Back to Life, Back to Reality Part 1

This is the new song I am humming.

We are back from the cruise and it was alright. Okay it was wonderful. It was awesome. It was ridiculously fabulous. And now it's back to life and reality.

Honestly, I cannot imagine a better vacation! Things went so well with us and here at home with the kids.

It was the most vacationy vacation we've ever taken. It was like a second honeymoon. It was just great!

After getting on the boat, our first stop(since our cabin wasn't ready) was up to the Lido deck for lunch. It took a few minutes for me to pass the mental block I had about getting in line for food, getting as much as I wanted, and not stopping at the end of the counter to pay.

And Oh! The Food! I had heard about the food(among other things), but hadn't put much thought into any one particular piece of the cruise. But the food! In case I haven't been transparent enough on this blog, I really like food. And so does Dan. This cruise was all about eating and relaxing for us.

So our first experience with the food was lunch and I had one of my favorites, Capri Salad, and a pear, prosciutto, and pesto pasta, and red snapper. And being that it was all free gave me the lisence to try food I wouldn't normally risk not liking. For a wanna-be foodie like me, I was in heaven. And I did not meet one meal I didn't like. (And I met quite a few!)

Here's lunch:
I guess it would be considered the "after" shot.

And if you know Dan at all, he can really put it away! He makes every "All you can eat" buffet worth every penny. He didn't let me down on this trip. And he consumed more bacon than...I don't know what, but he ate A LOT of bacon.

(This is a BLT from room service at 12:30 am, ordered by Dan just because he could!)

Somehow because everything was free, we felt like we had to take advantage of it all. And those people were always trying to feed us.

(Pizza and ice cream available 24 hours a day)

They say the average cruiser gains 2 pounds. Remember Operation:Swim Suit? Well it was mildly successful. I lost about 5.5 lbs.



You might think I'm lying but sadly I am not. I weighed myself this afternoon when we got home and I gained 6 lbs. Sad, but soo worth it! I guess I am not the average cruiser.

Here's our stateroom. So cozy and we didn't even mind that the was no real window. In fact, it allowed us to sleep in very easily.

Every night there was a different towel creature waiting for us along with 2 mints. Fabulous!





That first night we made our way to the very top and front of the ship, it was so windy we almost blew off the boat.



Literally, we could hardly keep our clothes on!


In the morning we awoke to the bluest water possible,




and had really great intentions of exercising. But the gym was full so we decided to walk around the jogging track. It was so windy, our attempt just turned funny and we didn't get in much exercise.




And at the point we decided to forget about it and just eat as much as we could for the next four days and worry about working out when we got home.

That's all I've got in me tonight. So many pictures, so little time. Stay tuned for the next installment including formal night (and the dress I made!) and whatever else I can squeeze into the post.

For now it's back to real life and reality is so harsh!