Our Cruise- Celebrating Four Great Years! **Updated**

In February, I tried to surprise Derek with a cruise for our four year anniversary. Unfortunately my husband checks our bank account quite often. (I think he was more relieved that someone had not stolen our credit card than he was excited about the cruise.) We went with our friends Tammi and Earl. Tammi and I worked together last semester. She is replacing me at Clear Lake next year. We had such a great time! We cruised on the Carnival Ecstacy for five days. Our cruise began on Saturday. We stood on the top deck and waved goodbye to Galveston with its yucky brown water.





On Saturday night we ate in the dining room. The service was excellent, but the food wasn't so great. Derek and Tammi both had steaks that were full of gristle. Needless to say, it was the only day we ate in the dining room.


On Sunday we had our first "Fun Day at Sea!" We layed out on the top deck and tanned. It was so nice that we fell asleep. Thankfully we used lots of sunscreen! We didn't get burned at all:)


Our first stop on the cruise was in Progreso, Mexico. It's located on the Yuacatan Penninsula, which is the site of many Mayan ruins. We decided to visit Dzibilchaltun, one of the major cities in the Mayan empire. The Mayans didn't live near the ocean, so they used sinkholes for fresh water. The sinkholes are called cenotes. You can swim in them today, but the water is very cold!

The Spanish explorers tried to convert the Mayans to Christianity. They tore down the Maya temples and built missions or churches. Here is the Spanish church.


The Mayans carefully designed their city. One neat feature they created was a sound system. The acoustics are excellent in the area near the church because this was the area that the Mayan leaders resided. If they spoke in the correct direction, they didn't have to raise their voices for the sound to carry across a huge field and into the buildings surrounding it. The Spaniards used this to their advantage and created a covering for the church, so that everyone could hear the service. Here is the entrance to the church.

The reddish rocks were placed in this pattern by actually chisling out each individual space for the rocks and then each rock was placed into the appropriate space. The column that you see above is the right column. Note the section of rock missing in the middle. The left column has a missing section that matches. They are at the same level, so we think it must have created a gate of some sort.

The ruins are being restored for their protection. As they are restored, the builders place a row of small rocks on top of the original ruins and then recreate the buildings as they once stood. It may be difficult to see, but if you look closely towards the top of each step you can see a row of small rocks.

The girls

The boys

A view from the top! You can see the Spanish church in the distance. This is the large field that their voices carried across.

This is the Temple of the Seven Dolls. It was named for the seven dolls found at the site when it was discovered. Archeologists aren't sure of the meaning of the dolls. The Mayan priests created this temple to help the farmers with their crops. During the fall and spring equinoxes, the sun shines through the doors of the temple. When the people saw this, they knew it signaled a change in their growing season, either to plant or harvest their crops. The Summer and Winter solstices were noted by the sun shining through the small windows of the temple.

Since the climate was extremely hot and dry, the Mayans did most of their traveling in the evening. They used crushed white rocks on their roads that would relfect the light of the moon, which allowed them to find their way from city to city. We really enjoyed seeing the ruins and learning about the Mayan culture!

After visiting the ruins, we went to a beach. The water was nice, but nothing compared to Cozumel. We had a great lunch...true Mexican fajitas! Derek took this amazing picture right before we left. Tammi and I on the beach.

We headed back to the ship after finding our Progreso magnet and postcards. Derek and I collect a magnet from every city we visit. We're up to 7 so far!:)

The second stop on our cruise was Cozumel, Mexico. We went snorkeling in the most beautiful water I've ever seen! I couldn't stop taking pictures of it:)

We rode a catamaran to a nice beach with tons to do! They had an inflatible rock climb, trampoline, and water slide. We opted out of the rock climb because it was covered with people! We enjoyed the trampoline for awhile and then decided to try the water slide. There was quite a line. I'm not sure if it was due to the slide's popularity or the length of time it took to get to the top. Kids didn't have too much trouble, if they were tall enough to reach the handles. It was the adults who really struggled. For some reason it seemed like the only people who wanted to climb up were those with little upper body strength!! Since Tammi and I are pretty much kid size, we did fine. Earl climbed up after us. The three of us slide down together and wondered what happened to Derek. Well he got stuck helping three ladies who had no business attempting the slide. One of them fell on him like the cheerleader in Dodgeball. (If you haven't seen the movie, you should because it's hilarious!) Needless to say, he had no strength to climb the slide after that. Here are the slide and trampoline. The slide is taller than it looks!!

We had time to eat lunch and shop in Cozumel. We ate at Pancho's Backyard. I didn't realize it at the time, but I ate there with my family when we visited Mexico several years ago. While we waited for our food, we enjoyed some Mexican music.

Tammi and I enjoyed Mexican margaritas! Mine was gone so fast we didn't get a picture. Tammi had the lethal margarita that couldn't be finished. There had to be 5 or 6 shots in it! Here's the lethal margarita.

While we were eating, it poured down rain! Thankfully it stopped while we shopped and boarded the ship.

Our food was really good! Derek had fajitas with the smallest tortillas we've ever seen!

Derek and I found our Cozumel magnet and postcards. We also got Ron Jon shirts. The only downside of Cozumel was that we got really sunburned being in the water all day. We kept putting on sunscreen, but it was no match for the Mexican sun! Here are a few pictures of the port of Cozumel we took as we were leaving.

We saw a cool submarine as we were waiting in line to board the ship. Check out the size of the ropes that keep the ship docked!!!

During our Fun Days at Sea and in the evenings we played lots of Bingo and participated in several karaoke sessions. Tammi became "famous" on our ship because she has a fabulous voice!




Derek showed up a few people with his rapping abilities.




The girls enjoyed singing "Goodbye Earl" to Earl:)

Here are the parade of animals that greeted us each day of our cruise. If you can guess all of the animals correctly, you get a prize!! (Extra bonus points for Saturday and Tuesday!)

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

We picked Cooper up after he got a bath. They always put really cute bandanas on him. This time he got a red one. What a cutie!!

We were all very tired after our busy week.

Happy Anniversary, baby! Eleven years ago the most important relationship in my life began with a man I do not deserve. You are the most loyal and caring man I know. You have taught me how to truly love someone. I have been blessed to spend each day with you, my best friend. I am honored that God chose me to be your wife! I look forward to spending the rest of my life with you. I love you very much!