The Cruise & Florida Trip  

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Anyway, the cruise was a blast! I was a little afraid of Miami after reading the guide book - the crime - but it is absolutely lovely.
The Paradise, a non smoking ship.

We left from Miami and next day we were at Nassau in the Bahamas. Absolutely gorgeous...I never saw water like that, until I saw the other places...too fantastic!
We went on an excursion to the Blue Lagoon island (a private island where they filmed the "Blue Lagoon"
with Brooke Shields, way back when)

They drop boatloads of tourists off at staggered intervals, but each tour overlaps only slightly with the others so you feel your group is getting the island to yourselves for an hour or two, Very pretty, palm trees, white sand, one can just swim (which is what we
did) or snorkel, or swim with the sting rays...)There are bars and a gift shop. Actually, Norbert and I did a bit of exploring and found a part of the island that we had practically to ourselves, and we hung out there.

Going back on the boat we passed an island where Sol Kerzner has built his Atlantis resort. Very garish looking, but probably fun.

Then we had a day at sea. Karl hung out with us quite a bit, but did his own thing too, running and working out, and at night he joined the social scene with other singles and met some groups of girls. He seemed to have a good time.
The next day we docked at Romana in the Dominican Republic - we were not too enthralled by any of the excursions offered, but Karl went ashore with some girls for the day, they seemed to hang out at bars. Very tropical, and apparently some parts of the film "Apocalypse Now" were filmed there.
We had formal nights on the ship. Norbert and Karl looked very handsome in their suits. Of course we had a great table waiting staff and delicious food. Our table mates were a bit weird, but we all managed to have fun. The ship is not old, built in Finland in 1998, a bit kitschy, lke Las Vegas, but fun. Huge too, I think there were 2,400 people on board and 900 staff. Norbert and I took a tour of the galley one day and saw the huge dishwashers and fridges, etc...Amazing! Norbert and I tried to walk the jogging track every day, sometimes twice a day.
Then we landed at St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands. We went on an excursion that involved taking a bus tour over the island (which the US bought from Denmark in the early 1900's, and it has a Danish flair to the buildings, very neat and clean) Then we had about 3 hors on a big catamaran which sailed us out to some private islands to a cove and we snorkeled there

- that was so brilliant. Very clear water, we saw barracuda, sting rays, lovely fish....and the captain gave us a tow from his dingy for fun (he was out and about on the dingy feeding fish to get them to come out from the rocks, and seeing we were all OK...)We all had rum punches on the yacht trip back. That was a great day, and we got a bit of souvenir shopping done.
Then two days at sea and home again to Miami.
We then rented a car and drove out to the Everglades and went into the Everglades National Parks and also, just outside the parks, went for a ride on those airboats

that cut across and through the reeds and water, we saw alligators and birds. Then on to South Beach Miami. A great hotel and swim in the hot HOT sea. Never experienced anything like that water.

Then we took off for the Keys for 2 days. Stunningly lovely. What a place to retire - a little humid, to be sure, but very relaxed, and lovely. We spent two nights a chalet resort, cabin style.

 One night Karl cooked, and then I cooked. We swam in the sea there at Bahia Honda State Park, and the sea was cooler than Miami, but still like 85 degrees. Amazing. The next day we went all the way down to Key West and went to the Ernest Hemingway house and museum, and to the Sloppy Joes pub where Hemingway went, and we had a beer there.

Walked around the little town. Very pretty, but pretty touristy too. Should have spent longer, but it was very hot, and one really has to walk everywhere as there is very little parking so one gets tired quickly.

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