CARRIBBEAN VACATION, Part 3.

And finally the last installment. I hadn't intended to drag this out, but the fifth day turned out to be an adventure in and of itself, so it was easier to just break it down one more time.

Day 6: Day 6 was scheduled to be a day at sea, traveling from Cozumel to Princess Cays, Bahamas. I had had a very uncomfortable night with the motion sickness, and then was abruptly awakened by Don who decided at 6:30 am that he was going to get up and do some laundry! "Now??" was all I could moan and lay back down, still feeling sick and queasy. "Why do you have to wake me up now??" was all I could ask. Apparently that was enough to scare him out of that idea, because he quickly got dressed and headed out of the room, and later he told me he went to the gym instead.

I had just drifted back to sleep when there was a knock on the door. Room service. Of course! After the second day of having no coffee readily available in the room, I started ordering room service coffee. As long as it was complimentary, why not? The first day, they brought it late. The second day, I had to call. The third day it was weak as water. And now today, it was early.

I got up and stumbled to the door, which even with the dark room and not having my contacts in would have happened anyway, since the boat was still swaying more than I liked. Then, I went right back to bed.

A couple of hours later, Don resurfaced, saying he had been at the gym and was going to go get breakfast and did I want to come? No way! I still was weak and queasy and my head was pounding too. "Just bring me a little something, and hopefully I can eat it later." When he came back later, it was with some fruit and a couple of boiled eggs, which he knows I can always eat, regardless of how I feel. Then he did laundry and showered. I still was in bed. I had already decided there was no way I was going to be able to do my last scheduled run workout that day. It could wait until tomorrow.

Around 2:30, I was finally able to get up and shower and put myself together enough to go down to a late lunch. I had a terrible time in the shower, because with the boat still moving quite a bit, I was constantly losing my balance. Same when I was at the sink. I just wanted the boat to stop moving!

Before lunch, I headed down to the ship's store and found some Dramamine. I wasn't alone in trying to seek some relief from that affliction. I hadn't been outside yet, but knew the winds were still causing rough waters.

I didn't eat much for lunch, just some fruit again and some fish. I was still feeling a considerable amount of motion, while Don was not, but the queasiness had pretty much stopped. I decided to take one dose of Dramanine, hoping for the best. We then went out to a semi-protected deck area, looking for a sunny spot, and we both read for a while. It wasn't long before I could barely keep my eyes open. The Dramamine packet had said it would cause "marked drowsiness" and sure enough, it was right!

So I headed back to the cabin for a nap, fell asleep, and didn't wake up again until almost 7 pm. Then I forced myself up to go eat, and went right back to the cabin after and went back to sleep and didn't wake up until 7 am the next morning.

Day 6: Day 6 was scheduled to be a day on Princess Cays (pronounced keys), Bahamas, the private island of the Princess Cruise lines. Announcements were being made nearly every hour about arriving late, shore excursions being delayed and later cancelled, and apologizing for the delay, but which was of course due to the weather. I felt good enough to get up and get my run in, but with the high winds and continued swaying of the boat, I decided I would just go to the gym and use a treadmill. My workout was a 4 mile tempo run, and getting started I could see my "tempo" was going to be much slower than planned. I was still feeling weak from the day before, but was no longer sick or queasy.

And what I thought would be a much easier run on the treadmill than outside battling the winds, turned out to have a surprising twist. After running about a mile, I did increase the speed slightly, so now running was a little challenging but not impossible. Before I knew it though I was struggling and thought about backing down on pace when I realized that I felt like I was running uphill! Then it was like I was running downhill. It occurred to me then that the boat was going up and down so much still that even running on the treadmill I felt like I was on a rolling hill course. I was amused by this and decided to consider it a good workout after all.

As was our usual routine, we were planning on heading over to shore after a late breakfast. The planned ship's barbeque on the Cays was cancelled because of the late arrival, as well as most of the shore excursions. As it turned out, we were only going to have about 3 hours of shore time. I didn't really care that much. I wished that we could just stay on the boat, but I also knew that I wanted to get that last chance in to shop and sit on the beach in the sun. It hadn't been that warm since the day in Cozumel, so I really wanted to be able to soak up the final warmth of the trip.

Getting ashore, we used the ship's tender boats, which went much smoother than the last trip off the boat we had. It was probably just a 5 minute trip and we were on land. And the tender boats only held about a 100 people, so there were no long waits getting on or off.

Princess Cays was a small island off the "mainland" island near Eleuthera. There was a bridge connecting the two, but we didn't really have enough time to explore. Here I am at the welcome sign. And that is not my drink I'm holding!


After doing the obligatory shopping, where we found out the shops only took Princess Cruise cards for payment (it all went on the same credit card, so no problem for me), we found some beach chairs and attempted to settle in for a while.

































It was very hot, however, so we both wanted to go in for a swim. Don had brought his goggles, I had not, and I wasn't that energetic anyway, so I just decided to wade. Wading was very difficult, because the water's edge and the sand in water itself was very rocky. So I looked for a clear spot and just got wet and took pictures while enjoying the scenery, the water, and the sun.













Then it was time to get back on the ship, our final time in paradise.





We had a late lunch again, then lounged around on deck and read for a while before heading back to the room to start the packing ordeal.





The procedure for packing up required us to pack everything on Friday that we didn't want to have to remove from the boat ourselves, which pretty much was everything. We were to keep out an overnight bag and our carryon items for the plane. So you had to be selective on what you packed and didn't, so you either weren't without something necessary or didn't end up with more than you could carry. Once we collected our luggage prior to heading to the airport, we could stow any items not allowed as carryons by the airlines.



After packing for an hour or so, it was getting close to 7:30 pm, so we decided to go to dinner, and after we could finish up organizing our luggage. It needed to be done by 9 pm. Packing to go home would also require on my part some major reshifting of items, since I now had an entire suitcase full of purchases for the kids mainly. Good thing Don packs light, that's all I can say, because now I had his bags filled with my excess stuff!

We took a last walk around the ship, and then called it a night. I was still tired out enough that going to sleep was not going to be a problem.



Day 7: Day 7 was traveling home again. We had set the alarm this day, getting up by 6 am, because our scheduled departure from the ship was 7:45. This allowed us time to shower and dress and go for breakfast, along with most of the other ship's passengers it seemed. We saw Cowboy and his crew for the last time (after having run into him in the elevator the day before, on the beach the day before, in the tender boat the day before, and again at dinner the day before--each time he was a two-fisted drinker. I was surprised he was still standing this last morning!) The weather had calmed quite a bit and was nicely warm. We had arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale cruiseport sometime in the early morning hours, and after eating, we took our coffee out on the deck for the last time. We could see them making arrangements on the dock to get the ship ready for disembarking passengers. I really hated leaving the deck. It was peaceful and warm, and even though I was ready to go home, I was not particularly ready to leave the warmth and sunshine.



We finished packing our last minute items and cleared up the room. Here's a last look at the room. (The bathroom is not visible from these views, but the room is about the size of a small hotel room. Adequate enough.)

Then it was time to go to our departure area and wait to be called. I'm not going to go into the rest of the trip home. Suffice it to say, it was a long day, I did not like the Miami Airport, and true to its reputation, our United flights were late.

Would I take a cruise again? is one question I have been asked. Did you like it? was another. Yes, to both questions, with some reservations.

First, if I were to take another cruise, I would ask for a room closer to midship. Our room was on the extreme front of the boat, making it necessary for us to walk long distances for everything, even something as simple as a glass of water. They do not have ice or vending machines anywhere on the boat, like in a hotel. Not that the exercise wasn't great, its just that I figured walking to the dining room twice equalled almost a mile, and I can't tell you how many times we did that, not just to eat, but to get coffee or water, or iced tea. Also, I have to wonder if the ship's movement would have seemed less midship. The other thing about the room location was we were directly above one of the theaters, and the sound carried well enough that it was like we were right next to it. There were nights I would have preferred going to sleep before midnight, but I am too light of a sleeper to block out that noise.

Second, I would go on a shorter cruise. Four days would have been enough for me, with another 3 or 4 on shore somewhere. After four days, I was ready to not have to be around that many people all the time or wait in lines to eat or go on shore. Even when in your cabin, you really couldn't be alone because the steward was in and out during the day doing his thing, unless I put the privacy sign out, which I did a lot of the time.

Third, I would be more specific on airline specifications. We decided to book airfare through the cruiselines to make it one whole package and not have to bother with that detail, but the return flight was less than convenient. We had to spend 6 hours in the Miami airport, basically with nothing to eat or drink or do (a problem with the airport setup), and then still have to go the rest of the way home, returning close to 11 that night. Way too long and a wasted day.

And finally, I would take less and spend less.

For the most part, what I wanted to achieve on this vacation was met. My main goals were to:

• not get a bad sunburn (I didn't--tanning ahead helped);
• sleep until it was light every day (most days I think, although we didn't have a window so I'm not completely sure);
• get adequate exercise but not overdo it or be rigid in working out (I only had 3 run workouts planned: one long run; one speed run; one tempo run, all which I did. Other than that, I only swam which was relaxing and enjoyable, or did a lot of walking, which could not be avoided.);
• eat and drink in moderation (we never stuffed ourselves, even when mainly using the buffet for meals, only had a few of the many delicious desserts available, and only had a few drinks each. Of course paying for those helped curb that!);
• read a whole book (almost got one done);
• have fun (mostly I did).

I don't want to dwell on any negative part of the trip or give an indication that it was a negative. The weather was a factor, to be sure, but any sensible person knows you can't control the weather. It was a first-time learning experience, and no vacation could be expected to be perfect. And what's perfect anyway? Well, that's another whole post by itself!

CARRIBBEAN CRUISE VACATION, Part 2.

Day 5: Day 5 we were scheduled to sail into Cozumel, Mexico. We woke up late, after 7:30 a.m., which was surprising, but we also knew we had a longer shore day than usual, and the time changed when we arrived in Cozumel. Don wanted to get to the gym right away for what was becoming his new rehab routine for his Achilles. He had finally been able to use the elliptical and stationary bike the week before, so he was off to the gym for another long workout. Since this was my off day from running, we planned to meet at the endless pool for a swim later. Until this point, I didn't know where it was located, only to find out it was, not surprisingly, right next to the fitness center, as it was also an adults only pool.

Before heading for breakfast, I decided to go to the Internet cafe and attempt to figure out the wireless connection--or lack of--on my laptop, only to find out it was a compatibility problem with my model and the ship's connections. No problem! I hadn't wanted to spend any real time on the computer anyway, but only wanted to be able to store my photos or possibly send some e-mails with pics to family and friends.

I noticed a lot of motion on the boat that I hadn't been aware of before, but until this time, I hadn't been outside yet that day, so I was surprised when I looked out the windows of the Internet room and saw how rough it was. I also noticed it was cloudy and overcast. I was disappointed with this because I had been looking forward to sunshine every day.

I went to the purser's desk after this, where you sign up for any shore excursions you want to do. We hadn't signed up for any yet, and the only one for Cozumel that interested both of us was the Mayan ruins tour, which was 8 hours, so we nixed that. Plus, we would have missed the time frame for doing that. The only other thing I was interested in was a Nautilus submarine tour of the reefs with snorkeling after. But, I found out it was also unavailable. No problem!

I then headed to the buffet dining room to get something to eat before meeting Don later. This was when I noticed that today was the first day they had an employee posted at the entrance to the food line with hand sanitizer, squirting everyone's hands before they entered. They also were not letting you serve yourself, either food or drink, so I had to wonder what changed here.

After breakfast, they started making announcements about being late coming into Cozumel because of the weather, and that the tender boats were also running late. No problem!


I then went to the endless pool, found a seat in the sun, and planned to read until Don arrived. I noticed it was very windy, and while the pool area was open overhead, it was below a sun deck, so was mostly protectly by the wind. Above, on the sun/jogging deck, there is also a paddle ball court, and this area is covered. The winds were howling through here, making it sound much worse than it looked, but the flags overhead were whipping. The sun was in and out of the clouds. I enjoyed about an hour of reading before Don arrived. And then we waited for the endless pool to become operational. The hours for the pool were 10 am to 10 pm. Another woman arrived and began using the pool. She had been here the day before as well, not a swimmer, just doing some water exercises.


When 10 am rolled around, we both wondered who was supposed to come and turn on the machine that controlled the current. We waited about 10 more minutes and then Don asked the woman if she knew. "Its already on," she said. Oh, that's right. The time had changed, but the pool clock had not, so it had been on the entire time I was sitting reading! We waited some more, waiting for the woman to finish and leave. But she didn't. Ten minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. All right, I've had enough I told Don. I want to get in that pool. We're wasting our day here. He finally got in when she swam to the other end of the pool to try out the current. We had been told it wasn't that strong, and there didn't seem to be any way to adjust it. And it wasn't very strong. I finally got in there as well, but couldn't control my stroke enough to go slow enough to get caught in the current, so finally gave up and headed to one of the other pools nearby. It wasn't occupied since this was a shore day, so again I had the pool mostly to myself. Don came and joined me after a while, and when I finished my swim, I headed to one of the deck chairs to relax and wait for him.


It was still very windy, overcast, and cloudy, but finding a spot in the sun it was comfortable enough. We finally decided to go shower and eat lunch before heading to shore. We actually had until 5:30 this day to go to shore and catch the last boat, instead of 3:30 like other days, so we weren't in that big of a hurry. I had pretty much figured it wouldn't be a beach day because of the clouds and wind, so we just planned to shop and wander around for a while.




At lunch, we again noticed the sanitization restrictions. It wasn't that big of a problem with the eating lines, but now you couldn't even help yourself to a glass of water, so that did become frustrating.


I noticed while eating how much motion there was in the boat. There seemed to be a continuous vibration and swaying, but Don said he didn't really notice it. After lunch, we headed immediately to Deck 4, where we were to take the tender boats to shore. By this time, no "ticket" was needed, meaning there wasn't any line waiting, so we figured we would have no problem getting ashore quickly.

How wrong we were! There was a long line, probably 100 people, waiting just to board the tender. We arrived just as they were attempting to unload people from an earlier boat, only to discover just how rough the water was, making disembarking very treacherous and time consuming. A woman in front of us said I should look out the doorway to see how rough the water was. She was right. The tender boat, and the walkway bridge, were going up and down so rapidly, it was almost impossible for people to get off the other boat and back on.

And then we heard a loud commotion, a crash, and a lot of scrambling. We found out that someone on a wheelchair nearly went off the walkway as they were attempting to help him off the tender boat and back onto the ship. I never saw any of this, but Don thinks he saw him a few days later, all bruised. After several more minutes of the dilemma, where people had a difficult time disembarking from the tender and getting back onto the ship, I finally said let's forget it. I was really concerned about getting on open water in a ferry boat, imaging us tipping or worse. Don was trying to pooh pooh me, saying it would be okay, but I held firm and said I wasn't going.
So we went back to one of the open decks, found some chairs in a somewhat protected area, and read, lounged, and played handheld yahtzee games we both had. After a couple hours of this, though, we were bored and I suggested that we go see if there was a line for the tender boat and go ashore. The sky had gone from dark and threatening rain to clearing somewhat, so I thought maybe it would be safe to go. To our surprise, there was no line waiting, and they had just finished unloading a group of passengers, so we only had to wait a few minutes before leaving for shore.

The water was still rough, no doubt, and the winds were still strong. We were the only ones on the tender boat except the crew, even though the boat would hold 300 people.















We managed to sit under one of the few open windows on the boat, so the first wave that hit came in and soaked us. It was like having 3 buckets of water thrown in your face at the same time! Salty!

Arriving on shore, I could see it definitely would not be a beach day. The waves were crashing against the dock and the sea wall on shore. The seas were angry that day, that's for sure.






















The tender docks were just a short walk to the shopping district. I'm not really sure what else there is on Cozumel, since that's the only area we were able to visit.



















Here, we were in a little plaza across from some shops. You can see that I now have on capris, and had had on a hooded zip up jacket as well until getting off the boat. The day was still cool, but warm enough to take off the jacket once on shore.


We spent a couple of hours shopping, looking in many shops, to the point where I just wanted to go back to the boat. After a while, it becomes the same everywhere. We did each get beach type jackets that said Cozumel on them, which I liked very much.






Heading back to the boat dock, we had to attempt to cross this street.

For the most part, the police were controlling traffic for the tourists to cross, but you still had to be careful, since standing on the sidewalk there was no curb to separate you from the street. One wrong step and you would be road kill.

It was now 5 o'clock, and the last tender boat was scheduled to leave at 5:30, so we decided to just get in line and wait it out, since the lines were from the docks to the street long, and were soon snaking down the sidewalk as well. After about 10 minutes of standing waiting, and after listening to conversations around us, I started getting the impression we might be in the wrong line, so I went to investigate. Sure enough, the Princess cruise lines were on another dock, and the line was less than half as long. That was a relief! Or so I thought.

So we stood there, and stood there, and stood there. Five thirty came and went. Not too many more people lined up behind us, and it was hard to judge how many were in front of us. But what else could we do? It was getting much windier now, and almost downright cold. The few stragglers getting in line were drunk for the most part, still carrying bottles or cans of beer and continuing with their partying. One guy, who we started calling Cowboy, was there with his group. We had seen him a few other times, and each time he had a drink in each hand. He appeared to maybe be French Canadian, since he spoke French, and we knew there was a large group from Quebec on the boat. His group was certainly having a great time!

We continued to wait. It was starting to get dark and now windier, and the tender boats were having difficulty getting close enough to the dock to board passengers. Six times they attempted it, and then left. We didn't know what to expect at this point. It was about 6 pm by now. Finally, a smaller tender boat came and picked up a load of passengers, and then headed to the ship. Another one came and picked the rest of us. When Don and I had a chance to get on the boat, I insisted we sit on the middle deck, near the exit. He wanted to go down below because it would be less windy, and probably we wouldn't get wet from waves, but I just had this gut feeling about staying on top.

But even after boarding, we still sat and sat and sat. No one knew why we weren't heading back to the ship, and lots of speculations were circulating among the passengers. Finally, the tender ship's captain came and told us that the other boat was having so much difficulty unloading passengers and getting near enough to the ship that they were going to turn the ship to help get it out of the wind some, but until they accomplished this and unloaded that boat, we would have to wait. In the wind and cold and dark.

People's moods varied. Some were grumbling, others were still partying, and some were complaining about feeling sick. Oh great, I thought, if one person pukes, I'm going to hurl myself!

Around 7 pm, we got the okay to head to the ship. There was much cheering for that! But it was a rough ride, as expected. Sitting and waiting, and then heading out to sea, I was reminded of the one time I rode one of those carnival rides, the gondola, or pirate ship, or whatever you know it by, where the front of the boat goes way up and then drops down and the other side goes up and down, like a teeter totter. That's what it was like. I was gripping the railing in front of me so tightly you could see my white knuckles, and I was holding back a scream for the entire ride. I think I did squeak out a few brief screams, since I am so terrified on those rides that I cannot control the urge to scream.

I was never so glad to get back to the ship, but then again, we had to wait to disembark. Fortunately, sitting in the first row near the exit, we were the first to get in line to unload. Still, the gangplank was bobbing up and down so much, it was impossible for 6 guys to hold it down, so we still had to unload, one at a time. I was the third one off. When they gave me the okay, I flew down that ramp onto the ship! Whew! I was off.

I expected Don to follow behind me, but instead a woman and her child were next. He would be next then. Or not. Somehow, he managed to get shoved back a ways and it was probably another 15 minutes before he got off. His first words were, "Let's go get a drink and then eat." But I wanted to eat first, since I was now starving, and it was after 7:30 pm. We had a show we wanted to go to at 8:30, so we had to hurry.

Sitting at dinner, we again saw Cowboy and his crowd, still with a drink in each hand. This was to be just the second of many times he would amuse us on the cruise

I could feel myself moving the whole time I was eating, and when we headed back to the room to change, I had a hard time standing up without staggering. And we hadn't even had anything to drink! We quickly changed for the theater show and headed to one of the lounges to get a good seat. Here, we decided to have a drink, and I just chose wine, thinking it might be a better choice than something else. Neither of us had had more than a few drinks since boarding.

We also had conversations with others sitting near us, everyone discussing the wild boat rides that day.

After the show, Don wanted to go on the upper deck to feel the wind. We attempted to get there, but the wind really was so strong I found it difficult to walk around without losing my balance, so I just sat at a table by a pool, while he went on the upper deck. I eventually decided to go to the room, because it was almost 11 pm and I was tired. He decided to stay outside for a while.

And that's when the adventure started again. Sitting in the cabin reading, I was really bothered by the movement of the boat. Our room was in the front of the boat, so maybe that was it. I don't know. Walking through midship, you could hear the boat creaking and groaning too. The captain had made a few more announcements about the wind, and also mentioned we were late leaving Cozumel, so most likely we would be late getting into the Bahamas on Friday.

I decided to get ready for bed, but still was having a lot of trouble with the boat's movement. And then it happened. I felt sick to my stomach. I tried to ignore it, but eventually I did get sick. Over and over and over. When Don finally got to the room, it was after 1 am, but I asked him to call the medical people and see if I could get something for the motion sickness. I never brought anything with me, and until then it never occurred to me I would need anything. They said they would bring something in 30 minutes. But the 30 minutes came and went, and they never did show up. I finally managed to get to sleep, but I felt extremely sick.

(To be continued)

CARRIBBEAN CRUISE VACATION, Feb. 23-Mar. 1, 2008.

Vacation's over. I had a great time! Here's a recap of the week:

Day 1: Day 1 was mainly a travel day. We were up at 4 am for a 6:30 am flight. I'm not sure I really slept the night before. Do we ever before something like this? The temperature when we left the house was 8 degrees. But at least it wasn't snowing!

Our first travel leg was to Detroit, where we had a 2+hour layover before leaving for sunny Ft. Lauderdale, FL. That gave us time to get a nice breakfast before taking off again.

The second travel leg was Detroit to Ft. Lauderdale. Of course, by now, some of you know going through Detroit probably means flying Northworst, and once again NWA lived up to its bad reputation. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, surprisingly, slightly ahead of schedule and then---sat on the tarmack for one full hour waiting for another plane with mechanical trouble to move away from the gate so we could get off the plane. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to be sitting, stuck in an airplane, seeing all that wonderful, inviting sunshine waiting for us??

We finally got straightened out and were able to get off the plane. The Ft. Lauderdale airport was HOT! I made sure I didn't wear anything wintery, but still, with a coat and pants, and after sitting in the plane for an hour with no air, I was beginning to sweat, and couldn't wait to get into a pair of shorts!

The Princess Cruise lines had representatives waiting at the airport with signs to help us locate our group. We collected our luggage and then struggled to get that load into the shuttle bus that would take us to the cruise port. I was getting very impatient at this point, but kept under control. Soon, soon, was all I could think.

Once we arrived at the ship, we were both awestruck by the size! Bigger than we could have imagined.

We actually were arriving at the tail end of the timeframe to board, so we didn't have too much of a crowd. We needed to fill out some more forms, go through immigration, get our cruise cards, and we were on our way!

We arrived just after 4 pm, and already the welcome party was underway. We went to our rooms first, and I was really expecting our bags to be there, but no luck, so I couldn't change into shorts. And did I mention that the temperature was around 83 degrees?

We decided then to head to the Lido deck, where all the partying was taking place. We no sooner went through the doors onto this outer deck and drinks were shoved into our hands. Not free of course, but why not?

We decided to find a spot on one of the outer decks to watch the ship set sail, and I was surprised at how windy it was. After that, we went for a short tour. We didn't actually set sail until after 5:30, so it wasn't long before the sun was setting.

After that, we found the dining room and ate our first of many delicious meals.

After dinner, continued our tour, attempting to find the gym for the next day, as well as other places on the ship we would need to find. We went out on the promenade deck. You can see how dark and windy it was.

Then, we were both really tired and decided on an early night of it. Only to find out that there was a theater directly below our deck on our part of the boat! Whoa! I couldn't believe how loud it was! At first, I thought it was someone's music on our deck, but realized it was a show going on. So it wasn't until after the second show, which ended at 11:30, that I was able to finally get to sleep. Oh well, go with the flow!

Day 2: Day 2 was a day at sea, so we had no shore excursions planned. I didn't sleep that well the first night, and was up 6:30 a.m. We had an inside room with no window, so we had no idea whether it was light out or not or what the weather was like. We dressed quickly and decided to go to breakfast early and go outside and check the weather and just see what we could see. I expected it to be as warm as the evening before, but being on the open sea, it was breezy and cool. We went to the buffet breakfast. The buffet is open 24/7 with a huge variety of foods, practically anything you would want, so we enjoyed the variety available and the leisurely enjoyment of breakfast. We both made calls home and were happy our phones still worked. After that, we sat on the outside deck drinking coffee and enjoyed the sun warming us. After about an hour, I decided it was time to get busy and get my workout in.

My planned workout for the day was a 6 mile run. This was week 2 of a 10 week plan, so I wanted to stay on track as much as possible. And I was looking forward to running outside for once. There was a jogging track on one of the upper decks, and a quick check the night before told me it was 10 laps to the mile. Acceptable enough. Better than a treadmill, I told myself. I got my water bottle filled, brought my room card, and headed to the track. Don went inside to use the bikes.

I had been warned about the track being busy, and that was an understatement. It wasn't even 10 am, yet all the deck chairs were filled with people sunning themselves. And the unfortunate thing about the location of the track was it surrounded one of the biggest lounging areas that wasn't by a pool. So there was a lot of traffic going to and from the deck chairs. That wouldn't have been so bad, but then you got the idiots who didn't seem to have a clue they were on a running track or the ones who decided to go the opposite way indicated, or worse yet, the ones who used it for photo ops and actually walked backward to get a camera shot! It was very frustrating, and I secretely wanted to knock someone down, but I kept at it, lap after lap. By the time I hit 3 miles, it was really getting quite warm, too. The weather prediction had been for over 85 degrees, and it was probably getting close to that. Still, I hung in there for another mile, having to stop half way through for water instead of after a mile on my other laps. After 4 miles, it was getting too warm for me to continue safely. I was getting that dizzy feeling you get from too much sun and I was getting extremely frustrated with all the people on the track not running. Many did not speak English, so it was impossible to get the point across that YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY! So I did the wimp-out thing and headed to the gym and finished the last 2 miles on thr treadmill. But I got my 6 miles in!

By the time I finished working out, it was getting close to lunch. So after a shower and change we again headed to the buffet for another fantastic meal. We were getting used to the routine already. And it was great being able to eat and not have gobble my food and hurry off to somewhere else or back to work.

After lunch, we got in our bathing suits and headed for one of the sun decks to play some games and read. What a treat for me!

Then after a few hours of relaxing, it was time to get dressed for dinner. This was one of their "formal" nights, so we got dressed up.

That night was also the Academy Awards, so they had "Hollywood under the Stars" night where we viewed the program on a big screen on one of the outer decks. (daytime view)

Day 3: Day 3 was our first shore excursion day, Ochos Rios, Jamaica. I hadn't slept well again, but I didn't feel all that tired, and we were up early anyway. Don wanted to hit the gym early before we headed to shore. I was having an easy workout day, just a swim, and with most of the passengers either getting ready to leave the boat or already off, I had the pool to myself.

We actually took our time that morning, enjoying the quiet of the boat, ate a late breakfast, and then headed to shore.

Ochos Rios is very beautiful, as you can see from the surrounding hills and countryside.

But what a cultural shock it was for me! The cruise ship people recommended going to Island Village, a beach/shopping area within walking distance of the boat dock. We were also warned not to take any taxis that didn't have red license plates, but I'm not sure we ever found out why. Somehow, this information totally went out of our heads once we were off the boat. The problem, of course, is that you can't take one step off the boat without getting bombarded to take a taxi. We probably had 15 people try to get us to take a taxi before we finally relented. This one guy said he would take us to a "private" beach. "How far is that??" I asked. About 4 miles. I was alarmed, thinking we would have to walk back. Oh, no problem! (a favorite phrase there). For $10 we could go to the beach, shopping, and get a ride back. "And how will you know when we want to come back??" Of course I had to ask that! The answer wasn't reassuring, and the farthr away from the boat we got, the more the ride was starting to cost. What had started at a reasonable $2, was now up to $10, and soon it was $20 for a round trip, and finally I said to let us out. Now! Instead, the driver continued on further to a shopping center area before finally letting us out, probably 2-3 miles from the boat. And how much for that ride? $4. "$4? I thought you said $2." $2 each. Of course. No problem.

We immediately figured we were in a pretty expensive shopping center, and cash seemed to be the only form of payment. It became obvious to me that these drivers have prearranged shopping areas where they take tourists, maybe getting some form of kickback from the shopkeepers, particularly since it was farther away from the cruise ship dock. And I was quickly adding up all the cash slipping through my fingers, when I had planned on using mainly a credit card to not leave myself cashless. And the shop keepers followed you around, pushing stuff on you. And all had death breath! I was starting to worry about what disease I would get just from them breathing on me! And while I negotiated prices on a few items, I'm not really all that sure I got much of a bargain. I didn't enjoy this experience at all. Then Don decided he wanted to go to an open air craft market. We headed there and almost immediately got separated! I tried not to be alarmed, but I was a little concerned being there alone. If I thought they were pushy in the shops, they were worse here. They hounded you to death to look at stuff. "Can I just show you...?" Another favorite phrase of the day. I was actually looking for a particular item and did finally find it, all the while keeping a lookout for Don. I tried to attach myself to one gentleman, just to not look like I was alone, but the guy didn't speak English and didn't seem to have a clue what I was doing. So I moved on, found the item I wanted, bartered a halfway decent price, but then had to follow a woman to her "bag man" I guess you would call him, someone who she turned her money over to and got change for me. I wasn't letting her out of my sight with a $20 bill! I finally found Don and we quickly got out of there. Neither of us liked the experience. I felt dirty and violated after wandering through there.

Then we had to begin our walk back to the beach by the boat. I wasn't giving that up no matter what! I can't tell you how many beggers we passed, people hawking wares, pushing taxi rides on us, and even "weed" several times. A paradise for some, I'm sure! But we were not getting in another taxi. The drivers were crazy too. I doubt too many actually knew how to drive. It was very hot too, close to 90 degrees, so we stopped at the turtle park above. That at least took us away from all the street traffic and beggars, but the park guide pretty much dominated us the whole time, so it was hard to get pictures close up. They just don't leave you alone there for a minute it seemed!

We finally arrived at Island Village, a very nice little shopping area with a beach attached. And they took credit cards! Yipee, civilization! No one bothered us while we shopped either. And for "only" $5 each, we could rent a beach chair and sit on the beach.

Did I mention how much I love that water???

And while we have some fantastic beaches in Michigan, I always forget that the ocean water is so salty! We spent a couple of hours here and did our own version of snorkeling. The water was very clear, and you could see some coral and fish in different depths.

Then we decided to finish up on the shopping. I enjoyed not being bothered while I browsed too. Here are a couple of pictures of "rubber band man" as I called him, a very flexible local who performed for the crowds. We should all be that loose and limber!

That evening we went to one of the nightly shows in the clubs on the boat. We went to the 8:30 show, but I forgot that we would be hearing it again from our room at the 10:30 show. There was no going to bed early around there!

Day 4: Day 4 was Grand Cayman. We again did our morning workouts, headed to breakfast, and then to shore.

I was a little leery about what we would encounter once we hit shore again, but it was nothing like Ochos Rios. There are numerous jewelry and other shops all within walking distance of the tender boat docks, and a huge parking lot full of taxis, bus taxis, etc., so it was a simple matter to line up transportation if you needed it. And no one bothered you to buy stuff or take a ride. Here I am with one of the "locals."

The beaches weren't close by, however, and we were forced to take a taxi to the famous Seven Mile Beach.

Here again, we did our own snorkeling and saw many schools of fish below the surface, as well as a lobster or crab beneath a cement block in the water. Couldn't be sure which. We both swam between the swim buoys too. I had a hard time navigating, and Don kept saying he felt really heavy in the salt water. I felt like I floated much easier!

That night, we watched another movie under the stars, Bee Movie, which I had seen before, but Don hadn't. The cruise ship covers all the deck chairs with terry cloth coverings, and puts out blankets and pillows to use while watching. It had turned cooler and somewhat windy, so it was also necessary to dress a little warmer for the night. The weather would also prove to be an omen for what was to come.

(To be continued)

BUSY PACKING.





I always have such a hard time getting ready for any trip, whether for a weekend or a week. It seems you have to bring just about as much stuff anyway!



What makes it hard is going from the extreme cold weather we are experiencing to tropical weather. I find it very hard to not want to pack sweaters and coats! But I'm restraining myself! No winter coats!

For the last week, I have had the spare bedroom covered with "possibilities"--things I might possibly want to take. I have changed things around almost every day, taking this out, putting that in, folding and unfolding, trying to condense things down to a manageable weight! I could easily take two trunks of stuff--not that I am likely to need it all, but "just in case."

On the other hand, Don will probably wait until Friday night to pack, but then he'll spread his stuff out all over the house and still probably forget something important, like his camera charger like last time.

And can you believe this?? We got a phone message TODAY from the cruiseline saying they were overbooked and would we consider changing our cruise--to the end of March! I DON'T THINK SO! We are both so ready to go that even with their pretty hefty incentives, neither of us could be swayed.

So tonight starts the countdown--all the last minute shopping needs and then a whirlwind of packing so things are ready Friday night when I go to bed. Our flight is so early Saturday morning I would have to stay up all night if I didn't get this done ahead of time. And I like to be organized and prepared!

Two more days!

'TIS THE SEASON...

for potholes, that is.

We in Michigan have a bonus season that others probably don't get the thrill of experiencing: pothole season. (Actually, I forgot--we in Michigan have SIX seasons, including construction, making pothole season No. 6.)

If you think I'm kidding, let me assure you that Michigan is notorious for bad roads, and with our cold/warm/cold/warm winters, its no wonder. Not only do we have all the fun of driving on snow and ice, but we get the added excitement of getting around town without wrecking your car on a daily basis.

For as long as I can remember, one main road by my house has been so bad its like driving through a mine field trying to dodge the inevitable potholes that cover the entire two-mile stretch. This year, though, seems to be the worst in a long time.

I remember when my oldest boy was about 4 and we were driving through that stretch of town. He decided he wasn't going to sit down and put his seatbelt on. I warned him about what could happen if he didn't sit and put his seatbelt on--that he might fly through the windshield if we were in an accident, etc. He wasn't phased with even the threat of death. Until I hit a pothole and guess what? He flew over the front seat and hit the dash. The road was that bad, but he was only hurt enough to learn his lesson. :)

To get back to recent times, though, it is so bad that all the tire places in town are swamped with repairs. We even have a website to report potholes, which pretty much is useless since there are so many it is impossible to keep up with the demand of fixing them. And the weather doesn't help either. Even our recent 5 inches of new snow overnight doesn't fill in most of them. Hitting a speed bump at 50 mph doesn't compare with hitting some of these potholes (trust me, I've done it!).

In the meantime, I continue to go out of my way to and from work or to and from anywhere to home just to avoid this mess. Oh, I am so ready to go on a vacation!

WEEKEND UPDATE--Indoor Tri, 2-17-08.

Another one done. This event is more relaxed than the indoor tri in January. The format is somewhat different, and after the initial first tri of the year, the second one goes easier because you know where you have to improve on your training.

(Here we are at the beginning of the swim, and no, I hadn't been drinking before!)

Jan and I did this last year as well, and this is Jan's third year doing it. The location is about 40 miles south of Grand Rapids, which was lucky yesterday, due to more weather "issues." The forecast for days had called for another winter storm to move in Saturday night/Sunday morning, but by Saturday, they were calling for freezing rain instead! Either way, it was going to be a harrowing drive.

Naturally, because of this, I woke up every hour on the hour Saturday night/Sunday morning worrying about the weather. Not so much the weather, but Jan's driving in the weather. LOL! I'm not claiming to be the best driver in the world, and anyone who knows me knows I hate driving in bad weather, but I hate riding with someone else even more, especially when that someone tailgates going 75-80 mph! However, she insisted on driving, because she felt that her car, a Jeep, would do better in bad weather. Whatever! I think it is more of a control thing actually. LOL!

So I was very relieved when it was finally time to get up and I found out the freezing rain was north of town, but south of town it was only raining. But it was pouring! By the time I left the house to meet up with Jan, there were many intersections and sections of the highway flooded over, mainly because with all the recent snows drainage was a problem. The ride to the tri then was mainly dodging flooded out lanes of the highway and trying not to get in a situation where we would hydroplane. There were several cars that had spun off into the median, and I was hoping we wouldn't become one of them.

We made it about a half hour from our starting time. The facility was a health and fitness center connected with a hospital in the area. It is a very nice facility, with a 6 lane pool, warm pool for those not wanting to do laps, and an area sectioned off for handicap access. There was already a heat in progress when we arrived, some of the big guns in local triathlon. They probably had to go out and run another 10 miles after or something!

The format for this tri is swim 20 minutes, bike 20 minutes, run on a treadmill for 20 minutes. Its one time I am glad I spend so much time on the treadmill. We had 2 other women besides Jan and me in our group, and at the last minute an older guy got thrown into the mix. It was hard to judge the ages of the other women, but I figured they probably were in our age group, since they have 10 year age groups.

I seem to do better in all events with just that added 5 minutes. The swim started out well, even with the distraction of the older guy floundering in the lane next to me. He couldn't swim at all, but nothing in the event information says you have to do any particular stroke. He and the two other women side stroked, back stroked, dog paddled, etc. Twenty minutes is a long time for a lot of people to be in the water, especially when they aren't swimmers. Somewhere around the 9 or 10 minute mark, I started getting that nauseaus feeling I had for a few months last summer. I don't know what causes it, and hope it isn't motion related, but it finally went away in the final minutes. I had really hoped to do 40 laps, but ended up with 38 1/2, and felt I did okay. That was still over 1/2 mile, and I was hoping to do at least that.

The bike portion is on Life Cycles, which for the most part are okay. Its always a trial and error on any bike until you get your rhythm down anyway, so I probably could have pushed it harder, but the level I was at (10 out of 20) put me at around 18.1-19.1 mph and 82-85 cadence, so I knew I was putting in a good effort. I ended up with 6.02 miles and again was hoping to get at least 6.

The run was on nice treadmills, overlooking the pool. We could see the last heat in the water, so it was nice to have something to look at instead of just watching the seconds ticking away. They walked us through the start-up process and then we could start anytime we were ready. Very laid back. I immediately started at a 10 min. mile. I decided not to play around with the speed in the beginning minutes like I did in training, and figured I would hang on as long as I could before bumping up the speed further. This actually proved to be a challenging but do-able pace, and I continued on with this until the last 5 minutes, where I then went up in speed for the next 3 minutes before going to a 9:13 pace in the final 2 minutes. There was a few minutes of distraction from the older guy again, when he hit his stop button and his treadmill completely stopped. Someone finally got him started up again, giving him 10 additional minutes, but it was a little aggravating having someone standing practically on top of me while they got him up and running again, and I had to laugh when he said he was "way over a mile" at 10 minutes. I highly doubt it! He wasn't running fast enough to be over a mile in 10 minutes, but if that was his fantasy, who was I to burst his bubble? LOL! I ended up with a little over 2 miles in 20 minutes, and I was hoping for 2.

After the event, they offered free massages. That made the $40 entry fee well worthwhile! They were only supposed to be 10 minute massages, but I think mine was actually 20 minutes. The massage therapist guy was very thorough in stretches, and worked extra long on my neck and shoulder, releasing a muscle that had tightened up preventing me from turning my neck freely (a lingering side effect of the accident).

We then showered and went to check out results. They weren't complete yet, but we did see most of the women's results and out of 10 women in the AG, Jan was 4th and I was 5th. I was happy enough with that.

And the weather had actually cleared up quite a bit for our ride home, so I could finally relax.

THIS IS WHAT I WANTED TO AVOID...

on my cruise. A bad sunburn. So I had started going to the tanning salon. I have only been one other time before and was not looking forward to needing to do this, but my fair skin does not handle intense sun very well, and being a snowbird on top of that added up to a potential problem.

So I've gone 6 times over 2 weeks, as recommended, increasing the tanning time over the course of the 6 visits. I'm using one of those stand-up booths where you are in and out in 7 minutes or less. That appealed to me! The first visit, I spent 3 minutes in there and was mildly pink, but it went away after a day. The next few I stayed at 3 minutes and then went to 5 for the fifth and sixth visits, and was developing a nice tan, nothing dark, just a nice contrast from my usual snow white skin. Last night was number 7, out of 10. I decided to be bold and went for 6 minutes. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until sometime in the night I woke up, uncomfortable, but didn't know why. I woke up it seemed every hour all night long, but didn't think much of my discomfort until I got up and looked in the mirror!

OMG! I was beet red from my hairline to my waiste. Even my eyelids were sweating, and my eyes looked puffy. How could adding just 1 minute make that much of a difference?? And to top it off, I have lines where those little eye protectors are, so I've got that racoon look, and it is quite obvious I went tanning, or in my case, frying.

I have 3 more visits left. I'm a little worried now about getting burned again. Yikes! I guess I need to go back down to 5 or less minutes for the next 3 visits. Hopefully, this will avoid any burning on the cruise.

A DAILY OCCURRENCE.

Here are just a few pics from our most recent snow. The car actually is AFTER it has had the snow cleaned off.

So, just to put it in perspective, this is what we look at and are dealing with. Every day. And its snowing again! And the temperature today is a balmy -18 windchill.

While it isn't the worst winter we've had, it seems like it has been one of the longest.

And yet, there is beauty all around us, when you least expect it possibly. These flowers are on a plant I have had for 14 years. Every year, it blooms and then dies off and comes back again. Just like winter. Just like springtime.

And in 10 days, I'll be going from this:

To this: