An Overview is Easy

When people say "Hey how are you", they're typically looking for "Good, and you?" and sometimes that's all time will permit.
When my friends are asking me about my vacation, I want to elaborate but to condense it seems appropriate.
Thus far, I've found the best way to condense it is "Fed some orphans, kissed some dolphins, got some sunburn. In that order"

Allow me to start with today. I was up early this morning putting the finishing touches on a paper. I got a few hours of sleep and stumbled over my luggage that I have yet to put away (sorry roommie). I put on my new dress that I love. For real, this thing is fantastic. And I look great today despite the lack of sleep, if you don't mind me saying. I'll try to take a selfie today. Then morning class, more editing, and I went to the class where this infamous paper was due.

I see one of my classmates walk out of the building and almost asked "Hey is class canceled or something?" but I did not. Then our classroom is empty, lights on, door open. Weird. I sat down and opened my email and there's a reminder from my professor that we do not have class today and the review is due Wednesday. See, originally the syllabus said the Friday before spring break was a reading day (aka no class) so mom and I scheduled our flight according to that syllabus that said I wouldn't have class. Then he flipped the schedule and I missed the class we had on Friday. Apparently, in that class on Friday he bumped back the review due date to Wednesday and canceled class for today. Grr. A little mad that I didn't get a heads up and mostly mad that I waited so long to do it and then lost sleep when I definitely didn't need to. But on the bright side, now my paper is finished and just requires editing. Also on the plus side, I'm definitely making friends in that class.

All that nuttiness cannot drag me down today because I got things in the mail that I've waited two weeks for.

I've only glanced at this book and I'm already convinced that every single person should own a copy. 

Ahh. Take a deep breath. Sip that soy hazelnut latte that cost you $4.25. Enjoy how fabulous you look today (for real y'all, this dress is great). And smile about this book. 

***

So the vacation. What do I mean by "Fed some orphans, kissed some dolphins, got some sunburn. In that order"? 

If you are my Facebook friend, feel free to check out the photos there. I'm not going to post all 100+ on the blog because that seems excessive. Here's the rundown.

Friday AM: Dad drops off mom and me at O'Hare. I love that airport better than any other airport. I would like to share with you the perfect travel-by-plane outfit.

This photo is from our hotel room in Florida. Once I read that you should wear closed toed shoes on an airplane in case there's an emergency. And I don't think that includes the high heeled pumps some women wear to the airport. Anyway, I just bought these VANS a few weekends ago when Jess came home with me. Dang, I have to blog about that too. I'm way behind! These things are so stinking comfortable and fantastic. And they're gray so they're neutral. Love. Next is the green, could be military vibe, Calvin Klein pants. They're kind of unstructured and you can roll them up or down if it's cold where you're starting your travel (Chicago) and warm where you're ending it (Ft. Lauderdale). Also, they have pockets to hold your passport so it's easy access when you have to show it. I did get patted down in the airport from my knees down (my first pat down!) but that's no biggie. 

Then a cotton, black, Mossimo v-neck that's comfortable and well worn. Nothing fancy or showy or outrageous. Then a gray zippie on top in case it's cold in the plane. Also, hair in a pony tail and no earrings. That's it!

The flight there was fine. Then we stayed at a nice hotel. While we were in the elevator to our room, we mentioned to a fellow hotel patron that we were going on a cruise and she asked "Oh, are you going on the vegan cruise?" and we said "No, we aren't" and when we got off on our floor and the elevator door closed, mom said "That doesn't even sound like fun." Who knew there was such thing as a vegan cruise?

Speaking of not vegan, we grabbed lunch at Chipotle (cue the angels singing) and trespassed a little to check out the major yachts.

Yes, the grass is green. Yes, we ate our burritos outside in March. 

This yacht had a boat on it. Yo dawg, I heard you like boats so we put a boat on your boat. Thanks, Xibit for providing that comedy. 

This is that same yacht from the front and look how tall it is! 

Hey, you can buy this boat if you want to.

I love that green foliage.

I had dan-dan noodles at Pei Wei Asian diner and it was delicious. Not the kindest service but it was tasty food. And they have those sweet soda machines where you pick the flavor of the pop. Do you know what I'm talking about? 

Chipotle, Pei Wei, and Einsten Bros Bagels were all close enough to walk to from the hotel and that was really nice. Also, if you really are in the market for a yacht, the strip mall has yacht seller after yacht seller. It was a little funny. 

On Saturday, we had Einsten Bros for breakfast. 

I chose the asiago bagel with garlic herb schmear and it was an excellent choice. It was  a happening place! They were busy and the staff wasn't really a well oiled machine but the food was delish.

Getting on the boat took a very long time. We took a shuttle from the hotel, and driving around to the right port took a long time. Then they tag your luggage and you wait and wait and wait. They check your passport and you go through a security screening. Then you stop at a yucky bathroom (optional) and get your SeaPass card that you need all the time on the boat and they make you sign something that says "I promise I'm not sick". Then you stand in another line and board the boat, and then you wait in the library (or the bar) if your stateroom is not ready yet. 

We were on the Royal Caribbean cruise line on the Liberty of the Seas. The library was on the same floor as our stateroom- meant to be! The second photo is the view out from the library out to the main drag of the ship where there's lots of places to spend your money and plenty of opportunities for people watching. 

I didn't take a photo of our whole stateroom, but this picture was on the wall.

And here's shots from our balcony when we were docked:

There was all kinds of people on the cruise. Lots of spring breakers (insert your own WOOHOO!!! yell), some elderly folks, some little kids and their stressed parents, and lots of other kinds of people. A cool thing about the cruise is that people are from all over the place. We met some people from Florida, Nebraska, Detroit  Winnipeg, and some others I don't remember, and then the people who work on the cruise are from all over the world and their country of origin is sometimes on their name badge. 

The first day of the cruise we were at sea. It was cold and windy and the water was choppy. Boo. I was trying to not get sick so I took a dramamine and then zonked out for almost the whole day. Shoot. This is the path we took on the cruise:

I rallied for dinner and in was a 70s theme night. Lucky for me, the purchase of a maxi dress from the petite section has served me well. It is stretchy and packable and looks good without a lot of fussing. That's my kind of clothing.

Monday we were in Belize. This is where the story gets REALLY interesting. I'll save it for later :)