A few months ago as I was finishing up my Master's degree, my mom encouraged me to go have a stress free vacation when I was done. I took her up on it and invited her along! We planned to take a cruise together in the summer. We booked a 4 night cruise out of Los Angeles that made a stop at Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico. I've never been on a cruise OR to Mexico... so I was super excited at the chance to do both. I have to say, after going on this cruise, I've decided that cruising is THE way to do a vacation. It was amazing!!
This was the lobby area where we came onto the boat. It was beautiful! The ship was HUGE! We were always looking at maps to find our way around. The big plan for us to was just lounge around by the pool reading books. The first day we hardly got in any reading time and figured we might be too busy to read- but never fear... we got our reading time in on the following days!! This was our favorite spot to read.
The second day, we went to Catalina Island. I wasn't too excited about it, but it turned out to be a cute little town. We went around to all the stores near the beach and then hung out on the beach for a while. We didn't want to stay away from the ship for too long though... the food was so amazing that we just didn't want to pay for the food on the island when the smorgasboard of food was just across the water!
Each night, we went to a dining room and sat at the same table with other cruisers. We had a really great group: another mother and daughter, a grandma with her 16 yr old grandson and two young women who were good friends. The food was so yummy! We'd pick an appetizer, main dish and then a dessert at the end. We left each night feeling SO full! I had decided that I wouldn't worry about gaining weight, but just enjoy myself. I ended up gaining about 4 pounds, but got right back on my diet afterwards and lost it in a couple of days. It was worth it! There was always plenty to do on the ship- evening shows, game shows, karaeoke, pool and hot tub. I have a funny story about the hot tub. On the first evening, mom and I got in our swim suits and cover ups and went up to the adult only section with a hot tub. We hopped on in and there were hardly any people around. Two married couples ended up in their chatting with us. After about 20 minutes, I whispered to my mom, "you ready to go?" She said, "no... let's wait for them to leave so we don't have to get out in front of them in our suits". So we sat for another 10 minutes or so until about 3 guys showed up to hop in. I just laughed at her and hopped out and told her I was NOT sitting in the hot tub ALL NIGHT waiting for everyone to leave!!
The third day was at Ensenada, Mexico.
I couldn't resist taking a picture of this guy. I even got my mom to stand in a picture with him!
When we first arrived in Ensenada, we caught a bus into town. We were planning on just doing a little shopping, but as we were given directions to the shops, we noticed that NONE of the people from the ship were coming with us! We felt a little uncomfortable walking around the streets of Mexico alone, so we decided to join the crowd and take a tour to the blowhole. There were about 80 little shops that lined the street on the way to see the blowhole, so we got to shop as well! Here's a picture of the water spraying up.
The vendors were crazy.. yelling out to us to come see their goods. It got pretty annoying after awhile. We spent about 2 hours and then drove back to Ensenada. The road up to the blowhole went along some pretty windy, cliff-like roads and the boy driving the bus didn't look much older than Zach. I was a little nervous! But we got back okay, found our way back to the ship- just in time for more food, books and sunshine by the pool. Man... I loved this vacation!!
The next day was a "day at sea", which basically meant they traveled extremely slowly back to Catalina, anchored the ship and stayed there until the next morning. We spent the last day doing what we loved... getting diet cokes (or Dr. Peppers), reading good books, and laying by the pool. It was the good life for sure! I'm dying now to take Clint on a cruise somewhere. I don't think he's that excited about it... but I'm sure I'll talk him into it somehow!
