Monkeying around in Roatan Bay, Honduras
Let me first start off by telling you about the Friday we headed for the airport. I got out of work and quickly came home to get ready to head out. As always, I was stressed with trying to have everything around for our vacation, worried about our flight being delayed or cancelled (and with good reason lately), and of course worried about paying taxes. We still didn't know an official amount we owed the government. At our appointment we were told a ballpark figure of $5300! When we're used to getting thousands back each year, that is quite a bit of money for us to pay in. My number one stressor in life has always been money and I wanted to know what we owed before going on vacation or I never would be able to relax and enj
oy my self. I got a call at work that day telling me our taxes were ready. So we stopped by on our way to Detroit. I asked what we owed and they lady said, "Do you mean what you owe the accounting office?" I said, "No, what do we owe in taxes?" Well let me tell you all the Lord is good! She then told us we were getting some money back from both stated and federal. Not much, but when you think you owe over five grand it was like winning the lottery. Of course we thought there was a mistake at first and she had to get one of the tax preparers to come out and explain. The amount we were originally told we owed was just based on what Andy's business would owe. He forgot to take into consideration at the time everything I paid in all year, and what Andy had paid in for his other jobs. I offered to kiss the ladies there. They told us we were the happiest people they had ever seen there. So off we headed for our vacation pleased as could be! Thankfully our luck didn't change. We made it to the airport on time, our flight was on time and Olivia traveled well. We arrived at the cruise ship about 5 minutes before they allowed anyone to start boarding. We boarded the Norwegian Sun, on April 5th, which happens to be the same boat and date that Andy proposed to me on 5 years ago! Awe, isn't that romantic. Not with a 2 year old in tote. Now onto the fun pictures. Our first port of call was Roatan. Andy and I had been here 5 years ago and it was beautiful, but very hot and
depressing to see how poor of a country it was. It has developed so much in 5 years. It definitely is still poor, but tourism is bringing in so many new building and jobs into the area. It was much cleaner going through town and the shops. We did an excursion to a place called Gumbalimba Park Botanical Gardens and Monkey Refuge. It was another hot day, but gorgeous. Beautiful birds all around swooping down by you and some would perch on your shoulder. There were little lizards running around and a few monkeys. Olivia was so excited to see the monkeys, but when ever she'd get real close she got scared. They put a monkey on her head and she just stood there frozen and screamed with tears rolling down her face. We had the zoom lens on the camera and Andy coulndn't back up enough to get a picture of it before they took the monkey off her head. You can see in t
he photos how she's keeping and eye on the monkey when Andy is holding her. She proceded to tell everyone on the ship she saw that she saw monkeys, but she cried. You could choose to walk across this long swaying bridge of a shorter wooden one, but we were up for the challenge. I had a picture of Andy and Olivia on it, but somehow deleted it and don't know how to get it back into this blog. I'll add it to a later blog entry. They also had a beautiful beach and pool to enjoy after walking around to see all the park had to offer. We enjoyed a swim in the warm pool to cool off before heading back to the ship.
oy my self. I got a call at work that day telling me our taxes were ready. So we stopped by on our way to Detroit. I asked what we owed and they lady said, "Do you mean what you owe the accounting office?" I said, "No, what do we owe in taxes?" Well let me tell you all the Lord is good! She then told us we were getting some money back from both stated and federal. Not much, but when you think you owe over five grand it was like winning the lottery. Of course we thought there was a mistake at first and she had to get one of the tax preparers to come out and explain. The amount we were originally told we owed was just based on what Andy's business would owe. He forgot to take into consideration at the time everything I paid in all year, and what Andy had paid in for his other jobs. I offered to kiss the ladies there. They told us we were the happiest people they had ever seen there. So off we headed for our vacation pleased as could be! Thankfully our luck didn't change. We made it to the airport on time, our flight was on time and Olivia traveled well. We arrived at the cruise ship about 5 minutes before they allowed anyone to start boarding. We boarded the Norwegian Sun, on April 5th, which happens to be the same boat and date that Andy proposed to me on 5 years ago! Awe, isn't that romantic. Not with a 2 year old in tote. Now onto the fun pictures. Our first port of call was Roatan. Andy and I had been here 5 years ago and it was beautiful, but very hot and
depressing to see how poor of a country it was. It has developed so much in 5 years. It definitely is still poor, but tourism is bringing in so many new building and jobs into the area. It was much cleaner going through town and the shops. We did an excursion to a place called Gumbalimba Park Botanical Gardens and Monkey Refuge. It was another hot day, but gorgeous. Beautiful birds all around swooping down by you and some would perch on your shoulder. There were little lizards running around and a few monkeys. Olivia was so excited to see the monkeys, but when ever she'd get real close she got scared. They put a monkey on her head and she just stood there frozen and screamed with tears rolling down her face. We had the zoom lens on the camera and Andy coulndn't back up enough to get a picture of it before they took the monkey off her head. You can see in t
he photos how she's keeping and eye on the monkey when Andy is holding her. She proceded to tell everyone on the ship she saw that she saw monkeys, but she cried. You could choose to walk across this long swaying bridge of a shorter wooden one, but we were up for the challenge. I had a picture of Andy and Olivia on it, but somehow deleted it and don't know how to get it back into this blog. I'll add it to a later blog entry. They also had a beautiful beach and pool to enjoy after walking around to see all the park had to offer. We enjoyed a swim in the warm pool to cool off before heading back to the ship.
1 comment:
I'm glad to hear everything worked out on the tax front. What a relief right before your vacation!
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