As things stand today we are going to book a cruise with Celebrity Cruiselines for Bermuda. We just haven't decided on a set date yet, although it will probably be sometimes in mid to late September. We're figuring that not only do the rates go down, but the cruise itself is likely to be relatively kid-free, since school will have started for just about everyone at that point.

Hey, don't get me wrong! We like kids (Donna even has a daughter!), but we'd like to spend our 7-days pretty much away from the rug rats.

After several hitches in the U.S. Navy you might think that I'd rather not find myself at sea again, but to be honest I actually loved those parts of each deployment where we'd be mid-Atlantic or cruising the coast. As peaceful as it can be sitting on the beach and watching the waves, the feeling of being completely out of sight of land, surrounded by the ocean is unbelievable. The skies at night are so full of stars that you can't compare them to even the clearest night that you've ever spent on land. (Okay, I will admit that there were occasions in California & Colorado where the night skies could be fantastic. Those had to be spent outside the city limits, either in the Rockies or in the desert.)

The first 'commercial' cruise I ever took was on Carnival Cruiseline which was introducing it's newest ship the Triumph with four to five night cruises to Nova Scotia, out of New York City. Donna, who had sailed before convinced me that it would be fun so we booked a four night cruise to Halifax. Just about everyone that I'd talked to, both before and after we confirmed, said that once you'd cruised you would immediately start planning your next. Well, it might not be true of everyone, but for Donna and myself it certainly was.

I'll probably have more to add on this tomorrow, so I'll leave it at that for now.