Friday, January 26, 2018
It's been a cold, busy month so far and we are ready for a break. It's been 6 years since our last cruise and we decided it was time for another one. We leave tomorrow morning for New Orleans and a 7-day cruise to Key West and the Bahamas. I am going to totally disconnect from technology for seven days (except for my electric toothbrush) and do nothing "work" related until we get back. (happy sigh)
It is interesting that, except for Hawaii (which is not even in the five-year plan), all of the states we need to visit (see previous post) are in the northern half of the country. No incentive to go there in the winter. So, as we drive through states this week that we've already been in, we won't be working on our goal. My response is: oh well, I don't care. 😊
Saturday, January 27 - Marion IA to Jackson MS (776 miles)
Left home at 7:20am. Stopped for a late breakfast at McDonalds in Hannibal MO. Missouri has no snow but it is still brown. Looks like Iowa in winter, except for the road cutouts through the hills. (We either don't have as high of hills or we just make the road go up and down more.) Drove into misty rain south of New Madrid MO. Fun fact: the rest area south of New Madrid is entirely devoted to earthquake info. Drove through Arkansas and a corner of Tennessee on our way to Mississippi. Mississippi is not really green but there are more trees (evergreens) and the ground is orangish more than brown. We started to see bugs splattering on the windshield north of Jackson. We won't see that for several more months at home.
At 6pm it was 59 degrees and we had driven out of the rain. We went to an IHOP near the hotel in Jackson MS. Ugh. The food was good but the service was s-l-o-w and the place wasn't very clean. Then it took forever to check into the hotel. Not such a great end to the day but all in all it was a good first travel day.
Sunday, January 28 - Jackson MS to New Orleans LA (188 miles) and beginning of cruise
Left Jackson at 7:30am. Overcast and 56 degrees. Some of the grass south of Jackson was green. (We live in Iowa - we seldom see green grass in January). Louisiana has miles and miles of swamp and very few roads. There are many houses on the bayou with only boat access. There is a three-level interstate exchange all built over swamp land. Saw palm trees and a crane, but no alligators.
Moss covered trees in the bayou.
Arrived at the port, gave our baggage to the porters, parked the car, and got in line. 90 minutes later we were on the ship. 90 minutes after that we were allowed to get into our cabin. Our room faces the dock, where there is a lot of bustle with baggage. (We hope that ours gets on the ship and we see it before we go to bed.)
The ship was close, but very far away at this point.
Waiting on the ship until we can go to our cabin.
Our cabin is on deck 2 and the Lido deck with all of the food is on deck 10. We are determined not to take the elevator, so that's eight flights of stairs every time we go eat. We hope this will counteract the unlimited food and 24 hour ice-cream availability.
There is a very nice 18 hole mini-golf course on deck 12. Mini-golf is probably our favorite thing to do on vacation, so we are looking forward to checking it out. (We plan to combine our games with our meals so we don't have to do as many stairs.)
One of our favorite places on the ship.
The ship finally left the dock at 5:45pm. The channel to get to the Gulf of Mexico from the port is 113 miles long. It takes about eight hours to get through it. Next stop, Key West on Tuesday.
*Stair count = 2 (Two times up to deck 10 or 12. Fun fact: There are 139 stair steps between deck 2 and deck 10). 💪
Monday, January 29 - Sea day
Woke up to rolling motion. Not too bad - have experienced worse. The sky is cloudy and the sea is rough. 68 degrees. Plan for the day: mini-golf!
I turned off my cell phone yesterday after 5pm. Even though I can use it for a camera and games and the ship app, I am resisting. I had planned to be tech free for the week and I resolve to keep that plan. I need a break from the distractions as well as the work. Going to focus on more "un-plugged" options for my time.
View from our balcony.
Mini-golf was fun, but I lost both games by one shot. I will redeem myself, though!! We play fairly even most of the time but I am wildly inconsistent with a good balance of lucky shots and total choking. 😐
Wore my Iowa Hawkeye shirt today. Had a few people comment on it. It's a good way to meet other people from Iowa, or at least people who know where Iowa is...
Spent a good amount of time on our balcony today. The temperature got up to around 70 and the sun came out for awhile. Tonight we are going to a couple of comedy shows. They have "family friendly" options earlier in the evening and those are the ones we prefer.
Only made it through one comedy show. It was ok, but I just wasn't getting into it. Would rather be sitting here on the balcony. It's totally dark on the water and there are no other ships in sight.
A lazy, restful day - very nice!
*Stair count = 4
Tuesday, January 30 - Key West FL
Found out this morning that I was out in the sun a little too long yesterday, which for me can only take about 30 minutes. Am a little sunburned - mostly on my arms. Time to start using the sunscreen. Temp is around 64 degrees today, so still jeans weather for me. We need to do the next trip later in the year or go further south. Haven't been able to use the balcony as much as I would like because it's not quite warm enough.
Walked in Key West to the "Southernmost Point in the Continental US" and back. About 3.5 miles total. My Fitbit showed I had 8000 steps before we got back to the boat. We saw a LOT of roosters and some chickens on our walk. Apparently they are "free range" and they are everywhere!
Southernmost Point.
Our ship from the port at Key West.
Played a round of mini-golf and, you guessed it, I lost by one again.
Ate dinner in the dining room for the first time this trip. (The dining room is on deck 3 so it is kind of like cheating on the whole "take eight flights of stairs to eat" thing). Sat with a very nice couple from Illinois that we had a lot in common with. The food was very good!
*Stair count = 3
Wednesday, January 31 - Freeport, Bahamas
Coming in to Freeport. Temp at 6:30am is 63 degrees. Too cool and windy to comfortably sit on the balcony for very long. (Ok, I know that some people think that 63 degrees is perfect for being outside, but I would prefer it to be about ten degrees warmer.) No specific plans for the day. We might get off the ship long enough to go to the shops near the port if it looks interesting.
Did visit the shops, but didn't do much shopping. Pretty much a quick walk-through, then back to the ship.
Played two rounds of mini-golf. I tied or was within one shot on the front nine both times, but I totally choked on the back nine - both times. How can I get a hole-in-one on one hole and then a (max) five on the next? (sigh)
Lunch today was frozen yogurt (I am already tired of eating too much) and "supper" was a cheeseburger at 4pm.
We went to a show tonight that was a game show with audience participation. (Not us, thank you!) It was fun to watch.
*Stair count = 4
Thursday, February 1 - Nassau, Bahamas
Docked at Nassau. Temp is 71 degrees. Have a tour of Atlantis scheduled for later this morning.
The tour was good. They have a very large salt water aquarium. Some of the fish are HUGH! They have a wide variety of sea life. The place is very expensive, with several million-dollar glass sculptures. The grand suite costs $25000 per day with a four-day minimum. (Didn't see any of the rooms). The cheapest rooms are not in the "grand" building and run $250/night in the off season. Nice place, but no thank you!
One of the million-dollar glass sculptures.
The "grand" hotel at Atlantis.
Some of the fish in the giant aquarium.
Came straight back to the ship - no shopping. No mini-golf either. Just a lazy afternoon in our cabin.
Went to a show tonight that was a production of "Flick". It is a parody of something but I'm not sure what. (So far I have thought of about a dozen things that I wished I could Google or look up on Wikipedia. I miss my technology but am refusing to get my phone out even when we have service.) It was very well done and we enjoyed it.
*Stair count = 3
Friday, February 2 - Sea day
Passing Florida this morning - can see it with binoculars. No specific plans for the day. We are enjoying doing nothing and don't feel compelled to fill our time with activities. Not sure when mini-golf will be available because the posted hours are 7am-5pm but it usually opens later in the morning and stays open after 5pm.
Three rounds of mini-golf so far. First game was even, second I was up one (!!?!) and third I was down one. Starting to get more consistent. I had six holes-in-one today - three in a row!!
Lazy afternoon and a late supper. Very restful day.
*Stair count = 3
Saturday, February 3 - Sea day
Second day at sea. Temp is around 68 degrees. No plans. Will probably be near the channel to New Orleans before we go to bed.
Mini-golf report: Four games. I won by one and two and lost by one and three. Had four holes-in-one. There was a hole-in-one tournament today but I couldn't get one when it counted. Got a medal for participating, though.
Watched an ice carving demo today. That guy was fast!
I detest going up eight flights of stairs every time we want to eat! Haven't taken the elevator yet, though.
Very quiet, lazy day.
*Stair count = 4
Sunday, February 4 - Back to port and New Orleans LA to Marion AR (406 miles)
Was off of the ship and in the car by 8:30am. 72 degrees in New Orleans. Disembarking is an experience. You have two options: the first is to put your luggage out in the hall (minus what you need for morning) the night before, vacate your cabin by 8am, and wait (not in your room) for two to four hours for them to call your zone number so you can leave the ship. We would have been off the ship around 11:30am if we had chosen that option. Option two is to take ALL of your luggage and stuff off of the ship yourself and leave around 8am. We did this, and in the process decided that we packed too much stuff! I got to wrestle "Barney" (my huge purple suitcase) all the way from the ship to our vehicle. Barney has seen better days, and probably needs to be retired when we get home.
56 degrees when we got to Arkansas. Staying in Marion AR tonight. Sitting in the hotel room watching the Super Bowl. Plan to leave tomorrow as early as possible. We have a nine hour drive home and it's supposed to be cold and snowy there. Ugh!
Monday, February 5 - Marion AR to Marion IA (553 miles)
Left the hotel at 7am. Temp was 23 degrees. The power went off in the hotel at 5:30am and didn't come back on while we were there. We took showers and got ready by flashlight. No hot food for breakfast, but there was hot coffee. There was snow on the ground in Arkansas and Missouri, but we didn't drive into where it was snowing until we got to Iowa. The last 90 miles were rough! Visibility was close to zero at times. We were very glad to finally get home!
Great vacation! But back to reality... for now.
