Crossed Oaks Haven

NATURALLY FUN TIMES 15

Crossedoakshaven.webs.com

Recent Happenings

Wow there has been so much going on for a few of us. I had to look back at our past newsletter to know where we left off and apparently we were in December. I am thinking that despite the size of our membership we have not been getting big groups at our get togethers. The things we have been doing have been so much fun the rest of you need to come out and join us. Our bowling in January was a great deal of fun and we even had people from age range of 2 to over 80. The next time we know of opportunity to join in bowling is April 9th near Sunny Sands and April 24th near Cypress Cove. Our next bowling is on a Saturday afternoon in September so hope everyone will join us.

The big news for February was a lovely, fun, entertaining, unique vacation. Joe has already posted on his Facebook account a blog of his thoughts about the Nude cruise. The vacation started at one of our favorite resorts Cypress Cove. The days we were there before the cruise introduced us to many nice people that we hope to maintain friendships with. The Cove brought 4 busloads of folks to and from the ship which is more than we took in 2011. After the cruise we also spent another 24 hours at the Cove for Parrothead Lite. It was wonderful to have some time to ease back into life.

How to describe this Nude Cruise? The word I keep using is wonderful. Was it perfect, no. Was it fun, yes. What is different about a nude cruise? One thing is that there is towels everywhere. No one wants to sit on other people's stuff so the towels are near anywhere someone might want to sit down. On a textile cruise you have to sign out towels by the pool. The only towel you had to worry about being charged for was the beach towel placed in your room. The negative I saw on this particular cruise had to deal with the buffet where many people ate most meals. (You have to dress for the dining room but not for the buffet.) The things that were negative included it having the same basic foods every day, closing early and them not letting us serve ourselves. It seemed like they would let us serve ourselves when we were in port and had to be dressed. I am curious to find out from Eleanor and Alec how the cruise following was different since they stayed on the ship.

The views of the trip are different for every person that takes it. The biggest reason for this is the variety of experiences you can partake of while traveling. I stayed up late most nights dancing and also participated in the photo classes. Joe spent many hours in the Thaloosatherapy pool. I visited it a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed it's warm water to relax the body. When we went to shore there was so many different things you could do as well. Coco Cay we participated in the tree spirit project, ask us about what that was like. St. Bart's is a bit more expensive but we did make some bargains. Some of our friends traveled off on their own to nude beaches. In Guadelupe we got a bargain 3 hour tour by van but I would advise getting Euro's for at least this Island. Looking at some of our friends photos on Facebook the opportunities for getting out in nature were immense. We saw a nice little waterfall with hundreds of other travelers. Others from the trip hiked and had private waterfalls. The only thing we had specificly planned for this trip was to visit Club Orient and we definitely experienced it. It had it's ups and downs but with a little bit of help from the bar and a friend we had a wonderful adventure. The water was warm and fun but you have to ask Patti her fish story. We owe Jack a BIG thank you for the entertainment and the ride.

The remainder of the cruise was spent enjoying all the old and new friendships. This part of the trip was a bit rockier and coming from the warm Caribbean to a cooler Florida was tough. I know for me I really did not like saying so long and having the trip end.