Hmmm, just back from a very enjoyable week of celebrating turning 50. I find that it takes me a week or so of being home to ease back into the usual daily activities and am just finding my feet again.
 We, my husband and I, went on a cruise and the whole experience vastly exceeded our expectations. We had never cruised before, mainly because we had this notion that cruising was for old people, ahem, yes. I guess we are middle aged now. Also, being “sailors”, the whole idea of being on a huge ship seemed somehow unsailorlike, however, we managed to move beyond these feelings when we heard how much fun a cruise is.
 I picked the cruise based on the itinerary and the departure city, Galveston, so we could also visit my brother and sister-in-law, neice and her husband in Houston Texas. I chose the Western Caribbean itinerary as the ports of calls were in relatively undeveloped areas of Mexico, Belize and Honduras. We weren’t feeling in a very touristy mood and have learned about ourselves that we like quaint little places off the beaten track. I loved Costa Maya, Mexico and the cave excursion in Belize was very cool too. I wished I had more time to explore Roatan, Honduras.
So, on the ship itself, it was anything but off a beaten path, with 2,900 of us passengers and 1,100 crew sharing the space. We sailed with Princess Cruise lines on the Grand Princess, on the same ship as the two folks who fell off but the previous week. Having been on the ship, falling off is not an easy thing to do, still wondering about how this all unfolded and am really glad they were rescued unharmed.Â
I digress. Wayne and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole deal, dressing up for formal nights; being served great food (when was the last time you had Baked Alaska?); reading, resting; working out; hanging out in the hot tub, um, once literally; going on shore tours, soaking up the sun at the beach etc. Interesting to note that we were not the youngest folks on the cruise. I was surprised by the diversity in ages, although most passengers were from a similar geographic area, the US midwest. We didn’t meet any other Canadian passengers and enjoyed meeting the crew who were from many different countries.
While reading the future cruise info, I sailed away in my imagination to plan a grand world cruise adventure in the style of the late 1800’s. I need to be abit more matronly to do this though I think and have trunks of elegant clothing and a big hat and, and, and images from Victorian novels keeping coming up.
Speaking of novels, there was lots of time for reading and I loved “Eat, Pray, Love” by Liz Gilbert and now wish to include Italy, India and Bali in my grand adventure. I started “Suite Francaise” by Irene Nemirovsky and will also include France on the itinerary.
 Suffice it to say, we will be booking another cruise! I think we will continue to leave the teenagers at home though.
50 is wonderful so far, ahoy mateys.
Zoey
Zoey Ryan
coach . catalyst . shakti sage
Life & Business Coach for Women