Well folks, tomorrow will make one month since I got married. I would have posted about the honeymoon a little sooner, but I have been buried under a pile of work and have been trying to dig my way out ever since I got back. It never ceases to amaze me how much work can pile up in such a relatively short time, but I digress.
Althea and I took a cruise to the Caribbean for our honeymoon, and it was great, save for one very big, totally not cool thing. I contracted a nasty stomach virus right at the end of the trip, and I think it was from food poisoning. This now makes food poisoning occurrence lucky number seven, and it was miserable. It's possible that, when God was handing out things, I mistakenly asked for extra food poisoning or He misheard me...but either way, I take it back. We were supposed to get off the ship and go to Busch Gardens with Althea's cousin and her daughter, but I could barely make it off the ship, through customs, and onto the plane home. As bad as I looked and felt, I am just glad I wasn't declared persona non grata by customs on the grounds that I contracted some strange island virus. Even so, on the flight home, Tennessee Titans backup QB Chris Simms sat behind Althea and I on the plane. We chatted briefly, and he seemed like a very nice guy and a good team player. Because he was so gracious, I decided not to point out to him the irony and karma of him committing to play for the Tennessee Vols, then de-committing to play for the Texas Longhorns in order to take the job from Texas' senior starting QB Major Applewhite under very sketchy circumstances, only to be drafted by and become the starting QB for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, then losing his job due to injury, also under very sketchy circumstances.
Our cruise was 7 days...we boarded on Sunday, and we were at sea Sunday night and all of Monday. We went to Grand Cayman on Tuesday, Isla Roatan Honduras on Wednesday, Belize on Thursday, and Cozumel, Mexico on Friday. This was my first trip out of the U.S., and I got to see 4 countries in a week, which was very exciting. Althea and I spent Sunday and Monday exploring the ship, eating as much as we possibly could, and doing activities (bingo, watching comedians and other shows, etc.), and that was fine, but we were ready to see some sights and different places by the time Tuesday came around.
Tuesday in Grand Cayman was an absolute blast, although it did rain quite a bit while we were there. Our excursion in Grand Cayman was a combination of going to the Turtle Farm, visiting "Hell", and swimming with the stingrays in a place called "Stingray City". The first stop was the turtle farm, which as you might guess, is where turtles are bred, raised, and housed. Our guide was fun and informative. He taught us a lot about the history of the island and the role of turtles in the island's history. The turtle is and/or has been used for everything from food to shields to furniture to clothing. While some of the turtles at the farm are used for food, most of them are kept alive for breeding purposes, as many of them are endangered species. The turtles range from less than 10 pounds as babies to over 900 pounds as adults. I got to hold and take pictures with some of the turtles, and it was really cool.
After the turtle farm, we stopped by a small town in Grand Cayman known as "Hell". At first, I though that wasn't really the town's name, but it actually is, and they even have a post office there. After Althea ate some fresh coconut which was cut with a machete by some random guy selling coconuts, we sent postcards to our families from Hell, which gave them a pretty good laugh when they received the postcards. The reason it is called Hell is due to the rock formations present in the town. I took some pictures of the formations, and they really are creepy. Add in Satan, some sulfur, a little fire and brimstone, and some tortured souls, and it would look just like you might imagine Hell would appear. For obvious reasons, we didn't want to stay there too long, so it was off to Stingray City.
For me, this was the highlight of our Grand Cayman excursion. When I first heard of Stingray City, I literally though it was a place somewhere on land, but it isn't. In fact, it is a sandbar out in the ocean where stingrays congregate. I was then and remain now truly amazed at how such a place came to be. Apparently, at some point in the past, the people of Grand Cayman realized that stingrays were prevalent in the area. So, instead of killing them off, they decided to befriend them. Eventually, the stingrays became trained enough to know that the humans would not hurt them, and that instead they would get fed for playing with and allowing themselves to be petted by the humans. The boat ride out to the sandbar was long, and it rained so hard on the way out there I was afraid we wouldn't get to leave the boat. Fortunately, the rain stopped just before we got to the sandbar. Now understand, all I could think of when I first stepped out of the boat was about Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter who was killed by a stingray, and that's what Althea was thinking too, so of course I went first. Once I got in the water with the guides and watched them pet and feed the stingrays without dying, I was fine. I took quite a few pictures with the stingrays, including pictures of me holding them, hugging them, and even a couple with a giant stingray resting on my back...it was awesome. Althea got in the water and had a good time with them as well, then it was time to ride the boat back to the island.
When we got back ashore, I was starving, so we went and ate some really good food at a nice local restaurant. This served as my introduction to the horrible exchange rate in Grand Cayman. This country is a banking haven, and it houses a staggering amount of money in comparison to the size of the country itself and its economy as a whole. As such, the currency there is very stable and valuable, so the exchange rate when we were there was one U.S dollar for every 80 cents Cayman money. Our meal was $44 U.S., but because of the exchange rate, it ended up costing $56 U.S. Fortunately, the meals there already have the tip added onto the ticket, thank goodness. We got a couple of small souvenirs, but that's about it because of the exchange rate, then we got back on the ship and set sail for Honduras on Wednesday and Belize on Thursday.
Honduras and Belize were basically the same type of country, only with different people and attractions. Both countries are very poor, the exchange rate is very favorable to the U.S. dollar (18 Honduran dollars to 1 U.S. dollar and 11 Belize dollars to 1 U.S. dollar), and neither one struck me as particularly safe or stable (although it was not as bad in this way as I have heard Jamaica is). In Honduras, our excursion took us to see two very large shipwrecks, which were interesting to see. We took a lot of pictures of the ships, and the stories were interesting also. From there, we went to see a "lost" tribe up in the mountains of Honduras. I am not sure how "lost" they are when tour buses come up there every day, but it was still interesting. We got to see their native dances, eat some of their homemade foods, and we got some pictures of breathtaking views from atop the mountains. After a little shopping and eating a meal consisting of some very questionable-looking fish in the tourist part of Honduras, we went back to the ship and set out for Belize. In Belize, we took a guided bus tour of the island, and went to see the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha. Some of the structures we saw were absolutely amazing given how long ago they were built. With so little technology or modern construction equipment, quite a few very large structures of varying purposes were built by a very intelligent ancient people. The most interesting structure was a field where the Mayans played games. What makes it interesting was that the games were played to see who would be sacrificed to the gods. Amazingly, the WINNERS were the ones that were sacrificed to the gods, because the Mayans only believed in sending their best people to their gods. Personally, those games sound like ones that I would either not play or intentionally lose, but that's just me. After taking a bunch more cool pictures and me getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, we went back to the ship to set sail for Cozumel.
Our time in Cozumel was probably the most overall fun of the trip, and it's really the only place from our whole trip I would consider going back to. In addition to the great exchange rate, the shopping there is endless and the food is simply amazing. The excursion we chose for Cozumel was an adventure park, where we got to climb towers, do some rappelling, fly across zip lines, and do some snorkeling. I must say that, despite her fear of heights, Althea was a champ and did a great job at everything she tried. On the climbing towers, I made it to the top of the first one, and almost made it to the top of the tallest one before my arms gave out from exhaustion...makes me wish I'd listened to the guides when they said to climb with my legs more so than my arms and that I had worked out more before the trip. The zip lines were a blast, and we would have done them in Honduras, but Althea had no tennis shoes, so we had to wait until Cozumel, because the park provided climbing shoes for us. After a free drink and eating the tastiest fried cheese I have ever eaten at the park's restaurant, we went back to the tourist district and took still more pictures, ate more great food at a local restaurant owned by 2 Americans from Atlanta, and Althea shopped until both she and our wallets dropped.
From Cozumel, it was back to the ship, then back to Tampa. My thoughts on the cruise are generally positive. The beds and pillows were surprisingly comfortable, and the rocking of the sea at night helped me sleep rather than making me seasick. The nice restaurant at which Althea ate every meal except one (the one that she insisted upon and which made me sick) served consistently great food, and you could eat as much as you wanted. I averaged about 3 appetizers, an entree, and a dessert per dinner meal, and you have to be careful about telling your server you really like the food, lest you end up with another entire entree in front of you (not that I am complaining). The housekeeping staff was very professional, and our cabins were always immaculate when we came back. The events coordinator was a hilarious British woman who was so much fun, and pretty much everything we did on board was enjoyable. My one suggestion is that, if you see food, people, and/or a food preparation area that looks unsanitary in any way, or if the food tastes a little questionable on the first bite, just say no! I will likely go on a cruise again at some future date (Alaska or the Bahamas is next on my list), but it will have to be a while so I can forget how sick I was from the food poisoning.
Finally, people have been asking me since I got back how married life is. My answer is always the same: it's pretty good, and not all that much different from dating and engaged life, with one notable exception of course. ;) My point here is that marriage is not a cure-all, and 2 people should not get married hoping it will fix the problems from their dating and engaged life any more than 2 people should get married just because they have a child. The same problems and issues that exist prior to marriage will still be there when the honeymoon is over, and if left unaddressed, they can certainly wreck a marriage in a big hurry. Marriage is a huge decision and a covenant before God not to be taken lightly, and no matter what the future holds, I am not and will not be sorry that I married Althea. She is a great woman who loves the Lord and who won't take any crap off me, and that is a rare and desirable combination indeed. I love Althea very much, and I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for us.
