Spring Break: Stingray Beach, Cozumel

We decided to play it safe and use only ship-sponsored shore excursions that we thought would really appeal to the kids. The trip to Stingray Beach looked perfect! When we arrived we secured our stuff, got our supplies,

and got a short lesson on stingrays and the basics of snorkeling. (See the stuffed ray he's holding? The kids decided to part with some of their vacation money so they could each bring one home.) Our guide  also made sure to let us know that all the stingrays in their enclosure have had their stingers removed.

Then it was into the water! My little fish, I mean my daughter, took off like a rocket into the blue. No worries in her little head.

My, son on the other hand, needed a little encouragement to get into the water. Watching all those big gray spots moving around on the bottom was a bit unnerving, but once he put his face into the water he was hooked. Some of the rays were huge - easily three or four feet across. We learned later that the bigger ones were the females and that the smaller ones with the claspers at the base of their tails were the males.

We also spent some time in the shallows actually touching, feeding, and, if you wanted to, kissing the rays, but cameras weren't allowed during that portion of the day. Their photographer took pictures which they hoped you'd buy later. I understood because the majority of people don't have a waterproof camera and might have loved the opportunity to get a few pictures. But, I did have a waterproof camera and didn't think it was very nice when they asked me to put it away. However, they did ask me to put it away very politely, so I didn't argue. 

Later on, when I was looking at the pictures they took, I just couldn't see paying $35 US dollars for one photograph. I think they would be better off doing what I saw in Egypt - sell people a photo pass - permission to take pictures. I would have paid $10.00 to take my own pictures and they would have been ahead, but I'm not going to complain because we had a fantastic day.

After we got out of the water and dried off, there was a little time to hang out on the beach. They had lots for the kids to do while the adults soaked up a bit of sun, had a complimentary soda or looked at the photos available for purchase.

There were animals to touch and hermit crabs to race.

 

While my son just wanted to watch, my daughter chose on of the smaller crabs and immediately named him "Silly." He started out strong but then started to loop around the inner circle instead of heading out toward the outside. None of the other crabs moved until the kids were told they had to cheer for their crabs if they wanted them to win.

 

Once K started cheering, "Go Silly, go!" that little crab took off and beat every other one to the finish line. Which in and of itself was very exciting, but my daughter just about flipped when she found out that the prize for first place was a bag of chips - what ever kind she choose. She thought she might be able to bring the little guy home, but sadly he had to stay at Stingray Beach...

Here's their promotional video from YouTube to give you and idea about our day. If you are ever in Cozumel, I recommend stopping by...

Spring Break: New Orleans

I'd never been to Louisiana, so I was pretty excited to find out our cruise departed from New Orleans. The only down side was that we were really only going to get part of a day to explore the city. Of course it wasn't even a fraction of enough time, but we made the best of it.

After checking into the Intercontinental Hotel, we set out to find dinner. My Husband had read about this place and we were not disappointed. I don't remember which sandwich I had, but it was great and the kids were thrilled about having pancakes and bacon for dinner! Afterward, most of the group was ready to go back to the hotel, but not me. Luckily my brother-in-law was up for a little exploring. We decided to head over to Bourbon St...

Crazy would be an understatement - and it wasn't even Mardi Gras. I was glad we sent the kids back to the hotel - I'm not sure how I would have explained the "Barely Legal" club to my eight year-old son, or why he couldn't go into a bar to dance to Gangham Style. My brother-in-law and I walked around for a while listening to the music and people watching, (we were especially amused by the couple who were pushing an infant in a stroller while wearing T-shirts that said, "Drunk #1" and "Drunk #2.") We walked until we found this nice little spot with live music and fresh baked goods.

We didn't stay long - just long enough to pick up a few beignets for breakfast. (After watching the Princess and the Frog - I had to try one.) As the night life on Bourbon Street started to wind up, we were winding down so we walked back to the hotel and crashed. Though, I had to stop to get some pictures of the gas lights on the street. They were beautiful...

In the morning the kids, Grandma and I were itching to get out and see a bit more of the city before we had to leave. Neither my children or I had ever seen the Mississippi River - or the, as my daughter put it, "strange looking" sea gulls.

The train was also fun to watch. New citing always have so many interesting things to look at!

However, the highlight of the morning's walk was finding the ship. The kids knew it was going to be big, but they hadn't grasped just how absolutely gigantic it was.

All we had time left to do was get back to the hotel,  get in our taxis, and ride back to the terminal in time to board the ship at noon. The kids were all so excited; they knew our cruise aboard the Navigator of the Seas was going to be a trip to remember...

Photo Credit: 

Photo of New Orleans: kla4067

Remember Me?

Hi there. I didn't mean to be away for so long, but as usual I got busy - very busy. But, I seem to have time to breathe again, so I thought I'd pop in to say hello.

Hello.

Part of the reason I was so busy was that we took a cruise. You heard me - a cruise! My husband's parents took the whole family on a trip to help them celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Over the next week or so, I'll tell you all about it...

Happy Easter

Sorry about seeming to fall off the edge of the Earth this month. March tends to be incredibly busy for me between  kids; March is Reading Month, preparing for parent-teacher conferences and report cards at work; and spring break - I just didn't have time (or the energy) to blog too. 

Things will be winding down and after the first week in April I should have more time to spend here. Until then, I wish you and yours a very happy Easter!

Home Again... Finally!

A couple of weeks ago all of Mackinac's elementary school teachers spent the weekend at the Michigan reading Association's annual conference down in Grand Rapids. The conference was great, but getting home didn't work out quite so well. (If you enlarge that photo above you can read the warning sign for the Mackinac Bridge.)

We'd heard it was foggy in the Straits, but when we hit the Mackinac Bridge we knew we weren't going anywhere.

It was so foggy we still couldn't fly

over to the island Monday morning.

Or Monday afternoon.

Or Monday night.

Or Tuesday morning.

(Thank goodness I packed extra undies!)

Finally, by mid-day on Tuesday, there was a break in the weather and we were able to hop on a plane to get back to the island. I've got to say, it never felt so good to be home!

To The Rescue

For the past few days there has been a freighter just sitting out in the ice in the Straits of Mackinac. It appeared to be stuck...

Then, this morning, there was some activity.

According to our Assistant Fire Chief, Jason St. Onge, the mother of one of the crew members died and the Coast Guard was unable to retrieve him so he could attend her funeral. (My understanding is they only retrieve you in life and death situations.)

Somehow the man got a hold of the Island Fire Department to ask for help. The officers conferred and decided they would be able to assist the man to shore. So they rallied the troops, prepared the ice / water rescue equipment and walked out the the ship.

Once there, the man was lowered down and they all walked to shore. Then, he hopped on a snowmobile and was driven up to the airport so he could get home.

It may have been risky but I'm glad they did it. That's just how the people on Mackinac are - if you need help, they're right there ready to lend a hand. That mind set is another reason I'm proud to call Mackinac Island my home.

Here's the piece from our local news:

  

All photos in this post courtesy of Clark Bloswick.

No Chuck E. Cheese - No Problem

Who needs Chuck E. Cheese's when you can

celebrate your birthday by having a sledding

party at Turtle Park instead.

To help our friend, L, celebrate we spent

the afternoon sledding,

tugging,

and munching.

But the best part of the party, in my daughter's opinion, was desert. She loves dinosaurs almost as much as the birthday girl and her jaw literally dropped when she saw the gigantic box of homemade dinosaur cookies. Having a zillion cookies instead of a cake was genius - I'm going to have to file that little idea away. So much less mess with cookies than with a cake, and moving a cake on Mackinac Island can be tricky...

Fishy Fun

The kids and Papa have been spending time recently out on the Grand Hotel pond. It's the perfect place to get outside and have a little winter fun.

OK, maybe the fun wasn't quite so little after all. Given all the fertilizer we assume they use the course during the summer we don't eat any of the fish from the pond, but they're still fun to catch and release. Who says there's nothing fun to do on Mackinac Island in the winter time...

Only on Mackinac

I think Mackinac Island might be the only place you'll see a man on a snowmobile walking a horse.

Well, he's actually not a horse, he's a sweet little pony named Ricky - heading off the Island for the rest of the winter. (But not across the ice! They took him off on the last boat.)

I Wonder...

I took this picture after school one day last week while the kids and I watched an otter play out on the edge of the ice. Of course he disappeared under the ice as soon as I managed to get my camera out, but looking at the ice got me wondering. Some days it looks so blue.

But then, on other days, it doesn't look blue at all. (This picture is from several years ago.) I've tried to notice whether there is a relationship between the color and the sun, but as of yet, I haven't found a pattern. My current theory is that the color has something to do with the thickness of the ice.

Of all the photos of Straits ice I've taken over the years, this one is, by far, my favorite. I took it back in 2008 - The Quilted Turtle hadn't even had its first birthday yet. As I worked on this post I had fun looking back at my old ice photos;

I never really thought about how different the ice is from year to year...

Homemade Character Valentines

It's February, so I guess it's time to start thinking about Valentine's Day. Personally, I love homemade valentines. For the past couple of years, I've done things with the kids' faces on them, but this year the kids wanted cards with characters. I thought about just buying them at the store, but I knew there just had to be a better way. There had to be a way to create personalized cards that still had the kids'  favorite characters.

My first thought was to make them in Photoshop. So, I put this cute photo of Lego R2 D2 on a white background, added some cheesy text, and my son thought it would be perfect for the girls in his class.

Too girly? Really? How can Star Wars be too girly?  But, you know, it's important to portray the right image in second grade, so it was back to the drawing board. As I searched for images I could use, I came across this site. It was perfect! Large images - often with lots of space for text. I got to work and came up with card number two:

Of course, as a teacher, I needed valentines too! The Muppet fan in me fell in love with this picture of Oscar: 

My daughter is all about My Little Pony these days. So after viewing all the MLP backgrounds she settled  on the one below.  

Just in case you happen to have a little girl at home who loves My Little Pony, here is the same card without my daughter's name. You can download the font for free here. (You can find the fonts I used in the R2D2 card here and the Darth Vader card here - both also free.) Then just use your favorite graphics editing software and add in your child's name. (Or skip that step and have her sign with a silver sharpie.)  I cropped the image to be 4 by 6 - just perfect to upload to Snapfish  to get printed for nine cents each. I suppose you could do it at home, but I always seem to run out of ink at the most inopportune moments, so for me, Snapfish was easier.

Please feel free to download these cards and use them. Just be aware that you can't sell them - the characters are all trademarked, or is it copyrighted? I'm not sure, but either way selling them is a big no no.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Attempted

Today was the day. It was cold, still and beautiful, and the ice had been freezing all weekend. All weekend...

72 hours...

Less than that really, but it was there...

Calling to them...

"Cross me."

It scares me just thinking about it. I think it scared them too, at least a little bit, because they left their snowmobiles behind and crossed on foot. I heard, through Mackinac's active rumor mill, they flew back to the island. Apparently when the Coast Guard Cutter came through to break up the channel between the Island and Mackinaw City, it caused the ice to pull away from shore and made a return trip impossible.

I'm glad they made it home safely. And extra extra glad my husband doesn't even think about doing things like that. If he did, I'd be so worried I couldn't think straight.

Just Kidding

Apparently that last boat wasn't really the last boat. It was supposed to be, but then they started running again. Now we're just all wondering how long they'll keep running.

It's been cold and the Straits of Mackinac are getting icy. Hopefully that means we'll get an ice bridge this year...