Redmons vs. vacationing for dummies

As many (all 3 of you) know, Andrew and I are the traveling type. The minute we get back from one country, we rapidly begin planning the next trip. Top on our to-do list is of course Scotland, (Andrew has never been!), followed closely by Egypt and possibly Morocco. Anything that requires advanced planning, a backpack and toilet paper is right up our alley.

Unfortunately, I've realized at the amazingly mature state of 27 and Andrew at the oh so advanced age of 30, that saving money is somewhat of a necessity if you want to do things such as say, have a kid (or a 'spawn' as Andrew calls our future child), or pay for the broken lawn mower (thanks Chris).

This 'saving money' concept has REALLY cramped our style! I mean, we could have backpacked Egypt AND Scotland by now!

Thus....the cruise idea. (notice the lack of exclamation point). To be honest, I've always made fun of people who cruise. Its like, vacationing for dummies. No thoughts or decisions necessary. Where is the fun in that?

However, the lovely combination of having no money (remember the spawn...) and being amazingly exhausted from 2 semesters of grad school and a full time job, suddenly made this whole 'vacationing for dummies' thing sound like an excellent idea.

So we booked a 7 day vacation aboard the Carnival Conquest, sailing to Montego Bay Jamaica, Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel Mexico. Here are a few pictures of the Conquest and our time on the islands!


Andrew and I in the clear waters of Jamaica!

Towel animals! So much fun! When you leave your sunglasses, they use them on the animals...

As you can see, we had to dress up for a few meals. Andrew only brought one nice shirt... tsk tsk.

This was a cool wall-sized map that showed where the ship was, green means we have already been there, red is where we're going.

Ironically, that's not our ship in the background, but that is my husband.

Good picture of the hubby

Chris says I look like I have a Kiss tongue... eww. (Notice the developing tan...!)

This was our last night at the on board Steakhouse, and yes, that is a real tan!

Anyway, it was a lot of relaxing, sun tanning, and reading. I think I downloaded 6 books on my Nook (e-reader), and read all of them. Poor Andrew was about ready to jump off the ship around day 5. While it was fun, I think we have realized that cruising is good if you need a break, but doesn't really count as true 'traveling,' too much touristy stuff and not enough of the real cultures of the places we visited.

The more I think about it the more I'm itching to start planning our next backpacking trip... : )