Today I spent the morning at the gym; it was a good, sweaty workout. Tonight I should sleep soundly. Then I conquered the task of ironing patches on our grand daughter's Daisy/Girl Scout vest. Once those patches are on, they're REALLY on. The troupe numbers might indicate to some I'd been drinking heavily; I wasn't. The good news is that they're on.
Big Guy and I must have had a premonition about the severity of this winter as in August we booked a cruise to the Caribbean on Holland America's MS Nieuw Amsterdam - the same ship we traveled from Barcelona to Venice on two years ago. We had a lovely time and really enjoyed the warmth.
We cruised out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. What an amazingly busy port -- seven ships awaited passengers last Sunday. But they really had it together. From the time our taxi dropped us off to our being totally checked in was fewer than 20 minutes. We then waited only another 20 to board the ship.
Again, we had an armed Coast Guard escort leaving port, which always gives me chills. When they escort a ship out of port, they put their vessel between all other port traffic and the ship that's departing. The weapon is almost bigger than the young woman standing behind it.
Folks lined up to take pictures of the ship leaving Ft. Lauderdale.
It's a magnificent sight when the mammoth cruise ships go through. Our ship was not one of these -- we prefer the smaller ships, but it's still a neat sight to see.
We made four stops: Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Key West -- basically cruising around Cuba -- which was within sight. We got off the ship only twice: once at Half Moon Cay to swim in the most beautiful water I've ever seen...
and where we could see the ship as it awaited our return.
And finally at Key West, where the temperature was almost 90° and the humidity about 83%. We had planned to have lunch at a favorite place: Conch Republic Seafood Company, walk around, and then enjoy some Key lime pie at Kermit's, but the heat really got to me and I needed to return to the ship. I guess my body just wasn't used to that much warmth.
We returned home to Baltimore on Sunday, where we were met by an inch and a half of wet snow and sleet. We've had spring temps all week though, and perennials and bulbs and starting to pop through. Life is good.