Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2018 October Family Cruise - Day 02

Our trip is going well thus far. Taking red-eye flights is always interesting though. You want to stay awake but boy is it tough. We tried to watch the movie 'Adrift' (not the most appropriate movie when you are about to take a cruise) and it was so tough to stay awake. Finally at 8:00 PM, we gave up and went to sleep. I think we both slept pretty well considering the airplanes were taking off and landing in our bedroom and the bed we slept on....well it has a new name...'Old Squeaky'. It is the squeakiest darn bed I've ever had to sleep in.

Upon waking up, we finished the movie off while lying in bed. Once that was completed, we got ready for the day as Travis and Mackenzie were in the air and would arrive around 9:15 AM...which they did. The room they had rented is in the same area (Carolina) but their room was not going to be ready until 2:30 PM. So they taxied over to our place to be with us while they waited to get into their room. That turned out to be so much fun. Once things settled down, we all changed into our swim suits to head down to the beach. We were probably on the beach by 10:15'ish. The sun was trying to come out through the clouds, which turned out to be the only sun we got all day. The beach was a long beach with fairly large waves crashing in. I believe there was a surfer school that had some students out trying to learn how to ride the waves. Travis and I, we headed out to try and body surf on the same waves. The water was so refreshing and it was fun diving into the waves, tasting salty water again and just loving being in the ocean again. There will always be something in me that deeply loves the ocean and being in it. I don't know why. Denise and Mackenzie stayed on the shore. Our BNB had some beach chairs and things that made the experience nice. Eventually Denise and Mackenzie came into the water to enjoy its coolness although getting their hair wet was not part of the plan. So they just waded in is all. So fun though. At about 11:30, we were back in our BNB getting ready to sit down and stream the first General Conference sessions of our church back in Salt Lake City. We have been anticipating more changes from the President of the the Church and the 12 Apostles. We were not let down. The church is moving more of its focus to having the family be the base location where instruction and testimony building is to occur. We had heard rumors of the new curriculum that was coming along with the rumor that Sunday meetings would be reduced from 3 hours to 2 hours. And such was the case. I remember when meetings were consolidated into a block of meetings to last 3 hours each Sunday. Now I have seen the day when a new shift has occurred. This will be a good one if applied right. It doesn't mean more football games, basketball games to watch. It means we need to come together more often as families and friends in our homes to study the gospel of Jesus Christ and apply its teachings.

After conference, Travis and Mackenzie headed off to their BNB. But, upon leaving they told us they were real hungry and did not want to wait to eat. So we agreed that once they settled in, that we would meet them half way at some restaurant. We met them almost exactly at a restaurant that featured Puerto Rican food. We sat down. The waitress gave us menus. We all gasped at the prices. We all decided that it was too expensive for our taste and politely excused ourselves from the restaurant. The waitress was very kind and understanding. We ended up in a smaller joint about a block away. It was not as nice but the food sounded good...and it was. Denise and Kenzie ordered a native dish...I wish I could remember it's name. It was a mound of mashed plantains with chicken in a brown gravy inside and smothered on top. It was AWESOME. Travis and I were a bit bummed with what we ordered (empanadas, fried plantains, flattened chicken, rice, beans). Our plates were good. But nothing like our wives had ordered.

After eating, we parted ways as Travis and Kenzie were starting to hit the red-eye wall and we wanted to see the 2nd session of conference. The walk was only about 5 to 10 minutes. But it was raining. I've never used an umbrella this much. Fortunately it was not a hard rain.

Conference was great...again. Such uplifting and encouraging talks. Once conference was over, and with nothing much to do, we turned on a movie called 'Mississippi is Burning'. It was an older movie but really interesting about the shooting of Medgar Evers in the 60's and the retrial of his killer in the 90's. True story it was. Anyway, after the movie, the Women's session of conference was held which we also watched. Good stuff. At this point, my travel worries for Cassidy, Mike, Ashley, Brent, Karlie and Atticus kicked in. I started watching flights and things with fingers crossed everything would go well. We ended up on bed around 10 PM'ish.

Our long awaited cruise begins tomorrow. It is going to be so fun having our children here with us. We will GREATLY miss Dustin, Kerri and Neza though. But those who could make the trip...we are going to have a blast! Now blogging will be a bit tough as my posts won't come each day. I will blog each day but because of no internet connection on the boat, posting will be somewhat random based upon what I find on these islands.

Bon voyage!

Look who arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico! So glad they are here safe and sound.

Watching conference on the 'Big' screen in our BNB. I used my IPad to stream it. Fortunately the tv had an HDMI cable that I could use and I brought the connections between my IPad and the HDMI cable with me. Worked great!