Ahhh.... relaxation

As many of you already know, Cris & I went on a cruise the first week of October. Tyler & Kyla were on vacation with their dad. Zech stayed with his mom and Emma stayed with my mom.

Cris and I spent the night before in Nashville. We flew to Miami, Florida and that is where our ship left out. We took our cruise with the Carnival cruise lines. It was a very different experience. Cris called it a moving hotel. Our room was nice - nothing fancy. A very firm bed, couch, dresser, closet & one person bathroom. Seriously, only one person could use the bathroom at a time. The ship was HUGE! The elevators were so busy the first day or so that we spent most of our time using the stairs. My legs hurt the next day! Amazing variety of activities - mini golf, basketball, several bars/clubs, casino, very expensive duty free stores, lots of bars, 3 pools & 6 hot tubs. There was a show of sorts every night - singing/dance, hypnotist, talent show. Several times they played movies on the big screen on the deck of the ship. Food all of the time. There were 2 different buffets as well as the main dining room plus room service available at all hours. They even had a 24 hour pizza place where Cris pigged out on goat cheese pizza.

We made port at 3 different locations.

Grand Turk, Bahamas - our ship was the first one to make port after Hurricane Ike a month ago. There was a "cruise center" with a variety of shops, a swimming pool and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. The beach was nice but very rocky. We really didn't spend a great deal of time here. We walked on the beach a little & did some souvenir shopping. We were only in the port for a few hours & we didn't want to wander too far from the ship. After doing our shopping & wandering around, we just went back to the ship. It was deserted so we spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool.

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas - This had to personally be our favorite port. It was Carnival's private island. We had to take a tender boat to the island. There was a small area with some local craft souvenirs & a bar. The beach & water was amazing! The sand was so soft & powdery - the water was the most amazing shade of blue green & you can really truly see to the bottom. It is that clear! There were several excursions that you could participate in & they provided a buffet lunch on the island. There were walking paths around the island. Cris & I chose to go horseback riding. We first rode the horses on a small trail to the "highest point on the island" which really wasn't that "high" but still provided a great view of the beach & ocean. After that trail, we got off the horses while the guides put water pads on them. Then we got to ride the horses into the surf. That was so cool!!! It was amazing and we really enjoyed it. This was one of our favorite parts of the cruise.

Nassau, Bahamas - I'm not really sure what we were expecting of this town. It was different. We got off the ship and found a taxi to take us on a tour. Our taxi driver was a maniac named Travis. We got the hour tour & hit the highlights. Sadly, it seemed like we spend quite a bit of time in the poorer part of the town. We saw the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle. We got a brief tour of the most impressive hotel, Atlantis. There was a huge aquarium in the lobby. I mean - it took up at least half of the lobby. We never were able to find the beach. We walked around exploring & looking for the beach. We spent some time in a flea market and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was very neat and very different .

And that is it for our cruise. It was a wonderufl time! Cris and I were able to relax, have fun, and have some quality time with each other. I'll try to post more pictures soon.