"Jamaic-a Me Craaazzzzyyy!"

Our final island was Jamaica. I always tried to be near the front of the ship as we were coming up to our stop so I could get a picture of the port. Here we are pulling into Falmouth Jamaica.

No problem Mon', we are officially on island time. ;)

Lots of pretty Caribbean colors and cool old buildings......

This guy didn't even ask Ryanne, he just bent down and picked her up. She turned and flashed a smile and then said,"Dang mom, I was way up there!"

This guy was super nice and chatty too! Or maybe I was chatty? Either way he was making these beautiful baskets and made the girls each a bracelet. They were in awe of his workmanship.

Of course we had to stop and get Dan a T-shirt......

Rum anyone? I didn't think so.....

This guy hand carved a turtle for Ryanne and a shark for Morgan from local wood. He put the girls names on them. Really cool for their shelves.

We took a shuttle from the cruise port (I deleted the photo of us in the shuttle out of pure vanity. Whaaat? I had three chins. I so need to get photo shop) Any how, we went to Rose Hall which is owned by Hilton....see above.

This greeted you when you walked in. Ahhhhh....I will tell you that if you plan on going to Jamaica ever by boat, plain, swimming etc. go to a resort. It's not safe to venture out on your own. Go in a group if you do. We reserved our time at the resort through www.jamaicaforaday.com and they were great! It was just for a day pass and very reasonable.

Here are the lounge chairs we snagged and never sat in.......

My fish. Ever since she was little we have joked that if she is out of the water for to long she can't breath. :)

Cheeessseeeeeeee..........

Such a fun day. The resort had swimming pools and swim up bars and water slides and water falls and and and! Whew! They gave you wrist bands so all your drinks and food were included all day. We told the kids,"Have fun, stay together and check in every so often." Morgan came down to the water and when Dan asked where Ryanne was she said,"Dad, she's at the swim up bar drinking again!" I think we lost track after 6 virgin pina coladas. We sent Dan in to cut her off and discovered she had befriended this older Jamaican woman who fell in love with her. Ha! Only Ryanne.

This resort employee climbed up the tree and got a coconut for Morgan. He cut it, put a straw in it and gave it to her.

She loves coconut!

Personally I thought it tasted like sweat....blah. But it was fun to try.

"No worries mon', this is a secure and safe resort." We discovered this was the security gate. hhmmm.....

I tried to get my friend Tammy to drape herself across this tree so I could print it for her husband....she said no. Whatever. Ha! I think this needs to be printed out and hung in my house.

If you have ever watched Survivor you know the men always sit around in the water plotting their next move....I always thought our husbands looked like they were having these intense conversations like on Survivor. They probably weren't even talking. ;)

After all day in the sun......Next day? My birthday! Well, it's not really an event. Unless you ask Dan. He would tell you I might make the whole week about my birthday but don't believe him. Wink. Wink.

Grand Cayman...

Our second stop in the Caribbean was Grand Cayman. A few fun facts; Grand Cayman is made up of three islands with Grand Cayman being the biggest at 22 miles long and 8 miles wide. It is British territory and has over 449 banks! Guess we know where people are hiding their overseas money huh?

By law most all businesses are closed on Sunday and they drive on the right hand side of the car, left side of the road. That was fun for the first time. :) It was beautiful and the people were super nice.

You are not allowed to dock in Grand Cayman so you go to the first floor of the ship, slip out a little side door on the side of the ship and onto a rocking tender boat. An adventure all in itself.

Pulling away from our temporary home....

We took a chartered boat out to sting ray city. It was about a 30 minute ride out to the middle of the ocean. Can you see all those stingray's in the water? They came from all over. If I had not seen it myself I would not have believed it. The water was like clear as clear can be and WARM! They backed the boats in and you jumped into water about 3-4' deep. They had raw squid you could hand feed the stingrays which I most graciously passed on. Ha!

Morgan made friends with the captain who in turn taught her how to drive a boat......

He then let her drive the whole way back! She was on cloud nine!

I guess in my mind I had these things pictured oh I don't know SMALLER! Not freakin' 4-5' wide. These are wild animals people not Sea World pets.

"Oh just kiss it!" they said......I tried really I did. But my lips just curled in every time. The look on my husbands face frightens me.

Eeeeeekkkkkkk!!!!!

I like the view from back here better. Morgan loved these things. She was swimming with them, feeding them and told me on the way back that she most definitely wants to go into Oceanography now. :)

OK look, we are a large group of 8 and look how wide that dude is! Notice I'm all smiles in the back. When everyone moved and it went to swim off I walked on water the other direction. Eeeeekkkk!!!!

At the end of the day Dan was swimming over a shallow reef and fell on a sea urchant. Now here's the thing; he was so calm and collect. But let me tell you the needles went all the way through. Like in one side and hanging out the other side. Like someone stuck him with needles. Bright red needles! I did not take a picture of the injury  when it first happened. The needles, the blood...I felt woozy. Lucky for me I was with a nurse, a retired nurse and firefighter and two kids who have no sense to be grossed out. They took him to a medical tent where they proceeded to remove as many as possible. Some broke off in his fingers during the removal so he is still picking out needles. Ugh! They gave him Motrin and a "good luck son!" before we headed back to the ship.

One of the boat guides dove down and brought these up for the girls. They said,"Oh sure, try and get them through customs, you might make it." We made it. They look beautiful in my house. Love it! Gotta travel with kids who make friends, they get everything!

Good night Grand Cayman. Thanks for the memories! We love you! Sea urchants? Not so much.

Cozumel....

We got to go to three different countries in the Western Caribbean Cozumel being our first stop. The funny thing about this sign is that it says,"stay on ship time." With the time change in the states and then the time change down there I never knew what time it was. It became this big joke that when someone in our group would ask what time we needed to be somewhere they would ask me AND then ask someone who really knew. I missed so many things on the ship I wanted to do because I never knew what the right time was. Hmph....oh well, that's what vacation is for right?

Two ships in port that day made you feel pretty small......I love everything about being on a ship. The water, the air the amazing fact that you can hop on a boat and be days away from land seeing amazing things like flying fish, whales, dolphins, stranded Carnival ships....kidding! I asked Dan what he thought I had to do to get them to let me drive this thing. I think I want to be a sailor when I grow up. ;)

This is the last time you will see the Mariner of The Seas....she dumped us in Texas and was headed for Asia for a LONG time.

Sometimes we jump on the band wagon and do shore excursions and sometimes we throw caution to the wind and go out on our own....we're loco like that. This time we ended up doing the dune buggy snorkel excursion. This was my very favorite day of the trip. It was 86 degrees with 87% humidity and the water was in the 80's as well. Dan said it's all my Mexican/Greek blood but I just loved the place!

Girls loaded up and ready for our adventure! They are so easy. We tell them we are gonna try something and they are like,"cool." After being in the dune buggy all day Morgan had the cutest curly fro...she said if I posted an after picture she'd kill me. Yes I'm afraid of her.....HELLOOO pre-teen people!!

Cozumel is roughly 28 miles long and 9 miles wide so heading around it in a day is super easy. Lots of great snorkeling along the way. See below.

My mom took this after we went snorkeling. OH MY GOSH! We saw lobster as big as Ryanne. DINNER! Sting ray, a HUGE family of Red Snapper and just to many cool colored fish to count. Ryanne was cool till' she heard Red Snapper; she climbed my face and tried to drown me. Dan asked me why I can't just be normal in pictures? Ummmmm....

Don't care what language you say it in I am not going in there. Hey I respect boundaries. Especially if the boundaries mean getting my arm bit off. ;)

We stopped at this little place right on the water for lunch.....authentic Mexican food AND........

"SWINGS IN THE RESTAURANT MOM! We soooo need to move!"

This is a beautiful working light house that we climbed to the top of. There was this cute little sign near the top that said,"watch your head." Uh-huh, I got so excited about nearing the top I did what any grown adult would do and jumped up with excitement. Theeeeennnn I saw the WATCH YOUR HEAD SIGN. Let's just say people could hear me from all over and leave it at that. I'm pretty sure I heard laughter.

The 100+ stairs (I quit counting after a 100) was well worth the climb wouldn't you agree? Breathing taking really.

Mom just leave me here. Next stop Grand Cayman and swimming with sting rays. Swimming with, running from its all the same really.