Monday, December 19, 2011

Monday, December 19, 2011

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2002. As you can see Mattie was in his favorite toy... Tot Wheels! Mattie NEVER crawled and desperately wanted to walk, or maybe actually run. Though there is all sorts of controversy over using child walkers, for Mattie this was a God sent. He loved zooming all over our home in it and you would be amazed how he could negotiate tight corners. On this particular day it started to snow, so I opened the door for Mattie to see it and captured his reaction. He literally stopped in his tracks to look at the white stuff and his brief pause confirmed to me his fascination and interest.

Quote of the day: What you see depends on what you're looking for. ~ Unknown

Something woke me up at 4am today and it was virtually impossible to go back to sleep. Not the best way to start our trip away. Before Mattie developed cancer, I could sleep through anything. In fact, I never had a problem sleeping anywhere and at any time of the day. However, post-cancer, sleeping has become a big issue for me. I am not used to this difficulty and the lack of solid sleep greatly impacts my headaches and my physical state.

When we opened up the curtains in our hotel room this morning, we could see a Princess ship sailing by. We assumed this wasn’t our ship since The Island Princess was scheduled to dock at 7am and therefore be able to turn around passengers and board all of us at around noon. However, what we later learned was we did see the Island Princess at 8:30am and they were running 90 minutes behind schedule because they picked up 19 refugees in the water last night and had to follow the appropriate maritime procedures as they were coming into a US port.

Before heading to the ship this morning, we took a walk to a neighboring hotel, The Marriott at Harbor Beach, to have breakfast. We had stayed at this hotel in the past as a family and our visit brought back many memories. The lobby of the Marriott was very festive and Peter and I posed by one of the Christmas trees.

In the past, the Marriott always featured a gingerbread village and train during the holidays. But this year, they had an “Under the Sea” exhibit. However, to me this is a misnomer, since it reminds me more of a winter wonderland. But here are some facts about this tasty display!

Here is a close up of the under the sea display, or perhaps a winter wonderland under the sea would be a more appropriate title!

Embarkation went so smoothly, it was almost impossible to believe. But unlike my usual frenzied self, I really wasn’t getting worked up about much today. I have to imagine this is because I was simply too tired. Peter snapped a picture of the atrium on the ship before it started to fill up, and if you look closely, you can see even Santa was greeting passengers aboard the Island Princess.

Peter, my mom, and I took a tour around the ship before lunch. The ship had a treasure hunt game, which we participated in. The game sent us to 9 specific locations around the ship. One of the locations was the ship’s spa. We actually got a tour of the spa today and we got to hear about every treatment they offer and also saw demonstrations. I was selected to be placed into a floating table. It was magnificent. I basically had to lie down on a table, the table then drops me into an impression and through the fabric I could feel and hear water and heat. Typically for the actual treatment one gets wrapped in some sort of seaweed product and is then placed in this floating table for 30 minutes. I can’t speak to the seaweed, but the table was a great experience even for 5 minutes. As we kept rotating around the spa, we then landed up meeting the acupuncturist. I must admit I am very skeptical about acupuncture, though this procedure has been recommended to me for chronic pain. The notion of needles in my skin makes me uneasy. In any case, guess who was selected to be the acupuncture guinea pig? YES ME! I rolled up my sleeve and then I told the licensed professional that if I started to scream, he was going to get it. However, I must admit I felt nothing and then after the needle was removed, that portion of my arm felt lighter and better. So today I was introduced to acupuncture. Rather funny that I have to come aboard a ship to try something that I could have easily done on land.

Sail away pete picture At around 5:15pm, we began our sail away from Ft. Lauderdale. I snapped a picture of Peter and have entitled it…. Sail away Pete! We will be at sea all day Tuesday and Wednesday, and our first port visit will be on Thursday to Aruba. I have no doubt that seeing land on Thursday will be very welcomed.

I would like to end tonight’s posting with five pictures from our sail away. Thanks for visiting the blog today and for sharing our adventure for the next ten days!