Last 3 Days of our Cruise

Day 6--May 1

Since today was a sea day, we slept in till about 9.  I love sleep!  We had a really relaxing day--breakfast, then reading out by the pool, swimming, then lunch, naps (for some) and more reading.  How can it get any better than that?  :)

 Garrett went down to swim while I was up on the next level reading.

 The view from my spot.

 It was a formal night, so we dressed up and had pictures taken before we went in to dinner.

 We were able to get a seat by the window this time.  Makes a nice back drop.

Georgia and I

Jim and Garrett

After dinner, we went to Club Fusion and watched a sort of Newlywed Game.  They had 3 couples--newlyweds, ones married for about 10 years and one couple that were married over 40 years or so.  It was really funny to watch.  

Then we went to the Princess Theater and listened to some 60's and 70's music by a guy named Zach Willingham.  He was really good and played some great music!  

After that, we went searching for Garrett's phone because earlier in the day he realized that it was missing and he thought he left it in the restaurant from last night's dinner.  So far no one had turned it in, but we went looking in the restaurant anyway to see if it had slipped down in the cushion of the seat or under the bench.  No such luck.  But miraculously, when he went and checked the next day, someone had turned it in!  Yay!

Day 7--May 2

This morning, we thought we would try to have breakfast in one of the formal dining rooms, just to see what that was like.  After sitting there for 2 hours with 2 or 3 other couples, we realized that we didn't want to do that ever again.  The food was basically the same, we just had to wait forever for it.  Plus, I'm not much of a social person, so I don't really enjoy talking with strangers.  

After breakfast, we went searching for the professional pictures that they take on the boat and decided which ones we wanted to buy.  There were so many!  We finally narrowed it down though and bought those.  Then we went outside and found a nice place to read until it was lunchtime.  For lunch, in one of the restaurants called the Crown Grill, they were offering Fish 'N chips for lunch, so we went and had that--so good!  It was a nice change from the normal buffet food.  Then we decided to go back to the room to get most of our packing done because our luggage had to be out in the hall by 11 that night.  

When we were done, we went to listen to a trivia game in Club Fusion for awhile.  Then we had a quick dinner, so we could go watch the dance show, "Do You Wanna Dance?" in the Princess Theater.  

 We took these pictures while we were waiting for it to start.  Garrett's always making goofy faces. 

 One of all of us minus Jim who didn't want to watch the dancers--he was saving seats for us in the lounge where Bert Stratton was going to play later.  

 They did all sorts of dances from various parts of the world.  It was entertaining and a lot cleaner than the last time. 

 Waiting for Burt to start

 Bert Stratton--again

Georgia liked him so much that she got a picture with him and bought his last DVD.  

After that we finished our packing and got to bed.

Day 8--May 3

We were up at 7 since we had to be out of our rooms at 8.  Usually they have to start cleaning rooms as quickly as possible to get the ship ready for the next cruise, but our cruise was the last one for the Caribbean Princess for awhile.  It was actually heading to the Bahamas to get some work done on it, so it was going to be out of commission for awhile.  After our breakfast, we had to wait in the Princess theater, because we had one more excursion that we were going on.  Since our flight wasn't until later in the evening, they had an excursion to NASA or the Johnson Space Center in Houston available.  When we were done, they would drop us off at the airport.  So we said, why not?  

 They first brought us to Rocket Park, where they have the Saturn V Rocket housed.  I actually remember coming here when we lived in Houston.  At that time though, the rocket was outside.  Since then, they've had to move it inside because it was getting damaged out in the elements.  

I found this on the internet.  This is when it used to be outside--pretty cool aerial shot.  

The rocket is in this building now.

This thing is massive!  It's over 36 stories tall!  "It's the most powerful rocket ever built and operated. It’s design played a major role in successfully transporting and landing American astronauts on the moon during the Apollo missions." (taken from the internet)

 Love the movie Apollo 13!

 Then we went to the main part of the museum at Space Center Houston.  This place was so big, but we didn't have time to go through the whole thing.  Part of our group had much earlier flights than we did, so we had to leave to get them to the airport on time.  Bummer.  

 There were lots of cool things to see--you could easily spend a whole day there. 

 After looking around for awhile, we had to leave and get to the airport.  The bad thing was that we were like 4 or 5 hours early for our flight--and we couldn't even check in for our flight and get past security until it was closer to our flight time.  So, we couldn't even go and find any good restaurants.  We did find one place and it was OK, I guess.  So we all just hung out and read... 

 and got massages in these massage chairs.

 Finally on our flight home

Getting into Portland at about 11 that night, which was really 1 am Texas time.  We were exhausted--and we still had to drive home!  It was a great trip though and over waaaayyyy too soon!  :)

Day 5--Belize

Today was our last excursion for our trip.  We were supposed to disembark the ship at 7:45, so we met for breakfast at 7.  We had to tender to Belize--which took about 20 minutes.  

This was a description of our excursion: 

"Enjoy a scenic river cruise on the New River. Then head out to the Lamanai ruins of the ancient Mayan civilization for a tour of the breathtaking grounds.  An authentic Belizean meal is included on this excursion.

 On the tender to Belize City.

Then we boarded a bus for an hour and 15 minute ride to Tower Hill which is where we got on another smaller boat for the cruise down the river.  The bus ride was fairly boring.  We drove through lots of small towns with a lot of poverty.  

                    Getting off the bus and waiting in line for the restrooms before getting on the boat.

 On the boat waiting to begin.

 This wasn't a leisurely boat ride down the river.  We were cruising!  It was pretty fun.  Our guide would stop every now and then to tell us something, but for the most part we were cruisin' along. 

 After about an hour, we stopped at Lamanai ruins and got out to walk around and see the ancient ruins.

 A nice resting spot. 

 Our tour guide telling us where to go and what we would see.  It was terribly hot and so humid that day.  For the most part it was a pretty cloudy day, for which we were all grateful for!

 Jim and Georgia in front of the first temple--Jaguar Temple, I think. 

 Garrett and Jim during our hike

 Beautiful palm trees

 More of those same ball courts that we saw in Cozumel.

 The 2nd temple--called "High Temple"

 This is the one that we were allowed to climb.  It was really steep.  And there I am climbing it in flip flops.  Totally forgot to bring my tennis shoes that day.  I was glad I was still able to climb it though.

 Another view of the stairs from the side.  (part way up)

 This is as high as we went.  There was still another set of stairs, but we were fine with where we got to.  It was so steep!  Pretty scary looking down!

A picture of us before we started heading down

Georgia took this one from the very bottom.  She must've zoomed quite a bit!

I felt it was safest to head down on my bum while holding onto the rope. 

Georgia's picture of Garrett side stepping down.  

 almost there!

Getting our picture by the High Temple

 This was the Mask temple that we saw after the High Temple.  You could climb this one also but you had to use the stairs around the back.  I was the only one who climbed this one.  It wasn't as tall as the other one, but still neat.  

 A close-up of the 'mask'.

 Me at the top

 Me at the top with a lot of the temple

 Looking down

I found this map online to show where they were all located.  

We then walked back to where the little museum was so that we could go to the bathroom again before getting onto the boat to head back.  While we were walking back to the museum (through the woods) we heard the scariest, craziest sound--almost like a lion or some big animal was growling at us--and it was getting louder.  It was freaky.  The guide told us that they were howler monkeys fighting with another group of monkeys.  I recorded it on my phone, but I can't ever get videos to play on here.  It was cool in an eerie sort of way.  

I guess this is what howler monkey's look like.  They sound pretty scary!

 This was a sign welcoming us to Lamanai.  We took the picture as we were heading back down to the boat.  

 Jet boat ride again!  

 It was really windy!

This was our boat driver

 Before getting back on the bus, then had a Belizean meal for us of stew chicken,  rice and beans and some sort of salad.  It was pretty good.

After finally getting back to the ship and taking a much needed shower--we went to dinner to celebrate Garrett's 40th birthday!  I had brought a few little presents with me so that he would have something to open. 

 Then we went and watched "Gravity" out under the stars.  We got there kind of late, so most of the good, close chairs were taken.  So we went up a deck, but it was hard to hear.  So we went and found less comfortable chairs and tried to fit into empty spaces on the main pool deck.  

When that movie was over, we went and watched Country Western musical trivia.  That was fun and the entertainment crew is so funny!  I think we just went to bed after that.  Another fun day!