Oh Hey, Vacay!

Brian and I live pretty crazy lives. We've had a lot going on the last several years, and it's been absolutely exhausting (much more for him than for me). Fortunately for us, one very stable part of our lives is our marriage. We truly are best friends and just really love being together. When we got married, we promised we'd always travel together - without the kiddos - for a chance to have something that is JUST ours, and a chance to spend quality time keeping our relationship our top priority.

As we write this, we're on our way back from our ten-day Princess Cruise to the Panama Canal (I know, right?). We promised ourselves we would document the trip as we went, but we were too busy living in the moment to bother with writing about it. So here we are, jotting down a few of the highlights.

Friday  |  Embarkation Day

We started the trip off strong - being dropped at the WRONG terminal and having to drag our luggage about a mile (although it felt like more) through the lovely Florida heat. Welcome to vacation!

We made it though, and it was totally worth the walk. We spent Tuesday getting settled into our new digs, hanging out with the family, and trying to navigate this ginormous ship. (Spoiler alert: Mom & I left the ship ten days later, still not knowing our way around - grateful for our navigation expert husbands!).

Wednesday  |  Sea Day

Wednesday was the perfect official start to a vacation. We were at sea all day, so we spent time playing trivia (my personal favorite cruise activity), hanging out with Chris (our favorite bartender), and making the most of our balcony. This was our first formal evening of the cruise, so we got all gussied up and ate some fancy foods! 

Thursday  |   Jamaica

Our first stop was Falmouth, Jamaica. We didn't book any excursions for this one, so we just hopped off the boat and walked around the local port & town. It was one bazillion degrees and there wasn't much to see in the area, so we didn't spend a ton of time, but we did get to visit a local market and check out some neat foods, grab a Red Stripe beer, and buy a souvenir or two.

We spent the rest of the day making the most of the on-board activities. We dominated in an egg-drop competition where our little team was given 6 minutes to construct a device that would protect our raw egg from cracking during a two-story drop. We were the only team to prevail! GO TEAM YOLK-LO! 

Friday  |  Sea Day

Brian isn't a huge Sea Day fan, but I LOVE.THEM.SO.MUCH. The highlight of this one was the wine tasting we attended - most specifically the Norman's Love chocolate that was served with the reds. I'm officially obsessed.  We also got into the evening game show, Yes/No, where you're asked a series of questions for three minutes but are not allowed to respond with any version of yes or no. I'm proud to say I made in the whole 3 minutes and earned myself a bottle of champagne! (Wahoo!) Brian and Curt also tried... (we'll leave it at that).

Saturday  |  Columbia

One of our Bucket List items is to visit every continent on the globe. Today, we got to step foot on South America for the first time ever! We definitely want to go back (because can you really cross it off after 6 hours?!) but we thoroughly enjoyed our taste of Cartagena, Columbia.

We visited their Old City, which was absolutely gorgeous. We spent the day walking around, taking in the beautiful buildings and balconies, and having a drink or two. I'm a sucker for street vendors and the limeade they were selling on every corner did NOT disappoint. 

Brian loved Cartagena so much, it's officially on our list of places to visit again. This is saying a lot, considering we have a general "no visiting the same place twice" rule. There's just so much more to see, and our tiny taste of the culture was just not enough.

We spent the evening whoopin it up on the boat! I won a t-shirt (which I was probably a little too proud of) for playing a silly matching game, and then we wandered around until we found the very front of the boat. Silly shenanigans from here on out. These moments are what vacations are made of.

Sunday  |  Panama

It's time for the main event! We pulled into the brand new Agua Clara locks of the Panama Canal early Saturday morning. Our ship passed through the locks on the Atlantic side, which was absolutely incredible to experience and learn about. Once through, we headed off on an excursion to the old locks. We got to drive through the rainforests, learn about the history and impact of the Panama Canal, and then pass through the original (Mira Flores) locks, this time in a smaller boat and on the Pacific side.

A ginormous car-carrying ship and tiny catamaran passed through the locks with us, which made the experience even more interesting. We experienced the boat being lifted through, and got to touch the inside wall of the Panama Canal (which apparently guarantees we'll be married for life).

Monday  |  Costa Rica

Monday was another LONG day! We got off the boat early and headed for a very long and VERY bumpy ride through Limon and to the rainforest. We learned about cacau (what chocolate is made of), saw sloths (my personal favorite part of the day), and zip-lined through the BEAUTIFUL rain forests of Costa Rica with my aunt Deb and uncle Dave! 

We LOVED Costa Rica. We dream of living in various places around the world and this one could definitely make the cut of places we could stay for a year or more.

 

Tuesday  |  Sea Day

After a few long and exhausting days, even Brian was ready for a sea day on Tuesday! In addition to a couple of rounds of trivia (officially my favorite ship-time activity), we also partook in a paper airplane contest. We were not as victorious as we were with the egg drop, but it still made for a good laugh. 

Wednesday  |  Cayman Islands

I was nervous that Grand Cayman would be a disappointment compared to the other places we'd visited, but I was so wrong. The island & waters were gorgeous. We took a short drive through town, tasted a couple of local goodies, visited Hell (yes, really), and took the most epic (i.e "all you can drink") rum tour ever. We are officially BIG fans of Seven Fathoms Rum. Do yourself a favor and go look it up.

When we got back, we headed to the spa (because it isn't a true vacation until you hit the spa) and spent 75 minutes soaking up hot stones and deep tissue massages. We finished off the evening with a movie under the stars. 

Let's recap: all you can drink rum, 75 minute hot stone massages, and movie under the stars in the middle of the caribbean. It was a good, good day.

Thursday  |  Sea Day

Our last day on the ship was perfect. We did a lot of relaxing, catching up on sun we didn't get in the rainforest, and talking about how much weight we'd gained in ten days. I also won a prize in a basketball shoot out! Are you impressed? (Would you still be impressed if I told you the cruise staff just felt bad?).

The highlight of the last day was FINALLY catching the sunset I'd been hoping to see. It's hard to catch on camera, but it was stunning, and the perfect ending to a perfect adventure.

Special Thanks

We'd like to give an extra special thanks to Grandma & Papaw, Carole & Larry, who kept our kids for TEN WHOLE DAYS and even kept up with their soccer, gymnastics, co-op (and crazy hair day), school work, & field trips! We are SO VERY AWARE of how blessed we are to have you guys. THANK YOU for being amazing grandparents to our kiddos!