Ah..."Vacation"

Last Thursday our family piled into the cars and drove to Seabrook/Galveston. Cade was going on vacation to my parents' house and Ross and I were headed out for a cruise to Cozumel with Ryan and Margeaux.

Well as it turned out Cade's vacation to Seabrook was much more successful than our cruise.

In bullet point fashion (because I am feeling too lazy for paragraphs) here's how it went down

• Beltway 8 was closed near 59 and we were detoured. I had never driven on 59 ever so we had to pull over, which woke Cade up from his nap, and reroute.
• The ship's departure was delayed several hours due to fog.
• We stood in line for three hours. Pre-trip online check in proved to have no benefit. We asked and they actually told us there was no value in it.
• Our room was direct above the propeller. Like bottom deck, right on top of it. Very noisy.
• Day 1 was cool and foggy. Not awful, but not great.
• Our excursion to the Mayan ruins was canceled.
• When we asked about other ruins excursions we were told the Cozumel ruins were REPLICAS so did we really want one of those anyways. No. No we did not.
• Day 2 was a high point. We arrived in Cozumel to beautiful weather, had a nice day on the beach and got some good tans/sun burns.
• Day 3 was OK. Fairly good weather.
• Day 4. Well there wasn't supposed to be a day 4.
• There was so much fog near the port in Galveston that we spent a whole day within 12 miles of the dock but unable to dock.
• They hadn't planned on us being on board so the hot tubs were closed and there were no planned activities. (Though I will say the ship staff tried really hard to offer entertainment. They really did their best.)
• So even though the decks were open, it was cold and foggy and damp. So everyone cramped into the few indoor common spaces. The largest of which was the casino. Which permitted smoking. 
• The ship internet didn't work due to the fog so I couldn't even attempt to do any work and not fall behind.
• Day 4 became night 5. Night 5 away from our baby.
• At 10 or 11p when we went to bed, I developed an inexplicable swollen left eye. It looked like I had been punched.
• Until 12:30a when we were able to pull into the dock but then could not get off the boat because there were no customs agents.
• Pulling into the dock at 12:30a with the propeller under us was less than awesome.
• Comically the only day we really took pictures was our day in Cozumel. So our photos make it look like an awesome trip. See below.

Ross did win enough money playing craps to pay for 90% of his ticket on to the cruise so at least that made it feel like a less expensive trip. And our drink tickets were extended free of charge into the delay day.

Most importantly though, Cade had a GREAT visit with my parents. He was super well-behaved and enjoyed lots of quality time with family he doesn't see very often. I'd definitely count that as the win for this vacation.