Castaway Cay. Now, this, this is a beautiful, beautiful island. This was actually my favorite day from the entire trip. It was relaxing, no gruelling scheduling, lots of food, and best of all....NO kids!! We had both been on a Disney cruise before and knew we'd use the adults only beach as soon as the ship docked. Once we got off the ship we went to get our yummy BBQ lunch on the island and choose a seat in a covered seating section. Boy, there was a lot of food!! Our only agenda for the day was to get the the [View Full Entry]

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Wonderful day at sea. This was the most relaxing day of the trip. We slept in, had breakfast, I sat out on a lawn chair reading. It was so windy out though and my cutsie cowboy hat that I bought for $1 kept blowing away! poop. We used the hot tub and pool for a bit. of course, thoughts of "this is life" entertained my mind. And I ate. Ate ate ate. Food is available on the ship every second of the day, pretty much. Pizza, hot dogs, and hamburgers for lunch. I had my fair share of a billion cups [View Full Entry]

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This was the longest day of the trip. Sadly, I hate saying this, but if I could do it over again, I would not have opted to go to the Tulum Ruins for our excersion. Dont get me wrong, I throughly enjoyed it. But we were gone literally ALL DAY. Nearly a 2 hour bus ride to and back, it was very hot that day, and sadly, I was in a very very grumpy mood with Jay. I regret my actions towards him. Most my friends dont know the "moody angry Erin" but lord knows, Jay does and it aint pretty. [View Full Entry]

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This was one of my favorite days on the trip. I had never been to Grand Cayman and found it to be a wonderful island. I woke up and immediatly said to Jay "I feel like eating today" and eating I did. I was so glad my sickness was done. And I didnt have to miss out on any excursions!! So this was my first experience with "tendering" meaning the ship cannot fit up to port, they basically "park" the boat still in the ocean and we have to board a smaller boat to get to shore. It was ok, but [View Full Entry]

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We set sail for a wonderful 7 day cruise on Sat. March 7. I wore the cutest outfit, skirt w/ pink shirt and pink jacket and a big white hat!! It was a wonderful day for sailing. Upon take off, we missed the "sailing away" party, which featured lots of kids, characters and....well...lots of people. We opted to go to the back of the ship and watch Port Canaveral disapear from view. And we saw wild dolphies!! Or....dolphines. They were swimming along side the ship, wishing us a bon voyage. Dusk faded into night time and we had the opportunity to [View Full Entry]

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And then, there it was. The Pantheon. No, not the "Parthenon" like in Athens, but the amazing, simply beautiful, Pantheon. It's famous for its dome and is home to the tomb of the painter Raphael. For going to Europe in the supposed "off season" it was crowded with tourists and locals alike. I took a few pictures of the dome opening. Joel even told us, "I find this even more amazing than the Colosseum" it's just unbelieveable its stood the test of time after all these years. And this, is when I had to use the bathroom. Bad. "I gotta go [View Full Entry]

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To say that seeing the colosseum was amazing would be an understatement. Seeing the Colosseum in person makes you gasp outloud, smile, cry, twitch.... it leaves you breathless and wanting more. Your breath catches in your throat, the first time you see it.You could see a thousand pictures over the course of your lifetime, watch a million documentaries, but to see it in person? To see its exquisite imperfections? Thats quite remarkable. We've seen many "famous" monuments over the course of this trip. From the Tower Bridge, to Big Ben Clocktower, to the London eye, to the Eiffel T [View Full Entry]

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So I have to split today up into several different parts, Too many pics and text to put all into one blog, so just bear with me!! Rome - Saturday March 8 - Part II Continued from previous blog…. So after the scarf lady incident, we were basically on our own for the rest of the day. We weren’t meeting up with the group again until about 6pm. As Joel had us all bunched into a group just before dismissing us, he said, “don’t be scared of Rome, go out and experience the city.” Some of the group members went on [View Full Entry]

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Rome - Day 8 - Vatican -- March 8 ---PART I To say that the Vatican is amazing would be an understatement. It was the single best, most incredible thing I have ever seen, or probably will ever see. It had been a dream of mine over the course of the last two years to see the Vatican. Literally a dream. There was nothing I wanted more than to see the museums, the paintings, the sculptures, and to learn the history of the amazing, centuries old Vatican. We had to be up extremely early to be on the bus on our [View Full Entry]

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Day 7 ---March 7---Friday---Rome Buena Sera! We are in Rome, the city I have wanted to see since I was a teenager. It was an interesting day to say the least. We were up pretty early again, 7:30 and checked out of our hotel in Paris and headed to Charles de Gaulle airport. The weather was cold and drizzly, and miserable. I had hopes that Rome would be nicer, sunnier and warmer. We got to the airport rather early and had plenty of time to hang around. Myself, and some members of our group, sat near our gate gabbing away about [View Full Entry]

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