Ben has his own little room at the head of Joe's bed. It's at the front of the boat. The twins and I are sleeping in the back of the boat. They have been a bit of a challenge. Eli especially. Eli has decided that napping is now optional, which leaves him a bit cranky.
On Tuesday, we finally felt ready enough to head down towards Fort Lauderdale. We took the intracoastal waterway, which meant waiting for bridges frequently and motoring the entire way, but it was also smoother than the ocean side would have been, which is a good warm-up for the kids. There were manatees in there! Ben got a really good look at one. We found an anchoring spot near a state park. We took the dinghy to the park where Joe brought us dinner from a nearby restaurant. Raccoons quickly tried to steal food from us. Once we were done we took a quick walk to through a tunnel to the beach and ocean where the boys ran around before it started to get dark and we needed to head back.
Wednesday we continued south and found a spot to anchor, but it was pretty tight. The next morning we went out an inlet to the ocean to follow the coast down to Miami. We anchored near Key Biscayne also near a state park. It was a bit of a dinghy ride to get to shore, but we checked out the park a couple times with the boys. They got to play in the sand one day and swim and play in the sand another.
During the week, Ben has been doing homeschool. It's been going all right though is definitely a challenge with the twins. Most of the time, Chelsey helps Ben while I keep the twins occupied. I don't have naptime very often because either Eli refuses to sleep, sleeps on me, or I have to be in bed with them in order to make sure they don't run a mock.
In Miami we had some more grocery shopping to do and we found out that the dinghy's motor was overheating. It took a bit to hunt down a fuel filter, thinking that was the problem. Turned out that it wasn't. We also had some paperwork to get done in order to head over to The Bahamas.
On Monday, the 3rd, we decided we were ready to head out to The Bahamas. Unfortunately, it was a headwind the entire way, so we couldn't sail. We had to motor the entire way. We left at about 6:30am and arrived at 3:30pm. The water is so clear, it's crazy. We're anchored where it's 16ft deep and you can see the chain laying on the sand.
Tuesday morning, a number of us jumped in for a little swim. The bigger boys went onto shore to explore while Chelsey, the twins and me stayed behind. We eventually when in to let the boys play in the sand. We're planning on staying in Bimini until we get a working dinghy.
;)
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We spent Tuesday traveling to Cozumel. We had to take a ferry, then a taxi, then a bus then another ferry to get there. Mary was feeling a little seasick from the ferry ride, so we just went to the hotel that we've stayed at on Cozumel before. Lunch was at apparently the oldest restaurant on Cozumel. We just had empanadas, guacamole and horchata. The horchata was definitely the best I've had while in Mexico. We spent that evening doing some walking around and eventually found a super cute little dinner place that was a block off the main street. Mary did a little shopping that evening but was mostly finding she was done with people yelling at her trying to buy stuff.
Wednesday, we woke up with the plan to get some more of that yummy horchata, wasting a little time before we had to be at the airport. Unfortunately, that changed when Mary woke up sick. Instead I went out to find some medicine and food that she might be able to eat and then we just stayed in the room until we had to be at the airport.
She was definitely uncomfortable and threw up literally right before getting on the plane. We made it though. After getting to the house, she crashed. She woke up feeling much better though, so that was definitely a relief.
-Miranda
The cute restaurant. This was taken on my phone when it was pretty dark, so not great, but you get the feeling.
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We spent the last few days mostly relaxing. We would go find breakfast then go back to the room to cool off a bit. Mary often would go shopping or a bit then we would find lunch. The sun is so hot! We waited until an hour or so before sunset before going swimming both Sat and Sun at the north beach. The water was great and we stayed out and watched the sunset on Sunday.
On Mon we woke up bright and early to see the sunrise. It was definitely gorgeous, but our breakfast place didn't open until 9 so there was quite a bit of waiting around until we could go get our yummy crepe breakfast. It was worth it as usual though.
At 10:30 Mary left to go on a snorkel trip. It was basically the same one we did but she didn't have the bad weather to foul it up. She had a blast. Saw lots of cool things and had a lot of really fun people on her boat with her. She was so glad she went.
-Miranda
Sunrise
Mary at sunrise
The rusty, sunken ship where Mary went snorkeling.
The underwater museum.
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We mostly relaxed for today (and most of this trip with Mary will be just chilling out and relaxing). We went to Mary's favorite place, Tia Yao, for breakfast and had super yummy crepes. I hung out in the room for most of the hot part of the day. Mary did some shopping. Once it was getting a little later when the sun wasn't so high and hot, we headed to the beach to do some swimming. Our plan was to snorkel around the rocks and see some fish but not only was it pretty busy, but it had been really windy most of the day so the waves were high. The area we were in was mostly protected but it was kicking up the sand which reduced visibility and created quite a current. We swam for a bit longer before getting out to head back to the room and shower before dinner.
On our walk back, we were walking barefoot and Mary managed to step on a bee which then stung the bottom of her foot. She limped her way back to the room and took some motrin. After our showers she said it was feeling all right so we went for a walk along the coast which was gorgeous. They have a cement walkway along the east coast that goes along most of the northern part of the island. After the walk we got a yummy dinner then headed back to the room. I spent an hour or so on the moon deck enjoying the breeze while reading before heading to sleep.
-Miranda
Super yummy crepe place.
Swimming and looking for fishies.
Mary at the coast.
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After finding breakfast I was getting packed up when I realized a black sock and my fox t-shirt were missing. The sock is a little annoying but not that big of a deal. The fox shirt I really like so that was kind of sad. I wrote down some phrases and decided to go back to the laundry place just in case they did have it. The lady went and looked and sure enough, came back with the shirt. Yay! I was pretty happy. Not the sock, but that's all right.
We hopped on a bus to Cancun. From there we found a bubble tea place, sat down for a drink then got a cab to the ferry to Isla. The line for the ferry was crazy! It was so long. It didn't take us too long to get on a boat. Unfortunately that had me worried that we were going to have issues finding a place to stay. This did end up being the case. I tried about 5 places before setting Mary down with our bags at a juice place and wandering around myself. I finally found a place that had one night available. I took that and we proceeded to look around for a place for the weekend. Our plan was to stay at least until Monday. I ended up only finding a couple places that had one room available with only one double bed.... That would be pretty uncomfortable for the two of us. One of those options was not only expensive but only had wifi in the lobby. I was hoping for something to be available where Mary and I would actually be able to sleep.
We did one more loop together to try and catch some that I hadn't tried yet (there weren't many) and found each place that I remember Joe, Dani and I had looked at (after we already had a place) because it was painted super cute. It was pretty pricey. Mary and I stopped in and it was the same guy. I asked and he seemed pretty sheepish and said that he did have a room available. I expected a single bed or something similar and he opened the door to an adorable room with two double beds and a refrigerator. He said they have wifi throughout the hotel, a pool on the roof, a community kitchen and water available to refill bottles. It is expensive but we took it since we were obviously not having luck anywhere else. Mary is so extremely happy.
Once we could chill out a bit, I went back to the room while Mary went shopping. After she came back we found some yummy dinner then walked around a bit before heading to bed.
-Miranda
The first room.
Our upgrade.
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