The plan was to go hiking today. We got up in the morning and gave the littles their breakfast (with French toast casserole for us – YUMMY).

After that, I can’t even really explain what happened. We meant to get hiking…but somehow we didn’t get to the trail until 2:03. Micah would need something, then Ezra would need something, then it started raining, then Ezra needed to eat again, then he needed a nap, then Lynn and Larson had to pack up (they had to leave today because of their work schedule). Then Micah needed a snack, then Ezra needed another diaper change and — would you look at that? — he peed through his diaper and needed a clothes change too. Again. Then the dogs needed to go out again. Lauren was very patient while our babies and dogs took up all this time. Good thing she had schoolwork to do. Here she is getting study tips from her foster pug, Boomer.

We also had fun chatting while taking care of the littles. It definitely wasn’t a waste of a morning. And after yesterday was so busy, it was nice to have a bit of a slower pace around the cabin today.

We did, however, finally get to hiking. We went to a place called “Lower Falls,” and Rex set up his camera to get a picture. Then two girls decided they wanted to go swimming at the falls, even though it was against the rules. So Rex and I sat there and waited for a clear shot while Lauren went and snapped this picture of them swimming right in front of the “no swimming” sign:

Rex did finally get his picture, though!

Lauren picked up a stray Coke bottle out of the water because how could people just LITTER, you know?? How environmentally unfriendly. We hiked it all the way back to the Visitor Center. #onlyLauren

Once back at the Visitor Center, we decided to go on another hike out to a lake. It was a longer hike, but much less populated. We had this really great idea that we would get out to the lake and feed Ezra while overlooking the natural beauty…but Ezra imploded with about a half mile to go. Blast! Luckily we came across a bench, and Rex fed him. We weren’t sure if he was hot, so we took off his outfit just in case (Ezra’s outfit, that is. Not Rex’s). Ezra seemed very happy as he was being burped. With a full tummy and a clean bottom, the break was over. Back on the trail!

As we were hiking on the trail, we came upon this buck. It was walking near the trail, and we followed it for a while. Rex kept trying to snap pictures, but he didn’t have his long lens with him. Bummer. So he said all the pictures he got were junk, but I disagree. For example, look at this one. Junk? I think NOT!

We did finally make it out to the lake. Unlike the lower falls, which had a lot of tourists, there were only two other people out at the lake, and they were far away and didn’t even talk to us. It was almost like we had the place to ourselves! It was beautiful. Ezra, unfortunately, fell asleep before we got there, so he didn’t really appreciate the beauty.

We stopped at Grandma Faye’s restaurant and grocery store for ice cream on our way back to the cabin. After all that hiking, we sure were tired. We decided to watch some TV.

Well, that’s not STRICTLY true. We didn’t just “watch TV.” We watched MMA fighting. And by “watched” I mean I wrote in my blog and Rex watched the fighting. He was very excited about the fight because of his jiu jitsu training. It was Muscemechi vs Brooks? Or something? Look, you don’t really care who was fighting. I can tell. I’m going to move on.

After the fight, Rex made a campfire down at the fire pit. We sat out there chatting until our eyes became droopy and we were all practically falling asleep in our chairs. Then it was time to turn in for the night.

Tomorrow is supposed to have storms, so we might have to get creative on what we’re going to do. No matter what it is, I bet it will be fun!

Today was the day of the Bigfoot Festival. It started bright and early with the Bigfoot 5k for Lauren and me (we couldn’t convince the others that paying money to go exercise on vacation sounded really fun. Weird). To get to the course on time and get our registration stuff, we had to leave the cabin by 7:00. The sunrise was beautiful over the Appalachian Foothills, and the winding drive went by quickly. I had a bit of pre-race jitters. Four months ago, I was in rough shape. I wrecked my back during labor with Ezra, and it was hard to even walk. Now I was going to try to run a 5k? Could I really do it? Or would my postpartum body poop out on me and leave me walking?

I love running, and pre-pregnancy me loved 5ks. I’m very slow at running, but I still love it. On our way to the race, I said, “I really hope I beat at least one person,” and Lauren said, “Well then hopefully there are some walkers.” Oh boy. I mean, I’m slow, but I’m hopefully faster than the WALKERS.

Lauren and I were a little disappointed that no one at the race was dressed up like Bigfoot. They all looked like relatively normal runner people. The race was a beautiful course through the woods and by a river, and I totally think the race organizers should have put someone in a gorilla costume in the woods to run around and scare people. Oh well. Maybe next year.

I’m very proud to say that I RAN the entire race, and I got a time that made me feel proud. I’m not going to post it here because you’ll probably scoff at me and call me a slowpoke, but did YOU push a baby out of your body just a few months ago?? No? Then have a seat. The point is that I ran the race, okay? 3.1 miles without walking one step. And I also beat many people (not just the walkers, LAUREN!), so ha. I got 44th place out of 106 people. Not bad! I felt very strong and proud of myself for this accomplishment.

After the 5k, we went back to the cabin for a great breakfast with the rest of our friends. Then it was time to put on our matching Bigfoot Shirts and head to the festival!

The festival was a lot of fun. The streets were closed to traffic to make space for all the Bigfoot vendors. I bought an overpriced baby Sasquatch toy, but it was totally worth it because when I shook it in front of Ezra’s face and said, “BABY SQUATCH!!!” he thought it was really funny. And I’d spend a lot of money to hear my sweet baby laugh. So now I keep shaking the toy and saying, “BABY SQUATCH!!!” to make him laugh again, and my friends are probably getting really sick of it.

What I’ll probably remember the most from the festival was how chaotic it was to try to take care of two littles while also attending a festival. I sat on a random sidewalk to feed Ezra and accidentally sat in spilled formula, getting my black shorts all white.

Rex ducked into some alleyway to change Ezra’s diaper (because even a four month old needs privacy? I guess?), and Ezra had a massive blowout that got his onesie and his jeans covered in poop. Gross!

Lynn and Larson power walked the stroller to try to get Micah to go to sleep, and when he wouldn’t they said they had to leave the festival to take him home for a nap. Then, as they walked back to their car, guess what? He fell asleep in the stroller. So they came back to the festival to meet up with us, but then he woke up again. Argh! It was a little chaotic. But we enjoyed the live music and shopping, and there was lots of weird Bigfoot stuff. Also, the people watching was prime. There were some really weird weirdos, but there are probably other people saying the same about us: “There was this group of people in MATCHING BIGFOOT SHIRTS. EVEN THEIR BABY HAD ONE.”

Luckily, we got some good pictures before Micah had to go nap and Ezra pooped everywhere. Please note that we also have matching strollers, which we didn’t know until we got to the festival.

On the way home, Ezra fell asleep snuggling Baby Squatch. It was pretty cute.

When we got back, we regrouped and headed out to go hiking! We did the Old Man’s Cave hike today – it was beeeeaaautiful. There were storybook bridges, caves, and waterfalls. I could go on and on, but how about I skip ahead to the pictures so you can see for yourself?

Dinner was tacos (yummy!), and then we hung out in the cabin’s hot tub and had great conversation until late into the night. We certainly packed a lot into the day, and I’m excited to see what we do tomorrow!

Summer is my favorite season of the year. If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I usually have epic adventures brewing in the summertime. This summer, my epic adventure has been raising an infant. It’s been a totally different genre of adventure, but I love it. I didn’t plan any travel for this summer because I didn’t know how Rex, Ezra, and I would be adjusting to life as a family of three. Turns out the adjustment has been going a lot better than I expected. We joke that Ezra is a “magical baby” because he sleeps through the night and is generally a happy camper. Therefore, since we had things somewhat under control on the parenting front, I started getting that travel itch again.

I go back to school a week from Monday, so this is the last week of summer vacation/maternity leave. It’s my last chance to get out of town before I’m back to work, so it’s the perfect time for a vacation getaway. Therefore, literally as I type this, our little family of three is on our way to the fabulous, exotic land of…

OHIO!

Okay, maybe it’s not that exotic. We didn’t want to go to anywhere TOO far away with the little guy. Plus, we keep hearing about how Hocking Hills in Ohio is so beautiful and a “must see,” but we’ve never made our way down there because, well, it’s just Ohio. How exciting can it be?

So far, we’re not off to the BEST start. We’re leaving three hours later than we planned. Packing for a baby and three dogs is no joke. We have our entire truck full of stuff, and I had to leave some items behind. But like, what if Ezra feels like swinging?? We didn’t bring his swing OR his rocker, so he’s just gonna be out of luck. What if he wants to take a dip in a lake? No giant duck pool floatie. We can’t bring all his stuff, I guess, but I certainly tried.

So we’re on our way to Ohio with a truck about as full as it can be, two dogs kennels and a car seat in the back, and somewhat frazzled parents up front. When we pulled out of the driveway Ezra was, as Rex says, “screaming his bloody head off,” so I was nervous that this would be a VERY long trip. But he’s sleeping now, so keep your fingers crossed that he stays asleep for a while. We’re meeting up with our friends Lynn, Larson, their son Micah, and Lauren when we get there, so there’s your cast of characters for this vacation’s blog.

As I did my research for this trip, I came upon a very interesting fun fact: the Bigfoot Festival is in town this weekend! I texted my friends and told them the happy news, hoping that they would want to go. If I can’t sniff out a good blog post at a BIGFOOT FESTIVAL, then I’m no sort of writer at all. Luckily, my friends quickly agreed to go. Then Lauren took it to the next level and suggested that we all get Bigfoot shirts to wear to the festival. That way we’ll look like real enthusiasts. I’ve never felt the need to portray myself as a “Bigfoot enthusiast,” but now I suddenly do. This week we all ordered matching Bigfoot shirts, and I even got a Bigfoot onesie for Ezra. We’re the real deal. So ready to celebrate Bigfoot.

I wonder what Ezra is going to think of his first family vacation? I hope he comes back and reads this someday when he’s grown up. He’ll be some travel influencer who goes all over the world, and he’ll say, “I’ve always felt drawn to Ohio… something about it feels happy and safe to me.” And then he can read this blog and know it was his very first trip of hopefully many.

We’re looking forward to five days of fun, hiking, dogs, and BIGFOOT. I hope you’ll come along with us and follow this blog. I can’t wait to see what exciting things I get to write about! But even if you hate my writing (which, then, why are you here?), there will be pictures of Ezra, and that’s enough reason to come back to this blog and check things out. Here he is in the sunglasses I bought him for this trip:

As I said, he’s a pretty happy little dude (when he’s not screaming his bloody head off). I’m so excited for some quality family time with each other and with our friends. And who knows? Maybe Ohio is going to be exciting after all.

EDIT: Okay, it’s now 8:52 PM. We are in Ohio and settled into our cabin. I regret to inform you that Ezra does NOT like road trips. He was okay for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and then he decided it was time to be out of the car seat. He wouldn’t stop crying, so we stopped to watch some trucks at a rest stop.

He was happy to watch trucks, so we probably should have just stayed there and camped for the week at the rest stop. We eventually had to put him back in the car seat, and he didn’t like that. Sorry buddy!! I wish we could have explained how road trips work: you’re uncomfortable for a little while, but then you’re somewhere NEW and EXCITING! He wasn’t really getting it. He was mostly upset. Poor Ezra! We tried to make plenty of stops, but I don’t think we did enough for Ezra.

Sure enough, as soon as we got to the cabin, we took him out of the car. His little tearful face got a glimmer of hope in it, like maybe he wasn’t doomed to be in the car seat forever. I sort of felt like a terrible mom. If only Ezra had a blog, his would go something like this:

WE SPENT THE WHOLE DAY IN THE CAR I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER ESCAPE. THE SUN CAME IN THE WINDOW AND HIT ME RIGHT SMACK DAB IN THE FACE. And then there were some trucks. I liked the trucks. AND THEN I WAS BACK IN THE CAR AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. THIS WAS PROBABLY THE WORST DAY OF MY WHOLE LIFE.

Now we’re finally hanging out as adults, two baby monitors watching the littles go to sleep. I’d better sign off and actually enjoy the day! Adios!

Well, here we are. The end of the Space and Sea blog. I wish I had a grand adventure to tell you about for today, but mostly we have been sitting in the airport.

We thought about storing our luggage somewhere and exploring Orlando for a few hours. There was quite a gap between our disembarkation time and when we needed to be at the airport. Back when I booked the flight, I wanted to leave us plennnnty of time because I had no idea how long it would take to get off the ship, and what if the ship got delayed, and blah blah blah. Dear Christine from the past: you didn’t need that much time! Sure, the airport was forty-five minutes away from the cruise port, but that was less than an hour! Silly me. I’ll know for next time.

When we got to the airport, we were told there was space on an earlier flight, and we could go home early! Score!! So we went through security and hustled to the gate. I was so excited to get home early to see Rex and the dogs and even evil Elsie. To our dismay, the gate agent told us the flight was full after all, and there wasn’t space for us. Whomp whooomp. So we were now stuck in the airport for the whole day instead of exploring a city. Not nearly as fun.

I was really dejected about it. My mom was too, but she bought herself an ice cream and cheered right up. If you think I’m joking, I’m not joking. She said, “Ice cream will make me feel better” and was all smiles as soon as she got it. I was still a little sulky. Then again, I didn’t buy ice cream. This was probably the issue.

We shopped for a while in the Orlando airport, and they had a lot of theme-park shops. I wish I had the Quinn kids with me for the Harry Potter World shop (but not really, because I would have gone broke). Here’s the closest we got to Disney World.

It was busy busy busy at the airport, but we finally got on a flight to Detroit. Now we have to wait here for four more hours until we fly to Kalamazoo. Ugh. Such a long travel day, but Rex is at the end of it! Yay!

I tried to do some shopping at the Detroit airport too, but I failed. I went in the Body Shop and used this great-smelling tester lotion. I started rubbing it on my hands, and the lady said, “Ummm…that’s for your face” like I was a total MORON to think my hands could smell citrusy fresh. So then I rubbed it on my face, like obviously I knew it went there the whole time, and now my whole head smells like an orange. Therefore I decided to put away my wallet and come write to you instead.

Thanks for following along on this blog. Thanks for your comments and your support – it’s always so much fun to share my travels with people back home, and this trip was truly amazing. I loved Space Camp. I would do that again in a second, but I doubt I’ll ever have the opportunity. And the cruise was AMAZING. I hope I do have another opportunity to go on a cruise one day. When I got to the airport and they wanted me to pay for my food, that was pretty lame.

I think travel changes you as a person in a variety of ways. I don’t need to get all philosophical about how this trip has changed me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it has. I met some great people and had some amazing experiences. I’m now going to read a kabillion books about space. I know how to navigate a cruise port. I know how to use citrus face cream. You know, those essential pieces of life.

Going home is always a little bittersweet. I’m sad the adventure is over, but I’m ready for real life again. Real life has pugs.

Since I didn’t have an adventure to share today, I’ll leave you with a few more pictures from the trip.

For example, here is the spaghetti that I’m already missing. If only your screen was scratch and sniff.

Here’s the beach with a fruit smoothie!

Here’s the photographer’s picture of my mom and me on “White Night.” Don’t worry, we did buy the picture! I didn’t steal this pic.

Here’s one more of the beach. Because…beach.

Thanks again, loyal follower! See you next time!

Today can best be described by a t-shirt I saw in the island shop: “Beach, Eat, Sleep, Repeat.”

It was a mostly lazy day, but I did wake up for 7 AM yoga. My mom bailed on me to sleep in this time. I decided the morning is my favorite time of day on a cruise ship. It’s so quiet! It’s like I have the whole ship to myself.

After yoga, my mom and I had breakfast and got ready to venture forth onto the private island again. It’s so beautiful here! We started by walking to the parts of the island we hadn’t seen yet, then I asked one of the employees which beach was best for seeing fish. I brought a snorkel and mask with me, but I hadn’t seen any fish while swimming around yesterday. I was hoping to see at least one today. We saw them when we were kayaking, so I knew they were around SOMEWHERE. The employee told us to head to Lighthouse Beach, so that’s what we did.

We hadn’t been to Lighthouse Beach yet, and it was awesome! They had colorful bean bags strewn about for lounging. Now, when is the last time you got to lounge around in a bean bag chair?? Somewhere around 2003? Me too. It was so fun to relax in the shade of a palm tree.

When I got in the water, I had a singular goal: find a fish. I wanted to see at least one little tropical fish. The water was so clear, I could see a long way in all directions. No fish. Lots of perfect white sand, bright reflections of the sun off the bottom of the sea, but no fish.

THEN.

I finally saw one! She was silver and yellow and probably about as big as my hand. I mentally named her Nina. Nina was lazily swimming along, doing fish things, and I followed her for a while. After all, she was my prized fish! She didn’t seem to mind me following her. She looked up at me every once in a while as if to say, “YOU CREEPER!” but she didn’t swim away. I followed her and followed her, having a blast with my one fish.

Little did I know, she was leading me to the fish motherload! She led me to a small reef near the edge of the swimming boundary, and there were hundreds of fish. I was thrilled – SO MANY FISHIES! Purple ones, yellow ones, blue ones, stripy ones, spotty ones, fish fish fish! I kept diving down to be eye level with them, and some of them got alarmed if I got too close. Some didn’t seem to mind at all. I was close enough to a few that I could have put out my finger and booped their adorable faces, but I don’t think fish would appreciate a nose boop like my dogs do (though, come to think of it, I’m not sure my dogs appreciate it either).

I also saw a sea anemone swaying in the waves and a conch scooting its way across the sea floor. Mostly, I saw fish. The water was so clear that I could see the colors of the fish as if I was looking through air. This may have been the clearest water I’ve ever seen.

After reluctantly tearing myself away from the reef, I went back to shore and hung out on my bean bag while I gave my mom a turn to use the snorkel mask. She saw some fish too, but I don’t think she went out as far as I did. After we both checked out the fish, we relaxed in our bean bags and had fruit smoothies. I heard the fire alarm go off on the ship, and I really tried to muster up some concern, but I was way too chill to be stressed. I thought, “Oh bummer, the ship will burn down and leave us stranded on this perfect island with our bean bag chairs and fruit smoothies. I’M SO DISAPPOINTED.”

I think it was just a drill or something, because the ship did not, in fact, burn down. Maybe there was a kitchen fire somewhere that no one told us about. Who knows? We’re sailing again as I write this, though, so clearly the fire situation was handled.

Anyway, back to this morning. Around noon, we went back to the ship to get out of the sun for a little while and to grab some lunch. Then I took a nap while my mom read her book. It was so relaxing. After I woke up, guess what we did? I bet you’ll never guess…we went back to the beach!

NO WAIT – I have to tell you something – a “behind the scenes” vacation anecdote. After I woke up from my nap, what I really did first was check my e-mail. With no cell service, Rex and I have been e-mailing back and forth throughout the day. Guess what was in my e-mail? GUESS!!! Okay, you’ll never guess, so I’ll tell you. The first trade review for my book came in! It was from Kirkus, and they’re notorious for being mean to authors. But, to my shock, they LOVED my book! It was an absolutely glowing review! You could have knocked me over with a feather. KIRKUS liked my book?! I tried to get excited with Rex, and I tried to get excited with my mom, but neither of them had heard of Kirkus. Blast. I guess it’s just a publishing thing. I e-mailed one of my writing friends (Hi Kacey!) to be excited with me, and we had a small virtual party to celebrate my good review. Yaaaaaaay!! That was the cherry on top of this day, which is saying something because this is already a pretty amazing day.

Okay, thanks for humoring me and my e-mail aside. Back to the beach.

Before we got to Lighthouse Beach, we stopped into the tourist shops and bought a few last-minute souvenirs. Then it was back to the bean bags! My mom didn’t go swimming this time, but I did. I had to go say hello to all my fish friends again. I found even more this time, as I went all the way to the edge of the swim boundary. At one point, I found myself swimming in a school of black and yellow striped fish. They kind of side-eyed me, like, “Um, hello, get out of our school you weirdo.” I also found a section of tiny, teeeeeeny fish that were still tropically colored like the large ones but just miniature. I wondered if they were baby fish or something. Whatever they were, they were adorable.

I swam right up until it was time to get back on the ship again. We had to be back on board by 5:30 to leave and head back to the States. When we got back to the room, my mom and I got dressed up all fancy (again) and headed to dinner (again).

I could really get used to this lifestyle.

Dinner was amazing, and I’m really going to miss our two waiter dudes, Eduardo and Zimo. Any chance Rex will be waiting in a tux when I get home from work each day and say, “Welcome back, madam” like our waiters do? Nah, I don’t think so. I can let that dream die.

Now I’m writing to you while I wait for the 9:00 show that we are going to go see. It’s called Extreme. I’m a little nervous about it. I mean, what’s so extreme?? I think I’d rather see a show called Completely Chill. Anyway, it’s supposed to be acrobats and stuff. Doesn’t their balance get thrown off by doing tricks on a moving ship?? Well, we’ll see I suppose.

It’s now 8:42, and I’m in a hoodie (my new space hoodie!) and pajama pants. I’d better go put my show clothes on before I make us late.

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY of my trip! I’ll see if I can find an adventure and check in with you when I get to the airport. Bye for now! I’m off to see Extreme! I’ll leave you with this picture of the view of the island from our lunch buffet.

My mom is in her happy place.

She literally said that to me: “This is my happy place. Next time I’m sad and need to think of something happy, I’m going to pretend I’m back here, lying on this mat in the Caribbean.”

We hit the Linda Knasel trifecta today: she got to go kayaking, she got to relax in the water, and she got to watch a sunset. My mom is a happy camper.

That’s not to say I didn’t have a great day today too. I did! It started bright and early with morning yoga. We arrived right as the class was about to start (my mom and I sleep until the last possible minute. It’s a thing). I was afraid the class would be full. After all, there are a lot of people on this ship. Imagine my surprise when the yoga class had only three people, and that included my mom and me! “Well,” said my mom. “I guess we learned something about cruise intentions. Most cruisers aren’t into early morning workouts.”

It was great being just the three of us, because it was like we had our own personal yoga instructor. The view out of the yoga room windows was amazing. We got to see the ship pull into Ocean Cay, a private island owned by this cruise company. When the instructor told us to close our eyes and relax, I wanted to say, “NO WAY, LADY! HOW CAN I MISS ONE SECOND OF THIS VIEW??!” I didn’t want to get kicked out of yoga class, though, so I closed my eyes. I may or may not have peeked. Please don’t tell my instructor.

After yoga, we headed to the buffet for breakfast. Yummy! Nothing like putting on way more calories than you just burned. Oh well. We had more exercise ahead of us. Today was our kayaking day!

If you know my mom well at all, you know she loves kayaking. She’s in a club of ladies who call themselves the “Happy Yakkers” because they like to kayak and chat. Today I booked us a couple of rented kayaks, and you’d think I booked us a moon rocket. My mom was practically bouncing around our room. “I’m so excited to go KAYAKING!!!!” She really said it with four exclamation points. Trust me.

We disembarked and started wandering around this completely gorgeous private island. The water was so blue it looked like a swimming pool, minus the chlorine and dead frogs. There are palm trees everywhere, lots of tropical flowers, and very few people because only the people from our ship have access to the island. We feel very cool about this.

Once we found our way to the kayak rentals, we got checked in and hopped into our two-person kayak. My mom had so much fun regaling me with tales of all of her other kayak adventures. She mostly helped paddle, except when she would get too absorbed in one of her stories or too excited by taking pictures of the scenery. Then I’d splash her in the face to remind her to help.

Just kidding. I didn’t do that. But “I asked nicely” doesn’t sound as exciting.

At one point I was watching the floor of the sea, and I saw a huge stingray floating along! It was probably about fifteen feet below us, but I could see it perfectly because the water was so clear. We also saw some fish. I wanted to throw on my snorkel and abandon ship, but I didn’t bring it kayaking with us. We just kept paddling and watching for wildlife. It was a ton of fun.

We went back to the ship for lunch and to cool off. Then it was time to hit the beach! I rented us a beach umbrella and two pink floating mats. The pink looked so beautiful against the electric blue of the water. We floated along and relaxed. The water was the perfect temperature, the sand was white and soft…it was like someone dropped us into that popular screensaver from the early 2000’s. Let me see if I can find the one I’m talking about… oh yes! Here it is!

Now doesn’t that look a little bit like where we are now??

I don’t have a lot to say about the afternoon because “we relaxed in the perfect turquoise sea” can only be said so many different ways. When it was time for dinner, we reluctantly headed back to the ship.

Dinner was, once again, delicious. I ate this weird appetizer that I couldn’t pronounce, but I ordered it because why not? I wish I had a picture of it for you. It was a weird rice ball with some cheese and peas…I’m making it sound gross, but it was actually really good. Like a mozzarella stick, but the outside is crispy rice, and there are some peas in it.

Yeah, I’m not going to be able to describe it well. Sorry.

When I was finished with my dinner, the waiter came up and asked if I wanted another plate of it. Ack!! I think he was teasing me because of last night, but I think he was also half serious. He’s probably like, “These cruiser fatties eating all the plates of dinner. THEY DISGUST ME!” Sorry man, sometimes I’m hungry! At least I ate all the food I ordered.

After dinner, my mom and I took a walk on the beach at sunset. I was shocked at how few people were out. Like, HELLO PEOPLE!!!! TROPICAL SUNSET OUT HERE!!! GET OFF YOUR BUTTS AND COME TAKE A LOOK! My mom took a gazillion pictures, so if you want five million pictures of what tonight’s sunset looked like, talk to her.

There was a light show after dark, and we were lucky enough to be able to watch it from our balcony! It was great. I feel really happy that we’re on the island side of the ship, because the other side people are just staring out at the water (which is still pretty, I’m sure, but the island view is awesome).

Now I’ve got to get some sleep, because I’m going to get up for morning yoga again. Have a good night! Dream tropical dreams!

Let’s start with a quote from the middle of this post, just so you can see where we’re headed: “So then my mom bought a white XL wife-beater style men’s tank top, and that completed her fancy dinner outfit.”

It’s been quite a day.

When I woke up this morning, I pulled the curtain back and was awed by the beauty of the ocean.

It’s still hard to believe that I’m here cruising. I hung out on the balcony for a little while watching the world float by, but I couldn’t stay long because we had things to do!

After a delicious breakfast, we did some more on-board shopping. We both bought fancy new purses to wear to tonight’s dinner. I mentally tried to channel my fashionable sister Cara and choose the one she would choose. I’m pretty sure I chose correctly. Mom also bought a new necklace. Then it was time to work out! *cue “Sexy and I Know It”.*

We rode the exercise bikes as the ship pulled into port, and it was super fun to watch. We pretended we were propelling the ship forward with our bikes. Then, after a quick lunch, it was time to head into Nassau!

Just as I predicted yesterday, we shopped until we dropped. I didn’t realize the Caribbean is so well known for diamonds, but there were a lot of jewelry places. My mom kept trying on ridiculously expensive jewelry in store after store. “Look Christine, this chocolate diamond is regularly $36,000, but I could get it for $8,000!” Oh boy.

I tried on a $6,000 ring just for fun, but I was afraid I’d sneeze on it or something. I felt much more comfortable in the chintzy souvenir shops, which probably says something unflattering about me as a person.

My mom finally did buy some “diamonds,” and she told me to tell you she got them for twenty-five. If I just say “twenty-five,” you might think twenty-five thousand or at LEAST twenty-five hundred…but no. They’re costume jewelry diamond earrings that cost twenty-five dollars. They’re pretty, though, and I’m sure glad I didn’t have to run an intervention on her buying an $8,000 chocolate diamond (I would have done it, too. I would have thrown down right there in the store and been like, “MOM!!! DAD WILL KILL YOU! I’LL HAVE TO BE ON DATELINE AND EXPLAIN HOW IT ALL HAPPENED! DON’T DOOOO IT!!!!” It would have been embarrassing for all involved.).

I bought a new bag at the Straw Market. It’s all tropical and fun looking. I had to bargain with the lady to get a good price, but my dad and I have plenty of garage sale experience that has prepared me for that.

The other item we looked for while shopping was a white shirt. Tonight is “White Night” on the ship, you see, so everyone is supposed to wear all white. I brought a white dress, but my mom only had white pants and a white lacy swimming suit cover up. We figured if she could find a white t-shirt, she could put it under the cover-up and have a perfect outfit. Unfortunately, nowhere seemed to sell plain white t-shirts. They all had designs on them or giant letters spelling out phrases like “BAHAMA MAMA” (though she bought that shirt too, obviously). Finally, we went into a fancy menswear store. They sold white tank tops that men wear under dress shirts. Perfect! They only had size XL, and the shirts were really odd looking, but it would work! So then my mom bought a white XL wife-beater style men’s tank top, and that completed her fancy dinner outfit. I bet that’s not what that shirt had envisioned for its future.

After shopping all day, we got back to the ship and had smoothies out by the pool. Yum! Then it was time to get ready for dinner.

We got all dressed up in our white outfits (me in my white dress, mom in her men’s tank and wannabe diamonds). For throwing the whole outfit together in a day, I think she looks really nice! As the sign in one store said today: “Life isn’t perfect, but your outfit can be.”

Dinner was delicious again, but I do have one teeeeeeeeny tiny complaint: the portions are gourmet, which is code word for small. For example: I got the chips and guacamole as my appetizer, and it looked very beautiful. There was an artful blob of guacamole in the middle with six chips sticking out of it in lovely fashion.

Six. Chips.

Six chips is what I feed Elvis while I’m eating a normal human number of chips.

My spaghetti bolognese was also kind of a small portion, but it was sooooo good. I was wishing I could have had about twice as much. Then I had a brilliant idea: why not ask for another plate of spaghetti? My friend Krista had given me the cruise advice that you can order more than one dinner. I hadn’t tried it yet…but could I order more of the same dinner? I mean, the worst they could say was no, right? So I tried it. I felt like Oliver from his namesake musical: “Please sir, I want some more.”

The waiter guy smiled at me and said something like, “Of course, ma’am.” I don’t know if he believed I could put down a whole second plate of spaghetti, but I wanted to say, “Sir, I may not be a Webb by birth, but I am a Webb by marriage, and I have to make my family proud. The six chips portion sizing just WILL NOT DO!”

I, predictably, finished all of that second plate. And my key lime pie.

Hey, I worked out today. Stop judging me.

Now I’m back at the stateroom waiting for tonight’s show, which starts at 9:00. It’s something about Paris. I’m not sure what to expect. Should be fun, though! Then my mom said she wants to look at more on-board gemstones. Uh oh. I’m buckling up for that throwdown.

Tomorrow we’re going to Ocean Cay, a private island owned by our cruise ship. Beach day with my fancy new beach bag! I can’t wait! I’ll leave you with the view from our balcony as we pulled out of port this evening.

A couple weeks ago, I asked my sister-in-law for advice about how to cruise correctly. Her family does a lot of cruising, you see, so I thought she might have some good tips. She talked to her sisters, then got back to me:

“It really depends on your intentions,” she said. “Like, what are your intentions with this cruise?”

Uhhhh…what are my options? What are my intentions SUPPOSED to be for a cruise? I had a mental flashback to episodes of The Bachelor where the girls cry and lament the fact that “She’s not here for the right reasons!!” I mean, is that me?! Am I not cruising for the right reasons? What are my intentions with this cruise??

She must have noticed my blank stare. “For example, if you want to get a good tan, you need to wake up REALLY early to get the best tanning chairs,” she said.

While I’m sure that’s great advice, sleeping will probably win out over tanning.

“And if you’re there to party, you need the drink package.” She looked at me doubtfully even as she said it, but she was dutifully passing on advice from her sisters.

I’m not doing that either. Though I guess I didn’t check with my mom…maybe she wants to get cray. Paaaaaarty with the Bahama Mama!

What are my other possible intentions?! Were those my only two choices? So I sat down to consider it. What are my intentions with this cruise? I decided on two things:

1. Have fun.
2. Hang out with my mom.

Is that okay? Does that qualify as “good intentions”? Ahhh! Hopefully no one kicks me off the cruise for being here for the wrong reasons.

I am now sitting in my stateroom, so that means boarding went okay after all! Phewf!! I was so nervous about it. We had our paperwork checked several times, and every time I was scared they’d find something I did wrong and say, “NO CRUISE FOR YOU!”

Here we are being very excited while waiting in line. My mom said, “Don’t you dare put that picture on your blog!” but I talked her around to it.

When we finally boarded, our room wasn’t quite ready yet. We sat in the lobby area for a while (what’s it called on a cruise? Lobby feels like the wrong word. Lounge? Giant living room? Whatever. I’m new here). It was very sparkly. I was missing Rex, but I also found myself thinking that he might not love a cruise. After all, there were a lot of people at check in, and the sparkliness doesn’t feel like Rex’s jam.

I felt that way until I went to lunch.

Guys. YOU GUYS. The lunch buffet was insanely great. I am a bit of a buffet snob, too, after living in Las Vegas. They have some amazing buffets. But this was WHOA nice. Lobster ravioli, chicken cacciatore, eggplant something-or-other, pasta pasta pasta, salads, fruits, desserts, pizza delicioso…SO MUCH FOOD. My jaw was probably on the floor when I walked in. The employee guy handed me a plate bigger than my face, and I realized that Rex wouldn’t hate a cruise so much after all. Where can I buy those plates for a Webb Thanksgiving??

By the time we were finished with lunch, our room was ready. Yay! I really like our room. We have a balcony, so we’ll be able to watch the sea float by.

We have been exploring the ship for the last couple of hours. We stopped by the spa for free massage samples, and that felt great. We also stopped by a presentation about shopping in Nassau, the port we’ll be visiting tomorrow. I think my mom is ready to invest in Caribbean diamonds or the bamboo mattress they told us about, but don’t worry Dad – I won’t let her get too out of control. (Hey – is that our intention with this cruise?? Shop till we drop? That seems like a valid cruise-themed intention. I’ll run that one by my sister-in-law).

Now we’re getting ready for the safety drill. That sounds exciting. Oops, it’s starting. Gotta go!

***Time passes***

Oof, okay I’m back. It’s almost eleven o’ clock PM now. What a day! I just got back from our evening adventures. We saw a show called Dancing Queen, and the singers and dancers were super talented. After the show, we had a fancy dinner at the Black Crab Restaurant. It was delicious…but I’ve already bragged about the food here. I’m envisioning a Webb family cruise one day where the brothers Webb do some WORK at these restaurants. I regret that I have but one stomach to give to this cruise. Everything looks so yummy!

We went shopping after dinner and bought fancy lotions at the type of place that has bags with rope handles. Charge it to the room, dah-ling! *happy clink of the cash register* Now we have matching fancy lotion, and if that doesn’t scream “mother daughter bonding,” then I don’t know what does.

I’m not sure what’s on deck for tomorrow (literally – heh heh), but we just got our daily program delivered to our room. I think I’ll peruse it a while and find out what adventures we can discover!

Good night for now. Talk to you soon!

P.S. I’m not seasick yet. 😀

The pouring rain outside my window felt right this morning. It reflected how sad I am that yesterday was my last day of space camp. I didn’t realize how sad that would make me. I thought I’d have the usual disappointment that everyone gets when something ends, but I felt really down about it. Not only have I had some really cool, once-in-a-lifetime-if-you’re-lucky experiences this week, but I’ve met some awesome people that are now going to be scattered all across the country again.

I felt sad walking through the rocket garden on my way to class yesterday morning because I knew that it was going to be my last time doing that. Even if I switch jobs one day, I don’t think I’ll ever have a job that lets me walk through a ROCKET GARDEN every morning. Walking by all the magnificent rockets retained its awesomeness (as in, literally causing awe) all week. I don’t know how many weeks of space camp I’d have to do before those got boring, but I think it would have taken a really long time.

After a lecture about technology’s relationship with wildlife and some of the challenges of building a space center in central Florida, we were off to the Merritt Wildlife Refuge. I was very excited about this, as I’ve been in the city all week and miss nature. I was a little disappointed that we mostly got to explore only on the bus. It’s like taking a hungry person through the aisles of a grocery store and not letting them buy anything. The nature was so close! I could SEE it! I wanted to go walk around so badly.

We did get to get out at an overlook called Manatee Cove. It lived up to its name for sure, as there were dozens of manatees! I would tell you, “I’ve never seen so many manatees in my life,” but that has very little significance since the first wild manatee I saw in my life was on Tuesday while kayaking. Anyway, I tried to snap a picture when they would poke their little faces out of the water for air, but it was tough to get a picture of it. Here’s the best I could do with manatee pics (this is only one section of the river where all the manatees were swimming around). Too bad Rex isn’t with me. He would have had some great photos. Look at the tiny nose in the second picture! Too cute.

Once we got back from the wildlife refuge, we had lunch and then got geared up for a “Space in Popular Culture” trivia game. Now, I like trivia more than the average person, but I had to laugh when I saw we would be doing a space trivia game. I knew I was SUNK. These space people are huge fans off all things galactical, and before this week I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference between an astronaut and a cosmonaut. I don’t watch Star Wars or Star Trek (don’t tell that to my space friends). I don’t know much about ewoks, tribbles, or any other fictional space creatures. Basically, we were squarely OUTSIDE of my trivia wheelhouse. Plus, one of the guys here has been on Jeopardy, so he’s a trivia guru AND a space guy. I turned to Leslie and said, “I’m rooting for you.” Because if I couldn’t win, I wanted her to take home the prize. She knows a LOT about space.

Predictably, I didn’t do great. I did better than I thought I would, though! I scored around the middle of the pack – 16th or 17th I think (out of thirty-six). I made a lot of lucky guesses. Leslie didn’t win either, though she WAS the highest scoring girl. I learned a lot about space and pop culture, so I’m well-armed for any space trivia questions in my future.

After space trivia, it was time to wrap up for the day. It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone! We’d gotten pretty close. Leslie and I even bought these super cool matching NASA hoodies with the space shuttle on them.

Before we headed back to the hotel, Leslie and I explored the space center just a little bit more. Here are a few more things we saw that I haven’t already shown you.

Here’s a prototype of the type of vehicle that might drive on Mars one day. It has a detachable lab:

Here’s a piece of the doomed space shuttle Challenger:

Here’s the Mars rover made out of legos:

My friends and I went out to one last dinner together at a place called the “Long Dogger.” I had the key lime chicken tacos, which sounded a little odd, but they were DELICIOUS.

Then I went back to my hotel room and watched a documentary on the Space Race as I fell asleep. I’m becoming kind of a space nerd now, and I don’t even care! As I write this, I’m cozied up in my new space hoodie and wondering what books I can read about space. I feel like I’m 33 years behind on studying all about this! There’s so much to KNOW.

My mom is supposed to arrive later tonight, and we leave for the cruise tomorrow. I’m actually super nervous about it. I don’t know anything about cruises. I could navigate an airport with one eye closed. A train station? No problem. Road trip? No worries. A cruise port? NO IDEA WHATSOEVER. And there are all these covid regulations and everything… I feel like I’m missing something. I really hope tomorrow’s post isn’t titled “Stranded in Florida. What Do I Do Now?” but if that’s the title, you’ll know I messed something up.

I still have several hours until my mom arrives, so maybe I’ll go explore Cocoa Beach for a bit. If I come across an adventure, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, the next time you hear from me I’ll *hopefully* be on my first ever cruise!

Good news: I discovered how astronauts use the bathroom in space! I know you’ve been wondering about that all week. Believe it or not, it was in one of our lectures today. Dr. History (you may remember her as the very enthusiastic space historian from Day 2) was talking about barriers to women joining the astronaut program when it first started. One of the problems was that there wasn’t a bathroom system that could allow women to pee in space. You should have SEEN some of the weird schematics they designed to try to make this possible. Anyway, they clearly figured it out. Here’s one of the early astronaut toilets:

Here’s one from a space shuttle:

Apparently getting rid of waste in space is quite complicated. I won’t bore you with the details of how these work (though ask me later if you want to know). This has been enough toilet talk for one blog post. I’m QUITE sure this was not the point of Dr. History’s lecture. I do know a lot more about space and feminism from her lecture, though, so we can chat about that later too if you want!

I continue to learn a lot about space and history each day. It feels a little like some alternate-universe college: I get up in the morning, pack my backpack, and head to class. It still feels a bit surreal to walk through the rocket gardens on my way to the space education building every day, and I feel pretty cool not having to buy a ticket or wait in line to get into the space center. I just flash my pass, and ZOOM – right to the front. VIP status.

Today was especially fun. We got some more time to explore the space center, and my favorite exhibit was seeing the Atlantis space shuttle (the real one!). It was bigger than I imagined it would be. I also got to go on a shuttle simulator and feel what it would be like to be blasted off into space. Whoa!! This experience has been just too cool.

Our afternoon speaker was especially amazing. I’ll call him Dr. Launch. Dr. Launch was the launch director at NASA from 2000-2011 (the space shuttle program ended in 2011). He was the guy in charge of the whole ground crew for the launches. Now, blog follower, do you happen to remember where you were on February 1, 2003? I do. I was in eighth grade getting ready to go to some bowling thing when my dad was in his office and said, “Oh no! That’s so sad!” When I asked what was wrong, he told me the space shuttle Columbia had an accident, and the whole crew died.

Well, THIS guy – Dr. Launch – was launch director of that mission (and a bunch of other ones too). He talked about his job and what they do to keep the astronauts safe. He was emotional when discussing the Columbia mission, because he, in his words, lost seven of his friends that day. I know way more about that accident now than I did before this trip, so let me know if you ever want to hear more (I also know way more about the Apollo I and Challenger tragedies as well). Let me tell you – learning about a space tragedy takes on a whole new perspective when you’re learning from the launch director.

That’s sad. Let’s move on to something happier.

Oh, here’s something happy – I won Space Selfie Bingo! We had the opportunity to take selfies with different things around the space center and field trip locations, and if you got a bingo you got a PRIZE. Oh, how I love winning. And prizes. I got the E column completed:

Here are my selfies to prove it:

Here is my prize: SPACE STICKERS!! Now I have to find somewhere cool to put them.

The highlight of today was at approximately 8:44 PM. By “approximately 8:44 PM,” I mean EXACTLY 8:44 PM. On the dot. To the second. That was when SpaceX launched their Falcon 9 rocket to travel to the International Space Station, and I GOT TO WATCH IT FROM THE SPACE CENTER.

AHHHHHHH!!!!

It felt so fancy to be at the space center after hours. It was a beautiful night to watch the launch, and we lined up by a river to watch. We’d been keeping an eye on the SpaceX Twitter account all day, nervous they would scrub the launch (that means cancel it – here at NASA we say “scrub.” Yeah, I’m fancy now). The launch can get scrubbed anywhere up to T-minus one second, so there was never a guarantee the launch was a go. This was especially true because we were watching a storm roll in. Watching lightning in the distance made my heart sink, because I thought for sure they’d scrub the launch. But NOPE! It went up exactly on time! Here are my friends being all excited and watching the SpaceX newsfeed on Michaela’s phone while we waited:

The launch was so bright – it was almost like trying to look at the sun. The rocket was steadily going up, up, up…and then something fell off. No one panicked, so that was good, because inside I was a little like, “Um….IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN?!” Of course it is, you newbie. That was just the booster falling off. DUHHHH. And, while we were standing there watching, the booster fell back to Earth and landed off the coast of South Carolina on a waiting barge. Space travel is so cool.

It would always be fun to watch a launch, but it was especially amazing with all these space enthusiasts. Leslie was even crying at how amazing it was. One of our professors patted her on the back, like, “I get it, man. Rockets.” I probably should have patted her on the back too, but I didn’t notice she was crying because my eyes were firmly glued to the sky. Rocket launches don’t happen that often, so it was a huge treat to be able to see one while I was here.

After it was over, we went to the sketchiest restaurant EVER to celebrate the successful launch (as if we had anything to do with it, haha). Here we are celebrating!

Now it’s once again after midnight, and I need to get to bed so that I can get up tomorrow and go to my last day of space college. I’m pretty disappointed that this is almost over, but it’s been amazing. I have so many more pictures and stories than what I can fit on the blog, so let’s chat over tea sometime if you ever want to know more about space. I think I’m hooked. I can’t wait to study more about all these topics.