Ahhhhh, hello folks! I'm back once again. I am soooooo burnt from my business trip to Calico, Mexico. It was a four day cruise for those of you who missed my last post. It was great indeed but of course, so glad to be home. This time around I figure I'd dedicate this article to the trip and the little things we did..."we" as in my co-workers and I. The thing is, I'm not yet quite home....stuck in Fort Lauderdale waiting for our flight out to LA. Oh wait.....our flight is boarding.....I'll get back to you folks in a little bit.......

Okay, I'm back. I'm resuming this article from where I left off. So here I am, back home, it's now a Wednesday evening and I"m sitting here relaxing. Long day at work since I was absolutely beat...along with the rest of my co-workers. It's starting to get really chilly here...had to turn on the heater for the first time this year. I'm in the process of cooking my dinner.....fish, potatoes and green beans...yummy! Well, this business trip was a blast....yet again. It was really relaxing even though we did work.....as expected since it is a business trip after all. In short, it was a cruise on Carnival's Imagination...a grand ship...although not it's best in the fleet. Nevertheless, it sure amazed me. It started off with us caravanning down to LA to catch a flight across the states to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. From there we hopped on board the Imagination and cruised out across to Key West. We stopped there for a little bit and then made our way to Calica, Mexico...although our destination was initially to Cozumel.

So what all did I do on this cruise? Well, besides the beautiful sights and sounds on the ship, we toured the Key West and Calica on foot and vehicles. Key West was really gorgeous! I was quite impressed with that little "end of the world". For the most part, we walked around sight seeing, shopping and looking at trivial trinkets that one might buy out of amusement. In Calica, we pretty much did the same thing except the scenery was quite different. It was almost a stark contrast from Key West in the fact that a lot of the roads were dirt and many parts of it seemed poor. Regardless, it was still a great tourist stop. And can you believe it!? I had a "Mexican beer" in Mexico!! Hahaha!!....oh sorry. I just got a kick out of it. Weather was pretty warm down there too. Back on the ship, I kept myself busy when I wasn't working....which most of the time we weren't. On our free time, we had lotsa beers, mixed drinks and plenty of laughing, joking and plain old good time. Of course, we hit the casino there on the ship as well. I think I lost about $200 but won about $300...WAHOO!! And to tell ya, I'm not really a gambler but it's fun from time to time. The food and services were absolutely amazing! Wow! I was so impressed! They're level of service and waiting on you hand and foot made you feel like a king...hell, a god! The food was just best that I've had ever! I mean, everything from cookies to great big old, thick, juicy steaks to Lobster tails, delicacies and rich deserts was done to perfection. Everything was like a new treat to the tongue and wowed the senses!

I tried snails for the first time!....(I'm dry-heaving right now). YUCK YUCK YUCK!! BLEEEGH!!! And it was by accident that I tried it....and I knew I wouldn't like it......eeeeeeeeeeeeeew!!!! On one of the nights, one of the starters was a dish of snails...or otherwise known as "escargot". Of course, naturally I picked something different. Then, a few minutes later, the waitress brought out the starter meal.......and I'm looking at this strange plate infront of me while thinking, "Hmmm, I don't remember ordering this thing. Is this what I ordered"? So I look around at two of my co-workers..across from at the table and they had the same thing......I was clueless. So I thought, what the heck, and I grabbed one and chucked it into my mouth, chewed it a little.......and swallowed. Oh my God! That was the worst thing I had ever tasted in my whole entire short life! So I asked my two co-workers, what is this? But they didn't answer. And I look around some more....looking at their plates...which were the same "exact" thing....and all of a sudden they started snicking and trying to hold their laughter in. At that moment it dawned on me! Holy-Moly-Jesus-Freakin’-Cow! I just ate a snail!!!! A SNAIL!!! I ATE A SNAIL!!! THE NASTIEST, UGLIEST, MOST DISGUSTING THING GOD HAD EVER MADE ON THIS PLANET!! Then all of a sudden, it started coming back up...and I was gagging! I felt it trying to come back up and it was stuck in my throat...no, no, in fact, I swear th snail was still alive and it was trying to ooze out and I could feel it's slimy trail all up and down my throat!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!! And my co-workers were at this time busting up laughing so hard that they must have filled a bucket or two of tears! And even the waitress that was serving us was cracking up with laughter! Well, come to find out, another co-worker..or rather two others secretly went to the waitress and asked her to serve me the snails!! God! Can you believe it!! Maaaaan! No loyalty amongst workers! Geeez!! Oh, but don't you worry..hehehe! I'll have the last laugh..you just wait!! Hahahaha!!.....(grinning the devil's grin from ear to ear).

Besides the life changing..(for the worst), encounter with the evil snails, the whole trip was another chapter in life to remember fondly. Oh, and of course, yet again I've got butt loads of pics! I'll be posting some of them in the "Awesome Pics" section as soon as I get some free time. Even though it was all fun and amazing, I'm sure glad to be back home. I'm thinking that I'm finishing off this year with a blast....what with all these trips and stuff...wheeeew! Well, I better get back to my cooking....I'm trying for fish again. I figured, if I practice long enough, I'll be able to cook it and still have edible meat on it. Oh, before I close for the night, I'd like to point out hard lesson learned; BE CAREFUL! co-workers are evil! And I'm positive they're the devil's cohorts!