Vacation Part 2

Finally, here comes Part 2 of THE vacation!

On Wednesday, we were in port in Key West by 7:00 am and we were off the ship by 7:30am. We didn't have any shore excursions planned for Key West, so right when we got off the ship, we planned to head toward town and find a cab. There were some little booths set up with people trying to sell us excursions. One caught our eye. It was electric cars for rent. We ended up renting a 6-passenger electric car for the day.



They even had a car seat for Gracie to sit in. It was a little pricey, but we loved the freedom of being able to go wherever we wanted whenever we wanted. And we didn't have to walk around all day with 3 young children in order to see everything. Plus, it was small and could fit into most any parking spot there was. The one bad thing, was that it didn't have power steering. Good thing my hubby has those massive chest and arm muscles! He really had to use them! It was awesome to feel the breeze on us as we rode in the open air. Until it started sprinkling...more on that later!

First stop: The Southernmost Point of the Continental US
This was at the top of my list for Key West.


There were trees with these beautiful orangey-red colored blossoms all over the place. We picked this one up off the ground right by the Hemingway House.

I would have liked to visit the Hemingway House, but I'm sure it wouldn't have been enjoyable for the kids and we had so much we wanted to do before the ship left port at 3pm. So, we went by and took a picture, just to say we'd been there.


We were driving on US Hwy 1. I thought that was so cool! At this point, we were heading South on Hwy 1. Trust me, we didn't have far to go before the road ended! Key West is only a few miles by a few miles. Doesn't take long to get around the whole place!

There were loose chickens running all over the place. Even in the streets!

At this point, it started sprinkling on us in our open car... So, we decided to look for some covered parking and find an indoor activity. We found a place, but the plastic domed advertisement bolted to the top of the car was too tall for us to pull under the low covered spots, so we were stuck in an outside spot.
First inside destination was right down from the parking lot.
Pat Croce's Pirate Soul Museum.
This was in the courtyard before we went into the museum. We weren't allowed to take pics inside.



It cost us $54 to get in and we were through the museum and in the giftshop on the other side in 15 minutes. Can you say rip off? I'm sure it might have been more enjoyable if it was just Jason and I though. Most of the exhibits had posters with lots of history/info. I would have loved to read it all. The kids, however, were not having any of that. There was this one really neat part where it was like you were on a real ship. Kids were scared. Next was a series of pitch black dark rooms where you were supposed to go in, sit down, put on headphones and there would be a narrated story/video presentation. Yeah right. We all made it into the small room, and as soon as the door shut, the kids started freaking out. So, we were headed out. In fact, for the last 5 minutes through the museum, Gracie kept saying, "You gotta get me outta here." "Get me outta here!"

Next stop, Key West Aquarium.
We made it just in time for the daily shark feeding! Just what we hoped for!

Here's the shark expert/tour guide. Feeding the sting rays. They would jump out of the water and prop themselves up on the side of the tank to get their fish. It was SO cool!

Here he is feeding the sharks. They were nurse sharks. There were both medium and small sized ones in this tank. They would also jump up and eat the fish right out of the guy's hands!

Jason, Gracie and Rhett were across the tank from me and Braden.

We all got a chance to touch the real shark! It had the softest skin. Not scaly or smooth, almost a type of hairy texture. The guide said that when you touch the shark, the oil from your skin is absorbed into it's skin and it can taste you. Almost like if he had just eaten you. WOW! How many people can say they've touched a shark?!
Here's Braden touching the baby nurse shark.

The outside of the Aquarium from the back side, where we were looking at the bigger sharks on exhibit. The aquarium was built during the Great Depression as the first cruise ship attraction in Key West.
Here's the kids outside.



Next stop, the Shell Museum next door. Rhett's #1 priority on the vacation was to get a real Shark tooth necklace. Here he is sporting his find at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Here's Braden and Gracie at the Hard Rock.


Braden took this picture of the rest of us in front of the sign out front.

When we got back to our little car, only 1/2 of the seats on 1 side were wet! I went into the nearest souvenier shop and bought a Key West beach towel to use to dry off the seats and we were good to go.

The last, but one of the most important things I wanted to do while there was to get some Key Lime Pie from the Blonde Giraffe. They were featured some time ago on the Food Network's Road Tasted with Jamie and Bobby Deen. Don't ask me why, but I have remembered that all this time. (Perhaps because I'm such a Food Network Fan and especially of the Deen family!) I believe there were 5 locations in Key West and we passed several of them on the road, but we just stopped at the next one we came to because time was getting close to get back to the ship.
Jason snapped this picture of me as I was coming out of the shop.

After this, it was time to return our little car and get a shuttle ride back to the ship.
Here's Jason and the kids as we waited in line to board.

As soon as we got back to our room, I dug into my pie!

It was SO good! I shared a few bites with Gracie before she fell asleep and I shared 2 bites with Jason before he and the boys went outside to watch the ship leave the port. I ate the rest myself very slowly as I laid in the bed and watched tv. I enjoyed every last bite!!

Here's the pictures Jason took as the ship was leaving Key West.




At dinner that night, our servers danced to the dance that's at the end of Slumdog Millionaire. I can't remember the name of the song. Braden and Rhett went out there to dance with Manny (Manoj) our server, who was from India. We loved him! They had fun, but they were slightly embarrassed! (Braden is in the red/white striped polo shirt and Rhett is in the navy blue polo shirt.)



Look at Braden's face as he was walking back to the table! (Just to the left of the bald head...:)

Here's Gracie enjoying her butter at dinner. Seriously, I think eating the butter/bread and getting to do it herself was her favorite part of dinner each night!

After dinner, we dropped the kids off at Camp Carnival. We enjoyed a walk around the deck.
We had cloudy/rainy weather so far the entire cruise, until this night. We had THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNSET EVER!!!!
These photos are taken with my little point and shoot camera and haven't been retouched in any way. It just doesn't do it justice!



Just as it was time to pick the kids up, we looked at the Camp Carnival Caper to see what activities were going on and realized that they were doing Build-A-Bear's that night. There had been other opportunities to do it during the cruise, but a parent had to be present and we just didn't fit it into our schedule. But, this night, if you were paying for the after hours babysitting, parents didn't have to be present. We decided that an extra hour without the kids would be nice, so we called down to the playroom to give them our permission to do 1 bear each. They had been begging us and we had already told them we weren't going to do it, so we knew they'd be happily surprised.
Jason and I took full advantage of that extra hour. We ordered room service. 2 New York Cheesecakes. They had THE BEST cheesecake ever on the ship!! We ate them as we were snuggled up in the bed and we each ate in peace without having to share a bite! One of the best memories of the whole vacation! :)
When we picked them up an hour later, you should've seen the looks on their faces!!! They were so tickled!
Here's each of them with their new friends.



Each of the kids snuggled up with their friends and went right to sleep. This was also the first night of the vacation where I slept well, so it was a GREAT night!

Well, there's day 3 of the cruise. As you can tell, we had SO much fun again this day!
Stay tuned for day 4. The next day, we were in the beautiful Bahamas! The part of the vacation that we'd been so excited about!

Vacation Part 1

We are back from our vacation. It was WONDERFUL!!! It was even better than we had expected. We had a great time and were able to relax too.

We left out on Saturday morning about 10am.

We ended up driving to Dothan, AL before we stopped for the night. It was midnight when we finally stopped. The kids were all out by about 10pm.



The next day we were up early, had breakfast at the hotel and were on the road again.

Here's Gracie using her potty while we were going down the road. As a young potty trainer, she needs to go pretty often and when she says she has to go, you have about 2.1 seconds, tops, to get her to a potty. So, I put her training potty on the floor in front of her seat and behind the front passenger seat. When she had to go, I'd put my seat back to reach her and help her out of her carseat, then I'd put my seat all the way up so I could help her use the potty. Then I had to put the seat back to get her buckled back in. A lot of work and some near misses on car-sick-ness on my part, but it was totally worth it.


We arrived in Jacksonville, FL around 2 or 3 that afternoon and after checking in to the hotel and resting for about 30 minutes, we put on swimsuits and headed to the beach. We couldn't pass up the chance to frolic in the Atlantic Ocean, now could we?!?!












Gracie was content playing in the sand. She wasn't a big fan of the waves. The boys loved playing in the waves, though!

Jason and I paid for the fun later, he had to spend over 2 hrs in a laundromat washing and drying swimsuits and beach towels because they all had to go back in suitcases the next morning and they were all WET and FULL of sand. I cleaned up all the sand toys and shoes there at the hotel and got the kids clean and in bed and we still managed to get somewhat of a decent night of sleep. At this point, we were wondering if we were ever going to get to relax on this vacation like we hoped!

The next morning, we opted for Room Service breakfast in the room so we could sleep as late as possible. We had to be packed up and out of the hotel by 10am in order to get to the cruise terminal in time. We still had to lock all the suitcases and put the special luggage tags on them. That ended up taking over 30 minutes standing outside in the 103 degree sunshine. Next time, I will do those ahead of time!!



Getting parked, luggage dropped off and through the cruise terminal ended up taking us over 2 hours. Whew! But, the kids did FANTASTIC and were so good waiting in line, etc. We couldn't have been more pleased with them.

Here we are on the ship, at last!
Jason and the boys were watching dolphins swim in the water right next to the ship.

Here's Gracie and I sitting on the deck. This was after we had finished lunch on the deck and were enjoying the scenery before the departure.


During the mandatory lifeboat drill, the ship started heading out of port. Immediately after the drill, we didn't even take the life jackets back to our room. We grabbed all 5 life jackets and headed straight out to one of the top decks so we could watch the ship go under the bridge. We had some friends go on this boat a few weeks ago and been told that it BARELY makes it under the bridge. Barely is the word. I was holding my breath!!
Here's Jason and Braden before we went under the bridge.


Here we are in our TINY little room. It was quite small for 5 of us, but we kept everything well organized and tidy, so we managed.

Here's me and Jason standing out by the deck railing on our first night after dinner. It was very windy! We had just dropped the kids off at Camp Carnival and were all alone for the first time!

Immediately after we took this picture, you'll never guess what we went to do...
Well.... for the sake of curiosity, I'll tell you just what we did.
We went straight back to our room.
And...

Jason began unpacking suitcases and trying to organize the room. We had to get some order established while the kids weren't there because we couldn't even move in there with all the suitcases and everything. He put everything in closets, shelves and drawers and put the suitcases under the bed.
And me? I spent that time in the self-service laundrette on the ship washing blankets from the night before that Gracie had peed on while she was sleeping. While they were washing, I went ahead and ironed all of the nice clothes that we had brought so that chore would be over and we could enjoy the rest of the vacation.
10pm arrived before we knew it and Jason went to get the kids picked up from Camp Carnival while I finished the laundry.
Not exactly the romantic evening we had planned, but when your first priority is being parents, you do what you gotta do. We've been doing this parenting thing for almost 9 years, so we're pretty used to evenings like this.

When I returned back to the room, this is what I found:



The boys had Pirate Night at Camp and Gracie had Space Alien Night. You can barely see her little headband with the silver antennae that she made. They were SO hyped up and BEGGING us to go back to Camp Carnival first thing in the morning. Answer to prayer! I was so hoping they would enjoy it so that Jason and I could have some quiet time with no kids too. We were so excited!
We finally settled into bed around midnight.

The next morning, we ate a nice sit-down breakfast in the dining room.


After breakfast, we took the kids to Camp Carnival and we walked around the ship and even relaxed for a few minutes! Imagine that!

But, before we relaxed, this is what we were doing. Working on work stuff at the internet cafe on the ship. It only took about an hour and 20 minutes that day, not too bad.

We technically only lounged in these lounge chairs for 15 minutes before it was time to pick the kids up from Camp. They closed at 11:45 each day and were closed until 2:00.

Here's the lobby of the ship, looking down at the piano bar from the Verandah deck, which is where the kids attended Camp Carnival.


The kids had been begging us to go to the pool, so after lunch and a very brief resting time, we headed to the pool.
The first one we tried was on one of the top decks. It was a smaller pool than the main pool with the waterslide on the Lido deck.
It was SO windy up there. Gracie could hardly stand up!




After about 5 minutes, we decided to go to the Kiddie Pool that was 2 decks down and on the very back of the ship. It was behind a big wall too, so there was no wind.


Here's a view off the back of the ship. It was cloudy and stormy looking pretty much all day. That evening, the captain didn't even attend the Captain's reception because he was at the helm, trying to steer us out of a nasty piece of weather. We did go through a thunderstorm, but from inside the ship, you couldn't even tell it was raining unless you looked out a window. Getting in a storm was my worst fear and I didn't even know it was going on!

Tuesday night, the 2nd night on the cruise, was the formal dinner. We had fun getting all dressed up!



Jason and I had delicious lobster for dinner that night!
Here we are at the dinner table.


Here was our first towel animal that the kids were looking so forward to!

The kids were having a pajama party at Camp Carnival that night, so we changed them into their PJ's.

Then me and Jason walked around the ship for a while and attended the evening's show. It was a tribute to 80's music. It was like reliving your childhood, live on stage. The singing, dancing, costumes and props were outstanding. We thoroughly enjoyed it! We also took several formal photos with the ship's photographers and went to the casino for a while. That was the first time I've ever been in a casino. I even lost $5 in a slot machine! I've officially gambled. I think at the age of (almost) 29, it's about time I can say that. :)

The kids' pajama party was for ages 2-11 and Rhett won the dance contest they had!
Here he is with his medal!

Here he is showing off some of his dance moves.

He said when he did the "Robot" all the girls screamed. My little heart-breaker!

That's it for the first installment of the Vacation recap. Stay tuned for the rest. This was only the trip there and the first 2 days of the 5 day cruise. There's still 6 more days of vacation to go!!