Adam and I got married January 4th and the new semester started January 6th, which meant we had to get right back into school. Luckily we were able to take a mini-honeymoon to Park City for a few days. We missed the first 2 days of school and then were right back at it on that Wednesday.
We had planned to do a "real" honeymoon after the semester. So, after a lot of deciding of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do, we booked ourselves a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean! It was a long hard semester for both of us so we were excited to have a fun, relaxing, warm vacation!
We flew out to Orlando on May 3rd, stayed at the Marriott nearby, then took a 1 hour shuttle-bus ride to Port Canaveral to board the ship.
Once we saw the ship, our excitement erupted. The massiveness of it was unbelievable! We were so eager to hop on and explore.
(Stole this pic off the internet)
So, all of Sunday we spent our time trying to see every part of the ship, getting more and more excited every corner we turned. We settled into our room, toured some more of the ship and then got ready for dinner.
Adam and I had the option of sitting by ourselves at dinner but, we decided we wanted to sit at a large table with many different people. I love meeting new people from all over the world and getting to know a little about their lives. So, eager to meet our new friends, Adam and I headed to dinner and were the first ones at the table. A minute or two later, 3 more people came! It was a man and his wife with their young daughter. They were from Russia and the dad was the only one of them who spoke English. We chatted with them (him) for a few minutes until a big group of people showed up to fill the rest of our table. They were ALL Russians who had come on the cruise together. And none of the rest of them spoke English!!!! At this point I was really disappointed because I figured they would all be speaking Russian the whole time together and Adam and I would be in our little corner. Thankfully, the waiter knew we were out of place and offered us another table.
We sat with a great newlywed couple from Florida. He was 38 and she was 35. They were super pleasant to talk to. We got very comfortable with them and we all shared stories and life experiences. After a few nights of eating with them, they asked more about our religion. We talked the whole evening about Mormon's, what we believe, how our church is run, etc. Adam got the conversation going by mentioning that he lived in Chile for 2 years and they were curious about that. Josh, the husband, lived in Kirtland, Ohio previously and wanted to know more about the history that happened there. They were extremely respectful and genuinely interested to hear about it all. They mentioned how they had seen a few South Park episodes that mentioned Mormons and it made them curious to know more. They noted that they didn't like how television, broadway plays, and media in general, often made fun of Mormons and talked poorly of us. They were so respectful and very kind when asking questions. It was very exciting!!
We decided we needed to give them a Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, we didn't have one (we'll never travel again without one). Our friends, Megan and Sam Poulson, were on the same cruise with Megan's family so we asked her dad if he had one. He didn't but noticed there was one in the small little library there on the ship. He told us just to take it. Hahah! He's a stake president so, the fact that he gave us the OK to take it, made it a little better. We stole the Book of Mormon! Hahaha! 2 nights later, on the last evening on the ship, we gave our new friends the book. They were very happy and thanked us many times for the gift. They reassured us that they would read it. And that was that! I hope with all my heart that they really do read it and feel something. Hopefully Adam and I made a good impression on them so that one day, when missionaries knock on their door, they'll remember us and let them in. I love being an everyday missionary with Adam!
Monday was supposed to be our first stop at Coco Cay, Bahamas! Early that morning, after waking up and ready to head up to breakfast, we heard on the overhead speaker that due to weather conditions we weren't going to be able to go to Coco Cay. :( It was clear skies but very windy outside and it was just too dangerous for the smaller shuttle-boats to transfer us over near the rocky dock. So, it was a day at sea!
Tuesday was a day at sea as well. Those days are of course always a blast. There's so much to do on the boat. From surfing on the the Flow Rider to watching the Belly Flop contest, to laying out, soaking up the sun, and reading, we never got bored. They offered great live entertainers. Comedians, magicians, professional ice skaters. We were able to see the movie Gravity in 3D (so good!). We rock climbed, mini-golfed, and saw all sorts of shows. It was endless fun.
Wednesday was our first day on shore! We stopped at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. What a BEAUTIFUL place! We got up early, met up with about 25 other people who had signed up for the same excursion as us and boarded a big sail boat. It was about a 20 minute sail ride over to Buck Island where we would get our gear on, jump in the crystal clear water and snorkel around finding fish and exploring a sunken ship-wreck.
Once we were done snorkeling, we sailed back to the dock and pondered on what to do for the next several hours on shore. We decided to go to Magen's Beach. One of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to. We spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the sun there.
Thursday was our next shore stop. St. Martin's, Virgin Islands. This day was by far my favorite of all of them. Adam and I, along with our buddies Megan and Sam, signed up to do "The Extreme." It was this crazy fun zip-line/ropes-course high up in the jungles of the island. Ahh man... words, pictures, and videos will never do this adventure justice. We took a 30 minutes bus ride up to the course. Once there, the workers gave us our gear, helped secure our harnesses on and told us what to do. Then, we were off on our own! Seriously! We didn't have any workers with us the whole rest of the course! Never would that happen in the U.S. on a high-adventure ropes course! But it was SO much more fun that way. Not having workers babysit and nag us about clipping in our carabiners and all the safety stuff was so much more enjoyable (and also more dangerous... I realize this. But hey, that's the fun of it, right?!). There were 16 zip-lines, with different little obstacles in between each one. The course took about 2 hours to get through. And our surroundings were so beautiful. Most of the zip-lines were super long, lasting for about 20-30 seconds each. It was sooo much fun!
Friday and Saturday were our last two days and they were spent at sea.
Our honeymoon cruise was so perfect. We had such a relaxing, enjoyable time. It was so nice having no worries. I loved being with Adam all day everyday for a whole week! Can't wait for more fun adventures in our future!
