Last week Ryan and I went on a 4 night cruise, all by ourselves. We haven't really been alone much since we had Emma Catherine so this was a great trip to relax and reconnect. We LOVE our girls but it was fun to just be a couple and to not have to worry about schedules, etc. The girls stayed with my parents while we were gone and I will post about that later. They were definitely well taken care of. I am going to write a lot about our trip because I want the memories written down, but please don't feel like you have to read it.
Our trip started with a few minor bumps. First about an hour or more down the road, my dad called to say that I had forgotten my makeup. He is so kind and offered to meet us, so we turned around. Once we got to Alligator Alley I looked at our camera and realized that we had left our memory card in my laptop at my parents' house. Luckily we drove past a Walgreen's in Miami and we bought another one. Then when we got our luggage on the ship, an entire can of sunscreen had leaked all over half of my clothes. I am so thankful it was only half my clothes because of course, I had over-packed. (The only bad thing is that I am still working on getting the sunscreen out of some of my clothes.) The final thing that happened is that our first morning on the ship I realized that I also left my hairbrush at my parents' house. I had to blow dry my hair and use the curling iron without a brush that morning, but it worked out fine and when got on shore we bought a bargain of a hairbrush ($8.99). All these things are minor though and they didn't stop us from having a fabulous time.
The first night we went to dinner and then to the evening show. It was a Welcome Aboard show and a preview of all the entertainment throughout the week.
The second day we woke up in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island. We decided not to do an excursion but to just look around the town. We had to take a taxi into the town to go to the shopping area. We looked around the straw markets and all the little stores. Ryan was such a good sport as I looked for gifts for the girls. We then decided to walk across the street to the beach. We didn't bring our bathing suits so we just looked around and enjoyed the view and then caught a taxi back to the ship.
We spent the afternoon at the pool and then got ready for dinner. After dinner we went to the show. The cruise dancers did a Broadway themed show and I enjoyed it because I had seen most of the shows. Then we went to a Miami beach themed dance party on the pool deck. It was a lot of fun.
The the third morning we woke up in Nassau. We had thought about doing an excursion through the cruise this day but we decided against it. We ended up taking a tour through the city given by a local. We saw the highlights of the city, went to a old fort, a small beach, and the Atlantis resort. We went back to the boat for lunch and tried to decide what to do. Once again, Ryan was a great sport and offered to go back in the city to do some shopping. I really wanted to visit the straw market and I'm so glad I did. It was filled with every kind of purse you have ever seen. It was a little overwhelming, but also fun.
That night we went to dinner and then to the show. It was a comedian who was hilarious. We laughed and laughed and laughed. After that we went to our room to change into our white clothes for the "White Hot Party." It was another deck party and again, we had a good time.
The fourth morning we woke up in Great Stirrup Cay, NCL's private island. We ate breakfast early and got to the island pretty early because we wanted to make sure to get a beach chair and umbrella. We had also scheduled a couple's massage on the beach. It was so relaxing and we were both glad we signed up for it. We spent the whole day on the island.
We got back and got cleaned up and went to dinner. We went to the show, which was the dancers again and then we went back to our room to get packed up.
We decided to carry our luggage off the ship so disembarkation was a breeze and then we went back to my parents' house to see the girls. We had a fabulous time, but we were also ready to see the girls. We are so thankful to my parents for watching the girls and for giving us the chance to get away.
The weekend before we left for the cruise we had my 10 year high school reunion. It was good to see everyone and catch up. I think about 45 or so classmates came, which I'm not sure if that's a good number or not. My high school was on the smaller side and no one is exactly sure how many people actually graduated. I was told that maybe 130 or so of us walked. There were definitely some funny moments and lots of memories (as far back as middle school).
These are some of my best friends from high school. We had practically all our classes together for 4 years.
On Sunday we had a picnic in the park for all of our families and they had inflatables for the kids. Emma Catherine went down the water slide probably 50 times. It was a fun reunion and I am glad I went.
