Living in Texas and taking our first Cruise

In honor of Uncle Bill and Aunt Marie's 60th wedding anniversary, the Houghtalings organized a cruise and invited all the Haynies to come. Since we were planning on a family cruise around the Ft Lauderdale temple dedication, we did not plan to go.

As that got pushed further towards 2014, Dad and Lucy twisted our arms and persuaded us to join the party (we were the last holdouts)

We flew to Miami Nov. 9 along with Hugh and Lucy to spend a little time looking over our Florida house. Mike and Myra Michaud graciously put us all up.

We spent a great day Saturday inspecting the house with the Silva's

We toured the new temple as far as the front gate (No Trespassing) and headed for Hollywood beach in the afternoon

The next morning we had time to attend Plantation ward meetings before running off to the Port of Miami. We caught the last of a Stake Presidency meeting so I got to see some old friends (the current Stake President is Scott Richards with Cesar Rincon and Fred Bethel counselors) Since the Weston ward was dissolved most of the members went to Plantation and we got to see a lot of friends. Everyone says hello.

Dropping Hugh Lucy and Peggy off at the Port, I ran the car back to Sixt rental at the airport and caught a shuttle to the Port. The rest were already on the ship so I hustled on.

By around 5 the ship pushed off (they have sideways steering propellors that maneuver the ship around like a toy) and headed down Government Cut. We had an awesome view of downtown Miami and of Miami Beach.

After an all night cruise and plenty of food already we pulled into Cozumel, the island off of Cancun, Mexico. We had arranged for a Book of Mormon tour of the ruins of Tulum. With the ferry schedules and the driving distance we ended up with only an hour in Tulum but it was still worth it.

The way the cruise is structured is travel overnight with excursions during the day. After a short overnight trip we docked at Belize. Even though it was a rainy day, we got off to explore Belize city. We haggled over a van tour and set out with Dad,Peggy and I to see the sights. Belize is the shabbiest city on the route but still fun to see. We stopped and ate "johnnycakes" from a street vendor.