That's it! I'm leaving this country!

Not to sound like a Baldwin, or Streisand, or anything. Frankly, as I don't consider myself the star of my own movie, if I were leaving for political reasons, I wouldn't say so here; I'd just go. And just as frankly, with Barry O' in office, I actually have more incentive to stick around and keep a sharp eye on my money.

But go I shall, and soon. My wife and I are taking our first vacation in 6 years, and it is to be our very first international vacation together.

See, last year, we got the hunger to go afield so badly, that we applied for and received our very first passports. I was shocked, once I finally did it, how easy it was. I had built it up in my head into this mammoth task that would take months and many hundreds of dollars to overcome. Instead, I took my docs with me to the post office, and stood in one short line, and after I had paid my state department fee and my post office fee, I was ushered back to get my picture taken. One-stop shopping! I was grinning so big when I signed for my receipt, that the guy across the desk shook my hand and said "Congratulations." To be honest? It wasn't funny to me. I felt like a citizen of the world all of a sudden.

I got my passport in the mail less than two weeks later. (I'm serious. There are areas of the government that seem capable of some efficiency.)

So my bride and I found that, by some oversight or other, we had managed to accumulate enough money to go on vacation. When my father and step-mother offered to take the kids off of our hands for a week, we said, "Take 'em!" and then set to planning.

My bride wanted a cruise. But having read the Atomic Nerds' experiences, I was kind of cautious about putting myself on a ship where I was to be unarmed, and relinquishing control of my destiny. All of the cruises gave you less than a day at each port. Knowing that a full hour would likely be devoted to disembarking at each port, this time seemed to me to be too short.

So we looked at some places to go. I threw out the idea of Belize. My wife challenged me with, "Fine. Do it."

So I did it. 7 days in Belize. While I do have some serious plans to be repeatedly served drinks on a beach by gracious Latinas with British accents, I still want to see culture, ruins, and I want to sunburn my butt whilst I snorkel the reefs.

So here's my request, gentle readers: From your own experiences, please give me some pointers, some must-sees, and some for-Gawd's-sake-stay-away-froms. I'm NOT a regular traveler, and I'm not too proud to take notes.

Gimme.

.

"Under the shade I flourish." I can handle that motto.