Going on my Honeymoon!!! :)

[Strawdermangrl]

Well ladies, it is time for Mr. Strawdermangrl and I to head out on our 7 day cruise to Belize!!!! We decided to wait until a few weeks after the wedding for our trip- being that everyone always complained that they were really tired after the wedding, MIGHT I SUGGUEST THIS!!! We constantly laugh and say we are so glad that we waited. We were so tired after the wedding we slept for 2 days, not to mention that the wedding was over so fast that it was kind of depressing- you know?

All that planning and anticipation and it is over in what seems like a moment. Anywho- off my little tanget- we are off tomorrow morning for what we look forward to as the best time of our lives, besides our wedding.

I will be back in a week, bronzed and full of pictures!!!

See you ladies in a week, Anchors away!!!

 

[flutterby]

enjoy! belize is one of the places i most want to go, make sure to tell us all about it!

 

[Kaleigh]

What a smart girl you are. Now you guys can really enjoy your honeymoon and will be full of energy. Have a fab time and please take a ton of pics. I''ve heard wonderful things about Belize and would love to go there someday. Have fun, Bon Voyage!!!!!!

 

[HOUMedGal]

Yaaaaay, have a BLAST Renee, and get a great tan for me!!!! And perhaps we should have an H-town girls get together sometime after you get back so you can show us your wedding/honeymoon pics!!!!

 

[onedrop]

Have a great time on your honeymoon!!! Sounds like you made the right decision to wait a few weeks before leaving. Belize is beautiful from what I hear! A very good friend of mine spent some time traveling there and loved it. So enjoy! Looking forward to your pics.

 

[gingerBcookie]

Date: 8/27/2005 9:00:37 PM
Author: HOUMedGal
Yaaaaay, have a BLAST Renee, and get a great tan for me!!!! And perhaps we should have an H-town girls get together sometime after you get back so you can show us your wedding/honeymoon pics!!!!

Woohoo! I second that!

Have a great time Renee!!!!

 

[MelissaSue]

OOOH!! Have fun! I hope you have a wonderful trip! I need to start planning my honeymoon SOON!

 

[icekid]

ooh have a wonderful time with your new hubby, Renee!!

 

[IrishEyes]

oh I hope she isn''t affected by Hurricane Katrina!!

They have to sail through the Gulf of Mexico, right?

Well Renee, I hope your honeymoon is a blast and that the storm doesn''t affect you at all! I know you''re going to have SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

[appletini]

Ditto on the H-town gathering.

Have fun! I can''t wait to see the pictures!

 

[Strawdermangrl]

We are back!!! What an AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING trip. HIGHLY recommend a cruise to anyone. We had a blast- thought I would break down the week a little at a time being it was a little different going through a hurricane and all....

So we pack ( on Saturday- we like to wait until the last minute) and drive down to Galveston, about a 45 min hike. My mom happened to be out there with some friends for the weekend and met up with us at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. We had a nice lunch and then heading out to the port. I WAS FREAKING OUT when I saw the ship- those things are MASSIVE. At that point I was excited, I am weird I guess I don''t get really excited about things until they happen. We drove up dropped off our luggage and went to the designated area where our cars were to be parked... $70 later. We hopped on the shuttle and went to the ship. We checked out our room, small but cool with a big porthole windows. And took the video/ditigal camera and started our tour. The ship was beautiful- with all kinds of things to do. There are like 5 pools and a HUGE water slide, a running track and a HUGE workout room. 2 MASSIVE buffets as well as a sushi bar and uncountable little cafe and clubs. We got our self a drink and went up to watch us pull away from the port. We went back to our room to check and see if our luggage was there and to our disappointment it wasn''t. We had our door open and kept checking back and forth to see if the room steward was coming with our bags ( I really wanted to get some sun). There was a couple standing across the hall from us waiting for their luggage as well. We started talking and hit it off, we are a carbon copy couple- we were pretty much inseperable from that moment on. That was when things got shakey. REALLY shakey. I am not the type to get sick and belive me the waves were fun for the first 6 hours- it was the time that we went to bed on that was bad. We were trying to walk around on the boat and there were huge waves hitting the ship. The captain kept coming on the intercom telling us about our cooridinates and that we are getting hit by 20-25 ft waves that would explain the rough seas. Typically there are 2-3 foot waves out where we were- making the ship feel like you are floating on glass. Not Sunday night. They closed off the decks and told us to keep away from the railings. I remember at one point we were walking and a huge wave hit sending all the liquor at the bar crashing to the ground. In our room things were taped to the counters and breakables were piled on the floor. We kept trying to get some sleep but we were at the front of the boat on the very top floor, so not only were we getting the side to side action we also felt every wave we hit and therefore the up and down motion combined with the side to side. We were having problems staying on the bed, it was not fun. It was the single most horrible night sleep I have ever had. Then next morning we went to breakfast and the seas had calmed down a bit but were still kind of rough. We were holding on to our plates and listening to plates crash all around. About 10:30 we calmed down and by dinner time things were fine. On to Tuesday.....

 

[Dodger Gurl]

Awesome! Welcome back! Call me crazy but it sounds kind of fun to try and keep your dinner settings on the table!

 

[Strawdermangrl]

LOL, it was fun to chase our food around.

On Tuesday we hit our first stop : Progresso Yucatan, Mexico. Not much going on there. The water was amazing- like the blue you see on TV. ( forgive me all I have to base it on is the water in Galveston- brownish yellowish.) We took a bus into Progresso Proper and walked around shopping and drinking $1 Coronas. There really wasn''t anything to do if you weren''t on an excursion- it was about 112 degrees out and we didn''t feel much like taking a hike to the mayan ruins. I wish we would have but that is what next time is for! We layed out by the pool the rest of the day and they finally opened up the pool ( the water was too rough to have it open before). On wednesday we docked in Cozmel- there is a shopping center and we walked around and bought a few things then the 4 of us piled into a taxi and took it about 30 miles up the road to a beach were we played in the water, the beautiful amazing water and drank beer all day. Around 3 we decided to head back and get some food at Carlos and Charlies- that place is a party! We had too much fun there and wrapped our day up with a nap and dinner on the cruise!

Thursday: Belize....

 

[Strawdermangrl]

Thursday I was stoked. It was what I had been waiting for!!! There isn't a port in Belize (or at least where we were) because it is very shallow coming in and there is a lot of coral and reef around the shore. So we were awoken to the sound of loud CLICK CLICK CLICK- for about 20 mins- come to find out it was the anchor being dropped. We decided to snorkel the great reef there by the Big Blue Hole. About 10 am we caught a 65 ft catameran (spelling?) that sped us through the most breathtaking stretch of ocean. The varying blues and the little bits of land with the most beautiful trees and landscapes- WOW. What a beautiful place- the boat cruised at about 25 mph and we reached our destination which I can't even tell you how beautiful. I am going to post pictures as soon as we get them scanned. I will have to recruit someone to do that because I am a little challenged on that aspect of the computer thing. We snorkeled for about 3 hours and then we made our way to the private Island that was pretty much a glorified sand dune that they pulled above surface and plopped a little hut to serve drinks from. They had rafts and kayaks that we could take out at will and the rum punch was served a little to generously.. On the way back they were jamming such fun songs like Madonna and Bob Marley- really made me feel like I was in the most awesome place in the world! We did a conga line and danced until we couldn't dance any more. Then we went into town with a huge group of people that went snorkeling with us. Belize is by far one of the most beautiful places scenery wise I have ever been to . It is very sad though in Belize City there are big black walls with barbwire and guards that were standing by with AK-47 and shotguns

, they tell you not to leave the Black walls unless you are in an excursion on a bus but most definitately not on foot. One of the ladies we met said that they went through the barrier and the minute they were past the walls they were propositioned and offered drugs and sex- very sad to me. I hear that Belize city is the worst, so that is all I can go by- I do recommend going to Belize-The sunset was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I almost cried.

But then again I cry at commericals.

Overall the trip was the most amazing thing, we made great friends who we will be friends with for life and saw some amazing things that I am blessed to have seen. I highly recommend anyone who can to go on a cruise- the time you spend ashore is not long but it is very awesome to have the kind of opportunities that we had to see the cool and different things that each place had to offer!!! LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED IT

Pics to follow.....

 

[ame]

Wow. sounds like you had a good time at least! Blue water is so awesome.

 

[msb700]

Welcome back Strawdermangrl!!! it looks like u had an amazing time... love cruises and cruise ships!!! we had also gone on a 7 day caribbean cruise and had the time of our life...the unlimited supply of food/ice cream/cookies on the ship was scary as i couldnt stop eating! but nevertheless, it was the best time of our life...can''t wait for our next cruise

please do post pics whenever they are scanned

 

[belle]

wow...it sounds like you had an awesome time (well, except for the seasick part

) thank you for taking the time to share it all with us!
i can''t wait to see those pics!!

if you need help posting them, just let me know

 

[HOUMedGal]

Yaaaaay, I can''t wait to hear more in person!!!! I''m so glad you had such a great time!

 

[Strawdermangrl]

Date: 9/7/2005 2:06:32 AM
Author: HOUMedGal
Yaaaaay, I can''t wait to hear more in person!!!! I''m so glad you had such a great time!

I think that a H-town gathering is in order..... How is next week looking to you HouMedGal, Ginger, Appletini?

I got some more pictures developed last night- I can''t wait to show everyone!!

I am working on the disk to get to someone to upload!

 

[Rube]

It''s so fun to hear what a great trip you had! (And making life long friends too, how great.)

I hear the coast of Belize is BEAUTIFUL. I spent two weeks in the interior of Belize this summer (San Ignacio area), and found the people to be very nice and the sights wonderful. The rainforest and the mountains (little ones) are packed full of birds, animals, giant bugs, and a lot of streams and caves. Of course the Mayan sites themselves were fantastic too!

I didn''t spend more than a few minutes in Belize city either. I also heard it''s not the best place to hang out... The rest of the country is great though!

So, I would definitly like to go back and see the more "Carribean" side of Belize- besides from the airplane. Looking forward to your pictures!

 

[icekid]

oooh i want to see pics too! sounds like it was completely amazing...

 

[appletini]

I''m glad you had such a great honeymoon! I can''t wait to see pictures. I have Tuesday (9/13), Wednesday (9/14), & Thursday (9/15) open.

 

[Kaleigh]

I am so glad you had a nice honeymoon. The seasick part is not so much fun, but I am really looking forward to the pics!!!! Welcome back!!!

 

[Strawdermangrl]

Date: 9/8/2005 9:47:00 AM
Author: appletini
I''m glad you had such a great honeymoon! I can''t wait to see pictures. I have Tuesday (9/13), Wednesday (9/14), & Thursday (9/15) open.

I think that Wednesday would be great!! What about our other lovely Houston gals?

Ginger, HouMed?

 

[belle]

ay caramba renee!
i saw you posted and thought there were pics up!

 

[msb700]

me too belle!!! and here i was so excited to see some pics...eeck!!!

 

[gingerBcookie]

welcome back!!! sounds like you had a fabulous time!!! can''t wait to hear more a bout it! anyway we can do a tuesday meet?

 

[Strawdermangrl]

Belle: Sorry buddy!! I am trying to work out the disk- our puter is on the fritz and I can''t upload here at work!!

I am going to have them up tomorrow I PROMISE!!!!

Ginger- Tuesday works for me- what about your Appletini?

Anyone know where HouMedGal is???? She is MIA

 

[appletini]

I can do Tuesday...just tell me a time and place! I can''t wait!!!

 

[Strawdermangrl]

Apple and Ginger- we can meet at Brazil on Westheimer and Dunlavy- You know where it is?

How about around 6:45? On the patio?