#1589 back from my happy place

And we are back!

MT and I went on a nice 10 day vacation. Pretty much everything about the vacation was unusual, from the quick decision to go, to the very quick departure, to the hotel snafu in Key West and the strange weather that affected us every day of the trip.

I'll write a quick overview of the trip tonight and write details and share photos in the coming days.

I thought it would be fun to go on a cruise. We haven't been on a cruise since 2009 or 2010 (I think) and both MT and I had been talking about the possibility of cruising for a little while. I found a cruise that went to ports we hadn't been to, the price was good and it didn't take much convincing for MT to get excited about the idea of it. We were thinking of going in February, but MT will be working with a contractor soon and he didn't want to tell the guy that he had to take off a week for a vacation when he just started the job, so we bumped the vacation up to January. The cruise began on Saturday the 16th in Miami and because we like to maximize our vacation time, we decided to go a couple of days early and stay in Key West.

We left on Wednesday the 13th, spent the night in Miami and drove to Key West on Thursday. We stayed there on Thursday and Friday night. On Saturday we drove back to Miami and got on the cruise ship Celebrity Reflection which left port on Saturday evening. Our first day was spent at sea. The seas were a little rough that day. I mostly felt good until the evening. All the rocking got to me late in the day but overall it was fine.

The first port was Cozumel, Mexico. The next day we were in George Town, Grand Cayman. The next day we were in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We had another day of cruising - much calmer seas, but chilly and gray and drizzly. The last port was supposed to be Celebrity's private island CocoCay, Bahamas but weather forced us to go to Nassau, Bahamas instead. We were back in Miami early Friday morning. When we got off the ship, we rented a car and drove out to the Everglades for the afternoon, then we drove back to the airport and got home to a snow storm late Saturday night.

Our son T did not come with us on the trip. He didn't want to miss a week of school, plus he wanted to have a little independence. The good news is the house is still standing and there wasn't too much damage. MT and I knew that T would be doing some entertaining, shall we say, and we were both satisfied that T did a good job respecting our house and encouraging his friends to do the same. I admit I was worried the first couple of days, but then I got in vacation mode and realized there was nothing I could do but trust that T is a good boy who would do the right thing.  I'm glad he proved me right.

It was wonderful to hang out one-on-one with MT. We get caught up in our regular lives and even though we are together, the distractions of everyday living limits our time to really talk and laugh and have some fun, when I get right down to it. Does that make sense? Anyway, I had a really fun time with my husband.

It is always fun to go on vacation, and I enjoy coming home, too. I missed T and Osi. I like to sleep in my own bed and watch my big-ass TV from my comfy couch. I don't even mind the thought of going back to work. Work is what enables me to go on vacation, and going on vacation is one of my favorite things, so work is a means to that end.

Tomorrow I will tell you about our time in Key West. It's a good story, so check back, ok? :)