I could have permanently stayed in Florida

Our Villa in Apollo Beach - we were totally spoiled

We had a very good time in Tampa. The house was beautiful and spacious, the weather was great, the dolphins playing in front of our balcony was unbelievable. All in all, the Tampa trip was a resounding success.

Me and Chris out on the boat that came with the house

This is a dolphin we saw playing with a fish while out on the boat. Later that night about midnight, Chris woke me up to say that there were four or five dolphins playing and swimming right in front of our balcony. It was so cool.

Now the cruise on the other hand.... We were so disappointed with Carnival Imagination. The staff was rude, the food was awful, the excursions were ridiculous. Our Cabin Steward, Angel, was great the first couple of days and then he seemed to disappear. We have all decided we are through with cruises for a while especially on Carnival and we'll stick to staying in Florida, renting a beach house and hanging out on the beach.

Our first port of call - Key West or as our gay, 3 pack a day smoker (that is how he referred to himself) called it all day on our tour "Key Weird"!

Our next port of call - the Mayan Ruins of Tulum

I just have to document our excursion to The Mayan Ruins, which we were all looking forward to and Laura, Carol, my mom and dad, all boasted about how much the enjoyed the trip the last time. We ended up at port an hour late, we then get off the ship, and board a ferry for a 45 minute boat ride, okay, we can handle that, except Jacob - he has sea sickness and is puking over the side of the ferry. Then, once we get to Playa Del Carmen, we get off the ferry and walk probably a quarter of a mile to get to a bus. I was picturing an old rickety bus with ladies and chickens in their baskets but was pleasantly surprised they were motor coaches. Then, we're on the bus for an hour and a half. We finally reach Tulum and realize, we only have one hour to actually see the ruins. Our tour guide takes us to various points within the ruins and talks and talks and talks. Finally, with our hour dwindling, we said, thanks but we're going out on our own. We quickly ran down to the beach, took some pictures near a big rock, ran back up the stairs, quickly walked to as many ruins as we could until a guide is blowing the whistle for us to go. My mom of course says she's going in this one ruins whether the guide liked it or not - well, apparently he didn't like it because he's chasing after her blowing the whistle. It was actually pretty hilarious. Of course, we walk back to the bus, have a few minutes to browse in the tacky tourist shops, grab a enchilada and salsa (the hottest salsa I have ever had) and then back on the bus where we got our snack -a bag of chips, a cupcake, cheese crackers and a bottle of water. It was lovingly referred to as our $80 snack as that is how much the excursion cost. Chris said he was going to make up T-shirts that read "I went to the Mayan Ruins and all I got was a ruined day!" He was pretty sure he could have sold three bus loads of shirts. Needless to say, he was none to happy. So, I have plenty of pictures of the ruins, but I never got to explore them and study the carvings or details.

Okay, so the 3 hour bus ride back (because of road construction and rain) to Cozumel left us only 20 minutes to run into Cozumel, grab some liquor and a few other trinkets, and rush to get back on board the ship before it sailed at 9:30. So, when people ask me how Cozumel was, I really have to tell them, I have no idea because we never saw it.

Back on board Carnival, and after our final dinner (which the food was awful), we made our way to the photo gallery to decide what photos to purchase, only to find out that most of our pictures have been thrown in the trash. So, we (along with other passengers) are digging through the trash to try and find our pictures. I said, if I have to dig in the trash to find pictures of us, they're free and the other passengers agreed. We were so disgusted.

So now let's get to the our day at the Miami airport. First, our 1:15 flight was bumped up to 10:00 a.m. which would never work b/c we didn't get off the ship until 9:00 or so. They moved us to a 6:15 p.m. flight which was fine because Laura and Jacob were on that same flight. We board the plane, the electrical goes out. They get the electrical back working but in the process they broke something on the landing gear. So we all get off the plane while Airtran worked on getting another plane ready. At 9:20 we finally boarded the other plane. At that time, Chris called me from the Atlanta airport (he spent the day with his buddy and left from the Ft. Lauderdale airport) and said his flight to Indianapolis had been canceled with no explanation. Also at that time, Mom and dad were about 30 minutes from Atlanta after driving all day, with a stop in Orlando, from Miami. I told Chris to take the MARTA and go to Carol's apartment because mom and dad would be there. Thank goodness we had the foresight to give mom and dad a key to Carol's condo. So we arrived at the Atlanta airport at about 11:15 p.m. Laura and Jacob have now missed their connecting flight to Moline, Illinois. So, we wait in line to see when their next flight is - not until the next morning. We schlep our bags on MARTA, walk two and a half blocks to our parking garage in downtown Atlanta. Laura stays with me and everyone else stays at Carol's condo. She had a packed house. I think we finally got to sleep at about 2:00 a.m. We were exhausted. The next morning Carol takes Chris to MARTA and 30 minutes later, I take Laura and Jacob to MARTA. Everyone made it home safely so I suppose that is all that matters.

Whew ~

oh, and when we call so I could to pick up CC (my dog) from her caregiver, she tells me the horrible news that she ran away over a week before and has not been able to find her. Yeah, it's been a crappy couple of weeks. I'm just devastated.