After a somewhat inconvenient flight to Houston and a very pleasant dinner with my father at a wonderful Mexican place, Laura and I wake up early the next morning to be shuttled to meet Norma, Laura’s mom, for breakfast and the remainder of the way to port.

That breakfast was to be the best we would have until arriving back at Norma’s place.

Arrival at the port went smoothly and easily. We met up with our friends and got quickly on board. What I hadn’t paid attention to, but should have, was the weather. It was foggy at my parents’ early that morning, but I had assumed it would dry up later in the day. It didn’t. In fact: it would grow worse.

Our departure was delayed – and delayed – and delayed, until we even slept hoping to awaken in the middle of the Gulf. In the morning, I rolled over to glance out over the beautiful … port of Galveston. I went back to sleep.

We finally started moving later that day. That fog delay caused us to miss one of our ports of call: Freeport, Bahamas. So instead of visiting Key West, Freeport, and Nassau, we had to go to Nassau first, skip Freeport and hit Key West last.

At least we had a good time in Nassau – and were able to leave the boat.

More on that later.

Today, we flew from DC to Houston for the first stage of our journey. It wasn’t so simple as it sounds. For some reason, there was enough terrible weather that we had to land half-way there in Knoxville to re-fuel. A very strong headwind made the trip very slow and costly.

At least I an add a new airport to my list now.

Tomorrow, we drive down to Galveston and board the boat. I’ve never been on a cruise like this before – only river a river cruise and a ferry ride from Vancouver to Juneau, Alaska. Those were cruises, but not like this one: this is a CRUISE. Big boat and all.

We’ll be doing a bit of diving, a bit of photography, and a lot [I hope] of relaxing.