Cruisin' into new...

Sail away, sail away, sail away... 

Carry me on the waves to the lands I've never been...

At long last, it's the new we've all been waiting for - at least R and I had been!  New number 18 was taking a cruise to the Bahamas! 

To sum up, it was amazing!!  

As a bonus, our cruise happened to be during a week where the temps here in MN were sub zero.  Talk about contrast!

Week 49 of Photo 52: Contrast 

It felt so surreal to be standing right here on this deck, knowing it was negative something or other back home - and worse, when you add the wind chill.  

I'm so incredibly thankful for being able to be there - what a blessing!

Believe it or not, this was the first time R and I did anything like this! Yes, we go to his island in the Caribbean - but that is all family. It's work and responsibility - and fun and warmth - but it's family. All of our vacations are family (or tagged onto a business trip), because neither of our families live near us. Spending time with our families is wonderful, but this was different. So different - and so amazing!

This was just us.

Us! 

Pure bliss!!

We completely unhooked from the rest of the world and we.... relaxed. Truly relaxed. This could be counted as a new, in itself, to be honest. 

To have our bones and our souls melt into pools of sheer happiness for a few short days - incredible!

My troubles felt far away, as if they might melt right along with me.

Our waistlines, however: not melted! We dined well!

Sushi - it tasted like more! (Yes, I asked for seconds! How dare they serve such a small portion!)

Conch stew over rice-n-peas. This was delicious!! Different from how
 R's folks make it (with coconut milk), but absolutely lovely!

Mahi mahi  with roasted potatoes and veggies - yum!

Seaside ice cream - what could be better? 

And... chocolate meltaway cake....  Oh - my - word!!  This was pure delight on a spoon!!  

To somewhat help our waistlines (yea, right!), we also danced!

This photo is of R as one of the Temptations, dancing to My Girl (after someone, who shall remain nameless, cruelly volunteered him....), but we otherwise danced together - it was Motown Night, after all! Who doesn't want to move their hips to some Motown classics?

There were also excursions to be had. One had us riding in a semi submarine! I'm counting this as new number 19, because... well because I rode in a submarine!  How cool is that?

It wasn't easy to get good photos in the submarine, but it was really cool to see all the fishies and underwater life!  

We also soaked in the outdoor hot tub, or just snuggled up together on lounge chairs, under the moonlight every evening.  Magical!!

More than anything, we savored every minute together in this great big beautiful world!

Week 50 of Photo 52: Savoring

There is no place in the world I feel more at peace and more aware of God's boundless love and grace, than when I'm at sea. I guess I'll never know why life has had to be so heartbreakingly stormy for us in some pretty major areas - why I can't simply be a mom...  but for those four days, and in their afterglow, though the pain was still there, I felt truly at peace.

And that, my friends, is priceless.