Escape

As some of you know, we escaped the winter doldrums of Minnesota in January and took a little vacation. We had both managed to get scheduled for time off at the SAME TIME!!! Of course, this followed a month where we were on the same rotation (Family Medicine OB--delivering babies and taking care of the babies in the nursery), and the call schedule was every third night. That meant that Matt would be on call overnight at the hospital one night, then me the next night, then we'd have one evening together, then Matt would be on call, then me, then a night off, and so on and so forth. It was interesting. Sometimes in the mornings when I would be coming on call and Matt would be finishing his shift we would get to hang out for a short while at the hospital, but we didn't see much of each other that month. Anyway, all that to say that a vacation was much-needed to spend some time together. And, we went without Charlotte. She stayed with my parents, whom she adores.

Without further ado, some pictures from our tropical retreat.

All aboard the Navigator of the Seas

Our oceanview stateroom--free upgrade from the interior room we booked!

Lunch in the Windjammer Cafe, looking out over Miami before we set "sail."

Kristi's inspiration for her new hobby, fruit carving.

Other cruise ships waiting to leave the Miami port.

The belly flop contest! Watch the progression of pictures as the guy jumps off the platform on the right!

He's going for it...no fear whatsoever!

SPLASH!!!

Coming in to port at Labadee, Haiti. Yes, just days after the earthquake. Nowhere near Port au Prince. It is a peninsula privately owned by Royal Caribbean. The cruise line decided that they were going to continue to stop there because the income from all the tourists is too important to the economy. A lot of locals are employed by the cruise line on the peninsula, and the rich tourists spend a lot of money there. All of the money spent during our day there was donated to relief work, and the ship brought a lot of supplies like bottled water and non-perishable foods. It still didn't make me feel awesome about vacationing there in light of what was happening on the other side of the island. But on we go.

On the far right, at the top you can see a bit of a tower, sort of like a big power or telephone line. This is their "zip line," a long cable that you could pay a lot of money to be hooked on to and zoom down it over the ocean. We didn't, but we watched a lot of people. Looked like fun.

This is all Royal Caribbean kingdom. Look at that nice blue water!

Matt with his "morning juice," aka coffee. Not a bad view for eating breakfast, huh?

Kristi loving the warm sunny day that is dawning upon us.

And this is what we did for most of the week--sat on the beach or on the boat deck on beach on lounge chairs, reading books. This is the life.

One of the beaches on Labadee. This was probably the best beach of our trip. Not too crowded, calm warm water, soft sand, just the right amount of shade to retreat into occasionally.

Another view of the same beach.

Here's looking back on the boat, docked at the pier. Calling us back to the buffet line...

Some of the relief supplies the ship brought, being unloaded.

There was lots to do on the ship. Like hold big plastic butts (Matt's idea) and rock climb (which we never did).

And bring home the bronze medal in a ping pong tournament! Kristi was proud of his skills.

In order to enter the competition, Matt had to start with a partner. Since Kristi was too afraid to enter the stiff competition, Matt asked a guy standing next to him if he would be willing. "Sure," he said, "I was the ping pong champion in Florida." Then he grinned, showing off a whole mouthful of gold teeth. Excellent choice, Matt.

There was also a mini-golf course!

These were our dinner table mates. We had requested a large table for our dinners, and ended up at a table for 10. Only the six of us above came consistently, but we had a lot of fun. The couple on the right are traveling for the last time before their baby is born (we told them having a kid isn't the end of all fun...just most of it...). The two guys in the middle are friends since the 1st grade and who vacation together to pick up chicks. They had more than a few entertaining stories. As a table, we probably ate more than anyone else on the ship. For those who haven't cruised before, you can pretty much get whatever you want off the menu in multiple quantities. We had some big appetites at our table (us included!). Most nights we stayed long past the end of dinner talking and laughing; sometimes dinner was a 4 hour affair.

This is the main dining room. Fancy, no?

Here's Kristi on formal night in the dining room. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the two of us dressed up.

Here is our second port of call, Ocho Rios Jamaica. We spent a few hours relaxing on the beach, but otherwise didn't do much.

We had the opportunity to do lots of stuff in the evenings since we didn't have a little barnacle named Charlotte with us. Here is a "Broadway Tribute" show in the theater (this particular song and dance was Abba). We also went to an ice skating show (yes, the ship has an ice rink!), a comedy show, The Newly Wed Game, Karaoke night, and a magician. There was also time for some late-night relaxing in the hot tub and listening to live music. We didn't try our hand at the casino, but our table-mate Bobby lost a lot of money there. He told us all kinds of stories about it (like the time his friend told him to bet $100 on red in roulette, so he did and he lost it), as well as the girls he met, and the times he jumped into the pool with all his clothes on after having one (or two) too many drinks.

The second to last night there was a late night deck party with food, dancing, and live music.

And more fruit carvings!

On our last night we listened to live jazz music late into the night. A nice way to end our relaxing cruise in the Caribbean. Good bye warm weather, hello cold Minnesota with the jobs that await us!