Tunstalls Invade Europe!!

Because I hadn't started this blog yet, I was posting to TravelPod while my husband and I were overseas last Spring. To brush up on our 16-day trip through five countries, click the link below!

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/heathertunstall/1/tpod.html

Oops, sunshine, and holidays.

Somewhere... beyond the sea...

So, it's been a while since I've posted. I could give you about 1,000 excuses, but let's be honest, there are really only two people who read this, and you know what I've been up to anyway. However, because I'm OCD, I feel like if I leave out the obviously spectacular stories I have to tell about our cruise in November, then I will forever regret it. Maybe not, but hey, it's a snowy Saturday afternoon in Northeast Ohio, and I feel like writing.

So let's get down to business.

Thanksgiving week of 2010 was pretty amazing, I must say. The hubby and I took a nice, 17-hour overnight drive down to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. to hop on a big boat and set sail around the Caribbean. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise before, so we were pretty stoked for this one. It was a 5-nighter, going from Ft. Lauderdale, to Grand Cayman Island, to Cozumel, Mexico and back. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was 80 degrees and sunny in November, so we were fairly sure we'd enjoy it.

We cruised with Royal Caribbean, and quite honestly, we liked it a lot. We had a room with a private balcony, and it wasn't as small as we expected it to be - it was pretty nice, actually. We spent our days up at the pool, or in the buffet, eating ourselves into afternoon comas. It was fun to dress up, dance, drink, lay around, gamble (I won about $350 on one hand of 3-card poker!), and explore the ship. Each morning, we woke up and ate breakfast out on our balcony and discussed what we'd do that day.

Stingray City - the giant dark spots
are the monsters! 

Our first port was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. We opted for a guided excursion where we would take a bus and a boat out into the bay and swim with ginormous stingray. When I say ginormous, I mean roughly 150-lb stingray with eyeballs the size of golf balls. Now, you may not know this about me, but I am absolutely terrified of ocean creatures. On our honeymoon, my husband nearly had to push me into the water to snorkel. I'm getting better each time I try, but the stingray were freaking scary, no matter what anyone says. I forced myself to go in the water and try it out, and I stayed in there for about 10-15 minutes and even pet some of the monsters (which felt like wet mushrooms), but then I enjoyed the rest of the excursion up on the boat, watching my hubby have his own adventure and taking pictures. In my defense, because I'm only 5'2" and the water was choppy, the waves were throwing me around and I couldn't keep my feet on the ground so I was stepping on stingray left and right - hence, the freaking out.

After Stingray City, we walked around the shops and restaurants in town for a while, then headed back to the ship. We were a little disappointed because we spent so much time in transit to and from the excursion that we barely had any free time on the island. With that in mind, when we went to Cozumel, we chose to make it our own little adventure - without having to wait on other people. And an adventure it was!

We rode this hog all over Cozumel.

We took one look at the lines for excursions and taxis, said a quick prayer, and signed a sheet for our very own scooter for the day. Strapping our helmets on tight, we wobbled around on this 15-mile-an-hour deathtrap through absolutely gorgeous scenery - right along the beach and through a jungle until we reached a park where we could lay on the beach and snorkel. They also happened to have a nice little local mom-and-pop restaurant that served the absolute BEST tostadas we've ever tasted. It was a perfect, relaxing day, and we had a great time.

Overall, a cruise is something we'd do again - somewhere new next time, of course. We weren't big fans of the assigned eating times and attire, but that wasn't enough to dampen our spirits. When we returned to port, we drove down to Boca Raton to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's aunt, uncle and grandma, and some of their friends. It was so wonderful. We stuffed ourselves full for a full week straight, enjoyed each other's company and the company of our fabulous family, and then on our way home, we made a pit stop in Savannah (paid for in full with my poker winnings from the cruise!).

Historic Savannah, Ga.

Savannah was a pretty awesome town, and we saw a tiny bit of it. We only had one night, so we took advantage of the fact that you can get beers "to go" (no, really!!), and we set off on our own little walking tour of Savannah's Most Haunted Places, with a smart phone as our guide. It was a beautiful, historic, kind of creepy, super quirky city, and we loved every bit of it. We definitely want to go back sometime and fully enjoy what it has to offer.

So, that was our big trip at the end of 2010. We had a fantastic Christmas with our family, I had a Golden Birthday (27 on the 27th), and we had a fun New Year's Eve with our friends. In year two of my husband's and my New Year's Eve tradition where we write down three locations each and draw one from a hat to be that year's vacation, we chose New York City. So, watch out Gotham, the Tunstalls are already making plans.

A quick recap of the new year so far: I got baptized for the first time in my life on January 2, and that was a beautiful experience. The weather in Ohio has been extremely snowy ever since we returned from our cruise, and it's only getting whiter outside. We are planning on going skiing soon, and we have a busy few months ahead with LOTS of fun planned, so I will be back on here in a much timelier fashion from here on out!

Until then... keep dreaming of what each year has to offer, and remember - never underestimate what you can do with a little advanced planning!