Thursday, March 13, 2014

Western Caribbean Cruise

Since we were going to be in New Orleans for a month, we decided to take a 7 day cruise to Honduras, Belize and Mexico. We went on the Carnival Sunshine which is one of the upgraded ships with a Guy's Burger Joint, many restaurants and a huge water slide. They themed this ship like a beach outing and instead of the "carnival blue and red" uniforms they are wearing sky blue shirts with khaki pants/shorts. The serenity deck is actually 3 decks and away from all the kids activities.



The first port we stopped at was Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras. Pretty neat stop. They have these chairs that take you from the cruise terminal to the beach or you could walk to the beach. I took a tour of the island. The tour guide was very informative and there were a couple of good stops. One of the stops was at Yubu, the Garifuna Experience. This was a place where they did the native dances. Really fun to watch. We also saw authentic food places like "Bojangles"... hehehe For those people who don't know, Bojangles is in the southern part of the US and is a chicken place like Church's or KFC. 

Our next stop was Belize City, Belize. It was a 15 minute tender ride from the Carnival ship to the port, but worth it. I decided to take the Xunantunich Mayan ruins tour. WOW.... first it was a 2 hour ride from the port to the ruins site each way. The ruins are just a couple of miles from the Guatemalan border and all I can say is WOW... I have never seen anything like them before in my life. We were able to climb to the top. A little scary, especially for someone who is afraid of heights. There are no railings or anything... once on top, the view is just awesome... can't think of any other way to explain it. On our way back, we stopped at a place to get authenticate food. It was really good. 

Our last stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. I liked the Mayan ruin tour in Belize so much that I wanted to see what the ruins in Cozumel were like. They were not as extravagant as the one in Belize but they were really cool. The had a lot more "pieces" of the ruins than the Belize but they were smaller. One thing it did have was a lot of iguanas. Cozumel is an island so the tour also went from the ruins around the beach front of the other side of the island and then back to the port.

Back at the ship, they had a few additional restaurants that you could go to other than the normal ones included and the steakhouse. They had a sushi, an Italian and an Asian restaurant. We ate at the Italian restaurant once and it was good, but we loved the Asian restaurant. Went there 3 or 4 times.... YUM

Looking forward to our next cruise.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

New Orleans.... woohoo

We arrived in New Orleans... still searching for warmth. I really do like it down here. We took a drive out to the other side of the Mississippi River down to the Gulf... saw the shrimping boats. Our main accomplishments while we were here was the cruise (see the next blog) and Mardi Gras. Our son, Dennis, turned 21 the week before Mardi Gras and we had him come out for it. What a blast that was. So neat to hang out with him. We went to the Tabasco Factory in Avery Island, saw Oak Alley Plantation, went out to see a couple of parades the night of Lundi Gras and caught lots of beads, then took a tour of New Orleans and drove him out to Mississippi so that he could add one more state to his list of places he has been. 

Now we start heading back to the west coast for our grandson Hudson's birth. Next stop is San Antonio, TX.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Time to catch up.... TX, AR, TN, MS

Been a whirlwind few months. First off we made it to Grapevine, TX before the storm hit. Boy has this been some winter. Feels like it will never get warm. We spent Christmas and New Years there. Downtown Grapevine is such a pretty place at Christmas.

I also took a trip to the Bush Library. I was such a busy place. They had a very beautiful display of Christmas at the White House as well as the regular features. It was really hard to go into the 911 portion of the exhibit though.

Still in Grapevine, I went to the Gaylord ICE Show. What a neat concept. This years theme was the Nutcracker and everything is made from ice. It was such a beautiful site.

After Grapevine, we decided to go to Little Rock, Arkansas. Spent the week there and saw the town as well as the Clinton Library.






Next stop was Memphis, Tennessee and Graceland. WOW... a must if you are in the area. Such a beautiful place. We also saw the Lorraine Motel where MLK was assassinated. 

We decided to take the drive to Nashville, TN and look around there also.

After the week in Memphis, we drove through Jackson, MS and looked around that town then went on to Baton Rouge, LA.

Our next stop is New Orleans for a month. Got a cruise and Mardi Gras.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....