Back from the Boat

We're back--and we had a great time on a 7-night Caribbean cruise!

It all came together so fast.  We knew we had a big anniversary this year, so it was in the back of our minds that we really ought to make sure we did something special.  With a December 20 anniversary, it's easy to let anniversary plans get lost in the busyness of the holidays.

Then I heard about a website that had last-minute cruise deals and a monthly e-newsletter, so I subscribed.  My parents had taken a cruise last year--their first time--and had loved it, and it sounded appealing to us in several ways.  In the first place, we were both too tired to make decisions about where to go, how to get there, what to do when we arrived, etc.  A cruise sounded like a trip with few, if any, decisions to make beyond picking the date and the boat!  It also sounded appealing from a budget standpoint.  With food, accommodations and transportation all included in the discounted prices, it was a great deal.

As the winter wore on and B15 and Blondechick were making plans to go California with their choir in early March, we started having cabin fever.  Then our bishop's wife prescribed some time away for just the two of us, and that clinched it!  We looked at a calendar and settled on a good week--Blondechick and B15's spring break, so that they would be around to help Grandma and Grandpa Rooster with the younger kids.  We picked out a Holland America ship, the Westerdam, which sounded like it was going to some nice places, leaving Ft. Lauderdale and stopping at Grand Turk in the Caicos Islands, San Juan in Puerto Rico, Philipsburg on the Dutch side of St. Maarten, and finally at Half Moon Cay, a nearly untouched island owned by several cruise companies.

And we couldn't have had a better experience.  We had beautiful weather, a quiet room, fabulous food, super entertainment and incredible service.  We got to go snorkeling and horseback riding in the ocean.  We enjoyed the water, the sand, the shops, the history and the people everywhere we went.  At meals, we sat with interesting folks from all over the world, most of them older than ourselves and with fascinating stories to tell.  (Many of them were Canadians--apparently they are even more desperate than we Midwesterners to get out of the cold!)  The crew also was a multicultural group, with huge smiles and delightful lilting accents surrounding us at all times.

Papa Rooster took hundreds of pictures, and I'll be posting more about our trip soon.  But for now, I am thankful to be back with our kids, thankful for health and safety for us all while we were gone, thankful that we got the time away together...and that it was such a perfect trip!