Freedom

For our honeymoon, Joshua and I decided to go a Caribbean cruise with carnival. We had an absolute blast! Being on a cruise was a wonderful way to unwind from all the stress of planning a wedding (which we thought was absolutely perfect) and to begin a marriage! There was plenty of sunshine and lots of time to rest by the pool and to eat really delicious food. One acronym that we adopted on our trip was YOHO, meaning 'You Only Honeymoon Once'. So every time we struggled to resist the chocolate melting cake that they served every night for dessert we would simply smile and declare YOHO.

 

On our ship, Carnival Freedom, there was always so much going on. We had delicious food every single night, went to a swing dancing show, had a couples' massage, attended an art show, ordered room service, sat and read together on the balcony of our room, watched the sunset, dressed up fancy for two elegant nights aboard the ship, danced a little bit, played mini golf, and lazed by the pool. It was such a blast and the views from our room where so spectacular!

 

 

Our first stop was Key West. They had lots of planned excursions that you could sign up for via the cruise line but my groom is so creative and savvy that he planned his own excursion for us to do! We walked to Ft. Zachary Taylor state park to lounge on the beautiful beach and snorkel together. I love to dive so it was really exciting to share my love of the ocean with Joshua in a small way. I hope tht we can plan a diving trip sometime soon! After a delicious lunch and shower Joshua surprised me with a trip to this beautiful butterfly conservatory. The butterflies were so beautiful but I think my favorite part was the little baby quails that were running around everywhere! I was chasing them around the conservatory while Joshua sat there shaking his head!

 

 

The second port we stopped at was Grand Cayman Island. Grand Cayman was probably my favorite place that we went on our honeymoon. Josh had arranged for us to take a boat out to a sandbar in the ocean that they had dubbed 'Stingray City'. It was so fun! We got to swim with stingrays and feed them little pieces of squid. It was so strange because you would stick the piece of skin under the stingray and it would suck it right out of your hand! I'm pretty sure that I screamed the first time it happened and Josh almost lost a finger when he tried. We got to hold a stingray and experience being 'kissed' by a stingray (which apparently brings good fortune) and swim around in the gorgeous, corona-commercial-esque ocean. On the way back from Stingray City we got dropped off on 7 mile beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and soaking up the sun!

 

 

Our final port was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We taxied over to Dunn's River Falls to take on the death-defying climb to the top! Okay, so it wasn't that dangerous but it was slippery and cold. In fact, my mother broke her toe there a few years back so there have definitely casualties in the past. Joshua and I had a blast working as a team to climb the falls and felt so accomplished when we conquered the river and made it to the top! To celebrate our victory we decided to do a little bit of shopping. Now, if you have ever been to Jamaica, you know how chaotic this can be. The vendors and shop owners are ruthless in their sales tactics to tourists passing through. We were taught secret hand shakes, promised good prices, assured that we were practically Jamaican (they called it 'jamerican'), introduced to family members, anything they could possibly think of to get our money. But my brave husband protected me from most of the harassment with a polite but firm answer to anyone hounding me. Joshua told me that India had prepared him well to handle the Jamaican street vendors.

 

 

As we sailed away from Jamaica we knew that we were beginning our return back to the mainland and back to reality (not to mention outrunning hurricane Isaac). It was a bittersweet thought. On the one hand we were having the time of our lives on our vacation and never wanted it to end and on the other hand we were excited to come home and to find a home and to begin our lives together.
Our honeymoon had been everything it was supposed to be fun, sweet, relaxing, and a tone-setter for our marriage. A recurring theme that kept coming up in our conversations was the word 'freedom' (which is ironic because the name of our ship was Freedom). On our trip Joshua and I began to discover the freedom of marriage. So often when you are dating there are so many boundaries and constraints on your relationship. Physical boundaries, logistical limitations, topics of conversation to avoid, etc. But within the sacredness of marriage all of these things dissolve and all that's left is the joy experienced from total openness with another person. To be known by another to know him. My prayer is that we will always sail on Freedom in our marriage and and that we would continue to grow in joy as we discover even more of each other for the rest of our lives.