Home Again, Home Again -- Here to Stay Even With a Hurricane

Robert and I are home from the cruise. We had a wonderful time, or at least I think we both did. Sometimes I speak for Robert and really never ask him his opinion. This time I think I'm fine doing it though. We had a chance to just relax on this trip. We did what we wanted, but did a lot of just lounging -- not really doing anything. I feel like that was a very good thing to have done also.

We went on what is called a *helmet dive* while in Cozumel. It was interesting. A seventy-five pound helmet (think the old diving suits for deep sea adventures) is placed over your head just as you climb down a ladder into the bay. The pressure of the air keeps the water from going up into the helmet. You can see and breath perfectly. The draw back to this particular dive is that we had to follow a trek they had laid out for us. I would have liked to go off exploring a little bit. We did get to handle a star fish, which I thought was dead, until our guide put it down on a rock and it crawled off. We then handled a conch shell that was housing a large crab and one that had a conch in it. It was interesting -- also we were in an area that is being used to grow oysters and pearls. The process was explained to us before we began our walk and the baskets were hanging above our heads. (We were down about 20 feet.) I'll have pictures in a few days. Right now (because of Ike) we can't get the pictures developed and I had one of those underwater cameras.

When the ship was headed back to Galveston we did get into some rough water. The swells were probably 8 to 10 feet high and the ship did roll quite a bit. Thank goodness neither Robert or I suffer from motion sickness. There were lots of empty tables at supper Wednesday evening. The joke on the ship was *If you see someone walking straight, they're probably drunk." The deck did tend to jump out from under you on occasion, but the parties did go on.

Our captain brought us home quickly to stay ahead of Ike. We actually docked at 4:00 am. (On other trips we have been on the ship doesn't dock until about 7:00.) We were off the ship, through customs, and waiting for the shuttle to pick us up for the short trip over to the parking lot where we had left the pick-up by 7:30.

As soon as we got home, we went to work boarding up the windows. We had already cut plywood in preparation for a storm that threatened last year so it was just a matter of getting the wood out of the attic, putting clips on it and popping them over the windows. By 1:00 that was all done. We even went over and helped our neighbor get her windows covered. Now we sit and wait. We have decided not to leave. We aren't in danger from the storm surge and this house was built to withstand winds of 150 mph or better so I feel safe in the decision we made. If we lose electricity and might be without for several days we will re-evaluate and possibly leave for a bit more vacation.