Yawl, dandy, ketch, smack, lugger, barge, hoy, cat, buss, windjammer, steamer, cruiseliner

We went on a cruise. Before we went people would ask, "Have you ever been on a cruise?" And then we'd say, "No." A fair question. But then we were actually on the boat and people would ask us that. I just thought, "Why? Are you going to humiliate all the 'first-time cruisers'?" That is what you are labeled, by the way. I don't know why it matters whether or not you have been on one before when you are actually on one. They made me feel like there was going to be some crazy religious revival or a public hanging that I didn't know about the way they kept asking. People liked to tell others how many they'd been on, too. "This is our 52nd cruise."
Does that make them 52 times cooler than me?

Anyway, aside from the silly unspoken cruise culture and class system, it was pretty fun. Sorry for the rant. I guess I don't fall for the glitz and no-work environment. Good for a short time, but not for 52 of them.

Here we are on the ship headed toward Catalina, Ca, and Ensenada, Mexico.

Here are some of the creepy things the maids do. I think some people like them and think they're cute. I didn't like that they moved my sunglasses. Maybe it's because I was a tad seasick the first day. Or maybe you have to be a dog lover.

The ship had a lot of fun things to do that we never do because we are boring people. Really, we watch a movie and eat ice cream like 2+ nights a week and have not grown weary of this in the last 9 years. But here we went to a couple comedy shows (the family ones). We also went to some quasi-Broadway productions, we watched some karaoke, which was not boring, much to our surprise. We even got to go dancing a few times. We also went to the gym (I spotted 4 or 5 dolphins while running on the treadmill), played a little ping-pong, and read the Percy Jackson series by the pool.

Food review: most of it was pretty good. A few things were delicious. A few were blech. The eggs benedict was awesome, the waffle so-so. Overall, it was fun to not have to cook and fun to have a variety. I can cook just as well or better than that, but I don't use the expensive foods that they offered, so it was worth it for that.
Here we are spiffed up. I can't tell you how easy it was to keep my clothes clean with no kids around. Amazing.

Enough of the boat--let's do the stops. We had a day in Catalina which was not that exciting. I'll bet it is great when you have money to rent a golf cart or go shopping or whatever. We just walked around debating whether or not to call my dad for a motion sickness scrip. I've never had motion sickness before, so it kinda surprised me. We figured out that it was because the boat started moving while I was asleep and I woke up to the rocking in a room with no windows and it just didn't jive with my brain. Anyway, I decided 'no' on bugging my dad (yes, Matt is and was a doctor at this point, but his license is in Michigan and he doesn't exactly carry a prescription pad around with him). So we went to a grocery store for some soda to cure a headache and we left. Oh yeah, we did call our kids while on Catalina. See? I told you we were boring.

There is our ship way behind me.

Next we stopped in Mexico. At first we just walked around the town and enjoyed the different architecture and landscaping. We also went hunting around for some vendors because we were looking for cheap merchandise. Matt had a lot of fun speaking to people in Spanish and I had fun listening. I can understand him perfectly--the Mexicans a little less, but I got the gist. They all thought he was great and spoke wonderfully. No surprise.

This is at a convention center/museum. The grounds were well kept, but the building was deserted.

My friend, the cactus.

We also got to go on a tour down to a blow hole, supposedly one of biggest in the world.

All these vendors are set up along the walk to and from the blow hole. Matt haggled with some locals and we got treasures. We almost missed the bus because we had to get a churro before we left. Matt talked to the tour guide lady in Spanish for the hour ride back.

I just ate churros.