Our second day of vacation was spent at Sea. Not a bad place to be when the temps are in the 80's and the sun is shining! We spent lots of time swimming in the many pools, went on a family scavenger hunt, ate lots of food, and made "Pets at Sea!" Late in the afternoon, we had the pleasure of watching the Broncos vs Colts game from the deck of the cruise ship, on the huge screen over the pool. That dumb team that we are foolish enough to love tried to spoil our vacation by turning in their first loss of the season, but we rallied and kicked up our efforts at fun! A big family dinner is a great way to take your mind off football.
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| The pool area on the ship is huge, and somehow didn't feel as busy as this photo makes it look! |
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| Taylee and Aden with their "Pets at Sea!" Butter-Fly, and Lily-Pad |
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| This was before the game went wrong... when we were still having a good time! |
Our second day of the cruise took us to Belize! This was a first for all the members of our group. We were determined to use the opportunity to snorkel the barrier reef around Belize. We went through a lot of reviews and options before our trip, trying to find a tour that would allow us to snorkel the barrier reef, but not with 140 other people. Well, we accomplished our mission! In fact, after a loooong delay in tendering from the cruise ship (that's another story for another day...), we were joined only by one other family on our tour. Sadly, our little group only garnered a 20 foot dinghy, rather than the 40 foot covered boat that was advertised on the website we booked from.
So, we headed out across the open sea in our dinghy, with our lives in our hands, and prayed for nice weather. We were in luck! We made it safely to the reef, a 40 minute ride from the coast of Belize.
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| Open seas! |
Before we arrived at the reef, our tour guides took us to "pick up some sardines" at a little shack on the beach. They also gave us the opportunity to feed the fish. Well these were no minnows! When we fed them, we risked losing life and limb. They were HUGE! I lost a fingernail, and Nana got a little surface wound, but it's all fun and games...I guess.
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| Kent's dangling a little bait! And I don't mean his hand! |
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| Mom and I both had the same reaction... Whoa!!! |
The snorkeling at the reef was pretty fantastic...almost as good as we hoped! Taylee even jumped in and swam along for awhile, but, in the end, her fear took over and she ended up swimming back to the boat. We were still proud that she went swimming in the deep ocean water with us.
After our snorkeling we took a ride over to our next "fun" experience... swimming with the sharks! Ummm, no thanks. But Kent always wants to experience everything there is to offer, so in he went!
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| The sharks that we had the "opportunity" to swim with! |
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| Funny, Kent was the only one who chose to swim with the sharks! |
After our snorkel and swim experience, they took us back to "the split," an area on Caye Caulker, which is an island about 20 miles off the coast of Belize. We explored a little, got some lunch, and Taylee found "treasures" in the sand. (Those treasures later turned up with maggots inside, but that's okay, right?!) After our delay getting off the ship that morning, we had to rush back to the ship a bit early, but we made it work.
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| "The Split" |
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| Enjoying a little lunch at Caye Caulker |
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| The tender port in Belize City |
