Life on the Ship

Sunday afternoon we got on the Norwegian Star and got ourselves settled before we left port.

Mamadillo and the Mighty Mississippi

For some reason, I was really into clouds this trip.

If you look in the distance in the middle of the picture, there's a Carnival Cruise Ship that left just before us.

Brent and I had bought some hats at this cute little hat shop by Jackson Square. (Oh, don't worry, you'll see them in the next post) The cashier was telling us that we should be on the port side as we left New Orleans for the best view. Luckily, that's the side our rooms were on. He was right. It was the best view.

Jackson Square from the ship

Mom and Dad's stateroom was right next to ours....

That usually made it easy to find them.

After our good dinner - the food on Norwegian wasn't as good as Holland America - we came back to find a towel creation on our bed.

We decided it was a bunny

And the next morning, we awoke to no land in sight. We were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico!

It was a little humid out on the balcony.

All day Monday we were at sea, so we looked for things to do...

Brent and Dad played a little oversized chess. When asked who won, Dad said he baited Brent into a trap and he fell for it. Sorry Love!

We played a little shuffleboard, but I guess those pictures are on my parent's camera. We sort of made up the rules because we couldn't find any rules for a few days. When we did find the rules, we decided we liked our rules better. Brent is an AMAZING shuffle board player, followed closely by Dad.

We sat and talked and watched the water go by.

We also went to a talk about what to buy in the different ports. Apparently people go on Caribbean cruises to buy jewelry because you can haggle in the Caribbean. I'm not a great haggler, but I really liked the port maps that they gave you - I'm a fan of maps. But, my favorite thing about the shopping talk turned out to be the raffle. Just for going, you got a raffle ticket and at the end, they gave away some stuff. Del Sol sunglasses, t-shirts, that sort of thing. Which we didn't win. But the super duper prize was a strand of pearls. And when they read off the number, Brent was the winner! Woho!

At the time, we thought they were real pearls, but I'm starting to wonder now. So, they may be worth $30 or $300. We really don't know. But, they are still beautiful and Brent did win them. And he did then give them to me. It was exciting!

And then we watched the sun go down.

 There is something about a sunset over the water that makes it all the more beautiful!

And after dinner, we found this on our bed...

A penguin was the concensis.

And so ended our fun filled day at sea. Next stop, Costa Maya, Mexico and the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins!