The Jacobs' journey: Getting away from it all and back again!

I bring greetings from the sunshine and cool breezes of the Caribbean. We're home now, all rested, and ready to hit the ground running..........well, maybe not running but we certainly hit the ground after spending seven fabulous days on the ocean aboard the Carnival Conquest cruise ship.

So I'm resting up today........hey, it's hard work going on a cruise! It takes stamina to decide what to wear each day, which of the many onboard activities to choose from, and of course, what comfortable chair to sit in on any given day to complete a Sudoku puzzle! And there's always the exercise in strenuous brain activity when we sit down in the elegant Monet dining room to choose from the assortment of gourmet items from the menu.

Here's an example of the desserts we had to choose from. They served a chocolate buffet on our last full day and not only was it a delicious assortment of sweetness, it was also a work of art. Very fun! Some of the fare I remember ordering were rainbow trout almondine, petite filet mignon and rib confit, lobster bisque, mahi mahi, the most delicious tomato soup I've ever tasted, and much more.

For those of you who are reading my blog for the first time, my father graciously treated my sister Suzy, my brother, David, and I to this amazing experience. I'm having a hard time maneuvering these pictures around so I'm just going to tell you about our trip and caption the pictures.

We docked in three places, Nassau and Freeport in The Bahamas, and Key West. At our first stop in Nassau I wanted to be sure to get my passport stamped. It would be my first one and so I was pretty excited about it. I know! Small things, right? We arrived at port pretty early so when we got to the right building there were four or five employees milling around but the actual immigration office wasn't open yet. One of the women told a man that he could go ahead and open the office and stamp our passports but when he did and as we were leaving we started to pretty much skedaddle because another woman was letting him have it about using official equipment. Oops!

After walking around a bit to get a feel for the place we were approached by one of the many, many people offering tours so we took him up on it. Leroy was his name. It means "the king". Believe me, he told us several times. He even had a name book so we could all look up the meaning of our names. Mine means gracious. I'm serious! He did and it does! But we did get a pretty good tour of Nassau in between hearing about how knowledge is power, everything in moderation, how people in The Bahamas are "laid back", and on and on and on! He was a hoot!

The next day we were in Freeport. We decided to rent a car and Dave drove. On the left side of the road! Interesting! He did a pretty good job though. Especially with me beside him in the front seat saving the day by using my skill and expertise at map reading! Whatever, Dave! It's my blog and I can say anything I want to. :)

I'd read online about a not very well known snorkeling shack about twenty minutes away called Paradise Cove so that's where we headed. On the way we stopped at a beach that the rental car lady had recommended for beach combing. And she was right. Suzy and I made a haul on shells and beach rocks. We were happy! The snorkeling place turned out not to be that great for beach combing but I did find a man's wedding band. That was pretty interesting. The owners of the snorkeling place had the name and numbers for a woman who had lost a ring a few weeks back so I called her when we got home and sure enough it was hers. Yay, me!

After having lunch (see picture below of me eating conch fritters--not that great, by the way!) we kept heading west to the end of this very long and skinny part of the island. As we were driving I spotted some conch shells by the side of the road so Dave pulled over. Sure enough that's what they were and Suzy and I thought we'd found a treasure until as we drove on we noticed that there were huge piles of them everywhere the further west we got. Apparently there's actually a problem there with too much dumping of conch shells. They take out the insides to eat and then just chunk the rest. So if you're ever in Freeport, The Bahamas, just go west on the island and you can pick up all the conch shells you want. My three big ones are now sitting around my fountain in the backyard. I even found a dead crab when I unpacked all the shells and rocks. Ugh! But at least Thursday (Kaylee's dog) had a treat!

My favorite port was probably Key West. It was just such a perfect weather day and the city is really colorful and beautiful with all the great old houses.

If you'll notice from the pictures below I did try my hand at gambling............it's Dave's fault! He talked me into it! Really!!!! Anyway, Dave had been telling me the rules at dinner (see???) and so when I sat down at the table the dealer helped me along cuing me when to "tap" and when to "swish" my hand. Yeah, I'm a pro now! I figured I'd risk $20 and after about 10 minutes I'd won about $65!! Yay! But did I get smart and stop? Nooooooo!!! Not me! I was feeling lucky! I did stop though when I got down to $5 over my original $20. Then Suzy talked me into using that $5 on one of the slot machines! Man, you can't go anywhere with family! They'll get you into all kinds of trouble! I won some and lost some but whittled that $5 down to about 18 cents. Then I stopped. Whew! So I came out ahead! :) It was weird because the next morning I woke up thinking about Blackjack! So that's how it gets you!! But I didn't go back. I was strong! Whatever!!

Here are the pictures! I may post some more when Dave sends me his.

our new friend :)