The second week of our trip in June was spent on a cruise in the Caribbean! We were on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas. It is one of their largest ships (maybe even the biggest?).
The first day of the cruise we were at sea. So we got settled in, explored the ship, and enjoyed a quiet day. The cruise ship was so fun. We loved traveling this way because we only had to unpack once and just about everything is included, even food! The our cruise ship had a rock climbing wall, multiple pools, mini golf, FlowRider (for surfing or body boarding), ice skating, many restaurants and dining rooms, a theater, among other things. Every day we returned to our room, there was an itinerary for the next day and a towel animal.
The second day we arrived at Labadee, Haiti. This port is leased by Royal Caribbean and is very tourist-y. But we loved it! We went on a historic tour and learned a lot about the history of Haiti. Then we had a great time watching Caleb speak to the natives in their own language (Caleb spoke Haitian Creole on his LDS mission in Florida). The people were so surprised that this white guy could speak their language! We also enjoyed lounging on the beach and in the warm, beautiful water.
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| Unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures in Haiti. But we did buy this red dress in Haiti. This picture is on the bed in our stateroom. (Excuse the red eye, I just noticed it and don't want to reload another picture.) |
The third day we arrived in Falmouth, Jamaica. Caleb and I didn't have anything planned to do at this port, so we explored some shops and saw some of the countryside while on the bus to the shops. The picture below was taken while we were waiting to get back on the bus to return to the port.
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| Caleb and Achaia at some shops near Falmout Jamaica. The bus in the background says "Chicken's Magic Bus Tours" |
On the fourth day, we stopped at Georgetown, Grand Cayman. The ship couldn't come into port here, so we took smaller boats to shore. At Grand Cayman, we went on a boat tour of the salt water forest. The salt water forest is made of mangrove trees. These trees are unique because they use salt water, not fresh water like most trees. This tour was nice and we learned about some of the animals in Grand Cayman. On the ride back from the tour, we stopped by Seven Mile Beach. This beach was beautiful!! We were going to swim here, but Achaia was so tired and grumpy, we decided to head back to the ship.
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| Holli and Achaia on the ferry to Georgetown, Grand Cayman. |
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| Grandma Peterson (far left), Achaia and Holli on Seven Mile Beach. (Beautiful, huh?!) |
The fifth day and last place we stopped was Cozumel, Mexico. Here we went to the Tulum Mayan ruins. There was quite a bit of walking, but it was really neat to see the ruins. All the doors and entryways on the ruins were short, so Caleb and I thought we could fit right in, back in their day. After our tour, we found an LDS tour guide that told us a little about the ruins from a Book of Mormon stand point. That was really interesting to connect the three portions of the Mayan temple to the three members of the Godhead.
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| The tour guide offered us an umbrella for shade. At one point I was holding all this and a bottle in Achaia's mouth. I love this baby carrier, though! We used it a ton on the trip. |
Then we spent one more day at sea before we arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The last day we tried to do everything on the ship that we hadn't done yet. For me it was trying the body boarding on the FlowRider. Then we got every packed up to disembark the ship the next day. After we disembarked, we got a few rental cars and got ready to go separate ways. Caleb, Grandma Peterson, and Grandma Bailey went to Orlando to catch a flight home. Caleb had to get ready to go to Missouri because his Army training started the next week. My mom and dad, threes sisters, Achaia, and I traveled down to Miami to spend a few days with some family friends, the Fabianos.
Achaia did pretty well at 7-months. She had her moments of tiredness or grumpiness, but overall she was a trooper. We enjoyed bringing her along, even though it was a lot of work.
