Cruise 2

I think JB and I have found our new favorite stop. It used to be St John, US Virgin Islands. Now it's Harvest Caye, Belize. 

The small island was CLEAN and organized and well-planned and bright and beautiful. Apparently Norweigan Cruise Lines owns it all, and partnered with the government of Belize. All the restaurants and shops are owned by locals, but only the cruise ship stops there one at a time. I believe they planted each palm tree exactly the same distance apart.

This was our view under a big umbrella -- a zip line going down over the water.

We kept talking about how our kids would love the huge pool system and splash pad. We stayed and read and napped and walked, then finally wandered back to the ship so we could eat some more.

After another day at sea, our final stop was Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. This was a great beach as well. 

JB's view looking up.

We randomly sat by an older retired couple from the ship and became fast friends when we bonded over family size, political views, and ideas about the world. Since then I have been writing her, and writing another woman I met at trivia.

Here we are tendering back to the ship, and JB thought he saw a couple across the tender boat that he knew on his mission but we never got to check. By the way, there were a lot of Brazilians on board, and he talked to several in Portuguese and I think they were quite surprised.

That was Thursday, and overnight the Jade sailed back to Miami. We had one last amazing breakfast, then had to disembark and head to the airport. It was a long day of flying before we finally got home that night to our kids again.

Max and Ben were at a scout campout, so we didn't see them til the next day. They stayed some of the time at Nona and Papa's, and other times she slept over at our house so going to and from school would be easier.  John took the boys to their basketball games. We owe them so many thanks for their help. I think it may have tired them out plenty!