Freedom of the Seas Day 3

9/23/08

Day 3

The sea is good to both kids, they sleep like rocks. At home Chase was waking at 11pm, 1am and every hour after that until Emmie was up in the am...at sea his first stretch went from 8pm to 2:45am and then he slept again until 5am and then until 7am....impressive! So, we woke to kind of grey skies but we were ready for a good day...we all swimsuited up before breakfast so we could go straight to the pool. Windjammer's again for some eggs and and bacon (and watery OJ) then it was out to the Flow Rider which is a continuous wave...Mike was itching to try it! I guess it is harder than it looks...but Emmie was telling everyone she wanted to try and that her daddy was strong. It was super windy and it seemed like all 3,000 passengers were in hiding. We went to the pool anyway...Emmie and Mike went in the water while I nursed a very sleepy Chase...then we switched and just as Emmie and I were hopping into the jacuzzi it started to pour! We headed back to the room a bit earlier than we had hope after walking through the arcade and seeing what games there were and planned on napping them then since we were going to arrive in Puerto Rico later that day....and I had a spa appointment at 12:30 for the hot stones massage.

So, with two napping babies I headed off to find the spa on deck 12...75 minutes later I must have left a huge puddle of drool on the floor of the spa but came out feeling rejuvinated. Poor Mike, on the other hand, apparently had an hour of screaming from the two of them when they woke up early from their nap. We decided some lunch at the pizza place would be good followed by some ice cream. Emmie danced up and down the promenade to the live music and really had a lot of fun. The pizza was awesome and the Ben and Jerry's cookies and cream cones that we all got were even better (oh and we splurged on some soda...) We pulled into Puerto Rico at around 3pm and we were off to explore. Lot of shops and fountains and an interesting ruins site...Chase was unbelievable good in Puerto Rico in the hotsling and Emmie (although her and daddy were sweaty and hot) did great in the Ergo on Mike's back. We bought some post cards and suveniers. One of my favorite parts was this city square that was just full full full of pigeons (yes I know, they're dirty dirty birds) but they were eating food literally out of the hands of the tourists that were feeding them and landing on their arms and on their heads. There was one little spanish girl in a stroller who was saying, "MIEDO, MIEDO," because she was scared and at the moment I was so glad Emmie was up on Mike's back. The buildings and even more importantly the doors to each building were such amazing colors it was making me wish someone would have a destination wedding there. We took a family picture in one of the door ways and in front of the fountain and headed back to the ship at around 5:30pm...Chase had a cat nap and Emmie and I had a dance party on the balcony to her World Music CD.

Off to dinner...Emmie was excited to see Sherlin and she literally wolfed down all of her linguini with meat sauce. She was starved. Mike and I had New England Clam Chowder and some yummy pork steaks with potatoes au grautin. Chase had some bits of mashed potatoes and banana. Chase melted down at dinner (what else s new) so Mike took him on a walk and I finished dinner with Emmie. Our waiter had been talking to her friend about her little Ms. Emmie so she came over to meet her and then it was like we were surounded by about 10 wait staff members asking Emmie to sign and telling me how smart she is for just two years old. I know she's pretty special (because I'm her mom) but it is fun to see that other people see that in her as well. After dinner we found Mike and Chase and went back for another stroll down the promenade. Emmie met a little friend and they danced to the live music again in the middle of the street, she had a blast. We stopped at one of the little cafe's to eat our dessert and then we all had our picture taken on the bridge and then the woman asked if we wanted one of just Emmie so we told Emmie to go stand on the bridge and do her pose...she did and everyone stopped to stare--too cute. It was off to bed after that and that went off without a hitch! Chase fits perfectly in the sink!