I am writing this from my sister's house in Wisconsin. I flew up here yesterday and am sitting at their computer smelling the breakfast that my brother-in-law is cooking. My husband stayed home with the dogs.
    I have two brothers and my Mother along with many aunts, uncles and cousins who live up here. I also have a few friends from school with whom I am still in contact. So I can do some visiting when I am up here.  Mainly though I came to be with my sister who is having surgery on her shoulder.

    I've been on vacation for the last half month. I planned to do some posts from the road but never got around to it. We started our trip by driving to Auburn, Alabama and watching the University of Kentucky men's basketball team play against Auburn University. We won that game and two others while we were gone but they also had their first loss. They were ranked #1 for a week and now are #3.

   From Auburn, we drove to Orlando, Florida to spend a week in a condo. The weather was sunny but only in the low 70's so it was perfect for walking around but too cool to swim. Our condo complex was beautiful and had two very inviting looking pools. It had been very cold there (in the 30's) the week before so the pool water was cold. I went in one of the pools our last day but it wasn't very comfortable.

  In Orlando, we went to Sea World. We had not been for many years and it has changed a bit. They have rides now and many restaurants and shops. The animal shows are still the thing but they have upgraded them with acrobatics and diving. We spent a day in Tampa at Ybor City and Clearwater Beach (too cold to swim there, too). Otherwise, we went shopping and hung out at the condo.

  From Orlando, we drove to Fort Lauderdale where we boarded Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas for an 8-day cruise to the eastern Caribbean. Our stops included St. Martin (which is part Dutch and part French), St. Thomas (pictured, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Haiti. In Haiti, we were on the Atlantic side of the island at Royal Caribbean's private resort. It was over 60 miles from Port_au_Prince where the earthquake happened. The resort is in a lightly populated area as the scenery is mostly tree-covered hills.

    The ship brought in supplies for earthquake relief which were loaded onto United Nations trucks. One does feel guilty enjoying the beaches and beautiful scenery knowing that people are suffering so nearby. The alternative would be that over 200 people on Haiti who are employed by Royal Caribbean would be out of work if we had not stopped there. Royal Caribbean is donating all the revenue from the stop to earthquake relief and there were several fund raisers on board the ship during the week. I wish we could have helped out but I can understand that the logistics of transporting cruise ship passengers to the striken area for a few hours service is not an easy thing and would have impeded other work going on.

    Our last stop after the cruise was to visit friends in the Fort Lauderdale area. Then the long drive home. The dogs were happy to see us. I am still doing laundry and getting things put away. I also have over 3,000 pictures to sort through. Luckily, I don't have to go back to work!