I have to say, I’m not really sure why I am so slack in blogging here during the lazy days of summer. I certainly have enjoyed my fair share of laziness, though on the other hand I have been busier than I intended. I’m spending a few days a week in New Orleans at an O&P clinic down there (staying the night at Marcia’s house in between) and a few days a week at a clinic here in Baton Rouge. Other than that, I have been to Houston for a 48-hour visit and on a 6-day cruise. In my free time, I have been reading some, running some, watching a few movies, and packing/unpacking bags a lot.
The cruise was quite an adventure, as most cruises tend to be. The added adventure for me was that I went on this cruise with Marcia and her family, which of course are my family as well by blood. By “family” I mean a group of about 30-40 people that were either related or close friends. Thankfully, I had already met most of the family at Christmas, so I was not totally overwhelmed but excited to spend more time with them.
I drove down to New Orleans the morning of Memorial Day to meet up at Marcia’s house before we went to the terminal for boarding. I was in a gloriously good mood – all packed and ready, dressed for the occasion in casual clothes, flip-flops, and a cowboy hat – and all was well until I got pulled over in La Place, Louisiana for speeding. I didn’t have it in me to beg and plead in order to get out of the ticket, so I just took it and fumed over it for the next 10-15 minutes. As I neared New Orleans, I put the ticket in the glove compartment (to deal with after the cruise) and resumed my glorious good mood. With Marcia, Roy, Stephen, Jonathan, and myself, we had quite a few bags to transport, not to mention people. One of Roy’s brothers and his wife showed up with two SUVs to bring us and our bags down to the river. After waiting in a few long lines and getting our pre-cruise picture made, we finally clambered on board the ship, the Carnival Fantasy. From there the rest of the cruise is somewhat of a blur, but I’ll try my best to summarize.
I spent a lot of time on the Lido Deck (the sun deck) reading and trying to get some sun, despite the mostly cloudy and often rainy weather we encountered. I typically ate breakfast alone because I was the only one ready to leave the room at 7am every morning when I woke up starving. During lunch, though, I usually managed to meet up with at least a few other people in our group, and we ate dinner together every night. If you’ve been on a cruise before, you already know how good the food is. If not, trust me, it is pretty good. I think my favorite meal was the filet mignon I had the first night. It was downhill from there but by no means bad.
Our two stops were Costa Maya on Wednesday and Cozumel on Thursday. In Costa Maya we went on an excursion to tour the Mayan ruins, which was guided by a local woman named Ophelia (I think). I loved it when she said “my country” in her thick accent and then smiled at us with the understanding that we surely did not appreciate her country as much as she did. I tried to appreciate it but at the same time was saddened by the living conditions that we saw, shacks along the highways and people lining the roads desperate to sell their wares to anyone that would stop. The ruins were impressive and the jungle a beautiful (though hot) mixture of exotic vegetation and not-so-exotic mosquitoes. Thankfully, the rain held off until just after we re-boarded our tour bus to return to the port. We had a nice nap for an hour as we drove through the pelting rain, and we spent another hour or so shopping near the port while trying to stay dry. The following day in Cozumel started out beautiful and stayed nice all morning. We left the boat at about 8am and headed to a nearby park to swim with dolphins. I had no idea what to expect of this excursion, but it was really a lot of fun. We each had the chance to perform a number of tricks with our dolphin, Chac, including kissing him on the nose, hugging him, and even riding on his belly as he swam upside down underwater. I’m not sure if those short descriptions adequately describe the experience, but trust me it was very fun and exciting. Chac also performed other tricks without us like jumping straight up out of the water, splashing us with water, waving to us with his pectoral fins, and finally waving to us with his tail fin as he floated head down in the water. We went back to the port area and shopped around a little bit after that adventure, and then we boarded the boat for lunch. Unfortunately, the weather got ugly after lunch, so we did not go back out to the port at Cozumel again.
The last full day of the cruise (one day after Cozumel), I mysteriously woke up sick and miserable. I wondered if it might be a hangover, though I had not had too much to drink and my head didn’t hurt like it would in that case. It was mostly intestinal if you catch my drift. Well, I managed to nurse myself to decent health by that afternoon and enjoyed that day, but I carried that bug with me back onto land. One dose of antibiotics had me back in full swing about 5 days later. Thankfully, I am officially on vacation and did not HAVE to go to the clinics I had planned to go to that week. So I rested up and gave myself an extended cruise-like break for a few days.
As for the family time, I have to say it was hard to spend much quality time with anyone in such a large group. I did, however, enjoy hanging around with everyone and was able to spend time getting to know a few of my new cousins. It is strange to be the outsider all of a sudden entering into this large family, but they have been very gracious and inviting. In fact, they have been extremely nice to me and accepting of me, for which I am grateful.
So that has been my vacation highlight so far. I leave later this week to go to my cousin’s wedding in Florida and then spend next week at the beach with my parents and my brother’s family. After that I’ll be back in Louisiana for a few more weeks before my whirlwind volunteer tour starts. I’ll be sure to share about all that when the time comes.
Finally, I apologize for the lack of pictures to document most of the cruise. I didn’t take many with my camera (just the sunsets as you see) and am a little technologically challenged here at my parents’ house, so I can’t scan the prints that Marcia gave me.
The cruise was quite an adventure, as most cruises tend to be. The added adventure for me was that I went on this cruise with Marcia and her family, which of course are my family as well by blood. By “family” I mean a group of about 30-40 people that were either related or close friends. Thankfully, I had already met most of the family at Christmas, so I was not totally overwhelmed but excited to spend more time with them.
I drove down to New Orleans the morning of Memorial Day to meet up at Marcia’s house before we went to the terminal for boarding. I was in a gloriously good mood – all packed and ready, dressed for the occasion in casual clothes, flip-flops, and a cowboy hat – and all was well until I got pulled over in La Place, Louisiana for speeding. I didn’t have it in me to beg and plead in order to get out of the ticket, so I just took it and fumed over it for the next 10-15 minutes. As I neared New Orleans, I put the ticket in the glove compartment (to deal with after the cruise) and resumed my glorious good mood. With Marcia, Roy, Stephen, Jonathan, and myself, we had quite a few bags to transport, not to mention people. One of Roy’s brothers and his wife showed up with two SUVs to bring us and our bags down to the river. After waiting in a few long lines and getting our pre-cruise picture made, we finally clambered on board the ship, the Carnival Fantasy. From there the rest of the cruise is somewhat of a blur, but I’ll try my best to summarize.
I spent a lot of time on the Lido Deck (the sun deck) reading and trying to get some sun, despite the mostly cloudy and often rainy weather we encountered. I typically ate breakfast alone because I was the only one ready to leave the room at 7am every morning when I woke up starving. During lunch, though, I usually managed to meet up with at least a few other people in our group, and we ate dinner together every night. If you’ve been on a cruise before, you already know how good the food is. If not, trust me, it is pretty good. I think my favorite meal was the filet mignon I had the first night. It was downhill from there but by no means bad.
Our two stops were Costa Maya on Wednesday and Cozumel on Thursday. In Costa Maya we went on an excursion to tour the Mayan ruins, which was guided by a local woman named Ophelia (I think). I loved it when she said “my country” in her thick accent and then smiled at us with the understanding that we surely did not appreciate her country as much as she did. I tried to appreciate it but at the same time was saddened by the living conditions that we saw, shacks along the highways and people lining the roads desperate to sell their wares to anyone that would stop. The ruins were impressive and the jungle a beautiful (though hot) mixture of exotic vegetation and not-so-exotic mosquitoes. Thankfully, the rain held off until just after we re-boarded our tour bus to return to the port. We had a nice nap for an hour as we drove through the pelting rain, and we spent another hour or so shopping near the port while trying to stay dry. The following day in Cozumel started out beautiful and stayed nice all morning. We left the boat at about 8am and headed to a nearby park to swim with dolphins. I had no idea what to expect of this excursion, but it was really a lot of fun. We each had the chance to perform a number of tricks with our dolphin, Chac, including kissing him on the nose, hugging him, and even riding on his belly as he swam upside down underwater. I’m not sure if those short descriptions adequately describe the experience, but trust me it was very fun and exciting. Chac also performed other tricks without us like jumping straight up out of the water, splashing us with water, waving to us with his pectoral fins, and finally waving to us with his tail fin as he floated head down in the water. We went back to the port area and shopped around a little bit after that adventure, and then we boarded the boat for lunch. Unfortunately, the weather got ugly after lunch, so we did not go back out to the port at Cozumel again.
The last full day of the cruise (one day after Cozumel), I mysteriously woke up sick and miserable. I wondered if it might be a hangover, though I had not had too much to drink and my head didn’t hurt like it would in that case. It was mostly intestinal if you catch my drift. Well, I managed to nurse myself to decent health by that afternoon and enjoyed that day, but I carried that bug with me back onto land. One dose of antibiotics had me back in full swing about 5 days later. Thankfully, I am officially on vacation and did not HAVE to go to the clinics I had planned to go to that week. So I rested up and gave myself an extended cruise-like break for a few days.
As for the family time, I have to say it was hard to spend much quality time with anyone in such a large group. I did, however, enjoy hanging around with everyone and was able to spend time getting to know a few of my new cousins. It is strange to be the outsider all of a sudden entering into this large family, but they have been very gracious and inviting. In fact, they have been extremely nice to me and accepting of me, for which I am grateful.
So that has been my vacation highlight so far. I leave later this week to go to my cousin’s wedding in Florida and then spend next week at the beach with my parents and my brother’s family. After that I’ll be back in Louisiana for a few more weeks before my whirlwind volunteer tour starts. I’ll be sure to share about all that when the time comes.
Finally, I apologize for the lack of pictures to document most of the cruise. I didn’t take many with my camera (just the sunsets as you see) and am a little technologically challenged here at my parents’ house, so I can’t scan the prints that Marcia gave me.
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