Because You Only Thought I Was Done!

So, you know that honeymoon that I took forever to tell you about? Well, I forgot about something.

You see, my husband's awesome cousin Travis (therefore, my new awesome cousin Travis!) who is a Peace Corps volunteer in Cambodia and blogs about all of his awesome adventures likes to put videos in his posts. Before he went to Cambodia with the Peace Corps, he was a TV reporter with WLEX in Lexington, Kentucky. Did I mention that he's awesome? In honor of Travis, I did a couple of videos on my little camera while my husband and I were in Cozumel at the San Gervasio ruins. So, since I didn't manage to integrate them into my actual posts, here's the San Gervasio ruins in Cozumel.





So, Travis, it wasn't nearly as exciting as what you're doing, but it was fun! We'll make some more for you as we head out on more weekend adventures as the weather starts warming up!

Because We're History Nerds

The cruise had to come to an end sometime, and Sunday finally came. We got our debarkation group number and went to get some breakfast and wait for our number to be called. Once off the boat, we headed for the Tampa Bay History Center to kill some time before we had to head off to the airport for our journey home.

The TBHC had some great experiential theaters with holographic projections, dioramas, and ambient sounds and lighting. The best part, however, were the fun artifacts on display. Like the conquistador armor--it always amazes me how small they were!

We couldn't get too far away from Oklahoma, even in Florida! A significant portion of the exhibit space was devoted to the Seminoles of Florida, inevitably leading to graphic panels on Oklahoma.

Another big part of Tampa history is the cigar industry. With immigrants from Cuba and a good climate for the production of cigars, it became a booming business. So, booming, in fact, that the factories would employ lectors (no, not Hannibal, so we don't need any fava beans or chianti) to read to the employees while they were at work. They would read books, speeches, and other written items until they began inciting the workers to unionize. The TBHC has a lector in their cigar room.

Alec decided that, since the cigars were right there, he could try to get some. Unfortunately, it was just a display...

And you can't have a cigar store without the stereotypical Indian.

And some pretty awesome advertising.

I had a bit too much fun learning about the ranching industry in Florida. Yee-haw!

And I Can't Fight This Feeling that we found the REO Speedwagon!

Lee Roy Selmon is a huge hero in Tampa. Apparently he saved the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from being a truly terrible football team and made them contenders. Boomer Sooner!

Alec participated in the Tarpon Fishing Festival. Well, in the recreation of the Tarpon Festival. Makes it a lot easier to pick up the fish when it's fake and fiberglass.

The one thing that disappointed us was the distinct lack of pirates in the TBHC. We really thought we'd learn more about pirates. I'm not really sure why we were under that impression, but we had pirates on the brain. Perhaps it was because we knew about the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, during which Tampa is invaded by the full-sized version of the pirate ship photographed below. In fact, this was the only pirate-y thing we found in the museum. But, I suppose that is fitting if it is the only real pirate-y thing in the area. Although, they could make something up. We would never know.*

We finally had to get to the airport and return to reality. We were really happy that we had waited to take our honeymoon until we had time to move my stuff, settle in, and let the holidays pass us by. We could be truly relaxed and just enjoy each other's company, the fun excursions, and the beautiful scenery around us. And the monkeys.


*Disclaimer: I do not encourage the making up of historical facts. Unless you're doing it around the lunch table at my work. Then it's just funny.

Because We're Good at Pinching Pesos

Our last port was Cozumel, and the weather was uncooperative. The harbormaster closed the harbor to ships smaller than 50 feet, so our excursion, which involved a boat ride to a beach, was canceled. All the beach and water excursions were canceled because of the weather, actually. This day was supposed to be our big beach and water day, and my big "worry about getting a sunburn" day. So, the good part was that I didn't end up getting sunburned on the trip! The bad part was missing out on a whole day of beachy fun. It made us sad.

Because our excursion was canceled, we decided to just take a cab into the shopping area and hang out, look around, eat some tasty food, and have some drinks. We got into the cab and started talking about going to the museum over by the shopping area, and the cab driver told us that we should head over to the ruins at San Gervaisio. We conferred in the backseat, discussed how much cash we had brought with us off the boat, and decided sure, let's take a ride out to the ruins, an exceptional historical site (notice the sign!).

They had raccoons that they fed tortillas at the admissions area. Banditos!

The ruins here in Cozumel were different from Altun Ha in Belize. There weren't the massive pyramids here--the structures were much smaller. You could still see the roads, too. There was an archway through which we joked you could see the end of the world coming in 2012.




As we were getting ready to leave the archaeological park, we stopped and listened to one of the guided tours that happened to be in English. The guide was describing the site and talking about the goddess to whom it was dedicated and when people would visit. It was dedicated to the goddess of the moom, and Mayans would send their young women there to worship the goddess of the moon to ensure fertility. That's right, folks, we visited the shrine to the Mayan fertility goddess on our honeymoon. And no, we didn't leave any sacrifices. Our cab driver asked us if we did and we assured him that we did not--we'll wait a while and go back :-)

After we returned to town, we looked around, bought a couple of things in the shops, walked on the beach, and then assessed our monetary situation again. We realized that we had exactly enough to get some ceviche and one cerveza a piece at this little restaurant off the main street and take a cab back to the port. And let me tell you, that ceviche was amazing!

His "The Most Interesting Man in the World" pose.

It tasted even more delicious than it looks.
After we ate, we took a cab back to the port and got on the boat one last time. From our balcony, you could see how blue the water was despite the cloudy sky.

All that's left is a day at sea and then time to come home!

Because It's UnBelizeAble!

Port day three, and time for us to brush up on our Indiana Jones impressions. Belize was our day to explore some Mayan ruins. We were signed up for a bus tour through Belize City and out to Altun Ha, the Mayan ruin.

The tender ride to the dock was long and bumpy, but we arrived in one piece and dry, although one passenger on the tender couldn't say that she arrived dry. Once we arrived at port, we boarded our bus and met our tour guides for the day.

They pointed out the sites around Belize City, which included a lot of different schools and, well, not a whole lot else. It was an experience to drive around the city and see how the citizens live considering that most tourists only hear about the beautiful beaches and rain forests. You could see remnants of British control:

The mahogany tree, official tree of the country:

And the "Vote Castro" sign that Alec had to get a photo of--the countryside was covered in them :-)

The road also had a lot of these signs that made us giggle, because we're both twelve years old.

Then, of course, there were the ruins themselves. Altun Ha is an archaeological park. The artifacts that were found at the site are housed at the museum in Belize City since there was not enough funding to create a museum at the site. One of those artifacts is a large jade skull, one of the largest pieces of carved jade recovered in the Mayan culture. It is a Belizean national treasure and is carted out for special national events and dignitaries, but a replica is actually on display in the museum.

"Archeological investigations show that Altun Ha was occupied by 200 BC. The bulk of construction was from the Maya Classic era, c. 200 to 900 AD, when the site may have had a population of about 10,000 people. About 900 there was some looting of elite tombs of the site, which some think is suggestive of a revolt against the site's rulers. The site remained populated for about another century after that, but with no new major ceremonial or elite architecture built during that time. After this the population dwindled, with a moderate surge of reoccupation in the 12th century before declining again to a small agricultural village (Altun Ha, Wikipedia)."


It was drizzling off and on that day, and when it rains they don't allow visitors to climb the structures. I was about to get severely bummed when they decided to go ahead and let us go up. We climbed the slippery and steep staircase to the top of the pyramid, giving us a great view of the complex, as well as a view over the canopy of the forest. So green!

Apparently no human sacrifice occurred at this site, as there is no ball court present. Instead, the residents of this site participated in the ritual of blood-letting, or running barbs over their tongues or other sensitive bodily parts and letting the blood flow as a sacrifice. Ew, and messy.

And here you can see the staircase. Our legs were very, very sore after these stairs and trying to control our legs enough to not slip on the slippery rocks. After we made it down the pyramid, we made our way toward the bus with a stop at a snack bar to pick up a real Coca-Cola and a Belikin beer, the beer of Belize. Later, at the port, we tried the Belikin stout, which was pretty good. I wasn't as big a fan of the lighter one that Alec picked up.
Then it was back to the boat to clean up for another formal night and some fun with comedians and crazy audience members. Fun times!

Because We Less Than Three Trivia

Our first full day of cruising was relaxing. After being rubbed briefly with hot rocks the day before when we passed by the spa (they were doing little teasers for their services, so we sat and got about a three minute long hot stone massage each), Alec decided he wanted to join in on my already-planned massage, so we booked a couples massage for our first day at sea. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in bed, looked out on the balcony, got dressed, and headed up to the spa for our massages. Our tiny little Scottish masseuses were wonderful, and soon we were in full relaxation mode for the trip.

We spent some time reading up on top deck by the pool, enjoyed some fruity drinks, and then headed back to the room for a bit. We got back just in time for the Afternoon Show on one of the ship’s TV stations. Part of the show was a call-in trivia contest for prizes. Now, I have to preface this by saying we had tried an “Urban Myth” trivia earlier and had not won, but this sparked our desire to win a coveted Ship on a Stick. The Ship on a Stick was just a plastic trophy of a Carnival cruise ship held up from a base by a “v” of gold molded plastic. But it was a symbol of triumph! We made it our goal to win a Ship on a Stick. So, we started trying to call in to answer the trivia questions.

FINALLY, we managed to get through and answer the national sport of Canada.* By then telling Wee Jimmy, our Scottish cruise director, the name of the oldest Beatle,** we won the prizes! Our prizes were a bottle of champagne, a beach bag (which was good because I’d managed to forget the one I had right next to my suitcase), a rum cake, and a Ship on a Stick. Success!

After that, it was formal night on the boat, so we got all gussied up and went down to dinner with our dining companions. We were seated at dinner with two other young couples, one married and one who had been dating for two or two and a half years. Good dinner conversation. Delicious steak and lobster.

Then it was time to go to bed and dream of sea turtles and Grand Cayman, our port for the next day!

The towel animal for the night was an elephant! He was so cute that I couldn't use him, I had to put him over on the couch so he'd be there in the morning :-)

*Lacrosse (Bird knew)
**Ringo Starr (Baxter knew)
Team effort!

Because Penguins are Cool (Literally and Figuratively)

After falling asleep at 8 p.m. Eastern time and sleeping through the night, we woke up refreshed and ready to take on the day. And by take on the day, I mean act like small children at the Florida Aquarium. Fishies! Penguins!

Before we headed that way, we looked out our 15th floor window and, what did we behold but our boat! In port! It looked so ready for us. We couldn’t begin boarding for several more hours, however, giving us plenty of time to hang out with the penguins and seahorses.

We got to the aquarium and began our tour with some time at the touch tank with the rays and nurse sharks.

We then found out it was time for the penguin show! We made our way to the penguin stage. Well, the penguin carpet and benches. The little guy was wheeled in by his trainer in a little blue wagon. The trainer introduced us to Sandy the Penguin, who proceeded to wander around the red carpet that was surrounded by visitors, including me. I felt like a preschool kid at storytime—it was awesome. We learned what their behaviors mean, what environments they live in, that they can shoot their poo up to four feet, all kinds of interesting tidbits. And I got close enough to get some great photos of Sandy the Penguin.


We wandered around the rest of the aquarium, I successfully avoided some free-roaming birds, we touched some starfish and other invertebrates, and we gawked at some pot-bellied male seahorses that might or might not have been carrying babies. Alec generously offered to carry our children in the manner of a male seahorse, so we’ll see how far medical science has advanced by then. Something tells me I’ll still be the pregnant one, Lord willing.

From the vantage point of the back of the Aquarium, the cruise ship was tantalizingly close. It’s right there! Can’t we just jump on?

Once we had our fill of the Florida Aquarium, and purchased a small penguin in the gift shop, we made our way to get our bags and go to the port to get onto the boat. Now, getting onto a cruise ship is a fun process that involves getting to know your fellow passengers for a while before getting on board. In other words, you get to stand in line. For a while. For various reasons. They check your passport. They check your carry on items. They make you swear that you don’t have the flu and, if you do have a slight cough, you’ll let the ship’s doctor check you out. They issue your Sail and Sign card, AKA your “if you lose this card you will be stranded in your room and won’t be able to eat or drink or won’t be able to get back on the boat after a port day” card. Finally they scan your card to let you on the boat. And then they take your picture. And take your picture. And take your picture.
But then, magically, we made it onto the boat. And to our room. To see our extended balcony. And, of course, to call our parents to let them know that we’d made it onto the boat as scheduled and were sitting on our extended balcony. Rock on.



I was overwhelmed by the overwhelmingness of the decoration on the boat—the only thing to compare it to is an elaborate Vegas casino. As our ship was the Legend, each area was themed around a different Legend: the steakhouse was the Golden Fleece, the casino was named after Merlin, the lobby was the Colossus, the top deck had unicorns and Camelot and such, and so on. We made our way up top to watch the ship depart and wave goodbye to the good ol’ USA for the next week. It was a pretty evening to be on a boat.



I’M ON A BOAT!!