Pictures from Shutteryfly

So I was in my shutterfly accound working on some stuff and saw where I could share directly to the blogger. Not real organized nor does it have my most awesome comments but here they are.

Click here to view these pictures larger

charity ride

275 bikes at this point for the Christmas in July, Duke children's hospital charity ride.

Random shots around the boat

Mandy after we came back from the Cozumel trip. We are leaving port here. Awesome hat!


One full day at sea. Our whiter than white legs. You can see Mandy's burnt knees.

Our waiters, Mariono (left) and Efrain (right). Also our table guest from Trinidad, Russ and Keisha.

The last night 70's party in the Centrum. It was pretty fun and even had the captain and his officers out.

Mandy trying her best to hold her hair back in a steady breeze. Plus were moving at like 22 knots here. Notice burnt legs.

The belly flop contest. No, thats not me but this a lot of people in the center of the ship.

After a tough day in Belize.

Mandy using the new video camera in Ft. Lauderdale.

Our ship

Just another Gringo in Belize

Belize. So tropical, so mysterious, so frighteningly poor. Wow. I can't even explain it. The closest we could come up with is Wyoming and McDowell county WV the day after the recent floods. Except it looks like this constantly. I don't know what the deal is since cruise ships just pump endless amounts of money in there but it wasn't at all what Jerry Jeff Walker sings about, look it up. Belize has the worlds 2nd largest natural barrier reef and with shallow waters the boats have to anchor off shore and use tender ships to get you back and forth to shore.

For Belize we were going to go on a tube ride down the river but it was full. So we chose the "Raiders of the Lost Mayan Caves". Sounded fun, cost enough and figured it would be fun. We were picked up again in the rain and we didn't take a change of clothes with us. Completely unknown to us this involved an hour and a half bus ride, 30 mins of which was a rough dirt road. The guide talked the entire time. That pretty much sucked. Mandy felt crummy and right up until we started we were thinking about backing out. Thankfully she started feeling better after eating a bite (provided by the tour) so we pressed on.

This is us all suited up for our tour that involved spelunking, zip lines and rappelling. This can't miss. I felt a little like Mike Myers on SNL when he was the boy with the helmet. Click here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/18878/saturday-night-live-phillip

Here we are under ground getting out picture taken. Notice I'm just starting to sweat a bit.


Yes the trees are wet because it has rained. No, I'm not wet from rain because we were underground. I'm sweating like a mad man. I swear I lost weight on this trip.



Just as we were coming out of the forest the sky's opened up. We made it to our meeting point and got rid of all of our gear, went to the bathroom and then another hour and a half ride back. Run through the port terminal, buy a t-shirt then to the last tender boat of the day. Last group back on ship. We are pretty sure the cave is called Dragon's Mouth cave but we've yet to locate the location on Google Maps.

Cozumel

Cozumel was actually very pretty. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. Actually, after we talked about it later we found Cozumel safer feeling and cleaner than Hollywood, CA. Seriously. For this day we went on an ATV ride through the sand to an old Mayan ruin. Which was pretty cool. Nothing to special just more less a light house but still pretty cool.

Here is a shot of the Piloto boat between us and the Carnival ship we followed for a week. Again, the water is a beautiful blue.



So 'Nathan' picked us up at the port and loaded us all onto the back of this bus. It had already rained so we bought these goofy looking hats you see hanging around our necks. Well shortly after we got on it started pouring. So we pulled over and rolled the sides down. Thankfully it stopped by the time we got to the ranch to pick up the ATV's.


Here we are in our Yamaha Rhino. Great, all the way to Cozumel, Mexico to do the same thing I can do for free in Dodridge County, WV. Awesome! They had Polaris Razor's but we didn't stake our claim fast enough.


A quick shot in front of the big ruin. The last hurricane caved the roof in they told us. Apparently there are 14 on the island. These were all pretty small and the bigger stuff was all on the main land.


A quick picture from where we had lunch. If you look on Google Maps this is exactly east on the island and right at the intersection of the only road running across the island.

For all that do own a Yamaha Rhino this is what it looks like running at the rev limiter going down the road. This was absolutely as fast as it would go. Mandy drove on the way back.

Here is the ranch we parked the ATV's at. I know you all just said, "oh yea, Rancho El Palomo, of course, I've heard of that." It must be the loose tin and hand painted sign that gave it away.

Formal Dining

Let it be known I hate dressing up. However, Mandy never gets a chance to wear a nice dress so every now and then is OK by me. I went the rebel route and didn't wear a tie. Truth be known I couldn't figure out how to tie the darn thing, even with the instructions we printed out, oh yes, that is all true.



Some random passer by took our picture with our smaller camera. We learned it pays take a camera random people can use.


A cool moonlit night. I thought, "oh, this would be cool with a tripod". Then it occured to me as I'm rocking up and down, no it wouldn't. So this is about the best I could muster.

Key West, FL

The 2nd day was pretty cool. We got to stop in Key West, FL which I've been listening too with Jimmy Buffett and reading a little about. It was pretty much just like I thought it would be. Pretty laid back, bunch of tourist everwhere invading in huge groups at a time. Very friendly locals. Some were even posted at the first few street corners to help direct you to where you were heading. No tips, no hassle, just nice folks trying to help. We made out rounds and bought something like 4 T-shirts. The woman who rang us out at Captain Tony's was actually from Raleigh and could pronounce Fuquay Varina, pretty cool.

Here we are at the obligatory picture spot. The "southern most point in the continental USA". Hawaii is actually more southern if your curious. We couldn't find anybody who could work our camera so we had to take a picture of each other. So goes the problems with taking the big dog out.

Think of this as the pilgramage spot for parot heads. The orginal Margaritaville. Need I say more?

The Ernest Hemingway cats with 6 toes. I believe this one to be Hairy Truman. You can read about them here: http://www.hemingwayhome.com/HTML/our_cats.htm I won't go into the details.

The water surronding Key West is a beautiful aqua-marine. I wish I could explain it. It's so nice. Everyone should visit and it would be nice to spend more than 6 hours here.

Cozumel Mexico

this is the piloto ship down below directing in to the port at cozumel, mexico. this was pretty cool since the ship could dock at the pier. no such luck in belize. it took a tender boat and a 30 min ride to get to shore.

Casino Royal

here are me and mandy doing what we do best, wasting money. they had a small casino on the ship. not quite las vegas but it was fun.

end of US1

out of port

heading out of ft lauderdale port on our way to key west.

made it to ft laurderdale,

made it to ft laurderdale, fl. looks like we got a 10 min ride to the port. then we finally get to get on the boat. more to follow.

so begins our cruise vacation.

so begins our cruise vacation. up around 4:30, ok 5. showered, packed, all lights off, doors shut, water off, etc. away we go.

technical support issues

and they said it was wrong to take stuff apart. my poor laptop hinge is on its last leg and getting ready to go on a cruise we need to take it with us to offload pictures. so what better time than 3 days before to tear it into 1000 pieces.