So, you know what's pretty strange these days?  Not having any cell reception or internet.  Seriously.  It's just bizarre.

 

My family is back from our vacation, and it's so good to be home.  The six of us went away on a week long cruise out of NYC, along with my parents, and my sister's family of four.  It was amazing!  The only thing is, we decided not to purchase any sort of internet package, so we were all offline for the week.  What a weird feeling!  Plus, my two high schoolers were, um, not exactly loving it.  We all survived, though, and it almost feels nice after you get used to it.  No need to check email constantly, or see if you got a text.  I didn't realize how often I check my phone until I couldn't.  I'll have to work on that.

 

Without internet, we had to amuse ourselves by looking around and observing our environment.  It was not a hardship.  This is the most picturesque sunset I've maybe ever seen.  That other cruise ship in the distance was perfect.  This is from our balcony.

 

We had to attend shows and participate in wine tastings, instead of troll the internet.  We barely survived.  Look at my husband and I--we were definitely roughing it.

 

When we got to ports, we had to leave the ship and go find something to do.  Can you believe it?  Here we are tendering back to the NCL Escape after a day at the beach on Norwegian's private island.  All there was to do there was eat, drink, lounge, swim and explore.  You can see how tough it was on us.

 

I mean, this is what it looked like there.  We made do lounging on a chair under an umbrella while our kids played in the lagoon area.  That's our ship in the background.

 

Somehow, this is the only picture of me alone with all our kids.  I'm so glad I asked Brian to snap it quickly while we were walking onto the island.

 

We had to settle for an ecotour on an airboat in Florida.  They made us look at beautiful birds, wildlife, the river habitat, and alligators.  I've never experienced anything like it in my life.  Those things can move!  The kids loved the way it skidded across the water.  We only ate a few bugs.

 

After, everyone had a new hairdo!  As you can see, the kids made the best of it.

 

Sometimes, there was so little to do or see that I had knit for a bit.  I know, right?!    Oh, the suffering!  This is my vacation knitting--the Everyday Slouchy Beanie by Dragon Hoard Designs on Classic DK Yum-Berry.  Here I was hanging out on the waterfront deck with my daughter.  I knit while she read.  This was one of my favorite moments on the trip, actually.

 

The worst part was without internet, I was constantly afflicted with all of this super inspiring landscape "in real life".  All I could think about was new colorways.  Yeah, it was tough.  Luckily I have a strong constitution...

 

Unfortunately, there was hardly any good entertainment at all.  My tap dancing daughter had to see After Midnight, during which the were such incredible tap number that we were speechless.  We all had to laugh ourselves silly at standup comedy.  And the kids had to suffer through Choir of Man TWO times.  Here they are posing with a cast member, holding the souvenir coaster my son caught and had every (yup, EVERY) person in the show autograph.  You can see for yourself how distressed they are.

 

This day almost did us in...we spent it at Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.  We endured wild waterslides, pools, palm trees, and swimming in the Caribbean for an entire day.

 

In the end, we did manage to labor through the torment of being off the grid.  But I can honestly say, I'm not sure we'll ever be the same.

 

Note:  I'm pretty sure most people can see that this post is in jest.  Just in case that isn't clear, we had a wonderful time and not one of these things is an actual complaint.  We are truly blessed to have been able to take this trip and spend these joyous moments together!