Holistic Holiday At Sea

Feb.26-mar6Darryl was invited to be a presenter on a themed organized cruise. He, like most people, was excited for work that involved a cruise. I was excited to be able to tag along with him. We flew to Florida and spent the night there. Then we boarded the ship the next morning. I was excited to be in a tropical climate I gain. When we boarded the ship all of the people that were part of the Holistic Holiday at Sea were ushered to a dining room for lunch. They had a 5 course meal prepared for us and it was fabulous! I didn't realize it before today but the group is a vegan and or macrobiotic group. They had 20 chefs to prepare just the food for the participants in our group. The meals were great, but I am a vegetable love her so I my have been a little biased. I do enjoy meat and dairy but would pick veggies any day. After we explored the beautiful ship, the MEC Divina, we attended the introduction to the speakers. They spotlighted each speaker on stage and let them give a little synopsis of what their presentation would be about. Daryl did a fantastic job. Soon after that it was time for dinner so we headed to our rooms to settle in and get ready. After dinner we enjoyed the first show put on by the MEC entertainers. They had a singer that was just as marvelous as Frank Sinatra and another singer that was the voice twin of Celine Dion. The singing, dancing, and acrobatics where terrific! We're looking forward to wonderful show this trip! One thing that was interesting about this cruise was they didn't have many options for entertainment in the evening. We think it is likely because the majority of the people on the cruise were with the holistic group and most of them would be attending presentations. There were still things to do, and there is always sunbathing! :-) I love the sun! We only had 3 ports on this week long cruise , so there were many sea days.  It was nice to be stuck at sea when there were presentations you wanted to see. The presentations were great to attend. Some were much more informative and fascinating than others. One of the presenters was a doctor that said we should cut all salt out of our diets. He said Americans have way too much salt in their diet. This is true--sort of. Everyone should try to cut processed salt completely out of their diet, but everyone needs salt in their diet--just not processed salt because it is what is harmful to the body. It is this salt that gives all salts a bad name. Americans do have way too much in their diets thanks to processed foods, but along with that salt are getting other chemicals the body doesn't need. We heard in another presentation they talked about how these vegans should salt the food they cook, so apartment it was clarified a little. On Tuesday we had a our first port, St. Thomas. We scheduled an excursion to go snorkeling and to a beach. It was the same Cove we snorkeled at with the boys on the Disney cruise. We saw turtles and stingrays and many fish. The beach we went to was nice. It was a little chilly but if you laid in the sun it was perfect. Wednesday we were ported in San Juan. We walked around the old part of the city making plans for when we are there in May with the Goodes. Then we got back on the ship so Darryl could get ready for his presentation. Even though we were in port he had a pretty good turnout, about 40 people. He is an excellent presenter and did a great job educating people about salt and clay. The next day was another day at sea and then on Friday we were in Nassau. We found directions to a fort and another place called Castle Garden so we did a self guided walking tour of the south. We ended up in a Daughters of the Bahamas museum, an old home that is now a museum called the Balcony House, the pirate museum, the slave museum, Fort Charolette, Fort Fincastle, and Queen's Staircase(which was our only initial intended destination). It was worth seeing but nothing much there. It was near a couple museums so it worked out perfectly. This was such a great day! It was so interesting to go to each site and learn about its history.  Each day on the cruise was great. We spent most of our time each day in the gym, in the sun, in a presentation, or in a show--so great! There were a few moments that I spent studying a book for one of my Master classes and Darryl studied as well, the backs of his eyelids. :-) It was really am awesome trip. On Saturday when it was all over, we got off the ship and headed to the airport. We were able to get off the ship much earlier than expected so we were at the airport way before our fligh. We were so early we couldn't even check in. Darryl, with all of his traveling expertise, got on the phone and got us switched to an earlier flight. It was so wonderful because instead of hanging out all day in an airport and getting back home at 1 in the morning we were able to jump on a flight and be back home by 7:30 that night. The boys were excited to have us back and we were excited to see them. Darryl's cousin Beci had been watching them the first part of the week and then my mom came on Friday and took over. The boys love Beci, her husband Will, and their little boy Austim. Unfortunately, Beci didn't have the best time because she is pregnant and very sick. I felt so bad for her. I wished it would been better for her. She said the boys were wonderful but it was just hard to deal with her little guy because she was feeling so awful. My mom took Kade and the other boys to Kade's gym meet in Saratoga Springs. Kade said it wasn't his best meat but after the meet he had his best day ever. Wendy took Kade and Abby to a climbing place for Abby's birthday. They had the time of their lives climbing rock walls and other obstacles. 

So there you have it, a quick rundown of a glorious time in our life.