My Dad's 93rd Birthday Celebration - Rigby Family Cruise

Most people would never realize that my dad is now 93 years old.  In honor of his birthday, he wanted to take all of his children and their siblings on a Caribbean Cruise.  We were all so excited about being together with our dad for his birthday!  The only ones not able to attend were my sister, Natalie, and her husband, Mark.  We truly missed them. 

Our entire group!  Such fantastic people to travel with!

 

 After spending the night in Ft. Lauderdale, we boarded our ship, the beautiful and amazing Allure of the Sea. 

  It is hard to believe all of this is growing on a floating ship!
View looking up at the many floors from the elevator.

One of the best things about being on the ship is that this was where our rooms were located--looking over the boardwalk below!  Fantastic location!

Right at the end of the boardwalk was where the water shows were held.
 
 Joyce, Dad, and I waiting for the production to begin.

Such an amazing performance of Cirque du soleil with acrobatic acts and cliff divers.  Fantastic!

 This was the beautiful rock climbing wall lit up at night.

We held a birthday party for my dad aboard the ship and each gave him a little gift that reminded us of him.  Afterwards, he was honored in the dining room at our dinner.

And we all sang, "Happy Birthday," even the Maitre D'!

Certainly doesn't look 93 years old, right?!
 

One of the funnest things we did was to play miniature golf with our dad. 

And who was the only one who made a hole-in-one, not just one round, but two???

You got it--our 93-year-old dad!  No one even came close to his golfing ability when we sisters played against him!

 We loved eating all of our meals together as often as possible.

We enjoyed the 'Move It Parade' that took place in the promenade area.  So many fun costumes and characters!

In the evenings, we had fun walking on the boardwalk and participating in the many activities along the way.



 And who wouldn't take the opportunity of riding the carousel that was almost right below our rooms?!



I rode with my dad on the bench seat.  I thought he would really enjoy it, but was actually disappointed that I didn't let him ride one of the horses!  He said he still had strength in his hands and could have hung on. 

We enjoyed playing the bean bag toss one night.




Yes, we may have tried to pack too many things in a day as can be seen by Jerry in this pic!  Hah!





 In addition to the activities, we always love going to the evening entertainment.  This is one of the entertainers.  He sang every type of music with equal enthusiasm and right on point!  We all were singing along, clapping, and dancing in our seats.  He was great!



 One night, we were able to see the full-length musical of "Mama Mia."  It was as good as any Broadway Production we have ever seen.  Joyce saw the star who played the mother, one day on the elevator.

  We spent lots of free time playing a new game that we learned from the Wildes:  Five Crowns.  I think Dad really enjoyed learning how to play it.

 

And what's more fun than having all the cookies you wanted!  Yes, and George shared with everyone!


First Shore Excursion - Labadee, Haiti

Labadee is an island that is reserved exclusively for Royal Caribbean guests.  There are many water sports and great beaches there, as well as local artisans who have little outdoor stands to sell their wares.

The six guys:  Ted (brother-in-law); Larry (brother-in-law); Blair (brother); George (husband); Jerry (brother); with our dad in front.






 






The six girls:  Beverly (sis); Joyce (sis); me; Denise (sis-in-law); Beth (sis); and Shelly (sis-in-law).  I really love all these great women!
 

Some great island entertainment.

Part of the group chose to stay on the beach and enjoy the water.
  

The rest of us boarded a small boat to go on a "cultural tour" to a different area.


When we signed up, nothing was said about having no dock and walking through water almost to your waist when you got off the ship, then trying to keep your balance in the waves of the beach!

 I had my swim suit under my skirt, but I didn't want my skirt to get wet!  Crazy!


Heading for the seashore.  It definitely felt remote!

They, also, didn't tell us that we would be walking straight up a mountain path through this metamorphic rock to start the tour.  But, oh, well--we did sign up for a cultural tour!  







When we got close to the top, we found the one bathroom on the island.  The front looks pretty normal, but the sides were just slats of wood that there was no way you couldn't see through into the bathroom.  Thank goodness everyone lined up in front.  This poor kid's job was to take the pan of water each time someone went, into the toilet in order to flush it.  I loved his pose when we asked if we could get his picture!  You would have thought he owned the island!  He had a job and he was pretty proud of it!

There was a small seashore where we could relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery . . .


 
 
  

But, we wanted to spend our time learning about the Haitian people and how they live.  We enjoyed the demonstration of the two-man saw.

Watching a weaver who made beautiful hats, purses, baskets, etc.

When our guide asked those on the tour what this type of basket was used for, I was the one who knew because we have the same thing in Florida but made out of chicken wire.  These are put in the water to catch lobsters.  There is a hole in this where the lobster goes after some form of bait and then can't get out.  I told her we used fish heads or chicken necks.  She said they used some sort of meal inside because their lobsters were vegetarians!  Hah!

This young lady was pounding peanuts that after a pretty long time actually turned into  . . .

PEANUT BUTTER!
 


Our guide took the first taste.  She said, "I love my job!"  We all got to try it, too.  It was a unique taste because they actually add a little hot sauce with it!

This woman was crushing coffee beans.

This is a giant flat bread.  This man was so skilled, he could turn it over perfectly with one try!
 
 Beth's husband, Ted, was a great sport to go along with we four sisters!

Soon it was time to head back to Labadee where we had a delicious barbecue dinner, and then headed for the ship.
  
 

Some of the native dancers entertained us with their cultural dances as we headed to board the ship after such a great day!

Second Shore Excursion - Falmouth, Jamaica

 
Blair worked out a special side trip with the cruise lines to the Good Hope Estate since we all wanted to go and figured that our family could probably fill a small bus ourselves.

So, we all boarded the special van and headed for the Good Hope Estate where whatever transpired in the translation, the owners thought we truly were a special tour of VIPs.  We have never been treated so royally on a tour in our lives! 
 
 Our guide is actually a family member who owns and runs the Good Hope Estate!  Who better would know all about the history and all that is done here, plus he stayed with us the entire day and made us feel like his family!  He was fantastic!

The Good Hope Estate is located about eight miles from Falmouth and is comprised of 2,000 acres.  It has remained almost the same as it would have been when Col. Thomas Williams built it in 1755 for his wife, Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth would not live long in the house. She died seven years later at 24 years old and was buried beneath the ground floor. A simple stone marker indicates the spot where she was laid to rest.

We weren't surprised when our guide told us that several people have seen the ghost of Elizabeth here in this room of the plantation.



About half of our family went to the thrill seekers portion of the estate that has been added within the last few years which included zip-lining, river tubing, and dune buggy rides.  The rest of us toured the plantation in the back of a horse-drawn buggy.

In 1767, Good Hope Great House was sold to John Tharp. Tharp, who was only 23 at the time of the purchase, bought several of the neighboring estates, which increased the size of his holdings to 9,000 acres, and approximately 2,500 slaves.

He seems to have been a kind plantation owner who treated his slaves well. Good Hope had its own church, a 300-bed hospital, and a Free School that taught those who showed promise how to read and write. The plantation prospered even after the abolition of slavery.

The beautiful Martha Brae River winds through the plantation.

Following Tharp’s death, his nephew managed the estate and it remained profitable. Good Hope Great House and Plantation changed hands several times but the sugar factory continued operating until 1902.  This is the giant water wheel used in the production of the sugar.  The water wheel powered three heavy rollers which crushed the sugar cane that extracted the juice.  The final result was molasses, sugar, and rum.

Our guide showed us the flowers of the silk cotton tree which, when opened, look just like cotton.  It is a sacred tree in the Maya’s culture and in Central American Indian groups. 
At the very top of the hill is the Good Hope Great House.  It is very stately and unique.      

From the Great House can be seen the beautiful Queen of Spain Valley clear out to where the Cockpit Mountains rise in the distance.

  

Despite the many changes in ownership and having undergone several expansions and renovations, its owners have maintained the original Georgian style.  Notice the plantation shutters and original windows.




The original orange wood floor is still in tact and is absolutely beautiful!





A painting of the estate done in the 1800s that looks relatively the same as today.



The ten rooms have been restored to what it would have looked like when the Great House was built in 1755.

Good Hope Great House has the first hot water bath in the Caribbean (Falmouth had running water before New York City).  This is the original copper tub.  It is huge!

Relaxing and overlooking the beautiful view.

The veranda is all set up for high tea, which is served daily here.

Some of the very sweet ladies who work in the separate building that is the kitchen.





Tharp’s operation was one of the largest on the island. Besides the hospital, church and school, there was a sugar factory, Carriage House, Coach House, waterwheel, boiling house, kiln and other buildings. As it was considered bad form to do business at home, Tharp also built a stand-alone office, called the Counting House, behind the main house. He also built Tharp House, a shipping office that still can be seen near what is now Falmouth Pier.

We then visited what began as a Slave Hospital in 1798 that served nine adjoining sugar estates owned by the Tharp family.  Just before emancipation in 1837, it became St. Peter's Chapel, Good Hope, and also opened as a free school for the whole community.  After about 50 years, congregations dwindled and it fell into ruins and was finally flattened by hurricane Gilbert in 1988. 

The rocks used in this building originated in England and were used as ballast in the ships coming from England.

Today, this is a fantastic bird aviary that we all enjoyed so much.

We were then treated to a wonderful lunch where we tasted Jamaica "Jerk" pork.  The jerk, as is stated above, is a style of cooking native to Jamiaica in which meats are rubbed or marinated with a very hot spice mixture called "jerk."  Another origin is linked to the jerking of the meat with a sharp object which produced holes which were then filled with the spice mixture.  It truly was delicious!

After the plantation tour, our tour guide sat and mingled with us.  We talked about everything from politics to religion.  He was very knowledgeable about Americans!

And the fun just kept going--we then had a delicious island drink filled with all kinds of delicious fruits!

While we were doing all these fun things, the other half of the family was also having the time of their lives!  


Besides going down the lazy river where they weren't able to take pictures, they also got to do some major zip lining!

Sadly, after having such a great day, we all had to say good-bye and got back in our van to start our way back to the ship. 

 We snapped a few pictures of real life for many of the Jamaicans along the way.

It was the end of the day for the school children.  They all looked very organized in their school uniforms.

I have to say that I am a big proponent for school uniforms.  It helps everyone to feel a oneness.

We stopped and looked at the little shops in Falmouth before heading back to the ship.  This day in Jamaica will always be a day to remember!


Third Shore Excursion - Porto Playa and Chichen Itza, Mexico


Upon arriving in Cozumel, we boarded a ferry, then boarded a bus for a 155 mile journey (about 2 1/2 hour trip) to Porto Playa in order to do a day trip to Chichen Itza.

We were amazed at the colorful buildings we passed, all with the water receptacles on top of the buildings like we had seen in Jordan.  All water has to be brought in and pumped to the storage containers on a routine basis, so water is limited to only what is available in the tanks.



We finally reach Playa del Carmen which was near the entrance to Chichen Itza.

Upon entering the site, there ahead of us was the incredible Mayan ruins and pyramids of Chichen Itza, one of the Seven New Wonders of the World!  Built between the 9th and 12th century, it is one of Mexico's largest Mayan sites.

The largest structure is a step pyramid called El Castillo (Spanish for "the castle") served as a temple to the god Kukulkan, the Yucatec Maya feathered serpent deity closely related to the god Quetzalcoatl known to the Aztecs. 

Each of El Castillo pyramid’s four sides has 91 steps. When added together and including the temple platform of the temple as the final step, it produces a total of 365 steps. This equals the number of days in a Maya calendar year (as well as the year we are familiar with).

 

 In the late afternoon during the Spring and Autumn equinoxes  (about March 20 and September 23), triangular shadows are cast on the north side that makes it look like a serpent is slithering down the staircase as our guide is showing on this picture.

Although not all of El Castillo has been restored, it is rather interesting to see how it looked when the researchers found it.  In addition, more excavation is being done as seen in the foreground above. 

 

 This substructure was built even earlier than El Castillo--probably between the 8th and 9th century.

 This is known as the Temple of the Warriors.  It is a large stepped pyramid that was named after the surrounding carved columns depicting warriors.  It might be the only known late classic Maya building sufficiently big enough for really large gatherings.  

Along the south wall of the Temple of Warriors are a series of about 200 columns, prompting the name Plaza of a Thousand Columns. When Chichen Itza was inhabited these would have supported an extensive roof system.

The plumed serpent that can be seen many places throughout this area.

This is known as the Great Ball Court because it is the largest of at least 13 ball courts in the area.  It measures 545 ft. by 223 ft., so it is huge and is the largest ball court in Mesoamerica.  It is an I-shaped playing ground with a small temple at either end.  The acoustics within the ball court make it so that a whisper at one end can be heard clearly at the other.

A ball going through the rings imprinted with intertwining serpents and about 20 feet above the ground on either side of the court must not have occurred very often.  The ball that was used wasn't much smaller than the opening and the players could not use their hands or even feet to guide the ball. 

There is a question as to whether the losing team captain was sacrificed to their god or the winning team captain was so proud to be decapitated by the losing captain since the winning captain would then get a direct ticket to heaven.

At the north end of the Great Ball Court is the Temple of the Bearded Man or the North Temple.  

It has carvings on the inner walls, including a center figure that has carving under his chin that resembles facial hair. 

Very interesting because the Mayan men didn't have facial hair and even to this day, as our guide pointed out, still don't. 

 With the many sculptures and bas reliefs found in Chichen Itza, much can be told about the people who lived here.

 

 

 Our guide, also, told us about the Sacred Cenote that is a sinkhole connected to Chichen Itza by a raised pathway.  Although we didn't go there, we were told that it was an exclusively ceremonial body of water.  Over the years, the murky water yielded many artifacts including gold, jade, copper, turquoise, obsidian, copal or incense, pottery, rubber, shells, and the bones of around 200 people who were thrown in as a sacrifice.  Men, women, and children were thrown alive into it as a sacrifice to the gods in times of droughts.   A second cave in the center of Chichen Itza was used as a source of water for its residents. 

This is known as the Wall of Skulls and emphasizes the practice in the Yucatan and other regions where they displayed heads impaled on top of one another along vertical wooden posts. 

  This particular platform was used to memorialize past victims as well as display the heads of sacrificial prisoners or enemies that had died in battle. Used to control the masses and scare the enemy, the platform was built to display the conquests of the state.

 

 Besides the disturbing fact that so many heads were actually in that wall behind our guide is the fact that since the heads were shaped so irregularly in the wall, some mothers today still want their children to have that same head shape, so they strap their heads to wood and other items when the child is very young to achieve that same head shape.  All of this sickened us!

Soon, however, we got to forget about all the disturbing things we had seen about sacrifice, etc., when we came upon a little Mayan woman who has been coming here for years, now with her daughter who was standing behind her, to sell the beautiful handkerchiefs which they handmade together.

 

 She was so little and adorable and her handkerchiefs were so beautiful, she made lots of sales just in our family alone that day!

After spending at least two hours looking at the ruins in the hottest weather I have ever experienced (and I've lived in Florida the past 22 years!), we started walking back towards the bus through the little market of local artisans.

Doug found a wooden instrument that sounded exactly like a bird when you blew on it just right!  He was very good!

What a fascinating day we had in Chichen Itza!  You can see why well-over a million tourists visit this spot in one year!

After the stifling heat we had been in all day, the beach where we waited for the ferry back to our ship by in Playa del Carmen certainly looked enticing!

It turned out to be about a 14-hour day by the time we got back to the ship, but it was well worth it to visit another one of the Seven Wonders of the World!

Since Ted and Beth had just visited Chichen Itza a few months before, they took dad to the city where they had some wonderful cultural experiences, too!

Our last dinner on the cruise was very emotional!  All too soon, the week-long cruise we had all looked forward to for so long, was coming to an end.  We had enjoyed being together so much, and now the six of us and our spouses, along with our dad, would all be returning to our several homes.  Dad told us he was ready to go on another one next week!  Believe me, when we do go again, we really want our sister Natalie and her husband Mark, to go to make it complete!  Thanks for the wonderful time, everyone, and for our dad paying for this trip, as well as to Blair, Joyce, and Beverly, for all their contributions in making the plans!  This was certainly a week we will always remember with fondness!