So we are back from vacation (actually got back Saturday). We sailed on the
Carribbean Princess in the
Western Carribbean. It was only the ship's second voyage. Unfortunately, due to tidal conditions, we had to bypass one of the scheduled ports of call - Grand Cayman. That was disappointing but overall we still had a blast! Probably the most fun was swimming with the dolphins at
Dolphin Discovery in Cozumel. We not only got to swim with the dolphins, but we got to get "towed" by the dolphins. You floated in the water with both hands stretched out to your sides, then two dolphins came up from behind. As they swam up to you you grabbed ahold of their dorsal fins and then they pulled you through the water. Even better than that was the "foot push", where you float in the water with your legs back and your hands forward, then they swim up and actually push you by your feet. The best way to describe it is kind of like flying like superman over the water. It was really incredible. Unfortunately we didn't plan very well and didn't manage to get very many pictures of our dolphin swim. We were told that we couldn't bring a camera, and we brought some cash but not nearly enough as the pictures they sold were
expensive. So we ended up just picking the two pictures that we thought turned out the best, which turned out to be the "dolphin kiss" pictures (the dolphin kisses you on the cheek).
There was lots of good entertainment on the ship itself, too. We got to attend a Q&A session with Richard Hatch from Survivor. We saw
Fernandez the Hypnotist, which was probably my favorite. It was just hilarious watching the volunteers make fools of themselves, especially the guy who became the "Laugh Policeman" and yelled at anybody who laughed, but did it in Chinese -- or at least in the best fake Chinese he could come up with. I guess maybe you had to be there! We enjoyed all the comedians including
Sarge (scroll down to the bottom) who was very funny,
James Michael who is a "comedy magician",
Rodney Johnson,
Scott Wyler, Steven Scott and
Chriss Bliss. My wife really enjoyed the impressionist
Finis Henderson. I thought he was OK. Actually he was quite talented but musical impressionists just aren't my thing I guess. We both thought the
Raspyni Brothers were really good. They were comedians/jugglers and they were fun to watch. Finally, we really enjoyed listening to
Bert Stratton on the piano. It wasn't just him playing piano -- he sang and got the crowd to sing along and the guy was a total lunatic. It was great. We also enjoyed watching "Something's Gotta Give" and "Master and Commander" on the outdoor movie screen which Princess calls
Movies Under the Stars. I didn't think to take a picture of what it looked like so the link takes you to somebody else's photo album I found on the web.
We've been on a couple of other cruises (it's been about 4 years since our last one) and we both agreed that the entertainment on this one was by far the best of any of the ones we've been on.
Sadly, all good things must come to an end, so we sailed back in to Ft. Lauderdale Saturday and then drove back home. It was a very relaxing, much-needed getaway for the both of us and we are just thankful that we got the opportunity to go. Part of me is glad to be back home, but I'm already wanting to book next year's cruise. The spirit is willing, but the pocketbook is weak! Dang IRS.
Oh, and if you're interested, here's our
photo album from the cruise. Right now the pictures aren't really in any particularly order and there are quite a few duplicates. Yeah, I really tried to get a bunch of good sunrise/sunset shots. I may try to go and clean them up later but since several folks have been asking to see some pictures I wanted to get 'em posted as soon as I could.
I managed to get caught up on some of my reading on the balcony. I was a little bit out of order in my reading; having seen the movie versions of both Runaway Jury and Secret Window previously, on this cruise I finished reading the books they were based on. In both cases of course, the book was better than the movie. In Runaway Jury, the whole premise of the book was completely different from the movie and I found it a lot more palatable. Secret Window's movie version was really pretty true to the book, it seemed to me, except for the ending which was very, very different. The ending in the book was much better than the movie, I thought.
That's all for now ...
Live with your traffic and weather together, it's your action news reporter/photographer with breaking news! Traffic on I-85 southbound just north of the Mall of Georgia is currently slowing due to an accident in the median. Well, OK. The report isn't live. This was a couple of hours ago and I'm sure it's all gone now. As far as I could tell nobody was seriously injured. I finally remembered for once that my phone had a camera and I couldn't resist taking a quick picture out the window. Somebody had a bad day! Couldn't figure out how it happened because it appeared that it was just the single vehicle pulling the trailer that was involved.
We should all be grateful for the brave men and women who are serving their country, wherever they may be. Every life is precious, and I'm saddened whenever I hear about casualties. But in the news today is something that really got to me.
