Liberty of the Sea

Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Sea


Haiti


Jamaica's Dunn River Falls


One of 2 formal nights on the ship

So the last three weeks have been spent eating instead of cooking! My husband decided to take me on a cruise for our anniversary--(and I thought I had the best gift with a trip to Chicago and seats on the wall to the Cubs and Cardinal game--wrong!!!). We traveled to Chicago to Milwaukee (to travel with my daughter) to Miami to a cruise to Haiti to Jamaica to Grand Cayman to Cozumel to Miami and back to Milwaukee then home! Whew!!! (Just for one day... to do laundry!) then off again to D.C. (which included a visit with my youngest daughter and my best guy friend from college!). Life is good... very good!

So since I was not cooking, my favorite culinary experiences included:

smoked fish tampenade (which I will try to recreate one of these days)
lamb shank
lobster tail
cream of asparagus soup
ceviche (in a Bayside restaurant which we visited before the cruise and went back after the cruise because it was so good)
paella

We ate really well on the ship. Our first day there, we were checking out the fitness center and the trainer who showed us around said that the average cruise-goer gains 1-2 pounds... A DAY!!! I quickly got on the scale and to my horror had gained 3 pounds in half a day!!! The next day after working out, I weighed myself again, the same trainer came over to me and says "Our scale is off, you have to subtract 3 pounds!" Thank goodness!!! Fortunately for me, despite all the food, I did not gain any weight, but I did eat VERY well!

It was our first cruise and it was so much fun! It was like spring break for adults! We enjoyed beach volley ball (2nd place) , dodge ball (1st place), rock climbing, surfing, ice skating, boxing, trivia competitions (1st place), dancing until 2 in the morning, hip hop lessons, swing lessons, yoga, watching belly flop contests....and just meeting fun people!!! I also think that our "no elevator rule" helped keep the pounds off, as we were on the 9th floor of a ship that had 14 floors!