Sunday, October 10th

Sunday was Everglades day. I've been to Florida a million times, both with family and for work, yet I've never been to the Florida Everglades. I always think of that old cartoon that featured raccoons that lived in the Florida Everglades, even though I can't remember what the name of the show is anymore.

We drove dead west from the hotel and after about an hour (?) we reached the Everglades Safari Park. We did the whole tourist thing. Rode the airboat, piloted by a fun driver, who fed us the mandatory lines that tourists like to hear, including tell us upfront that we're not guaranteed to see any alligators. Of course he knew this wasn't true, and chances were high that we'd see at least one, since he was bringing us to an area that the park had created so that the alligators would lay their eggs there, meaning that we would see momma alligator for sure. But it's all about managing expectations =)

The airboat was fun. It's really noisy, but it goes pretty fast! I tried to take some pics of the wake from the airboat when he was skidding through turns; I hope the pics turned out. It was really neat to see the reflection of the sun and sky through the swamp, cause we were going fast enough that the reeds and vegetation in the swamp would be a blur, replaced with the reflection off the water. Have a feeling those pics didn't turn out so good...

Seeing a wild alligator was pretty cool. She must have been used to the airboats and tons of gawking people with cameras, cause she was pretty much posing for us. Was great for me, I have issues focusing, but she was swimming slowly enough that I think I got some decent shots.

On the way back to the dock, we were able to spot some more alligators hiding behind vegetation, which was really cool. Getting off the airboat, we went to the alligator show where they taught us about alligators, and what to do if you ever ran into one. The key tip was stay as big as possible. If you crouch down, the alligator will think you are a little rodent, and that you're edible. If you stay standing up, it will think that you're way bigger than they are, and thus will leave you alone.

After the show, I held a baby alligator. It was SOOOO cute! Of course, it had a muzzle on, but it had these cute eyes, and was looking around much like a human baby, all confused and in awe, trying to figure out why there were a bunch of people staring at it! The baby was about 3 months old. Holding it on it's underside explained to me why people like killing alligators -- their bellies are extremely soft! Of course this is in stark contrast to the top part of the alligator, which is very hard and durable.

We wandered around the rest of the park, and looked at the many many alligators doing what they do best -- sleep. Great for pics, except that they tended to blend into their surroundings quite well. And I don't think I ever saw a flash of teeth - that would have taken too much energy on their part.

Left the Everglades and headed to Coral Gables. This is another area that is very posh and wealthy. Primarily, we wanted to drive through and gawk at all the houses and the monuments. We had to get to the airport soon anyway, so we had lunch there as well.

I called Daniel (and woke him from being on-call the night before!) and he came out to meet us at lunch. Was really good to see an old friend again. We grew up together at church ever since we were kids, but his family moved to the States ten years ago.


After lunch, we went to the airport, and flew home. ILC went to CT, and me, IW, and AC to TO. Got to TO, had to call Ga can get her to bring me a jacket, it was only 8 degrees out!

Thus ends our vacation. Will need to post the pics when I finally get mine developed, and get a hold of everyone else's digipics.

Saturday, October 9th

Saturday morning was brutal. Got up (relatively) early, to prepare to disembark. We ended up waiting for what seemed like HOURS (and likely WAS hours) in the theatre until they called us to line up for customs. The theatre was FREEZING! Thinking that we'd be spending the day in Miami, I had my shorts on. Little did I know the first part of the day would be stranded in the boat's theatre, with their air con on full blast. We all fell asleep in various positions draped over each other and the seats, with coats and sweaters pulled out in a feeble attempt to keep warm.

Eventually our group got called. We were smart and told them we were Canadians, so we got placed in the short line. The long line was for all non-US and non-Canadian passport holders, who had to get their fingerprints taken, and all those other security measures the US has put into place since 9/11. After ILC pulled out all her documents, including work visas and every piece of paper under the sun, we got past security.

Like an airport, the port had the luggage carousel thing where you stand until you see your black luggage that looks like every other person's luggage, and yank it off the convey belt, as you frantically scan for your other piece of black luggage. Thank goodness I have Chinese parents who tied a bright yellow thing onto mine, making it easily identifiable. And I'm quite positive I was the only one using a black EY audit bag as my second piece of luggage, since GKY used an actual luggage case.

Finally get out of the port, and had to figure out getting to the car rental place. It's offsite, so they were coming to pick us up. SW had already left for the airport to catch his flight home, but we weren't sure that we could fit the five of us, and all our luggage, into whatever car we had booked. So we tried to get a taxi to take all our stuff and three bodies to the hotel. The taxis there were retarded! Unlike NYC, they are allowed to refuse fares, and multiple cabbies told us they didn't know where the hotel was. Right, like you really don't know where the Sheraton is. They all refused us because our hotel was in downtown Miami, and wasn't a very far distance from the port.

In the end, the car rental guy got there, with his huge van, and loaded us all in. I go into the office to pick up our car, and they tell me that they are all out right now. BUT, they have a truck. So I ask what kind of truck. I ended up driving a quad cab Chevy Silverado! HUGE beast of a truck! Yes, we have pics of the truck, will need to get them off everyone's cameras, and post. Hilarious, five relatively small Chinese kids loading into a gigantic truck! And me as the driver, hahah!!

We unloaded at the hotel, and proceeded to Coconut Grove. On the way, I got a hold of my friend Daniel, who moved to Miami for his medical internship. He gave us a brief overview of Coconut Grove, and areas to be careful of in Miami. Coconut Grove is just south of Miami that has trendy stores and is good for shopping. Lunch was at The Cheesecake Factory, which was complete with GKY's enormous lunch sized salad. I hate to see how big the full-sized salad is!

There were some little stores, which were unique, but extremely pricey. The best deals were at the shoe outlet (can't remember the name of the store), and the Guess outlet. I found a matching bikini top and bottom, for a total of $5USD! On the way back to the truck, we found a store called "Rani's", hahah! Took a pic, will need to post =)

GKY was heading home that night, so we took her to the airport. Then the remaining four of us went to South Beach. We drove past some really swank houses, with private entrances etc. Traffic, as Daniel had warned us, was a mess. But we eventually found parking in an area that we figured wasn't *that* shady -- since it was next to a police station. On the way to the beach, we couldn't help but notice the many many rainbows. Apparently South Beach is not only known for really really skinny girls wearing a bikini top and a skirt, but also for a thriving homosexual population.

The sun was starting to set by the time we got to the beach, but unfortunately the beach faced east. The beach looked like it stretched on forever, and the sun behind the clouds and the buildings was kinda pretty:



Walked around lots, got pretty tired and hungry, and was a little weary of the crowds that were building. There was obviously something going on that night, and four little Chinese people stood out rather obviously. We had dinner at a nice little place, Spiago's, or something like that, and then headed home, we were dead tired. On the drive back, we got to see the gorgeous houses again, this time with the water reflecting their lighted houses, making it look even nicer. Back on the mainland, we found out that the Source Awards were that weekend, as well as Gloria Estefan's last concert on her last world tour before retiring. Hence all the people in South Beach.

Crashed at the hotel. Sheraton has these REALLY nice beds, I think they are called Sleeper, or something like that? Was really snugly and soft. ILC and I watched Desperate Housewives, which we both found to be the funniest show, even though it's not really intended to be funny. It just is funny, you have to see it =)

Friday, October 8th

Friday was another late start, as expected, since we stayed out so late the night before. The day was spent packing, participating in last-chance activities, and refining the tan lines. "Controlled tanning" was the term most commonly used.

I went to the spa, cause they were having specials that day. Was really good, almost fell asleep during the facial. Felt very relaxed and calm and clean afterwards =) But of course, I went rock climbing afterwards!! Actually, I *tried* to go rock climbing, found out how weak I really am, and that I was pretty tired still, so came back down without finishing. I think I would need a lot more upper body workouts before I could ever get up the wall. That or lose weight so that my measly arms could get my body weight up the wall.

I went back to the stateroom to pack and clean. It takes me awhile, I'm a slow packer, never mind the fact that I don't like packing and unpacking. Got it all done, eventually, and even went down to order my prints of our posed photographs. Got it in the nifty folder thing as a surprize for my parents.

During dinner we were chatting with Adrian, and asked about him and his future, whether he wants to stay on the ship, etc. He told us about wanting to go home (he's engaged) and that this was a job to save money to bring home. In Romania, it's hard to save money, even if you have a good education, because of the economy there. Then he dropped the bomb: he is educated as an accountant!!!

We all cracked up, and told him that we were ALL accountants! All 6 of us (excluding mom and dad of course) were accountants and were still in public practice! He thought the coincidence was just as amusing as we did. He had figured out that I was there with my parents, but wasn't sure how everyone else knew each other.

The after-dinner show was the wrap up of the cruise, including brief performances from the singers and the dancers, as well as the viewing of the Cruise In Review video. You can prolly imagine how shocked we were to see ourselves in the video, as well as the shrieking laughter that followed both incidences.

I went back to the stateroom to finish packing (cause I'm slow), while everyone else headed up to the Jazz club to watch the four singers perform. I had promised Ryan I'd go watch him sing in the Karaoke contest, so I went there first, before heading up to the Jazz club. Unfortunately, just when I got there, Carl had finished singing, so I had missed my chance to sit close and watch and listen to him sing too!! But no fear, we devised and alternate plan. When they were done performing, we found Shawn first (he was closer), and took pics with him. GKY really wanted to go meet Kristin, who happened to be with Carl =) So we went over and started talk to them. Of course, I wasn't paying much attention to Kristin, haha...

Carl's a great guy, and arm candy too! I was totally hooked, not only was he cute, he also had an English accent, having grown up in UK. I think he was more excited to talk to us, than we were to talk to him. He was especially excited because we were Chinese, and that we spoke Cantonese. Being mixed (father from Hong Kong, mum from England), he was always looking for Chinese people to hang out with and practice Chinese with, but opportunities are rare. I found out that he was 20 years old (SO YOUNG!!!!) and that he'd been doing singing and dancing gigs ever since he was about 6 years old. He never went to university, and wants to go live in Hong Kong for a couple years. We all laughed at how his Cantonese is better than ILC's =) He asked how we all knew each other, and who else was with us, and when I mentioned that my parents were here too, he was SUPER excited and wanted to meet them! Unfortunately, I had no idea where they were at that point.

We took pics, and said our goodbyes. We headed back down and ended up at the piano bar again, with some toggling with the Dungeon. My parents arrived at the piano bar too, which was perfect timing because I looked over and there was Carl! So I brought my parents over to the other side of the piano bar, and introduced them to Carl. He was SO excited to see Chinese parents, it was the funniest thing! And of course, my dad being my dad, started to do a very bad imitation of Carl's dancing, and ask how come you always stick your foot out, and wiggle your bum, etc (half in Cantonese, half in English). I was utterly embarrassed, but Carl thought it was hilarious! He told me that my dad reminds him of his own dad, that his dad does the same thing! My mom asked him (in Chinese) whether he understands, and he was able to carry on a very short conversation with mom in Cantonese. Not bad =) Mom asked him whether there were any other Chinese people working on the boat, and he said none that have guest interaction, those are all Filipinos. The only place where there are Chinese people are all in the laundry services!

Carl got paper from the waiters for him and I to exchange email addresses, as well as our written Chinese names. He had pretty decent Chinese writing skills, especially in comparison to my chicken scratch!

We wandered back down to the Dungeon, hung out there for awhile. Eric was at the Dungeon, so he again tried to get me to dance. Instead, he danced for me, which was pretty amusing. Carl ended up at the Dungeon too, along with Kristin. It was really funny, there was a group of European kids who all looked like they were 16 or younger and as soon as the girls saw Carl, they got all giggly and started pointing at him. Then the DJ goes and announces that anyone under 18 were not allowed in the club and that they should proceed to the nearest exit!! The Europeans didn't move, but the announcement was obviously directed at them! But I definitely was not the only one to think that Carl's cute!

Wandered back up to the piano bar. Ran into John again, he told me that he was looking for me, cause after the Jazz show, him and his wife and others went into the piano room and had some worship time! Too bad I missed it, his voice is so moving!

Listened to some more songs at the piano bar, went up for some more late night pizza toppings, went back to the Dungeon to get a pic with Eric, said bye to Bing at the piano bar, and headed off to bed.

Thursday, October 7th

Cozumel is an island off the eastern coast of Mexico. Our boat docked in the water between Cozumel and the mainland. ILC and the rest went on a kayaking expedition in a see-through kayak, which was off Cozumel. GKY and I went on an excursion taking us to the mainland.

We had to take a ferry to get to the mainland, which is pretty normal, but this was the first time I've boarded a ferry from a boat! Our tour group was led from one area of the boat down to a lower deck, where we stepped precariously across a plank that stretched from our boat to the awaiting ferry. Thank goodness I was dead tired, and the ride was only about half an hour, cause the ferry was exceptionally rocky! I couldn’t look out the window without feeling queasy, as I watched the horizon dip below and reach above the window frame.

We landed at Playa del Carmen, and followed the tour guides with the trusty flags and other identifiable gadgets to the awaiting tour bus. Along the way, GKY noticed some pretty amusing signage, which I'm pretty sure I caught on film, though for the life of me right now I can't remember what it said.

We were to take a 45 min bus ride to get to our first stop, Tulum. Tulum is one of the many sites of ancient Mayan ruins. Those in our age range and having similar educational curriculum may remember the unit called "Voyage of the Mimi". In part 2, they talked about the Mayans. GKY periodically bursted into her personal rendition of the them song throughout the day. Definatley an amusing day =)

On the way to Tulum, we had a pit stop. In typical tour-bus fashion, there was a bustling market next to the bathrooms that sold everything a tourist could ever want. GKY and I spotted some turtle figurines that were pretty cute, so we inquired about the price. The lady said $3 each. We said thanks and put it back down. Kinda hefty for tiny, but cute, turtles, esp when it's in USD. We wandered around the rest of the market, and ended up back at the turtles. This time, the male shop owner was nearby, and he noticed our interest. He came over, took a look as us two girls smiling sweetly, and said "I give you $1 for 2". WHAT A DEAL!!! That 10 minutes it took us to walk the market resulted in a 83% drop in price!

Lesson learnt: Always find the male store owner, and smile sweetly. Don't attempt to bargain with the women. Not sure if applies when the shopper is male, use at your own discretion.

Got to Tulum. For someone who's never been to Europe, and has only seen Chinese artifacts/ruins, the Mayan temples and structures were definately different. Not quite as looming as China's Forbidden City, but those Mayans sure know how to pick locations! The temple was situated on a cliff that had a beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico, complete with palm trees swaying in the breeze, a beach front, and the most beautiful blue-green water I've seen. I think I took more shots of the view than the ruins!

We got back on the bus, and inhaled our boxed lunches. A short drive brought us to Xel Ha. Designed like an amusement park, this Mexican Disneyland had real animals, not just cartoon ones. Activities included swimming with dophins, floating down the lazy river, and going snorkelling. We opted for the snokelling.

Having never done this before, and not being a strong swimmer by any stretch of the imagination, GKY gave me the abridged snorkelling lessson: Close your nose, breathe only through your mouth, and don't tilt your head back. And we were off.

We didn't get very far before I had to stop. The cool thing about snorkelling is that you really can see everything that's in the water, provided the water is clear. That means all the fishies are really close, and you can see every single detail about them. The problem was that we had chosen to get into the water in some bizarro area where the fish were HUGE. I'm talking golf-ball sized eye balls. Needless to say, I was freaked out. I had been holding the underwater camera, intending to take pics, but I had to stop. I lifted my head out of the water, and told GKY to take the camera. I was terrified of the huge fish staring right back at me, and being SOOOO close!! Thankfully she agreed that the fish were abnormally large (ie I'm not a freak), and I swam with my head out of the water until we were past the mega-fish area.

After that it was a lot better, and we saw some fishies that had the really nice blue colour that reminds me of tropical fish. Also saw some yellow striped ones, and other interesting underwater creatures and plants. Didn't find Nemo.

Snokelling with a life jacket on was a little difficult, and did result in me feeling a little more queasy than I would have liked. Good thing my strong stomach prevailed, and I didn't puke. That would have been gross.

We got back on the bus, went back to Playa del Carmen, and onto the crazy ferry again. This time the ferry docked at the Cozumel shore, and GKY and I did the quick walk through of the market there. Nothing to buy, stuff was either a good price, but horrible looking, or looked nice but cost a fortune. Went back on the boat.

GKY went back to the stateroom, I went to the salsa lesson. It was even more amusing when I got there cause I hadn't realised during the first lesson that Eric was one of the teachers! In classic dance class form, there were more girls than guys, resulting in the teachers having to dance with the remaining non-paired female student. You got it, Eric was my dance partner. Pretty stressful if you ask me, trying to dance (and I'm not a dancer) with a guy who does it for a living, and look good while he dances! Lesson was fun, and then I hurried back to shower and change for dinner.

At dinner, Adrian had another challenge for us. He placed a square packet of butter on a saucer, and poured water on the saucer. He called the butter our boat. How do we make the boat float? He brought over a candle, and stuck it in the "boat". He lit the candle, but of course, the boat still wasn't floating ontop of the water. Then he went and placed an overturned wine glass over the boat and pressed it firmly down onto the saucer. Slowly, the boat started to rise, until it was floating on top of the water! Reason: the candle burned the oxygen in the glass. Because the glass is pressed onto the saucer, the boat is in a vaccuum. As the oxygen is burnt, the vaccuum sucks up the boat, causing it to look like it's floating!! Pretty neat, eh? =)

[Note: Please feel free to correct my explanation, I'm not a physicist!]

We went to the show that night, but left partway in, cause it was pretty boring. We wandered around, and ended up at the piano bar. That's when we met Bing, the piano bar guy. His job was to sit at the piano, play whatever he (or the guests) wanted, and sing. And he did an awesome job! He went for a break, and wandered over to talk to us. Normal questions, where are you from, what do you do. Our answers: Toronto, Accountants. Hahaha! He was really nice, we found out he's an ex-lawyer who wanted a different life, so started playing and singing for a living. And he loves it!! He was pretty empathetic to us; I guess lawyers aren't always the most welcomed people either.

There was a Summer Songs show on the promenade, so we went there to watch and listen to Kristin and Shawn, the two lead singers, sing oldies. I loved it!

Waiting for the show to start

After the singing, we (minus IW and AC) went to the Rock'n Through the Ages Dance Party. Essentially, they put the floor back on the skating rink, and play crazy songs from throughout times, to get people onto the dance floor to dance. There was the typical "Shout" and "YMCA" and tons more. The camera guy kept trying to film us while we were boogying, and we figured out why: demographics. We were pretty much the only people in our age category on the dance floor (everyone else was either my parents' age, or little kids), plus we were the only representation of our visible minority. Even after all of our efforts to avoid the camera and turn around every time he came near us, he somehow (zoom lens?!) managed to get footage of us... which was included on the DVD! Horrors!!

It was a lot of fun, and I got to practice line dancing again (which I still think is a lot of fun, good exercise, much like an aerobics class!). When that ended, we attempted to meet up with IW and AC at the Latin Fiesta Party, but that was at the front of the boat, and it was an extremely tippy night, so we all left, and headed back to the piano bar.

When we arrived, Bing smiled at us, and after he finished the song, he said into his mic "and there are the accountants from Toronto"!!! What an introduction! We stayed in spite of that, and good thing we did too, cause we got to meet some more cool people. Shawn, the male lead singer from the boat, was hanging out at the piano bar too, and him and Bing sang some songs together.

Then they called up John to sing. If you have ever heard the group Third Day, that's what John sounded like. His was the most soulful voice I have ever heard. Bing introduced him as the music pastor from a really big church in southern California. After he finished singing, I went over to talk to John, and found out that he's the Creative Arts Minister for a big (5000+ congregation) church in San Bernardino, affiliated/associated with Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA (Rick Warren's church, the Purpose Driven Life author). I asked him to sing a Third Day song, but he was pretty hesitant, given the secular setting. Instead, John played (but didn't sing) a Christian song when he was covering for Bing on his bathroom run. John sang numerous other songs, and by far he had a better voice than anyone else that performed, even better than Ryan, the guy from the NYC Mama Mia cast. And the depth in his voice, and the soulfulness beneath it showed maturity beyond the other younger singers.

We toggled between the piano bar and the Dungeon all night, since they were next to each other. The piano bar ended around 2am (which was already later than the 1am scheduled close), so all of us headed down to the Dungeon. The Dungeon was *trying* to close too, and when it was approaching 2:45am they turned on all the house lights, and turned off the music. Didn't do much, we were all still hanging out, chatting. Kinda weird seeing the same people at the same club all week, knowing that the cruise was nearing its end.

All in all it was a really fun and relaxing night, complete with stuffing ourselves with food at 2:55am cause the last remaining food outlet closed at 3am. I had my nightly dose of pizza toppings (didn't want the crust, was craving instant noodles!), and then we wandered back downstairs to see if people were still around. John and Bing were still at the piano bar, just chatting. GKY asked if we could play the piano, but unfortunately we weren't allowed. Then John mentioned that there's a piano up on the 14th deck, next to the Jazz Club!! If only we had known earlier in the week!

[Aside: speaking of the Jazz Club, we went up there for a couple nights, and one night (I think it was Sunday), we attempted to dance while the jazz ensemble was performing. Standard four step dance, box step etc. The other couples made it look SO easier. Obviously, we just suck. While we were making our lame attempts, my dad snuck up right behind me, and freaked me out! ILC was a gracious dance partner and let my dad cut in. We weren't doing too bad for awhile, until I kept stumbling and tripping. Dad says I can't follow. I claim he doesn't lead firmly enough. Reality is, he was all but picking me up off my feet to make me move, but I'm just a klutz and not a dancer. But it was fun, and I think my dad was giving AC and IW some pointers. My dad's a great dancer, too bad all the women in our family are not coordinated!]

GKY, SW, and I headed up to the piano room for awhile before going to bed. The funny part was that we had accidentally hit the "record" button on the midi box attached to the piano, and it had recorded what we played. I finally noticed the box, and hit play, which was a little freaky, cause the keys would be depressed to replay everything, even though no ones fingers were touching it! Kinda like a ghost was playing =)

At some ridiculous hour, GKY and I crashed in our stateroom. Friday was to be packing day...groan... =)

Wednesday, October 6th

Wednesday was another At Sea day, since we couldn't port at Georgetown, Grand Cayman, due to the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan. Instead, we found ways to amuse ourselves, starting with waking up at... well, in the afternoon! Unfortunately, I had intended to Learn to Play Steel Drums at the 11am class. Silly me.

After eatting breakfast/lunch, we went rollerblading! Was pretty neat, to rollerblade on a boat, next to the edge so that you can see the water go by. Of course we were in an enclosed track, which was quite small, but had a rubber floor, so it was very smooth blading. Funny thing was that we got filmed by the guy collecting footage for the cruise DVD, and some of us ended up in the final cut!

After blading for all of 10 mins (it was CRAZY hot that day), we hit the poolside, for a nice lazy day tanning and relaxing. Didn't actually get that much time by the pool, since we had tickets to the Ice Dancing Show. Wasn't that bad, and we got to see our Canadian friend Sasha (from skating on Sunday) dance the tango.

Dinner was the second formal night, so the three of us took pics together. The photographer had a thing for beauty contests, so our poses ended up looking like this:


Rather amusing =)

After dinner, we went to the theatre early to get seats in the front for the musical. I didn't take any pictures, but man it was a nice view! Funny part was when Eric came out and spotted me right away (kinda hard to miss in the bright blue dress...) and grinned! We happened to sit in a good spot, cause almost everytime all the dancers came right to the edge of the stage, he was pretty much directly infront of us. We had a really good view of Carl as well, one of the singers that I think is really cute! But more on him later, we didn't meet him until the last night of the cruise (unfortunately!)

Following the very satisfying show, we all were kinda dead and out of it! We wandered a bit, then me and GKY went back to the stateroom. She napped, I tiddied up and went on the internet. We went back out to take a look at the Gala Buffet, which is essentially a lot of food presented in very pretty and artistic ways. I'm all about food, but don't care much about presentation, so a lot was lost on me. Except when it just plain looked neat, like this:



Both are made completely from edible items. Pretty amusing =)

Didn't do much after that. Ordered breakfast to be delivered, since we had to leave the boat early the next morning, and then we went to bed.