Friday, May 19th Prompt

When I was a kid living in Pennsylvania, I lived in the city and there was any number of kids to play with on my block but I remember several of us getting together on the front porch and setting up our Barbie Doll houses and playing for hours. I had a case that held my Barbie and all of her clothes. There were hangers and drawers and my doll was somewhat like me, she had PLENTY of shoes!!! My mother made all of my Barbie clothes on the sewing machine. I remember watching her carefully stitch them and she would ask me about personal choice of colors and fabric, which made it really great. I guess you could say that she was my personal seamstress for Barbie and myself! Mom was also my furniture department...she made my Barbie furniture! I never have figured out how she attached the fabric to the lid of that oatmeal box...?

Our Barbie play would last hours at a time until my brother would come along when no one was looking and totally destroy the Barbie house. I have lived through hurricanes but poor Barbie!!!! Hurricane Danny was the worst!

After that, we would clean up the mess and get out our bikes. I loved to ride my bike. There were days when no one was around that I would take off on my bike and be gone for an hour or more. That would make my mother mad because she would be afraid that something had happened to me. (This was when I was 8 and 9) Kids can't do that now a days for simple fear that they will come up missing...and that's sad, thats so so sad!

Good night!

First Stop...Jamaica!!!

We arrived here on Wednesday, May 10th after two full days at sea. Jamaica is a small but beautiful mountainous country filled with Bananas, Mango and some of the most beautiful flowers you will ever see. I have a Bouglavelia plant that I keep in a hanging basket, here the Bouglavelia are not in hanging baskets, they are TREES and they bloom all year 'round. There are also millions of Hibiscus in every color under the sun! When we arived, we boarded a tour bus and headed out for our excursion of fun. It took two hours of riding to get where we were going, but along the way our tour guide pointed out all of the places of interest and we were able to see these plants and flowers in virtually every yard along the way! Fields of Banana trees...what can you do with that many bananas? Everything, they even boil them...no kidding...Kent bought a plate of boiled banana with cabbage and fish at the rest stop along the way. At any rate, the country was gorgeous. Next stop...Dunn's River Falls, Dolphin Cove and the Nature trail!

Dunn's River Falls

OK...This looks easy! Please do not be fooled! I have to admit that I thought we would take a few photos of the falls and be able to lounge around in the water and enjoy the scenery...NOT...as you can see by the postcard (yes, it's a postcard. We did not have a water proof camera with us) we actually climbed the falls. The part shown here was the easy part. When you get up a little farther, the falls get higher. We had to plant our feet onto the flat rocks and grasp the larger rocks to pull ourselves up. At times, it was very slick and I took a few falls (no pun intended!). Knocked my shin on the first one and thought I broke my bumm on the other but we made it to the top after about an hour of climbing! WOW...what a rush! It was great and even with the falls that I took, I would do it again! Yeamon, No Problem!

Dolphin Cove

Dolphin Cove was wonderful. We enjoyed a leisurly lunch of jerked chicken, rice and salad, then did a little shopping in a few of the shops there. These Dolphins are residence at the cove. If you would like to meet and greet them it cost a little extra but would be well worth it if you have never actually met a Dolphin! I think this one was trying to wave at me! There was also a small pool of Stingrays to photograph, but they were being very evasive. After a little while to relax from the climb up the falls, we hit the nature trail.

The Nature Trail

The nature trail at Dolphin Cove was wonderful. It wasn't very long but we met a friendly group of parrots along the way and stopped to get a photo with one of them. There were also Iguana, snakes and a few chickens. We took photos of the Iguana, but there was no way I was going to hold one of them! UMMMM....Yeamon, No problem!

What a wonderful vacation!

This is what I was doing Saturday night! Sitting on the balcony of my cabin aboard ship, watching the beautiful sunset before dinner. We were headed home from our vacation in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. This was taken somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico heading for Galveston. It was the most beautiful sunset by far and I could not resist getting at least 5 or 6 photos!

We had the absolute best time on our vacation and I have sooo many stories to tell that I don't know where to begin! So...in honor of the Monday journaling prompt and the weekend...I started at the end with this photo!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and to all of you moms...Happy belated Mothers Day!