180 Degree Vacation....

Caribbean here we come :)

I have never had the yearning, nor the desire to go on a cruise. It had never even crossed my mind to the point of ever even going on a vacation that required a boat. I think I never looked at it as worth it, considering the cost of the trip. It was an interesting choice to join 9 other people, to get on an extremely large boat, full of all kinds of crazy things to do.

So.... not only am I going on a cruise, I am going on the longest possible within my employers allowable vacation guidelines. We are going to some pretty kool places, places that I never expected to go to in my life. The vacation, for me, starts on the landing strip at the Parkersburg airport. For my wife, it will start when we make our final landing. She has never flown before, therefor, has little excitement for it.

Our flight from Parkersburg lands in Morgantown, WV. We allow a few more to board, then fly to Washington DC. We switch planes, then fly to New Orleans, LA. I am excited for this part also, I loved New Orleans when I was there before, and am looking forward to recognizing something considering what the city has went through. We will be spending the night in New Orleans at each end of the cruise.

We deport from New Orleans on Sunday at 5:30p, and travel all night, the whole next day, and that night also. I am excited to be in the Gulf of Mexico, and to see the blue water, and no land. The next morning we port at Santo Tomas De Castilla, Guatemala. We spend the whole day there, and deport in the late evening. After another night traveling at sea, we port in Belize City, Belize. After spending the day there, we deport late that evening and spend the night traveling at sea. The next morning we will port in Costa Maya, Mexico. We spend the day there, deport in the evening again, and travel all night to the final destination. The final stop is Cozumel, Mexico. We spend the whole day there, with some nice excursions all week long at each destination, and deport in the evening again. We spend all day Saturday at Sea, and one more night on the boat. We will port back where we started, in New Orleans.

Needless to say, the excitement had been growing for the last 7 months.... Until about 2 weeks ago.

I was thinking more and more about the trip, and what has to occur to enjoy 7 days out of the country. I was thinking about my job, and how everything will work. I was thinking about my wifes new job, and how hard she will have to work the very evening we get back. But most of all, I got thinking about being away from my kids for 10 days, and it INSTANTANEOUSLY made me sad. The longest that I have ever been away from my kids has been 5 days. I remember how difficult that was. I remember how sad it was to leave them to do that. and that was only being 3 hours away. I am going to be really close to the equator. In other countries. This will be very difficult, I thought.

Then, it took an even larger turn for the "depressing" side. Two nights ago, I made it home after working late, with my son still up. I was informed that he had a complete breakdown. My wife was in the room tucking him in for the night, when he asked "how much longer until the vacation with his grandparents?" My wife informed him that it was in 10 days. He asked how long we would be gone, and was informed that we would be gone for 10 days. He rolls over and faces the wall. When my wife rolled him back over, he was crying. He informed her that it was way to long, and did not want to be away from us for that long. My wife calmed him down, and got him to the point where he was asleep. A few minutes later, when she was in the living room. He came out in the living room, just bawling, and restated what he said from above.

Luckily, I brought home some leftover breadsticks from Pizza Hut, and that assisted him in forgetting all about it for the night. However, this may not be good when it comes to the child had-off taking place in 7 days.

Once again, this made the excitement adjust even further down the level. So when it was very difficult before, it has now been set to extremely difficult.

As exciting as the cruise will be, and as exciting as the kids time with their grandparents will be, this is going to be the most difficult thing to make it past. I love my kids SO much, and will be looking forward the WHOLE cruise to seeing my kids as fast as possible afterwards.

So if you did not get what my title meant, the average temperature on my cruise will actually be 70 degrees...... :)