The Florida Everglades

We got off the ship around 9 on Sunday morning. I had arranged for an air boat tour of the Everglades. We were a little worried as there was government shut down on Sunday but it didn't  affect the tour company. We took Uber to the Everglades and the driver waited for us. Eventually we went to a mall for lunch and then the airport. Our plane left at 8:15 so we didn't get home until after midnight. We slept on the plane so in the morning Don went to work and Sean got to school on time.
All in all it was a pretty good trip but I am really tired of cruises. Too many people, too little time at the ports, too much time on the ship. I think we will try and all inclusive resort.

Ship Photos

Dang that's a good looking kid. I wish I could take credit.

That was outside my comfort zone!

Cozumel

There were a couple of guys with parrots taking picture to raise money to save parrots or so they said. They may have just been raising money to save themselves but the parrots were fun.

We went to Dolphin Discovery in Cozumel. We swam and interacted with dolphins and manatee then had lunch at the resort. The kids all really enjoyed the dolphin encounter. Sean declared it best day ever. or maybe he said best animal encounter ever. I can't remember.

The dolphin pushed you from behind on a boogie board.

The dolphin, Kathy pulled you while lying on her back. That was fun.

Dolphin kisses and smiles. There's a lot of anti animal encounter activist out there but I really thought the dolphins seemed happy and well cared for. Our dolphin was young and she would get distracted and take off after a fish. The handler would just wait for her to catch her fish and then she would come back over to where we were.

All of us on the Cozumel sign. Well not really all of us because Peter and Beth and her girls weren't in the picture. They left about 30 minutes before us there encounter was an hour before ours.

Costa Maya

When the boys weren't listening to the tour guide I had to keep reminding them that they were supposed to be in school and this was a home school field trip. Sean got interested when they talked about the human sacrifices and how they would cut open their chest and rip their hearts out and they had 15 to 20 seconds to run to the temple before the collapsed. If they collapsed before they got to the temple they threw them away and moved on to the next sacrifice. Sean wanted to know if people volunteered it they did it to kids.

A parasite tree around a coconut tree. We also chewed on Allspice leaves and had chewing gum made from the gum tree.

We had lunch at a little dive called Blue Keys. It was on a beach "resort" where we were supposed to spend a couple of hours but it was pouring so after lunch we went back to the ship.

Belize

We ate a late dinner last night so Paul our steward was actually able to make up the room and he made a towel elephant for Sean.

Today was a relaxing day on Harvest Caye which is Norwegian's private Island. We didn't leave the island for the mainland after yesterdays fiasco we decided to just chill and play it safe. The boys were busy they played La Crosse on the beach. The sand was really sharp I had read that in reviews. I couldn't believe the  boys played without shoes or water socks.

Sean and Sarah playing beach chess

Hanging out on the beach.

We stopped and got our passports stamped and I bought a couple Christmas tree ornaments. That was as exciting as out day got. Tomorrow we have another excursion but we will make sure the driver gets us back on time.