The Adventure Of A Lifetime

I’ve been keeping a secret for several weeks that I just can’t hold onto any longer: my lifelong dream of a Caribbean cruise is about to be realized. Will and I have been invited to accompany my son and son-in-law on the Carnival Magic in December! They’ve even offered to pick up our expenses on board—all we have to pay for are our tickets and air fare, which has already been done. Now we have only to get our passports and GO!

I’ve never wanted it to be December so badly in my life. This vacation will be Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries and Mother’s/Father’s Days all rolled into one. It’s the honeymoon we never had, the adventure of a lifetime. Thankfully “the boys” have been on numerous cruises, because we totally lack sophistication and will need their assistance in figuring things out. Even Dr. Awesomesauce gave me some good advice for traveling in Jamaica (“you won’t be there two minutes before someone approaches you about marijuana”) and wants me to go on the shore excursion to the turtle farm (“you’ll love it!”).

Well, I don’t know about turtles, but I’m sure looking forward to seeing the clear blue/green waters and white-sand beaches. In the Caribbean. In December. While the Northern Hemisphere shivers and drips, we’ll be in places where summer never ends. We’ll be on a huge ship that has every amenity you can think of, including live entertainment and several pools and hot tubs. They even have a water slide, and YES, I’m going to go on it. This is the first time I’ve gotten to do anything like this, and I’m not wasting a single experience…..not even if I look ridiculous doing it.

In a way though, I’m glad there’s some time before we go. I need to lose some weight and develop a little activity tolerance, which will mean low-carbing and walking at least once a day with Will and the dogs. I’m also praying he can stay reasonably healthy, because this will likely be the only time we’ll get the chance to do something magnificent together. (Although I’ve gotta say, having our children was pretty cool too.) Our 35th wedding anniversary is this year; nothing wrong with celebrating a little late.

This trip is at least as much for him as it is for me, anyway. He and I have dreamed of taking a cruise for years and never thought for a minute that it would actually happen. We’ve just never been able to put that much money all together before, and even after buying our plane tickets and the cruise itself we are still sitting on a good amount of my back pay from Social Security. We’re going to want memorabilia from the places we visit (Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and of course Jamaica) so we definitely want to save up. I learned a lot about money management when we didn’t have any, and the purse strings are going to remain tight so we can enjoy ourselves on the trip.

Of course, there’s always got to be a fly in the ointment, and that is my illness. I’ve read that it doesn’t travel particularly well across time zones. But Dr. A, true to form, has a battle plan that we’re going to work on as the departure date nears. He thinks I’ll be fine as long as I don’t let my sleep/meds schedule get too far out of whack, which will take some prior planning but isn’t impossible.

I want to think that too. And now that the biggest item on my bucket list is about to happen, ANYTHING is possible. 🙂