My First Doodle Cruise! What a Fantastic Trip!

[Leslie and Halas]

I was lucky enough to participate in Doodle Cruise 2013!  It was my first, but not my last.  I think y'all are stuck with me.  And my mom.  Here are some of my thoughts on the events of the week.

Here we are as the ship left the port.  Ronna pointed out how she is posed like Flat Laurie in this photo.  But this was before any of us had met Flat Laurie.  Coincidence?!  Or a clear sign that Flat Laurie and Ronna had a very special connection?  Please refer to Flat Laurie's picture below for a comparison.

Right after lift-off, or whatever they call it, a few of us made our way to the Lido Deck for our first Liquor Juice of the trip.  Every day, the ship featured a special drink of the day.  It was always just 3 or 4 liquors mixed with a couple of juices.  So by day 2 or 3, we just started referring to the drink of the day as Liquor Juice.

A few of us went stand up paddleboarding in Key West.  Here we are right before we got into the white, nondescript windowless van for the ride to our starting point.  It all turned out OK.  The only casualty of paddleboarding was Ronna's sunglasses.  Sure, there was a lot of falling off of the paddleboards, but it was a great time, and the mangroves were beautiful!

Here's one of Flat Laurie's Key West photo-ops.  Please compare it to the first picture above.  Notice how similar her pose is to Ronna's.  This was way back when Flat Laurie was still kind of a "good girl," but that reputation was fading fast.

Key West should also be known as The Port of Silly Hats, because THREE silly hats were purchased by Doodle Cruisers.

My mom bought this lovely Octoberfest Chicken hat for herself:

Ronna was able to wrangle this stunning cow hat (wrangle - see what I did there?):

And Laurie bought this birthday hat for my mom.  Her birthday wasn't until the 21st, but we celebrated on the cruise.  She loves the hat!  Thanks, Laurie.

In Grand Cayman, we rented cabanas for the day.  The beach was absolutely beautiful.  A few of us went on a banana boat ride, which was sooo much fun!  The signal to tell the driver to go faster was a thumbs-up.  So you can see Doris giving him the signal in this first photo.  We were dumped off the banana shortly after that.

Grand Cayman group photo:

In Ocho Rios, Ronna and I did the Jamaican bobsled thing, followed by rum drinks in an infinity pool.

The rest of the group relaxed and shopped, and we caught up with them later.

And a few more pics, just to round out the trip.

Loved our Fatheads, even though we didn't win.

Since Laurie is 5' 12", we decided my mom must be 5' 12" minus 12"  This made it really difficult to take their picture together.

And a crowd favorite...

Hearing people laugh is one of my favorite things, and we got a lot of that on this cruise.  We all laughed until tears ran down our faces.  And sometimes laughed until some other bodily fluid ran down some other body part.

My mom and I had the most amazing time.  Within a few minutes, we felt like we had known everyone forever.  I'm still working on having my mom microchipped, since several people threatened to steal her.  She already has a file at the vet's office, since they removed that tick from her last year, so I don't think the microchip will be a problem.

It was so nice to meet everyone in person, and I love hearing all of your voices now as I read your comments.  I know that we all made some new forever friends and some very special connections.  If any of us ever needs anything, we just know the others will be there.  That's just a feeling I get. ;)  <3

Thanks to Ronna, Doris, Laurie, John, Nicky, Dori, Deanna, Kathy, Elizabeth, Jim, Jane, and Bob for making this a wonderful trip for my mom and me!  We think all y'all are the best!

[Bonnie and Kona]

It sounds like you definitely have the gift of encouragement, Leslie. Perhaps a dangerous gift in some circumstances !

[Leslie and Halas]

That sounds about right!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, I loved that too! Shopping while drinking, my kind of leisure activity! 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Leslie, thanks for posting this! The pictures are fabulous, it's so much fun to see all of you having such a good time together!

(And I love the one of you & your mom! You clean up pretty good!)

If only I could talk JD into wearing clothing, maybe I could pass him off as my brother and join you guys on the next trip!  

[Leslie and Halas]

We talked about trying to arrange a Chicago weekend sometime!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

YES!!! 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Of course, it would be an all inclusive vacation with ALL of us staying with you :) LOL

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

LOL, Laurie, you have no idea how much harder that would be on you guys than on me., especially if I was in charge of food ;)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

We could order out for the food :)

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

We did all consider pitching a tent outside Laurie's too, a sort of Doodle Crawl around the US and Canada to go Whale watching with an International stop off in Ireland....;)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Leslie, I love this discussion. Perfect!! I hope Elizabeth posts something, too, since she is the only person who has ONE picture of me where I don't look stupid :) It was so much fun meeting you and your mom and remember, your mom said she is coming next time with or without you. I think she was going to room with Flat Laurie!! That spells big trouble, except Flat Laurie does not have any bodily fluids, making her your mom's best candidate for a roommate.

[Leslie and Halas]

And Flat Laurie won't have any clothes to worry about, so my mom can use all of the cabinets for herself! Unless FL brings some gowns to the event next year. I mean, she must be getting tired of that orange bikini.
Elizabeth got some great people pictures. I'm glad, because I wasn't very good about doing that, unless FL was involved.