CDMX!

I had a whole thing written up about our travel from Jonestown to Ciudad de México, but let's get real: No one cares.

We're having a great time. We've already seen so much and eaten such good food. We've found the people to be kind and forgiving of our meager attempts to communicate in Spanish. 

I'm too tired to do a whole round-up, but here are a few random thoughts I've had:

1) WOW, these people know how to drive. A lot of streets have no lines. Many intersections are crosspoint of 5 different streets. Traffic lights seem to be suggestions. However... everyone seems to be getting where they're going pretty safely as far as we've seen. I'm GLAD we didn't try to rent a car!

2) I feel like I'm seeing a lot more people walking with canes than I usually do, even in densely-packed urban areas. Thinking about that made me realize that Biblioteca Vasconcelos has some of the most overt and neat accessibility infrastructure I've ever seen in a public building like that. There are tactile "rows" on the floor that show where to go for someone with limited vision using a cane. They have ridges but when there's an intersection or turn, there is a tile with bubbles instead of rows. They go throughout the library including into the restrooms. Outside of the braille room, they have a gorgeous tactile sculpture of a seaside beach with very delightful detailing. Yay for accessibility. 

3) Nacho cheese Doritos in Mexico are more peppery than nacho cheese Doritos in the US. Mal thinks they're more spicy, James said he tastes a bite. I only ate one and what hit me was that it tasted more like a pepper tastes.

4) I was prepared not to be able to find public restrooms (at least for free use) but I think it's even harder to find public trash cans! I've located a few, but mostly we just carry our trash until we get home.

5) It's interesting to see how many buildings and homes have their own roof-mounted water "towers" to deal with the inconsistent water availability here. 

6) I don't understand how Uber drivers make any money when the price of gas is more than twice what it is in the US, and the rides are less than half the cost the same rides would be in the US.

7) The Health Ministry isn't playing. 

We got some room snacks and they have big old health warnings about excessive calories, sugar, salt, and saturated fats. Doesn't stop us from eating them, but it is interesting.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts but that's it for now. Que tanga un buen dia!

Eeeeee! It's almost time!

About a year ago, we started planning what was to be our last "big trip" until James got a job.

Well, he has a job now and this is STILL going to be our last "big trip" because this is such a major pay cut, and I'm not even mad about that part. I'm grateful! But our trips for the next few years will be a lot closer to home, places we can drive, and we're putting Chile off maybe until Mal is turning 18.

Where are we going? Here:

Yay! Ciudad de México!

Hopefully our years of Spanish will pay off, and hopefully our host country won't want to pay us back for what our country is doing to their compatriots who are here in the US. It's infuriating and embarrassing to be from the US right now, honestly. Sorry if that offends anyone, but we are being TERRIBLE neighbors, we are breaking laws, we are violating human rights. 

Last night I was looking at the plan I've made and told James, "I'm really disappointed; we don't be able to see all of Mexico City in the 2 weeks we're there!" Of course, I already know this. But I like to have a lot of options on the table so we can not waste time on the ground trying to figure out where to go and what to do. 

A lot of museums are closed on Mondays, for instance, and it helps to know that before you get there so you can plan other things on those days. Some days there are deals for locals, and that's great to know if you don't want to visit somewhere that might be more busy than usual. Other places are hyped up as "must see" that after some investigation, you realize are mostly tourist traps or for rich people, and that there are better places to visit or try. 

So I enjoy learning things and seeking out the best things for our family to experience. And I'm super excited that after almost a year of planning (I bought our airline tickets in April 2025!), it's right there on the horizon.

Also, as per usual, we have a house-sitter so don't think you're going to come break in while we're gone.

We will be staying at three different spots in town, so we can have bases of operation close to where we plan to visit. We'll be walking a lot and using public transit as much as possible. But some places, where it might be 10 minutes to drive or 45 minutes by bus, we'll just take an Uber or Didi. I'm hoping James's gout clears up ASAP and he's going to be taking tart cherry supplements for it from here on out.

Also, we have to stay ahead of Achilles tendonitis, which acted up when we were in Montreal but not when we were in New Orleans. We learned a lot on the Montreal trip! Namely that we need to avoid steps as much as possible (which is difficult when using a subway, but Mont Royal was the thing that probably really kicked him off), James needs to wear ankle supports, and he also needs to take an analgesic in the morning and with lunch. Doing that, even though we walked a ton in Louisiana, he didn't have a flare-up. 

He didn't bring the ankle supports on our cruise, and he ended up needing to borrow my dad's cane after a few days. I had to run into town at Cozumel just to get him some steroids to jump-start his recovery (which we learned later were 10x the dose he'd been given before, but we didn't have internet access and fortunately he lived).

Anyhoo... Yay for travel and it'll be a different kind of fun to plan the least expensive trips I can plan again in the future. For real!

Our HURRICANE cruise!

We made it in one piece! Or 4 pieces.

Anyhoo, you get it: We didn't die.

We cruised on Royal Caribbean out of Galveston, with the itinerary supposedly taking us to Coco Cay, Nassau, and Cozumel. We knew this was a gamble because it was hurricane season, which is why we got such a great deal. 

Turns out, there were 2 storms hovering over the Bahamas, so instead we ported several familiar places: Costa Maya (home of the best excursion I've ever taken), Roatan (sigh), and Cozumel (thanks for the drugs!). 

It was a great trip, we had good food that I didn't have to make and came back to our room that I didn't have to tidy so I have no notes (other than that everything was too loud, including the notes).

A few highlights:

D came with us! It's their first cruise in 15 years, and their first weeklong vacation in 10. It's also their first vacation since having a job, so it probably means more. Actually, D has 2 jobs now, so it was a double.

Nana and Pappy went, separately from us but we got to see them here and there throughout the day. 

D, Mal, and I swam (waded?) in the pool at Puerta Costa Maya whilst James walked around. We saw wild tropical birds and a huge iguana just chilling out. We saw the Danza de Los Voladores. We caught a peep of the Star of the Seas, which made Mal super happy. We bought some local chocolate and were back on board by lunch. We didn't plan any excursions because we hadn't planned to go there, and I don't like to book with the cruise lines (plus the line on the ship was LONG after people realized our itinerary was changing).

Mal and I swam in the pool at the new (to us) Roatan port. When Mal and I were on Roatan in February 2024, it was at the Carnival dock on the east side of the island. This time, we ported where I've stopped every other time I've cruised there. We were last at Coxen Hole in 2019, and they were just about to expand the port. That included a pool area, which is smart and we enjoyed a great deal. We bought some semi-local chocolate (Honduran, but produced on the mainland), and were back on the ship by lunch time.

I'm the only one who went ashore at Cozumel. James's achilles tendonitis was acting up, and I was able to pop out of the port for steroids, which worked very quickly and for which James will worship me until the day he loses his mind or dies. Maybe longer. We did have a good time watching the storms that were rolling across Cozumel, back a ways from the ship. 

Mal tied with another young boy at Flags of the World trivia. Mal and I both sang Weird Al songs ("Eat It" and "Amish Paradise" respectively) at karaoke. I did the zip line over the boardwalk. Mal and I did an all-ages silent disco, which James joined about a half hour in. That paired with taking the stairs might have been what aggravated his tendon. 

We had a great house sitter who took care of the cats and who fully cleaned our house the day before we got home! 

I remember whether I mentioned this or not, but the transmission in our HHR is jacked up. To fix or replace it would be more than I paid for it two years ago. So we're trying to limp along with it (it runs, but rough, but only sometimes??!) but we did NOT want to take it to Galveston. So we rented a car each way, and since we didn't have to pay for port parking, we broke even on that. AND we had a lot more trunk room! I think we were all more comfortable, as well.

We rented a 2 bedroom townhouse in Galveston for the price of one hotel room where we stayed a week in 2023 (and we needed 2 rooms). I actually washed clothes three times the night we were there, so was glad to have that option!

I realized something when I walked outside the first full morning of our cruise: Every other time I've cruised, it's been during the winter. It only makes a difference of a few degrees and a bit of humidity... but I think I'll probably stick to the winter if I'm doing anything near the equator in the future. 

Theater show: cute and enjoyable, talented cast. Aqua show: unbelievable stunts and very cool and avant garde. Ice show: beautiful, incredible athletes, and the dude with the big hoop must be made of solid muscle.

Now we're home and Mal managed to bring some Influenza B with him, so we've spent the week hanging out whilst he convalesces. I think he'll be fine by the weekend, which is good because I think he's getting stir crazy. He wanted to go to open gym today, but we tested him again and there was still the faintest line. 

And I'm on to planning our Mexico trip in the spring... then we're cutting off travel until we figure out what to do with our finances if James doesn't have a job by then.

He had a series of interviews and successful tests with a company right before they left, but they ended up going with someone else, I guess. Sigh. Onward and upward!

Did I mention that we went on vacation?

We took a circuitous road trip to New Orleans at the beginning of the month: Caddo Lake, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lake Charles, home. 

We saw so much cool architecture, a good number of museums, one of the only public plantations dedicated to the lives of enslaved people, and we ate some really good food!

I was going to insert some cool pictures here, but Blogger is being a jerk this morning so here's the link to the album, if you're interested.

Yes, James is still unemployed.

We're trying to walk the line between being frugal to maintain our savings (a lot of which is supposed to be for retirement, so...) and in living our best life while James has time to do things. I'm not sure we're getting it 100%, but we're trying.

Mal has one week left in his classes before they break for the summer. They're having a few "campy" things and he's doing a couple of those, but otherwise I'll be looking for ways to fill Mal's summer downtime. He's not super busy in general, but when the structure of having at least one thing to do most days falls away, he tends to get restless. 

I have a mystery shop today, so I need to get ready to go.

Not much to report, just wanted to throw something up for April!

When the party's over...

We fly home tomorrow and I'm having a lot of mixed feelings!

At two weeks, this is the longest vacation I've ever taken. There have been some moments of stress, but every day was unfailingly fun and we saw so many awesome things.

We started in Carlsbad, visiting LEGOLAND and the Museum of Making Music. We stayed three nights at the LEGOLAND Hotel, and it was terrific: price comparable to other hotels in the area, great theming, good pools, and a full breakfast buffet included.

Next, we took a Lyft up to Anaheim to visit Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, and, of course, Downtown Disney. This is also where we celebrated Mal's birthday. We stayed four nights at the Howard Johnson Anaheim and it could not have been better. Great staff, clean room, super close to everywhere you want to be, great garden pool. It also has a small water park, but Mal couldn't have cared less about that. He was in the pool every day.

We rented a car to move up to Burbank, but that ended up being not hugely necessary. We did go to Bob's Big Boy, but our plans to visit the Griffith Observatory were scrapped because there were just too many people. Even visiting a small park to see the Hollywood sign, we had to park down the road. So many IGers! We did get an Amazon gift card from Avis and so that likely made the cost of the car about the same as if we'd taken another Lyft.

In North Hollywood, we stayed two nights at The Garland, a hotel built by Amanda King's mom herself, Beverly Garland. Her sons run it now. It was classy and retro, and I wish we could stay there a week. Loved it so much. Mal also loved the pool! We visited Universal and concentrated mostly on Super Mario World. I HIGHLY recommend paying $30 extra to get into that area before the park opens. Between that and single rider and hitting other rides within the first hour the park was open, we would have been finished by noon if we hadn't had reservations at... this place. It took me a while after I saw my charge today to remember what it was. Can you guess?

Ha ha. That's right: Toadstool Cafe.

We rented a car through AARP from Enterprise and drove from Los Angeles to Solvang. We stopped at Santa Barbara on the way, got our feet in the sand (and tar on our soles), then stayed one night at The M Solvang. We really enjoyed the Danish atmosphere, and the Danish pancakes, Danish sausage, and aebleskiver. 

The drive from Solvang to Yosemite was just over 5 hours, but it passed quickly. We finished up "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (disclaiming Jo Rowling, shame she's sullied her legacy by being a bully). We stopped for lunch at Huckleberry's, which was billed as "Southern Cooking with a California Twist." We had to see what was up. It was kind of like Cracker Barrel meets Mark Twain in New Orleans.

At Yosemite, we stayed at the Yosemite Valley Lodge, the most expensive night of the trip! It was pretty rustic and no air conditioning (which normally would be no biggie, but they're experiencing a record-breaking heat wave right now!) but they had several fans we were able to use to keep the air circulating, and we were quite comfy! 

It was great walking around in nature before people woke up because at places like Tunnel View and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias, there were just to many people. I know! We were some of those people. But first thing in the morning, it was cool, quiet, and lovely! Even when we went to breakfast and it was pretty packed, it was somehow more laid back than everyone trying to get the perfect selfie in front of El Capitan (which was GORGEOUS, even with literally 80 other people).

Next, we made our way to San Francisco, where we stayed at the Music City Hotel and Rehearsal. It is technically a hostel, but we had a private room. We did have to use community bathrooms, and it was no big deal. This was the cheapest night of the trip: About $135, plus $28 parking. Not bad at all. Also no air conditioner but fortunately we were there the day before the record heat.

We definitely did the tourist thing and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, then went to Fisherman's Wharf, where we ate fresh seafood. We also visited Trader Joe's for snacks.

The next morning, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to Fairfield, where we went to the Jelly Belly Factory. We also watched a movie, "The Wild Robot," while we were in town. Then we finished our last leg, arriving in Sacramento yesterday afternoon.

Last night and this, we are staying at The Delta King, a de- and re-commissioned paddle wheel river boat. Like the Music City hotel, this place has tons of personality. 

I had returned the rental car last night, so this morning (before it got into the 100s), we walked to the Capitol building, and explored Old Sacramento. Later, we went to the California Railway Museum. 

Now we're just winding down and getting ready to head back. I'll be glad to see D, and Mal is excited to get back together with his friends. But also, it's been amazing not having to do the day-to-day minutiae of real life. And we've had such a great time together.

I wish we could take a year, slow down, and really see as much of the country as we were able. I wish we could all 4 go, and find a way to make it work in an oversized RV, maybe with two floors. But James needs to find work again, and we need to get back to a less expensive routine. We're heading into fall, so pretty soon I will be deliriously happy about the weather. 

Good times with some really amazing experiences. If you want to see a vast pictorial history of the fortnight, there's an album here.

Southern California Amusement Parks, some thoughts

We've officially been on vacation for a week, during which time we have visited 4 theme parks: LEGOLAND California, Disneyland, Disney's California Adventure, and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Those are all of the parks we'll be visiting on this trip (theme, anyway; we're going to a National Park soon!). We definitely had good experiences in all, and some less good. I'm going to start with the less good.

For each of these parks, we got there for rope drop (Mal was very worried that "rope drop" was an extremely scary ride he did not want to join; had to fill him in on the lingo). The first hour or two we were in each of the parks, we got to do a lot of rides (well, most days; Mal didn't feel great the day we went to Disneyland, and we wasted some time doing the monorail instead of riding rides that would be too busy to ride later, but he REALLY wanted to ride the monorail and we were trying to keep him happy). After a couple of hours, lines got longer.

However, there was a HUGE difference in what this looked like at LEGOLAND and Universal vs. what it looked like at the two Disney parks. 

This is the first time I've ever been to Disneyland. When we planned the trip, the days we were going were predicted to be fairly middling. Disneyland Resort was forecasted to have medium crows, with 4/10 at Disneyland and 6/10 at California Adventure. I just looked and the crowd calendars were just way off. Our day at Disneyland, crowds were at a 7. DCA day, 8. And we felt it. After noon, there were just wall-to-wall people. We couldn't have a chat as we walked around; we just let one person lead with the others following behind, bobbing and weaving and trying not to hit or cut off people. It was overwhelming and unenjoyable at points in a way I've never felt (even with pretty significant crowds) at Disney World. 

We DID enjoy the things we did and saw. But I don't think I'll be in any hurry to return to Disneyland. It's just too compact and too packed. I think what's happening is that Halloween is just so popular, the crowd forecasters need to understand that people are just going to pack the parks regardless. Also, it looks like Sundays are less busy that weekdays, which feels counterintuitive. In case anyone else is planning a trip.

LEGOLAND was the perfect speed for Mal. We got to go in half an hour early because we were staying on property, and we did the dino coaster first... whoops. Mal was excited, but it was WAY too wild for him. We learned that he just can't do any rides where you feel pressure from changing/redirecting inertia. But we followed that up with a tame boat ride he loved so much, we ended up riding it three times. 

We were able to walk around most of the park in about 5 hours, and saw the rest that we missed the next night. It was pretty cool: I hadn't planned a second day at LEGOLAND, but when I bought my ticket, they were having a buy one/get one sale and since their Brick-or-Treat Monster Party isn't a separately-ticketed event, we went over for that. It was super chill, we rode a couple of things we hadn't seen or ridden before, and then Mal finished it up with the dino boat ride. We got so much candy, we'll probably take some home next week. We've been snacking up on it in the room.

Today, we went to Universal. We'd paid $30 to be able to go into Super Nintendo World an hour before the park opened. That was a super choice. After an hour, James was able to ride the three rides in the lower lot before the other visitors got down there. Mal and I rode "The Secret Life of Pets" a couple of times with no wait between. The early-entry ticket also gets you onto the studio back lot tour with no wait, but there wasn't much of a line when we got to that, anyway. There was when we left!

We'd made reservations at the Toadstool Cafe and had our first and last (so only!) sit-down meal in a theme park. Then James and I both got to ride Harry Potter very quickly through the single rider line. Mal rode "SLOP" (what he calls The Secret Life of Pets ride) with James once, then he and I went shopping while James rode HP. We left the park a bit before 3 PM and had done everything we wanted to do, except maybe the Simpson's ride. I didn't want to double our ticket price to pay for the Express Pass, and it wouldn't have been worth it.

LEGOLAND and Universal were busy enough, but we had comparatively chill days at both of those.

I do want to talk for a moment about the Single Rider lanes... What an amazing time-saver! Between Lightning Lane at Disney (where you pay $30 extra to be able to skip the main line one time for each ride) and single rider, we didn't wait more than about 15 minutes for any ride, except Rise of the Resistance, where a lot of the "line" is an immersive experience, anyway. If your party doesn't mind splitting up, it's so much faster than the standby line, especially if you don't have Lightning Lane. In fact, Radiator Springs Racers doesn't have a normal Lightning Lane: You have to pay about $25 PER PERSON for just that ONE ride if you want to skip the line. But we got to do it super fast (it was under 5 minutes from the time I got in line until I was sitting in a car) because of Single Rider.

All of this to say: I know how to strategize avoiding crowds and lines. But, holy cow, that did not work at the Disney parks. We had fun doing what we did, but the experiences left us worn out and threadbare. We did not feel as chewed up and spit out after our days at the other two parks. 

Just a brief FYI.

We've done other stuff on the trip, too. We went to the very informative and fun Museum of Making Music, we watched the sun set over the ocean, we have spent HOURS by different pools (today is the last day Mal can swim on this trip; our next places don't have pools), and have enjoyed each other.

Tomorrow, we head north. We'll get to a beach, then to a little Danish village, a National Park, and eventually the capital of the state! I think we'll be ready for a day of driving instead of walking miles and miles!

If you want to see vacation pictures, they're here.

Mom and Mal Cruise -- Day 6 - Cozumel

Once again, I was awakened by the ship doing its thing. I was able to watch the ship dock from our balcony, which is facing the port; then I walked up on deck and saw both the moon set and the sun rise. I wish I’d had an adequate camera and the skill to take a good moon-set picture. It was GORGEOUS in person. Oh well. You’ll just have to believe me.

Mal woke up earlier than he usually does at home, but lay in bed and played on his computer for a while before getting up and dressed. We still made it down to the gangway by 8 AM and walked 5 miles in Cozumel, soaking in the sites, before it got too hot. I thought, anyway. As it turns out, it’s been overcast as the day has worn on, so it’s nice and cool (mid/high-70s?) with a breeze. 

We were going to walk into old town but realized after we’d gotten a couple of miles down the seawall that the map I’d printed out originated from the norther port than the one where we’re docked. Oops! Regardless, we saw people swimming with rays, pelicans hunting along the shore, lots and lots of electric motorcycles (yay, Cozumel!), beautiful trees and flowers, and we even got boxed into a sidewalk by the most giant, twisted tree trunk that had supplanted the concrete (and the street side had two rows of scooters packed in too close to navigate around). 

We bought one of those ornamental signs made up of up-cycled license plates. Or so I thought. When we got back, I really examined it and think only the two edges are actual license plates. The middle strips have letters painted on white metal with things like parking stickers rather than what you’d get from an official government entity. Oh well once again! At least I can be confident that it’s a hand-crafted one-of-a-kind item.

I saw a pharmacy where the sign said they had Advair Disks. Turned out that they didn’t, but their Ventolin was $10 or 3 for $25. Man! I didn’t bring that prescription because it’s old, but that stuff worked for me and my insurance stopped covering it. The Advair works but it’s still $84 with insurance! Eeep! 

When we got back to the ship, Mal and I each drank one of our two last canned sodas (I really brought them for him and promised to buy him a Diet Coke tomorrow if he’d let me have his) then he got a hankering for a doughnut. We walked half a mile to try to find one (yes, on the ship) but it was 10:45ish and everywhere we ended up was switching out to lunch. 

We went back to the room and I started watching “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” (Whitney Houston movie) while I gave myself a “manicure” from those Lily and Fox stickers. Mal did some Minecraft stuff, drew an accordion in a paint program, and performed “Polka Face” for me acapella.

He decided he was hungry around 12:45, so we went up to the pool deck to get him some pizza. Once we were there, he decided that he really wanted to swim… especially since it would be six minutes until his preferred flavor of pizza would be ready. A practical eternity. So we walked BACK to the room, he changed clothes, and we walked back to the pool, where he’s swimming now.

We’re going back to our cabin in about 20 minutes to meet Nana and Pappy and see if there are any dock-runners. Not hugely likely, but the potential for live entertainment, if there are any!

This might get updated later; it might not! You can figure out the rest of the story from these pictures over on Google!

Mom and Mal Cruise -- Day 5 -- Belize City

I was awakened as we started the process of mooring about 5 miles off the eastern coast of Belize today. I watched from the balcony as we churned up a bunch of silt. I got dressed, drank my caffeine, and listened to a couple of podcasts as I took watched the sunrise and took pictures, of course.

I woke Mal up around 6:30 because we were supposed to start tendering around 7. When we cruised to Belize in 2019, the sea was very choppy and we didn’t eve try to get 4-year-old Malcolm onto a tender. This time, he was sure he wanted to go, water conditions be damned. Fortunately, it was practically glass out there and he was ready to step foot in Central America for the first time (for me, too!). 

We went down to the piazza to grab some breakfast, but spoke to a crew member and found out they were already boarding tenders, even though it was a bit before 7:00. We managed to get on one of the first two boats boarding simultaneously, and were on the mainland before 7:30!

Although vendors offered to braid Mal’s hair, call taxis for us, and give us their own private walking tours, we had our route planned out and only caved in when a woman approached us selling necklaces with a crystals on them. Mal got a red one, and thus we contributed at least a little to the local economy.

Across the street from the Belize sign and the li’l light”house,” there was a wooden playground that Mal enjoyed for a few minutes before we backtracked through the marina and made our way across the swing bridge into town.

Mal mentioned that his stomach was kind of hurting, so we ducked into a bodega to grab him a soda. He picked out a Pepsi, and I got a 2-pack of Oreos and another individual pack of some Mexican strawberry biscuit-type things just in case he was hungry. He wasn’t, but we hadn’t eaten anything so I wanted to be ready. We were there so early, not much was else was open yet.

When we got to the register, he rang it up, and it was $4 (the prices were on everything). I asked him if he took US dollars, and he said yes, “As long as it’s dollars” (I’m guessing as opposed to credit, because he didn’t even have a cash register, but was just writing down totals in a notebook). I told him I had cash and he said, “$2.” I had forgotten the exchange rate and really wish we’d loaded up with more stuff! That would easily have been $5.50 or more at one of the gas stations in Jonestown.

An interesting interaction in the store: Everything was pretty compact, so the walkways were extremely narrow. As we were making our way to check out, a man walking toward us reached across where we were to get something and Mal just kept walking, straight into the guy’s arm. I don’t know what Mal’s thought process or plan was, but it looked like he was playing Red Rover. I said, “Mal, you can say ‘excuse me.’” Mal did say it, and the man looked at me and said, “That’s why I stuck my arm out, to see if she [sic] would say ‘excuse me.’” Well, I guess we failed that test then!

We encountered several street dogs (and a couple of dogs with people making their way around town). There was one following me hopefully as we exited the store, so I broke off a corner of the strawberry biscuit and handed it to him. He took it gingerly in his mouth, the spit it onto the sidewalk. That dog didn’t want my stupid cookie! He wanted MEAT! Looking at him, I realized he was an older puppy, but not super skinny. People probably fed him better than what I had, enough that he was choosy about what he gulped down.

In our two-mile stroll, we got to see the Belize High (Supreme, depending on what sign you were looking at) Court; St. John’s Cathedral, the oldest church in the country; and the Belize Government House. We also saw a really old cemetery which opened in 1792 and closed in 1881. We passed two schools, a primary school and a lower school, and could hear classes going on. We also walked past a beautiful newish church building, gleaming whitewash and tinted blue windows all tilted open to allow the breeze through. We could hear the congregants clapping and whooping (on a Thursday morning, so Catholic mass?).

Mal’s stomach wasn’t a whole lot better, so we decided that two hours was a nice visit and we’d go back to the ship so he could rest. We got lucky in that a tender was leaving the moment we returned to the marina terminal (I did grab a cucumber water that the cruise line had as refreshment for people waiting to depart), and besides us, there was only one other passenger on the boat! There was also a ship’s officer, but this 100-person (minimum) boat was ours, like a private charter.

We got back to the ship before 10 AM, just as an announcement was sounding ship-wide informing passengers that the tender process was going smoothly and to enjoy their day in Belize. Too late!

We saw that Nana and Pappy were in the Princess Live! venue and went to tell the that we were grabbing some breakfast at the International Cafe. We somehow missed them, and saw that they were in their room, so we called them and left a message. Nana ended up coming back down pretty quickly; fortunately, they were on their balcony when I called, rather than resting. Pappy came down as we were finishing up and was ready to get a light lunch in the buffet. Mal said his stomach was bothering him enough that he didn’t feel like walking around or even swimming (which is how you know he’s serious), so we came back up to the room and have been hanging out for the past hour and a half or so. 

(Later) Near 4:00, Mal perked up and was ready for some food. Of course, since dinner was about an hour away! But we went to the International Cafe, his favorite, and he had a Chocolate Symphony. And then he had another one. We hung out there and listened to some music, and then we decided to try to get an early seating at our main dining room, since Nana and Pappy had a reception that started about an hour after our scheduled seating, and since I hadn’t eaten since brunch.

I enjoyed two appetizers: vol au vent, and a chilled ginger coconut soup. We all dipped after the main course, skipping dessert. We had to go back to the International Cafe for me to try a Chocolate Symphony before Mal exploded in excitement. I tried one of their gluten-free options, which was a vanilla mousse kind of thing. It was pretty; looked like it was covered in gems, which turned out to be Jell-o jigglers, basically. Meh. But the symphony was creamy and delicious and probably felt extremely elegant to Malcolm.

We went to the shops to see if they had postcards (for one of Nana’s friend’s moms — they didn’t) and ended up buying a tumbler for D and a keychain for myself. James and I both have pretty nondescript key chains, so it can be a challenge to avoid grabbing the wrong one when rushing out the door.

We went back to the room to unload, and Mal was telling me about a TV show idea he has. He walked me through several episodes as we sat on the balcony enjoying the cloudy moonlight. At about 7:30, he wanted to go to the kids’ club. I was able to finish the book I was reading and get some stuff packed. I went to visit with my mom the last hour the club was open because I was afraid that I would fall asleep and forget to pick Mal up!

He came back from the club with a chicken hand puppet he’d colored. We both went to sleep pretty soon after that.

More pictures, in case you're in to that type of thing.

Mom and Mal Cruise -- Day 4 -- Roatan

This morning, we woke up off the coast of Roatan. I got breakfast for Mal and me from the International Cafe, and we ate in the room before packing up to get off of the ship for the first time in nearly 3 days.

We stopped by Nana and Pappy’s room to tell them we were going to take off as soon as we got the all clear. They were going to take their time and not go quite as far in as we were planning to go.

Mal and I walked through the little commercial port area, stopping to pick up sunglasses for him because I’d left his in the room. Then we made our way to the beach. It was gorgeous, and after a bit of stepping our toes into the ocean (Mal barely did that; he’s not a fan of inserting himself into natural bodies of water), we walked further down behind their private cabana area and found a slightly more deserted area.

When we walked out onto a dock that jutted off of the island, a gust of wind knocked my sun hat right off of my head and into the water! The same thing happened to my dad on a cruise years ago. Oh well. I’d also dropped my phone on the pier, so I’m lucky my hat was what went flying!

I tried to talk Mal into renting a giant water tricycle but, again, he doesn’t really like being in water, even in an open vehicle, it seems.

We walked up a nature trail and found some fun places to rest: A bench in the shade, a “porch” swing, and some hammocks. 

We’d been ashore a couple of hours and Mal was ready to swim, so we re-boarded the ship, stopped by Nana and Pappy’s room to tell them where we were going, and I got into the pool with Mal, as I’d promised him I would next time he swam.

We had the pool to ourselves for about an hour! I started getting pruny and got out to dry off a bit after Nana made her way on deck. We chatted for a while and watched Mal swim, then Pappy came up and and we decided to grab our various lunches and eat in the shade by the pool. It was still practically deserted.

My parents had burgers (I’ll get one tomorrow, probably; they looked great!), Mal had a couple of slices of pizza, and I went to the buffet and picked out a couple of things. The cream of pumpkin soup was fabulous!

After hanging out a bit, Nana and Pappy went down to the cafe to enjoy one of their premium desserts (they got the Princess Plus package whereas we did ours on the cheap), and we came up to the room. I got a shower and Mal’s been building stuff on Minecraft. Right now, he’s working on making houses and other buildings that look like instruments.

Our plan is to go to my parents’ room a bit before all-aboard to see if we can spot any dock-runners. I think we’ll run by the library on the way (or out of the way) to pick up Taboo and play for a bit before we go down to dinner. The library is right by our dining room, so turning it back in will be convenient.

(Later)

Taboo was checked out, but we made it up to Nana and Pappy’s to watch the stragglers board. It looked like there was a Princess tour that was late, because they got to the dock well after 4:30, the “all aboard!” time, and we waited for them. 

It was time for dinner, which was fabulous, as usual. Mal was so full of energy, though, that we decided he should swim again to burn off some steam. He and another girl played together for about 2 hours while I read and then walked around deck for a while after my rear end fell asleep. 

We were both in bed by 9:30 because we had an early call on Thursday morning!

Interested in photos? Click here for the full album!

Mal and Mom Cruise -- Day 3 -- At Sea

This morning, I woke up a little earlier and actually got to get dressed before going on deck. Today’s sunrise was cloudy and gorgeous. I got to talk to a couple of people while we watched the sunrise. At some point, I looked at my watch and realized it was 7:30. I’d promised Mal that I would be back at the room by 7:15, so I hurried back. 

Mal slept a bit longer but woke up around 8, and we went to breakfast at the buffet with Nana and Pappy. Mal wanted to check back by the International Cafe to see if they had the chocolate mousse he’d had yesterday. They didn’t, but he got a doughnut and was pretty happy.

We went to the kids’ club at 9:50, but they weren’t open yet. They were supposed to be open at 9. We found a staff member and asked him about it… it was only 8:51! Apparently as we passed the Yucatán peninsula this morning, my watch reset to Cancun time, even though I didn’t have internet or cell service. I guess it just “knew” from GPS where we were. I reset my watch and turned off “automatic time set” and we “explored the ship” for an hour before trying again. 

While Mal was doing a scavenger hunt, I went to my parents’ room to visit. We did my mom’s hair and my nails (my first set of stickers started falling off yesterday). Now I’ve been in the room getting some things together and catching up on this. I’m going to get Mal and we’ll head up on deck for him to swim again. It’s time for me to try some of that famous Princess pizza, and my body is ready!

(Later)

Success! 

We were out by the pool for a couple of hours, while Mal swam and we watched the ice carving demonstration. The pizza was good! 

We came back to the room to rest for a while and get dressed after swimming. There was a kids’ club event in the piazza, which started at 2:30 PM. At about 1:50, I opened up my phone to see what the dinner menu looked like. The app said that the ship’s time was 3:01 and that the event was in progress!

After the weird time thing earlier in the morning, I was confused. If it had said it was 2:50 rather than 3:01, it would at least have made sense. But what the heck??

Mal and I got our shoes on and went out to look at the nearest display in the stairwell. I guess we could have looked on the television, now that I think about it. The display in the elevator bay said that it was 1:51. A man heard us talking and said he’d gotten some weird times in his app, too, so we just decided to go run around the ship for a bit. 

The family event was fun. They had face painting, glitter tattoos, a couple of games, and some arts and crafts. Mal made a ship out of modeling clay to enter into a contest. He played a game and won a sucker. And he made a button he can take home.

We got ready for and had a nice dinner, then Mal wanted to swim some more. He swam for a couple of hours, and we would have watched the water light show because we were in the vicinity, but the fountain seemed not to be functioning. They tried, and I could see the light show and hear the jets opening and closing, but… no water. Weird.

It’s looking like a bit over 5.5 miles and a couple dozen flights of stairs per day will be the norm. My watch has no idea how to handle tracking sleep on a ship. We’re near the stern, and I’ve always heard that you feel more of the ship’s “movement” at the stern of the ship. It’s not the rocking that’s been… interesting. It’s that it seems like I can feel the machinery running the ship from our room. It vibrates the bed, and because of that, my watch thinks I’m waking up every few minutes and getting no deep sleep. It had that I was awake almost 3 hours during the last night, which isn’t the case. Maybe Apple Watch should make a “cruise mode” to correct for that.

There are TONS more pictures in this photo album.