Cruising the Atlantic: 3 Glorious Days!

BKay and I ventured out last weekend to another one of our amazing adventures. We planned the trip early in January since Eliot was headed to Vegas to have "Big Fun" with his guy friends as a last bachelor hurrah. Of course in the middle of final wedding preparations long with the many bashes, it only made sense to go as beginning of summer fiesta!

Mid-morning on Friday, BKay and I set off to the Port of Miami to hop the Carnival Imagination and sail the great blue sea towards glorious Nassau. We arrived with perfect timing onto our ship found our roomy quarters and were amazed at the amount of space we had considering that everyone had told us that ship rooms were tiny. We attempted to get the lay of the land by the "It's a Small World" ship crew keep ushering us back to our rooms to get our personal floatation devices and meet for the safety seminar on the Lido deck. Following orders we did just that. We hunkered down in some comfy chairs under cover since rain was eminent and waited. Lucky we are lazy because the Florida skies opened up and we watched the heart of an enormous thunder storm hover the Carnival that was the safety session. Every lifeguard regulation I ever knew was zipping through my head as the waters rose on deck and over 300 people avoided getting hit my giant lightening. I kept telling myself that it must be safe. It just must be.

Safety instructions mumbled over, skies bright blue again we were on the ocean, and wishing for a drink. Quickly we understood the glory of being on a cruise ship. Our wish was their command. A fine gentleman holding a fruity something or other by the name of "Fun Ship" with the appropriate umbrella hanging out of it came by. And there it began. A weekend of abundance. No need to move food, drink, and entertainment always seems to come your way. One Fun Ship led to another which led us to our first dinner with cruise mates.

Cruises will assign seats and we had hit the Imagination jackpot! The table mates were of the very best caliber. We enjoyed hours of great food and great conversation. Later on headed together to a stand-up comedy show and salsa dancing until 4 AM. The next morning we rose and indulged in a hearty breakfast at the shore of the Bahamas.

The islands are small and perfect for one full day of exploration. BKay and I saw the sites. Colonial state buildings, Straw market, sampled tasty conch fritters and toured the Pirate museum. Arg Matey, it was a mighty treat. We took a ferry to Paradise Island and wondered the world of Atlantis. The many twists and turns of the acreage exposed beautiful aquatic animals, glorious beach shores and extravagant shopping.

At the end of our day, we found a cozy spot on the serenity deck (adults only) and rested before another evening of fun. Another eventful meal and this night a cheesy show and roulette table entertained us. By morning, we watched the Imagination disembark from shore. Sunning, eating, massages…a true day of leisure; an art auction, nap, Captains dinner, karaoke, another comic, dancing and more dancing. Cruises are amazing! The morning met up with the Miami shore where the required stop by the bakery and tasty breakfast fueled us to a nice drive home!

Bon Voyage!

Summer Gardening Summer Projects

Summer is here. Therefore all the ways to use my time effectively have made into a nice organized to-do list. I will refer to this list each day in hopes of not spending an entire summer sleeping until noon and watching entirely too many hours of Nick at Nite which will surely eat way my brain cells. I can also feel fulfilled in my daily endeavors and remain an active part of normal society. That's the goal.

There are some simple but time consuming items on the list such as beginning a new masters program (which I am, a Masters of Counseling and School Psychology through UMASS), actually get physical therapy for my knee (since a wedding and a vomiting husband has really taken up some of my time. This also involves finding exercises that will not negatively impact my knee, so my cleats are still hung.) and finally getting our house/yard in some sort of respectable order. We have discovered that we have termites. After two different opinions, these tiny wood eating monsters need to be suffocated in a tent filled of poison. The process will take two days and we will need to evacuate. We are still waiting to schedule this exciting event.

The other pest issues is located outside. Before our wedding we started to notice black moths with red torsos and white markings surrounding our house. We dismissed it, because to be frank we were too busy to deal with it, plus we were pretending that our home was protected by these lovely flying creatures. In the meantime, these distant cousins of the beautiful butterfly ate our bushes down to the bone. They have found a nice home only on these bushes (thankfully) These funky caterpillars line the stems. Today I finally sprayed Sven on them and trimmed down the bushes. I figure I will do this again tomorrow and see if the bush will survive at the moment, until we have to tent and everything dies. Homeowner ship rocks!

We are still working on getting Eliot at 100%. Thank you to all for the love, support and prayers. Keep 'em coming a little longer. I will blog more on this later. :)

Mexico: Day 5, 6 and 7

Beach. Eat. Shop. Beach. This sums up pretty much days 5 and 7.

Day 6 on the other hand was a great adventure. We went in the wee hours of the morning on a tour bus down to visit Tulum and then Xel-Ha. Tulum is an ancient Mayan ruins site with a significant temple of some sort. It was interesting. We took pictures. I got to tell you, Eliot loves this stuff. As many of you know we went to Machu Picchu which was the whole Incan scene last summer and prior to that we both have done our share. Matter of fact, Eliot has been to Belize and saw Te-Cal which is another Mayan location. Being a religion teacher you may think that I would have a specific desire in the ancient pantheon of gods but in truth, it's cool for about 10 minutes and then it's hot as hell and all I want to do is find a shady area and a cocktail.

Our afternoon, was spent in Xel-Ha which a natural water park. There are so many cool things to say about this place. First off, everything is included. Food, lockers, drinks, alcohol, ice cream, towels, snorkel gear...the list goes on. So there is no worrying about anything. Of course the super cool part is being able to snorkel in fresh water...well snorkel at all. I had never been. I know I am a Florida but it's really never come up. To be honest, most Floridan natives, enjoy the beach in limited amounts as long as there are activities...a walk, a frisbee, a smoothie...we aren't really much for sitting in the heat and getting burnt. In the Westcoast I suppose the snorkeling thing has never really come up. I love it!

It was so neat. I could have done it for days. Xel-Ha also had hammocks to nap in which Eliot did. There was also Cenotes to explore, tropical parrots, jungle, and caves. We totally when snorkel-spulunking. It was awesome. Eliot has promised a trip to a coral reef very soon so I can experience even cooler more colorful fish.

In truth there was a moment, that there was a school of fish and several others all coming at us, or so it seemed and it was fairly intimidating. Imagine giant fish with funny headgear at your windows. I mean it's a little invading. For me there is a dual reaction of absolute awe and a "Oops, uh sorry! Take the gumps to school, don't mind me."

I could tell you about my nemesis on our tour. A pretentious American woman whom if I was a fighting lady I would have smacked at some point. Particularly on our way home when we were taken home in a van separate from the rest of the group because our hotels were had fewer people. Evil lady after several snippy comments during the day, couldn't help but distract Victor the driver by telling him how she had an awful day and that she didn't really think the Mayans had any truth to their practices. Seriously. Sigh. Victor was distracted while driving 5 MPH on the interstate trying to recommend books to Evil lady. But instead of harping on her, I will move on.

Today we got up headed to the beach and were laying under our cabana for about four hours. There was a rainstorm so we moved under the bar and then went back out. We got back to our hotel and showered, napped. We went out for a last bit of shopping and dinner. The Gaurkee's head home early in the morning!

Mexico: Day 4

Ah the Spa. We woke up and had breakfast which oddly I have done every day on this honeymoon. Breakfast is amazing with tons of choices and really the best cafe con leche on Playa. Our hotel owes a chunk of beach with complimentary cabanas for it's visitors so we walked down to the Caribbean shoreline and enjoyed a gorgeous morning at the beach beign waiting on by Pancho.

In the afternoon our Spa day officially began. Spa Itza is a part of the Hotel La Tortuga. Apparently, Eliot had read somewhere that it used to be called Itza Spa but they got tired of all the American giggles, so they made a little change. It still makes me giggle. Our first appointment was for a Sauna, Steam and Herbal bath. We were excorted to the lockrooms to slip into a thin white sheet and robe and then taken to the roof. When we arrived at the roof there was a tiny little hut, much like an igloo, with a even tinier wooden door. They openned it for us and asked us to crawl in. The tiny hut had steaming black rock. Within 10 minutes I had had enough of the steam clean effect and switched over to the Sauna. It was a traditional Sauna with rocks which was not any more successful to me than the hut. You combine an already tropical climate with a person that is from a tropical climate and whose entire bloodline comes from a tropical climate, you can't imagine that a tiny hot box is going to be the highlight.

Shortly after we were taken to our bath. The room was decorated with candlelight and beautiful flowers that were floating in our bath and placed all over the room. We slipped in and relaxed. Our escort took turns giving us head and neck massages. It was lovely. Once we were finished we retreated to our room and took a nice long nap.

Afterwards, we returned to Spa Itza and were greeted by our earlier escort for our Maya Clay treatment. Once again we were asked to remove all our clothing and wear only the light robe provided. Once we arrived to our treatment location there were too twin beds that had simple white towels on them. Eliot and I were instructed to put on the tiny foe-paper underware that only covered what the leaves did for Adam and Eve. We were to lay in our beds head to head. Our treatment specialists entered and it began.

The soothing music was in play and the ladies first began to exflolitate our entire bodies with a concoction that was in a small ceramic bowl. Every inch of us was lathered and then thin foam flipflops placed on our feet and we were lead to the showers. We rinsed phase one.

Once again we were placed on the beds but this time there was no white towel but instead it was yellow plastic seran wrap. Phase two was the Mayan Clay. From toes to hairline we were covered in Mayan Clay. Warm tea bags were placed on my eyes as the process was being completed. Then, like giant burritos the layers of wrappings began. First the yellow seran wrap. Second a canvas weight cloth. Third a leather something or other. (Note I can't move since I was clayed up and I can't see through tea bags, so this is all based on what it felt like.) Finally some sort of straps were placed on top to make the perfect burrito. She whispers in my ear to let me know that she will return shortly. The lights are dimmed and the exit stage right.

Instantly I start laughing. The absurdity of being wrapped up like a burrito in a Mexican Spa. Eliot is over there meditating or something. I believe that this response is...I'm relaxing. I can't really relax. I am naked with a paper thong and wrapped up so tight, plus I can't see a thing. Our Mayan Clay rubber returns and slowly opens us up. It is now that I understand. It is magical. We are bought once again to the showers to rinse. Now we through our paper skivvies and our skin is softer than a baby's bottom. We ahve been restored.

Phase three begins. We are cleansed, softened and now mint lotioned from head to toe. The slight tingly feeling of the lotion is an amazing feeling. Even now, the day after, my skin is still unprescendently soft.

After our Mayan Clay wrap, the pampering continued with his and her pedicures. Not only was this recommended by our very own Tracy but we did feel it was a perfect treat for us considering our love our feet. Eliot had never had one before so that was even better.

I have been thinking about this feet thing. Why feet? Well, feet help you travel from one point to another. Feet always force you to take things one step at a time. To enjoy the journey. Feet hold you up on days that even when your heart or mind can't seem to. So our feet together just makes us remember that we walking together, side by side, in tiny little huts or lathered up in strange clay, together we venture on the journey.

Mexico Day 2 & 3

There isn't too much to report. We have been lazy honeymooners, a lot of sleeping, strolling, and eating. Playa Del Carmen is beautiful and quaint. We are working ourselves up to enjoying the spa in our hotel.

One thing about people watching just to keep you all on your toes. We lay in these bed like pool side loungers. Remember the pool is like a lagoon and surrounded by trees to really ingrain the image. Leaves are falling into the pool all day long. From first thing in the morning until the darkness of the night, the team of hotel workers clean the leaves every 15 minutes. They take the time to get out the pool vacuum, the nets and brooms. Clean. Put everything away. In seconds a lovely breeze hits bring down all the leaves once again. Like clockwork, the team appears again. Get out the gear. Clean. Put everything away. Perhaps it's their hard work that keeps us so unwilling to move.

Food. The food is good. Everything is served with hot sauce which to me a wonderful; to Eliot not so much. Our morning breakfast has been superb here at the hotel but we venture out to the local restaurants for other foodie delights. There hasn't been a bad bite.