We have left the country for over a week and what we hear is we missed a lot of snow.
Shouna, Preston and I took a cruise on the Majesty of the Sea with k-Love, the Christian radio station. This cruise was for Preston at his request. For those of you who do not know us, Preston has Down syndrome which makes him extraordinarily special. You see he never asks for anything besides ketchup, which goes on everything and much more than you can imagine, a CD or DVD now and then and he loves to go "for coffee". Now he does not like coffee too much but when he says, "go for coffee" he means he wants to go to Jimmy's Egg for breakfast. He has never asked for a car or lots of clothes or a new stereo or even a Wii (Wii is not a war but an electronic game). The only thing of significant expense he has ever requested was to go on the K-Love cruise, so here we are after almost a year of waiting.
The first day we sailed to Nassau in the Bahamas where we had a great day. We started the day with one of those breakfasts that goes on and on (it is a cruise thing). Anyway, after that we walked off the ship we were hit with a barrage of locals wanting to sell you a trip around the island. We made it through and then found ourselves surrounded with a lot of stores selling about anything you can imagine. Preston got a new straw hat, notice the picture, a t-shirt, and lunch.
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| Conch |
Now lunch was something to talk about. We went to Skans where we had Conk soup, conk fritters, and fried conk. Now if you are like me you were not sure on this one and it was a lot better before we saw how they harvested conk. Conk is basically a giant snail that grows inside of a huge seashell. It was actually excellent.
After walking for a few hours and shopping which I hate to do we started back toward the ship where all the locals were hustling people to take them around the island. Normally we were told it was $80 per person for about a 2 hour tour but they readily negotiated to $50 for all 3 but I held my ground until one of them came running to me and said he would take us for a total of $30 for all 3 but we had to promise not to tell the two ladies with us. They had paid $40 per person.
The tour was well worth it as we went to a local fort and then down the queen's stair case. The staircase was about 60 feet deep and dug by hand taking 3 years and hundreds of folks working. I really did not see why they made the effort but it was very beautiful and the temperature was perfect. From there we went to the hotel Atlantis which was the Merv Griffin Hotel and Casino. Again it was well worth the trip and I would highly recommend going there. The last stop before going back to the ship was the fisherman's wharf and market where we saw the conk being sold and processed. In my mind calf fries seem mild compared to seeing live conk being harvested out of the shells. Nasty but if you don't see it before you eat it you will love it.
At the ship we cleaned up to start participating in what this cruise was about, THE MUSIC. Every evening we had three live concerts put on by groups that you hear every day on Christian radio and probably in your own church. Mathew West, Casting Crowns, and the list went on and on but the great thing was Preston got to see, meet and get to know many of the artists. Every day there was also a worship time at 9 in the morning which was led by one of the groups.
Now let me tell you the real story behind this trip. Preston has a unique ability to engage everyone without any prejudice relative to age, ethnic background, tattoos (bet that one is hard for most of you if you are like me), ear rings (next to impossible for me to not assume something when it is a guy), dress (we had it all), disability (does that hit home?), or sex orientation (wow – if nothing else got you that probably did). I have seen this for years but a trip like this opens my mind and what I learned is that EVERYONE of these folks are human beings just like you and me. They have a heart and a personality that is fun to get to know if you will invest the time. Knowing someone overcomes our prejudices. Now I am not saying I agree with all of these choices people make but I am telling you I love the people without regard to these choices. I am amazed at what a child with Down syndrome can teach me!
Back to the trip. After more concerts and more food we went to Coco Cay Island (a deserted island) and enjoyed the sun and fabulous weather and more food but the big event for the day is we taught Preston how to snorkel. Now if you have not done this it is taking a mask with an air tube attached and swimming on top of the water so you can see the tropical fish. Preston was not particularly interested in all of the equipment or the opportunity to see the fish. We spent about an hour just getting him over the fear so that he would put on the equipment and stick his head into the water. Every ounce of my patience was used that day and it will take me some time to get revived. After some time I sent Shouna on to snorkel while I worked on getting Preston out far enough in the water. Normally Shouna is the one who can get Preston to try new things but for some reason I felt strongly that I was the one to work with him. There is one secret weapon that I used and it was a young girl who swam by and Preston started talking to her and she asked if he were going to snorkel and he said yes. I held on to him and he stuck his head in the water with the mask and tube on. She was impressed and Preston was very pleased with himself. From there after the girl left he was much more confident and was able to take very short snorkel times. When Shouna got back after about 30 minutes she stood by Preston and as I started to snorkel Preston said, "I will snorkel like Dad." VICTORY, he took off and snorkeled. It was a wonderful time other than a little too much salt water got swallowed and later that night Preston got sick. As it turned out Preston had a virus and he was over it in about 8 hours.
Sadly enough Preston missed dinner and all the concerts this evening and I had to take him to the ship doctor. FYI, bring some Imodium for diarrhea and something to stop the vomiting (sorry, I probably made you sick). It is much cheaper if you come prepared rather than having to go to the ship doctor, kind of expensive.
Preston has a tendency to become very well-known and we made lots of friends because of him. In fact, he stopped folks and just asked, "Have you met my parents?" We met a lot of folks from all over the USA thanks to Preston.
I had better end this but you can see we had a great time and we would recommend this cruise over any others. Outside of the lost luggage on the way home and getting the Preston Virus shortly (30 minutes) after getting home, it was a great time.
Thanks for your time,
Gary
gary@thepioneerman.com
http://thepioneerman.blogspot.com
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