On Tuesday, February 13th our family drove the long long way to Minneappolis. We tried to do it overnight, but gave up around midnight and stopped at a hotel. We then woke up at five and continued on. We made it in good time and caught up on some sleep while waiting for our flight…

We arrived in Florida around 8:30pm and drove to our AirBnB – which looked to be in a somewhat sketchy neighbourhood… Thankfully, this strange caterpillar turned out to be the creepiest thing around, so it was all good!?

Outside, it was glorious. We relaxed, ate lunch, and just hung around. The heat was baking into our skin – warming up our bones that had been frozen for far too long.

Then we hit the beach, for several hours, and for a couple of consecutive days – you know, just getting some sun so that we didn’t look too pale on the cruise!?

My family riding the waves…

On our last day at the beach this not-so-friendly creature washed ashore; a Portuguese Man-O-War. Needless to say, I stayed on the beach and suntanned…?

Then we hit up on one of our favourites: MOD Pizza. We also roared around for a while with our car set in sports mode… Pretty sweet – judging by my dads driving, at least.? Then us girls went shopping while my dad got the materials printed for their Marriage Cruise for Smart Couples 2018.

On Saturday morning we picked up the materials that had been printed, and then drove up to Fort Pierce to meet up with Ira and Betty Kember from PEI. We enjoyed a delicious lunch – I had a shrimp quesadilla and I was literally in a cheese coma…?

I wouldn’t normally post random selfies running freakishly down the aisles in Walmart but there is a rather stressful story behind it that was all part of the experience. Here goes: we ordered the binders, and dividers and all that jazz to put the materials in for the cruise – BUT they never came… So on Sunday morning – about three hours before we were scheduled to get on the boat Dad and I were running around Walmart – getting the supplies that never came. And the embarrassing part – for me that is – is that we were actually running around Walmart…?

Once we got everything home we had to assemble the binders. So we got an assembly line going to make it faster and were finished in no time! After that we piled the big box of binders on my lap in our squishy little car and headed for the docks!!!!! *This is kind of where I started freaking out…?*

Seeing our boat from inside the terminal for the first time…. And my mom’s face pretty much describes my inner self… I’ve never been on a cruise before but always wanted to – so this cruise was pretty much a dream come true!!!

This was the conference room where my parents held their all of their sessions. As you can see, it had beautiful bay windows that overlooked the ocean as they were sailing.

We were seated at the our table and I, again, minorly freaked out because there was more than one knife. I had only just figured out which fork to use first – and now there are three knives!?!?!?!???? And the napkin!!!! You probably all think I’m rather strange for freaking out over a napkin – but it has been a family joke for a long time. If you’ve ever seen Mr Bean’s Holiday the server comes up and flips the napkin onto his lap. Well, this is new for him so Mr. Bean does it to himself several times. So when the waiter came and flipped my napkin onto my lap I felt just like Mr. Bean – pretty fancy and pretty cool!

And then there was food. (Disclaimer – I only posted about half of the photos I took on our trip of my food… So consider yourselves blessed…?) This was my very first appetizer – a spring roll with spicy noodles. The cruise called it something it else but the taste was amazing!!! It was freshly deep fried and crispy and a mouthful of delight – all rolled up!

Our amusement on the first night was leaning over the railing to see the water below and finding out that there was quite a bit of wind that we couldn’t really feel…? Our hair was blowing everywhere; straight up across our faces, into our mouths – and anywhere else it could reach while still attached to our heads.?

At 7am Monday morning we docked in Key West. The sun had just rose – and everything was bathed in a little bit of beautiful.

We ate breakfast at the back of the boat – overlooking the ocean and a little bit of the island. There is something about the warmth and beautiful blue of the water, with just a slight breeze that makes a meal so much better.

Because we had been to Key West on our Gap Year trip we didn’t do a ton of stuff. But we did get off the boat – just for some food! Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie on a Stick, to be exact. It was amazing – and I may have gotten chocolate all over my face…?

Every night in the theatre there was a performance of some type. There was a crew cast that sailed on the ship for several months at a time, and they also had some comedians and another band on as well. The actors/singers/dancers were all incredibly talented – there was one guy who linked hands with a lady and lifted her up while she did a handstand… And they never fell… On a swaying ship – Like, dude I can’t even walk in a straight line and have walked into countless walls… Yeah – to say the least, it was mind blowing!!!!?

On sea days my sisters and I slept in while Mom and Dad got up early, caught the sunrise while eating breakfast and then went to teach a session.

This is one of the desserts my mom had – that I never even tasted – but just looking at it makes me salivate…?

Formal night number one, bringing to an end our first sea day!!!

On Wednesday we stopped in Costa Maya, Mexico. My sisters swam with dolphins – and at one point flew across the water on a boogie board as the dolphin propelled them from behind. I also got my hair braided!!!!!!!!!!! Which is a hugemongous deal because it has been on my bucket list since I was five – at least. So I got to check it off – and as an unexpected bonus it kept all those little hairs from my ponytail from blowing in my face!!!

Because my parents had a group on board the boat we were invited to go up to the front of the ship onto the helicopter pad while we were departing from Costa Maya!!! There was another ship departing around the same time so it was pretty neat to watch them pull out ahead of us and sail off into the unknown…?

My beautiful mom.

Reading a book – just chilling in some funky chair!

On Thursday, we stopped in Cozumel, Mexico. This is a really awful photo of us – it looks like we are all about to barf – and we were. We boarded this catamaran which took us to our shore excursion – and it seesawed back and forth for about half an hour while it took us to wherever it was that we were going. And the waves must have been a regular occurrence because the workers were walking around offering barf bags…?

We finally got to our destination – without throwing up – and climbed into our wetsuits -we were going spelunking through an underwater cave. It was amazing.? We swam through some parts and waded through others, and it was so cool. I think the most epic part was when we all turned out our lights at the same time and held completely still for several minutes and you couldn’t hear – or see – a thing! It was so dark that I had to deliberately shut my eyes to be able to see whether or not they were open. It was mind blowing.?

On Friday we stopped at George Town, Grand Cayman and went swimming with stingrays. Mom made me get in – but I sure didn’t want to… Why would I want to go swimming with something that could actually hurt me when the thought of swimming with a regular old fish freaks me out?!? But Mom said she’d hold me up so I went in. It was going pretty good… Then a wave washed down my snorkel and I started choking… Once I recovered from that and stuck my face back in the water I saw a huge stingray swimming right for me… So I put my feet down and then proceeded to jump on my dad… Well, climb up my dad might be a better word. I flung my arms around his neck – and held my whole body out of the water. Lanaya informed me afterwards that it was quite hilarious to see – and I totally believe her – but I was kind of panicking and not exactly thinking about what it would be like to see some grown teenage girl jump on her dad and then cling to him for dear life while making strange shrieking noises that came out rather gargled from her snorkel.?

At least one of us was rather normal though and had a grand time snorkelling wherever the waves took her… Plus her sun squint is pretty cute!?

The scary stingrays awaiting their next victim to terrorize…?

Then my sisters got their whole heads braided! I was blown away, again (this whole trip pretty much blew me away), by how fast these ladies could braid… We took a slo-mo of them braiding and their fingers were still going too fast for me to see what they were doing!!!!?

And when in the tropics – you need an iguana picture. But these ones were kind of scary and moody – but they looked cool so…

Our waiter was awesome!!! One night while eating supper I asked for some extra roasted potatoes so on our last formal night when I ordered a meal that came with roasties he brought me an extra plate without me even asking! His name was Cruz, and he was incredibly thoughtful and funny. He had some jokes going with my sisters, and made us all laugh – more than once.

I love coffee. So when there’s some sort of coffee creme brulee thingy on the menu that night – you get it. And it was amazing!!!! Wow… Now I’m remembering and I want another…?

This was amazing!!!!? On our final day aboard the ship we went out for lunch with a couple attending the session – and the food, as always, was fantabulous!!!

When it’s the last night you have to get two desserts! Coffee Ice Cream and Caramel New York Cheesecake… MMMmmm! We disembarked a final time from the ship the next morning, did some stuff during the afternoon, and then went to our hotel where we ordered in pizza, chilled and watched TV.

On Monday morning while wasting time till we boarded our plane we went to a science museum. And I discovered I’d been lied to for so many years… You know how in movies they’re always blowing horns at some monumentous time – well those shell horn thingys actually don’t make any noise… Trust me – I tried.?

As we were leaving the museum we stopped in at the little kid area to play in the bubbles – thus we have my dad putting on his bubble helmet…

And then I made a really long bubble that reached almost all of the way around me!!!