Days at Sea

If you were to ask any of us what our favorite part of the trip was, you would get the same answer. The boat. It was big  huge. It had a park, a promenade, a boardwalk,  2 rock climbing walls, and 25 dining choices, which include cafes, buffets, pizza, Johnny Rockets, and nicer restaurants, like Giovanni's Table, Chop's Grille, and 150 Central Park.
Get ready for a picture overload!

 Central Park was a garden on the 8th deck of the boat. It had shops, such as Coach and Britto, and restaurants, like 150 Central Park, Park Cafe, Chop's Grille, and Giovanni's Table. Each restaurant was amazing, and the wine selection... ahh!

 The Royal Promenade was on Deck 5. Shopping, Pizza, Shopping, Cupcake Cupboard, Shopping! It was the "go-to" place for just about everything!

 The boys frequented the casino a few times, and then they were cut off. By me.

 The Boardwalk was awesome! Ice cream, Hotdogs, Carousel, face painting, Johnny Rockets, Aqua Theatre, Rita's Cantina, Rock Wall... fun, fun, fun!

I LOVED that Chicago was on the ship! How cool is that?? I had to d-r-a-g the boys to see it, but there was booze, so they weren't too upset about it! 

My favorite thing at night was getting back to the room and finding a cute little creature waiting on us! Our stateroom attendant was from the Philippines, and he was so cool! After I told him I loved the animals, he made an extra one for me the last night... Macho Man!

Thursday and Saturday, Zak and I caught the Syracuse games in the On-Air bar in the Promenade. Go CUSE!!!

 My puppy with his St. Patty's Day hat on!

 I took a cupcake decorating class, and I had SO. MUCH. FUN. My little puppy turned out to be the best in the class! I was so proud... and it was so good! :)

I think we found every bar on the boat... there are probably 12-15 of them! We really enjoyed the piano bar and sports bar. Matt actually danced with me one night... so fun!

We went to something every night on board. This was an adult scavenger hunt... but kids were allowed! Our cruise director, Ken Rush, hosted and it was fabulous and hilarious!

 Matt and Zak enjoyed several games of ping-pong while I was at the pool or in the shade reading my book! They also tried out the Flow-Rider and Wave-Rider. I got some good laughs!

 Dreamworks characters made several appearances throughout the week. My favorite was Shrek, of course!! We also saw Madagascar, Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda, and other characters!
I will probably do one more cruise post for our memories, but I promise this is the longest one!

Excursions

We took advantage of everything we possibly could on our trip. The first stop was in Haiti on Tuesday...

We didn't have anything planned for this stop, but we got off the boat and explored the island a little. It was a beautiful day! We found a little roller coaster thru the trees and the sights were amazing. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to have cameras, so I don't have any pictures to share. After the coaster, we headed back to the boat for lunch and exploration!
See the Dragon Tail Coaster Here

Wednesday, we were up and ready early! Jamaica was just as beautiful as we remember from our trip to Montego Bay in 2006.

We took a bus ride about 45 miles from Falmouth to ride the Bobsled Coaster and climb the Dunn's River Waterfall. To get to the Bobsled, we rode a chair lift and, again, had amazing views of the country. The Bobsled was a little disappointing because it was the exact same ride as the Dragon Tail in Labadee! It was still lots of fun! After the ride, we had a buffet lunch with jerk chicken! Then we headed off to the waterfall! It is absolutely beautiful! I didn't take my camera, and we didn't buy any of the $50 pictures they took... LOL! 

See the Waterfall Here!

Friday, we woke up in Cozumel, Mexico! We had a busy day ahead of us... We went spelunking. We took a boat ride over to Playa Del Carmen and headed to the Amazing Secret River. No cameras were allowed in the cave, and they wouldn't have turned out even if we could have. It was dark. There were bats. There were spiders. I was not excited. Until we started making our way thru the cave. We walked and swam... and laughed at the Japanese people who kept hitting their heads. 

See the Amazing Secret River Here

 After the cave experience, we were free to shop around and have lunch. They provided us a snack at the cave, so we opted for drinks at Señor Frogs. We were sad this was the last excursion, but excited for a day at sea to relax before heading back to the real world!

More on the trip later...

Allure of the Seas

So. Much. Fun.

Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas is the largest sailing cruise ship. It is like it's own little city on the ocean! I have so much to blog about and memories to blog, but I am still exhausted from our trip! More to come later this week!

Getting Things Ready...

I can't believe we are already getting ready to head back home! Have we really been in Cleveland almost 3 years?? I remember thinking when we first moved that this was going to be the l o n g e s t 3 years of my life. It seemed that way in the beginning, but once we settled in and learned where to go and what all there is to do, time started to fly... even in the winter months when it NEVER stopped snowing!
We listed our townhouse in February, and we've had 2 open houses so far. I am not a fan of having my house on the market... you never know when the realtor is going to just pop in or call with someone to come look! No bites yet, but we are hopeful!
I took some pictures of our house to remember it...

Our townhouse is downtown and part of the Avenue District. (Townhomes and Condos) We have 3 floors, but all these pictures are of the main floor. The first floor is the garage and Matt's office. The second floor is living space... kitchen, dining room, and living room. The third floor is our bedroom and bathroom, the laundry closet, and a guest room/bathroom. We also have a rooftop deck that overlooks the downtown area. You can barely see Lake Eerie from the deck! 

As excited as I am about moving back to Arkansas, I am sad to be leaving the big city. We have found some of the cutest little spots for shopping, movies, and dinner. Cleveland has been good to us... It's been good for Matt for his education, to me for great job opportunities, and to us and our marriage.