Sorry So Late

Just got back from a week long cruise to the westeren carribbean and in the hurly burly of getting ready for the cruise I havn't been paying much attention to my blog. Sorry about that, sports fans so here goes for the month of april!
It was certainly a busy one with a visit from my father and one of my cousins and a poetry reading which I missed and getting my purple belt in taekwondo and getting ready for this cruise. I really needed a vacation. Well, now I'm back and I still need a vacation but the reality is my wife and children and mother all had a great time, I got the chance to get away, and now it's back to buisness as usual. Now let's break this down.
My father came back home, he's from this part of Texas but has been living in New Mexico for the last few years now. It's the first time I've seen him in a couple of years and it's always great to see him. He looks well, has since shaved of the beard I've always remembered him with and is sporting a tattoo band over his bicep. What's with the tattoo, Dad, midlife crisis! Anyway we spent the day together, had lunch, cruised around Galveston island for a bit, and looking for a part for my truck. I remembered he used to drink beer so I bought a 12 pack, but neither he nor my brother touched a single one so I polished off the 12 pack myself. What's with these guys, does getting older and living apart make one not want to drink? I would of that a good father and sons drinking session would have been in order seeing how we havn't all been together in the same place for a long while. All the same, my father went to a ball game with my brother, saw his granddaughters and we spent some good quality time together. I only wish I could go to New Mexico to see him but I'm tied up with an upcoming cruise. Besides the logistics and money for a family of two adults and three children will have to leave that visit for another time. I do hope to go out there so my girls can see something of the mountains. I just want to see my Dad, he's a great guy.
We tested out for our purple belts but I brain farted midway through the form so I hope sahbumnim is merciful with me. Truth is my mind was on the cruise and the western carribbean and not on ATA taekwondo. We go back tommorrow and see what happens, maybe the trinkets I bought in Jamaica and on the ship will help? We should have waited for after the cruise to test but it would have been the same, you're either prepared for such a test or you're not. At the that particular time, taekwondo was not on my mind; but jamaican rum, sandy beaches, clear blue sea, ancient mayan ruins and shipboard antics were all I was thinking about.
The Write Thoughts Poetry group I'm with had an evening of poetry reading and a display of local Galveston island themed poetry but I had to work. I later saw the poem I had submitted on display before we left for the cruise. I hope it's still up when I get back there because I want a picture of it.
Now for the meat of the matter, a week long cruise to Jamaica, Grand Cayman island and Cozumel, Mexico! We went on the Conquest out of Galveston, my family and my mother. It's her first time out of the country except for little mexican border towns and it was my daughter's first time out on a cruise ship. It was the second time out for my wife and I. If anyone deserved a vacation they did, I just like to get away for a while and see new things.
It took us two days at sea just to get to Jamaica and it was a wonderful sailing, the food wasn't as good as the Raphsody of the Seas of the the Royal Carribbean line but they still feed you like a king and the service was great. The Conquest is a huge ship, much bigger than the Rhaphsody so you don't feel the sea as much, it's not as personable as a smaller ship. I'll take the sea for a more personable experience, but I digress. My wife and girls literally camped out poolside, my mother did too but I think she relaxed more than the rest of us and that's what counts. I worked out in the gym and ran laps on deck, if you've never lifted dumbbells over your head or run on a rolling deck at sea you really should at least once. Wonderful test of balance and coordination with 40lbs over your head.
I did get sick for the first time at sea, contracted a noro virus from somewhere. When one is among 2000 plus passengers and 1000 plus crew in the clos confines of a ship illness travels like wildfire. It doesn't matter how clean you try to be, when this fucker bites it bites hard and holds on tight for a day or two and makes your life miserable with diarrhea, nausea, aches and pains and such. It hit me overnight between Jamaica and Grand Cayman Island but I did not pay some five thousand dollars, weeks of preparation, and travel a thoussand miles or so just to let some bug keep me in my bed! No way, I motrined myself up to control the low grade fever, hydrated myself with lots of water, and grabbed the bull by the balls and made it get on the tender then on the beach and I did get ashore to Grand Cayman island! The american dollar doesn't go far in Grand Cayman, only about 68 cents or so on the dollar, so we just walked around the duty free shops and stayed close to the ship.
Same thing with Jamaica, my wife and mother were really put off with the locals around the pier so we just hung around the shops then came back on the ship. I really wanted to go into town and see the sights or hang out with the crew at Doctors Cave beach. We would have had to travel by bus and Jamaica can be a dangerous place but I felt we would have been fine sticking close to the the other passengers and crew going ashore but the wife and mother would have none of it. So we came back on board, so much for my first time on the beautiful island of Jamaica
Cozumel was a better experience, I paid 229 dollars for a tour of the Mayan ruins in Tulum. My wife and I were here the last time, I really wanted to come back and I wanted the girls to see something one only reads about in books or sees on the Discovery channel, it was just too damn expensive for everyone so I took the older two girls and my wife, mother, and youngest daughter went shopping in Cozumel. The ruins are a wonderful and spiritual place and I am always in awe of the Mayan culture and the beauty of the place. I just couldn't stay away and this time I had my children with me; it was perfect. More to come on that later on a whole other entry.
I didn't engage in too many ship board antics, went up to the adults only deck once to sunbathe but Dana didn't want to go, I did bring my own rum this time so I always had a full lflask with me when at poolside or anywhere else on deck. Read some, wrote some poetry, including a great one about the couple in the cabin next ours. Dana didn't want to go dancing so I took it upon myself to dance with the other drunks to Bob Marley music at the poolside, she danced some but only on the periphery of the rest of our merry band. The rest of the cruise I'll have to write about some other time.
My head is still rolling to the motion of the ship as I type this and we are back at home, thanks to God. The girls go back to school tomorrow, I have a yard to cut, and life goes on.