& More On Our Vacation!

***Friday, 9/5/2008***
We were back on the road by 8:30 and we were heading toward Washington, D.C. at about 12:30. Once we arrived in DC our GPS started doing funky things. Apparently tomtom hasn't updated it s mapping for that area. It had us going in circles so finally we started using a map to the point where we could find a place to park. We parked the Hummer, once we got out and started walking away from the car someone yelled---"Hey you drive a Hummer H3!" DH got nervous and decided that might not be the best place to leave it. So we decided to drive around until we found a secured parking garage. The ceiling in those garages are LOW! we had 4 inches to spare. We walked to the National Air & Space Museum. Once inside we immediately walked to the flight simulator section so Doc could see if hey wanted to try it out. We did. It was the coolest. Doc was the Pilot and I was the gunner. I got 8 hits out of 10 . I thought that was good. I didn't realize that it was actually go upside down. I yelled , "Oh Shit" the first time. It was pretty funny when we got out. I guess the workers kept hearing me yelling and laughing.

Here are some pictures that we took while inside the museum.

This is me in the hand on section in a little puddle jumper plane... it was so cute!

We then walked so we could view the Capital with its unattractive burnt lawnUs walking past the Washington Monument

This is the only Fallout Shelter sign that I have scene in the 5 times that I have been there... I thought it was picture worthy being so morbid.
Getting ready to go through the Baltimore Tunnel. Doc and I have decided we don't really care for tunnels much.
And getting ready to go over the Baltimore Bridge
Off to the left hand side you can see a nuclear plant --The only one we saw in our 3,200 miles that we drove that weekHello, New Jersey--7 hours to go and we are home.

Thank heavens for XM radio and the different city stations that tell you what the traffic is doing. We ended up going out and around NYC and the cool thing was we drove to Dover Plains, NY to see where Doc grew up. It was the first time I saw his home town and I got to see the house that he grew up in. That was really sweet. I got to see his Catholic school. It was a moment that I never shared with DH until then and I certainly won't forget it. We stopped in Greenfield, MA and slept for about 3 hours. Back on the road to VT. Crossed the border to the Green Mountain State. 90 minutes later we pulled into our driveway in Montpelier at 5:33 am. It felt so good to be in our bed!

It was an awesome awesome vacation! I can't wait until our next one!

Our Trip Continued

***Monday, 9/1/2008***

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US! We arrived in Progreso, Mexico at 6am. Looking out our window into the water all we could see were jellyfish. It was wild just how many we could see. We showered and ate breakfast that was delivered by room service. We got off the ship--had a few pictures taken. We weren't off the ship 3 minutes when Doc got a bloody nose and had to change his shirt because there was blood all down the front of it. We did a little shopping in the pier shops but Doc wasn't feeling very well between the allergies/cold and bloody nose--I didn't want him very far from the ship. We walked back to the boat to go swimming when we decided that I should probably be putting sunscreen on. So I went back to the pier shops to get Sunscreen. I paid $17.95 for Spray SPF 30 Sunscreen that smells like bug spray and burns like hell on your skin. We went and relaxed by the pool in the shade. I people watched while Doc read Obamanation. I took a nap in the afternoon. Woke up in time to go up to the top deck to watch us leave port. Dinner was alot of fun. Doc and I enjoyed Mojitos for our anniversary toast. We finished the evening by watching the cruise guest talent show. Tonight's towel creation: the rabbit.

***Tuesday, 9/2/2008***

Cozumel, Mexico: I was up early about 6:30. I wanted to watch up again pull into port. It was so great to watch it! I talked to Millie and Lawrence who were two rooms down from us to see how the day before was for them. Back to the room to shower and get ready for the beach. We did a little shopping at the pier shops first thing. Then we found the group for the Playa Mia Deluxe beach resort party. We boarded our bus and headed out to the resort. Our beach package included an open bar, Mexican buffet, beach towels, chaise chairs, hammocks, pool, dressing rooms, iceberg, trampoline, kayaks, and paddle boats. It was well worth the $77/person for the day. It was AWESOME! They brought around parrots and lizards to hold and to pose for pictures with. I passed. We sat a couple chairs away from a really nice couple from Alabama. The husband has a terrible sunburn! An Indian couple came with their two children and sat next to us. He started to put his put up this huge ass umbrella over my chair. I told Doc that we were going to have to move because there wasn't any way that I was going to sit under a chair when the point of me going to he beach was to enjoy the sun. He heard me and picked up his umbrella and other belongings in a hurry and moved back to his original spot. I enjoyed the beach--I loved being able to put my feet in the sand, look for shells, drink strawberry daiquiris. We also loved swimming in the ocean and how could I forget the huge Mexican buffet. We boarded the bus at 2pm to go back to the International Cruise Terminal. Once back at the ICT we caught a taxi up to the forum shops where we did some shopping. We went to a bunch of little native shops for souvenirs. We spotted a Starbucks with a straw roof. We also visited Margaritaville. We spotted a Mexican Army officer so Doc got a picture with him. Back at the ICT we did some more shopping. When boarding the boat we saw the Indian couple and their children exiting the boat... the guy didn't see that the exit had a low ceiling and he hit his head and said "Oh My" ---it was hilarious... you had to be there but that ended up being our saying for the rest of the trip. We went to dinner with Jennifer and David from Texas and then we all went to the returning guest gala followed by the comedy show.Our towel creation of the night: a dog.

***Wednesday, 9/3/2008***

It was a fun day at sea. We started our day by going to breakfast in the Seven Seas dining room for open seating. It was a lot of fun. We sat with two much older couples. One was from Alabama and the other from Florida. They were so polite and curious about Vermont. It was nice that we got to ask them questions about the south. They all thought we would great southerns. We went back to our room showered and went to the American Lounge for Doc to attempt to win $1,000 at bingo. He was 1 number off and it was his favorite #9 that he needed. His favorite number let him down. After bingo we attended the debarking talk. Went up to the pool to relax and enjoy the sun. We were up there 5 minutes and it began to pour. We went to the hot tub where it was covered and enjoyed that until the sun came out and just as we settled back into our chaise chairs, the rain started again. We decided it was best that we go get some lunch while mother nature decided if it was going to rain or shine. We went to the pool. Doc got tired and went to take a nap while I enjoyed talking to the ladies in the pool while catching some sun. I went and met up with Doc and we both went to watch the marriage show. After the show I showered in hopes to get the salt out of my hair. I got ready for dinner and we discussed what we wanted to do for the evening. While we waited to go to dinner we packed up the majority of our stuff to get ready to debark the ship in the early morning. Went to dinner-Jen and David beat us there. I went back to our room to get into something more comfortable--sunburn + jeans=uncomfortable! We watched Shout! by the Carnival Dancers in the Americana Lounge it was really good! It was the history of rock and roll.After that we went to Doc Holiday's to watch the Adult Comedy show. While waiting we watched karaoke--it was awful! Back in our room we finished packing up and got to bed--Long road home in the morning! Towel Creation of the night: Vagina Bird.

***Thursday, 9/4/2008***

Debark the Ship. We woke up @ 7am --showered and finished packing those very last few items. Got our documentation out and ready to go. We opened our cabin door and waited for our zone to be called. We thanked Desra our stateroom steward and headed down the hallway to exit. I carried my two very heavy suitcases up 2 flights of stairs and we walked down a hallway. Once at the doors we used our gold card one last time and exited the ship. We worked our way through the terminal and down the esculator and over to customs where the process lasted maybe a minute and half. Exited to the parking garage, took the elavator up to the second floor of the garage and found our girl. Doc hit the unlock button and she started blinking at us! It was a sure sign that she was glad to see us. We pulled out of the parking terminal and waved to the M/S Holiday one last time and got on the highway headed north!
It was 82 degrees at 8:11 am when we left the terminal-HOT!

We ate breakfast at the Huddle House. A guy sat behind that just couldn't believe that we were from Vermont and drove to Alabama. Doc's rash on his arm got a lot worse so we had to make a quick stop to get him some cream. We then stopped again Montgomery, AL at Arby's for lunch. After lunch we needed a little pick me up so we stopped at the Starbucks. Into the car again and on the highway North--We drove through Atlanta, Georgia and South Carolina. We stopped in Raleigh, North Carolina and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. We got there about 10pm the only room that they had left was a handicap room. It was HUGE! It was the coolest room ever. The bathroom was the size of our bedroom at home. We fell asleep watching the Republican Convention.

Our Trip

***Thursday, 8/28/2008***

We're packed, the car is loaded, the house is clean/neat and Dominic was waiting patiently for me to figure out how to lock the door with my arms being full of junk that I really didn't need to bring with me. Things were going so well that is until we stopped for breakfast at Dunkin Donuts in Brattleboro, VT where I walked in on a little old man using the restroom. The door handle was broken so it didn't lock correctly. Once onto the open highway again we missed our exit in CT/NY and headed right threw NYC going into the Bronx. We made it back on the interstate without any any issues. We stopped in New Jersey to gas up the car for the first time and it was for $3.45/gallon--Cheap! We made our way into Pennsylvania where it was blue skies and about 85 degrees outside. We drove past the War College for the US Army---that was a real sight to see. It began to rain and the temperature dropped to 65--BRR---I had to wear a longsleeve shirt. We ate dinner that Golden Corral which I had never done before. We arrived in Knoxville, TN at 12:45ish. We stayed at the Super8. We walked into our room which was supposed to be a nonsmoking--it had clearly been smoked in at one point or another. We both decided against showering--the shower was gross--it looked like it had soap scum on bottom of the shower.

***Friday, 8/29/08***

We were back on the road by 8am. We drove right past a Hummer dealership on the outside of Knoxville. Had we known it was there we would have went to at least have our baby get a picture in front of the sign. It was really neat at 10am we entered central standard time zone adding an hour to our day =) I loved the idea of that! We ate at a WHATABURGER--which was much less than a wonderful experience! There was mouse droppings all over the floor and a roach crawling on the floor and right underneath my seat. I took 2 bites of my burger and threw it out with Doc following. We arrived in Mobile with it being 94 degrees HOT! We checked into our hotel room at the Days Inn which was VERY VERY clean! I showered right away and got ready for dinner at Oysterella's which was sitting in Mobile Bay and across from the USS Alabama.Our waiter Mike was fabulous! He gave a little history of when Hurricane Katrina came through she ruined the building so it was a brand new building that we were in. Mike was a native of Mobile--he rode out Katrina and planned to ride Gustav out as well. He said that he wouldn't be surprised if Oysterella's building was destroyed again but flooding or high winds. At Oysterella's we ate oysters, hush puppies, squid, and beer cheese clam dip. It was AWESOME! Dominic's allergies really started to kick into high gear so we found the mall and did a little shopping before we went back to Hotel and got ready to sail out in the morning.

***Saturday, 8/30/08***

We got up at 7am--Showered and checked out of the hotel. We went to the Waffle House for breakfast $14 for the entire table to be completely covered in food. We drove down to the pier--told we were too early and had to go back to enter at 11am. We drove through a gorgeous neighborhood in the downtown area of Mobile. It was a neighborhood that I wouldn't mind living in. It looked like it was straight out of a movie. HUGE brick homes with big column porches--sculptures on the walkways--Gorgeous patios with water fountains--brick driveways--the foliage of their lawns were outstanding! Continued driving and ended up back at the mall where we went to Book A Million. The South's version of Border Books. Back at the Port--we were able to park our Hummer for $75. for the week and check our luggage. We got into line where we found out we were VIP's. We got put right through to go through security. We sat in chairs while we waited to go into the corporate office to receive our room keys and finalize our paperwork. We again, skipped all the lines and had our pictures taken and walked right through and onto the boat. Our rooms were not ready until 1:30 so we had plenty of time to "learn" the boat. Once our room was ready we walked in and viewed it and all hell broke loose! We paid extra for an "ocean view" only to have the window boarded up. We went to the purser's desk--only to have the experience be less than favorable. We were not given an explanation as to why we had a board on our window. We were simply told that we could cancel our trip if we didn't like it. So back in our room Doc called Travelocity who checked the status of our room and Carnival wasn't very helpful for them either. They were told that they had plenty of empty Ocean state rooms that were available. So they said that if we didn't get anywhere with Carnival to call them back. Once we did our Muster exercise--we check with the purser's desk hoping to receive an answer this time. This time we were told that it was a hurricane cover and if we didn't like it we could call the customer service number once we disembarked the ship on the final day with any complaints. We had dinner in the Seven Seas dining room. We loved it--it was more intimate than last year. We sat at a booth with another couple from Texas they were adorable. We did a little shopping on the on board shops--the search was for rolaids for Doc. I went to bed after dinner with a killer headache while Doc went to find himself some more food.

***Sunday, 8/31/08***

Sunday was a super lazy day! I just enjoying spending the day relaxing in the sun by the adult pool! I got a little sunburn. The Captains dinner was nice. We dressed up mildly. We saw a gorgeous sunset but I missed it by about 3 minutes. Here are some photos of just how pretty it was. Although it was so hot outside that my camera fogged up from the AC inside the ship.

The Towel Creation of the night: