Happy Valentine's Day from the Wet - errr - West Coast!

I am busy getting back to 'normal' life.  It's amazing how many naps are required after a cruise!  I was doing fine until the travel day.  I, of course, woke up very early 5 am Florida time.  We visited a quilt store and then dropped me at the airport.  Where I was very well acquainted with a TSA lady!!  Seriously, I may need to add her to my Christmas card list - she knows me better than most of my friends! :)

I love the fact that the gates have 'electric plug-in bars' now.  And if yours doesn't, I'm sure there is one close by.  My phone was dead and with the long wait, I got it charged!

Back to my day, I don't sleep on planes.  or cars ... thank goodness I do sleep on ships, but by the time I got home to Portland, it was 1 am - 4 am Florida time!!  I'm way too old for 20+ hours awake!  I babysat Mr M the next day and I was mighty cranky by 3:30 pm!!  I'm blaming this nap cycle thingie on that!!

I do believe I promised you some pictures.  These are in no particular order, but I'm starting at the top and working my way down.

Mary and I having our first scrump-dilly-ious dinner in the dining room.  They take such good pictures of you on a cruise.  Is it the lighting? Are you relaxed? and of course, they charge a premium for them.

I'm reminded of a tax purposes photo that was taken of our family cabin.  When my parents protested the tax valuation, the clerk showed them the photo of the property.  My mom said she needed a copy of that photo - it had never looked so good!!

A Haitian boat for spear fishing. Ladies, these boats look like they should be on a small lake!  They ride the currents to fishing places and found they were having trouble getting back to the island.  So they developed a sail system.  The mast folds down and out of the way until needed.  AND the sails are patchwork made by the fishermen - or their wives!  They were fascinating, don't want to ride in one, but cool to look at!

Back aboard the ship - and what a ship it was.  This is one of two hot tubs that hang off the side on the 11th deck!  Very popular place.  There were 3-5 more hot tubs mixed in with the pools, but this one was great fun to sit in!

Independence of the Seas is YAR!!  Huge ship, very elegant.  3500 passengers; 1500 staff!!  On deck 12 they have a track for walking and jogging.  THREE times around equalled a mile!!!  It was awesome.  

We were in classes during the at sea days, but it never really felt crowded - after the muster drill.  And maybe when we had to be tendered in at Grand Cayman.  There were lines that day, but not when we disembarked back in Florida.  They did a fine job!!

Here's our intrepid group of quilting cruisers.  This was the luscious stairway off the promenade deck. It was a gorgeous ship!!

Home sweet home!  There was a love seat to the left.  Closet and bath on either side of the door.

It seemed spacious to us, considering we were in the 'cheap seats'.  And I was expecting an itty-bitty port hole!  This one was HUGE!!  And we loved our view, just one deck above the ocean.  We knew if we were moving or not!!!

More about the dream trip later ... this could take awhile!!  Good to be home, even in the rainy season!