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My wife and I have been married for close to two years. We are both very adventurous types of people. It is just what we do. We have this competition of who has been more places. Throughout the years of travel, I have the most continents, but she has a pretty good lead on countries. Now that we are together, I doubt that we will gain on the other since we go everywhere and do pretty much everything together.
For our honeymoon we took the FJ to twelve states, camping right on the Great Lakes, staying in houses and cabins, fishing out of a canoe and just experiencing the outdoors and solitude. After several backpacking trips and an Overlanding Trip to Big Bend, we ventured off to the Upper Peninsula to do another backpacking trip. Heading back down to the family house in Michigan, we stayed a few days before heading to Canada to Niagara Falls, experiencing several National Parks, hiking and tent camping, topping it all off with an amazing Yurt in Pennsylvania. The outdoors is our thing. We love walking, hiking, and just immersing ourselves into the wild blue, green and all the other colors out there.
One thing my wife has always loved to do. She has talked about it on numerous occasions and has shared with me many experiences she has had doing it. Snorkeling is one of her favorite things in the world. She just absolutely loves being able to go under water and experience what we do not normally get to see. I, on the other hand, have never snorkeled. I have tried, but I have always had breathing problems. My nose has been broken multiple times and I have a great fear of my nose being separated from my mouth. It is apparently as a thing and is known as Empty Nose Syndrome. As soon as I put on a swim/snorkel mask, I go into a panic. I am not sure what caused this or why I have it, I just know I have it and it is not pleasant.
This past Christmas, I decided to surprise my wife with something. It was a stretch for me, as the last time I had experienced this, it did not go well. A cruise is not something that I have enjoyed in the past. Several years ago, our family went on a cruise and, having the tendencies that I have to get motion sickness, coupled with my ongoing issue of Vertigo, I was not feeling well for most of the trip. On our way back to port, the seas were angry, to the point where you couldn’t even stand up to pee (what real men do), so I laid on the bed all day watching NFL football, praying God would kill me instantly. No medicines I took that day helped. The voyage back to port seemed like an eternity.
I have discussed my fear (back to the Empty Nose Syndrome thing) with my lovely wife, who, as always did her research. She ordered me a snorkel mask that is a full faced mask. It is one of the funniest looking contraptions I have ever seen with a full plastic face and a breathing tube that protrudes out of the top of my head like a horn grown from taking the COVID-19 shot (not really, but many believe that to be at least one possible side effect). I dawned this mask in my parent’s pool, giving it a try, seeing if I wanted to rip it off immediately or if I could actually go under water without having a panic attack. After a few minutes, I turned and looked at my wife like any good-looking dude with a horn coming out of the top of his head and said, “eww jaborg me likey joborg jabor.” She said “what?” with semi-confused look. I took my mask off and repeated, “I think this might work!” She was excited. I was excited. It was a moment. I put my mask on and went back under.
Since the good Lord did not grant my prayer on the previous cruise, and I guess I have forgotten my misery of 20 plus years ago, I decided to give my wife a cruise for Christmas of 2024. I figured why not give it another shot. It is better than sitting on a sandy beach for six days (maybe) and plus it would scratch my wife’s itch of loving to snorkel. She was elated. I can’t tell you the excitement that came over her. We have never done anything like this before. We have never gone out of the country together. We have never cruised together. We have never snorkeled together. And the list goes on. It is completely different than our normal adventures we embark on together.
Since obtaining her gift of a lifetime (I say that depending on how this one will go, for that will determine if we do this again), she has planned like nothing we have ever done. She has bought parking passes, excursions, planned for our drinks and food and all the other things you have to do that doubles the price of your cruise. No, I am not near the level of her excitement, but I am pretty pumped about getting away and being treated like a king for seven days. We have purchased 19 different kinds of motion sickness meds (even a prescription), so I may be drugged the whole time, but we will not know until that day. We also have our own balcony and can get away from all the people if we so desire. It should prove to be a pretty memorable experience.
I do look forward to the excursion and the experience on the ship. I am leery of the weather and praying for calm seas. I am excited that today is packing day and we leave tomorrow. I am excited about trying something new. But I am most excited that she is so excited, for that is what has made this all worth it…so far. This time next week, I may be most excited about heading back to port, but hopefully with a completely different prayer than last time.
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