Post-vacation blues

Sigh...

I have a major case of post-vacation blues. As in, depressed. Soooo sad. I keep looking at the pictures and reading about future cruises on the Royal Caribbean website in an effort to cheer myself up and get out of my post-vacation funk.

The funny thing is I always get like this after vacations, but this time it seems worse because of the fact that yesterday it poured rain all day long - a noisy, fierce spring thunderstorm that normally I would have loved - except not on the day we get back from the Caribbean. And then today the rain continued, and it's the kind that I have grown heartily sick of - drizzly, damp, gray, chilly and overcast. The ironic thing is the week before we left for vacation it rained every day and I could not wait to escape the city...and then what do I come back to? Yes, more rain.

So to cheer up, I will post more pictures. And I'll think of these as I trudge along in my rain boots and coat and long-sleeved sweater this week.

Cruising on the Caribbean

I am back after seven wonderful days of sunshine, warm blue waters, yummy food, awesome sights...oh, and drunken evenings.

My incredibly generous in-laws took the whole family on a cruise as their Hanukkah gift to us all. Our route took us to:

1) Tampa, Florida (embarkation port)
2) Cozumel, Mexico
3) George Town, Grand Cayman
4) Oranjestad, Aruba
5) San Juan, Puerto Rico (disembarkation port)

This was my and Mr Hazel's first time cruising and it was a very interesting experience.

Here are a few pictures to start with - our ship, the Grandeur of the Seas. My first up close glimpse of it was awe-inspiring.


This is the atrium in the center of the ship.


The front of the Grandeur as we docked in Cozumel.



Here is the Grandeur anchored off the coast of Grand Cayman along with a Carnival ship.


In Cozumel, we went to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum, which is a pre-Colombian walled city. This is the main temple.


We also walked through the town of Playa Del Carmen, which was charming and reminded me a little of Laoag, Philippines. We sampled some quesadillas, and I bought a corn on the cob rubbed with lime and sprinkled with queso and chili powder from a street vendor.


In Grand Cayman, we visited a turtle farm and the town of Hell, swam with stingrays (or in my case, ran away from them), and sampled rum cake. Mr Hazel fell in love with the rum cake and bought a box to take home with us. They tendered us to shore - here is a picture of the tenders coming towards our ship.


The town of Hell.


The devil hanging out on some hell rock.


Visiting the stingrays!


This is Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman.


In Aruba, we boarded a submarine that took us 130 feet to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea.


We saw a shipwreck, which sank 9 years ago.


And then we saw divers!


One of them came right up to our porthole to say hello.


And finally, here we are docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico on our last morning.



Since I've been away all week and don't have anything in the way of new jewelry to list at my shop, I'll be posting some more pictures throughout the week.

This makes me sad. I wish we were still back there!