New Orleans Cruise - Port of Costa Maya, Mexico

   All day Monday we were at sea so we did not pull into our first port until Tuesday at Costa Maya in the Yucatan pennisula of Mexico. There was not much there until the cruise port was built but the location is well suited for visiting several of the ancient Mayan ruins in the area. Right off the end of the dock is a shopping area with bars and a big swimming pool.

   Bridgette and Karen opted to swim with the dophins. Margaret was the photographer.
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Mayan child winking at us

Terre on the temple

   I went with my Mother, aunts and sisters on the Mayan Reality Tour. Unlike a lot of ancient civilizations that have disappeared over time, the Mayans have survived and are still living on their ancestor's lands. We were bused to a small Mayan village which does not appear that different than many Mexican towns but has the remains of a Mayan temple. The school children attend school half the day and the other half are at the temple greeting the tourists, selling hand made crafts and posing for pictures. 
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Scenes from a Mayan family farm

    Next we visited the home and farm of a Mayan family where they cooked lunch for us in a clay pot buried in a pit with hot coals. Lunch was a type of barbecued chicken served in fresh home made tortillas with home made guacamole - delicious! We were able to tour their home which was divided into different thatched huts, one for living and sleeping, one for cooking and one for worship. Lush foliage and beautiful flowers were everywhere.
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New Orleans Cruise - Port of Belize City, Belize

   On Wednesday we anchored off the shore of Belize and were taken into port on small tender boats. Belize is known for having hundreds of islands and a coral reef along its shore. This coral reef is second in size only to the Great Barrier Reef in Austrailia.

   My sister Terre, Mom and her sisters went on an airboat ride up the Belize River.
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Barb in her snorkel outfit

Underwater view of the reef

   My sister Kathy and my cousins Mary and Erin and I went on a snorkel trip followed by a visit to an island beach. Kathy was having trouble keeping the snorkel mask from leaking so one of the staff pulled her around the reef on a life preserver (I thought that was awesome of them).

Kathy, Mary and Erin at the beach

After snorkling we got all the free rum punch we could drink while we went to the private beach.

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New Orleans Cruise - Port of Roatan, Honduras

    Roatan is an island off the mainland country of Honduras in Central America.  This island is one of the prettier islands in the Caribbean with lush green covered mountains and beautiful blue water. At this port people chose many different activites.

Shipwreck in Mahogony Bay

     Terre and I took a tour of the island that was part by bus and part by boat. On the boat part we rode through the harbor where the cruise ships were docked. There are a couple of ship wrecks in the harbor. The guide said they were wrecked off shore and blown into the harbor by hurricanes. Now they are popular dive locations and serve as reefs for the fish.

View from the top of Roatan

Garifuna dancing

Our bus tour route took us around the island where we could see the villages people lived in, their schools and homes and many scenic overlooks. We stopped to view a performance by the Garifuna, the native people of Honduras. They sang, danced and cooked for us.
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Bridgette surprised by a parrot

Karen on the rope bridge

Karen with a monkey on her head

    Bridgette and Karen went to Gumbalimba Park. They toured a lush garden with rope bridges and got to interact with parrots, iguana and monkees.
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Margaret, Kathy and Grace holding a dolphin

Kathy getting kissed

.   Aunt Arlene, Aunt Grace, Betty, Kathy, Mary and Margaret went to the Dolphin Encounter at the Roatan institue for Maritime Studies (RIMS). After seeing the dophins do tricks, they each got a kiss from a dolphin and got to pet one and hold it.
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New Orleans Cruise - Port of Cozumel, Mexico

Cozumel waterfront

    Cozumel has a pretty and lively waterfront. There is a wide sidewalk with a seawall and bench along the water. Across the road the street is lined with shops, bars, restaurants and museums. The water here has beautiful shades of deep blue to turquoise.
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With our server at Torro's

     We decided to just walk around town. I had the intent to walk to the town square but our ship docked next to a shopping plaza that you had to walk through to get into town. We got waylayed in the shops and found some good bargains. By the time we made it down to the street we were already getting tired. We decided to walk upstairs to Toro's Place restaurant which has a open air patio with a great view of the water, street and the cruise ships. A marriachi band was playing. We so enjoyed sitting up there we just stayed there until it was time to go back to the ship.

Posing on the seawall in Cozumel

New Orleans Cruise - Coming Home

    Sadly our cruise had to come to an end. We woke up Sunday monring back in New Orleans. This was the Sunday before Mardi Gras so we decided to just head home and avoid the crowds. My Mother, Aunt Arlene, Kathy and Terre drove back to Louisville with me. Some of the others flew directly home but a few spent Sunday night in New Orleans to catch some more bon times.

At the Farve shrine in Kiln

    Just over the state line in Mississippi is the tiny town of Kiln. This town is sacred to Green Bay Packer fans (okay, maybe not as sacred as it once was) because it's the hometown of their great quarterback, Brett Farve. Everyone riding with me is a big Packer fan so we just had to stop. After driving through it twice (we missed the tiny city limit sign over the top of the speed limit sign) we finally found the place. A gas station/restaurant/bar had a proper sign for everyone to pose with.

At breakfast in Clarksville

    We rolled into Clarksville, Tennessee to spend the night with my cousin, Suzanne. It was nice of her to let us use her house as a rest stop since we got in late and unfortunately had to leave early. The following morning we went out to breakfast together. That's Suzanne on the left.
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   The next day we made it back to Louisville. Terre had to head out back to Fort Wayne so she could go back to work the next day (it's so sad that people have to work). The next few days we spent touring Louisville and visiting with my remaining sister, Mary and her family.  Some of things we saw:

 The Louisville antique mall where we also ate lunch.

Churchill Downs, the race course that is home to the Kentucky Derby.

 The big bat at the Louisville Slugger factory and museum.

 Muth Candy store, the oldest candy store in Louisville where you can buy bourbon balls (chocolate creams flavored with Kentucky made bourbon) and madjeskas (caramel covered marshmallows, much better than they sound).

Lynn's Paradise Cafe the eclectic restaurant run by Lynn Winter, one of the best chefs in Louisville. This restaurant serves the best pancakes you may ever eat.

The grave of Colonel Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken at historic and beautiful Cave Hill Cemetery.

    OK, I am waaay behind on my posts. No excuses; I'll just try to get caught up. As soon as I am done here I will start work on posting pictures from the trip I took with my Mother, sister, aunts and cousins (spoiler alert: it was fabulous!).
    We had company here through last week and more on St. Patrick's Day. And the basketball tournements have started. I also had mail to catch up on and that led me to clean up my office which was getting a bit out of control. Having completed one trip I just had to get started planning the next ones. I booked us on a trip to California to visit Mike's family and do some sightseeing. I booked the big Mediterranean cruise for the fall so I'll have to figure out all the logistics around that one (that is, the pre- and post- activities). I always like having a few trips to which I can look forward.
    The weather has finally turned spring-like. The tulip magnolia in our back yard has budded out so I expect to see blooms within the next few days. This is a late bloom for that tree; it usually tries to bloom in February. Often the blooms get killed by a frost. Here's hoping it stays above freezing for the remainder of the season.

    It's a beautiful Sunday morning. All the snow is gone, the sky is blue and the sun is shining. In two weeks I will be cruising the Gulf of Mexico with my Mother, sisters, aunts and cousins (12 of us, all women). So today I vowed to walk the treadmill every day until the cruise. This morning I did one mile in 27 minutes. I'll see what I can get it to before I leave for the trip.


Wet Pilar

    After exercising I helped my husband clip the dog's hair and then I gave her a bath. She looks so funny when she is wet! She is already starting to fluff up to her normal size. She smells so good now (I put creme rinse on her) although she would probably prefer the old way she smelled. She'll have to go outside and work on that. We are going to visit grandma one day this week and I wanted her to look her best.


    My husband is well on his way to recovery. He is more well than sick now. He does have to take it easy until he goes to the doctor again in a few weeks. No straining or heavy lifting. While I was bathing the dog he came into the bathroom and apologized for still being in recuperation mode and he was so sorry he could not clean up the dishes (hint, hint). So after I finished with the dog I cleaned up the dishes. His friends don't call him Mr. Obvious for nothing.

    My family in Wisconsin is still on a high from the Green Bay Packer's big win in the Super Bowl. They just love their Packers as much in the bad seasons as in the best seasons. It's just wonderful they get to have times like this. It pretty much wipes out all the hard feelings from the Brett Favre incident three years ago. Who would have thought back then that just three years later they would be sitting on top of the world.

    This afternoon all the cruisers are getting together to make plans for our cruise. We'll decide on what shore excursions we want to take, dinning options, what we'll wear and whatever else we need to discuss. Everyone is so excited about the cruise. This is the first cruise for some of our group and its the first time we've all gone on a trip together. I really hope everyone has a good time. We leave out of New Orleans which will be such a fun place to start out from. Let the good times roll!

    Another Saturday morning in my home office. This morning I am looking out the window and seeing grass - yea! There are still a few small patches of snow on the deck and in shady areas but I expect them to go away today as the temps will be in the 40's. I am sure this is not the last of winter weather we will see but it is a hopeful sign that spring will come again.
   This has been a good week. My husband is the best he has been since before we left for India. The catheter came out for good on Monday and he can now relieve himself on his own. He is still having pain but it is not constant; it's only been ten days since his surgery so that is to be expected. Thank goodness for pain pills! We've been going out for a few hours everyday, shopping, eating, taking in a movie and strolling the antique mall. Today we have tickets to a play, Second City - It Takes a 'Ville, at Actor's Theatre. It's a take on all thing Louisville by members of Chicago's Second City comedy troop. It should be fun. Other talismen of wellness: he drove his own car this week and went out on his own a few times. Things are starting to get back to normal finally.
  

    Today is a Sunday and its after noon. So I missed my Saturday morning blog. But when you are retired one day can be pretty much equal to another.
    We got a big (for us - 4") snowfall this past week and the temps have been very cold (from the 20's into the single digits) ever since. I am still seeing a white world out my office window. It's been sunny which makes it very pretty outside so that's some compensation. I shoveled a path from the door to the car so my husband can get out if he needs to. The sun dried off the asphalt making a clear walkway. He is still on a catheter (ever since we got back from India) and falling could be a very serious issue. He goes to the doctor tomorrow for what we are both praying will be the last of the catheter. Wish him luck!

    It's hard to figure if the dog likes the snow or not. When I go out in the driveway she loves to come out with me and romps through the snow. When I let her out on the deck she hovers near the house where there is a narrow strip protected from the snow by the porch overhang. I have to urge her off the deck but sometimes she just does her duty on the deck. The next time I let her out she sniffs all her prior spots like she is wondering what dog has been marking her deck. When I went out to get the paper yesterday I just looped the leash around her neck instead of clipping it on her (less bending over for me). Just as we got to the road she slipped out of the leash and headed off. She stopped at the next mailbox and sat waiting for me but she did not seem to want to walk. I ended up carrying her back home. Maybe it was too cold for her little paws.
    My family in Wisconsin (and elsewhere) is all excited over the Packers-Bears football game today. The winner goes to the Super Bowl. The weather is expected to be in the teens with the windchill in single digits - brrrr! Much better to watch on TV! Go Pack!
   

    It's been a long time since I sat in my home office on a Saturday morning entering a post on my blog. We have been home from India for over a month now and my husband is still suffering from his intestinal infection. They finally decided to do surgery to relieve the pressure on his bladder. I think he is relieved that, hopefully, it will all be over soon.

    In the month since we've been home we've only had a few days of temperatures above freezing and we've had many snowfalls. Thank goodness the snow amounts were small, usually an inch or less. We did get four inches last week, an ice storm the week before Christmas (enough to close schools the last two days before the holiday break) and a pretty snow on Christmas morning. We have had snow on the ground almost continually which is very unusual and annoying. I should not complain because we have been spared the wollups that other parts of the country are experiencing. At least, so far we have been spared.

    We spent Christmas weekend at home, just the two of us and the dog. I got Pilar a toy she really liked. It actually took her several weeks to finally chew it up (it usually only takes her a couple hours). The first two presents my husband opened were things I bought in India and the third was a video on rail trips I had purchased months before. None of this went over very well (still too sick). Even in his painful state he did have a few things for me to open (he's such a sweetheart). We spent the day watching Christmas movies and I cooked a roast in the crock pot.

    My sister and her husband came in for New Year's weekend. We went to my friend Joe's house for a big party. As usual the hardcore group stayed after midnight and played games until 3 AM. On New Year's Day we went to our other sister's house and played more games. They got a new XBox with the Kinetic Sensor that recognizes you standing in front of it and reacts to your moves. The funniest part is just watching people play it as they are jumping around, kicking, waving their arms wildly. We got some good videos of the kids but they made me promise not to post them on the web (too bad). Maybe this one picture is ok because you can't tell who it is anyway (this way I can find out if they ever actually look at my blog).
    So I have been spending my days at home mostly, waiting on my husband and sorting through the pictures from our India trip. I put together a slide show and am in the last stages of creating a video of the trip. One of the things I love about making trip videos is that it lets me live through the trip again. It really was a fabulous trip (other than my husband's illness).