Cruising!!!

Viddy and I took a cruise with some of Viddy's family. To say that it was amazing would be an understatement. There are tons and tons of pictures, so I'm planning on posting them in sets. Viddy's family drove down and spent a few days with us in Houston and then we sailed out of Galveston. Our first stop was Cozumel Mexico. We went dune buggy-ing through part of the jungle and then stopped at the Jade Caverns where we jumped off a ledge into a natural pool. The dune buggies were a ton of fun, but speaking from experience, they weren't as fun when you had to pee. 

We were super stylish with bandannas over our faces so that we wouldn't breathe in all the dust and the goggles. We drove through mud, ran into a few trees, went over a jump and got some air and just had a fun time. 

 In front of our boat. It's amazing how big it is and everything that it has on it. 

 The second day of excursions we stopped at the Cayman Islands. Here we had to take a smaller boat from our cruise ship to the island. 

Our first stop was the Turtle Farm. Holding little baby sea turtles was one of the coolest things. Did you know that you can calm a sea turtle down by stroking the underside of its neck?

Next we went to an aviary in the turtle farm where we got to feed some birds (it's hard to see, but there is a little bird sitting on my hand in the picture below)

This bird landed on Viddy's chest and then walked up it to sit on his shoulder, he hung out with us for a little bit. 

After the aviary we went snorkeling with some cool looking fish and sea turtles.

Our last stop in the Cayman Islands was Hell. 

Our third day of excursions was in Jamaica. If I had to pick a favorite place we visited it would be here. All of the places were awesome, but Jamaica was sweet!

With part of Jamaica in the background. This was the first stop at a botanical garden. It used to be a hotel, but since it was so far away from food and shopping, they turned it into gardens. 

At the gardens in front of a waterfall.

 After the gardens we went to a hotel where they fed us Jamaican food for lunch. This is the patio that we sat on and had lunch.

Our final stop in Jamaica was Dunn's River Falls. Here we climbed up an amazing waterfall. Here is a picture of part of the falls. We climbed the falls for quite a while and it's impossible to get a picture of everything that we climbed at once. 

This was all of us before we went into the falls being nerds and lining up in the shade of a palm tree. 

Lizzie and me before climbing the falls. It doesn't look like it, but she loves me :)

 Viddy and me in the falls. This was before I had gone completely under the water, so I was trying really hard not to... that didn't last long!

 Viddy's family standing in the freezing water. Ok, it actually wasn't that cold, but they ran us through the ocean water first and compared to the ocean water it's cold. 

 And we finished! It was a ton of fun and I was pretty proud of myself for doing it because usually I would have been terrified of falling and cracking my head open but we all finished without major injury. 

These are just some of the pictures from the days that we did excursions. I will have another post with pictures of us doing things on the ship and then another post of some of the amazing things that we saw (scenery, plants, animals). 

And just a side note. A few weeks before the cruise I got my first pair of prescription sun glasses and they are amazing to have. I'm a little sad that this was my first pair because they are so awesome! It is amazing to be able to spend the whole day outside and be able to see and not have a headache after from all the sun.