Through the Deep Blue Sea

Dan and I celebrated the freedom of no longer being students!! Dan has officially finished with his thesis and we wanted to do something out of the ordinary, and with a baby on the way we thought we better make it extra ordinary because who knows the next time we will get this chance with work and kids.

We decided to go on a cruise! Neither of us have ever been so we thought it was the perfect get away for us. We sailed to the Caribbean. Jamaica, Cayman Islands, and Mexico. We had so much fun and it was a well needed vacation before Dan starts his new job. We had to kennel Range for 10 days and it about killed me. I of course cried when we dropped him off and I worried about him the whole time.

Well here is a basic outline of our trip. REMEMBER! that when looking at the pictures I am PREGNANT not just FAT!! :)

Sunday we checked in and got acquainted with our new home for a week. We explored and settled in. The ship we were on was called the Carnival Conquest. Its basically a city floating on water. Its crazy!

The toilet had this powerful suction and it was super scary the first time using it. Really it was super suction!

Monday and Tuesday we were out on the sea. We swam,ate and ate and ate, and went on the water slides, and yes we even played some slots. Don't judge me and all I will say is that we came out on top! 1 cent machines!!

They had so much entertainment on the ship with live performance shows, music, Karaoke, and shopping! I had to remind myself that I was on a ship in the middle of the ocean.

Jamaica was the first Island stop out of the three. We didn't plan any excursions for this Island because we wanted to shop, and enjoy the beaches the first day.

This was my first time trying a real coconut. Let me say the juice inside was alright, but the actual coconut inside was super slimy and nasty. I hope I never get stranded on an Island where I have to live off of coconut, but it was worth trying for the experience.

The beach was beautiful. We rented some snorkel gear and went and saw the coral below us. Its so pretty and kinda freaky that we were swimming with all these live things crawling and swimming around.

Eating at the beach, trying some authentic Jamaica food.

Jamaica was a little more scary than I thought. It's a very poor country and the people there are all over you trying to get you to purchase something. They would lure you into their shops and than hurry and close the door behind you. Dan was very cute and protective!

Cayman Islands was my favorite stop! We had an excursion planned for this go around and it was a full packed day!

It started with a stop to the turtle farm. We were able to see HUGE sea turtles and hold the baby ones. They were so much fun to play with!

Second we went to a town called Hell. Literally this town on a map is called Hell. Its really creepy. The reason for this is because of the rock that are formed behind the town. Dan was loving it because of all the geological stuff he got to look at. I just felt guilty for even being there. ha ha

The third and last stop was swimming with the sting rays. I thought I could handle it but getting in the water with these giant things with sharp stingers on their tales really freaked me out. They take you out in the middle of the ocean to a sand bar and there are just tons of sting rays. I had a panic attack and couldn't breath so I had to take a moment and cling for dear life on the boat, but gently Dan held me and some other really nice people helped calm me down so I slowly got used to the idea. I even got the courage to feed them. They just suck squid right out of your hand.

It was an amazing experience!!

The Tulum Mayan Ruins was pretty cool! Its amazing how they built all these structures hundreds of years ago. These are the people that predicted that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012.

We spent the day wondering around the city and learning more about how the people lived.

We played at the beach for a little while and soaked in some more sun. I never get tired of beaches. I could play on a beach all day! The water was warm and waves are always fun to play in!

This was my favorite towel animal of the whole week. We walked into our room and the "Turn down Service" had already been there so we saw this little thing hanging from the ceiling. I thought it was pretty cute!

Saturday was spent on the boat just relaxing and catching up from the three crazy Island days. By Sunday we were ready to be home. Our ship had to turn around because of a medical emergency so we were late docking, but the employees had to be prepared for the next arrivals so we all just had to sit out by one of the pool decks and wait.

Dan just waiting for our dock number to be called!

It was an incredible vacation! We had such a blast and I highly recommend going on a cruise! It is the best way to travel and you never have any worries. It was amazing! I was excited to get home and get my little Ranger from the Kennel.