The most luxurious cruise ever! :)

The girls!
Heather, Elaina, Jeanne, and Jenn

THE CRUISE!- July 11
Cruising is amazing. What more is there to say? We got some sun, enjoyed AC, ate great food, saw good entertainment, met some fantastic friends, caught up on sleep, stayed out too late dancing, and had an incredible time overall.

In the theatre, waiting for the show to start.

Naturally, we were also stopped and interviewed for the Cruise TV Morning Show. Since we didn't have DVR, I recorded our segment for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately, it's too big to post here!  :(


Cruise Ports

Haifa, Israel-

Wading my feet in the Sea of Galilee

Israel wasn't at all what I'd expected. One of my Ukrainian friends, Sasha from Zaparozhye, is Jewish and lived in Tel Aviv for a few years. He introduced me to a woman from Logan through email and we arranged for her husband, Mike, to show us around. Mike met us at the train station in Haifa and we drove to Nazareth. We walked across the River Jordan and visited the Sea of Galilee. In all of Israel, the Sea of Galilee was my favorite. It was quiet and peaceful and gave us a chance to reflect on the importance of the place.

The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem

Ashdod, Israel-
We booked an excursion through our cruise ship to visit both Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It sounded like it would be difficult to get into Bethlehem unless we went with an organized tour. It was a surreal experience, to say the least.
I was heartbroken to see the wall separating the two cities. According to our guide, there were too many suicide bombers and terrorists, so the wall has helped to make things more safe.


Athens, Greece-

Heather and I both teach Greek mythology to our 9th graders, so we took tons of photos in Greece. We figured we'd show the videos to our students and then write off the trip on our taxes!  Win!!  :)

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey- 
The ruins at Ephesus were very interesting. Even more interesting, the first week I was home, the Sunday school lesson was about the letter to the Ephesians. The teacher asked if anyone knew where Ephesus was and... Haha. The mention of this incredible ruin just made me want to look at photos of my trip!







Crete-
Crete was a big disappointment. We figured we'd be tired, so we just booked a beach transfer, but the beach was a pile of rocks more than anything.

In Athens, we were on the same tour as the Nicholls, an LDS family from England. Somehow, they could tell we were LDS and I thought I overheard the girls talking about the MTC, so... They kind of introduced themselves as Mormons and we quickly found that commonality was enough to make us BFF. They were a lot of fun, so we ended up spending a lot of time with them.

Our new LDS friends from England.
Samantha, Karen, Martin, and Charlotte

Virgin Pina Coladas for FHE
with our new British friends.

The Nicholls son is currently serving a mission in Athens and, as luck would have it, our excursion meeting spot just happened to be right in front of the church building. We didn't even notice it until we saw missionaries heading our way. Their son just happened to be there. Sharing that experience with them, really made us bond. Like Martin said, we were probably the only people on the entire cruise ship who could fully understand just how amazing it was for them to run into their missionary son.

With Wener and Valentin, our favorite servers

Our dining experience really made the cruise incredible. The food was delicious and there was lots of it. Our servers, Werner from Australia and Valentin from Romania, were a lot of fun. We had a great time talking with them at dinner every night.