Happy birthday Koleman!
He loved his cake!
K-man got his momma good!
It was perfect cuz we got to be there for Koleman's 1st birthday party on Saturday and hang out with Tom's fam a little and then we headed down to Barstow that night and stayed in a ghetto hotel and drove the rest of the way to Long beach, CA Sunday morning.
When we got there we found out plans changed a little cuz of the drug war and shootings in Mazatlan and so we now were having 2 days in Cabo San Lucas and 1 day in Puerto Vallarta and skipping Mazatlan so there was some confusion to switch our shore excursion we had booked but it all worked out.
The famous Queen Mary is at the same port and I guess it closely resembles the Titanic with a museum inside it.
Sunday morning. Can you tell we are excited to get on the ship!?
*Click on any of the pictures to see them larger! They are kinda small*
The ship was so huge and beautiful and I for the life of me still, by the end of the cruise could not navigate my way around without getting lost! Thank goodness for Tom!
Not a bad view for breakfast eh?
Every night the dining staff would preform for us!
There were 2 formal nights where we had to dress up for dinner:)
Tuesday. Cabo San Lucas!
There were several people statues that you could take pics with for tips including Micheal Jackson and Jack sparrow
We took a water taxi (aka a small fishing boat that they start off saying its 30$ a person for a beach tour but you just keep walking away and it quickly drops to 10$) to the famous Lover's beach
This is called "window to the ocean" pretty cool you can see the huge waves crashing through it.
See the Sea lions?
The famous arch is behind us
At Lover's beach where its so calm and beautiful.
My little fish
The path from Lover's beach to Divorce beach
Us at Divorce beach- uh oh! haha On this side you aren't allowed to swim cuz its too dangerous. It is wide open to the Pacific with huge waves crashing in and the edge of the sand beach just drops off into the undertow
Where the water taxi's drop you off
One of the lounges on the ship
On Wed we were in Cabo again and that day we just walked all around the boardwalk and did some shopping.
Pirate ships?
Check out the yacht Tom and I purchased complete with our own helicopter! I'm tellin ya, you can buy anything from the mexicans!
That is Lover's beach in the middle and can see the sand pathway across to the other side which is Divorce beach
The most impressive towel animal:)
Thursday Puerto Vallarta!
In the morning we did some shopping in the little market and they are so funny trying to make a deal and when trying on sunglasses they tell you to look in the "mexican TV" aka a mirror haha. The weather was perfect!
At every stop they would paint the ship!
On Thursday afternoon we got to Puerto Vallarta and that is where we did our zipline excursion and it was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!! If any of you go you HAVE to do this. Worth every penny. You start out with your group of 30 in basically a giant tube with a motor and they take you across the bay to the jungle. They say the distance we went in 20 minutes usually takes any other boat an hour so we were flying:) When you get to the little bay you then get in a big bus/truck? ish vehicle that takes you through a village of only about 500 population that was cool to see. then after like 20 minutes you get to the zipline basecamp. They gave us a safety briefing and our gear and harness and taught us how to zipline. Then we rode mules (yes, real live horse/donkey mixes) up to the top of the mountain for like 20 minutes and that was cool too! The guides were so funny the whole time, saying getting to the ziplines is our "Mexican massage". Then we were at the ziplines and it was so cool at the top to see them stringing back and forth across the jungle! Some of the lines were like 1000 ft long, some were fast, some were slower. We did a total of 9 ziplines and its so cool to look down and see waterfalls and just lush green! In between ziplines we did 2 rapells too- one down a rockwall waterfall and the other was a free fall rapell. Seriously amazing! They send a photographer with you so we bought the pics and got some sweet ones. THen when you get to the bottom you ride the trucks back to the boat and the boat back to the ship. Total of like 6 hours of jam packed awesomeness!
In the boat to head to the ziplines!
now in the truck
bad pic but we drove through this tiny mexican village that was pretty cool to see
Poor Mule...
This is the group we went with and our awesome, hilarious guides have the red helmets
We made it!
The freefall rapell!
Race to the bottom...Tom won:(
Even minus the trash bag, this pic does not do that sunset justice!
Then the last two days were at sea
The deck with the movie screen
This is the comedy lounge we went to like everynight and the comedians were hilarious!! Some were a little crude but still so funny!
Dinner in the dining room everynight was awesome cuz you could sit with different people everynight if you wanted so we met lots of interesting people. The 2 couples we actually became friends with were both about our parents' ages haha. And man were they polar opposites! One couple, John and Donna Stellmon was from Idaho, LDS, super nice--and the other couple, Angela and Dave were from Canada and somehow the funniest, loudest, craziest, most beligerent drunk on the whole ship that everybody knew just loved us! He would call us over to sit with them whenver he saw us. They were hilarious and he thought we were sooo crazy that we didn't drink but they really liked us and they gave us lots of advice on how they have been happily married for over 35 years, and underneath all that drunkeness it was actually sound advice. He kept telling Tom I was out of his league and it was soo funny (but then again he couldn't even read his menu cuz he had drank to much so I guess that doesn't mean much haha) He even informed us that we are going to have 5 children...the first will be named Eli, and the last will be named Angela. haha who knew? When I asked about the middle children he said he didn't care about them.. I'm sad I didn't get a pic with them.
This is the Stellmons from Idaho
Sad it was our last night:(
The days at sea were awesome too! They have things going on non stop!! Mini golf, hot tubs, pools, ping pong, broadway type shows, comedians (which we went to like everynight- hilarious!), a full gym, movies on a movie screen all day long, live music, dancing, and oh ya...FOOD!!! you can eat whatever, whenever, and as much as you want!!!!
They do everything for you on the ship!! I mean everything! By the time you get back from breakfast your bed is made and your room is clean. and same in the afternoon the do a "turn down service" where they clean your room again and turn down your bed for you, make a cute animal out of towels on your bed, and leave you a chocolate. Seriously the hardest thing I did for myself this week was peel my own orange! We had such a great time!
Sorry that wasn't so breif.
I hope you all get to go on a cruise someday!
On Sunday morning we got back to Long Beach, CA and started the roadtrip back to Utah. Such a great vacation but we were so glad to get home to our puppies! Thanks again Brent and Jenni for taking such good care of them!
