Are we in the Caribbean?

Last day on the boat and we awoke to brilliant blue skies and heat. Lots of heat. So much that I could have sworn we were sailing on the Caribbean ocean, instead of the Pacific!

I started the day with a yummy massage at the spa, while the boys slept in. At 9:30 the boys went to a tour of the galley (kitchen for you landlubbers) and got a behind the scenes look at what it takes to feed 2,800 people. They said it was impressive and a little overwhelming to see the wheels in motion down there.

We spent some of the morning packing (read: stuffing all our purchases and dirty laundry into our suitcases) but by 11 we were poolside. Grady switched between the frigid water slide with lots of speed and the jacuzzi, with lots of foreigners. The Asian crowd seemed to have the majority in the jacuzzi and Grady was nervous about getting in with strangers, let alone people speaking a different language. When he met up with another slide loving little boy who happened to be Japanese, he got over his ethnocentrism and relaxed. Steve took the burden of watching Grady (the slide is on Deck 13 and the jacuzzi on 11 so a walk is involved), while Colby and I lounged in chairs poolside.

It was a tropical 80 degrees with all sun and no breeze. Perfect sunbathing weather and we loved every second of it. Even with sunscreen (55 SPF) i got a little burn. And it was so lovely and unexpected that it means even more. Colby fell asleep on his chair, awakening when the bartender came by with a fresh Coke (for him) and Bud Light (for me). He turned to me, smiled and said, "I think I could get used to this. Lets book a cruise for the Caribbean!"

At 1:00 Colby and I competed in the Flip Camera Scavenger Hunt. We were joined by a tween named Taylor, who turned out to be a most sporting competitor. I filmed while she and Colby performed a variety of competitions, including pretending to fish the pool, leapfrogging, asking a stranger to sing a song while they did back up, dancing in the elevator and even acting like a dog. Taylor's cousin, Brittany, joined us for the human pyramid, as well. I am proud to say that we took the challenge with a 10 point lead over the next team. Of course, they were the only other team but nevertheless, we won! And our prize was once again a keychain. The title is what we were going for anyway. I could tell the other team ( a family of 4 with Swedish dad, American mom, teenage girl and pre-teen boy) was not happy that we won. They weren't rude or anything but the dad made comments about some of our videos not being true to the rule. It was a little awkward when we all got in the elevator together later.

We spent the afternoon lounging in the Perry's room and trying to see the inside passage. Fog rolled in and the temperature dropped early afternoon, making it impossible to see past the balcony. Eventually we got dressed for dinner and then made our way to the bar at the top of the ship (Starquest) and had a final drink. As we did, a pod of Orca whales played alongside the ship and the fog cleared, letting us see the beauty of the islands as we made our way through.

Dinner was good, with seafood salad as a starter, mahi mahi and a chocolate trio for dessert. We said farewell to our dining staff, who was amazing. Grady fell asleep in his chair (again) so we called it an early night and went to bed. Tomorrow we disembark and head back to reality.