Aboard the Norwegian

On Easter Sunday, the boys and I boarded the Norwegian Spirit for a 5 day cruise home.  What an adventure!  We wanted to try something new to get back to Honduras.  Honestly, I was just tired of throwing money at United Airlines; I figured I'd share the wealth, right?  Not so much. 

The children had a wonderful time.  Ice cream for dessert with breakfast, lunch and dinner; who could ask for anything more? 

The older boys went to the playplace all day and Eli and I would cruise the pools. 

All in all in was a relaxing way to get home, not to mention, I was able to bring much stuff with us without having to pay extra baggage fees (take that United!)  We were able to see Cozumel, Belize and the sunrise over our beautiful island of Roatan!

I forgot to mention...we are a golfing family.  Our children really have no choice but to become professional golfers, or at least that's what we're drilling into them.  We golf anywhere, everywhere, and at any time that we can.  Joseph, our oldest son (in the green below), is almost better (bien, mucho mejor) than I am.

Christmas at our house is a no brainer...golf clubs!  Anyway, we were able to play golf when we were in Louisiana and this trip I finally brought back my golf clubs so that I could enjoy the beautiful Black Pearl Golf Course at Pristine Bay!

Adventures in April...

So, when I last left you we were touring Lafayette via restaurants.  Any southern Louisianan will be happy to tell you that the food is just downright good!  So moving to the Caribbean does have one drawback...I know, I can feel your sympathy....still feeling the sympathy, wait, that's not sympathy! 

Crawfish, Chick-Fil-A, and Pizzavillage are only some of the stops we like to make.  As we continue on, we like to frequent this certain place called Bonefish Grill.  Oh, Bonefish Grill is so good that that is the only food I'm going to talk about today.  MMMM so good.  We miss Bonefish so much that we have tried to duplicate two of their recipes here on the island:  Bang Bang Shrimp and the Saucy Shrimp.  Both were very good but not the same.  What do you think?

I have to admit, we really only go to this restaurant for the appetizers and the occasional special Chocolate Crème Brulee.  I can say that their salads and martinis are excellent as well!  So stop #4 is always Bonefish Grill and I know you really miss seeing the crawfish and by now I’m sure I had eaten more of it so here it is:

After being in Lafayette for a couple of weeks, I returned to Roatan alone to prepare the way for my family and trying to find something for us to do here permanently.  Basically, I had a much needed alone vacation for two weeks.  This occurred at the very end of March and the beginning of April.  If you have ever been to this area at this time you would know what event was soon to happen!  Yes…Easter, as we Americans call it, or Semana Santa, which is Holy Week.  This is a really big deal here.  Imagine New Orleans and the preparations they make for Mardi Gras…same idea.  I tried to find a good picture of what the beach looked like…this is what I could find.

I’m sure at some point it was twenty times worse.  I managed to escape just in time (spoken like someone that has experienced one too many Mardi Gras) and spent Semana Santa in Louisiana with my family doing the average Easter things like Easter egg hunting, hanging out with family, getting a scuba lesson (doesn’t everyone…) and eating…you guessed it, crawfish!

 

 

Until tomorrow...

Dear 9 followers....

Dear 9 followers,

I know I have let you down.  Life got so crazy and eventful here that I have neglected to blog.  I am now realizing that blogging was probably the one thing keeping me sane.  So I vow to try to not let you down again. 

When I last left you, my car had decided to lose a wheel and I believe it was around Mardi Gras in Louisiana.  So, I will attempt to bring you up to speed with the next couple of posts.  So, they won't be current, but enjoyable none the less.

First of all, our 3 month, which turned into 4 month, "vacation" came to an end and we had to return to the United States to make a huge decision.  Did we want to sell off our entire life and move to Roatan or call it all a great vacation and go back to normalcy called American life?  Well, of course, we wanted to remain in the Carribean.  This came with a small price; we had to sell everything.  Selling everything sounds exciting, but I reassure you it is exhausting. 

So began our garage sales...I believe we had four?  When selling everything you have to decide what constitutes as everything?  Do you sell (or more likely) give away pots and pans, clothes, furniture, those DVDs that you've been collecting for years.  Oh no, not my CD collection from the 90s!  Seriously, the hardest thing I had to do was give away the books from my library that I've collected now for over 20 years....all in the name of moving.  Our close friends are now some of the proudest owners of some really awesome stuff. 

One last thing and I'll move on, people that came to our garage sale thought we were nuts...they literally passed the news on to other garage sale shoppers.  Everything at our garage sale was $1 or less!  How much is this set of cast iron pots?  $1, Seriously?  How much is this computer monitor?  $1, What?  It got to the point that we just started giving things away to people that bought one item....felt so good to do; however, we were labeled as crazy!  "We hear you are the crazy people practically giving stuff away"....Yep, that's us! 

From November to March, I returned home once for the dog incident that I previously blogged about, so when I returned in mid-March there was only one thing to do...eat Louisiana Southern food and lots of it!  I can't tell you how much crawfish this little person consumed, but it was more than the daily allowable by law rate (there is no such law so don't send anyone after me...I have enough trouble). 

Here's a picture of me and one of my bestees, Julie...it is a little blurry, the trusted waitress took our picture...I think she mumbled, "Stupid tourists."  Little did she know, I only had a couple of weeks to devour as much crawfish as possible! 

I just realized that I may have to explain what crawfish are to some people and why we would eat them.  The best way to describe a crawfish:  a little lobster that is much more juicier and Cajuns consume a lot of them!  Crawfish are usually boiled (how I prefer mine) with potatoes, corn, mushrooms, and onions...oh and lots of cajun seasoning!  They are delicious and sort of like sushi; you can eat, and eat, and eat them and it takes forever to be full.  Now, I continue...

Not only did we eat crawfish, but all the foods that we loved and missed for example, and spare me the time to plug a few local favorite vendors...Our very first stop was always Chick-Fil-A for their Spicy Chicken Sandwich.  This sandwich is so spicy hot and I consume it so fast that it always gives me hiccups...what the hell, have two! 

The next stop, usually the next day...give a girl a break, is usually Pizzavillage, U.S.A.  Oh man, one cannot do without their Italian dressing and their thin crust.  As a teenager, I worked in this restaurant briefly and I kick myself in the arm (that one was for you Johnny) for not remembering the recipe for that darn dressing!  Here's Chris enjoying a plate!

There are so many more restaurants in our tour de Lafayette but I'll leave some for tomorrow's blog.  So, for now, 9 followers spread the word and let's get one more follower! 

Until tomorrow,

Melissa