Cruising in February

Last year during our family reunion, we talked Terry and Nancy Imlay (my uncle and his wife who are just a few years older than us) into going on a cruise with us. None of us had ever been on a cruise before. So, we stocked up on our seasick patches and medicine and booked a Mexican Riviera cruise for February, 2008! It was really hard to limit the number of pictures for this blog (I only took about 1,000), so I hope you don't get too bored looking at all of them!

Here we are, all set to go on our great adventure!

Whoa! What a big ship. There are about 2,000 people with 900 crew on the ship. There were 14 decks (I made the mistake of calling them "floors" and got corrected by a uniformed sailor!), and our staterooms were on the 12th deck.

Well, here we go! We are actually doing this! We are getting on this big ship!

Howie is checking out the bed in our cozy little stateroom. We are used to sharing small spaces since we have lived in an RV for over a year!

And I am on the computer (as usual). I was excited about being able to have connection with my air card in every port so I could do my medical transcription for our son--until I got home and received the bill for $242 for "international Internet."

Most of the action was on our deck. It was where the pool was, with live music most of the time.

This is one of two main activity places. It was a lounge and on the other end of the ship was a large theater. Most of the evening entertainment happened at these two places, along with several smaller lounges and areas.

This is in the very center of the ship where there was a spiral staircase and glass elevators.

The deck outside of the buffet is where we ate a lot. It was on the deck just above our staterooms, so it was very handy. They had food there 24 hours a day! It was very yummy food!

Nancy and I participated in a line dancing class--and Howie got ahold of the camera!

I think sometimes we wore Terry out! He was the only one that got a little seasick, but it wasn't until the last day or two, but he was a good sport to hang in there!

Don't we look pretty "worldly" sitting here in the lounge on a cruise ship sipping our non-alcoholic drinks!

CABO SAN LUCAS

Cabo San Lucas was our first port. Howie decided that he liked it best of the three ports we went to. The water was too shallow to get the ship into port, so we were "tendered" into port in our life boats. They held 150 people and could be closed so they were almost air tight if the water got bad during an emergency. Glad we didn't have to use them for anything but tendering!

A nice shipmate took a picture of the four of us being tendered in the lifeboat to Cabo San Lucas.

The first place we went to was a place where they blew glass and made figurines, vases, dishes, and other things. It was quite a process of adding hot colored glass to a blown piece of glass to make something beautiful.

This is the oven where they melted the glass. All of the items were made out of recycled glass.

This is the finished product--a little turtle with a hat.

The next place we went was a little restaurant on the edge of a mountain looking down onto the Sea of Cortez (it is kind of the same water as the Pacific Ocean.)

This is looking down from the restaurant to the beach.

I had to take a picture of the sink in the ladies' restroom. It is actually the place where you washed your hands!

Terry and Howie (we tried to call him Howie so we weren't always confused) were good to hold the tour bus while Nancy and I were busy looking at the charming sink in the ladies' restroom!

We went to a cactus garden where there were so many beautiful cacti. Here is our guide standing in front of the cactus that Tequila is made out of (the one with long, thin stems). I didn't know Tequila was made out of a cactus!

I have been telling Howie that now that he doesn't do much manual labor any more (that was always his excuse) that he could start wearing a wedding band. He donated his original one for a new gold band for me many years ago. So, when we found a narrow wedding band in the gift shop of the cactus garden, we bought it and had a little private ceremony on the tour bus!

Before we left Cabo, they took us to a town common area where there were some little shops we could go in. They said that most towns had a gazebo in the middle of their town in the commons where all of their celebrations were held.

You can tell how excited Terry and Howie were to shop. But, they waited patiently for us.

This rock marks the point where the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez meet. There is a natural arch in the middle. They say that a couple of days a year, the water is at the point where you can walk through it. To the right of the rock (where you can't see) is a small beach between two rocks that can only be reached by water. It is called Lovers Beach. Some of the tours go out there for snorkeling and kayaking.

This was a beautiful sunset looking from the boat as we left Cabo San Lucas.

MAZATLAN

Our second port was Mazatlan.This was the bay coming into Mazatlan.

Our tour took us first to an adobe brick "factory." It consisted of one man (his family helped on the weekends) on a little plot of land with a mudhole. He spread sand on the ground, mixed his adobe (consisting of mud, sand, and donkey manure), and shoveled it into a 4-brick form laid on the sandy ground. He could make about 1,000 bricks a day.

He would then take the bricks and make an oven with them, start a fire inside which would burn for about 24 hours, when the bricks would be dry.

We then went to a place where they made tiles. Again, it was a one-man-show. It was amazing how he make the tiles. His workshop was a little lean-to behind his home.

On the way to the back of his house, we passed the women of the house washing their clothes. They were lucky enough to have an automatic wringer washing machine like my Mom had when I was a little girl. I could smell the bleach as we approached their home and it sure brought back memories. Their hanging wash was very bright and clean!

Our next stop was at a bakery, also in the back of the family's home. We all got a sample of the bread they made in the earthen oven. It was delicious!

Next we went to a furniture making "factory" which was a larger lean-to-type building with a small building attached where they sold various tourist souvenirs. One of the most interesting things there was this elderly gentleman sitting on the concrete floor weaving baskets. He seemed to really like his picture taken.

The furniture they made was beautiful, but I kind of liked this hammock swing. But Howie said we didn't have any place to hang it in the Condo!

Later, we went back into town where the City offices were. This is a picture of what would compare to our City Hall back home. It was in an open mall. The windows openings have shutters, but no windows. They had beautiful wood furniture.

This is a rocking chair in their City common area. It shows that furniture making is an important industry for their city. It was quite easy to climb into, but I about broke my neck getting down!

PUERTO VALLARTA

Our tour in Puerto Vallarta was a horseback ride in the country. It was a lot of fun. The saddles were real Mexican saddles that were made of wood with no padding and some of the bridles just had a rope for a rein.

Here is Howie on his trusty steed!

I had a little white horse that would not leave the side of the lead horse, no matter what I did to it.

This is a very common "country home" where a family with several kids and maybe more than one generation lives in it.

Most of the work of the women is done outside. Most homes had outside ovens and fireplaces. Here is a woman washing her dishes. They are constantly doing laundry which usually consisted of a bucket of soapy water to wash the clothes in and a fence or strung clothesline to hang them on.

After the horseback ride, we had a chance to taste several flavors of Tequila. We watched while Nancy took a taste. She decided that was enough for her!

HEADING HOME
We got back on the boat and spent two days at sea on the trip home.

We kept busy eating, playing Bingo, eating, going to entertainment, eating, napping, eating, just plain relaxing, and eating.

One night they had a "pastry extravaganza". It was amazing! I took this picture of the mirror above some of the "pastries" and flipped it upside down! It was the best picture I could get because all of the people were in the way.

Nancy and I went on a tour of one of the ship's kitchens. This man is making some kind of gravy or soup in this big pot. I am sure they had all super-sized utensils to be able to feed almost 3,000 people 24 hours a day.

In the kitchen and actually, in all of the eating areas, they had carving made out of various foods. Here is one carved out of a watermelon.

Howie and I got dressed up and went to the formal dinner. We had lobster tail and giant prawns! It was soooo good. They took formal photographs of us, but here is an informal self- portrait we took before we left our stateroom.

I hope all of you get a chance to go on a cruise at least once in your lifetime. It is quite an experience. I really want to thank Terry and Nancy for letting us talk them into going with us. (Hey, Terry and Nancy, we need to start planning our next adventure, okay!)