Throwback Thursday #46: Book the Cruise

"Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think." ~Robert Henri

For just about as long as I can remember, it had been a running joke in our house that anytime we got or saved a small sum of money (i.e. a 50 cent off coupon, or a royalty check for $1.42), someone in the family would say, "Well book the cruise!"

Well after my first year of law school, I literally booked that cruise! Trust me, after a year of tortue at law school, I deserved a little break! I mean, imagine going from 24 hours a day of staring at law books to this:

That summer before I started my job, Cousin Whitney and I headed for a 5 day cruise to Mexico. This was the first time for both of us to be out of the country and we were pretty darn excited! Our parents were less excited when they learned there would be no cell phone access the entire time! My two home-body parents shudder any time I mention trips where they can't call to make sure I'm not dead in some foreign ditch. (Turns out, there was no need to worry because I met this nice (or creepy) Mexican cop who liked blonde American girls).

Now, please understand that I'm the person most people hate to go on vacation with because I feel like if we spent the money to get somewhere, by golly we are going to bust our rears to see everything that we can possibly cram into that time. The cruise was pretty much the opposite of this---we spent the money to lay by the pool and stuff our faces--and we busted our rears to do this every day! :)

So we set sail from Galveston (after Cousin Kevin was kind enough to drive us to the boat from the airport!) for Mexico. Our first day was a day at sea, so we just chilled on the ship. If you've never been on a cruise, there is SO much to do on a cruise ship that it's just unreal. Here are a few pictures!

This was us headed to a show...WHY was I wearing long sleeves on a cruise ship??

We spent most nights at a karaoke bar...it was awesome! This family put on full routines that they must have practiced all day. And, true to bucket list form, I did karaoke....and was not good, but got that checkmark!

The second day we stopped at the port in Progresso, Mexico. This is a stop you could miss when planning your cruise---it's just not much of a touristy destination. We did a little walking around town and went on some sort of Corona Beach Party for an excursion. We chose this because we are both cheap and there was free margaritas....unlike the expensive ones we'd been drinking on the boat! Plus it sounded better than hiking around in the heat at Aztec ruins. (I'd like to say that my grown up self now would go see the historic ruins.....I think that would be a lie. Unless they were serving free margaritas too.)

Then the next day was a great stop at Cozumel. Loved it there!! Beautiful water, so many fun stores and restaurants and bars....I wish we could have stayed a week!

We went on a great catamaran excursion where we cruised on the boat, then went snorkeling with the fishies, and ended up at a party on a private beach. Not too shabby! And snorkeling in the ocean was another bucket list checkmark for me!

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed the little look back at our cruise....I didn't realize until I did my decade in review post that I had never blogged about it before! I would totally encourage you to go on a cruise at some point in your life. I know that we had a complete blast!