Best Vacation Ever!!!!

The much anticipated day finally arrived and we awoke excited to be on our way. Unfortunately, we awoke to the sounds of..... Evan throwing up. Really?!! I couldn't believe it, but yet it was true. But, what can you do? Off to the airport. Here we are on our very first ever flight together. Yep, we've been married more than 10 years and it really was our first flight.

After an uneventful flight we took my first ever taxi ride. I was pretty disappointed that we didn't get to hail it. It was just sitting there. :) The driver was completely uninterested in us, played disgusting music, and drove like a maniac. However, he did take us where we needed to go (even if it was for a ridiculous amount of moolah).

The ship really was pretty incredible. It wasn't as pretty as I expected. In fact, the decor was rather 80's. However, our room was really nice and our veranda was absolutely amazing.

If I had any advice for anyone booking a cruise, it would be to splurge for the veranda. It was so fun to always be able to go out there and chill for a while, eat breakfast, read a book, or just to check out the view.

When we first booked the cruise there were three ports: Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. A few weeks before we left, we were notified that Mazatlan would be cancelled due to violence in the area. We would have two days in Puerto Vallarta instead. After we boarded and went to our room, we found a letter telling us that two hurricanes were headed straight for Puerto Vallarta, due to hit the same days we were going to be there. So, another change of plans. Our entire itinerary had changed. We would now go to Catalina Island, La Paz, and Cabo San Lucas. At first I was pretty disappointed. We had a great shore excursion booked for Puerto Vallarta that I was really looking forward to. But, it was all going to be a wonderful new experience anyway, and we really didn't want to be on a ship in a hurricane. With the new itinerary, we didn't need to leave San Diego as early as planned. Since we'd had dinner, there wasn't much else to do. It was almost dark. We just walked around, saw the outside of the USS Midway, and enjoyed the ocean view.

The next morning we awoke to this amazing view.

Catalina Island was absolutely delightful and beautiful. It turned out to be the favorite port for both of us. It was this quaint little quiet town tucked away in the mountainside. We rented bikes and rode all over town.

It was surreal to ride along the ocean. I just kept thinking that I can't believe we're really here and really doing this. I just wanted to breath in the moment and remember it forever.

Both of us felt a little sick for most of the trip. We weren't sure if we were coming down with whatever Evan had or if it was motion sickness. I took a Dramamine the second day and almost fell asleep walking back to our stateroom. Why didn't anyone tell me how powerful that stuff is? It knocked me out for a few hours.

However, the next day, Don wasn't feeling well, and he generally handles medicine better than I do, so he took one. There went that day! He slept pretty much the whole day. He ended up having the 24 hour bug that Evan had and he felt better the next day. Thank goodness that was an At Sea day so that we didn't have to miss a port.

We really enjoyed the At Sea days. There was a lot to do. We took advantage of the movie theater and the game room mostly. One of our favorite things to do was to walk around the deck. To give you an idea of how big the ship is, one lap around was 1/3 of a mile. I think that's pretty incredible. I was hoping to see a whale, but I had to settle for dolphins and flying fish. They were both pretty cool. For the most part, the entertainment was fabulous! There was a comedian that couldn't keep it clean, so we ditched his shows, but the music was some of the best I've ever heard. We did a scavenger hunt and won! Woohoo! Although, we had to turn down the prize (free drink of the day!) and opted for a pop instead. Funny how they didn't even think to ask if we drink. I have to mention the food.....ahh, the food. It was amazing! The first day or two we only ate at the buffet and it was just allright. We both kept thinking, where is all this amazing food we've heard so much about? All it took was one meal at a dining room and we were hooked. Oh, my goodness! It was so fun to try all kinds of new things. And everything we tried was so good. It was wonderful to be able to order whatever we wanted and not have to worry about how much it cost. I wish it was always that way!

Most of the staff were from the Philippines. They were so wonderful! I don't know if it's a part of their culture or if it's how they were trained, but they were the most upbeat, happy people to be around. They quickly learned our names and they were always dancing around, singing, and they just seemed like they loved being there. You could tell that they were a very close-knit group and they have created a sort of family on the ship. There was just a good feeling there. They were also very good at what they did. I really can't say enough about how great the service was.

On to La Paz. It is definitely not a tourist location. It is really quite ugly. Don't let the picture fool you. The green is only there because of the golf course. It might be the only green we saw all day. It is so dry that the tour guide told us they only get water in their homes every other day for a few hours. We were not impressed with the town, so we hit the beach!

You can't go wrong with the beach. It was beautiful and we had lots of fun playing in the water and eating mexican ice cream from a vendor with a little push cart. It was a great, relaxing day.

Cabo San Lucas was beautiful. I loved all of the cliffs that jutted straight up out of the ocean. We took a boat ride out around them. I didn't love how the streets were packed with people trying to get us to go on their tour. Everywhere we went someone was yelling to us. It was a bit too much for me. The cruise line had warned us against taking these independent tours. After looking for awhile, we realized that we weren't going to find a legit company, so we went back to the cruise line and booked the shore excursion. We paid more, but after seeing some of these guys driving their boats out on the ocean, I was glad we hadn't gone with them. Crazy drivers!

On my list of things to do while in Mexico was to eat at a Mexican restaurant. We asked around and found this out of the way place that was beautiful. As luck would have it, we were the only ones there. For the entire lunch! It was great!

We had some souvenir shopping to do, so we spent the afternoon honing our nonexistent bargaining skills. We stink! We ended up paying way too much for everything. Oh, well. It was so hot and humid. When we got back to the ship we realized just how hot. 106 degrees! Yikes!

We had such a marvelous time, but by the end of the week we were ready to come back to the kids. We sure missed them! Both Grandmas and Grandpas were such troopers! Especially since all three kids had the stomach flu before the week was out. We couldn't wait to get home and hug the heck out of them. It was great to get away, but also so great to come home.

Back in San Diego we had some time to kill before our flight. We bought a day pass for the bus (quite the interesting experience) and headed for Old Town. We toured the Mormon Battalion exhibit, had lunch, and hit a candy store, then it was back to the airport.

I will end (finally) with a few random pictures. We will never forget this vacation. It was worth every penny!