The Cruise . . .

A few months before our 3rd wedding anniversary, Jeff mentioned the idea of going on a cruise. He found a website with really great prices and told me about a weekend three day cruise to the Bahamas. While the thought of being away from Johnathan made me a bit nervous, the thought of going away and having alone time with my husband won me over! We booked the cruise and never looked back. Jeff surprised me by upgrading us to a romantic anniversary package which just added even more fun and relaxation to a great get away. Since the month of July was so busy for us, the day we were leaving for our cruise kinda crept up on me! Before I knew it we were packed up and driving to the Port of Miami.

All packed up and ready to go!

And as corny as this may sound . . . somewhere between Naples and Miami, Jeff and I remembered what it was like to be Husband and Wife and not Mommy and Daddy. We fell into a very familiar feeling, listening to music, remembering funny stories, finishing each other's sentences, yeah I know icky "honeymoon-ish" stuff . . . it was really nice!

So, slight side note here, unfortunately a few days before we left for our cruise Jeff came down with a cold, sore throat, stuffy nose, ichy eyes, the works. By the day we left for the cruise he was feeling much better . . . well, before we were allowed to check in we had to fill out a piece of paper stating that we "were NOT ourselves or in contact with anyone who had flu like symptoms such as sore throat, stuffy nose, itchy eyes, etc." because of the fear of a swine flu outbreak on a cruise . . . . you better believe we check the box "NO" and Jeff blew his nose before we actually checked in. We weren't gonna let the fear of infecting an entire boat full of 2,500+ people with the "flu" get in our way of our romantic get away, I don't think so! (Just in case you were concerned, Jeff felt 100% better by that night, so really we didn't do anything bad, right? right!)

Back to the cruise, as part of our romantic package there was a bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries in our room as we checked in. It took us about 3 seconds to open that bottle and enjoy!

We then went on our own little tour of the ship. It was so much fun to poke around and check out our digs for the next 72ish hours.

Finally we got Jeff an ice cold beer and all was good with the world! So we found a menu with the prices for beer and saw that Coors Light was cheaper than all of the other beers, how perfect right? Well, we found out it was cheaper because it was a smaller bottle, so what did we do? We took out our cell phones to calculate the cost of beer per ounce to make sure we were buying beer the most economical way! You better believe it! hehehe

Then it was time for the "in case of emergency calmly walk to station 'H' and wait for further instruction" drill. I thought it was perfectly fine to bring along my champagne, I mean we are on a cruise, we are on vacation, why not drink through the emergency drill?

Right after the photo I was told that Norwegian Cruise Lines takes their emergency drills seriously, no drinking and no photos!!! Oops!

We spent the rest of the day walking around, relaxing, eating, drinking and had lots of fun!

As we were heading out of the Port of Miami I decided to take some photos of the famous Miami beach . . . can I just say how awesome my zoom lens is? Check this out, this photo is with my lens all the way zoomed out . . . and then

This is with it all the way zoomed in, awesome right? I think so!

We also saw this boat along side of us, apparently each Port has someone to help get each and every boat into and out of the port safely . . .

Safe and sound and on our way so there they go!

After poking around the entire boat we made our way to the aft to enjoy a beautiful sunset! It was the perfect way to end the day!

We fell asleep somewhere in the Caribbean Sea and woke up in Nassau Bahamas. I got up and went to the spa for a fantastic massage while Jeff slept in. We then both had breakfast and got off the ship to explore!

We got back on board and enjoyed laying around the pool . . .

Before we knew it, it was time to say good bye to the Bahamas, we were surrounded by other cruise ships and were the first one to leave . . . talk about a tight parking spot!

That night we had a anniversary dinner in one of the specialty restaurants. The food was delicious and it was even more enjoyable because we could really sit and enjoy and not worry about anything but having fun! During dessert we were serenaded by all of the waiters in the restaurant they sang some "sweetheart" song and gave us a "Happy Anniversary cake" too. How fun!

The next day we slept in and ordered breakfast in bed. Another great way to start the day. The ship was just a small boat trip away from their private island. Jeff and I were on one of the first boat rides there. We got to enjoy the almost private beach for a while before everyone else got there.

After lunch we decided to head back to the ship to enjoy the pool . . .

Cheers!

That night after dinner we went to see the nightly show. As a last minute decision we bought some tear off lottery-like tickets. Since I rarely win things my hopes were not high as I ripped through the tickets . . . . to my surprise I found that we had won $1.00 one on of the tickets and that got me really excited . . . then on the last ticket I nearly jumped out of my seat because we won $100!!!!! I know, crazy right?

Just in case you doubted me, here I am with the winning tickets!!!

It was our last night on board so we stayed up late, spent some time in the casino and actually won even more money, ate a midnight snack of chicken fingers and french fries and really soaked up every last second of our vacation. Oh did I mention that we enjoyed that same midnight snack every night while on board . . . yeah that and somehow all of my clothes shrank while on board, weird since I didn't get them laundered at all, hmmm . . . :-)

Waking up on in Miami . . . what an amazing view!

All packed up and ready to head home . . . while I was sad that our vacation was over, I was so grateful for the amazing time we had. We both agreed that going away was something we should try and do every once in a while. We were both relaxed, rejuvenated and well rested! We couldn't wait to get home and snuggle our little boy who we missed so much!