Cruising with Marilyn, Oakley and Addi--October 11th thru October 19th 2019

 Marilyn invited me to go on a trip that they had booked.  The trip was a cruise that would leave from Galveston Texas and take us to Honduras, Belize and Cozumel, Mexico.  

     I ended up on a separate flight than Marilyn, Oakley and Addi because I was using the free flight deal with Delta because of Deco's part time job with them as a baggage carrier.   So I flew to Houston on my own, leaving Salt Lake International Airport about 12 hours before them.  This was kind of scary for me as I had never flown alone before.  But I made it to Houston (that is where we were staying that night) and I got my Uber transportation that took me from the airport to the Courtyard Houston Downtown Convention Center where we were staying.

So far, so good.  I decided to be brave and take off, walking, to find somewhere to eat. 

Jeremy had given me a few suggestions.  One that was within walking distance sounded

good and so I headed toward it.  It was called Xochi.  

I got there and had a delicious dinner.  

I paid the bill with my card and headed back to the hotel, getting back there before dark! I did not want to walk down the streets of Houston in the dark by myself. I planned on going to bed early and getting a few hours of sleep becauseMarilyn and Oakley were going to arrive at about 2 AM.  I knew after they came

I would probably not be able to get back to sleep because that is how I am.

 

 Awhile later I discovered I did not have my credit card in my purse.  I panicked and realized I must have left it at the restaurant.  I called the restaurant and they checked and sure enough they had it in the pile of left-behind cards. It was dark now, and I did not want to walk back there but we were leaving in the morning before the restaurant was open.  Only through prayer did I come up with a solution.  I went to the front desk of the hotel and asked if they offered any shuttle service or if they knew of that any transportation service that would take me to the restaurant.  They gave me information on a service called "Joyride Transportation".It was an individual that would pick you up in kind of a golf cart type thing and give you a ride downtown. It was a free service but you could tip them.  I called her and she picked me up in about 20 minutes and took me to the restaurant and waited while I went inside and got my card and then she took me back to the hotel.  I gave her a generous tip!!!  I had my card, that I needed for the rest of the trip and I had made it back to the hotel without getting mugged!!!  But, my idea about getting to sleep extra early had evaporated as it was now 10:30.  I did go to bed and slept for about 3 hrs and then was woke up by fire alarms going off at about 2:00 AM.  I looked out in the hall and sure enough there was a lot of alarms going off.  About that time, Marilyn texted me and asked what was going on; they were outside and there were fire engines blocking the front driveway. Soon, the fire engines went away and they

were allowed to come in.  We never found out what was going on.  Marilyn and the kids got a few hours of sleep, I might have fallen back to sleep for a few minutes!

We had an Uber pick us up at 10:00 AM and Victor, the Uber driver, took us to Galveston.  

We boarded the ship and our adventure was about to begin.  

There were some "Welcome on Board" parties!

Some fun sky rides for Oakley and Addi.  They are up there in those red and blue things!!

And, of course, there is always lots of food!!

And, beautiful views!

We were ok with having a couple of sea days as we traveled toward our first stop, Honduras.  We played games, ate a lot, walked on the upper deck in the early morning, Watched magic shows, went to a pamper party, cooking demonstrations, and did I mention that we ate a lot!!

Our first shore excursion stop was in Honduras.  We were excited for this stop and we weren't disappointed.  We were taken in a shuttle bus to Gumbalimba Park.  And, what a treat it was!!

We got to hold and play with some Macaw birds!

And then we got to play with some Capuchin monkeys or maybe they played with us. They were pretty much in charge, going where they wanted to go and sitting on whomever they wanted to sit on.  

Needless to say, we loved this excursion.

Back at the ship, there was more dancing, food and fun!!

The next morning we were in Belize.  We had signed up to go on an excursion to go cave tubing.

We had a long ride and then a long walk but it was totally worth it.  We found out we loved cave tubing.  

We took the water shuttles into the shore.

Walking in with our tubes.

Ready to jump in the tubes and go!!

The caves were dark.  We were glad to have our lights. It was so fun!!

And then when we came back down we were able to get in the water for a little bit.

We had a fun and adventurous and tiring day.  

We were glad to get back to the ship and have some yummy dinner:  

Clam chowder, stuffed mushrooms, shrimp. steak and key lime mousse.

On Thursday, October 17th it was our day to spend in Cozumel, Mexico.

We had signed up to have a beach experience.  We went snorkeling, which was way fun and then we swam and hung out on the beach.  Another fun day.

Once again, it was good to get back to the ship at the end of the day.

Friday, October 18th was a sea day.

We played trivia, and charades.

Dinner that night was Salmon, Escargot and baked Alaska.

Saturday, October 19th was the day we were to fly home.  We got an Uber ride to take us to the airport.  Once again, I was flying separate from the others so we parted at the airport and I went to my gate and they went to theirs. My flights were all standby and I never knew until the last minute if I was going to get on the flight because I was a family member of an employee and flew free.  I did get on the flight.  We flew to Miami and had to change planes.  I checked the flight board as soon as I got off of the plane in Miami and it said my next flight was boarding right then.  I grabbed my carryon luggage and started running down the hallway towards the gate that it had indicated and realized it wasn't close.  I ended up going down a very long escalator and all I could do was look for signs that would lead me to the right gate. I couldn't see anyone along the way to ask.  I ended up on a train thing that took me to a different building, which was insane because it was a Delta flight and I had just gotten off of a delta plane.  I kept praying I was reading the signs right and I was going the right direction and that when I got there the doors would not be closed and that I would actually get on the flight as a standby. I got there and they were just finishing the regular boarding and I ended up getting on the flight.  I was the last one on the plane.  Another answer to prayers had happened.  I was so relieved.  I got to Salt Lake about 8:00 pm.  Trent picked me up at the airport and we headed for Blanding.  Noelle and the kids were in Blanding and Trent drove me home late at night and then met up with them there. We got to Blanding in the early morning hours.  After a few hours sleep, we were ready to celebrate Jed's 70th birthday.