OUR 5TH ANNIVERSARY CRUISE!

Well, our cruise was amazing! Here we are standing on the beautiful Carnival Liberty waiting to leave Fort Lauderdale. It was still a little cold in Florida, but it got warmer as the week went by!


The inside of the boat was amazingly gorgeous! We didn't expect it to be that nice...even though we had been told it would be!





Monday morning we arrived in the Bahamas. We were really excited because we were going on an open ocean dolphin swim! There were only 5 of us in the entire group and we spent about 45 minutes in the ocean with the dolphins! They were beautiful and gentle! It was the coolest experience and we would love to do it again someday!






Tuesday was our day at sea, heading to the Cayman Islands. It was really neat to see us sail by Cuba! We hung out on the boat that day and just had a good time together!





Wednesday morning we woke up in gorgeous Grand Cayman! WOW...what a beautiful island! The water was crystal clear and you could see the bottom of the ocean even when you were in really deep water! We went to Stingray Bay to swim with the stingrays. Anson loved it and I was terrified. I am not sure what was so scary about them, but the first time one came near me I jumped right out of the water onto Anson's back! They were so huge and there were so many of them! I did hold one for a second, but the picture isn't scanned yet! I spent most of the time trying to avoid the stingrays actually touching me! They were neat to look at....I just didn't want to be like the Crocodile Hunter! After we went to see the stingrays, we went snorkelling--which was so much fun! Then we went to the beach and rented jet skis. That was SOOOO exciting--although it took me a little while to get up the courage to go super fast! Anson was, of course, all about trying to race the entire time and seeing who could get the highest into the air! The weather was beautiful and we both got a bit sunburned. But, considering everyone at home was preparing for a snow storm...we were glad for the red faces:)





On Thursday morning we were in Costa Maya, Mexico! We went on a tour of some Mayan ruins there and then went shopping and to the beach there. Costa Maya is on the border of Belize and is beautiful! The weather there was gorgeous as well. We saw some iguanas and Scott, who sat at our table for dinner every night, had his picture taken with a HUGE iguana on his head--yuck! We got back on the boat Thursday night and got ready to spend the rest of our time at sea!





Well, Friday was our last day on the boat (sob, sob!) and we decided to get up early and go see the sunrise...obviously, this was Anson's idea and NOT mine! I was terribly excited to get up at the crack of dawn....:) We went outside to discover that it was cold, raining, and extremely windy. The sun never did actually rise, but we did get to eat breakfast with the three other people that were awake at that time! We spent the day inside (since it was way too windy to be on any of the decks!). We went shopping, tried to win a free gemstone by filling out a lot of ballots (we didn't win though...), ate large pieces of cake for lunch, & started packing our clothes! Friday night we went to the reservations only supper club on the boat. It was a five course meal and was delicious! We ate very tiny appetizers with very tiny forks...I am still unaware of what mine actually was! If you got up from the table to go to the bathroom, they would come back and fold your napkin into it's nice fan shape again and set it by your place...weird:) I ordered a caesar salad, and the waitress came to our table with a cart and said, "I will now toss your salad!" She showed me a huge wooden bowl with some romaine hearts in it and a few croutons. She drizzled some dressing in it and began to "toss!" I am not exactly sure why they did this at your table, but hey...at least you knew it was fresh! After dinner we just hung out and finished our packing. Only a few more hours on the boat....





Saturday morning we woke up back in Fort Lauderdale and made it off the boat quickly with all of our luggage! We got to the Miami airport early and managed to switch our flights for earlier ones and got home 5 hours earlier than we had planned!



We are back home in the snow...(I arrived in sandals and had very frozen feet since Anson's dad couldn't remember where he had parked the car at the airport!), and we are back in the swing of things. We had such a wonderful time together...hard to believe we've been married for 5 years now! We made so many memories and met lots of great people...we have even heard from one of the couples at our table and they might come visit this summer! Who would've thought?! It was a fantastic opportunity and we are so blessed to have so many family and friends who support and love us! We highly recommend cruising to all of you:) Thanks for reading this exceptionally long entry!