I’d intended to write this post weeks ago, but I’ve been rather unproductive.
I ran the Dallas Half Marathon with an out-of-town friend on December 15th. It was a hard and very slow trek, but I managed to get back to a run in the last mile and I didn’t get hurt, so I’m counting it as a win.
<picture of chubby old guy jogging omitted because ain’t nobody paying $15 for that race photo :>
The boys and I went to see the Ravens play the Texans in Houston on Christmas Day.
The game itself was a miserable 31-2 blowout…
…but the (surprise?) halftime artist was neat. Beyonce put on an impressive show, even from our nose-bleed seats.
We spent the night in Houston, and two days later flew to Miami for a seven-night cruise.
We had a pleasant-if-expensive overnight (Miami holiday hotels are $$$!). We first Uber’d to Coral Gables’ Hampton Inn, then experimented with the very convenient light-rail across the street to get to dinner. Noah loved the food at Bocas Grill and Nate and I both liked it too.
We easily made our way to the cruise terminal the next morning, again by Uber because the light-rail doesn’t go out to the piers. Alas, once we arrived it was impossible to really appreciate the enormity of the ship from the terminal.
I was worried that Royal’s Icon of the Seas was going to be much too big for my taste, but it really wasn’t– the layout was awesome, and there was so much to do.
Our balcony room was not nearly as large as the suite on our summer cruise, but it was still very nice; the Icon is less than a year old and most of the updates (e.g. USB ports all over) were very convenient.
We brought 110 rubber ducks to hide on the boat, and Nate and I had a good time finding spots for them.
For our first excursion, we took a smaller ferry boat from St. Kitts to the adjacent Nevis to the sound of a steel drum player:
Once we arrived, Nate and I went in the ocean and he played in the sand, while Noah hung out in the adjacent beach restaurant and watched football.
The ferry’s engine broke down on the way back, but the music played on and the bar stayed open. As the last day of 2024 before the start of Dry January, I took full advantage. Nate and Noah enjoyed endless cups of fruit punch and a dozen varieties of Cheetos. (Who knew there were so many?!?)
Nate entertained himself on the trip back (and much of the rest of the cruise) chatting up teen girls, most of whom he met after getting into staring contests with them 🤣. Noah found some kids his own age to hang out with.
After an entertaining tow back to the ship, dinner that night included celebratory hats and noisemakers, and Nate took full advantage.
A massive balloon drop marked the start of the new year. Nate was amongst the revellers, and I took pictures through the skylight from the park above:
Nate brought some of the balloons back to the room:
The following morning we were in St. Thomas. A very short bus ride took us to a beach where Nate lazed under an umbrella and Noah and I took a rented jet ski out for a half hour trip. He whooped wildly as we flew across the water, maxing it out at 77kph. He wanted to move on to one of the two cars (think of a jetski with seating for four with a shell like a sports car), but they were dramatically more expensive ($350 vs. $80) so we didn’t try them. He also was interested in trying the awesome-looking “water jetpack” (Flyboard) but we didn’t manage to figure out where to rent one.
Noah spent the rest of the excursion tossing the football in the water as I tracked down lunch (apparently nobody starts cooking until noon in the US Virgin Islands).
After rushing to finish burgers before our early-afternoon departure, we ran through a souvenir shop and reboarded the Icon. We had the early dinner slot and Noah was happy to again enjoy his “Surf-and-Turf”:
The kids passed time on sea days and in the evenings playing miniature golf, games on the sport court, watching NFL games, and chatting with other kids they met on the trip. (Surprisingly, one of Noah’s classmates was also aboard.)
Nate collected a 3rd place medal in the nightly glow-golf competition:
I spent a fair amount of time just enjoying the scenery and trying to figure out what the kids were up to.
Fortunately, we didn’t discover the cotton candy / candy store until late in the cruise.
One of the biggest draws of the cruise was trying to find Rover, the Icon’s “Chief Dog Officer.” I spotted a stuffed version at the gift shop and surprised Nate with it on his pillow the night before we were slated to meet the real girl:
While we only got a few pets in at the meet-and-greet, Nate was satisfied:
Noah demanded wifi on the trip, and after a ~$150 mistake on our last cruise where he’d left his cellular on for a few minutes, I caved. While I still think getting away from the Internet is the primary reason to cruise, and $25/day is robbery, the Starlink connection managed a pretty impressive 9mbps.
Our final excursion was to CocoCay, Royal’s private island with the impressive “Thrill” waterpark. We’d already visited during our family cruise this summer and thus had already tried all of the slides, so we took it easier this time and had a ton of fun riding our favorites and otherwise relaxing. It was perhaps 5 degrees colder than ideal, but almost perfect.
Shows on board were awesome. The three stand-up comedians were hilarious (very adult) and I saw them twice. The Ice Skating shows were both good and Nate and I watched both together. On the main stage, the juggler was really good (pretty sure I’ve seen him before), The Wizard of Oz was a bit of a snoozer, the “Avengers”-knockoff show was amazing (I saw it twice), and the high-diving acrobatics in the aqua-theater were spectacular.
When we returned to Miami (too soon!), we took a quick trip to the Everglades to see some gators and ride the airboats. Nate had fun trying to out-scream the roar of the engines:
We had a delayed but otherwise uneventful flight back to Austin with a stop in Houston. United was pretty terrible, both with an ever-growing delay in Houston, and the fact that they still managed to leave my suitcase behind and had to deliver it the following day. But I was still in a good mood after a great vacation.
Looking forward
I fear and despair for what’s going to happen in the United States over this year, but these aren’t useful feelings, so I’m concentrating on what I can control.
My end-of-year revisit to Kilimanjaro’s summit looms in the distance, but I’ve got a lot of other things coming up before then.
First and most pressing — races. On January 19th, my third Austin Half Marathon. The current forecast calls for a frigid 28F, so I’ve got something of an excuse for what I expect to be a very slow pace — how fast can you expect a snowman to run anyway? Hours after the race, I’m flying to Seattle for a week with my team. On Super Bowl Sunday (Feb 19th), I’m going to test myself in the Galveston Marathon. When I (not entirely sober) signed up for the full marathon last year, I reasoned that even if I didn’t train, I could just run the first half and walk the second. That’s still the plan, but as the days fly by I’m less confident that the plan is a slam-dunk. (Bert Kreischer ran a full in 5:33:33, so beating that is my unofficial goal). Fingers crossed!
Other than that — cruises. I’m going to do a quick cruise on the Mariner of the Seas in March, then the boys and I are going to spend Thanksgiving week on Harmony of the Seas. They’re pushing for another trip on the Icon or the (brand new) Star sometime this summer, but I don’t know that we have either the time or the budget for that this year.
Wishing everyone an awesome 2025!
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