Caribbean Cruise....the end

So our cruise came to an end, we made some wonderful memories.We loved it all and will miss the beautiful Caribbean, the time with our kids was just the best!
Upon arriving back thru the Gulf of Mexico,( it was amazing seeing all the oil rigs, boats and so much going on out in the water) into the Mississippi river, we came back to New Orleans....cold and wet and rain! brrrr! Jeremy's truck was waiting and we drove back to Jackson Mississippi to where our flight home was. We detoured a bit and went to see Vicksburg. What a wonderful National Park they have there. I think we could have spent a day seeing it all. They have quite the museum and driving tour to take. They even have the Cairo which was a civil war battleship that was sunk in the Mississippi river on display. Be sure and stop if you are ever in Vicksburg Mississippi!

Caribbean Cruise

Our last stop on our cruise took us to Cozumel. We didn't spend much time there but a bit of shopping, instead we hopped on a boat that took us over to the mainland. We boarded a bus then that took us out to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. Ken and I had seen them on our last visit there but they were so impressive it was wonderful to see them again.It was fun to share that with Jeremy and Jamie, we even sat down to have some of the local tacos. They were good, not quite as good as the ones on the beach in Costa Maya! They had all levels of spice in their salsa, so Jeremy and I got brave and tried the hottest, yep, even your lips burned!
They've done a great job with the preservation of this ancient village, it's wonderful to be able to walk around and see the buildings.

Caribbean Cruise

Our next stop was Belize. We did a ship excursion and had a great time on it. Cave Tubing! We went by bus out to the jungle, walked a path thru the jungle carrying our inner tubes with a helmet and head lamp . When we got to the cave opening we all got into our tubes and floated 1/2 mile thru the cave, what an adventure! We came out the other side and floated out thru the sunshine down the river. They fed us lunch then up in this wooded grass roofed structure that was up in the tree tops.
Belize is a very poor country, garbage just everywhere but the jungle and cave tubing was a great experience. It's in a protected area like in the US we'd have a national park. Our guide for our group of 8 was very knowledgeable about the local trees and poisonous plants and where their natural medicines come from. He picked us some "allspice" leaves as we went down the river, amazing to smell that out in the jungle, smelled like we should be having pumpkin bread!

We were glad to get off the Rickety bus and back to the big boat!

Caribbean Cruise

Day 2 was a day at sea, very relaxing with time for reading, napping, eating, games and lots of fun. We were in Costa Maya on Day 3. We took a little bus that went to the beach and spent the day there. It was beautiful out, Ken and Jeremy here off to do a bit of snorkling in that blue water! That is our ship in the background.

We had native man that set us up with a table on the beach ( for $10) and we had fun there just relaxing. We had some authentic beach tacos ( the price tended to change each time you asked too!) But it was a fun stop in Mexico with lots of things to watch around you, mariachi's and drums and lots of people selling their wares. They were not begging but all had something to win your American dollars! It was a nice day in Costa Maya.

Sailing Away

So I will post each days favorite pictures from our cruise as it's to much to tackle at once! After 2 fun days in Mississippi with Jeremy and Jamie, we all drove to New Orleans to board our ship. We had enough time to stop at a national park as we drove thru New Orleans and get a stamp, most of New Orleans didn't have us much impressed so we were glad to board the big boat! Here is our ship, it's the Norwegian Spirit. We'd never sailed on Norwegian before but enjoyed it and the price was right!Here we are on deck ready to sail. Only regret there was that is got dark and we couldn't see much as we sailed the 100 miles down the Mississippi river and entered the Gulf of Mexico, I could feel it about midnight tho as the ship had more movement.
Our cruising buddies, Jeremy and Jamie.
Here are Ken and I , we didn't sail under that bridge, we started out with a complete 180 degree turn and headed down the river! We found our rooms to unpack and headed out to explore the ship and of course find some dinner!

Caribbean Cruise

We are back, so here's just one photo of our grand trip! It was a wonderful week spent together, wonderful sights to see and fun times, great memories were made. We spent time relaxing at the beach, snorkeling in Honduras, cave tubing in Belize, mayan Ruins, and on and on. We loved it all, I'll post pictures one of these days as I have a TON ( imagine that!) But here is just one. This is in Honduras after we got off the ship, it was one of our favorite stops. A very pretty country and the snorkeling was lots of fun!