Costa Maya

Tuesday we were in Costa Maya. This is the view from the ship. The water was beautiful.

Dean did a lot of research before we went & found a place for us to spend the day. It wasn't a ship excursion but this place got rave reviews on Cruise Critic. It was half the price of the ship excursions. $52 per person & that included transportation to & from the port & all you could eat & drink.

It was FABULOUS!! The ride there? Not so much. Very bumpy & backwoods. Suzy had already been queasy. The ride didn't help.

She was resting. We had our own little tiki hut type thing except it was big. Our resident spanish speakers, Kitzia & Jackie called it a Pollopa. I have no idea how to spell that. It had the bed Suzy's laying on, chairs, a hammock & then out in the sun, chaise lounges & it was on the beach. This was our view.

So pretty! In keeping with the rest of these blog posts about the trip. Here's a picture of a drink.

A pina colada. It was good but better when we requested that they make them with Malibu Rum instead of dark rum. It was Fat Tuesday so we were wearing our beads like good little Louisianians. Dean & Brad having a beer.

We saw on the Maya Chan website that they have drinks in coconuts. Well, that has my name written all over it. I'm all about tropical stuff. The only thing that would've made it better is to have a little umbrella in it. We had our own little private bar & bartender. His name was Hugo. I asked Hugo about the coconut drink & he said "Oh, a Coco Loco". Yep, that's what I want & I don't care what it's made of. So, he hollers to another little guy in spanish & the next thing you know the guy is chopping down a coconut.

Yes, he literally, got a coconut out of the tree & started chopping it with this machete thing. This is him.

Then he brought it to Hugo & Hugo made the drink.

It was really good. I asked what was in it & it was a bunch of coconut stuff. Malibu Rum, coconut water, coconut milk & I don't remember what else. After you finish the drink they'd chop the coconut in half so you could eat it. I've never had fresh coconut like that but it was good. Me & Suzy enjoying our drinks.

I almost forgot, all the ladies got massages on the beach! It was awesome. Those of you that know me in real life know I'm kinda particular about strangers touching me. I didn't have my first pedicure until the day before my wedding & my first massage last year. Well, let's just say the masseuse's here were a little sketchy looking. There was a  lady & a couple of men. I wasn't going to get one but everyone told me I was being ridiculous so I gave in. I got one of the men. Oh well. It was a good massage, I was on the beach & it was cheap! I felt better about the little man when I saw his toes. He had on Jesus sandals & his toe nails were very neat & clean.

After my massage was lunch. AMAZING!!! There were chips & guacamole, soft tacos, chicken, pork & beef & sauces to go with it. Sooooooo good. I swear it was some of the best food I've eaten. The only problem I had was I put a bunch of sauce on my tacos before I saw that it said "spicy". Oops. Yeh it was hot but still DELISH! They even had Dr. Pepper. How random is that? After lunch I had another pina colada for dessert & chilled in the hammock with my Nook.

I'm sure you know where this is going. I ended up taking a nice nap in that hammock & woke up with a weird sunburn because of how my arm was laying. It wasn't bad but I have a weird spot. Another view.

This was our bar.

Brad, me & Kitzia.

Brad & the infamous Hugo.

He looks a little scary but in person he was all smiles & very nice. Me & Dean.

The port in Costa May is so pretty. You could actually spend the afternoon there at the pool.

Once we got back on the ship we had to get dressed for dinner. Our cruise line was Norwegian & they have several specialty restaurants that you can pay a cover charge to go & eat. We were going to Cagney's, the steakhouse. This was the one night we got all dressed up & I just realized I have no pictures on my camera from that night & I don't remember if anyone else took any. Everything was so good.  This welcomed us back to our room after dinner. Is it a bunny??

Toodles!

A day at sea!

Monday was our first full day at sea. I was still feeling like crap so I slept late. Once I got up I knew I had to do something so I went to work out. I did day 1 of C25K on the treadmill. I didn't have any hip pain so I was excited about that. I worked up a good sweat & felt a thousand percent better when I was done. I guess I sweated out all the crap that was making me feel bad. I was good to go after that. The rest of the crew had grabbed some beach chairs & were hanging out.

The whole crew! Some of us did the Pub Crawl. It was fun. We went to different bars all over the ship & had a drink. Some of them were ok, some of them were really not good.

This one was good at first but then the 2nd & 3rd swallow, not so much.

The expression on Dave's face says it all. The chick in charge asked for volunteers. I DON'T volunteer when I don't know what I'm volunteering for but Suzy has no shame & Dave, well, he'll do anything.

They looked ridiculous but it was funny & Suzy won. We laughed about Suzy all week. She was either winning something or sick. Each time we got to another bar there was a toast. We also were on the clock to drink these drinks. You had a minute to drink it or hand it off to someone else to drink it or they put you in front of the group & made you do something stupid. Needless to say, Dean got stuck finishing the majority of my drinks. This was a margarita & it was not good.

This one I liked! Put Blue Curacao in something & I'll love it. Plus it matched my toes!

After the Pub Crawl we hung out for a little while. This is Dean, Suzy & Matt.

Then against my better judgement, I let the girls talk me into a martini tasting. It was fun but they are certainly not chinchy with the alcohol.

This was by far the strongest martini I've ever had. It tasted like I was drinking straight gin or vodka & it burned going down. Needless to say I didn't drink much of it. The guy in charge of the tasting kept giving us random trivia that had nothing to do with martini's at all & as with the majority of the crew on the ship, he was foreign & it was hard to understand him which made it that much funnier. The chocolate martini was by far the best one we had. After that it was off to get dressed for dinner. We were meeting back in the piano bar, Champagne Charlie's.

Dave, Kitzia (she was born in Mexico if you can believe that), Dean & me. I know it appears that all we did on this cruise was drink but that's not true. I don't know what the deal is with the water on the cruise but I swear my hair was soooo soft after washing it that I could hardly fix it. I had really flat hair all week. In this piano bar there was a couple that sang every night. I don't know what possessed them to do this but they sang the Titanic song. You know, the Celine Dion song "My Heart Will Go On"? Seriously, people, we're on a cruise, do you really want people thinking about the Titanic? I told y'all Dave will do anything. He had people dying laughing imitating Rose.

We had a good dinner & then went to bed. I loved going to the room every night & seeing what animal was waiting for us.

Speaking of the Titanic & dying, someone died on our cruise. Yes, you read that right. We didn't know anything about it but yesterday my friends Wendy & Allison asked if we were on the ship with the guy that died. Come to find out, one of Allison's boss's customers had a relative that died on the ship Tuesday & the family was having to go claim the body on Sunday when the ship got back to New Orleans. She didn't know if he was on our ship or the Carnival ship that was coming in the same time. They discussed the fact that I could be on a ship with a dead body all week.  Lo & behold in the paper this morning was an obitituary saying the guy died "aboard the Norwegian Spirit". Lovely. I'm glad we didn't know anything about that until after the fact. Did you know that cruise ships have morgues?? 

Toodles!  

We're Back!!

Sadly, vacation had to come to an end & we're back to the real world. I can't figure out if I'd rather continuing working & be able to go on vacations or quit my job & just stay home all the time. It's a quandry.

Sunday when we boarded the ship we were greeted by crew members with Mardi Gras beads. Once we got inside the atrium there was a jazz band playing.

We headed to the buffet for lunch then to the "Galaxy of Stars" to hang out & wait for the rest of our crew.

 Matt & Suzy were in New Orleans at her parents house for Mardi Gras & were planning to catch one last parade before joining us. There was lots of debate on whether they'd actually make it on the ship. Let's just say punctual isn't a word we'd use to describe Suzy. There was no shortage of alcohol on this ship. This is the bar in the Galaxy of the Stars.

This is what they call a Copa Cabanatini.

I don't remember what was in it but it sounded fantastic. Not so much. It was a $10 glass of gross! I managed to stomach it because no way was I wasting a $10 drink. HA!

I took this from the very top of the ship before we left NOLA.

When we started sailing we passed St Louis Cathedral.

I wish I would've gotten a better picture but I didn't realize we were passing & I didn't have time to get my camera out but I  had my phone in my hand. It's a beautiful church. Once we started sailing we went & had dinner. When you have a party of 12 it's a minimum of 2 hours but so fun!

So as not to overload you, I'll post more tomorrow.

Toodles! 

Bon Voyage Peeps!

This time tomorrow we'll be hanging out here.

I'm very excited!! There won't be any tweeting, Words With Friends, blogging or facebooking for a week though. I finally packed today & as usual I'm pretty sure I've packed too much. Oh well. I went & had a mani & pedi this morning to get ready. I had Shellac done on my nails. I got Italian Love Affair.

This will be the first time I've had Shellac on my real nails. We'll see how long it lasts. On my toes I got Sea? I Told You.

I NEVER get any sort of color like this but I thought it was perfect for vacation. It's glittery & really pretty! I had a really hard time choosing. There were some pretty greens & lavenders that I liked. It's a little more teal than the pic shows. I always go to the same nail salon. All the peeps that work there are really nice & the people that own it go to Church with us. They weren't busy at all today which is unusual but it probably had to do with the fact that we're in the middle of  a monsoon. Seriously. Elvis did my mani while one of the girls did my toes. Yes, his name is Elvis. I'm guessing it's really not but that's what he goes by. Hysterical right?

Last night Dean & I had dinner at La Carreta & then we went to LSU Baseball's opening game, which they won. When we got home Dean saw a possum on the patio. YUCK! Well, a little while ago he left to go to the game & I heard him yelling. The possum was back & apparently scared him to death when he walked out the door. It was pretty big too. I watched it scurry off the patio over by my bedroom window.  The first thing I thought of was that it's preggo & looking for a place to have babies. NOT ON MY PATIO!!! Although, I would rather a possum then snakes, but I don't want a family of them. What really freaks me out is it was right by our back door & could've very easily ran inside. Y'all would've heard me screaming if that would've happened.

Happy Mardi Gras!

The Mardi Gras season kicked off last weekend. My friend Suzy is a native New Orleanian. She grew up in "Uptown" & loves Mardi Gras. Suzy & her husband Matt are going on the cruise with us & it was quite a task to convince her to miss 3 days of parades to join us. Last night was The Krewe of Muses parade. It's an all women krewe & they throw shoes. Not just any old shoes. Gorgeous, glittery decorated shoes. Everyone wants to catch one. Me, my friend Jackie, her daughter Allie & our other neighbor Alexandra met Suzy for the parade last night. Suzy's sister & brother in law own a restaurant on the famous Magazine St. called Vizards. Her brother in law is the executive chef & the parade rolls right in front of the restaurant. If you've never been to Mardi Gras you don't realize just how awesome it is to have a place like this to watch the parades from. Besides having a place to park you also have a clean bathroom to use!! Not to mention food & drinks. I had the house salad which was sooooo good.

Excuse the pics but as you can see the place was dimly lit & I was using my phone. The House salad is Vizards House Salad herbs, mixed greens, sprouts, bleu cheese, pecans, apples & dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. I don't even eat apples & these were delicious. After the salad I decided to get the Crabmeat Nelson appetizer for my meal. I'm still taking medicine & wasn't real hungry.

It was delicious! It was fried eggplant, jumbo lump crab, crimini mushroom, green onion with béarnaise sauce. It was really pretty too but I cut into it before I remembered to take a pic!

I've decided that I'm not really a parade person. I don't have the patience. We had fun but the parades are always stopping. Whether it's because a tractor or something broke down or someone on the float paid the driver to stop at a certain spot so they can throw stuff to their family. There ends up being a lot of standing around. The women in this particular parade were chintzy with their throws too. This is what I caught.

Yeh, that's it. If you're not familiar with Mardi Gras most people get more than this from the first float. We saw several shoes but weren't lucky enough to get one. You must also be aware of your surroundings when you're at a parade. The first bead that Suzy attempted to catch beaned her in the forehead & she was bleeding all over the place! Then there are the bands that are swinging instruments. Some of them get a little carried away with their dancing. I got a little too close to for comfort to a trombone at one point! 

Toodles! 

Weigh In Wednesday

I'm down 2.2 lbs. this week. Yay me! I'm sure the Mucinex is partially to thank. It really curbs my appetite. It also makes me feel a little loopy so I haven't gone to Yoglates this week. By the time 4:00 rolls around I'm just worn out & don't feel like expending that much energy. Speaking of my sickness, I was feeling much better yesterday so I went for a walk with Dean when I got home. We walked at least 3 miles & with Dean being so much taller than me it's definitely more than leisurely stroll to walk with him. We walked about an hour & I burned over 300 calories. I had my heart rate monitor on. That thing is so neat.  I left it on after we got back while I picked up in the house a little & cleaned the kitchen. In 2 hours I'd burned a total of 562 calories. Pretty good I thought.

I was expecting to sleep well last night because I was really tired. Well, I guess the steroids aren't out of my system yet & I went to bed too early because at 1:30 I was wide awake AND my throat was hurting again. Maybe the walk in the cooler air wasn't the best idea. I was wide awake for hours. Not fun. I feel so so today so there will be no exercising of any kind this afternoon.

Toodles!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

We're not big V Day people. We don't want to fight crowds to go out to eat so Dean is grilling steaks tonight & while flowers are nice, I'd rather Dean surprise me with them on a regular day when the prices aren't jacked up. That's just me. I've been wanting a full length mirror but I wanted a pretty one for our bedroom, not something to hang on the back of my closet door. Let's face it, you can't always depend on your hubs to tell you if something looks good or not. I looked around a lot & didn't really find anything I was oh so crazy about. Then I found this.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!! Not a good picture I know but I was trying not to get my reflection in it because I had on my pj's & it was late & I was using my iPhone. I bought it from QVC. It's not just a mirror.

It's a jewelry box! The lining keeps your silver from tarnishing. A few years ago my mom bought me & Lydia little jewelry boxes from QVC lined with the same stuff & it works great. Later she bought herself a larger jewelry box by the same designer & she never has to polish any of her silver jewelry. I was sold when I saw it. There are tons of hooks for necklaces which I really need too. Currently mine are doubled & tripled up on the hooks in my jewelry armoire & they're always getting tangled. Now I just have to move everything into it.

Toodles!

Steroids are the DEVIL!!!

Friday when I got home from work Dean & I went shopping. We needed to pick up some things for the cruise & we needed to buy another modem. When Dean got home from work Wednesday our modem  had died. He went to Radio Shack & bought one & spent several hours trying to get it to work with no luck. Off to Best Buy we went. The little sales guy sounded like he new what he was talking about & assured us this would work. Yeh, not so much. Back to Radio Shack & we have internet again. 3rd time was the  charm! Yay!

We ate at Plucker's. I had the BBQ nachos. OMG, soooo good!! They had grilled chicken, BBQ sauce, rotel & onions. Loved them.  Not diet friendly but when you're at a place that specializes in wings you take what you get. 

Next up was Ulta. Since I've decided to go with my real nails I needed new polish.

I decided to do something I've never done. Buy a base coat & a top coat. Maybe my mani will last longer. We'll see. I had a hard time choosing colors because they have so many. There's a new Holland collection out so I got one from it.

It's called Pedal Faster Suzy. It's got some lavender in it.

This is Aphrodite's Pink Nightie. It's a little more pink & darker than the other one. I've gotten this one several times when I had fake nails. I really like it.

My friend Wendy told me about this great stuff for my lips.

 My lips stay in a chapped state & in the winter it's awful. I've tried a zillion different things. Some stuff works ok, some not so much. So far I really like this. I also love that it's multi functional. Apparently, it's great for your cuticles. I love that. One less product to buy. Sephora is the only place that sells this & it's $6.99. I didn't think that was bad considering how much regular lip stuff cost & this is a bigger container.

Saturday we spent the day at Dean's parents & had lunch. We went to Mass & then did a little more shopping. I'm trying to find a swimsuit for less than $100. Absolutely no luck so I'll be sucking it up &  going back to Dillard's this week.

I've said before about how unimpressed I am with Target. Well, it was awful in there Saturday night. Shelves weren't stocked, it was dirty. I can honestly say it was worse than Walmart & y'all know how I hate Walmart. UGH! Speaking of Walmart, I had to stop in there yesterday to get a few things that Target didn't have & I saw a lady doing her grocery shopping in a full length mink coat! Yes, it was freezing yesterday. I'm not sure it made it to 50 degrees but a mink coat to shop at Walmart? Really?? The highlight of the Target trip was this

It's really good. You can really taste the vanilla & it's a light roast coffee which I've determined is my fave.

I woke up during the very early morning hours Saturday & had a HORRIBLE sore throat. Lovely. I knew what was next, the ear aches & then I wouldn't be able to breathe. Stupid sinuses. I took Mucinex, drank lots of hot coffee & tea & was ok. Not great but I was able to function. By Saturday night the ears had started so when I got up yesterday I went to the after hours clinic. I need to be well. We leave Sunday on our cruise & I've hardly even thought about what I'm bringing much less start to pack. UGH! Of course I have a sinus infection & fluid in my ears. I let them give me a steroid shot. Normally, I don't because they keep me awake for days but I need to be well so I sucked it up. I also am on 10 days of antibiotics & have a $100 nasal spray. You know when they give you a $40 off coupon when they hand you the prescription it's not going to be good. Whatever. The Dr. also said to keep taking Mucinex. Soooo, we know what that means......I didn't go to sleep until midnight. I slept good until 3:15 & after that was cat naps until I got up at 5:30. I feel better than I did yesterday but not great but I'm not falling asleep at my desk either so that's good.

I had plans with my friends to go to lunch yesterday for our friend Jill's birthday. Since I'm not contagious I went to lunch. We went to California Pizza Kitchen. The good thing about Mucines is that it curbs my appetite. I had a cup of broccoli & asparagus soup & a wedge salad. It was good & the hot soup made my throat feel good. It was nice to get to spend some time with my friends.

Since the meds don't let me sleep I was able to watch the entire Grammy telecast. Oh joy. Yes, that's sarcasm. Judging by Twitter I must be the only person over the age of 12 that actually likes Taylor Swift & her music. It's nice to see someone young that writes their own music, sings & plays an instrument & doesn't need auto tune. I think Adele has a beautiful voice but I HATE HATE HATE that Rolling In The Deep song. Then there was the debacle that is Niki Minaj. I mean seriously, what was that???? I'm not one of those people that gets offended by stupid crap that people do because that's on them but having a Priest as part of your performance doesn't sit well with me. Don't mess with religion, any religion.  I hate that Super Bass song she sings too. I'm still not sure what was going on with the black Micky Mouse head either. If I was Disney I'd be on the phone with someone about trademark infringement this morning. Don't think that I'm an old fogey that doesn't get the music of today. I think everyone that knows me will tell you I like a wide variety of music. I love New Kids On The Block, Snoop Dogg (don't judge), Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, The Fray, Bon Jovi, Lady Gaga (the music, not so much the person), etc.

After going back & proofing this post I see I'm all over the place. Just remember it's the steroids.

Toodles!