Carribean Princess Cruise Day 3 Cozumel, Mexico

The view of  Cozumel from our balcony + a selfie.

Day 3 we docked at our first port of call, Cozumel, Mexico. I was surprised that it wasn't as commercialized as I'd expected. Instead there were the street vendors, tons of them.

"Family, over here!"

"Pretty bracelets for pretty ladies!"

"Ooh, you like this, very nice hats and sunglasses!"

"Best prices in Cozumel!"

Be prepared to say "No, gracias." And you're going to have to say it a lot. The people go so far as to grab your arm and put bracelets on you. It was a little scary. But Dad is a great bargainer, having been to Hong Kong and Malaysia. He was in his element. We wentd up buying 4 woven bracelets, a Panama hat, and several exquisite seashells for the grand total of seven bucks.

;D

This is us getting off the boat, with our church friends.

Then we rented a taxi. Our driver took us to the non-tourist-y side of the island, where the locals live. And it was beautiful. We ate at a little restaurant called Senór Iguana' s, right on the Caribbean Sea. There was a swingset on the beach and you could swing out over the sand. It was so pretty!
Next we stopped at another beach, but here there were  rocky cliffs, made up  lava rock that jutted out into the sea. We climbed some of them. It was a little scary, because the rocks were sharp and slippery, but it was really fun. While we were there,  a man approached us . He was clutching an iguana, which he proceeded to place  on Christopher's head. He then declared,
"Five dollars for a picture!"
We fell for it. :)

Then we had to get back on the cruise ship. You only have a certain amount of time in each port, and we didn't want to be left!

Caribbean Princess cruise Days 2

 Day 2 we were at sea. It  was Sunday, and there was a wonderful church service. The 'pastor' explained "I'm not a minister- just a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody." How cool is that?! He was from a tiny town in Alabama, and filled his sermon with fascinating stories about his church there. All the passengers attending the service came from different denominations and different places, and it was really neat to see them together worshipping God. I imagine that's what heaven's like.
After church,we played games and ate lunch in the buffet. Our friends taught us a new game called "Joker". It's pretty fun! That night was formal night- oh my. We dressed up, ate a delicious meal, and met a lot of new people. All of the workers on board are from different countries- Philippines, France, Ukraine, England, you name it. So it was really interesting to meet them and talk to them about their countries. We became good friends with the head waiter, Mr. Hector Catalan. Not only was he super nice, he is an amazing singer!! He sang beautiful songs every night during dinner.
 

Vacation part 2

  We left Dauphin Island a little earlier than planned, because it was starting to rain really hard, and we were worried about the only road out flooding(That sounds so dramatic. But,it really was the only road out - after all, it is an island!) So, we headed to Mobile, as it was on the route home. Dauphin Island is about 40 minutes from Mobile, Alabama, and there are tons of fun indoor things you can do there. We went to the Gulf Coast Exploreum of Science, and it was amazing!! I loved the health area. There was a large computer screen where you went 'shopping'. It  calculated all your  'purchases' and told you how healthy or unhealthy they were. The whole health room was educational and fun! There was also an exhibit called The Debakey Virtual Surgery Center. It was in the My Bodyworks health gallery.You have  the opportunity to conduct your own virtual surgery - you choose open heart surgery or knee surgery. Then you get to use the scalpel to cut open the skin, the saw to cut bone and the retractor to access the heart. The patients' vital signs are displayed on the screen as you try  to complete the surgery successfully and quickly -and keep your patient alive and healthy. I was a little scared I'd mess up and "hurt" the patient, but I completed a successful surgery. It seemed so real! The knee surgery was my favorite. The surgery center also had many other medical things you could practice: seal blood vessels with laser beam accuracy, challenge your hand-eye coordination with exhibits that mimic endoscopic surgery techniques(you used a big stick to push little bits of equipment through a tube. Daddy and Andrew were really good at it.) and learn about careers in health and safety. I loved this because I want to either be a pediatric nurse or a dietician. Then we went and ate at a restaurant called Felix's Fish Camp. Their crab soup was AMAZING! Then it was time to head for home.

Our Vacation Part 1

Monday,we drove through Louisiana. We drove from our house in Texas through Shreveport, and then straight down, all the way to New Orleans. We stopped at Oak Alley Plantation, just outside of New Orleans, and had a tour of this amazing old plantation....

Oak Alley

The weird looking thing is a ceiling fan. A slave would pull the rope, and it would fan the guests.

The plantation owner's' wife slept here.

The very lavish master suite.

One of the slave cabins

 We crossed a lot of bridges over the Mississippi. You could see a lot of factories and oil companies.

Then we were in New Orleans. Parts of it were very pretty.

However, parts were scary. We decided to go for a walk through the streets, and we wanted to walk down Bourbon Street, because it's very famous. However  there were a lot of bars and clubs, and shops that sold stuff with, er, bad pictures on it and posters of ... people posing , shall we say, inappropriately... We quickly abandoned that idea.

Then we went to eat at Deanie's Seafood. It was really good.

It started raining, so I had to take a bunch of fast pictures from the car.

                                                 There were beautiful flowers everywhere.

Tuesday, we kept driving, through  a little piece of Mississippi and Alabama, then we got on a long bridge and drove to Dauphin Island, Alabama. We rented a beach house called "Sunny Pit." It had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a nice kitchen and 360 views of the Gulf and the Mississippi Sound. It was so cute!

My room at the beach house.

             We went swimming every minute we could, even when it was windy and raining! On the days it stormed, we played board games and read books.

 We toured historic Fort Gaines, also on the island. It guarded Mobile Bay from Union soldiers during the Civil War It was used as an outpost during the Spanish-American conflict in 1898, and as an Army base in WW 2. The famous quote "D*** the torpedoes... Full Speed Ahead!" was given during the Battle of Mobile bay , which took place at the fort. All over the fort were little tunnels leading to rooms that would've stored ammo, men, or guns.
There were tons of winding steps leading to tiny  rooms, like secret passages. It was really fun to walk through it, imagining what it was like for the people there.

These stairs seemed to go on forever, but they led to a large store room for guns and supplies.

Mobile Bay.




Wow. This was very long. Part 2 won't be as long, I promise. Comment?
<3

Gaylord Texan

December 1, 2012

December 1, 1962

For my grandparent's 50th anniversary, we took them to the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas, which is an amazing resort filled with replicas of important Texan places.

 It's like a city inside one enormous building! There's a Spanish Mission, the Hill country, the famous Riverwalk-all recreated indoors!! The Riverwalk area is my fave:

This is the only picture I did not take. I found it on Google.

  

Then we went to the cool (get it? :) OK, I'll stop with the corny puns) ICE exhibit! Expert carvers from the ice festivals in China come and work the ice into amazing shapes. 

It was 9 degrees and freezing fun! You go in, and they tell you "Don't touch or lick(!) the ice, here's your parka!" And they give you a voluminous, bulky, aqua-blue parka that dozens of people before you have worn. Then the line moves in front of you, and suddenly all thoughts of the voluminous, bulky, aqua-blue parka are gone, and it's like stepping off a spaceship into a strange, cold, noisy, mysteriously beautiful world! The theme this year was Merry Madagascar,and I was super happy because, well, I love watching those movies. It was like walking through the movie, because they played the the sound as you went through...

There was an ICE SLIDE! It was short but very enjoyable and fast!

    

Then we went back through the warm resort and dressed for dinner. We ate at a place called Bob's Steak and Chop House. (It was delicious)Next, we walked around the hotel enjoying the decorations and looking at all the interesting things to see. The next day, we ate breakfast,played card games, went for walks around the hotel, and had fun. Then we went to bed so we could get up and leave the  next day! I had a good time, and I hope Grandmama and Granddaddy did,too!

Sarah McClendon

(Picture Source is Wikipedia, other picture sources are http://uttyleruasc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ford003.jpg andhttp://www.confederate.org/newsletter/2001news/bush.jpg)

So a few days ago, my mom took us to a historical home for a tour. It is called McClendon house because it was the home of Sarah McClendon. She was born July 8, 1910 and died January 8, 2003 at the age of 92. She was a White House reporter who covered  politics for over 50 years. She started her own free-lance news service as before WWII, and was known as a model for women in the press and as a supporter of good wages and better care of  American military veterans. Sarah was best known for her questions at presidential press conferences, which were often slightly rude or blunt. She once shook her pen at the then President  Nixon and demanded "Why aren't you doing anything to help the veterans?"!!! She interviewed with presidents from Franklin Roosevelt all the way to Bill Clinton. After she left the house, her two spinister sisters lived there for many years they were recluses and let the home fall to ruin. After their death, a fire that would've ruined the home had it not been for it's good construction,made everyone realize what a great historic home was there. It was restored and you can tour it at this address:
806 W. Houston Street
 Tyler, TXP.S' Check out my friend Anners' amazing blog here. Be sure to comment and follow!

A trip to the doll store...

 I have been to American Girl place a few times,  but both the American Girl places in my state are far from my home. So I was super excited to find a store called My Best Friend that sells ALL sorts of doll items, mainly American Girl things, in Tyler, Texas! They had retired items and dolls, like Nellie and Samantha, Jess, Kailey, Lanie and her camper, Chrissa's picnic table ,and tons of other rare items! Guys, Jess is really pretty. And brand-new! I'm thinking about saving up.. who knows! :-) They also repair
 "hurt" (broken) dolls. Twilight fans: They have Twilight costumes and shirts in doll sizes! There were also a lot of new/newer things, like Caroline and her bed, Kit's tree house, Marie Grace, and clothes for girls and dolls. I like the option of getting dolls (especially the hard-to-find retired dolls!) instead of buying them online from an unknown person. In my opinion, this was almost as good as an American Girl Place, because although it wasn't large and didn't have a restaurant, it has many of the rare items. I did notice that some dolls ( Addy, Rebecca,and some girl of the years)weren't there, but maybe they had been sold. So if you're trying to collect a certain rare or back ordered (like Caroline!) doll in time for Christmas, I would go here!

 So, what's your favorite doll shop? Is it an AG Place. or a little doll store? Comment and let me know! 

I <3 love <3 comments!

Here is the store's website. There are directions on it! : http://www.mybestfrienddolls.com/

They had Lanie's camper!!

  

                           

Nellie!

Doll scrubs!

A Bitty Baby.

A nurse doll!

Can you believe they had Caroline?!!

Jess(Girl Of The Year 2006)

Kailey (Girl Of The Year 2003)

I love the apron and pot holder!

Doll Computer.

Kit's treehouse!

Thanks to Christopher for loaning me his camera!