With the fishes… Cozumel and beyond

Friday was Cozumel day and we docked bright and early on the Mexican Island.

We were greeted by music…

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and soon found our way to the little boat, all ready for the day’s adventure.

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The trip was described as a “semi-sub experience”…

We went down twelve steps to the bottom of the boat and sat on two benches looking out through portholes below sea level.

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It depended who you had behind you how much bench room you got… the person behind me didn’t complain too much…

Our destination was a coral reef. I know I will never go scuba diving and there isn’t even much chance of me donning snorkeling apparel so I figured this was the closest I am going to get in real life!

The bad weather of the past few days had stirred  the sand up but we could still see the corals including sea fans

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and fishes… I remember the little yellow, black and silvery one is a Sergeant Major fish

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The trip took around about ninety minutes and so we had the rest of the day to explore. I was glad of my factor 50 in the beautiful sunshine.

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I could insert pictures of tacky souvenir store here but I didn’t take any. There were lots to choose from! I did cross over to the other side of the street and take this photo looking up the coastline. The water was beautifully clear and very blue.

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You can have enough of  a good thing and we reboarded the ship in time for lunch. We found this towel monkey swinging in our stateroom…

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I found instructions here when I googled how to make them. (My friend Mr. Google knows everything!)

 

Saturday morning was open sewing time. The machine room was a veritable sweat shop of activity.

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Our room was a little bit more relaxed!

 

We had been trying to catch a sunset all week… Since we were heading North and we were now on the West side of the ship we had more chance…

And this is what we saw!

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Very pretty?

Watching the sunset made us a little late for the Farewell Cocktail Party but there were plenty of cocktails left when we finally made our appearance at the Star Lounge!

Sheila managed to get a picture of Jim and us four teachers… Bonnie Hunter, me, Jim, Kim Diehl, and Pam Holland.

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I haven’t said much about the cruise organization and other teachers… Going with Jim’s Sew many Places was an absolutely wonderful way to go. Everything ran so smoothly and the other teachers were amazing! It was a privilege to be included with them.

(I’m looking forward to my next trip… watch out for details!)

 

After a wild karaoke evening and a brief night’s sleep we found ourselves back in Galveston the next morning…

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Disembarkation wasn’t too bad… I found a friendly porter for my bags. It was a long wait at Hobby Airport and the less said the better about a certain person who forgot to check me in the afternoon before… Did you know you can upgrade your boarding position on Southwest airlines?…

Back in the air I realized that the sun was setting in the west… the man behind me did not want to put his magazine down…

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and the certain man was there waiting for me… and my twenty five pounds less luggage!

I’m home now until January. It’s been a wild few months. Time to sew now…

4 Comments

  1. Sandra Hess said:

    Catherine, I was there in February but didn’t take the “fish” thing. So glad to see your pictures of it.

    November 14, 2014
  2. What a wonderful experience. Your sub-marine experience is SO cool. Thanks for a great travelogue.

    November 15, 2014
  3. Catherine, I was on the quilt cruise and enjoyed meeting you the night before at the Modern Quilt Meet up. Hope to share another quilt class on another cruise. Love it.

    January 1, 2015
    • catherineredford said:

      Great to hear from you Joanne. Happy New Year!

      January 1, 2015

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