I Wonder as I Wander…

Our cruise ended on Saturday morning—we had figured that we would get to the car rental place by noon, but since it was so easy to walk off the ship, jump in a cab and we asked him to take us to the Avis car rental rather than the airport, so we were picking up our car around 9 am. The cabbie told us that tourism was way down because of the economy. He said he was driving 7 days a week for 10-12 hours each day just to earn enough money to pay his bills and feed his family.

We hopped in our car and headed south. Since we had plenty of time, we decided to stop at Everglades National Park. We heard about how the everglades and the lake has decreased in size by half since the 50’s, and with the urban sprawl going on—they are afraid it will continue to shrink. This creates lots of problems with the vegetation and animals—some of which are only native to that area.

It was nice that we were there in December, many places talked about the hoards of mosquitoes that are around in the summer. I love visiting National Parks—there is so much interesting information about what makes the area special. We stopped and hiked along a board walk and could look over the everglades. When we were leaving, we noticed something along the road. Bob said “I think it’s an alligator”. Sure enough here was an alligator right next to the road—it started to turn around to go back into the ditch and we noticed a baby right next to it—really little and cute. One of the park rangers told us that alligators are very maternal—they actually keep their young with them for a year. Sometimes like loons, they will have them ride on their backs. We took a couple photos, but all you could see was the alligator butt and a very little nose and eyes peeking out of the grass.

When we got on the Keys Highway—we were surprised because we thought it was an interstate all the way, but it was a two lane road that went though lots of little towns—so it was slow going, especially since traffic was bumper to bumper! This is a wonderful road, with lots of bridges across the water that connect the little islands. Many years ago, a developer built a railroad track all the way to the Keys—now it’s in pretty bad disrepair—many sections are missing, but some different agencies are fixing up some sections for walking, biking and fishing. It sounds like there is a movement to complete the whole thing for a walking and biking path—that would be wonderful, because it’s about a 90 mile stretch and many of the Keys have a relaxed life style that bicycles fit very well into. Several places had a lot of people fishing from the bridge.

We arrive in Key West and checked into our hotel—there was a car port under the hotel that also had scooters and bicycles available for rent. As we checked in, the desk clerk gave us a map of the area and showed us where Mallory Square was where there is a nightly sunset celebration and arts festival and everyone goes there to watch the sun set. Since it was getting to be about that time, we headed down there. It was only a couple miles from our hotel, but took us a while to get there, since we ended up going around a few blocks. Since this is an island—you can head for the water in all directions. We just kept looking for the setting sun.

All kinds of things were happening in this area—craft booths, food stands, and lots of street performers. But the highlight was the setting sun. It cast a huge blaze across the water and lots of boats were floating around it. This was one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve seen in a long time. Hundreds of people were sitting and standing along the edge of the pier. There was a pelican that was getting lots of treats and getting his picture taken. We bought some conch fritters—much like cheese curds, but with conch—again kind of chewy—not a whole lot of taste.

That night we went to a Cuban open air restaurant. It was hard to believe that it was December 20 and we were eating outside—although we did break down and put on a jacket and Bob bought a Sweatshirt. The food was really good—we split a jerked pork entrée. As the waiter said it was spicy flavorful, not spicy hot. They also had really good bread there.

We only had one full day in Key West, so we wanted to make the most of it. We checked out a lot of the fliers for things to do and there were so many options, it was hard to decide. We ended up doing a whole day tour to Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson National Park. It’s about 70 miles southwest from Key West and used to be a fort. We left at 7:30 am and had breakfast on the tour boat. Since this is a National Park, there was a naturalist on board who talked about the Dry Tortugas and fort. It was really interesting.

After we arrived at the Fort, the naturalist gave us a tour of the fort and explained some of the amazing things about it. A moat completely surrounds the fort—some of it goes out into the water. The moat was build to keep attackers out, since they would have to swim the moat and the guns they had were black power, which would get wet and not be of any use. The moat has really helped protect the fort from hurricanes and water surges. Some parts of the moat were all in the water. In fact, one of the engineering problems of the fort is that part of it was built over water. This made it shift at different rates when it settled--so it developed some cracks.

The fort is huge—when we walked inside, we were amaze a how large it was. She said Yankee Stadium could fit inside of it. Inside the fort was a place where the soldiers could heat up cannon balls until they were red-hot, run them across the fort and shoot them at the wooden ships. Needless to say, a hit in the right place could either set the black powder off or catch the wooden ship on fire.

The fort was build of two walls of bricks that are about 20 feet apart—and there are arches everywhere which makes it very strong. They filled between the walls with sand and coral and then put in a water system where the rainwater would filter through the sand into a collection system and be stored in huge tanks under the floor of the fort. This was very important, because there is no water available. The soldiers would write home about drinking their ‘squiggles’ which was the mosquito larvae, but that probably saved some of their lives because it was protein. But the tanks where the water was collected became a problem as well, because some of them rusted out and caused a huge empty space. The park service is restoring much of the fort, so they have filled in all the tanks. They now have a desalination process for their drinking water.

The soldiers had a hard life because it was hot, isolated, not much water, sometimes food was scarce, and they wore wool uniforms. They also dumped their sewage into the moat on one side, so it smelled pretty bad and disease was rampant.

Fort Jefferson served for a time as a remote prison facility. One of its most famous inmates was none other than Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth following the assassination of President Lincoln. Mudd was incarcerated on the Dry Tortugas for only four years, from 1865 to 1869. According to the guide, Dr. Mudd didn’t realize it was John Wilkes Booth when he treated him and after he was at Dry Tortugas, he began treating the soldiers who were suffering from yellow fever. He was pardoned after four years of his prison term.

We had lunch on the boat—everyone who visits Dry Tortugas has to bring all their own food and water, because there is nothing available on the island. The Park Service does have a small campground for tenting that had quite a few people camping. The campers will ride to and from Key West on the tour boat. Also, sometimes on the boat will be Cubans who have left Cuba for the US. A small boat that was pretty rickety with a very small old looking motor was on display and they said it had 20 people aboard including children. The government policy is if the refugees have dry feet on US soil they will be granted asylum, if the coast guard catches them while they are still in the water (wet feet) they will be sent back. Since there isn’t as many coast guard patrolling around Dry Tortugas, many Cubans head there—and it’s only 50 miles from Cuba.

After lunch we went snorkeling!!! WOW—this was the best time ever. For one thing, it was a beautiful day of 80+ degrees, with warm, calm, and crystal clear water. We had a lot more time—about 3 full hours. The coral reefs and fish were absolutely stunning and just when I would think “Oh, that’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen”, I would see something else and think “Oh, THAT’S the most beautiful thing I’ve every seen!” The only problem with snorkeling is it’s hard to talk or point out things to the other person without getting a mouth full of salt water (which makes me gag)!

The Dry Tortugas are also where the giant sea turtles lay their eggs. In the spring, people come to watch the baby turtles hatch and scurry to the water. Between the months of March and September, some 100,000 sooty terns will come to nest on the islands of the Dry Tortugas. They are joined by brown noddies, roseate terns, double-crested cormorants and brown pelicans. Our guide was a birder and set up her telescope on the beach so people could watch some of the birds.

Then it was time to get back on the boat and head back to Key West, we sat and visited with a couple who were from Scotland—they were very interesting. That evening we saw the sun setting just as we were docking. We went back to our hotel and got out of our swim suites and into the shower to wash away the salt. I would never have believed that I would spend so many full days in my swim suite. I was glad that I had bought a little skirt thingy to wear over the top—so I looked more dressed. We noticed that we were both a little burned—not as bad as you would have thought from spending the entire day in the sun.

We found a neat seafood restaurant that was a big area where they opened up all the tent-like walls and had a great supper. As we were walking along the street, we found a neat shop that was all Key Lime products, so we bought somethings that can be used as stocking stuffers. We've seen this shop on the Food Network's show 'Unwrapped'.

The next day, we headed back toward Miami, but for a late lunch we stopped at a restaurant called Pirate’s Cove. I had crab legs—they were very good, but so hard that it was extremely difficult to crack them. I really had to work for my food!

Kara and Paul picked us up from the airport and we stayed overnight at Ross and Richard’s—they had already left for Seattle. The next day (Dec. 23) we headed for home, stopping at Virginia for some Christmas presents and groceries. When we got there we had a foot of snow, but mom (bless her heart) had someone come out and plow us out, so we just had to shovel a little, put up a tree, wrapped some presents, and were ready for Christmas!!

So…we’ve never done a cruise before. We’ve talked about it, but then looked at the ads that have those huge ships with about a million windows on both sides. That looks like a lot of people crammed onto that ship. So we’ve been a bit apprehensive to say the least.

Well, here we are sitting in the Bahamas thinking it’s really pretty cool! (Of course, I’m posting this much later!) There has only been a few times when I felt a little cramped, and sometimes it’s ‘hurry up and wait’, but so far we have been very happy cruisin’.

This trip is pure vacation—no work at all! It all started in Minnesota—where they were getting around a foot of snow and the temperature was dropping like crazy. We flew to Miami (Bob got upgraded, but I didn’t—he did save a cookie and some nuts for me!) On the shuttle from the airport to the Embassy Suites, we were with another couple who were cruising on the same ship we were (Carnival Destiny), but this was their fifth cruise! The hotel had free cocktails, pretzels, and potato chips that evening—so that was our supper. They also have a ‘cook-to-order’ breakfast.

The next morning (Monday), we board a shuttle to go to the ship(s)—there were about five ships in a row. Only two couples on the shuttle were going to Destiny. A man met us there and tagged our luggage with our room number and it got loaded onto a cart and we went inside where we went through security—not quite as strict as airport security. We didn’t have to take off our shoes or take the liquids out of the carry-ons. Some people even had cases of pop—which would have been a good idea since pop was one of the things they charged extra for--$1.95 per can. From there we went to another line to check in. They had different lines for the different decks (room numbers)—so we didn’t wait too long.

From there we went onto the ship and they told us lunch was being served on the ninth level toward the back—we’ve decided to take the stairs rather than the elevators, so we started climbing. We found a buffet and got in line and picked up our food—but there wasn’t any place to sit, so we kept moving on back through another dining room (where they had a lot of other things to eat) and to another room (where they had a grill and also some places to sit). If you want a coke, it costs $1.95 (there are even some in the room), but lemonade, ice tea and ice cream are available all the time. There are several other places to eat—including sushi, pasta, Chinese, New York Deli, and others if you don’t want to go to the main dining room. Plus there is a pizza place and room service available 24 hours a day—at no charge!

We were hoping to see the sun set over the water, but were disappointed because it was really cloudy and we couldn’t see anything. Our room is the very first room on the starboard side of the ship (starboard means ‘right’ as you face the front). So right next to our door is a door to the deck at the front of the ship—we’ve gone out there to watch when we left the pier in Miami.

That night, we found our table for supper—it’s a table for four people and we’re with Sy and Maria. They are having their 33rd anniversary while on board and are from Albany, NY. He is originally from Hong Kong and she is from Guatemala—they met at an English as a Second Language Class. They seem really nice—we’re usually visiting so much that we’re the last ones to leave the dinning room.

We did notice after we set sail that the boat has these little shifts back and forth—not really an up-and-down rocking, although one night it was pretty windy and we were really moving around a lot. Neither Bob nor I get sea sick, but it bothered Maria a bit. The menu they give you has ‘starters’ and ‘entrees’ and our waiter said ‘you can order as much as you want’. I had shrimp and gazpacho for starters and tilapia for the main course. Bob had a salad and fruit and then a huge pork chop for the main course. Then they bring out the desert menu. Bob had a chocolate melt with vanilla ice cream and I got a fruit plate and cheese platter that everyone shared. We are enjoying tasting each others meals and deserts. I’m glad to see the other couple does that as well.

After supper, we decided to walk a little bit, so we went out on the deck and, at first, I thought someone had pulled down black drapes because it was pitch black, but then realized that it was just dark outside. We walked to the deck at the front and could see a few stars, but couldn’t see any moon—it was still really dark.

With the gentle lolling of the boat, we both slept like rocks! We had ordered breakfast in our room. They have an order form and said to put numbers by what you want, so we marked 2-melon, 2 citrus slices, 1 smoked salmon, 1 muffin, 1 croissant, 2 apple juices, 2 teas. Well, we ended up with this huge pile of food—or at least of plates and covers. The melon and citrus were some slices all arranged fancy on separate plates. The salmon was on a plate and there were two bagels with cream cheese—the waiter said that came with the salmon. There were three croissants and two muffins on one plate. So we had seven covered plates and a lot of food.

OK, let’s cut it down—so the next morning we ordered 2-bananas, 1-smoked salmon, juice and tea. And we got 2 bananas on one plate and the smoked salmon—no bagels this time!! So we ate pretty light that morning!!

The second day (Tuesday), we arrived in Nassau, Bahamas around 7 am. We had booked a shore excursion to a resort called Atlantis, so we got in the line for it and loaded on a bus—it was made to haul as many people as possible, because after the people filled in the seats, there was a fold-down seat that covered the aisle. The driver was on the right hand side—and he drove on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. We noticed about half the cars had the steering wheel on the right and half on the left.

The driver told us a little about The Republic of the Bahamas—it’s a series of 700 Islands and has a population of 300,000—except for Nassau (the capital), most of the people live in poverty. The Atlantis resort is 650 acres that includes miles of beaches, a lagoon, a huge water park, several different hotels, shops and a 141 acre waterscape comprised of 20 million gallons of fresh and seawater with more than 50,000 fascinating sea creatures. Some of the aquariums are in a maze of archaeological ruins called the Dig. The guide told us about one of the rooms—it’s in an area that spans between the tops of two buildings and is called ‘the bridge’. The room rents for $25,000 per night, with a minimum four night stay—and is booked solid for two years. I guess we won’t be staying there anytime soon!

We staked out a couple chairs and then walked along the beach for quite a ways—the waves were pretty strong and the bank was really sloped, so a couple times, we did some staggering when the waves hit us. When we got back to our chairs, our feet were just crusted with sand—and some was like little concrete pieces that were just ‘glued’ on to our feet. I ended up with some between my little toe and the next one and got a blister between my toes!! I’ve never even imagined being able to get a blister there!

We saw all kinds of sharks—some from the bottom, because there is one walkway that is all glass underneath the water and the fish are swimming all around and above you. Some of the sharks were hammerheads—they are so funny looking. We also saw barracudas, sea horses (so cute), clown fish (really goofy looking), jelly fish (gently pulsing and gliding), lobster (ugly), star fish (you could touch), spiny things, neon glow-in-the-dark fish, and lots of others that were beautiful colors and shapes. We also saw living conches—according to a guide, they make their own shell—those beautiful bright pink, spiral ones—and they get their shell so big that they trap themselves inside and die from starvation or self induced suicide. She said, “So we assist them by humanely killing them and then eating them.”

I was disappointed for lunch, because a couple things on the menu were conch fritters or a conch sandwich, but they were all out of both, so I ended up with a chicken sandwich—Boring!

We loaded on the bus to return to our ship—of course, you have to go through a gift shop to get there—it had some really great craft things. I got a neat bowl and spoon made from a conch shell. Those are the kinds of souvenirs I like—not ones with Nassau stamped on a hunk of junk that was made in China. We also had to get a Christmas ornament for our tree. I have to admit that it doesn’t seem very much like Christmas—with no snow and we’re wandering around in swim suits.

That night was ‘elegant night’—everyone dressed up (although there weren’t too many tuxedos and evening gowns). We had a captain’s reception before dinner—although he didn’t show up, because we were late leaving port. We sat at a table and waiters came around with appetizers and drinks (ones that we didn’t even have to pay for). For supper I had stuffed mushrooms and prosciutto and melon and Bob had a salad and strawberry bisque for starters. I had lobster and Bob had grouper for the main course. We then had bitter and blanc (a dark and light chocolate desert), cherries jubilee and vanilla ice cream for desert. Everything was so good!! Sy (our table mate) had both a lobster and prime rib main entrée.

Each night they have a Las Vegas type show—some nights there have been comedians, an orchestra and singers and dancers. There are lots of costume changes, feathers, headdresses and a fair amount of skin showing!

That second night it was storming—really windy and raining, and the boat was moving around a fair amount. We joked that we didn’t need to drink, because we could stagger down the hall just fine without it! The rocking didn’t really bother me, but I couldn’t go to sleep and when I did, I was dreaming and woke up a lot. We had to get up early, because we had to leave for our shore excursion at 7:30 am—so we had the alarm go off at 5:40 and breakfast come at 6. It was a short night.

Wednesday our port of call was Half Moon Cay where we got to snorkel with the Sting Rays. A large part of Half Moon Cay is owned by Holland America/Carnival so all of the shops etc were run by members of the ship’s crew. Our adventure with the Sting Rays was to start at 10:30, so we loaded on the back of a truck and rode to the Sting Ray Cove. We got goggles, snorkels, swimming shoes, and life vests. Since neither Bob nor I had ever snorkeled before, we got some pointers from the people who worked there. So we put on the gear and off we went—it was great fun. I discovered that I love snorkeling! It’s just so relaxing to float in the water and see all these great things below. You do have to remind yourself to breath slow and easy and always through your mouth.

We even got to feed and pet the sting rays—it was kind of funny as we were standing there, they would float by our feet and gently rub up against our legs. The guides told us they won’t sting unless they get startled—like getting stepped on. When we fed them, we held on to some slimy fishy stuff and the sting ray came up and took it out of our hands. There too, the guide said be careful, because if they think you have food, they will latch on with their sucker mouth and give you a nice hicky!

When we got back to the beach, we lay in the sun and just relaxed. It was so beautiful out! The ship crew hauled out a Caribbean Barbeque for lunch—many of our same waiters were there serving. It was wonderful—jerked chicken, BBQ beef, lots of fruit, and many different kinds of salads. That was the only time I saw them use anything disposable—and it was just paper cups. They even still had cloth napkins, real silverware, and dishes.

One of the ‘talks’ they gave us had to do with their garbage policy. After you’re so far from shore, it’s legal to dump your garbage, but they said that they didn’t do that—they mostly recycle and incinerate the paper. The rest they haul back to port. They have a desalination system on the ship for their fresh water. Early in the cruise there was a below decks tour and I would have liked to do that, but we missed it.

Wednesday evening, we ran into a lady that I knew. She worked at one of the colleges in Northern MN, but moved to Wisconsin. We used to attend many meetings together in the several years that I knew her. It turned out that her daughter was the main female singer for the shows. She and her husband decided to surprise their daughter. Bob and I joking wondered if we would bump into anyone that we knew. What a coincidence!

That night we had Mango Bisque, gazpacho, flat iron steak, and BBQ ribs. Our head waiter was from India and was really nice—we also had another waiter who mainly kept our water glasses filled, changed our silverware (we must have gone through five place settings every night), cleaned off the table, and brought bread. I think he was from Ghana, and might not have spoken very good English—at least he was pretty quite. That night the head of the dining room said “And now your waiters will sing and dance for you” and they all lined up and sang and danced along with a song. Our waiter was one who climbed up on a table and really did some fancy moves. He told us later that he worked for a cruise line around the Mediterranean and they used to sing and dance at every meal—and lots of different dances.

On Thursday, we were at Grand Turk. I had never heard of it before, but found out it is a British colony and part of the Turk and Caicos Islands. Our excursion for this day was Power Snorkeling. Again, we were picked up by the dock by a bus—but this one wasn’t as classy as the one at Nassau. In fact, we wondered if we were going to make it up some hills. Our driver was a quite the character. He told us all about the island and showed us the damage from Hurricane Ike—it hit on Sept 7 and really wiped out a lot of homes and businesses. There were lots of tents where people were living. He also told us the island is made up mostly of Churches and bars. There is even a bar in the police department—he said the police don’t carry guns, they carry drinks.

Power snorkeling was awesome. We had these scooter things that would pull us through the water. It was very windy and rough, so we ended up taking a boat out to where we would be snorkeling. I went on the first boat and Bob went on the second—he’s not as enthused as I am. This was one of those places where you rolled backwards off the boat. There are wonderful coral reefs all around Grand Turk—they said it is the third largest in the world! And they are beautiful—all this purple lacy coral with the yellow and blue stripped fish swimming around. It’s so clear that it seems like you can see all the way to the bottom. I have always loved aquariums, but I think I love watching the fish in their natural habitat even more! This excursion was three hours, so we had a lot of time to snorkel. The guide took us over to a ledge, where the sea bottom dropped 3000 feet—you could see the edge—just like a cliff, but it was underwater.

After our driver picked us up, he asked if we wanted a tour of the island—since it is only seven miles long and 1 ½ miles wide. Of course, we all said yes. So off we went in this ramshackle bus—with the gears grinding. He told us that he was from Jamaica and use to train polo ponies. So one of the places he showed us was a horse and donkey stable, where some of our cruise people were doing a surf ride. We saw lots of donkeys in the wild because the island’s main industry used to be making salt from the ocean. They used the donkeys to pull these drags over the salt to dry it. When they stopped making salt, they just let the donkeys go free. He said they are trying to capture them, and the government has offered $50 for every donkey that people bring in, but the government then lets the donkeys go again. One guy has gotten paid for the same donkey several times.

I did notice there was a community college on the island—so I could see about starting a Phi Theta Kappa chapter there and visit it often!

That night I decided to be brave and try the Escargot (snails)—they weren’t bad—a little chewy—like calamari. They were baked in this little dish (the stuffed mushrooms had come in it before) with five dents for the escargot—it had a garlic butter sauce. We also had lobster bisque and chilled Bing cherry soup. Our waiter had asked if I liked Indian Food and brought me a meal of lamb stew, rice, vegetables, but it was way too hot, so he took it back and brought me lamb chops and they were wonderful! That’s what Bob had as well.

Friday was our ‘Fun Day at Sea’. This means that we were cruising all day without stopping in any ports. They had several different events going on—games, walks, contests, etc, but I decided it would be a good day to visit the spa. So I went and had a pedicure and then had this body treatment that tones and firms. It was interesting, because there were huge windows and I was standing there with no clothes on—I guess there was only open sea around us, but it seemed strange.

During the day, we were sitting on our balcony and you could see a storm off in the distance. Pretty soon, there was a faint rainbow and it kept getting brighter and brighter—and ended up being a double rainbow. It was gorgeous—we felt like we were cruising right though it, although, we never did run into any rain. Another thing we noticed is that some times there would be a rainbow in the spray along side of the boat.

That afternoon there was a fun Christmas show with all the kids performing. We finally saw the captain (as Santa Claus). There were lots of kids of all ages on the ship. Carnival has programs for 14-17 yr olds; 10-14 yr olds; 6-10 yr olds; and even 2-5 yr olds—so there were dances and crafts and lots of things for the kids to do.

The ship had a casino (we didn’t gamble), several bars (we didn’t drink) and a photography studio—photographers were taking your picture all the time—then they would be for sale. There were also places set up where you could get studio photos taken (we didn’t do that either). There were different kinds of dancing going on every evening, comedy clubs (although they didn’t start until midnight—and we didn’t stay up that late), a library with books and games, a couple of small pools and saunas, a water slide and jogging track—so there really was a lot to do if you wanted. We enjoyed sitting on our balcony in the sunshine.

That evening, we had short ribs and salmon. I also had a cream of wild mushroom soup that was really good. It was fun to experiment with food that I would never order in a restaurant. It was also nice that the servings weren’t really big, so you didn’t too feel bad ordering two appetizers and an entrée.

One of the things that was so much fun, was seeing what animal was waiting for us in our cabin every night. The staff made up our rooms several times a day. In the morning, they made up the bed and cleaned, later they brought in a bucket of ice, in the evening they would turn down the bed and make an animal out of the towels—and perched my sunglasses on his nose. We had a seal, crab, armadillo, dog, and the last night was a monkey hanging from the ceiling. He was so cute!

When we woke up on Saturday morning, we were in port at Miami again. They had a session about disembarking and said if you wanted to carry out your luggage, you could leave at a certain time. They did unload by deck, so it wasn’t jam packed. We basically just carried our luggage down three flights of stairs and walked off the ship. We saw a line of taxis, so walked over and got in one—off to a new adventure!!