Our January Cruise Vacation--Getting There

It's taken me a while to get started on this because there were so many pictures to go through. I want to thank Mom and Dad, Lisa, Stacie, Jason, and Heidi for sharing their pics with us. We decided to stay a couple of nights in Galveston before getting on the ship. My mother-in-law (aka Mom) found two rooms at Moody Gardens. We left Austin Friday afternoon. Maddy and Emmy were instantly entertained by all the little amenities in the room. Maddy was especially impressed with the bathroom.

Emmy found a pen and paper and hightailed it to the bathtub so she could color the paper and herself without being disturbed.

Wouldn't you know it--my kids haven't been sick all winter, but the day before we're to get on board the ship Maddy got a stomach bug. She woke up early Saturday morning not feeling well. She and I hung out in the hotel room that morning while Fred and Maddy went with Grandma and Papa, Aunt Lisa, and Cousin Stacie to look around Galveston and pick up a few last minute things. Poor Maddy--she got so worried she was going to get someone else sick.

Here are pictures of some of the damage still left in Galveston after the hurricane. Things are gradually being restored and rebuilt, but it's taking a long time.

Here's Aunt Lisa showing where the water line was after Hurricane Ike went through.

Maddy was feeling much better by the afternoon and was bouncing off the walls after being cooped up all day. Freddie and I decided to take her and Emmy to the aquarium at Moody Gardens before we went to dinner. Emmy made sure she touched every light that was at her level before resting in the corner.

The girls had fun checking out a diving cage used for observing sharks.
We went to The Rainforest Cafe for dinner. This is a picture of the gorilla Papa kept trying to stare down while we were eating.

The next morning we headed over to the cruise terminal to get on the ship. The wait wasn't too long.

Once we were on board, we still had to wait a little while for our cabins to be ready. We found an out of the way place to sit with plenty of room for the girls to play. This is a picture of Papa and me after we had enjoyed a drink.
This picture is of the main shopping area on the ship. Our cabins were on the deck above this looking out over the shops.