cruise, part 3 - the end

First of all, if you think cruising is for the rich, think again. In fact, it's quite the opposite, especially if you are deal-saavy. I couldn't believe what a great deal we got. Couple that with our free flights (sky miles), and it really wasn't expensive at all. But I'm now certain it is the way to travel. The food wasn't my favorite, but it was still way better than me having to cook! So I'll take it.

Friday was our last full day, and it was a day at sea. We carefully chose our itinerary, and chose the 7 night cruise with only 2 days at sea - Monday and Friday. Spencer and Brian got more and more curious about the boat itself during the week, so they signed up for an on-board excursion. It was 4 hours and took them through all the parts of the boat no one else had access to. It was limited to 16 people.

Apparently it was a really neat tour. They got to go on the bridge (watched every second by a security guard), into the "servant's quarters," into the engine room, etc. It was probably like Christmas morning for engineer Brian. They found out all kinds of details; perhaps most interesting to me was how much their lowest-paid kitchen/laundry workers make. $700 a month, for 70 hours a week. It made me a little bit sick at first but I was reminded that all of these people are foreigners and in their countries that is a LOT of money. They can never get off the boat in port, though, and work straight through with no time off for months (4 months on, 2 months off). I guess labor laws don't apply in "international waters." However, they seem so happy! They sing and dance every night at dinner and are happy to have a job. So that's that.

Camille and I were just fine up on the deck, reading our books, while the guys were learning everything they wanted to know about ships. It was HOT this day, so we had to take lots of pool breaks. But I had finished my first book and was starting my second and I loved every second of it. I just can't find the time to read when I'm at home - there are always too many other things to be doing. On the cruise, it WAS my priority.

That afternoon there were games on the sport court. On Monday the boys had gone up to play and Spencer had won two medals in basketball games. This day it was dodge ball...and perhaps we should have stayed away. But we needed one more medal.

There was one other LDS group there (10 people, from UT) and of course they knew how to play dodge ball. It was an elimination-type game with all the teams that were there. Spencer and Brian's team knocked several teams out quickly and this other Utah team was very good as well. Needless to say, it came down to these 2 teams for the championship. Camille and I kept joking that obviously the men had had lots of YM callings in their time, in order to be so good at dodge ball. As soon as the game started the accusations of cheating started flying (by the other team). It got heated and at the end Spencer and Brian came out the victors. But one little dude with a "U" on his hat wouldn't let it go and chose to get in Spencer's face (he must have forgotten for a small second that he was tiny compared to Spencer). I missed a lot of the confrontation but could see the blood boiling inside of Spencer. I think that ruined the rest of his day. Oh man, so competitive... But they won fair and square, and each of our kids got a stupid ship medal. :)

On Saturday our flights didn't leave until 3:00; Brian and Camille's didn't leave until 6:00. Our goal was to get off the ship FIRST, get to the airport, rent a car, and drive to the Keys. We realized that it would be tight for us, so we rented separate cars. Thankfully, we timed it perfectly and were off the boat by 8:00, with cars rented by 8:30. We drove down to the Keys (even though I was SO done, and ready to be home), partly through the Everglades, and it was really interesting and quite fun.

We first went to this place where we could feed the tarpon fish - these huge, ugly beast-like fish. It was sorta cool. We then wanted to see a beach, but there really aren't beaches along the Keys. We stopped at a "beach" anyway but the tide was too high. Spencer and I then had to turn back but Brian and Camille kept going, past 7-mile bridge (think "True Lies"). It was weird to be separated from our week-long travel buddies. But I am glad we can say we've been to the Florida keys.

We did a little souvenir shopping and got back to the airport with almost 90 minutes to spare, where we waited to go home. We even got to Skype with the kids.

I am so grateful for everyone who made this trip happen...it's amazing to me how much busier life gets as the kids get older, and it wasn't easy to organize everything.

One last shout out to all our towel animals...