Seek to Sea More

Three things you need to know about my shopping habits: 1. I know exactly what I want going into it, so I never waste time looking for anything else.  Get in, get out, leave happy! 2. Apparently, I am a really good haggler.  I discovered this when I went to Chinatown in New York many years ago, and the trait never seems to have left. 3. Combine #1 and #2, and that means I may leave with a lot of merchandise, but I never pay the full price. : D      Our second port stop came the very next day as we pulled into Costa Maya, Mexico.  A port created specifically for the cruise industry, it was no surprise that the small peninsula was teaming with tourist opportunities and attractions.  Fast Fact: "It is a 70,000-square-foot entertainment and shopping complex with artisan markets, a private beach club, pools, restaurants, and bars."  I would be lying if I said that we didn't do almost every single one of those things . . .   Exact...

Three things you need to know about me and my mom: 1. We are extremely organized and like to prepare things well ahead of time, so we know exactly what to do, when. 2. We both feel a little "eh" about heights.  (Okie, fine.  I feel a lot "eh" about heights.) 3.  We both like to experience new things because the memories we make far outweigh the fear we face.      On the morning of our third day at sea, the ship docked at our first port in Roatán, Honduras. After having been sea-bound for the past 48 hours, we were perfectly ready to be landlubbers again, and made sure we were one of the first off the ship to explore around Roatán.  It is a small but beautiful city, but makes its business more in excursions than shopping, which we admittedly did a lot of both. My parents and I had planned excursions for all three ports, but the stop in  Roatán was going to put all three things that I mentioned at the beginning of this to th...

Three things you need to know about me and my relationship with the sun: 1. I only work in two shades--white and lobster red. 2.  I obtain said lobster shade even when applying ample amounts of 100 SPF sunscreen. 3.  Even when the lobster red begins to fade, I still turn out an only slightly off-white.      The next two full days were spent at sea (which they refer to as "cruising days") and I had every intention of filling those two days by doing what I thought every sensible person would do on a cruise: lay out and read all day long.  This was excellent in theory, but I forgot to factor in two accounts: 1. When you are laying out on the top deck of a cruise ship, you are considerably closer to the sun.  So rather than a nice "warming over" that I would have expected from, let's say, the beach, I actually felt much more like Icarus who had ignored the warnings of his father and would now have to settle for arms of melted wax and feathers.  ...

Three things you need to know about me and my family: 1. We are all only children. 2.  Due to the typical nature of #1, we are all extremely independent. 3.  Due to the equation setup between #1 and #2, putting us together with 4,000 of our closest friends on a boat, equals a prime opportunity for practicing our calming breaths. That first night on the boat was interesting to say the least.  We had been at sea for maybe an hour or so when a medical emergency required us to turn BACK to Galveston.  Yes.  Turn back.  It wasn't long after that the captain made an announcement about refraining from shaking people's hands due to the high amount of passengers already in the infirmary, and believe you me, I was really starting to wonder if there wasn't something to the whole germ-phobic thing. Luckily, we were still able to set sail shortly after our return to the port, but we were now on high speed to make up for lost time.  This all turned out to be j...

Three things you need to know about me when I travel: 1. I love the adventure of discovering a new place and the culture it exudes. 2. I am a lover of history--if we want to be remembered by what we do, we must first understand what was done by those who came before. 3. One of my biggest fears is to die in the bottomless abyss that is the ocean.....      That being said, I embarked on my latest adventure two Sundays ago (seriously, it's already been that long??) as I set sail--literally--on my first cruise ever.  My grandparents celebrated 60 years of wedded bliss in June and wanted to give it a warm welcome by taking my immediate family with them on a cruise to the Western Caribbean.  Like I stated, I have never been on a cruise, nor have I been to the Western Caribbean, but both sounded like no stress and a tan, so I was in from the get go!  We took the Liberty of the Seas via Royal Caribbean to visit Roatán, Honduras and Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexi...