Trending
Over time, we've tried very hard to make things as easy for our children as possible, short of doing everything for them. Sometimes, we had to say, "no" to things. Sometimes, we had to make them do for themselves, but where we could, and still can, we try to help them as much as possible.
We're very proud of all our children, as they've worked hard to get very good jobs, with none of them ever being afraid to work, and they're raising, or have raised great children giving us six wonderful grandchildren, resulting in five more great-grandchildren. Our children have gifted us with the best present ever, family.
Speaking of gifts, and here are many times our kids are way too generous with their gifts to us, and they've often expressed their frustration in wondering to get us for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, etc., though we keep telling them they and their families, are the greatest gifts we could ever be gifted, and all we want, is them, be it through time together (visits, phone calls, text messages, pictures, Facebooking, Zooming, etc.), but they still want us to have something to give us on those special occasions, and we certainly appreciate their love and generosity.
Last Christmas, our favorite eldest child, Chasity, (not to be confused with our favorite middle child, Christina, or our favorite youngest child, Jonathan, as all our children are our favorites, in equal proportions, on all levels), wanted to plan something that she could gift Mom, Dad, Richard, Justin, Jen, Josh, and Leah's covering all special days in the upcoming new year. Her hope was our entire family cruising together, but unfortunately, and understandably, Chris's and Jon's families couldn't take time from their jobs, or their kids' school schedule, to vacation in March.
Sally was always leery about traveling on water, but as the song goes, it's "the things we do for love," that matters, so we accepted (strictly to help make her "gift shopping" a little easier, lol). It ended up that eight of us were able to go, so six months plus ago, (7 March), we boarded planes from where we all lived, and met in Miami to board Carnival Horizon on 8 March, and set sail for locations in the Caribbean which included the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Cayman Islands. We also participated in many on-ship activities on this cruise, including two Comedy shows, a starlit evening on-deck movie, numerous trivia games, watching an ice sculptor, Bingo (Jen won $1000.00), Deal or No Deal (Richard won $50.00), an on-board Casino (Chasy won $1,000), and numerous decks where we could bask in the sun and warmth of temperatures between high 70s to mid-80s. Sally, Chasy, and Richard took advantage of the spa and got a massage to soothe their muscles from our experience riding 4-Wheelers through some rough and tough terrain, especially for a couple of not-so-Spring (more like late-Winter) Chickens like Sally and me. BTW, Sally's cruise leeriness subsided a couple days into the trip, but I felt effects from the motion of the ship, not resulting in sickness, but a quivering feeling and some equilibrium effects, but it worked out okay.
When we arrived on board before heading here, there, and everywhere, a steward knocked on our cabin door and delivered us a package with two Champaigne flutes and a bottle of Bubbly that was sent from our wonderful friends Chris and Sam, with which we raised a toast to each other, and Sam and Chris, before dinner one night, and then we went up to a higher deck after dinner with the bottle still on ice, and had a few more glasses of our special gift. (There was even enough left after that, with which to "flavor" some orange juice the next morning and enjoy a mimosa with breakfast.)
Our in-port activities during the week included 4-Wheeling, visiting a Botanical Garden, spending an hour enjoying a libation on a beautiful beach, and a meal included with our activity fee, all in the Bahamas with a great bus driver/guide/4-Wheel instructor. Two days later, we toured the city of Ocho Rios, Jamaica, with another amazing driver/guide and young man, who drove us all over, found us a wonderful little restaurant that served Jerk Chicken (a wish of mine if we ever went to Jamaica). He stopped to show us some of the most beautiful blue water pools and waterfalls, he drove us through the city showing us the many types of homes, the schools, local fishermen leaving for, and returning from, a catch. He stopped for us to sample Sugar Cane, Sugar Water, Coconut Water, and Coconut Jelly. Our last stop of that tour was to a non-dairy ice cream shop where all the ice cream was made from coconuts.
Our last port where we disembarked was at a beach in the Caymen Islands, but as warm and wonderful as it was, it got extremely hot (high 80s) and the beach was very crowded, so we didn't stay there long. We were able to get a tender boat to take us back to the ship, where we sat around the pool for a bit. Our last day/night was spent on ship packing, enjoying some dinner, and taking in the second of our comedy shows, before putting our luggage out in the hall as we had an early disembarking pass for the next morning.
Sally and I requested the early pass as it's been our hope for some time to visit Key West, with its history, and also connection to Jimmy Buffett, so, the day our cruise disembarked, with two $25.00, previously purchased Greyhound Bus tickets in hand, and four day/three night reservations already made at a KW motel, we hopped an 11:00 am bus to KW to cross off numerous Bucket List items we'd had. It turned into five day/four nights, as we were bumped from our home flight, and the airlines, even after I wasn't real pleasant, set us up in a five-star resort, gave us a free lunch voucher for the next day, and gave each of us a very substantial voucher for use for future flights.
While in KW, we visited Jimmy Buffett's, now closed, but soon to be re-opened, studio where he wrote and recorded some of his music. We passed the Lah-De-Dah Hotel and Restaurant/Bar, walked Caroline St., and went to Captain Tony's Saloon (Home of the First and Original Sloppy Joes in KW), all places which were topics of Buffett's songs. We went to the Original Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Café twice (once for appetizers and margaritas on a very hot day, and once for dinner and another margarita, a couple days later). We took a street train tour of the island, one morning we walked to the ocean and experienced an amazingly beautiful sunrise, we ate in some wonderful restaurants and cafés, visited the Ernest Hemingway House, (with all the cats), passed the Truman Little White House, the Key West Lighthouse, the Mile 0 marker, and visited the Southernmost Point in the Continental U.S. buoy, while dodging chickens and roosters (which wander freely and are protected birds in KW), and talking to many friendly tourists, bartenders, and hotel, restaurant, and store employees. Except for the train tour, we walked the entire time we were in Key West.
The entire 12 days of this experience, we could honestly say, in the words of Jimmy Buffett, "It's been a Lovely Cruise," and an amazing trip to Key West. Thanks again, Richard, Justin, Jen, Josh, and Leah, for sharing the cruise with us, and especially Chasity so much for planning, joining, and asking us to help you solve your shopping dilemma, while allowing us to shout out, "We're Livin' the Dream!" (Ah, "the things we do for love," and our children.) Let us know if you need us to do it again, lol.