Vacation Recap (Part 2)

Bats seen during our river cruise in Belize

January 12th - After an early breakfast we took a boat (aka "tender") from our cruise ship to the port in Belize City. From there we boarded a bus which took us to a small boat for our river cruise through the jungle en route to the Mayan site, Lamanai. This trip was my favorite part of our vacation. I enjoyed seeing various animals in the jungle (birds, bats, iguanas, monkeys, a crocodile, etc.) while we were in the boat as well as while we were touring the Mayan ruins. I've never seen so many monkeys in the wild before! The lunch they served us was also very tasty - and a nice change of pace from the cruise ship fare. I would love to return to Belize some day and spend a week on Ambergris Caye to enjoy the beaches, snorkeling, and also do some sightseeing such as to Tikal (in Guatemala).

I forgot to mention in my summary of January 11th that we took the kids to the pool after we got back from our tour before we went to dinner. On both January 11th and 12th we took them in the baby pool, and then I spent a couple of minutes in a hot tub while Nadia sat on the side and just had her toes in the warm water. If we had been on this cruise without kids, I definitely would have spent more time in the jacuzzi. These were the only two days the kids got in any water. I gave them baths on Sunday morning at the hotel in New Orleans, but we only had a shower on the cruise so they didn't get another bath until Monday morning at home (Jan 17th).

Lamanai - a Mayan site in Belize

January 13th - After breakfast we walked to the port on Roatan (island off the coast of Honduras) and got on a van which took us to Gumablimba park where we saw hummingbirds, parrots, and monkeys and walked on a very shaky bridge. We were supposed to then go to a beach and also do some snorkeling from a catamaran, but due to the windy conditions they didn't take us to a beach but rather drove us back to a catamaran that was very close to our cruise ship and took us an extremely short trip to do a little snorkeling.

Photo taken underwater while we were snorkeling

I have never been so cold when snorkeling before. We did see a nice variety of fish, but the colors weren't as vibrant due to the lack of sunlight. When we got back on the catamaran I was freezing due to sitting on a boat in a wet bathing suit in 72 degree weather with strong winds. I couldn't wait to get back to the cruise ship and put on dry clothes. There were several hours left at that port, and there was a beach right near where the cruise ship was docked, but due to the weather we just headed back on the ship. The good news was that it was the first time in several days that Nadia was able to take her nap in a bed. This also meant her nap was much longer. The bad news was that Paul's dad called Paul's brother to find out how things were going at the plant (Paul's dad owns a company), and in that brief conversation he learned that their dog, Fergie, had died two days earlier at the age of 17. This was very sad news, particularly for Paul's mom.

Monkey seen at Lamanai

The highlight for me this day was having a dinner date with Paul. Paul's parents had eaten a late lunch so they didn't mind that we went to dinner first. Paul and I skipped lunch so we were wanting to eat dinner at 5:30. We had dinner at one of the sit down restaurants (where we had eaten lunch four days earlier). The quality of food is much higher here compared to the buffet. The biggest differences were noticed in the desserts. What they called mousse at the buffet restaurant really didn't take like mousse. The chocolate mousse at the sit down restaurant was divine. On this particular night I had beef stroganoff and a delicious strawberry souffle. I think it was the first time I ever ate a souffle. Plus of course it was just nice to have one hour with my hubby. When the four of us would go to breakfast Nadia and I would eat while Paul entertained Ian, and then I'd take Ian and Nadia so Paul could eat. It was never a relaxing experience especially as there are sometimes battles at the dinner table, and I didn't want either child to make a scene in public even though the buffet restaurant was a noisy place. When we stay at a resort with a kitchen, we don't have to eat out at every meal. I have to say with young children that is preferred. When we got back Paul's parents went and also had dinner at the sit down restaurant. The photo that I really like was taken this night. I have scanned it, but something got lost in the translation. Trust me, the original looks much better that I have put in a frame in the kitchen.

January 14th - We were planning to take a taxi to Chankanaab Park and spend the day on the beach there - do some snorkeling, let the kids play on the playground, watch the sea lion show, etc. I even had printed out a $2 off coupon and brought it with me, lol! When we saw the forecast the night before we knew we weren't going to be going to the beach. Paul suggested we at least walk around a bit (Cozumel) but after we swiped our cards to walk off the ship, we discovered it had just started raining (downpour). It only rained for a little bit, but it was a windy, cool (aka 72 degree) day. We stayed on the ship all day.

Wobbly bridge at Gumbalimba Park

The kid's program didn't become complimentary until 5pm that day, so we dropped Nadia off at 5pm and left Ian with Paul's parents and headed on our second dinner date. However just as the waiter set my chicken dinner down in front of me, a worker from the children's center came to our table and told us Nadia had an accident (#2). It turns out that a child needs to be able to competely go to the bathroom on their own, and Nadia hasn't reached that stage yet. She needs help pulling her clothes up and down and getting up on the potty. So I had to go up to the kid's area, take her back to our room and clean her up and change her clothes, and leave her with Paul's parents before I could go back to my (now cold) chicken jambalaya. Needless to say that wasn't the most special meal although I did enjoy the lemon pie for dessert as well as the cold strawberry soup I had for my appetizer. I have never had a cold soup before, and I was kicking myself that I hadn't been eating some of this all week long because they had a different one in the buffet restaurant each day.

We then took the kids to the show for a few minutes before taking them to bed because the children's workers said that this show was usually the kids' favorite. They only lasted a few minutes. Of the 7 nights there were 2 shows that interested Paul & I (a Broadway one on Monday night and an acrobat one on Tuesday night); Paul's parents offered to listen with the baby monitor in their room while the kids slept in our room, but both nights by then time 7:15 rolled around all I wanted to do was go to bed. On January 15th I took Nadia to a portion of the matinee Magic Show, but otherwise we didn't participate in any of the entertainment. I would really have liked to visit the chocoholic buffet they had this night, but it was at 10:30pm, and I value my sleep more than chocolate.

January 15th - This was a day at sea en route back to New Orleans. I took Ian to the Under 2 Zoo (a room where parents could play with their kids). Some of the toys they had were ones we have at home, but many were new to the kids. We took Nadia up for an early lunch and then after we put her down for a nap we left Ian with Paul's parents (who had a much later breakfast than us so they weren't hungry yet), and we had a luncheon date at a different sit down restaurant. I had a yummy corn chowder soup for my appetizer, fish and chips for my entree, and chocolate mousse for dessert. Paul had ceasar salad, a steak, and blueberry cheesecake. The service was much slower at this restaurant, but the food was again very tasty! At 3:00 we put Nadia in the children's program so that we'd only have one child to watch while watching the Steelers game on ESPN Caribbean (in the US it was carried on CBS). We watched part of it at a restaurant, but it was hard to entertain Ian there so we headed back to Paul's parents' room for the rest of the game. It was a nail biter, but the Steelers won, which means if they beat the Jets on Sunday night - they're headed to the Superbowl! Go Steelers! I grabbed a bit of food from the buffet during half-time, but otherwise didn't really eat dinner that night since we had a large lunch.

January 16th - After our final breakfast buffet, we cleared out of our room and began the disembarkation process. After taking a taxi to the airport, we had over 6 hours to kill at the airport before our flight home. I had thought we'd spend time in New Orleans doing some sight seeing since I'm the only one who has ever been there before, but walking wasn't appealing to everyone. Paul and I walked the kids around the airport for an hour before we had lunch. We learned you can't check your baggage in more than 4 hours in advance. We watched some football while eating lunch. After lunch we checked our baggage in. Paul's dad pushed Nadia in the stroller while she napped. We took advantage of free internet in the airport via Paul's mom's laptop computer. That helped to kill some time. Despite being there soooo long, we didn't time things right in terms of going to get some dinner to take on the plane at 4pm. We actually missed the time when families are supposed to board for Southwest airlines (which doesn't use assigned seating). I was panicked that we'd all be separated, but thankfully some people moved so that Paul, Nadia, and I were all sitting together (with Paul holding Ian). The flight back went very smoothly.

When we arrived at BWI, my mom greeted us with our winter coats. Boy was it cold out! After we loaded up the cars (including installing the car seats) and got some gas, we headed home. Nadia screamed for a long time and then slept for the last 2 hours and 20 minutes of the trip. Ian, who had slept during the whole flight, slept the whole way home. I usually do the driving to and from Maryland, but Paul drove this time because I was exhausted. We got home around midnight. Well all fell asleep very soon after we got home. I was extremely grateful to be home. I had wished many times during our trip that I had booked a much shorter cruise. At some point I am sure we will enjoy going on vacations as a family of four, but I think we need to wait at least until summer 2012 to attempt this feat again. I never want to go on another cruise, and I only want to stay at a resort where we have at least a 2 bedroom suite for the 4 of us. Live and learn!