Key West and Miami

Day Four: Key West

We finally made it up early enough to watch as our ship arrived at the dock. We were a little bummed to be back in the US, but Key West was beautiful! I wish we could have had more time there to walk around and see all the shops and houses. 

My parents went parasailing in the morning and then watched Jaden while we went on a catamaran sail and snorkel excursion. Steve and I thought the snorkeling at Shark's Cove in Hawaii was better, but we still saw some cool fish. It was really fun to be on the catamaran too, even though it turned into a booze cruise :). Luckily Steve knows his drinking lingo and told them we were staying dry :).

Raising the sail  on the way back

Partying in the corner with our water :)

Can you see the ship in the background towering over the entire town?

 Funniest story ever. On a table in the centrum was a silent auction benefitting the Children's Miracle Network or something like that. The first time we saw it, there was only one bid on a stuffed animal (a build a bear type thing) for $11 so Peter decided to bid $12.63 just for the fun of it. Then for two more days he stayed as the top bidder! We thought it would be hilarious if he won. Finally on the last day the bids went up to about $26, so he figured he would just be out. We went and did our excursion in Key West and when we met our parents for dinner, they told Peter that he had won and showed him a certificate. He busted out laughing but was so confused. Turns out my dad went and bid $29 two minutes before the bidding closed because he wanted Peter to get it. So Peter got to go to the kids' Adventure Ocean area and pick out Captain Dudley the dog. He also got a bag full of kid stuff: crayons, a pillowcase to color, lanyard, cd of lullabys, hat, blanket, backpack, etc. They hooked him up! It was hilarious.

The best part of the cruise itself was the staff. Our waiters were AMAZING. We loved them! I definitely like how you get to know them and they get to know you throughout the week. Dinner in the nice dining room was difficult with Jaden (an hour and a half in a high chair? Yeah right), but they were SO great with him. Not to mention they gave us pretty much everything we could ask for and even things we didn't ask for. I felt kind of bad eating so much and wasting so much food when they come from poor areas of the world and have left their families for months at a time to make a little money to save for the future. Aaron had a three week old baby and his wife was recovering from an emergency c-section. I think it was kind of hard for him to see Jaden but at the same time he loved spoiling him. Both our waiters were awesome.

Aaron from the Philippines with Jaden

Jaden with Jesben from India

Watching a sweet lightning storm

We taught Jaden how to give back scratches. That was brilliant of us.

Day 5: Miami

We were sad to get off the ship in the morning! After we got settled into a hotel, we headed over to Miami Beach to check things out. It was beautiful when we got there, so we went to lunch first. When we came out, it was raining. :( So much for one final beach day...It was fun to see, although I don't think I have any desire to go back to Miami unless it's just on a stop to somewhere else. It's too much of a dirty (inappropriate) beach area for my liking. I guess we're just not the spring break party type.

Rain, rain go away...

 It was such a wonderful experience and it flew by way too quickly. We learned a lot and would do a few things differently the next time, but overall it was pretty close to perfect! One thing I would change--I would definitely remember to bring the STROLLER! We realized we hadn't switched it over to our other car after we were about 15 minutes down the road and thought that we'd have a chance to buy an umbrella stroller somewhere. Yeah, we didn't ever get a chance. We navigated three airports, twice each, as well as all the islands and the ship without one. It was doable, but man oh man my left arm was sore :). I also wouldn't take a car seat. Did you know that rental car agencies rent them out? I didn't know that. Never again will we drag a car seat around with us for a whole week just to use it for one day. Also, we probably won't take kiddos on a cruise again until they're old enough to participate in the kid activities. Jaden was fine to keep around because we had a lot of help, but if he were two or three it would have been a lot harder. But I guess those are the things you learn how to adjust when you all of a sudden have a little bambino! It really was so fun to have him with us and we had a great time with our family! Thanks Mom and Dad for a fabulous trip!