Author: Southern Simple Blessed

It’s never too late or you’re never too old, to start something new.

I read this in October, in a devotional…

“Take time to align your actions so that they reflect your passions.  If you’re finding that you’re not as passionate about things, dig into your purpose.  If you’re finding it difficult to recognize your purpose, then follow your passions, because on that path is where your purpose is waiting to be discovered.”

I read and re-read and thought about it and prayed about it a lot. I wanted to find out what my purpose was so I had to think about what my passions are.  I wanted something for me, outside of my family. Three of my passions have come together, photography, writing, and travels.

I had thought about a blog for a couple of years but I was scared. I am an introvert, insecure, have anxiety and a private person. I had to step out of my comfort zone to even start a blog. I’ve read and heard that good things happen outside of your comfort zone. How could I write a blog, though?  In January, I started with fear and all, not knowing what I was doing.

A few months ago when I started this blog I never dreamed it would bring me to the place I’m at now. I knew I would write about traveling, cruising, sharing photos, my family, and inspirational post because those things are my life. So far, the cruise and travel blogs have the most comments and views.

I’ve thought many times that I would love to be a travel agent, had even inquired about it but I was scared, and it went no further.  Finally, I just did it out of fear, as well.

This little blog has turned my passion for traveling/cruising into more. I am now a Travel Agent. A lot of people over the years have come to me asking for help because they see my photos and know we cruise a lot. It makes me happy helping people! I really love to help someone plan a vacation or a staycation. It helped me, turn my passion, into my purpose.

It’s my desire to make each person that comes to me happy and help them have a great vacation or staycation and make wonderful memories.

I can help you plan a cruise, excursions, beach vacations or even Disney. It doesn’t cost you any more to book travels through a travel agent (ME) than you would online or calling the company itself. I can help you find the best deals and you’ll have a “real” person to talk to.

I am still learning and taking courses. If I don’t know something, I can find out because I have a great agency that I work for and that is so helpful.

I have created a group on Facebook Lost at Sea Travels with Davilyn. I would love to have you join my group. I will post promotions, photos, answer questions, make it fun and help you any way that I can.

Maybe you can’t afford a vacation & think you shouldn’t join? Join anyway! As I’ve said in a previous blog, you can pay out a cruise or have a staycation at home. I encourage you to read it… Cruising on a Budget/Recent Cruise

Although, I love to travel and cruise, you can make great memories with a staycation and we do that as well.

Turn your home into your little piece of paradise and have a staycation. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. I’d be more than happy to help you and give you ideas for that as well. I want to help you relax, have fun and make memories. We need to enjoy our lives and not work and worry all of the time.

I can help anyone from anywhere!

My blog will be a lifestyle/travel blog because I will have blogs about different things. Some will be motivational, inspirational, about my family and of course travel. That’s one reason I wanted a separate group for traveling.



Thank you for reading my blogs, visiting my sites and for all of the support. Thank you for helping me turn my passion into a purpose, to help others.

Travel Agent website

I would love to help you with your future travels. Contact me on here or any of my sites. Thank you!

Enjoying the simple life,

💜Davilyn

This is one of my favorite quotes. You don’t have to tell me twice. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or extravagant. It can be a day trip, flip-flops, and Little Debbie cakes. By the way, they are good. Have you heard the quote, “Flip flops are the glass slipper of the South?” Well, I love flip flops, they are my glass slippers.

We just got home from our yearly cruise. It’s important to us to take a vacation each year and we love cruises. We make taking trips, even day trips, a priority. My husband works many hours, weekends and holidays, so we need to get away when we can.

I’ve been asked, “how do you afford it?”

We are on a budget just like most people.

1) We always cruise during offseason, it’s cheaper.

2)They offer many types of rooms from inside cabins to suites. Of course, the room you choose determines the cost, as well the length of the cruise and the ship you choose.

3)You can book a cruise a year or even two in advance with a small deposit and have until 90 days before the cruise to pay it off. There isn’t a set amount you have to pay and can pay any amount on it when you can.

4) A cruise is all-inclusive unless you drink alcohol, then that’s extra.

5) The best thing, you get to go to 3 or more different places on one trip.

Back to our vacation!

We traveled with a group of eight people this time.

Day 1: Sea Day

Our first day was a sea day and we laid around the pool. That night was one of the elegant nights in the dining room. My husband tries all of the exotic foods, me, not so much.

They take great photos and photoshop. (photos cost extra)

Day 2: Key West, Florida.

We rented a golf cart that seated 8, I didn’t even know they existed. We explored the island. Like really, the whole island, by accident, because we got lost. We ended up on the main highway on a golf cart. I think we were headed to Miami. We asked several people the way to the cruise port and all of them gave a different direction. We made it back to the ship on time but I must admit, I was getting concerned. But it was a fun adventure. We got to see the furthest south point of the U.S. and that was cool.

Day 3. Freeport, Bahamas

We bought a carnival beach excursion. It ended up not being worth the money. The excursion was for 4 hours and I’m thinking 4 hours on the beach. No, it was a 30-minute drive each way, so that gave us 3 hours on the beach. That’s not enough time for me and especially for the amount we paid for it.   We didn’t buy the all-inclusive, which included food, so we had to pay extra for that. If I ever go back to Freeport, I will probably do port shopping and enjoy time on the ship.

Day 4: Nassau, Bahamas

We purchased a day pass to Breezes Resort, all-inclusive. It was beautiful. It had several pools, hot tubs, entertainment, all the food and drinks you want and most importantly to me, a beautiful beach. There was no set time for us to leave and we stayed all day. We just had to get our own taxi back to port. This was a fun day! I love Nassau.

Days 5 & 6 SEA DAYS

We love sea days. There are lots of activities to participate in or to be a spectator, like me. We love being on the upper deck looking out at the ocean or people watching and of course, lots of food and ice-cream.

There are lots of choices for the nightlife as well. Casino, Karaoke, live music, comedy shows, nightclub, line dancing, movies on the big screen by the pool, deck parties, games, shows, star gazing and more. So many things to choose from.

The sunsets are the best on the seas.

Your room is cleaned for you twice a day and you have turndown service. Room service is also available.

To us, cruising is the best vacation for your money.

Love this view!

So take the trip, buy the shoes, eat the cake and don’t worry about the calories. Carnival cruise has the best chocolate melting cake and I don’t think once about the calories.

Collect memories, not things.

At the end of the day, it’s what you choose, that’s important to you. We choose to cut back on other things so we can afford to take a good vacation.

We also do things throughout the year.  We may take day trips to the nearby lake or drive 3 hours to the beach.  The trip may be to our backyard, tune everything else out, listen to music, grill, lay out by the pool or have a fire at night.

Traveling and being together is very important to us.

Whatever or however you choose to do life, enjoy it because life is short.

Here is the link to my facebook group, if you would like to join. I would love to have you!

Cruise Travel FB Group

Enjoying the simple life,

💜Davilyn

Girls weekend!!

Well, it really wasn’t a whole weekend, just about 24 hours in all. My best friend Jennifer and I try to get away for an overnight trip at least once a year. It doesn’t have to be far or extravagant. We don’t have to do really do anything but just be “girls.” We as women need that. We are so busy with our families and lives that sometimes it feels good to get away, be silly and just have a mental break for a few hours.

We decided to go to Miranda Lambert’s store, The Pink Pistol, in her hometown of Lindale, Texas, population about 5000. It’s only about 100 miles from us. We love Miranda’s music and she’s a Texas girl like us.

Many of Miranda’s framed platinum and gold records, including best-selling singles like “White Liar” and chart-topping albums like “Platinum,” hang on the wall. There are Souvenirs, T-shirt’s, boots, jewelry, things from her songs like “pink sunglasses” and lots of sparkly and vintage things. It’s definitely Miranda’s hippie, vintage style and you can tell her personal touch is on everything. I feel it represents her well.💖

Also in the store is a Hemingway Tasting Room. The decorated wine bar is managed by Miranda’s parents, Rick & Bev Lambert. You can enjoy wine tastings from Red 55 Winery, Lambert’s brand of wine. All of the wines are named after her songs. Kerosine, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, White Liar, Platinum just to name a few.

You can enjoy Ol’ Fashioned Sodas from old bar-stools serving up ice cream floats, fountain drinks, and Miranda’s original Pink Pistol Signature Drinks.

Also, Connected to her store is a restaurant called Love and War. It’s very good, so if you go, eat there. I don’t believe it’s affiliated with her store.

There are several photo opts and we took advantage of all of them. We felt like teenagers trying to take selfies and asking others if they’d take our picture. I have two grown sons and she has a teenage son. They would have probably been embarrassed by their mamas. 😁 That’s okay! They love us anyway.

We bought a T-shirt alike. We laughed so hard trying to take a mirror selfie in our shirts. It only took about 15 times just to get this one. LOL

You know we girls do things like that. We’re just different from guys. We can talk for hours, eat lots of chocolate, share clothes, ask each other what we think of our hair or makeup or how we look in different clothes.

Guys don’t do that. The funny thing is, I always say that I’m glad I’m a boy mom. I don’t think I could handle raising a daughter. God knows what’s best!

The Pink Pistol is fun for girls to visit, yes I’m calling us 40 something’s girls, we felt like girls that day.

We really enjoyed our day. Hope you enjoy our silly girly pictures.

Ladies, take the time to do something for yourself sometimes. I know it’s hard to find the time, but you’re worth it.😊

Enjoying the Simple Life,

💜 Davilyn



Hi friends! I’m counting down the days to vacation, 30. 😍 We are going on a cruise to the Bahamas. We will visit Key West, Nassau, and Freeport. We are cruising on the Carnival Breeze. Love that ship! We always cruise with carnival. We have never had a problem with them so we will stick with them. We are building up our points! 😊 We are getting an aft room this time.  My brother and sister in law are going with us. Their room is right next to ours, we are going to have them open up the balconies so we can have one big one.

Warning, picture overload!😬

We have been to these ports before. They are beautiful, but not my favorites. I’ll talk about those at a different time.



When we went to Nassau last time we went to the Atlantis, and it was so nice and big, lots to do but you need more than one day. (The Atlantis is in the first photo above.) We are not going to the Atlantis this time. We are going to a beach resort. At Key West, we are planning to rent a golf cart for the day and sightsee. Of course, the Key Lime Pie Factory is on the list. We just want to go at our own pace there, since we know it’s safe.  In Freeport, we are also going to a beach resort. It’s very hard for me to go to these islands and not go to the beach. I am a beach girl!💙 I need all of it I can get.

This picture is at a beach in Freeport, just look at that beautiful water.



We enjoy the ship.  Love sea days! All we do is lay around the pool, eat, drink and be merry. There are usually games going on around the pool and a DJ. We don’t go to any shows or play bingo or do anything like that if it’s during the day. We really enjoy being outside. We enjoy the serenity deck as well, adults only. Nothing bad just means no kids running around. 😆

We go to the dining room and enjoy the dress up nights. We don’t do “formal” more like “semi-formal” and casual.  My husband tries all of the different exotic foods they have, I don’t. I’ll stick to the hot melting chocolate cake. Yummy!! Calories? Who’s counting?

After dinner, we have many options, lots of music and dancing areas, karaoke and comedy shows, dive in movies by the pool. They have a big casino but we are not gamblers. I might, okay I will, do the claw machine. It’s like those machines you see that have stuffed animals in them, except its money. I did win $100 one time and only spent $5 and then I quit for the night.😉

Sorry, not a great picture but my proof. Have no idea whose reflection that is…photo bomber! Lol

This is our “formal” night.

I love how the sun reflects on the water.

The sunsets are so beautiful over the seas. The sunrise, I normally don’t see but my husband tells me they are beautiful.😎

It looks like the sun is sitting on top of the water.



They turn our bed down at night with the “fun times” of the events for the next day. They always a fun towel animal or design in our room. I have several pictures of those, but I’ll spare you.

It used to be said, ” what happens on the cruise stays on the cruise.” That’s not true anymore. Now what happens on the cruise, is usually on Facebook live, or any social media.

Yes, they now have internet on cruise ships, but it’s spotty. I like to unplug, although, I will buy the social media package to keep in contact with the kids and post a few pictures. Everything else can wait!

This photo is at a beach resort in Freeport, Bahamas. Who doesn’t like hammocks?



It’s the most relaxing, peaceful vacation that we can have. It’s nice to be waited on and have your room cleaned twice a day.  It amazes us how your room stewards and waiters know you by name.

This was in Nassau Bahamas when we went in 2014. The water and sand are so pretty.

I sure hope the next 30 days go by fast! I’m really getting excited!😎

I’ll blog about that trip when we get back.

Here is the link to my facebook group, if you would like to join. I would love to have you.

Cruise Travel FB Group

Enjoying the simple life,

💜Davilyn

All photos by Captured By Eberlan (me) except the photo of our formal night (carnival)