Roatan Honduras

Today we landed in beautiful Roatan, Honduras.

This was our first visit to Honduras.

First things first, I found some caffeine.  Real caffeine.  Not cruise ship coffee caffeine. 

Then David and I walked around the port shops.  How darling are these handmade crayons?

Soon, it was time to meet our excursion guides.

We loaded onto a bus and traveled to Half Moon Bay for kayaking, lunch, and snorkeling.

Here's David all ready to find us a boat!

And here I am - ready to go!

Then we picked a kayak and headed out to sea!

Along the way, our guide spotted a living urchin and passed it from kayak to kayak for closer looks.

It was pretty prickly and it felt so weird as it moved around.  Really cool.

After about an hour of kayaking we stopped a secluded beach and went for a nature hike.

There our guide told us all about the local flora and fauna.  This is a banana tree with bananas.  He also showed us their "marshmallow tree" where the fruit actually tastes like a marshmallow.  The same texture and flavor.  David and I know because we ate some.  Quite unusual but very interesting.

Then we headed back to the dive shop / restaurant for lunch.

There we had the best homemade salsa I've ever eaten in my entire life.

And delicious sweet fruit.

And I stuffed myself with as many of these quesadillas as I could hold.  They were beyond amazing!

After lunch we headed back to the beach to snorkel.

We swam all the way to the drop off.  The drop off was over 2,000 feet deep and way out past the land poking out on the right side of this picture.  We saw some of the most beautiful corals in red, green, yellow, and even blue.  It was simply stunning.  By the time we finished snorkeling I was completely tuckered out.

But we walked around and saw this cute parrot while waiting for our ride back to port.

While Honduras is an unbelievably poor country, the people were so sweet and welcoming.

And the stark beauty is unsurpassed.  It's a place I'd love to come back again for another visit.

Costa Maya Mexico

Our first stop on our cruise was beautiful Costa Maya, Mexico.

We decided to explore on our own.

By golf cart!

Fist we came upon a sign welcoming us.

Then we found a lovely beach resort.

And we both got amazing massages on the beach for only $20 each!

Then we walked around some and admired all the coral on the sides of the streets.

And then we enjoyed the beach some more before heading back out.

We found a talented local fingerpainting oceanic scenes.

We toured a small tequila museum.

And really enjoyed our day in Costa Maya.

Norwegian Spirit

This marks my and David's 8th cruise together.  In the past we've traveled aboard Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Carnival.

But this was our first Norwegian cruise.

 Specifically, the Norwegian Spirit.

 After waving goodbye to New Orleans, we explored our home for the next 7 days.

 Our room.

 The Atrium.

 Library.  With souvenir decks of cards. 

 Adult pool.

 Bar area outside the pool.  Love the pole tents keeping us shaded!

Kiddie pool.  And can I just say this is the coolest kiddie pool ever?  A pirate hangout complete with watercannons and dueling slides.  Mind you, David and I may be in our 30s but we're just kids at heart. 

And here we are enjoying our first sunset of the cruise. 

A surprise for our 5 year anniversary

David surprised me with a 7 night cruise out of New Orleans for our 5 year anniversary.  And it really was a surprise.  In fact, he talked to my mom on the sly and arranged for her to watch the kids and everything.  I found out about it just a couple of days before we left for our big trip.

Our trip began in New Orleans.  Coincidentally, we left on our very first cruise together almost 10 years ago out of New Orleans.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn in the French Quarter.  With one night of hotel accomadations, Holiday Inn allowed us to park our car in their covered garage for the duration of our cruise at no additional charge.  What an awesome feature!  It would have been $18 a day at the cruise port.

 First things first, we checked out our room.  And we were quite pleased with it.  Big comfy bed.

And a great view.

Then we headed out into the French Quarter for some dinner. 

 And what a delicious meal we had!  We were served these divine redskin potatoes instead of bread.  

 After dinner, we went exploring.

 And we were charmed by the street entertainers.

 We stopped in for a bit at Howl at the Moon. 

Which brought back nostalgic memories of our bachelor/bachelorette party.  We love to sing along with the dueling pianos. 

 After that, we mosied on down to Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee.  Decaf, of course.

 Although I think they just serve everyone regular coffee.  Because we were hyped afterwards.

Although, I suppose it could have been a sugar rush.

Regardless, we really enjoyed our evening in New Orleans.  But as lovely as our time in the city was, I most enjoyed my time with my sweetheart David. 

What a view

Irene

Hurricane Irene came through our areaearlier.

So we went to the pier to see the aftereffects, if any.

We were surprised to see so much grass piled at the end.  The water level must have been higher than we anticipated.  Nothing was damaged, though.

It stayed windy and pretty cool.

So much so that we were in danger of being blown away!  We didn't stay long but it certainly was nice visiting the pier.