Happy Graduation To Me!!!

Success is mine!!! I survived getting my Master's degree!!! My reward was a very large diploma and a 7 day cruise to the Caribbean with my parents and grandma!
Cruises are awesome! You pretty much stay in an extremely large, floating hotel and are served a ton (and I mean a ton) of food! The food may have been the most awesome thing outside of the shore excursions that we went on! Though I have a soft spot for the towel animals we found on our bed each evening.
Since our cruise left from Galveston, TX we flew into Houston the day before and hung out with my Aunt Darla and Uncle Boyd. It was nice to catch up with them and to go out for some Texas BBQ. Although Dad kept telling me to shut school off even though Aunt Darla was the one picking my brain about a genetic disease some of her grandkids have.
The ship we sailed on was the Carnival Magic and it was huge!!! But the rooms are small!

This sucker is 12 stories tall!!!

Me and Grandma's cabin.

To be honest, I really didn't know what to expect when I got on the boat and the buffet was nothing like what I thought it would be! Holy food, Batman! I ate so much I was literally sick. I. Regret. Nothing. The buffet had a burrito bar and they had one of the best salsas I've ever had the privilege to put into my mouth. It was so good that I am still craving some three weeks later! If anyone has an awesome roasted tomatillo and jalapeno salsa recipe, please send it my way!
There is something very peaceful about being in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, completely surrounded by water. Not to mention it is beautiful to look at! I quite enjoyed just sitting in a deck chair reading or sitting at one of the tables on the Lido deck playing Pinochle. We played a lot of Pinochle this trip!

See! Beautiful!

I hauled Mom and Grandma on an exploration of the boat on the second day. Here is Mom with the ocean in the background.

And my Grandma with the ocean in the back!

I had a blast trying to guess what towel animal we would get every night. I never guessed right and some of the towel animals aren't easy to identify.

The first night was a sting ray!

A pig!

An elephant!

I think this one was a dog?!?

This one is either a duck or a duck-bill platypus. I'm going to go with the platypus because it sounds cooler.

A walrus! When I first saw this, all I could think was that I needed to send a picture text to Emily Clay. She loves walruses, but alas, I couldn't do it since I was in the middle of the ocean with no cell service.

The last night was a heart. Oh, did I mention that they left chocolates on the bed for you each night? Can you say awesome?

The cruise was a blast! The shore excursions were amazing! And to do them justice, I'm going to do a post on each excursion. Enjoy the towel animals of awesomeness until then!