Rain of Fire

Mood: Calm
Event of the Day: Omid drew a mustache and a beard on himself with a gluestick and green marker. Oh, and during science Connie and I tried to draw a cat with a movement detector.

Over Spring Break, we went on the Carnival: Inspiration to the Caribbean. The first day was in Florida, then at sea after we boarded the cruise. The second was in Cayman Islands, the third was in Cozumel, Mexico, and the fourth was back at sea. The fifth was back in Florida and flying home.

I’m not actually going to summarize all the days, because this entry would then halve the size of the scrollbar on my blog. But I have pictures (many pictures) that I’ll post. All of these pictures represent my favorite memories from the cruise. :)


We were on one of the lower levels of the cruse. The room was comfortable, but really small. I took a picture of the little ledge in front of the window, where I put my pillows and sat while I drew random stuff in my sketchbook (whose pages became brown with Snapple ice tea on the plane).

The cleaning guy made animals out of towels and put them on the bed. They also came with two complementary chocolates. :D

Lloyd, I was thinking of you when I picked this one :D. When we went ashore on Cayman Islands, we took a tour that included a turtle farm, the city of Hell (I got a postcard that says I went to Hell and back), and a stingray sandbar. I wish I could post a picture of the stingrays, but we couldn’t take any good ones with the digital cameras. I love stingrays :D The ones at the sandbar were like kittens - they’d just swim right up to you and let you pick them up or pet them. They were so sweet ;__; Waaaaah. <3

You never truly appreciate how blue the tropical sea is until you see it. The water was so pretty and clear that I couldn’t resist taking this picture.

My mom took a picture of our cruse ship when we were in Cozumel. The ship doesn’t actually dock - people who want to go ashore have to be ferried across.

In Cozumel, we went on an underwater tour called Snuba. It’s sort of like a cross between snorkeling and scuba diving - instead of a foot-long cylinder, your mask is connected to a long tube and an oxygen tank that floats above you as you swim. It’s a whole new world under the water. I wish I could have taken a picture, but underwater cameras weren’t allowed. We didn’t see anything unusual or particularly special, like a dolphin or an eel, but there were these florescent blue fish and lace-like purple coral that I really loved.

One of the shops in Cozumel had shelves and shelves of bright, colorful merchandise. My mom must have taken pictures of each one. The tourist section we were ferried to was filled with shops and vendors. One of the vendors painted on feathers, and when we bought a shimmery one with a robin, the guy gave me one of his feathers so that I could try painting on one.

The dinners were my favorite part of the whole cruse. The other two families at our table were so much fun. Our waitress was awesome. That’s her in the picture, teaching us how to spin our towels so that they wouldn’t twist up. She used to be dancer in Greece, if I remember right.

I have a picture on my desk that one of the cruse photographers took during dinner. I can’t remember the last time I looked so happy.

This was after we’d left the cruse. We were wandering around Florida while we killed time before the flight back to California, and there was this man hand-rolling cigars in a museum. It was something like $60 for a box.

Still killing time. The Florida Aquarium was featuring Sea Dragons, and my mom really wanted to see them. They weren’t as fun as the baby otters or the penguin, but they’re so beautiful. It was hard getting a good picture through the glass wall. (It’s actually made of plastic. o.O)

It was a fun vacation. :D We got back at, like, 5 in the morning. Woke up the next day like I would have anyways. xD