June 2 to 9 we went on a wonderful cruise with 6 of Gary's kids and their spouses. It was so much fun! We decided to drive to Galveston so we could see the country. We crossed New Mexico and got into Texas the first night. We stayed in Amarillo then drove through Dallas and down to Corsicana on the next night. On Sunday morning we drove to Galveston where we picked up Tammy and JJ, drove to the cruise parking, and were shuttled to the port.
When we got into our state room, we were greeted by this cute towel seal sitting on our bed.
The next morning we were treated to this little dog when they made up our room. We spent that day at sea as well as the next.
The family was seated at two tables in the dining room. Here we are at the first elegant night.
And this is the other table. Brian and Sara were at a different table away from the rest of us.
I took this picture as Ann took the first one and so wasn't in it. We loved our waiters, and we really loved the food!
Here we are later in the evening at the comedy club. We also enjoyed a show in the big theater.
This little frog greeted us when we got back to our room the next morning.
We arrived in Mahogany Bay in Honduras the next day. Gary and I had not signed up for an excursion, so we just wandered around on shore.
Here is the animal we found when we got back to our room. We were not sure what it was, but it was cute!
We took these pictures from the deck of the ship and later went down the water slides.
The next day we arrived in Belize. We had an excursion scheduled to the Lamanai Ruins.
Here we are leaving the ship on a tender that took us to shore.
John, Ann, Tammy and JJ were on the tender with us although did a different excursion on shore.
This picture is from the tender as we approached the dock.
We had a bus ride of about an hour then arrived at this lake that led into a canal. Our guide said the Mayans built this canal along with many others.
We got on a speed boat and had another ride of 20 to 30 minutes. It was really hot, so the fast boat provided some welcome cool breeze.
At the entrance to the ruins was this sign showing what Lamanai means--Submerged Crocodile!
We had a fairly long hike from the shore into the jungle before we arrived at the one of the ruins.
This is Mask Temple. It looks to be quite well preserved.
Another closer shot of the Masked Temple.
The next ruin we hiked to was called the High Temple. People were allowed to climb it, but it was too hot for us to want to venture up it!
The final ruin was called the Jaguar Temple. Those openings represent the face of a jaguar.
When we got back from our tour, this little creature greeted us.
The next day we arrived at the island of Cazamel in Mexico. The ship docked at Cazamel, but we took a tender to the mainland. We got off the boat in the beautiful city of Playa del Carmen and walked to our bus. On the way we saw this vintage car with a surfboard on top.
The bus ride was about an hour, and we enjoyed the tour guides explanations of the area and of ruins in Tulum that we were going to see.
This is a map of the ancient city of Tulum.
Some of the city was in ruins as this house, but most were mostly intact.
This is not a clear picture, but is a pool under aa building that was apparently their source of fresh water.
This is known as the castle.
This is the back view of the castle, and the beach is not far behind but at the bottom of a cliff.
There were iguanas everywhere we looked.
House of Cenote
Another iguana
House of Hallach Huinic
Temple of the Descending God
Temple of the Wind
The elephant who greeted us on our return.
That evening was second elegant night. We tried to get professional pictures of all of us, but had to have a prior appointment to do that many people, so we had a lady passing by take this pictures. We did get professional pictures of Gary and his kids, and a separate picture of the spouses. Gary and I also had a picture of the two of us taken that evening.
The next day was Saturday. We were at sea all day and this was the cute monkey we found hanging from the ceiling after they cleaned our room. We arrived back in Galveston early Sunday morning. After a very long disembarking, we finally got our car and headed home.
