Heading Out for Vacation!

Last Friday was the end of the "Freshening Up" series I did throughout the month of April. Thanks so much for hanging with me while I tried something different here on the blog. It was a good discipline for me in writing!

But now I'm ready to talk about VACATION!!!!

Last year, right after Ryan put together my amazing 40th surprise party, he said to me, "By the way...I do NOT want a surprise party - or a party of any kind - when I turn 40. I just want to go on a cruise."

Okay!

He immediately began researching, and for the last solid YEAR, he has been researching, watching YouTube videos, reading THOUSANDS of reviews, and planning every corner of this vacation. It's been kind of weird, because I'm typically the resident vacation planner, but he wanted to do all the work, so who was I to argue?? (I did feel a little guilty that he planned all of his own birthday, but it's what he wanted to do.)

We booked it months ago, long before his mom ever got sick, and then in the height of her illness, we had to figure out if we should still plan to go. We told her about it one day (when it was about ten weeks away) and she burst into tears, saying she missed us already. Then we really worried about whether or not we should go! After she passed away, we realized the timing of it all was perfect. More than ever, we just needed to get away, be alone, be off the grid, and rest. And that's just what we did, as you'll see in the posts to come!

We left home on a Thursday, with allllllllllllllll our luggage. (My sister made fun of us for the sheer volume of baggage needed by two people for just over a week. We did agree that if we had kids, we had no idea how we would have juggled all the suitcases.)

Our flight from Indianapolis to Orlando didn't leave until late afternoon, so we left home in the late morning and drove to my sister's house, where we left our car for the week. (The price of her driveway beat the airport parking lot rental by a long shot! And a bonus? She drove us to the airport and dropped us off at the curb.)

I did get stopped in security to have my ankle checked. It's always something with me. Never the same thing twice, but always something. I don't know if my ankle is fat, or what, but they had to check it.

Once we got to our gate, there were a couple of guys entertaining the crowd with a giant Jenga game. They were pretty impressive!

Ryan made his own fun:

By the time we were able to board, we had to sit in the very back row. But you know what Mark Lowry says!! "Get my tail on the tail and save my tail!"

I haven't flown in six years. I didn't love flying six years ago. The combo made for some pretty severe anxiety. This is Ryan's favorite picture. (I'm in full-blown panic mode here.)

My prayer life increased A LOT on that flight. Hello, turbulence. You're not my friend. Also not my friend? The people near me who thought dog-food-smelling jerky was a good idea to bring out right after takeoff. Ugh.

This, though....

Oh, but yes.

We purchased a "Fly, Snooze, Cruise" package, so when we arrived in Orlando, a shuttle from our hotel came to pick us up and transport us. We spent the night at a huge hotel there in Orlando, and then the next morning, we were bused to the port. The package also included a bus picking us up at the port at the end of the cruise and taking us back to the airport. We had a really great experience with this package, so we would recommend it! We didn't have to track down taxis, Uber drivers, or anything else. All covered!

Our hotel wasn't far from the airport, and our room was very nice - with a lovely pool view!

We hadn't eaten much all day, so we were pretty hungry by the time we got to our hotel! There was a Fridays right across the highway from our hotel, so we walked over for some dinner!

We slept well and though the forecast had said it would be rainy all day Friday, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise Friday morning! We had breakfast at the hotel and then repacked our bags a bit and prepared to catch our shuttle!

We had a really funny driver on the way to the ship! Kept us laughing!

The bus ride from the hotel to the ship was about 45 minutes - taking us to Port Canaveral, which was ship central that day!

And so our adventure began!