QUIET DAYS AT SEA April 20 - May 7, 2013

Spring was such a hard and painful time for me losing both my Mom and my oldest brother, Harry, within weeks of each other. I felt so empty and lost and overwhelmed with everything. I knew I needed to find time to just be alone for a while. We spent the next 2 weeks at sea on a transatlantic cruise from Galveston, Texas to Barcelona, Spain;  a wonderful time to reflect and accept the changes in my life.  Being at sea for days without any connection to my regular world was wonderful. No phone, no computer, no planning, no emails or texting, no talking, some crying and just long days looking at the blue waters of the sea. I could forget the last few weeks at least for a while.

We had a total of 9 days at sea which I love the most! We had port stops at Madeira Islands, Gibaltar, Alicante, and Barcelona.

A few photos from those 15 days:

Nassau, Bahamas

Our Royal Caribbean ship, The Mariner of the Seas

Celebrating my 66th birthday on board.

Sunset that night

Walking and photo op with the Captain.

Funchal, Madeira Island

in Gibraltar we spent the day touring the caves, the city and meeting the monkeys up near the Rock

Alicante, Spain. A lovely, relaxing Sunday along the beach

 Our last day in Barcelona visiting one of Gaudi's masterpieces

We saw such an interesting system of bikes all over the city. Locals can sign onto a website, then with a card access they rent the bike for 30 min at a time leaving it in a new location at their destination. The monthly fee was about $25 for the service.  The bikes were everywhere! The city had also created beautiful wide boulevards for bikes and walkers.

We returned the following day, May 7th, to Tucson. Would have loved to stay longer in Barcelona but with just that little taste we know we'll return again.  It's a fantastic city! Stayed at a great hotel right in the city center, Hotel Vueling BCN on the Gran Via.

The two weeks away were great medicine and exactly what I needed. We came back to Green Valley for a week to get some things organized then said good bye to Mary and started traveling north. How quickly life can change, and we once again knew we had chosen this traveling life for so many reasons, especially to enjoy every day to the max!