Caribbean Holiday--Feb. 9-17, 2008

Cruising has been one of the most delightful parts of our lives for many years, sponsored both by my mother as she took our family on trips down the rivers of Europe through Austria and Germany to New Amsterdam and on a cruise on the Baltic, but also because Scot and I have had the privilege to lecture on several trips with the Cruise Lady. In February we journeyed with Mom and Royce, Peggy and Paul and Mariah on a Book of Mormon cruise on the west Caribbean, leaving Saturday February 9 and returning on Sunday February 17th. We had the fun of lecturing on the Book of Mormon and basking in the wonderful company of our family. Our itinerary took us to Grand Cayman, Cozumel to see the ruins in Tulum, Belize City where we took ride on a boat 25 miles into the jungle and finally to Roatan where we soared through the jungle canopy on ziplines. Here is a brief photo journey of an unforgettable time in paradise.

Mom and Royce are such vibrant good sports, always game for anything. They always forget their chonology and seem ageless.
We have lots to smile about. At home in Virginia the weather is gray and cold, but we are basking in the rays.
In Grand Cayman we took a boat out to a sandbar where we could stand waist deep in the ocean, not seeing land in any direction. Our companions were stingrays that swarmed around us, brushed our legs like a whisper and let us pet them and pick them up. We couldn't stop laughing as their little sucking mouths grabbed at our skin.
We kissed the stingrays for good luck, and they kissed us too. Nothing like a stingray shower bath to clean you right off.Mariah is not as in control of this stingray as she looks.A native is hiding behind the stingray, here to help Mariah control it.Mariah, too, gets a shower from a loving stingray.
Mariah and I are always trying to figure out if we look alike, so we posed the same to let the camera help us figure it out. An old commercial on television used to ask, "Which twin has the Toni?" (a brand of permanent).
Cruise life is always fun and you have the illusion that you are a wealthy potentate whose every wish can be instantly granted. Dad sang a couple of nights on the karoake ship and had several people say he was great. Eating is elegant. One night we stayed up to look at a grand buffet which is like no spread I've ever seen before with ice sculptures and fancy, intricately decorated cakes. We didn't eat, just looked because the thought of putting any food into ourselves at 12:30 a.m. was beyond comprehension. Every night we came back to our room to find that one of our towel s had been folded into an animal shape. This was a pig wearing my sunglasses. One night our towel was a monkey hanging from the curtain rod.After visiting Grand Cayman, our second day ashore was at Tuluum an ancient Mesoamerican site that towers over the turquoise Caribbean.The ruins at Tuluum include a temple to Kukulcan, the winged serpent, and a symbol of the white God that permeates all of Mesoamerican culture. This picture is not that temple, but just a representation of the site.Mariah is just monkeying around here.Our trip to Belize was exotic with a 25 mile jungle ride by boat back to the ruins of Lamanai. (Notice the Laman in there. Lamanai means submerged crocidile and this is a site of a rugged, ancient site.We climbed the big pyramid at Lamanai and had a view from the top that shows how completely submerged in trees the ancient pyramids are. Mesoamerica remains one of the great mysteries of the earth.Descending the pyramid was not for the faint of heart and demanded that we hold onto a rope for stability. Dad just bounded down and didn't use the rope.This was a tempermental monkey in Roatan at the base where we got wired up for the zipline. Our guide told us that this monkey only liked men and hated women. I couldn't quite believe that, but it was true. The monkey adored Dad, but when Mariah and I tried to hold the monkey, he hissed and batted his arms aggressively.Here is Mariah about to take off on a zipline which will soar above the jungle canopy from tree to tree. Royce and his brother, Paul, both in their eighties did the zipline as well. Grandma wanted to do it, but was ultimately convinced that it might damage her back where she has had several cracked vertebrae which have had to be filled in the last couple of years.Whee!This is really a thrill. Hold on, Mama!Sometimes instead of ziplines we walked between the trees on rickety bridges high above the jungle floor. Mariah does it with flair.
Mariah has a future in the circus.

I love the jungle and the jungle flowers--especially the one in the foreground.