Above: Mark snorkeling off Santa Catalina Island in California, between 1994 and 2005.
Below: Mark snorkeling (and spearfishing) off Guam, August 1958.
Nineteen years ago today, Mark and I were in the midst of planning for an upcoming cruise (my first) in November 2007. We'd been invited by Tom Utter (1945-2022) - Mark's best friend, almost like a brother - and his wife Susan to join them on a seven-day Western Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Sun. Leaving from Miami, the ports of call were Roatan, Honduras; Belize City in Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico; and Great Stirrup Cay, a private island in the Bahamas owned by the cruise line.
We followed Tom's and Susan's recommendations on shore excursions for Roatan and Belize City. We hadn't yet decided what to do in Costa Maya when we learned its cruise port was heavily damaged by Hurricane Dean in August, and Cozumel, Mexico, was substituted as a port of call. There were 34 shore excursions to choose from there, but Tom and Susan suggested eating at Pancho's Backyard, so we decided to follow their lead in Cozumel as well.
Mark snorkeled quite a bit when he lived in Guam (late 1954 to mid-1960) and then again when he lived in California (1994-2005). He wanted to snorkel at Great Stirrup Cay, and lessons (for me) were also offered there, so here are the shore excursions we booked:
The plan was to fly into Fort Lauderdale and share a shuttle with Tom and Susan to a hotel in Miami. After the cruise, we'd drive from Miami to Sarasota to see my son Eric at New College of Florida, then fly home from Tampa.
We left on this trip on November 9, 2007, and got home on November 18, 2007. There will be more about it in future posts.
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