Vacation 2011!!

We had the most wonderful vacation with our friends Lauren and Donovan. In truth they planned the whole thing and we were just along for the ride. So the first week of May we were on a 7-day Caribbean cruise. What a deal!

Ready to board...

Lauren & Donovan

Clay & I

Our first stop was Cozumel and we did a tour at Playa del Carmen of the Mayan ruins of Tolum! BEAUTIFUL!!!

The main temple ruin

The whole site was built on this bluff overlooking the crystal clear Caribbean sea. I think it's pretty clear why the Mayans chose this location. Gorgeous!!



After touring the site we went and took a dip in the ocean!

Ready, set, GO!

Lauren & Donovan hit the waves!

Lauren & I practicing our surfer girl moves!

The next day was my favorite stop... Belize! I want to move there and lay on the beach and swim in the ocean. I wonder if anyone would pay me to do that?!?

We went snorkeling in Belize which has the largest barrier reef in the northern hemisphere. However, the snorkeling pictures are on Lauren's camera (it was water proof) and I haven't received copies yet. So that will be covered in a later post!

Ready to snorkel!

After snorkeling we went and relaxed on a private island!

Me in my natural state of existence!

Ain't we cute!

The view of our ship as we tendered back.

Our third stop was Honduras. Let me tell you, I have never been in a more humid climate. I told a guy that I work with how humid it was and he said "Well have you ever been to Houston." I responded "Honduras made Houston feel like a dry climate." Yeah, it's that bad.

In Honduras we did a zipline along with visiting a monkey refuge where we got to hold spider monkeys!!! It was so much fun!

I actually held a Macaw. They are mean!

Donovan was brave and let it sit on his shoulder!

Me and the baby spider monkey! The monkey also bit me when he dropped the food he was eating and didn't realize it. Oops!

Clay and the spider monkey!

Lauren got to wear a monkey hat...
yeah try telling the monkey not to get on your head!

Now for some zipline fun! This was the excursion Clay was the most excited for. Sadly, because he had the camera, we don't have an uploaded pic of him having all the fun. So pics of the rest of the group will have to do!

Lauren handles it like a pro!

Donovan comes in for a landing!

Swinging through the trees just like a monkey!

This was the second time Clay and I ziplined, the last time was in Alaska. I highly recommend ziplining if you get a chance it is so much fun!

Our last, and final stop (sniff!) was Grand Cayman island. While the other countries we visited were third world counties, the benefit of Grand Cayman is that it is part of the British Commonwealth and it is very modern. So if you're not the "roughin' it" type, I would suggest Grand Cayman!

But while Grand Cayman is grand, it is not complete without one important stop...



Lucky for us we made it through and ventured on to the sea turtle rescue.

The big mommies and daddies are upwards of 70 years old!

Lauren was thrilled that the turtle is like a puppy and wants his chin rubbed!

They actually are kind of cute!

Donovan with the baby!

Once we left the turtles it was on to spend more "quality" time with sea creatures at Stingray Island.

Everyone crowds around to see the stingray!

While the crowd was thrilled to get to feed the stingrays and hold the stingrays... this would be me.


Have I mentioned I don't "do" fish. Yep, I hung out by myself in the middle of the sandbar. There was no way I was joining in the crazy crowd of people and hungry stingrays. NOT GONNA HAPPEN!!


But on the way back our boat put down anchor and we had some final fun in the ocean!

Clay takes the plunge!

What a wonderful trip with wonderful friends! And if you need me you can always find me somewhere warm and sunny!