Nights at Sea....

After dinner, we headed up to Deck 10 to walk around. Deck 10 has a rock-climbing wall, a whole body bungee-jump, lounge chairs and a walk/run track. We headed up to take some pictures. The wind was blowing pretty good. But there were lots of things that looked amazing from up here!

The pools are on Deck 9 and most of Deck 10's center is open to the pools below. The sky was beautiful and you are looking toward the front of the ship!

This is another shot of the front of the ship with the amazing color of the sky! Wow!~

We had watched a show on Discovery a few months ago that was about the Oasis of the Seas, which is Royal Caribbeans newest ship. It is going to become the largest Cruise Ship in the world when it is in service. Anyways, the girls found out about the towel figures that are made every night. Each night it was amazing how excited they got trying to figure out what animal was it going to be!

And they figured out each day, when walking to/from dinner, the girls would look into other rooms and see what animals were on the beds. I think the most excited Lauren got was seeing an octopus!

I think I should have put this picture earlier in this post, but obviously from our balcony! Beautiful!

Southern most point in the USA...Allison & Lauren have arrived!

Key West was our 1st stop! We docked around 10am and were quickly off the boat. We definately wanted to hit the 'Southern Most Point' and the girls wanted to shop so we didn't want to waste any time!
We did catch a cab for a 15 block ride. Passing Ernest Hemingway's house along the way. Allison & Lauren asked who he was. So Im sure in the next few years, they will find out!

The cab driver we had was awesome! He let us goof off for a bit while taking pictures before we headed back. We actually got another couple who had walked down to take a picture of all of us. But they do have a volunteer that stands there and takes pictures for people for free! Pretty cool!

We got some pictures and then headed back to Duval Street to go through stores and find some stuff to buy! Lauren likes bags and Allison likes shirts....off we go!

We saw all kinds of funny stores and restaurants with great names, I should have taken more pictures! At least of the stores and restaurants, believe me, I definately took enough pictures!

This is where it all starts! And they say '1 is the loneliest number'. I did manage to get the girls in some shops and they did find some stuff, we even stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe and Allison got a shirt and a picture!

On the way back we ran across this unusual piece of artwork! Its called 'The Daydream'.

There were tons of people around taking some not so appropriate pictures, and the girls didn't really see the humor in it! But I had to get a picture!

As we got back to the boat, we got a picture with the boat behind us. It is rather large and we had a lady walking by take this picture! But you can see the large life-boats in the picture! The weather was great, and it was hot! This was going to be an awesome week!

After we got back on the boat we wanted to get to the pool. We hadn't tested out Laurens cast cover that was good for full-submersion! Lauren, I could tell, was a little apprehensive about whether or not it would work. I had heard her all week say 'im not snorkeling, im just going to sit on the beach and collect shells'. She was very sure of herself. So out came the 'claw'. I put it on her and we pumped the air out. It did form a great seal around the top of her arm.

Into the pool we went! She was still a little worried. Slowly she got more wet and more out into the pool. After about 5-10 minutes she was doing whatever. And you could see, the more she was in the water, the more she was relieved that she could, in fact, get wet & have some fun!

Lauren didn't even mind that we referred to her cover as her 'claw'. She kind of liked it!

Here's one of the many boats that encircle the boat when docking or pulling out! Notice the horsepower on the back!

After a few round of bartenders walking by with drinks, the girls realized they could have one. See, they don't put any liquor in it until after you order it! Mango-Tango it is! Actually Allison wanted the glass, but the drink wasn't bad either! Sometimes we think Lauren actually got a few with the alcohol!

The girls were having a blast and so was I. It was nice to be away from laundry, away from possibly picking up a shift, away from everything!

Lauren on our balcony, with one of the Carnival ships behind us. After we had gotten off and looked at both our boat and the Carnival ship, ours was HUGE! Lauren had poured some apple juice and said this was 'her drink'. ha ha

Here we are pulling out from Key West. How beautiful. The weather is perfect. The boat is awesome and this is only the beginning, wow, what a great week this is going to be!~

Later we had walked around the boat for awhile before dinner! Notice Allison showing off her new shirt already! And no tongue sticking out! Guess she doesn't owe me any $$, yet anyways!

All aboard........!!!!!!

The dreaded wait that we were going to have to experience upon checking in was short-lived. WOW! We pulled up, got all our checked bags out, and Chris went to park the car in the garage across from Terminal 25, which was our terminal. We entered a huge warehouse, the girls each carried their passports and I had our online check-in information ready.

We were able to walk right up to an agent to check us in. That took all of 5 minutes, followed the flow, got our picture taken and then headed up the gangway to 'officially' board the boat.

The SeaPass cards we got at check-in are our room keys as well as our on-board spending account. No cash! Everything you do or get goes against this card. We headed up and they input each of our cards into a card reader, where our face is matched with the card, so everytime we get on and off the boat, the card get swiped. As we came to the end of the gangway, here was our first step on the boat!
After getting through this, Lauren immediately got a green armband with her Muster station listed. This was for all kids under 12. This enables any staff member, in case of an emergency, to get her to the correct Muster station where she would meet us! Allison didn't need one!

We dropped everything off in the room and then headed out to explore the ship prior to departure. We went up to Deck 10 and took this picture!

This was what we found looking out! Wow, was this a good sign or what? Beautiful! After everyone had boarded, they had made several announcement about the Muster drill! Everyone is responsible to respond and they didn't make us wear our life-jackets! The horns sounded and off we went.

These life-boats are much bigger than what you would think a life-boat would be. They each hold 150 persons! I think back to the Titanic and even the movie...those life-boats sure wouldn't have held half that number. But they are huge!

Here is a view from our balcony off the back of the boat. If you follow the coastline, you can see Miami.......Key West, next stop!

After Lauren found out they had ping-pong tables, it was over! I never knew the girls loved ping-pong so much! But I would soon find out exactly how much they love it!

Pelican Grand Beach Resort-Ft. Lauderdale

We got into Ft. Lauderdale about 4p and checked in to the Pelican Grand Beach Resort. I found it on Hotels.com and fell in love with it. Mainly because they had a lazy river that ran around the pool, and I thought Lauren would love it, not to mention the old-fashioned ice-cream parlor!

This is the view from our balcony. The suite was awesome, after walking in there were two full rooms, the first had 2 queen-sized beds and the second, which was divided by a glass wall, had a couch, loveseat and chair, it also had a small table with 4 chairs to eat, as well as a refridgerator and tv. The girls loved it!

The girls wanted to head out on the beach since the lazy river was closed (we found out they closed at 5p). Lauren wanted to collect some sand and shells. Lauren put her bathing suit on but Allison didn't want to. They played in and out of the water, just getting their feet wet!

I took a tons of pictures of them playing in the ocean but this one I loved. They must have ran back and forth 100 times, trying not to get too wet! We stayed out for awhile, but then some dark clouds were coming and I saw a strike of lightening so that pretty much did it for us!

The next morning, we got breakfast and Lauren wanted to be the 1st one in the lazy river! So everyone got their bathing suits on and we headed to the pool. The lazy river didn't open until 9am and it was just a little before, so we tested out the waterproof case I bought for the Canon and headed into the pool!

Lauren put one of her cast covers on and as soon as the guy opened the lazy river, Lauren was the first in line! ha ha. She loved it! I took a few pictures of them before I got my own floatation device!

I think even Allison was having a good time! Which is amazing, since that 13 year old attitude pretty much takes over, unless shes sleeping! Are all 13 year olds like this?

I could have stayed on this for the entire day. Gone to sleep and made the pool guy wake me up at 5p! Lucky for us, there was no one else in the lazy river the entire time we were there!

After awhile in the pool and the lazy river the girls wanted to go back to the ocean. The water felt pretty good and Lauren did manage to get alot of shells!

Port Everglades is just around the furthest point you can see in this picture! The day was beautiful and we were more than excited to board the boat! Royal Caribbean ..... here we come!

We got everything put together and headed out to Port Everglades!

On the road....Royal Caribbean here we come!

Yes, we finally got on the road this morning heading to Florida in order to board our boat. We got everything fit into the car, and didn't use the cargo holder. First stop was Wendy's for lunch past South of the Border. Thinking back to the Disney trip, our 1st stop was a McDonalds that a tour bus of kids were eating. Fast forward to today.....now we have a tour bus of senior citizens. We are trying to rush into a parking space and run into Wendy's in making an effort not to get too many of them in front of us.

No luck! We got in and there was a line. Allison, Lauren and I have now agreed that unless there is a tour bus in the parking lot we are not allowed to stop to eat. And also let me tell you..senior citizens have no problem cutting line. Thank goodness ALL of them didn't cut, or we may still be in line.

Notice we are still smiling. I think it was because we both got up early, had no breakfast and had hit the ground running and it was now around noon.

The only picture I can get with Allison NOT sticking out her tongue. I have lectured her about this on this trip and told her its NOT allowed. At least, act like you are having fun!

Lauren on the other side of the seat. Neither one of them have a problem falling asleep in the car. Lauren, of course, couldn't fit anything else on her side of the car. I think we had several stuffed animals, a bag full of stuff, a pillow and who knows what else she tried to pass by me.

We kept telling Lauren that we were going to stop in Savannah or Jacksonville, but weren't sure. All along we had planned on stopping in Savannah and eating at Lauren's favorite place....Paula Dean's!

Chris had tried to get someone to put us on the list in advance since we were driving from Raleigh, but no go! We drove into Savannah and got on the list for dinner! The hostess only takes reservations on the same day and since you have to go to the hostess stand in person, we weren't sure if it was going to work out. We had a choice of 5p or 915p, we jumped on the 5p.

We got to sit near the bar and a high-top table and we actually liked this better than the table we were at the last time. In the corner and much quieter! We all knew what we wanted to eat, so we really didn't even need the menu's!

As we waited on our food, I tried to get a picture with Allison without the ho-hum look or the tongue sticking out! I think it took 3-5 tries to finally get one and even then I would have liked it better!

Chicken-pot-pies for everyone! Well, almost everyone! Lauren got the buffet again, but the rest of us got the most awesome-est chicken-pot-pie ever! Allison even found some humor in the pastry topping!

What a day! Great day to travel, not too bad for traffic, no accidents, so all-in-all not too bad! Up early to get on the road and into Ft. Lauderdale. The kids are excited and it looks to be a great week!

To waterproof or not to waterproof?

Today was Lauren's follow-up (again) with Dr. Barrie. I was hoping that we could get a water-proof cast, since today had been 3 weeks, and they had initially told us 3 weeks would be the absolute minimum.

First came, the cutting off of the cast. The 1st temporary splint she had on was easy totake off, this one, however, was going to require some extra power! Dr. Barrie's medical assistant explained to Lauren how it was going to cut the cast off. I told Lauren it was her 1st time. Lauren didn't think that was funny! Lauren did ok with this...for the most part. She did have a few moments where she wasn't so sure this was NOT going to cut her arm off.

We finally got the cast cut and she left it in the bottom part of the cast until Lauren got over to x-ray again. It hurt, as soon as the cast came off. Her wrist is still swollen as well as her entire hand and fingers. It doesn't even look like its aligned. But x-rays say its doing ok.

Allison soon found out that the smell that was coming from something, wasn't coming from Lauren, it was coming from the cast! And the funny thing, she kept smelling it! That did make Lauren smile for a minute! Then she went to x-ray....she wasn't feeling it too much when she came back. The bottom half of the cast was off and I put a pillow on her lap for her to rest it on.

Dr. Barrie came to get me as we looked at the x-rays. The bones are aligning with minimal shift and calcification is starting to form, but not enough, at this point, to put her in a waterproof cast. Boo-hiss! But I understand, and am, actually sort of relieved. I really worried that any give with a waterproof one, would induce more pain without that firm support being on her wrist. So we are just going to have to adapt on our trip.

Next came picking out a new color. Carolina Blue of course. Which Lauren said it was because of the ocean but we really knew what she meant. They looked everywhere and NO Carolina Blue. They had that OTHER blue....but who wants to wear that? Drew, maybe, but definately not us!

Allison's color, of course! ORANGE! Which Tarek & Kelley states its Clemson Orange! Either or, it will definately be festive and I told Lauren if something happens and she falls overboard we could definately find her, or if she gets lost on the ship, as soon as it gets dark, Ill be able to see her!

The cast cover I ordered is supposed to be here tomorrow, if it doesn't arrive, then Im looking at other medical supply places to find it!