Honeymoon Cruise: The Ship and Days at Sea

A little over two years ago, Josh and I went on our first cruise and got engaged on said cruise.  When discussing what we would do for our honeymoon, it wasn't even a question, we were going on a cruise.  Josh is pretty easy to please with where we go, as long as there is pretty blue water, he's down.  So, I chose to return to Central America, which I fell in love with when I went to Costa Rica.   Our trip went to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize City, and Roatan.  Josh wasn't thrilled about Belize but I found an excursion that wouldn't really take us into Belize which was a bummer for me but it made Josh feel better.   The cruise went out of Miami but we flew to Fort Lauderdale so we spend a night there before being transported to Miami to get on the ship.

Our ship was the Carnival Splendor.  It was larger than our last ship but I feel like the layout was really weird and hard to get a handle on.  We got a balcony room this time which was a great choice because we did spend a great deal of time out there, and the room was bigger with more room.  The room was simple which was fine because I don't really care to pay for fancy.  Overall, we really enjoyed our time.  Our first day at sea was mostly spent laying on the top deck getting some sun and hanging out on our balcony.  We also watched the hairy chest contest again (which I am once again mad at Josh for not participating in) and Josh did the limbo contest. 

Our dinner buddies were no where near as cool as our last ones but we did eat dinner in the dining room most nights.  We skipped the first elegant night mainly because we just didn't feel like getting dressed up and we skipped one other dinner because there was a show we wanted to see that ran right through it.  The last two nights, there were shows that were amazing!  I love watching live shows!  We also went to comedy shows a few nights in a row, both were great!  We also saw a hypnosis show which was hilarious.  (Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of any show but the hypnosis show).  Our last day at sea was spent pretty much the same as our first, laying out and getting sun, hitting the casino and arcade a bit and seeing a show.  Overall, we had a really great time on our cruise and I can't wait for next years cruise!

After going through my pictures I realized that I did not take many photos on the ship at all! 

The land in the photo above is Cuba.  It killed me to be that close and not able to stop there!

Josh ate snails at the second elegant dinner.

One Lovely Blog Award

I totally meant to post this while I was on vacation but time got away from me and I never finished it.  Anyway, the lovely Laura from The Life We've Imagined nominated me for the One Lovely Blog award :)

For this award I have to write 7 facts about myself, and then challenge a few other bloggers to write 7 facts about themselves.  I think I'm supposed to nominate 10-15 other bloggers but I'm going to go with 5.

1.  I generally like animals better than people, and they seem to like me too.  We have a lot of truck drivers come through the gates at work and one guy has a little dog who growls at everyone but loves me.  The driver jokes about it all the time, he even has a beware of dog sticker on his truck.

2.  Cruises are my new favorite way to travel :) I was reluctant to go when we booked our cruise to the Bahamas in 2012 but I ended up loving it!  AND we have one cruise booked for next year and one in mind for the following year.  It's such a great way to get a glimpse of a bunch of different places.

3.  I don't want children.  Like, ever.  Motherhood just isn't for me.

4. When I tell people what I do for a living they often think it sounds exciting.  What I should say is that I watch lots of movies and read lots of books.  My job title makes my job sound way more exciting then it actually is, especially since I work mostly overnights.

5.  I have recently become obsessed with snorkeling!  I did it for the first time in Belize and again in Honduras and I can't get enough of it!  Now I need to try scuba diving (I never thought I'd say that)!  Being under water and seeing all the fish and coral up close was unbelievable.

6. Ever since my first trip to Costa Rica, I have had a love for Central America.  This last trip made that love grow even more.  I love the people, I love the cultures and I love the nature.

7.  I have no clue what I want to do with my life.  I changed my major 4 times the first round of college before settling on Anthropology (which I'm not even using) and then changed it another 4 the second round before settling on Criminal Justice.  My job (which is in the CJ field) is OK but it's definitely not what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I nominate:

Olya @ The Siberian American

Kelley @ Move by Yourself 
Mary-Keith @ Mary-Keith
Mar @ T.O. and Fro
Sam @ The Life You Love

Bye Bye 'Murica!

Josh and I are headed to Miami today where we will board our cruise ship for our (delayed) Honeymoon!!  Be back on the 16th!!

I can't wait to share about our cruise and my return to Central America!!

Book Review: Splintered

Splintered

By: A.G. Howard

Pages: 400

Read: 9/10/14

"For sixteen years, Alyssa Gardner has lived with the stigma of being descended from Alice Liddell—the real life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s famed novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But cruel jokes about dormice and tea parties can’t compare to the fact that Alyssa hears the whispers of bugs and flowers... the same quirk which sent her mother to a mental institution years before.

When her mother takes a turn for the worse and the whispers grow too strong for Alyssa to bear, she seeks the origins of their family curse. A set of heirlooms and a moth tied to an unusual website lead Alyssa and her gorgeous best friend / secret crush, Jeb, down the rabbit hole into the real Wonderland, a place more twisted and eerie than Lewis Carroll ever let on.

There, creepy counterparts of the original fairytale crew reveal the purpose for Alyssa’s journey, and unless she fixes the things her great-great-great grandmother Alice put wrong, Wonderland will have her head."

{GoodReads}

This is a hard book to review because I both liked and disliked it.  I really loved the story.  I loved the characters and the plot and the twist on an old classic.  I loved that there were familiar scenes in this book and that there was a darker twist on wonderland.  The author really made it her own which I loved because that could definitely be a hard thing to do.  I did not love the writing.  I don't know what it was but this book was hard for me to read.  Honestly, I can't even pinpoint exactly what it was that made it so hard for me, but I just didn't like it. (I'm so helpful, I know).  I did like that with the way this book ended I don't feel like I need to read the rest of the series, because I honestly don't know if I'd be able to get through it.

Because the story itself was great, I gave this book a 4/5 on GoodReads.

Book Review: Bird in Hand

Bird in Hand

By: Christina Baker Kline

Pages: 288

Read: 8/29/14

"The accident was just that -- an accident. It was dark, it was raining, ALISON had two drinks in her, and the other car ran the stop sign. She just didn't get out of the way fast enough. But now a little boy -- not her own -- is dead, and Alison finds herself trapped under the twin burdens of grief and guilt, and feeling increasingly estranged from her husband . . .

CHARLIE, who has his own burdens. He's in a job he doesn't love so that Alison can stay home with the kids (and why isn't she more grateful for that?); he has a house in the suburbs and a long commute to and from the city each day. And the only thing can focus on these days is his secret, sudden affair with . . .

CLAIRE, Alison's best friend. Bold where Alison is reserved; vibrant where Alison is demure, Claire has just had her first novel published, a thinly-veiled retelling of her childhood in South Carolina (which is also Alison's, in a sense). But even in the whirlwind of publication, Claire can't stop wondering if she should leave her husband . . .

BEN, an architect who is thoughtful, kind, and patient. And who wants nothing more than a baby, or two -- in fact, exactly the kind of life that Charlie and Alison have . . .

Four people, two marriages, one lifelong friendship: everything is about to change."

{GoodReads}

 I had extremely high hopes for this book because I loved Orphan Train.  Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed with this book.  I think the main issue I had was that I didn't like any of the characters.  Ben was the only one who was semi OK and who I didn't want to punch in the face through the whole thing.  I will say that the plot is pretty realistic, what happens in the book could happen to anyone.  And unfortunately, cheating husbands and wives seems to be all too common these days.  I imagine the story is very relatable for people in the same stage of life as the characters (midlife, deciding on kids, job issues etc.), but I just couldn't get past the fact that I disliked all of the characters immensely. 

I gave this book a 3/5 on my GoodReads.

Book Review: The Selection Series

The Selection Series

The Selection, The Elite, The One

By: Kiera Cass

Read: 9/25/14

I'm really not sure why I liked these books so much, but I really did.  They weren't some fantastic pieces of literature but I liked the whole idea behind the book, it's dystopian but it seems like everything went backwards.  The main character was really the only one who made me want to throw the book across the room.  In the first book she is very whiny and ungrateful but it gets better in the second and third.  In the second she reminded me of the character Clary from the Mortal Instruments series in that she would do the exact opposite of what people said she should and most of the time it ended badly.   Also, the character Aspen was just annoying and definitely not someone I'd ever want to be with.  He seemed like he was there to be the emotionally abusive ex or something.   Maxon and his family were very real characters as well as some of the other girl's in the competition, which I really liked.  I also thing that the relationships between the characters develop very nicely and realistically throughout the books.   My favorite book was definitely the last one - there are very few cases when I think the series gets better with each book, but that is definitely the case here.  The very ending could have been a little better but overall everything wrapped up nicely, there was some conflict and a bit of violence, and the characters were at their best.  Overall, it was just a good easy series to read.   There are some faults but I think the relationships that the characters build and the overall development of the plot really overshadows the bad things about the books.

I gave each of these books a 4/5 on GoodReads.

Book Review: Firefly Lane

Firefly Lane

By: Kristin Hannah

Pages: 508 (Nook)

Read: 10/10/14



"From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She will follow her own blind ambition to New York and around the globe, finding fame and success . . . and loneliness.

Kate knows early on that her life will be nothing special. Throughout college, she pretends to be driven by a need for success, but all she really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own quiet way, Kate is as driven as Tully. What she doesn’t know is how being a wife and mother will change her . . . how she’ll lose sight of who she once was, and what she once wanted. And how much she’ll envy her famous best friend. . . .

For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship---jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they’ve survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart . . . and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test"
{GoodReads} 

I really wanted to love this book because I loved the two other books that I've read by Kristin Hannah (Winter Garden and Magic Hour) but I just couldn't.  The story line and the idea behind the story was good and the book definitely had potential but what really killed it for me was the characters.  I love when characters grow and change but I didn't see that here.  I feel like they actually got worse with age.  Their relationship was really toxic and I just couldn't help but not like either of them.  Tully was way too self absorbed and Kate was way to weak.  Tully changed a little bit at the very end, but I still feel like they never grew and that really ruined the book for me.  I know a lot of people really love this book, but I just couldn't.  This is one that I would still recommend because even though it wasn't my cup of tea, it wasn't a bad book either.

I gave this book a 3/5 on my GoodReads.