"Vacation All I Ever Wanted, Vacation Had to Get Away..."

My daughter and I had been planning a trip to Italy together for the past couple of years. Every time we thought we would be able to go, something would come up that would prevent one of us from going.

We finally decided to hold off on Italy until after she was done graduate school and settled into a job. That didn't change the fact that she needed to get out of the sub-zero temps in Minnesota, or that I just needed a break.    

With those thoughts in mind, we booked a cruise to the Bahamas—and what a time we had! We just got back on Sunday, sunburned and hungover, but if we were any more relaxed we would be comatose!     

Liz flew in from Mankato, MN on Saturday, packed a suitcase from the boxes of summer clothes she had stored here, and we were off the next day. Sailing out of Baltimore made a lot of sense to us. It was an incredibly easy two hour drive on 95. The port is about 200 yards from the exit off the highway. We tossed our luggage out of the car, kissed the spouse/dad goodbye, and we were off.     

We had never been on a cruise before. Those of you who have, think back to your first time. We were like a couple of hicks going to the city for the first time: "Golllly! Look at all the  purty lights!" There were 4 times as many people on the ship as there had been at my daughter's college, and enough food to feed a couple of small countries! There were people to respond to almost every whim. I especially liked having someone else make my bed, and leave silly towel animals when it was turned down for the night.    

Once we had gotten through the initial safety instructions, unpacked our bags, got lost a couple of times, and found a map of the ship that we could take with us everywhere, we went exploring. Then we discovered the games and contests! We had always thought that we knew more about nothing than a lot of people, and set off to prove it. We entered every trivia contest, every scavenger hunt, even the "master mixologist" contest—and we were awesome! We ended up winning 7 trophies and 3 medals. And Liz earned the title of "trivia ninja." I'm so glad to know that her 7 years of higher education have paid off.        

Lying on the sand at Cocoa Beach in Florida, we thought of those left behind in NJ only briefly, while we enjoyed the 80 degree day. Karma got us for that. We forgot to put sunscreen on our feet and could barely wear shoes that night. Just as we were leaving the beach, a dolphin leapt out of the water right behind some body surfers and did a cork screw spin before diving back into the waves. And just in case some of the people on the beach missed it, he did it 4 more times. The timing was perfect, and set us up for our shore excursion in Nassau.        

By far the highlight of the trip was when we got off of the ship in Nassau, took a ferry to Salt Cay and swam with the dolphins at Blue Lagoon. It was an incredible experience! Besides being smarter than a lot of people I know, each dolphin had a distinct personality, and there was definitely a sense of humor and an almost patronizing "Oh you poor land bound human" attitude when they interacted with us. There were even two baby dolphins! Just 6 weeks old, they haven't been named yet since their gender is still unknown.        

We kept hearing on the news about other Carnival cruise ships encountering all kinds of problems, but the reports seemed like distant fiction to passengers on the Carnival Pride. We had a wonderful 8 days with no worries, took a ton of pictures, made lots of new friends and basically didn't want to leave the ship when we got back to port in Baltimore. It was even more depressing for Liz, who had to fly back to Mankato and a balmy 15 degrees.        

I haven't been away for more than a couple of days since 1975 - and after how much we enjoyed this vacation, I plan to go a lot more often! Heading back to township meetings and getting up at 6:00AM for school, doing laundry, cooking and doing dishes - I used to tell people that I was going to run away and join the circus - now I find myself wondering if the cruise line is hiring, and if I could sneak out of town before before anyone noticed!