Florida & Disney Cruise

NOTE: This is for our "June 2010 vacation"

We thought it would be a great idea to go on a cruise for our honeymoon. Of course I had to convince Ben nothing less than a Disney cruise would suffice! After a 21 hour drive, breakfast with a good friend from my disney days, we found ourselves sitting on the deck of our floating resort for the next several days.

First stop, Key West. We spent most of the day scubadiving along two different reefs. Diving always seems to be the highlight of any trip and this case was no exception. The water was so warm! It's a good thing we chose to forego the wetsuit at the last moment because we would have been frying. Later that day we walked along the pier and Ben was such a good sport about going out to lunch. We overdosed on mussels galore!

Next stop, Nassau: We rented a bright red scooter and drove around the island. It rained in the morning (notice the ghost in the middle of the photo below?) but cleared away to sunshine in no time. We took a number of pit stops to hike and see the beautiful scenury, including a romantic walk on the beach.Ben's favorite beaches were along the rugged coast tucked away in nature from the prying eyes of tourists! Mine were where all the tourists were, at Atlantis!Our third and last stop was Castaway Cay in the Bahamas owned by Disney. It was a fun little island with some interesting activities, one of which included a crawdad race. Yeah, no joke, we gotta do something to entertain ourselves on a little ol' island! This day started out with a 5K run. I thought I was going to die! Ever try running 3 miles in 90 degrees, 85% humidity and absolutely no shade whatsoever? Well, we found out from personal experience, it's not easy! But we did it. After that we rushed back to the boat and jumped in the pool to cool off. It felt great. One nice thing about doing the run was that we didn't feel guilty about gorging ourselves at the buffet later that day.
In between our expeditions, we entertained ourselves on the cruise by attending shows, laying out in the sun, studying (Ben), catching up with our Disney friends (what, you didn't know we're tight with Pluto, Minnymouse, and Cinderella? We got pics to prove it), and exercising. Yep, no joke, we exercise on vacation (Ben's idea). One thing I loved doing was eating! Every night, we went out to dinner. For those who know Ben, he's not a fan of going out to eat. Sometimes I have to resort to begging and pleading, but he was a pretty good sport about it on the cruise.The last night of the cruise we had a HUGE buffett. We watched an intertaining and cheesy play on deck of pirates taking over the ship before Mickey came to save the day. Then to celebrate, firecrackers erupted over the ocean. Apparently Disney is the only cruiseline to have a firework show. That next morning was a sad day as our cruise officially ended. All the passengers, and there were thousands, slowly filed off the ship gathering luggage and completing the checkout process. Ben and I had decided to visit Kennedy Space Center that morning. We were both really excited to check this place out. I was also tired. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until we sat down to watch a documentary. I fell asleep. later we attended a seminar where an astranaut told of his experiences in space. I fell asleep. After that we watched an IMAX movie that I don't remember, because once again, I fell asleep. I was frustrated at myself for not having control over my body and staying awake. Some of this stuff was really interesting and it's not like we get to see this every day. The astronaut had some fascinating stories from his experiences and I regret missing part of it.

The next day we met up with my good friend, Heidi, who hooked us up with tickets for the parks. With the exception of a few bumps along the road, we had a great time. Apparently, Mission Space Center in EPCOT makes some people want to throw up. Hmmm....After our Disney experience we were once again on the road to visit my grandparents. We had a wonderful time and even got to see this amazing wildlife reserve, Homassassa Springs.
A couple days later, we were on the road again heading toward Buluxy, Mississippi to visit my brother who was stationed at the Airforce base. We had a great time catching up with Greg. So much fun, in fact, that we decided to take a road trip that next morning to New Orleans. On our drive up, we almost ran over a turtle in the middle of the road! Of course we had to stop and take pictures and I ended up carrying that big thing off the road. While doing so, a passenger in a passing car yelled out, "If it were me, I would've eat it!" Hmm, that was interesting.After dropping Greg off, we were once again on the road, slowly making our way back to home. Next, we decided to stop and visit the location of the Battle of Vicksburg. For those, who need a rundown on Civil War history, this battle was a turning point for the Union. The Union needed control of the Mississipi for carrying supplies and soldiers to the forefront of the war and the Confederacy was determined to stop them at all costs. Thousands of lives were lost as you can see in the picture below and the residents of Vicksburg, then a booming town, were in lockdown. This is also the location of the Infamous sinking of the Union's supposedly unsinkable steel ships made by a famous engineer/inventor of the time. One of the ships were uncovered within the past 30 years and is currently on display. That was really neat to see.Eureka Springs was our last major stop. We camped out in a gorgeous area, and went on a breathtaking hiking trip the next day. During the hike we had planned to go in a bat cave, only to find it blocked off. Apparently, bats were being infected by a contagious bat disease carried by humans on the soles of their shoes and the cave entrance was temperarely closed for that reason. Afterward, we toured another cave full of crystallights and a supposedly bottomlous lake made famous for its feature on the discovery channel a decade or so ago.Next we had to see the largest statue of Christ in North America and then tour a bible museum that was absolutely fascinating!That's what she said ;)