First Family Cruise

We began our grande adventure to the Eastern Caribbean with a plane trip down to Florida and out of the cold, dreary New England weather.  Alex, Arin and I enjoyed the short flight (what a breeze that is!) but my Mom and Carl enjoyed their first-class one a little more, maybe.

Okay, we did enjoy it a lot, this was our first trip together so some silly snuggles were in order.  

Arin, of course, was an old pro at flights by now and just sat back and relaxed!  After the long haul to London and back this little commute was nothing for him.

He was pretty excited though, he was really looking forward to going on his first cruise ship!  I had gone on MY very first tropical cruise in 2011 and he made me promise that the next time I went on one he would get to go too.  Lucky kid, right?

Even more exciting was the fact that we arrived a few hours early so that we could hang out with Alex’s long time friend who lives in Florida. They have been friends for years, but this was the first time they got to hang out in person.  Here we are waiting for them to pick us up at the terminal.

If you don’t know, now you do: I love palm trees.  It’s a thing.  So, here’s me in my happy place with the airport palms in the back.  The trees only got bigger and better, it was a great day.

Arin wasn’t as excited for the palm trees, he was itching to run around like a madman after sitting still for a few hours.

He was in luck though, cause we got to hang out with Alex’s friend, his brother, and his other buddy too, and they were really fun!  Relief on all sides that no one was actually an ax murderer.  We were starving so we stopped at some southern barbeque themed restaurant where we got some tasty food and the boys got to do some face to face man time.

All the guys were really cool and SO great with Arin, so after striking out on some bumper car racing (Arin was too little) they suggested Dave and Busters.  Lots of gaming, crazy beers, shooting games and manliness ensued.

Male bonding at its finest… probably way more fun to play shooting games together in person than online.

Arin had a blast too, he got his own coin cup and went to town running around the place like a maniac.  I think just smashing every single button in the arcade was probably enough for him.  Sadly we had to leave to catch our boat, and after a crazy car chase scene out of a movie they got us to the port literally with minutes to spare!  We may have been the last people to board the boat, but hey we made it (and I learned that I am forever the Guardian of On Timeness in the family).

Once we checked in, made it through security, and onto the boat we found our way to our cabin.  This little dude was waiting for us on the bed.