Mardi Gras!

When we got off the boat back in New Orleans, we were happy to make it in time for church.  But this week, they only met for the first hour because the church building is right on the parade route, so during Mardi Gras, they don't hold the full 3 hours.

We still had time before our flight, so we decided to take in the festivities.  Mardi Gras was still a week away, but the parades were still in full force.

So, we joined the crowds to watch the Femme Fatale Crew parade.

We quickly learned that if you go to a daytime/family friendly Mardi Gras parade, you can get beads one of two ways:  Either have an adorable small person with you (but we left all of ours back at home), or you have a really tall man with you (it's not necessary, but it's an added bonus if he's as cute as the one pictured above).

He's so tall, he managed to reach up and pull these beads out of the sky as they were tossed from a parade float.

These ladder seats were one of my favorite things.  They had fun seats up at the top.  Perfect for seeing over the massive quantity of people lined up in the heat to watch other massive amounts of people march/ride by.

This was unlike any other parade we've ever been to.

Fun floats

And these.  Boot tassels.  Everyone who was anyone had them.  And they had something on the bottom of their boots that made it sound like they were tapping when they walked.  It was awesome.

It's a giant Emmett!

And Giant Harry Potter!

Looking at all those marching bands and floats sure building up an appetite.  Plus, it's New Orleans.  You have to eat the food!  Blake got a shrimp po boy and I got more red beans and rice.  It was amazing!  But actually, those fries hiding behind the po boy were kind of one of the most amazing parts of the meal.  They were drenching in garlic butter.  Oh. My.

YUM.

So, yeah, it was amazing trip.  I love the other half of my "perfect couple" and I will never forget how amazing our time was together!

Somewhere Beyond the Sea

We had a couple days at sea, but managed to still have a pretty great time even without any snorkeling.

Like walking and just enjoying the amazing view.

We also enjoyed sitting in the hot tubs, playing more on board games like shuffle board (I won every time) and basketball (I might not have won so much).

We also enjoyed some on board entertainment.  There were some really impressive shows.  But my very favorite was the improv comedy troupe.  The best part was that I got to join them onstage for an improv game.  And then they invited me up again during another show another night.  In another life, I might have tried to have a go at a career in improv comedy.  It was really fun to have a glimpse at that life for just a couple nights.

But maybe the very best part was when we entered the "Most Perfect Couple" contest.

We competed in several different tasks.  We only lost one.  Granted, it was a dancing contest, which is not our strong suit.  But it was also the only one that the crowd voted on to determine the winner.  And one of the other couples in the competition had traveled with all of their family and they made up the majority of the audience.  So, it was definitely rigged.

But we rocked the remaining tasks.  So, they awarded us this bottle of champagne.  We were pretty stoked.  We gifted it to the gentleman who had been providing our room service all week.  He was almost as excited about it as we were.  Ah, well.  We won the title of "Perfect Couple" on board and that's a title we'll carry with us every day for the rest of our lives.

A great way to end our fabulous cruise.  Fortunately, our trip wasn't over just yet...

Costa Maya

Can I say that this might have actually been my favorite day?  It was so beautiful.  Blake now wants to buy a house in Mexico.  For reals.

After getting some catcalls from the locals, we made it to our tour bus!

They drove us way out to a ranch somewhere with chickens roaming all over and then we hopped on this super sweet tandem bike!  And we started our tour.

This was Juan, one of our awesome guides.  He was super nice and had a great sense of humor.

I think this was the allspice plant.  He pointed out a few different plants that get transformed into powdery substances we use in our kitchens every day.

This is not one of those plants.  I can't remember what it was called, but those spikes mean serious business.  And apparently, when you cut this type of tree, red liquid comes out--like blood.  This was very symbolic in the Mayan culture.  It had something to do with souls making the passage from earth to heaven.

This was another symbol--this one of rebirth.  It's a "cenote".  You go down the hole on the left, swim across (it wasn't very far--but it was FREEZING!) and when you come out the other side, you are reborn.

Here Blake is pontificating on being able to be reborn so easily.

And then we rode back to the ranch and the bus drove us out to an amazingly beautiful beach.  Almost all of the beaches were covered in trash.  I mean really covered.  It was really sad.  But a few were obviously private and were kept clean.

Including the one we were dropped off at.

Still, we had to aim the camera carefully to avoid the trash on the beaches right next to us.  But look how gorgeous this view was!

And since foot pictures are a thing right now, we had to jump on the bandwagon.

Face pictures are still a thing too, right?

Ah, I loved this view!  I miss it!

This was our other guide, Israel.  He collected all of these coconuts and proceeded to cut them and slice them open so we could all enjoy some fresh coconut water with lunch.  So delicious!

See?

And that's my plate of amazing lunch!  Fajitas and quesadillas.  So good!

But I couldn't wait to get on the paddle boards.  Again, we had a wind problem and they didn't want to let us out.  But eventually I convinced them that I'm a strong swimmer and they wouldn't have to come out and rescue me.

I did eventually make it up on my feet, but Blake had a battle with the wind and was lucky to not lose the camera entirely, so he didn't get any photos of that amazing feat.  It was my first time paddle boarding and I loved it!  Then Blake and I just splashed around and had a very mature water fight while the other (boring) couples laid on the beach and watched us having more fun than them.

We had a some time to kill when we got back from our excursion, so we made our way to another beach.  We braved climbing over those sharp rocks and got in the water again.  This is where we really should have had our snorkeling gear.  There were some rays and I think someone saw a sea turtle or something.  It was beautiful.  We started swimming out, but someone freaked out about sharks and we had to swim back.  I'll give you a hint--I'm not really afraid of sharks that close to the shore and Blake's whole family has a very strong fear of sharks.  I'm not sure why, but they find it very compelling.

Did I mention that I loved this day?  Because I did.

And then there was this chocolate night.  Chocolate everything.  I would have enjoyed it a billion times more if it had been a few nights earlier--before I had stuffed myself silly for days.  This picture doesn't do it justice, but there were some really amazing chocolate sculptures.

And this cute little guy.

Un-Belize-Able!

Belize.  I think it may have been my very favorite day.

But every day was pretty much amazing, so it's a close call.

Like with Cozumel, we just wanted to snorkel!  So, we found some cool guys who agreed to take us on a boat to an amazing island for some snorkel time and some relaxing on the beach time.

You can't beat any part of this view.

Pelicans!  I tried really hard to get a photo of one in action with ocean and fish in his mouth, but never succeeded.

Can you tell the one problem this day had?

It was CrAzY windy!!!

We walked around the island (it was tiny) and collected some shells for the kids and enjoyed the beautiful views.  We did our best to convince our guides that we were strong swimmers and could handle the wind.  And making friends with everyone else on the island while they enjoyed unlimited island rum punch.

Eventually, they took us out on the water.

And our guides pointed out plenty of cool under water creatures.

But I dove too deep early on, and I think the pressure messed with my camera because it was locked and wouldn't snap any cool pics of the things they showed us.  Fortunately, the experience itself was amazing.  The only bad part was that we didn't get nearly enough time in the water before it was time to head back.

My favorite guide.  I'm pretty sure his name was Hakim.  Listening to these guys talk was amazing.  They said it was English, but it was completely unintelligible to me.  But they also made sure to tell us some fun stories in understandable English.  Including about the law that states that if you live on an island for 12 years, it's yours.  The family of the captain of our ship had taken possession of a tiny island that way.  Pretty cool!

I'm so glad he decided to throw his awesome hair in for this photo.

Oh, and for those of us who didn't want any rum punch--we got water.

Nothing tastier than bagged water!

And this guy.