What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

“What a long strange trip it’s been”- the Grateful Dead

Those words rang so true this past week on my vacation cruise to the Bahamas. Yes, me and nine other women (one being my Mother) cruised through the Caribbean stopping at 3 different islands of the Bahamas for 4 nights. We left out of Miami on Monday (yes, the same day that Tropical Storm Fay showed up) and arrived back on Friday morning… me and 9 other women ranging in age from 42 to 70+. And what a week it was…
First off, let me just say that I did not find out about the tropical storm brewing near Haiti until late Friday night so the entire weekend was spent worrying if the airline would be flying to Miami on Monday morning or if the cruise would be cancelled all because of Fay. I was checking the “projected path” of that storm almost every two hours to see how much closer it was to the Keys and how fast was she moving. My Mother arrived on Saturday afternoon as well so between the worrying, entertaining her and preparing for the trip I was just about stressed out before my vacation had even started! Our plane did fly to Miami on Monday after all… Miami was rainy and it turns out the cruise line decided to leave earlier than scheduled so our 8am flight was not a wasted idea after all! We were on the ship by 12noontime and the ladies were itching to get the party started. Well half the ladies started ordering bottles of wine and got loopy quick and the rest of us checked into our state rooms and waited on our luggage… one scary moment was when we were hanging out on our balcony and watching the crew throwing the luggage from the carts to the ship… somehow they misinterpreted their shot and dropped about 10+ pieces of luggage into the water of the bay! And then they spent over 10 minutes fishing out some poor souls’ bags… we were just praying it was not our clothes! I rationalized at that moment that a bag of wet clothes might not really even matter if it rains our entire trip anyway… But, the rain only hung out all of Monday and half of Tuesday. By Wednesday the sun was out but the winds were high and the ocean was still choppy. We did finally make it into our bathing suits and onto a nice beach on Thursday (which happened to also be my birthday) so it was a great day after all!
To keep from writing a book about the trip, I will just list some of my highlights of the week spent at sea:

· Always keep the top down on the toilets BEFORE you flush! Or it might just suck you into the bowl…
· One of the “oldest” ladies on the trip managed to get way too tipsy on the first night and lost the “bridge” (teeth) on the right side of her mouth!
· Escargot is not that that bad! Kinda tastes like mushrooms or oysters…
· Older women refuse to walk the stairs to one floor above or below! They always want to take the elevator…
· Non-Americans refer to skim milk as “skinny cow”… thanks to all of Judy’s White Russians orders
· It is really hard to walk a straight line when the ship is rocking from the choppy waves
· Birthdays are a really, really big ordeal on a cruise ship… they let us order lobster tails just for my special birthday dinner!
· I think my Mother is a bit of a hypochondriac… she complained the entire trip about motion sickness….
· Oh, and she is a really loud snorer too! I did not sleep the entire trip!

I did forget to mention that the “choppy movements” of the ship really only happened on the first night. As a matter of fact, I remember telling Hubby the next day that I woke up at one point in the night on Monday night and was actually holding onto the bed with both hands and arms to keep from falling off the bed because it felt like the boat was leaning way too far to the left. As it turns out the boat was “listing” due to the bad weather/stormy sea and when the boat leaned or listed as they called it, all of the rainwater from the top deck poured into the main atrium of the boat! They had carpet dryers out the entire trip trying to dry out from that first night! Talk about scary… I am just so glad my Mother slept through all of it.
All in all, the trip was fun. However, I wish Hubby could have been there instead of me and 9 other women. Every lady in the group was so different and each had their own idea of what we should or shouldn’t be doing… it was hard to do any thing all together. I was so glad to get off that ship and make our way home.
Friday was a complete nightmare from the time we stepped off the ship… we made it to our pre-paid tour bus… and then we sat for over an hour waiting for the bus to take us to the airport! Once we got to the airport, checking in was a breeze but, then our flight was not for over 3 hours! We finally boarded our plane around 2:30pm and then we sat on the runway for over 2 hours because of some storm NW of Miami! I thought I was going to die! I sat in that rinky-dink window seat for over 4 hours and my Mother was no help. She was not a happy camper about it either and I just had to sit there and hope they would let us go soon enough. I finally made it home around 8pm on Friday night and Hubby was waiting for me with birthday gifts… Happy Birthday to me!

BLT's Recipe

Since I am heading out of town all next week, I have spent quite a bit of what little free time I have preparing for my absence from Monday to Friday. Hubby and I have really enjoyed any homegrown veggies we have managed to purchase or receive as gifts this summer. Hubby has really discovered just how good a homegrown tomato really is… even though he has always said he does not like tomatoes! Our favorite dish we use them in is BLT’s. We have eaten a LOT of BLT’s these past few weeks. I kind of “lightened” up my recipe for a BLT by using only minimal mayo, lots of black pepper and turkey bacon. I also use the fresh homegrown tomatoes and romaine lettuce but the tomato is what really makes the sandwich SO good! And because Hubby is going to be on his own this week, we made a stop this weekend at one of the few veggie stands here in East Cobb and purchased tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches and peppers. Hubby will be eating great sandwiches and salad all week! Oh, and by the way the first big tomato harvested from my plants (refer to blog from August 14) was eaten yesterday for lunch- Yummy!
This past week at work was extremely busy for me since I will be gone on vacation all this coming week. I seriously had to cram two weeks of work into one. But, if all goes well (considering the tropical storm brewing just south of Cuba tonight) this 4-night cruise to the Bahamas will be a wonderful, restful trip away from the gritty, grueling work place. I look forward to sun and fun on my birthday week on a cruise ship and visiting the island’s best beaches. I just hope this trip is a fun way to bring me into my mid-30’s. I do know that I will take lots of photos and promise to share when I return.