Cruise, part 6!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. The internet on the cruise ship was SO slow, and it was expensive to keep trying to upload pictures at those prices. Now we’re in Rome and have high-speed internet again, so I’ll try to catch up!

Since my last post, we had a sea day, visited Barcelona, Spain; Marseilles, France; and Livorno, Italy; and then ended our cruise and went to our hotel in Rome. The last few days were really relaxing, and we tried to take advantage of everything the ship had to offer.

After two weeks on the ship, Carter was really getting used to life onboard. As far as he knew, this was our new home, and he adjusted right to it. He enjoyed crawling all around the penthouse suite and the deck, and even got into the lovely habit of letting us know when he was ready for a nap or for bedtime by crawling into the bedroom and calling for us! Here are some pictures of him on the ship during the last few days.



Playing in the bidet, a perfect height for Carter.



“Who you lookin’ at?”



Babies aren’t allowed in the big pool, but we have a private “pool” all our own!



Looking out at the streets of Barcelona on a wet day. I have lots of Barcelona pictures, but I'll have to post them later. It was a really cool city, and a place I definitely want to visit again.



Looking out at the ocean from the wine bar, a favorite spot of ours.



Carter checks out the sunset.



Rikki, our butler, sets the table on the veranda for breakfast.



Carter in Marseilles, France. We had planned to take a tour, but decided to just walk around on our own instead. There is a beautiful waterfront there with a market.



Carter and Mommy in Marseilles.



This was Carter's first time riding a carousel. (Marseilles)



At a restaurant in Marseilles. He was reeeally tired, though, and about 30 minutes after this picture was taken our lunch was cut short. :-/



Playing with Daddy on the lawn.





Playing in a fountain. I wish we'd done this earlier, because he really enjoyed it! The last day we had planned to take a train from Livorno up to some pretty seaside towns, but Doug had developed a cold and really wasn't up to it. It was just as well, as we actually enjoyed spending the day relaxing. We didn't even get off the ship, it turns out. Can you believe it?



With Paula, his babysitter. Carter loved Paula. Whenever he saw an Asian woman on the ship, he would stare at her to see if it was Paula. The last couple of times she came, he even cried when she left!



With Ruben, our favorite bartender. He was so sweet to Carter.



Where else but a cruise ship could you sit at the bar with a baby?



With Rikki, our butler. Rikki, by the way, was Cruise Critic's 2008 Butler of the Year. For good reason!



Hanging out on the veranda for the last sailaway.



“Do we really have to get up this early?”



“Bye-bye, penthouse suite!”

And so our cruise ended. I have more pictures to post of the places we went, but I'll post those later. I also have a handful of videos I can finally try to upload.

We're now in Rome, and we're about to head out to dinner. The hotel room we're in is very nice, but not nearly as spacious as the last room we stayed in! We met up with Michelle, Carter's nanny, this morning, who happened to be in Paris the last two weeks. We offered to bring her down to Rome this week in exchange for some babysitting, and she happily obliged. So Doug and I will get a little time to hang out together like we did in the old days. :-)

Happy Birthday, Dad!