The Off Season Part II

Our day in Costa Maya was by far our favorite! We took a tour of the most incredible Mayan Ruins. I absolutely love history and being able to explore the location of an ancient civilization beats laying on the beach any day! And what a truly incredible ruin we picked to tour. Kohunlich was inhabited from about 200-700 AD and hosts a Temple of the Masks, which is breathtaking. After a few hours at the ruins we boarded the bus and headed back to the port in Costa Maya, which is in itself a whole days event, complete with a pool. By the 5th night on the boat we finally got smart and made it to the early show. It was an improv skit by Second City and was hilarious! We managed to stay awake just long enough to eat dinner and fall into bed.

The last port of call was Cozumel. We decided this would be a good location to get some shopping done and wind up on a beach somewhere. We explored the shops and made a great score on a super cute bag! After walking through all the shops we were beginning to roast. So we hopped in a cab and since we now considered ourselves adventurers we asked to go to any beach the driver recommended. He took us just a few miles down the road and turned into the entrance of what looked like a deserted hotel. There was a man standing at the entrance with a walkie-talkie who waved us in. Logan and I kind of looked at each other and I was beginning to think- this is a great start to a horror movie. Then we drove around the corner and it was like a whole different world.

 Turns out, the resort was hit by a hurricane a few years ago, and rather than redoing the entire resort they finished the lobby, restaurant and beach part and open it up as a little day resort. Logan refused to wear sunscreen, because he would "just sweat it out" and ended up like a lobster! We made it back to the port with just enough time to grab a drink before boarding the boat! After all, you can't leave Mexico without a Margarita :-)

Our last day of vacation was spent at sea and was fabulous! I woke up early and found a lounge chair up top before the ship got crowded. Logan joined me off and on, but due to his new lobster like complexion he sat in the shade while I soaked up the sun. After lunch we hit some storms and headed back to our cabin where we lounged around and watched Frozen. The storm was beautiful on the sea and I couldn't have imagined a more relaxing end to our vacation.

**Logan and I both HIGHLY recommend Norwegian Cruise Line.  We were very impressed with the accommodations, food, staff, excursions and loved the Freestyle dining option!**

The Off Season Part I

The second best aspect of being a teacher: VACATION TIME! (The first best thing is making a positive impact in the lives of children each and every day, of course) Living at the beach makes planning vacations kind of awkward- where do you go? We decided to say no to the snow and followed my love of the sun straight to the Caribbean. Logan and I were both skeptical of going on a cruise. We've heard so many horror stories of people getting sick, boats breaking down, horrible food, and rooms so tiny the suitcase wouldn't even fit. All of our concerns quickly faded as we boarded the boat. Oh my gosh, we had such an amazing time! We took a 7 night cruise through the Western Caribbean, making stops in Roatan, Honduras; Belize City, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico and Cozumel, Mexico. It was the most relaxing week of my entire life! Just sit back and imagine- No phone calls, No email, No text messages, No social media, No dishes, No cooking, No making the bed, No letting the dogs out, No running out of toilet paper and not realizing it until its too late... Just take everything that has the potential to cause any kind of inconvenience in your life and put a "NO" in front of it and that is a week on a cruise.

We would begin our mornings with room service in bed. Then we'd get ready and head to the dinning room for our second breakfast of the day :-) We spent the first full day at sea lounging on the front of the boat, reading romance novels, mine was about a young 20's girl living in New York, Logan's was about coaching football. Like I said, Romance novels. We had a lunch somewhere in the midst of our lounging and barely stayed awake long enough to eat dinner.

After our double breakfasts on the second day we decided at the last minute to do an excursion. We took a little boat over to a private island that is used as an Animal refuge. It was absolutely beautiful! We snorkeled for a bit, but the coral was spawning which sent billions of little stinging things into the water, and given the fact that we've snorkeled pain free before we decided to trade in the masks and fins for lounge chairs. We walked around the little island and saw all of the beautiful animals- Jaguars, Sea Lions, Monkeys, even a Tarantula and very large Iguana, both of which were not in cages :-0.

The third day was spent cave tubing in Belize. We took a bus through the tiny country and stopped right before we made it to Guatamala. The country side was beautiful! When we finally arrived at our destination, tucked back in the forest. We made a tiny little hike up a hill and grabbed a tube before entering a pitch black cave. We saw a few bats, a couple fish, amazing stalactites and stalagmites and jumped out of our tube to swim in the freezing water.

I had spotted a Coca-Cola Lite the day before in Honduras, but didn't have a chance to get one so when we finally made it back to the port,  I was on a mission to find a Coca-Cola Lite, which is by far the most amazing Coke product ever created and unfortunately cannot be purchased in the US. After stopping at literally every pharmacy, bar and convenience store on the port only to be told "We just sold out," I found a tiny little drink cart run by a random American guy and what looked like his dad and bought 3 Coca-Cola Lites :-)