Belize

I knew when we went to Belize that our ship wasn't going to be able to dock at the port because the water was too shallow. We were going to have to take a tender from the ship to where we were going on our excursion. I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking the tender was but when I got out on the very small platform & had to get in a small boat that was bouncing all over the place because of the waves I was a bit nervous! This isn't a good picture but with all the boat movement it was the best I could do. I didn't want my camera to go overboard. This is the tender tied up next to the ship. It was a really bumpy ride, kinda like a roller coaster at Disney!


You can kinda see how small the tender is compared to the ship.

What was even more disturbing than the little boat was the boat driver & his guy that jumps off the boat onto the dock to tie up.


Click on the picture to make it bigger so you get the full effect. When I saw the driver I immediately thought "Colombian Drug Lord" & the other guy, well, there's just not a whole lot to say.

We chose to do what they call a "Beach Break" for our excursion. Basically, they bring you to a beach & you hang out. It was heavenly! We went to Bannister Island.

This was the restaurant/bar


The island was really pretty. There were little tables like this all over the place.


I thought this palm tree was really cool looking!


In case you're wondering, that's a rum punch in my hand. They had those waiting for us when we got to the island.

The water was freezing so this is as far as I went.


We walked out on the pier & took this picture of the beach.


I couldn't get enough of this water! The color is just unbelievable!


I'm not sure why but there was a monkey in a cage on the island too. He was snacking on a banana. If you talked to him he'd look at the camera. It's a good thing there was a couple there talking to him because I wasn't about to.


Remember how excited I was about my hat? You know the perfect beach/pool hat? Well, this was the only time I put it on that day.


Notice I'm holding it? Yeh, that's because the wind was blowing 45 mph. I'm NOT exaggerating! I guess I'll just have to save it for those days when I'm laying by my pool. When it was time to go we had to get back in the tender & go back to the ship. It was a much calmer ride. Something about us going with the waves. We changed clothes & then had to get on yet another boat to take us to the port so we could shop. This boat was bigger & was closed in. There were no suspicious characters on it either. The one thing that caught my attention while shopping was the pharmacy. We went in to see if we could buy some Aloe Vera. I figured after all the laying out I was doing I'd be needing it. There was a sign with all sorts of prescription medicines listed. Amoxil, Lexapro, you name it, they had it! I thought about picking up some Amoxil but thought better of it. I had always envisioned the drug selling to be really shady with mexicans selling it out of their trunks.

We found a cute restaurant that had an upstairs deck so we stopped & had drinks. Dean had something called a Zombie & Cliff & Sheri both had Miami Vice's. Come to find out I've been drinking Miami Vice's for years & didn't know it! In the Carribbean that's what they call a pina colada & strawberry daiquiri mixed together!


I had a Pina Colada & it was delicious!!


Thursday was Cliff's birthday & we had reservations at the steak house on the boat. Since it was a little fancier we decided to dress up. This would be when you can see the "color" I got from laying out in Belize. I'm literally a "red neck"!


I'm also red chest, red arm, red leg & red spots on my feet. Apparently, aerosol sunscreen doesn't cover well in 45 mph winds. In this picture you can see just how white I really am normally so you can see just how burned I was/am!


Isn't that lovely? Moving along, this was after dinner. In the main dining room there was a chocolate buffet set up. I've never seen so much chocolate in one place!


There was white chocolate, dark chocolate & milk chocolate.




The ice sculptures were amazing too. Especially this one!


I can't imagine how long it took to make that!

When we got back to our room the towel animal guy had done another good job.

I thought the little piggy was appropriate after all that chocolate!!

Stay tuned for Cozumel!

Monkey Jemima?

Friday night was my last birthday dinner of the year. The girls & I went to Monjuni's. It was soooo good. Thanks Vicki! We had such a good time. Here we are.

Wendy, Me, Vicki, Allison & Jill. The waiter didn't know how to use Vicki's camera which is why we were laughing. I'm guessing he wasn't born when you actually had to look through a viewfinder.

Saturday the game was closer than I thought but the outcome was the same. I did get to see Lil Nicky throw a couple of fits but that's about all there is to say about that.

Sunday was Cody's birthday party. All the kids seemed to have a good time. It was good to see everyone although the kids were completely oblivious that we were there. Note to self - next time we're invited to a party at a jumpy place don't get there until time to open presents & eat. We stopped by the St. Aloysius Fair on the way home to check out the raffle. We were hoping to leave with $10,000 but it didn't happen. Oh well, there's always next year.

Then came Monday, WOW! I left my house about 6:45 in the morning to meet Allison at Cracker Barrel. We were spending the day at Market in New Orleans. We learned a lot of lessons the last time we were there. The first being to either eat well before you go or bring sandwiches. The food they sell at the convention center isn't that great & it's ridiculously expensive. Since I only eat sandwiches immediately after they've been made that meant we had to eat before we got there. We had a lovely breakfast & then off we went. The second lesson we learned was to take a picture of the level we were on in the parking garage so that we don't have to ride up & down the elevator looking for Allison's truck. That brings me to lesson #3 - go in my truck not Allison's. She has a nice size SUV or so we thought until we tried to get the "big ass picture" (which will now be known as the bap) in it. So, we've had a good breakfast, know we're on lower level 5 & have my Expedition. We're ready to shop! We got some great deals & some Christmas gifts but as in the past there were people and/or things we forgot to buy. The thing about Market is a lot of the booths have the same stuff but some at better prices than others. We're always leary to buy at the first place we see for fear we'll find it cheaper. We were beginning to get a little discouraged. We'd been shopping for like an hour & we hadn't bought ANYTHING! We did however make up for it in hour #2. That would be when we came across the pewter booth. I LOVE pewter serving pieces! I don't know why but I do. I was able to find a platter that matched the bowl I bought last year. Thank goodness you can bring all of your stuff out to the lobby & check it with the little mexican ladies for $3/bag. I don't know what we would do without that. Then we came across the bap booth!!! I love it. They have such pretty pictures & frames. I found one for our bedroom. We actually found a few that we liked but we eliminated one because the birds' eyes were evil & being that it was going in my bedroom I was afraid they'd oog me out & make me think they were following me. iPhones are wonderful inventions. I was able to take pictures of the other 2 pictures & email them to Dean so he could make the final decision. He picked the one I knew he would which just so happened to be my favorite of the two. While looking through the pictures we came across this one.

Doesn't it look like a monkey dressed like Aunt Jemima?? People probably thought we were crazy but me & Allison thought it was hilarious!

This is the one I got.


Aside from shopping, Allison was able to see first hand how weird things happen to me that I have nothing to do with & most of the time it has something to do with people of a Nese descent. It ranged from dirty looks to people thinking I worked there. People asked me questions & when I answered them they gave me dirty looks. It was crazytown as Allison would say.

Speaking of crazytown. We're shopping & we keep hearing this zapping sound. We couldn't figure out if one of the booths that we hadn't made it to were selling bug zappers or if there were actual bugs being zapped in the flourescent lights. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that it was neither. What was it you ask??? A STUN GUN! Seriously, they were selling them. It's a shame I didn't see that right when we came in. I would've loved to use it on that Nese lady.

So then it was time to pick up the bap, much to Allison's chagrin. We had a plan this time though. We were already starting off better than last time because the booth was close to the front of the convention center rather than all the way in the back. While I was waiting for the guy to get the bap another lady was picking hers up. I couldn't believe my eyes - she was buying a smaller version of Jemima Monkey!!! She looked like a perfectly normal lady. Weird. I left Allison outside with all of the goods & I went to get the truck. We could've bought a lot more stuff with all the room we had left. Oh well, maybe next time.