OK Ok ok.

I'm such a slacker lately on the blog blah blah blah. You know the story. :)

Without further adulation...I present, "Team D&G: The Bahaman Experience". (Baa-as in baa-ing sheep, haa- as in hat,man-as in WOman) ;) heh.

On our way to the ship via bus service provided by the cruiseline. At first the ride was kinda scary- a BIG bus, cutting in and out of traffic in Miami, YIKES- but then we (I should say I, because David looks just fine in photo) got used to it and relaxed. :)

On the ship and sailing! Kind of windy, but not too bad. We still have high hopes of good weather. ;)

Our cabin. We were so excited to be able to stay in an "Oceanview Suite" on Deck 7. Too bad our "Oceanview" was mostly blocked due to the jogging track also located on Deck 7. Fellow cruisers were constantly walking by our window. :/
The Majesty of the Seas:

First port: Nassau! pronounced Na- as in nap, sa- like saw. Nasaw. The Heart of the Bahamas! (I think...)
It was windy and cold all day, so our idea of lounging on the beach all day never did materialize. We waited and waited all day to go out in hopes that the weather would lighten up. We finally faced up to the fact that it wouldn't when the winds just kept picking up, so we put on our jackets and held on tight to each other so I wouldn't be blown away into the deep blue, and stepped off the ship to experience a little bit of colorful Nassau.
Proof of how windy it was: just look at my hair.
Funny story for above pictures: We were walking around [the scarier, more run-down, flea market area of] Nassau, a woman walked up to us and just starting putting these necklaces on us. Look close at the picture on the right above, mine is orange and David's is brown/tan. As she's fastening the necklace she explains that children in the orphanage made them. The necklaces are free, but that they would like a donation. I gave the lady a $5 and she went off about how people usually give $20/per person and looked at us like we still owed her $35. ...sorry Lady. The FUNNY part of the story is that David would not take the stinkin' necklace off until we were back in Vegas. Seriously! You can see it on him in the rest of pictures.

Despite the persistent wind, I enjoyed looking at and attempting to photograph the colorful buildings and "art" that was everywhere.
A real "Bahama Mama".
Walking back to the ship in the last bit of sunlight. Blurry, but pretty.
Rock climbing. On Deck 11. I've been rock climbing many times, but it was a totally different experience being on a large ship (on deck 11= high) at the top of a 20ft wall and then looking out to the ocean that you could fall into. It actually made my stomach do a flip flop. Did I mention it was a lot windier at the top?

Our next port of call was CocoCay, a private island owned by RoyalCaribbean Cruiseline. The night before the staff got us all excited for a big party on deck and a bbq as part of the next day's festivities while we made our way to the island on smaller little ferry boats (the ship is too big to port at the island). However, severe winds and high waves canceled the day's plans, because the little boats would capsize and if by chance did make it to the island, what would we do? Nada. So, they declared it a "Sea Day", which consisted of staying inside and exploring the ship a bit more. No pictures on this day.

Last port: Key West, Florida! Finally, the weather was agreeable, so D and I spent time outside exploring the small town of Key West. It wasn't warm enough for (we're used to 100+ degrees to play in water) us to spend any money on water activities. We just walked the streets and enjoyed looking at everything while holding hands and talking about our future. :)

What we were greeted by (these, and more, surrounded the museum): (The [clothed] dancers are my favorite.)

The Audobon House. And Wendy's in style.

So many cute, colorful, fun, small houses EVERYWHERE. I love cute old houses. And the Fire Station. :)

David and I enjoying the sunshine.

....woops. We noticed the sign after taking the picture, honest!

From left to right: 1- that gold, statue looking soldier was a REAL person. funny. 2- so true I had to take a picture. 3- Just for you Erin! (and the rest of the Fleming fam) :] 4- Shipwreck Cove. I'm not sure if that's the name of this shopping/tourist spot. It was fun to look at the old ships and pirate stuff that was everywhere. Didn't spend too much time here because we had to RUN to make it back to the ship before it left without us.

Final destination: Miami. When we got back to Miami on Friday morning, the sun was shining brightly and what was that we felt?...Warmth??? Hallelujuah brothuh! (Cat Balou, anyone?) After taking our shuttle to the airport, changing flights (from 8:00 pm to 4:00 pm departure) we took a taxi to Miami beach for a few hours.

A momentous occasion: David's first Taxi ride. And then him realizing that they're expensive and wondering why they're used all the time... It was so nice to just lay on the beach reading a book and soak up some sunshine.

We played in the water a little bit, but we were afraid of getting too wet because all we had for a towel was my volleyball blanket. But holy moly was that water clear! Not anything like the pacific waters. You can see your toes when you look down! The sand is white! Again, nothing like the pacific coast. I did not want to leave. We'll have to go back.

No we didn't see any famous people walking about Miami Beach, but I was super excited to be able to recognize a lot of the downtown shopping area where the taxi dropped us off at because of the show Burn Notice. (I've said it before, but don't you think David looks like Michael/Jeffrey Donovan??? Breezy, back me up! However, David is better looking than darling Jeffrey, in my opinion.)

After a few hours we taxi-ed back to the airport. One funny story that happened during the flight back to Vegas: David fell asleep almost as soon as he was sat down and buckled in. About 30 minutes after taking off, the Captain "dinged in" and said something about flights plans. This woke David up, and he was very excited because he thought we were already landing at McCarran. Sadly having to disappoint, I informed him that we still had about 4 hours to go. He fell asleep and stayed that way for the majority of the flight. I read my book. The end. :)

Hmm...I just re-read this after posting it a few hours earlier. My writing is fairly bland and made our trip sound like a bore! It definitely was not, we both really enjoyed it, minus the weather setback. It's just been a long week of school for me that included several writing assignments, therefore the creative writing pool in my brain has been sucked dry. Not only my pool of creative writing, but the pool of writing any sort of information in an intelligent way is dry, for now anyway. It will be back shortly though, no worries folks!