Out with the Tide (Day 2)

Sunday January 17, 2010
Starting Point: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Destination: Miami, FL, Atlantic Ocean

Sunday started off and continued much smoother than Saturday. We had to be in the lobby of the hotel at 10 am and wait for our shuttle. We were in the lobby waiting until 12:30 when the shuttle arrived. We were driven thirty minutes (or so) to Miami, to the boat dock. By boats, I mean SHIPS. Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, you name it, they were there, standing proudly (floating?), waiting for passengers to come on board.

We moved through the lines with ease and made our way onto the boat, hand sanitizer waiting around every corner. “Don’t shake anyone’s hands,” we were instructed. And by every corner, I mean every corner! When you got on, got off, walking into the dining room, out of the dining room... EVERY WHERE. (There's nothing like large spaces that continually smell like hand sanitation.)

Sunday continued without a lot of fanfare. We had our safety drill. We learned the proper way to put on a life jacket, and where the emergency whistle is located on the life jacket. Some people decided to try out the whistle, but the following statement made by one of the workers put an end to that: “Some of you I see are trying out the whistle. I’ve worked at sea for six years. I have never seen them wash the whistles.”

We found our rooms. Took naps, ate. Wandered the decks. And, then, I began to experience a little motion sickness.

I’ve never done well traveling, and it was all catching up to me. The car ride to the airport. The plane ride. The ride in the van, the next van, the next van… My hope that I would be fine on the ship was quickly being squashed. While I’ve always loved being on boats, this boat was different from anything else I had ever been on. A cruise ship I suppose is hardly a “boat.” Not the same experience as rowing across beautiful Lake Placid (AKA Lake Acid, those of you who have been there know what I'm saying), or skimming the waters in a speed boat in a lake in California. It’s not the same as a canoe. Not even like the party barge, as we so named the raft my friends and I would float on in Lake Michigan. I laid in my bed last night feeling the movement of the ship, as it rocked and swayed with the ocean. “Think of the party barge. Think of the party barge.” It didn’t help. Eventually though, with the help of the pitch blackness of the cabin, I fell asleep.

Next up Honduras.

Outside our hotel

Leaving Miami

My dad and brotherInside the cabin


The pool area

A few additional notes:

• Tonight I went to the gym. The Elliptical machine almost killed me. Literally, it wacked me in the arm, and I quite possibly may have a hemorrhage on the back of my arm. Don't ask how the machine hit me in the back of the arm. I can't really answer.
• As a side note, is it wrong to want to exercise just so I can eat peanut m&ms, and any other thing I really want to eat
  
• I realized that as I was walking to the laundry machine, more literally wheezing as I dragged my laundry basket behind me, I left a trail of shirts.
  
• I am going to eat some cheese.