We started our trip in Miami, where I was stoked to meet up with my favorite Floridian--my friend Lori. She was really happy to see my parents, too. During our visit, my dad shared a story about a trip to Germany, but struggled to remember the name of the little town where he stayed. We waited while he tried to recall it, but my impatient mom chided him, saying, "Make it up! Make it up! They don't know the difference!"
Lori and I erupted into laughter. She looked at me and said, "Oh my God, now I know where you get it from!" I just nodded.
Lori took us to my very favorite Greek restaurant, Opa Taverna, where we loaded up on Greek appetizers. She wouldn't let me break any plates this time, though.
Tim, Kim and their kids arrived later that evening. I was exhausted because I'd been up since 3:45 California time (after sleeping only 4 hours), and could barely think straight. Mark, however, has a much younger, less fuzzy brain, and ran off to a second dinner with them. I realized I'm an old fuddy-duddy that night, while I was drifting off to sleep in my hotel room on a Saturday night and Mark was out partying it up in Miami.
We boarded the ship the next morning, eager to get onto the seas. The whole family gathered on deck as the ship sailed away, the weather warm and sunny.
We watched South Beach slip past us, and cheered the coming days. Then we headed to the main dining room for our first meal of the cruise.
Dinner did not disappoint. I had lobster (the first of three for the week!), and Mark ordered fettuccine Alfredo.
"Order something I can't make at home!" I told him, pointing at the menu. "I can make pasta!"
Except I really can't. Not like that, anyway--his pasta was the best dish served, so good we ordered another plate and passed it around the table, family style.
The boat was such a blast. It was HUGE--the third largest cruise ship in the world, I read, and took a little while to orient yourself. I liked that it was much more casual than other cruises I've been on--no dressing up for dinner (unless you wanted to), which meant packing less luggage. Loved that!
The coolest thing about it was the boat was the entertainment. It was awesome--we saw the Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, a Second City improv troupe, and a hypnotist we liked so much, we went to three of her shows. They also had a dueling piano bar (fun!) a blues club (we walked in with three hyper kids at a very quiet moment between songs, then immediately left), and a bowling alley. Tim, Kim and the kids spent most of their time in the pools or on the water slides, while my mom and I traveled around to all the wine tastings and demos.
I'm a white wine drinker, but my mom prefers reds, so during the tasting, I traded my reds for her whites. As I was filling her glass with one wine, she asked "What is it?" then dismissively waved her hand and said, "I don't care!"
I cracked up. Neither of our palettes were all that discriminating after the first few glasses! The only uncomfortable moment came at the end of the tasting, when we walked out, happy and laughing, and realized we had to exit right through an Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting (talk about bad planning on the cruise director's part!). I pulled it together long enough to zip past them, but I didn't exhale until we were safely away from them.
Another family favorite was the ship's ice bar. It was a chilly 17 degrees inside, and everything was, in fact, made of ice. The bar, the benches, even giant ice sculptures of a Viking and a polar bear. The adults slurped down vodka drinks, and the kids enjoyed non-alcoholic drinks. Well, Mark enjoyed them anyway--he tossed back three in about 15 minutes!
My family came into the bar so loudly (I know, big surprise), protesting the cold (hey, we're wimpy Californians!) and taking a million photos in about three minutes. We finally settled down, until Hannah quietly said, "Hey Dad, can I take off my parka?"
Tim said, "Sure!" and we cheered on brave, crazy Hannah. We were cracking up at her standing there in a thin sun dress, shivering in the cold.
Of course, Nicholas took that as a challenge. ("I always take Hannah's good ideas, and make them worse," he told me later).
"Hey Dad, can I take off my SHIRT?" he asked, already stripping it off.
And off it came! It stayed off for a couple couple minutes as Nic posed, guns blazing, us laughing. I finally told him to put it back on before he got hypothermia and he asked, shocked, "Can that really happen?"
Things I did not enjoy nearly as much included the line at the purser's office. I stood in it the first time to set a spending limit on Mark's card key. (The key was linked directly to my credit card.) Mark stood beside me grousing the entire time, trying to convince me that he's very responsible, almost grown up, and that I should quit treating him like a baby.
"I'm not gonna lose my key!" he complained.
I wavered, then agreed. "You're right," I said. "You're almost 14--I do trust you."
I stood in line at the purser's desk for the second time a scant four hours later, after I found Mark standing in front of our cabin, locked out, and he admitted he'd lost his key.
"Already?" I asked, sighing. This time I DID block his card, and he was smart enough not to challenge me on it.
The third time, when Mark de-activated his room key, I sent him to the purser's office alone.
"Why do I have to do it?" he whined.
"You told me you're responsible now," I reminded him. "So take care of it. You can't get on or off the boat without a key, so decide whether or not you want to see Jamaica." To his credit, he did take care of it.
Other memorable moments on the ship included our daily greeting at the buffet. Each time, the same loud, happy crew member waved a a bottle of hand sanitizer at us, shouting out "Washy, washy!" Sometimes she shook things up a bit, adding "Happy, happy" or "Smiley, smiley" and sometimes she called out all three. If I close my eyes, "Washy, washy, happy, happy, smiley, smiley" still haunts me!
The whole vacation was just amazing. I loved the time with my family, and the memories that we shared, including the washy, washy lady and the Jamaican life guard. I think Mark ate his weight in hamburgers and drank MY weight in Shirley Temples. We came back tan, relaxed, and very, very happy. And I'm pretty sure that's what vacations are all about.
Tomorrow, I'll share pix and stories from our ports of call.
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