Party on the Boat! Stop #1: Costa Maya, Mexico!

As soon as you get onboard, there are a million things to do and EAT!  So we of course hit the buffet first!  Then we went to our assigned "Muster Stations" to review all the safety tips, ate again, hit the mini-golf course, played foosball, ate again, and watched the most gorgeous sunset as we sailed down the Mississippi River and out into the Gulf of Mexico.

YAY for Muster Stations!
(And all the boring announcements)

TOWEL ANIMALS EVERYWHERE!!!

The Elephant

The Manta Ray? Or a flower?

Taking over the deck!

Mini-Golf

Face Painting at the Kid's Club!

Funny Food Story:  Tatum's first morning on the boat.  Her breakfast of choice...bacon AND ice-cream of course!

Ice-cream 24/7
for every meal!

Beautiful sunsets every night from our boat.

Every night on the boat at dinner, photographers would come around to take pictures of everyone.  The idea is to get nice family photos you could buy from the ship.  Chris and I always politely declined but the boys GLADLY posed for them.  Every night, they tried to make the best drunk/tired/crazy pose/face they could.  I can't believe they actually displayed their photos!  (Which we promptly used our phones to snap a photo of the displayed photos:)

Costa Maya, Mexico:

Our first stop was in Costa Maya, Mexico.  We chose to explore the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins.  It was quite hot and muggy--it's the jungle for sure.  But we were well rested and ready for the adventure! 

These ruins date back to about 1250 B.C. and was abandoned and reoccupied multiple times until about 1000 A.D.  It's incredible to look around the area and to see that this was once a large city!  The land is typically very flat.  Looking out, you can see several "raised" areas which are all houses or temples.  Only very few of them have actually been excavated and restored but they are EVERYWHERE!  Seeing a Mayan Temple here is like seeing a castle in Germany...like I said, they are everywhere!  Definitely the oldest places I have ever seen or visited!  On this one stop, we hit 4 excavated Temples!

Temple #1

Thanks Yam for the family pic!
(Our guide:)

Temple #2

A Cahuna Tree

Temple #3

As we walked from temple to temple, you could SEE THE MONKEYS in the trees!!!  It was SOO awesome!!!  I've never seen monkeys in their natural habitat and it was fascinating.  It's hard to see in the picture but I did catch a video too!

There's a monkey family there I promise!

This tree held ceremonial importance.
There are many markings on it's trunk.

These are some pictures of un-exavated temples/houses:

This was a tablet that actually explained the history of Temple #4.  It is obviously worn down but at one time you could read the history of the people on it--from the time they took possession of the temple to the time they left it and any other significant events.

Temple #4

The foundations of a couple homes

I found some Ivy!!!

Back in the town of Tulum, they had a dolphin sanctuary right there on the beach.  So we watched dolphins for a little while before getting back on board.  LOVED Costa Maya.  AMAZED by the history and places we were able to see here today.  And the monkeys...SOOO CUTE!  We couldn't wait for our next stop in Mahogany Bay where I signed us up for the excursion to actually hold monkeys!!!

Meeker Family Vacation 2018!!! Part 1: Road Trip!

Our family dynamics are about to change this year with our oldest going off to college.  I know, it's nothing tragic and it's all good things BUT...my baby girl will never be coming back home to stay after this summer:(  So we wanted our last "traditional" summer vacation to be BIG!  We went all out this year on a big road trip and an awesome 7 day cruise!

We've been planning this trip for about a year now--the 7 day cruise--the road trip was added in later as we could not find any decent airfare to New Orleans.  So we took 2 days to drive to New Orleans with our first major stop in San Antonio, TX.

In San Antonio, we of course hit the Riverwalk and Alamo.  Then we spent an entire day at Six Flags!!!  

We have only been to San Antonio one other time.  Ethan was almost 2 and one of my favorite pictures from that trip is this one:

Thanksgiving 2003

I obviously couldn't remember ALL the details of the pic--the exact location--but we tried to recreate the photo here--we crack ourselves up:)

July 2018

Ethan's favorite Superhero!
What a perfect shirt to be wearing today:)

No pictures at Six Flags.  We were too busy riding the roller coasters and playing at the water park.  We then hit the road early the next morning to drive all the way into New Orleans.  This was a completely new experience for all of us.

We arrived on Saturday evening and of course had to do a Haunted Tour!  More interesting than scary but we enjoyed it anyways.  The most interesting thing I learned was that the French sent all their unwanted criminals AND prostitutes to Louisiana to be rid of them.  So those were the kind of people who founded this crazy city!  CRAZY/bloody history for sure!  No doubt in my mind that there are mad/unsettled spirits here:)

Oh yeah we went in here!

While waiting for our tour, we got to see the coolest Wedding Procession ever!

Here are some of the most haunted places in NOLA:

"Touchdown Jesus"
at St. Louis Cathedral

The Andrew Jackson Hotel

Beauregard Keyes House

The Lalaurie Mansion (at night)

We went back Sunday morning
to get a better pic of this place.

We had all of Sunday morning before we loaded on to our boat so we caught a sacrament meeting and then hit the amazing graveyards here!  

"The Firefighter's Grave"

Max thinks he's a "Destitute Orphan Boy"
& hopes to be buried here someday

We also drove around the French Quarter in the daytime to see these amazing buildings.  We drove all around the Garden District with the "Zillow" app open to see the home values--BEAUTIFUL HOMES!

The weather was hot and crazy humid but we sure did enjoy the overcast skies.

We are fans of the "Pit Bulls & Parolees" show and looked them up while we were there.  They just happened to be on our way to the cruise port so OF COURSE we stopped!!!  We didn't get to see or pet any dogs but it was just cool to see this building/mural that we've seen on TV!  

San Antonio & New Orleans were awesome!  We were then ready to get out of our van and jump on the "Carnival Dream" boat and on to the main event--THE CRUISE!!!  YAHOO!!!