Our Cruise!

Okay we had so much fun I don't know how I will ever get back to the real world!

Day 1 LA: Fly to LA, find the shuttle to take us to the hotel, right on long beach, our balcony looked out to the ocean. Beautiful view. Had a dinner at the hotel and then went to bed early (and slept all night without getting up to fix a bottle!) VERY NICE!

Day 2 PORT: Catch a cab from airport to the pier, we had the hotel call the cab and didn't expect the very nice black, tinted, leather, Lincoln towncar to pull up! The driver was a maniac driver, we got there in like 3 min! But nice ride while it lasted! Boarded the ship about 11:00am and had the day to explore all 14 decks, locate the pool (where I was commonly found), and unpack our luggage. We had a mandatory boat drill where we go up on deck with these really not so cool looking, oversized life vests, and listen to how safe we are if we sink -GREAT! Once we were at sea Bob and I both had a slight case of diziness, niether of us were sick, just had to get used to the swaying of the ship. We went to the very entertaining Juggling Show, by Romano Frediani, his family pretty much invented the circus he is a 6th generation circus act. Very nice first day, again I went to bed early, and slept all night! I really enjoyed the sleeping! Bob stayed in the casino until 1:30 in the morning.

Day 3 1st full day at sea!: I went the the gym and worked out and then a quick seminar about staying in shape while cruising (Lame I know, but I really don't want to gain the average 6-14lb!!! ) Plus I can't complain, the gym over looked the ocean so I could work out with a great view! I met up with Bob and we went up to deck 13 and layed by the pool and enjoyed the poolside grill. We went and saw a movie, but I left early so I could be ready for formal night! We were looking good! Bob in his black tux with silver tie and me in my sparkly somethin, I had to get the professional pictures taken that night.( I am happy to say, More about that later) My sweet hubby was awesome, cause I was a little dissapointed I forgot to pack my earrings that I had bought for my dress, Bob left immediately to the gallery and bought me some gorgeous Diamond earings!! We went to Dinner at the Beautiful Versailles and then went to the Broadway showing of "Music of the Night" after this amazing show it was "Monte-Carlo Night". In the casino Bob enjoyed winning a few rounds at the rioulette table and I got addicted to the stupid quarter game. We shared a few laughs about the staffs attire, they had to wear a tuxedo T-shirt. I could have fit right in, those of you at my 27th birthday will get this inside joke.!It was such a perfect night!

Day 4 Cabo San Lucas: We left the ship and found our own tour boat to take us out to the famed Los Arcos we toured around this amazing rock formation and saw the Sea Lion colony, very stinky creatures! The beautiful "Lover's Beach" named for its calm and loving waters, and then on the opposite side "Divorce Beach." We rented snorkel gear and saw mass amounts of fish and we even found our own little private cove, we played in the warm waters and soaked up the sun! We cought our boat back to Cabo and did some flea market shopping, were offered marijuana and cocaine several times,and saw some of the local fishing boats come in. Someone had caught a HUGE Marlin and they hung it up for everyone to see. Very cool lookin fish. We got back to the boat had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed Murry the Magician show. This was Great because Bob was called up to help. He needed his shoe to preform a magic trick, and do a few card shuffles,I have never laughed more!! The rest of the Cruise he was known to complete strangers as "Boise Bob" We had some more fun in the casino and then enjoyed another full night of sleep!

Day 5 Mazatlan: We left the ship early,by Tender boats. We were one of the first off the boat! We walked along the beach all by ourselves with no one around (very romantic) enjoying the view. This is where we found all different kinds of sea shells for Alex's collection . After our walk our feet were all sandy so we walked out to this little rocky pennisula where the waves were crashing in and there were crabs crawling all over, to wash off our feet. I'm sure we were quite funny to watch trying to get the edge of a huge wave and not get splashed into the ocean. Finally we were cleaned off enough to put shoes on and go shopping, only to find that right off the beach they had a nice tiled off area where you could wash your feet! We went looking for the bus to get to the local flea/meat market. Rather than take a cab for 12 bucks, we were told we could hop on the bus for 50 cents a piece. A nice lady must of thought we were lost, she spoke english, and led us to the right bus, and although we had a couple hundred dollars worth of pesos, she paid our fare. The meat market smelled aweful! I had to stay away from that market, too afraid of losing my lunch! We did shop a lot and got most of the souveniers here, we met some very nice people who spoke spanish and bartered the prices for us and got things cheap! We went back to the Ship for lunch cause we were a little nervouse to eat the local food, and we were getting tired of avoiding all the pedalers trying to sell us timeshares. We went poolside for the rest of the afternoon and then changed for dinner at Cagney's the ship's steakhouse. Very yummy food!! We went up to the Spinniker Lounge briefly to find out who our new President was, I had to distract Bob from being really grumpy when he found out Obama won. So we went to the casino for the evening.

Day 6 Porta Vallarta: This day was by far the most adventurest day! We left the ship and found a tour with a group of about 6 others, One couple wanted to tour the "old city" and another couple was going for the tequila tasting and then we were going for the ziplines! So with all of us in one van we all got to do everything! The Old city was beautiful, and we got a chance to get out and walk the board walk and see all the sand sculptures and then we got to shop a little more. We Then took a scenic drive along the coast and into the jungle where we stopped at the tequila maker. He gave us a brief tour of how they make it and then everyone could taste different kinds of tequila. ( We refrained from this part of the tour.) Then another short drive and we were at the ziplines.The rest of our group had lunch at the little restaurant while we hooked up to our harnesses and had a brief explanation of what to expect. The first Zipline was a short hike up a muddy path where we hooked up to a cable hanging over the jungle and then we were "zipping along to the next platform! It was very scary but way fun! We did this ten different times hiking up about 500 ft into the jungle. On the tallest, longest and fastest line I handed my camera to Bob to get a few shots of me coming in.
So Bob went first and about 3-4 sec into his line I saw the camera fall out!!! YES we lost the camera! I panicked I told the guy what I saw and he and a few others went into the jungle to look for it. After about 30 min of no Luck Bob and I asked if we could join the search. This is where it gets exciting!We cross a hanging bridge that is missing quite a few boards and most of the railing into the Jungle with complete strangers that don't speak english, and the only thing I do understand in broken english is "Careful" "amiga" "SNAKES" as we enter the grass 3 ft above my head! At some point after crossing the river on step-stones and the Barb wire fence I crawled under I notice I am all by myself!! I go wandering around trying to find one of the group and the only guy I can find is hanging on the zipline 200 ft above my head, he points vaguely to the left but that could be anywhere and I am a little nervouse to loose sight of the line. I eventually hike to the top of the hill to come upon a small hut and a not so friendly dog growling at me. The lady comes out and says a bunch but I understand none. I get the impression she wants me to go back into the jungle so I walk around her little area and right into the path of a BORE! Yeah one of those wild(on a short rope) pigs with really sharp tusks! Its snorten and barken at me. By now I think Screw the camera I just want to survive! Finally one of our group finds me and leads me back to the van and we head back to port without my camera, but definitely an adventure to tell. I must Thank the members of our group for being so patent with us, as they waited almost 2 hrs while we looked, and some even offered to email some of their shots to us! When we got back to PV we found a local super market and purchased a new camera and I took as many shots as I could of the Ship. I will always have great memories of this trip but unfortunately I lost all the pictures from the first days of our trip. That evening we went to a very entertaining comedy show and then later went to the late night pool party.

Day 7 day at sea: We spent the day by the pool, It was perfect, a little overcast and breezy so you wern't too hot I was so comfy sitting there reading my book that I did doze off a few times and got a little too much sun. We had lunch poolside at the grill and then went in to get ready for an evening of fun. We had Dinner at Versalles, it was very good. Then the evening entertainment was the Juggler and the Magician. Then we went to the Chocoholic Buffet where there was everything edible covered in chocolate. There were Chocolate carvings of motorcycles, bird houses, towers
, and even the Chocolate of Liberty! It was amzing! After we made a brief appearence at the White Hot Party where everyone wears white and they were giving out glow sticks. It looked really cool! So we sat and listened to the music and people watched for awhile. Staying up late and playing in the casino.
Day 8 LAST DAY at sea: We had a very relaxing day poolside and then went to the drawing for a free cruise..WE DID not WIN! Then we took a very long relaxing nap, got dressed for the evening dinner and comedy show. Packed up our bags and went for a walk to enjoy our last sunset.

Day8 LA Tour: Arrived in the LA port early in the morning. We disembarked for our tour of LA. We rode a big city bus down by the Hollywood sign, Long Beach, San a Monica Beach and Rodeo Dr, ending at LAX airport. We boarded the plane to SaltLake City on time but as the plane was ready to taxi out to the runway it lost all power lights and air. The plane was having electical problems so we sat for about 30 min before getting in the air. The Pilot tried to make up the time, but we still missed out connecting flight by about 10 min. So Delta payed for dinner in the terminal (kind of a big let down after dining on a cruise ship all week)and put us in a small hotel out in the middle of nowhere!Bonus day of vacation! sort of.

Day9 Going Home: We caught the 9:30 am flight to Boise Landing at 11:30am a little late to make our Primary Program, Grandma said Alex did really good and all the kids sang really loud! Grandpa brought William to the airport with him so I saw him first, I couldn't believe how much kids can grow in a week. He was talking more and I swear he grew 2 inches! When Grandma came home from church with the girls Alex told us what a great girl she had been all week and showed us her list of all her good deeds she was excited to get her surprises of seashells and a special necklace with a pearl from an oyster! Reagan was a little cold toward me. She let me hold her, but as soon as grandma came near she was leaping toward her. She is slowly warming up but even today she has been quite grumpy with me, I hope it is just because she misses her Mema. Thank you Mema!!

PS More pictures to come!