My biggest question from this picture is, why did I have my purse?  It’s not like I needed my wallet, plus it’s not as if the room is that far away.

The honeymoon adventure continues.  Day at Sea!

We popped in for the event for new honeymooners and those on their wedding anniversary.  It turned out we were the most recently married, so we got…another free bottle of champagne.  Now, ordinarily this may have been exciting, but as we already had the unlimited drink package, PLUS Chris doesn’t really like champagne…it just sat in our room all week.  We also got a piece of cake to share and some mimosas.  After which, we decided to hit the gym!  Neither of us had had a workout since before getting married, so we were feeling pretty flabby.  The gym was nice, then it was lunch, followed by pool time, nap time, dinner time, and we went to check out some of the live music (string trio!).  

It was formal night in the dining room.  And seriously, my hair looks amazing, how did I manage that???

  

The next day we were to dock in San Juan, Puerto Rico, but not until mid-afternoon.  We slept in, hit the gym, ate lunch…(sound familiar?).  Oh, one thing I should mention.  I love room service breakfast, so we’d been ordering it.  The service was fantastic, the quality of the food was…not so great.  It took us several days to realize we’d just be better off going up to the buffet though. 

Coffee was delicious at a little cafe with all kinds of fancy coffees.

So, San Juan.  We docked…

We waited a bit to get off the ship—

We got off the ship and were given a coupon for a free "shot" at Senor Frog’s, so we went there first.

Sadly the "shot" didn’t seem to contain any alcohol at all.

After that we walked around briefly…and realized we would rather just be back on the ship, but without all the people!  So we took a few more pictures, and then got back on the ship.

We went up to the pool deck to read and relax.

So sexy when Chris reads…(it’s not very often!)

Now, THIS is the life!

Later that night:

Chris at dinner

We went to a magic show—the first and only show we made it to!

One of the life boats.  After the show we walked around a bit, and sat outside watching the ship set sail from Puerto Rico (was very late when we left!).

Next stop:  St Thomas, Virgin Islands, for Chris’s birthday and a jet ski adventure!

Valentine’s day used to be so fun in elementary school!  I remember making large decorative envelopes or boxes for my classmates to put valentines into.  We would have wonderful parties and then come home with 30 valentines from our class!  As we grew older that became less fun and it turned into a holiday about whether or not you were dating someone.  What a stupid idea!  Valentine’s day should purely be about sugar, chocolate, and friends.

Of course here I am, a married lady, preaching about Valentine’s day.  Obviously I expect everyone to be coupled off, and now that I am married I naturally have tons of advice for you and assume that the only way to be happy is to be married as well.

Since I work late Tuesdays, Chris and I went out for dinner last night.  We went to Eleven Eleven Mississippi for dinner.  I had been teaching all afternoon, though many of my students had to cancel due to the snow—only a few came, those who live nearby (we got 2 to 4 inches of snow throughout the late afternoon/evening).  We didn’t have too far to travel for dinner, so that was good.  I had the spinach salad, the scallops, and we split the tiramisu cake and a bottle of red wine.  Chris had steak with crab, which was delicious.  The restaurant was busy enough for a Monday, and frankly I’m glad not to be dealing with all the crowds on the official day!

I participated in a couple of blog Valentine’s Day swap type things.  You can see them in my side bar. 

What do I have today?  A workout with Mike followed by 5 hours of teaching.  Woo hoo, lucky me!

The honeymoon continues….

So, we did get to board the ship.  After being sick all night, I woke up the next day feeling…well…okay.  Not great.  We managed to get a cab to the port though, and with minimal waiting in line (with sitting breaks for me) before long we were on the ship!  Right off the bat they offered us a glass of champagne, and we would have gone exploring, but I needed to sit down.  In fact, that was the name of the game for the first day of our cruise—I was trying not to be sick, and we missed out on some of the fun of exploring, but luckily we were onboard!  Like they say, the worse day cruising is still better than the best day on land 😉

After about 30 minutes we were able to go to our stateroom.  I’d booked us an "Aqua class" balcony room.  It looked GREAT!  I think it was the biggest stateroom we’d ever had with a nice, roomy enough shower, lovely bathroom products, a fairly deep balcony, and a nice enough bed.  We were also given two bathrobes and two pairs of slippers to wear.

The view from the balcony.

This was in our room in honor of our honeymoon.  The envelope contained an invitation for a get together the next morning with other honeymooners and couples celebrating their honeymoons.  Each day they brought fresh fruit for the room, though it never looked super appealing.

I asked Chris to take some pictures.  In retrospect, this may not have been the best idea.  After we did a little unpacking we went up to the Oceanview Cafe (buffet area) for Chris to get some lunch.  I was going to sit with him, but I suddenly felt really awful and had to go back to the room. 

We had our muster/lifeboat drill, and then the ship set sail!  There is just nothing like being on a cruise.  It is truly my favorite way of vacationing. 

After a few hours, we were definitely on the open sea.  We had about two days until we were going to see land again!  Time to eat, drink, and be merry. 

Chris and I chose to purchase the unlimited beverage package.  That meant we could get as many drinks, coffees, waters, and sodas as we wanted without any additional charges.  It wasn’t cheap, but it meant we didn’t have to worry about what our final bill would be and we would be free to enjoy our honeymoon without any worries about moderation.

I wasn’t feeling up to a frosty drink yet, but Chris was hard at work getting his money’s worth!  You can see the "Celebrity Today" paper on the bed there—the paper tells you everything happening on the ship.

A Carnival ship was traveling with us.  Evidently two ships are required to stay near one another for safety.

Since we were in Aqua class, that meant we ate in a specific restaurant called "Blu" rather than the main dining room.  We were allowed to go eat at whatever dinner time we wanted except the first night when we were asked to go at 8:30.  I still didn’t have too much of an appetite, but we went.

I don’t recall what this was called but it was chicken with pancakes…SO delicious!  Sadly I was only able to eat a few bites. I must have seemed like such a lady to the servers!  (Luckily that would change by day two.)

And a delicious "thin mint" cake!

We also got some after dinner coffee.  The restaurant was wonderful—unlike previous cruises we were sitting just the two of us at a table, which was very nice.  The food was very tasty and the service was impeccable.  After just being onboard a few hours we were already incredibly impressed with the service and amenities of the Celebrity cruise lines. 

For your reference:  previously Chris and I had been on two Carnival cruises and I’d been on one Royal Caribbean cruise.  Celebrity was a "step up" in terms of luxury, and so far we were impressed.

After dinner the first night I was exhausted and felt a bit nauseous, so we just went back to the stateroom.  I had wanted to see a show or do some exploring, but I just wasn’t up to it.  Luckily the next day was to be a day off so we could sleep in, relax, and do whatever we wanted.

(I don’t know if I’ll keep doing one post per day, but that will be it for now.)

We fell asleep feeling the ocean waves…and I finally was starting to feel more like myself.  Like I said, the next day was going to be a day at sea, followed by San Juan. 

We didn’t go on our honeymoon the very next day—we did wait one day.  We had lots to do—pack, laundry, unwrap presents that my parents had awesomely taken to my house. 

First we said goodbye to a few people—by the time we got up many of the guests had already left, but my parents had waited to say goodbye, and then we went with my friend Emily and Leslie & Peter to eat breakfast at Rooster.

One of things I haven’t mentioned that was very delightful was the car that Leslie and Peter had rented.

It barely had a back seat at all.

Anyway, after breakfast pretty much everybody had to leave so Chris and I checked out of the hotel and went home. 

The next day we caught a flight to Miami! One of my favorite moments was when we realized we were actually, truly, really, married and going on our honeymoon and we didn’t have to talk to anyone except each other for the next ten days!  It had been such a stressful period, with so many people around to talk to or feel guilty for NOT talking to, that it was a tremendous relief not to have to do that anymore.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved our wedding and I wouldn’t change having had it, but WOW it was a stressful time.

Our honeymoon plan was to spend a few days in Miami Beach and then take a Celebrity Cruise to the Caribbean.  We wanted to stay on South Beach, and it ended up that prices were pretty expensive (naturally).  Since we were spending a lot of money on the cruise we tried to get a good deal, and ended up at the Ocean Reef Hotel on Collins Avenue.  When our cab pulled up we were a little surprised, and so was he, because the hotel wasn’t really visible from the street!

 

It was a very small hotel, and wasn’t great—it had been renovated recently, and in fact was still under construction.  On the surface the rooms were nice (we had a small suite, with a tiny kitchen and living area) but the bathrooms were very old, the a/c didn’t work well, and the windows didn’t shut all the way.  Miami was in a cold snap though, so luckily we didn’t need much air conditioning.  And we figured, whatever, it’s our honeymoon and we’re going to enjoy it no matter!

.

We were just a few blocks from the beach, and near all kinds of wonderful restaurants and stores.  We had a great few days, just walking around, eating, drinking, relaxing, and most of all, SLEEPING.  The first night we slept for about 12 hours—I didn’t realize how tired I was until I finally was able to relax!  The second night we slept almost the same, and in fact kept up a pattern of sleeping at least 9 to 11 hours a day throughout the honeymoon.

That is the Miami Beach portion of our honeymoon in a nutshell! Finally, the night before the cruise was set to sail…I came down with an awful case of food poisoning.  I was terribly sick all night, up with the shakes, the chills, vomiting, diarrhea, you name it.  I managed to clog the bathroom sink and was terrified I would clog the toilet as well (probably tmi, but still.)  At one point I was lying in bed crying because I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to board the ship, that I would be too sick to manage!  Chris was of course wonderful during that awful night and kept trying to make me feel better and get me water and stuff.  What an awful thing for the honeymoon though!  And yes, remember that he was sick approximately 6 days ago…but it seemed just too long beforehand to be related. 

Next step: the Celebrity Eclipse!