~CRUISE~DAY 1~

So, we've been home for almost a week now, and I'm finally taking the time to blog about our trip. First of all, I just have to say that it was the BEST vacation I have ever been on, and if you're considering going on a vacation, I highly recommend this one. Every day was absolutely AMAZING, and that is why I am going to do a seperate post for each day. I think that if I tried to blog about it all at once, I would post so many pictures that I would fry blogger or something. (And it's past 11:00 right now, and I don't want to be up until 2 in the am!)

We flew into Miami on Sunday, which was good since we missed our connecting flight at JFK airport in New York, and had to rebook. If that had been on Monday, we might not have gotten on the boat in time. Missing the connecting flight actually turned out to be okay since we were able to run like crazy people for what must have been at least a mile through a HUGE airport (we kind of felt like we were in a movie or something), got to our gate just in time to see the airplane start backing out, learned what to do when that happens, and ate dinner in NYC, all of which are things that neither of us had ever experienced. It just added to the adventure of it all!

We still got to Miami in decent time--about 9pm--got a rental car, and thanks to Violet's GPS, drove straight to our hotel. We got a sweet deal on a suite (thanks, priceline!) and were able to sleep in a little Monday morning. Then it was off to Everglades Safari Park (with the GPS, of course.) I am SO glad we went and did this instead of just hanging out at the hotel Monday morning. It was so neat to see a whole different landscape that is home to such different animals than what we are used to seeing. While waiting in line for our airboat tour, we got our first glimpse of the local wildlife. I leaned over the railing, looked down, and saw THIS:

Here's Tony sitting on the airboat waiting to pull out. If you see a drop of sweat on his brow, it's because it was already 86 degrees with 70% humidity! Welcome to Florida.

The Everglades. I always thought it was a swamp, but it's actually a very shallow, slow-moving river that is home to all sorts of animals we don't have here in Wyoming. Of course, the ones we were looking for (or looking OUT for) were alligators and pythons. We were able to go all over through the Everglades for about 40 minutes, and I was never tempted to jump off the boat. Yikes!

After the boat ride, we were able to walk around through their park there and see alligators, with a fence between us, of course. I also LOVED the variety of plants they have there. I thought this place was just so beautiful!

One of the coolest things at the Everglades Park was the alligator show. This guy is an alligator trainer. He was in a ring with about 5 or 6 gators who all responded to their own names and obeyed commands. It was amazing! We learned lots of cool facts about alligators, and at the end of the show, Tony got to hold this baby gator. I decided to pass on that experience.

I tried this instead. These are "Gator Bites," deep fried pieces of alligator tail. It basically tasted like chicken but was just a little tougher. They served them with wing sauce, and they were pretty darn good.

Everything was smooth sailing leaving the Everglades, returning our rental car, getting a taxi to the port, and getting on the boat. Getting on the boat is the part of the vacation I worry about the most--I had to check my important manila envelope like 20 times to make sure we had all the paperwork that we needed, and was still worried that I might have forgotten something. But we had what we needed, and we breezed right through the checking in process. We were on the boat by about 1:00, and of course headed straight for the buffet!

We pulled out of Miami at about 5:00. It was so cool. Coastal cities are so interesting with the way they go from ocean to skyscraper in about 10 feet! It was so fun to be up on deck pulling out and just seeing the city fade away behind us.


That night we enjoyed our first fancy dinner in the dining room (one of our favorite parts of cruising!) I had escargot and duck, along with some other things. After dinner, we went to a show, then to salsa dance class. Finally, we finished the night at the 70s Dance Party. This is our director, Ricky, and the Village People (aka cruise director staff) showing us how to get funky!