that it can be fun, but the water was too deep, it was too cold, I am too weak to do this stuff, aaaaaaaah I am afraid I will be drowned just like all those people in Hanama Bay when we lived in Hawaii. They started to tell us what you do when water gets into the breathing tube, the mask fogs up, and what this flimsy vest is supposed to do! Oh no, oh no I tried to think of how I could possibly avoid certain death! I told LaVar how scared I was and he was very kind, he re-assured me and stayed close. Getting off the boat was quite a “leap of faith”, no really I slipped gently into the water, just a little cool not bad and hung desperately on to the boat ladder. Lucky asked if I was “ok?”. “I am afraid of THIS water”. He slipped me a swimming noodle. I felt safe with that I know about noodles this will be fine! That was the best thing. LaVar ask the guide in the water with us to watch us since we had no idea what we were doing and he did. I started to relax but still worried about getting too far from the boat knowing we would have to swim back. LaVar showed me that the boat was actually following us and it would be easy to get back on board. We saw fish that were very close a few sting rays. It was so cool, I began to see why Tyler likes this. I looked over at LaVar and he was looking strange, he was feeling nauseous, soon he began to vomit and he headed back to the boat. I wasn’t ready to get back on so I continued to swim. The guide had small bits of fish that he was feeding to other fish and the sting rays. He swam underwater and brought the ray to the surface, where he swam around me, I touched him several times. It was thrilling. I was the last to get into the boat. I hope someday to go snorkeling again. LaVar layed low the rest of the day. We left Grand Turk and are heading to Puerto Rico, tomorrow! Wind still blowing hard, boat still rocking.
( not a picture one of Puerto Rico can you believe that?)
Wednesday Dec 6th we came to San Juan Puerto Rico. We didn’t get docked until about 1:00 in the afternoon and since we knew we would be going on our tour at 4:00 pm we just started slow. Not having a phone has been kind of hard. We want to know how all the children are doing and what is happening in the world.
We ate a good breakfast, and came back to our cabin. LaVar is still recovering from nausea and I feel like I am getting sick, so we ate about 11:00 and came back to the to the cabin and both of us fell asleep and didn’t even notice the docking. The winds have calmed considerably and when we woke up there was a different scene out our window. Charming buildings and hotels and shops in festive colors. We went to lunch and got ourselves ready for our Bio-luminescent Kayaking. We needed some mosquito repellant and so we got off the ship and headed for some shops. We saw people with bags from CVS so we went there. We got back to the pier and several people were getting together for our tour. We met a nice mom and her daughter. Cynthia and Charmel they were on a Mom and me trip, they say they go every year somewhere and then the mom Cynthia takes her son too. Cynthia is from Alabama and Charmel used to live there but now lives in South Dakota with her boyfriend, when she called home it was 7 degrees. That’s when we learned that our phones worked!! We could call the kids and find out if all is well. We were collected for our 90 minute bus ride to the mangrove trees and Grande Lagoon. We were taken to a McDonalds half way there. Not our choice if given one but a Walgreens was next door so we went in there for sunflower seeds and orange juice. The trip was interesting, nice homes and poorer areas all mixed up next to one another. The billboards had a mixture of Spanish and English. Most people spoke both languages it seemed. The gave us life jackets and we sprayed ourselves down with repellant. We walked into the water to get our kayaks and I was surprised at how warm the water was. They had us gather together and hold onto one another's kayak in a line so we would be all together and then we started single file.
There was an almost full moon and a few clouds so it was very beautiful night and perfect temperature. We went into a canal with mangrove trees on each side at some points the trees made a tunnel, completely covering the top. Somewhere in the darkness LaVar noticed the paddles were making the water glow as we stirred the water. When we went into estuary we were collected again and and the tour guide explained the luminescences to us. They are micro-organisms that grow in this water and they feed on the mangrove leaves as they fall into the water. The get more photosynthesis in the summer days and combined with the warmer water, glow even more then but this was still wonderful. There are 4 other places in the world that this happens but because of construction somehow the balance is thrown off and many are being killed.
We really enjoyed ourselves and we really liked this tour. We felt somewhat sorry that we didn’t get out to see more of Old Town San Juan but we are grateful we felt well enough to enjoy this tour. On our 90 minute drive home we saw the results of an accident on the other side of the freeway, there were several cars and a motorcycle. The backup went for miles! I wonder if the people will spend all night on the freeway? We got back and called the kids, Tim was at Scouts, Alyssa talked quick and said this is good practice for when we leave for the mission, Rachel didn’t answer but called back and was pumping gas after a shopping outing. We got our messages and Rowena called and said it was urgent we call her back. We did and Cecile has some symptoms of pneumonia, she is not eating and weak. We felt so sorry, we didn’t call the rest because if we didn’t go to eat we might not get to for awhile and the ship was leaving port we wanted to see that. We got something to eat and somehow we missed seeing us leave again. The seas are more calm now and it’s time for bed. I feel completely filled. Filled with food, senses filled with all the beauty and love for our precious family. Life feels good. Pray for those that are struggling, hard to see them do it, we struggled sometimes, there is not a lot someone else can really do but sympathize and pray. We know they will get strong through it all, that’s seems to be the plan.
St. Thomas Virgin Island, was our next stop. It was a very bustling place there were at least 9 other cruise ships in port at the same time. The taxis and vans were snatching people up hurrying us into the autos and moving fast to get us to the town to spend money.
We went to buy a post card and mailed it in a nice looking post office. We went into a jewelry store the lady complimented me on my nice pink hat and she liked LaVar's also. It was so big a floppy that I took it off to look, and put it on the counter. We walked around and soon left only to discover that I didn't have my hat. When we went back to the store it was gone and no one saw who it was that had it. Sad, so Emmaline even though I promised it to you after the cruise some nice lady had our hat! Well, I don't know if she is a nice lady but I like her taste in free hats. :0)
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| Post office |
All of a sudden we couldn't remember with confidence the time we needed to be back to the ship. We panicked mostly because the taxi drivers weren't offering to get us back to the "Eurodam" as they had been before. So we caught the very next van willing to take us back. We were in plenty of time to buy another hat and a beautiful butterfly pin. The new white hat had a smaller brim and fit better on my head, meaning it didn't fly away as easily.
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| Our treasures for Christmas |
Thursday, I just want off this thing that is in constant movement, I never want to eat again and I want to go and do something else! Shhh you don’t want to be ungrateful, unappreciative, or unadventuresome. This is a full day at sea and tomorrow we will spend the whole day at Half Moon Cay, (KEY) a Holland America owned island with white sands, aqua water, and land darn it all. We moved from staying in bed late to sitting on the deck chairs on the 3
rd level, less sway and fresh air. We slept and enjoyed the shaded sunshine. Found Kristi sitting on one of the chairs and she had the Damanine with her and got one of those and went back to our cabin and slept very well while LaVar watched TV. We had a very good dinner with the Ladies, Sophie, Kristi and Sara. Don and Joan went to one of the restaurants to eat so we had a rather quite meal. I turned down Surf and Turf, I still am having a hard time enjoying lobster after the seriously under cooked one in Norfolk Viriginia, yuck. I had the breaded pork chop and it was very good. I ordered 2 desserts, passion fruit sorbet and a vanilla ice cream with fruit and macadamia nuts. Then there was a dessert extravaganza that night with all kinds of desserts. Cheese cakes, sweet rolls, fruit tarts, cotton candy, candied apples, fruit kabobs dipped in a chocolate fountain, chocolate cakes of all descriptions. I sampled a couple, and we decided to go. LaVar couldn’t imagine eating anything else. We came back to the cabin and slept well, off the boat tomorrow yeah!
Woke up this morning to this in the distance and a cloudy day at Half Moon Cay an Island actually "owned" by Holland America. We were the only ship there today, but I guess on most days there are several ships in port. Holland America rents the island out to other cruise lines. The ship will anchor out and we will take "tenders" to shore.
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| tender boat early morning |
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| Beautiful whole rainbow that seemed like it was just in front of us. |
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| Picture taken from our tender |
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| our "hut" |
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| aaahh photo fail, horns really? |
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| that's better! |
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| On our nature walk around the island |
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| Finding a rock for Stephanie's collection |
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| ~ Good-bye beautiful island ~ |
Friday Half Moon Cay, ok if I get to “heaven” I am hoping it is just like that! The water was this glorious aqua color, the sand was white with pink specs in it, the water was just refreshingly cool the sun warm. We got snorkeling equipment and went out near the rocks the first thing. We saw wonderful fish, some were white with large eyes not too large, some very thin, we saw a purple and yellow one and LaVar saw a large white fish that I couldn’t see when he was against the white sand but when he went against the green algae I saw him. Again I got claustrophobic in the snorkel mask. This time I could stand up and that was good. We went and sat in the sun for a while. Sat in the sand, lapped up the sun and it was wonderful. The ship planned a barbeque for us and it was simple and good. We went back and enjoyed our hut, but I wouldn’t rent one again. This time of year the sun wasn’t that hot and it was more comfortable out of the hut in the breeze. LaVar wanted to go back to the ship to participate in a chess competition, I stayed behind and get a later tender. It was so hard to decide to leave but actually I caught the very next one. When I was on the tender I heard about a lady that was left on the pier in St. Thomas. It is a horrifiying story that she just barely missed getting on the gangway, she ran all the way and they just kept moving it away from her and she was hysterical. It made me feel so sad. We left at 3:30 pm it was a smooth turn around but then it got to rocking again and LaVar and I had a hard time playing Rummicub but we did and several pieces were missing. We again enjoyed a fabulous 4 course meal. The servings are adequate but small enough to enjoy trying many dishes. Sara had the escargot one night, guessing I am not that adventuresome, she said they were good. Kristi mentioned one night that she was disappointed not to see many Christmas decorations on board. The next day they were all up and beautiful.
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| Kristi and Sara from Austin |
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| Our dinner group Don and Joan, Kristi and Sara minus Sophie |
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| Cynthia and Charmel |
Ft. Lauderdale and land! Ships coming in ahead of us, ships coming in behind us.
Things I want to remember~ doing with out our "devices" is not as relaxing as we thought maybe it would be. We are rather hooked on them and REALLY enjoy the convenience.
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| Beautiful flowers and cloth hand towels in the bathrooms |
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| swimming pool cover opened and closed |
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| good bye ship thanks for the experience! |
Oh, when we got home we took my iphone to the Genius Bar and he solved my flash problem. Seems that in my "protecting mode" I left the film on the back of the phone to protect it. The camera can't take great pictures through that..... huh, who knew? Feeling foolish.
Point number 2, anyone needing to add a few pounds ought to take a cruise and conversely anyone watching their weight ought not take a cruise. We each gained at least 8 lbs. That is a pound a day. Goodness! ( and some of it really was!)
All of a sudden we couldn't remember with confidence the time we needed to be back to the ship. We panicked mostly because the taxi drivers weren't offering to get us back to the "Eurodam" as they had been before. So we caught the very next van willing to take us back. We were in plenty of time to buy another hat and a beautiful butterfly pin. The new white hat had a smaller brim and fit better on my head, meaning it didn't fly away as easily. 
