The Cruise
Our cruise to Cabo San Lucas was re-routed to Catalina Island and Ensenado, Mexico because of Hurricane Norbert. We had lots of fun on the ship, although we didn’t swim because it was too cold. The food was pretty good and I ate shrimp cocktail every night. Our room was small but just fine for our needs. I didn’t feel at all like we were cramped. The service was excellent and all the crew treated us great. We didn’t run into any traffic on our drive to the Port of San Diego. We had to go through a few Border Patrol checkpoints but were glad to see the agents hard at work protecting our country. We were planning on going sailing and snorkeling in Cabo, so when we found out we weren’t going there, we booked a different snorkeling excursion in Catalina. Then, the winds were too strong in Catalina so we weren’t permitted to get off the ship. Our excursion in Ensenada included a bus tour and going to La Bufadora AKA The Blow Hole. It’s one of the few natural blow holes in the world. The rising tide of the ocean causes air to be trapped in a hole in the rocks on the shore. When the pressure gets to a certain point, it is blown out forcefully causing a big spray of water. We saw dolphins swimming along the shore there too. We did some shopping at a street market near La Bufadora and bought some Tequila and Silver necklaces for me, Tara and Erin. The cruise line had a video on the ship TV in our room explaining where to shop so we wouldn’t get ripped off. We only shopped at shops endorsed by Carnival Cruise Line. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that while we were riding back to town on the bus, I got to see an old man peeing in a ditch. The main part of town was nice and they even had restaurant chains there from the US, but the outskirts were pretty shabby. Our tourguide on the bus spoke English real well. Most of the shop-owners spoke English, but they were like vultures as we walked down the dirt street.
Sam and I were so glad to get away and relax for once. Alex came up from Phoenix to watch the kids because they still had a few days of school before Fall Break and also to continue painting the house. The rest of the time, they stayed with Grandma.
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Cruise Time
Tomorrow we leave on our 4 day Carnival Cruise with Jenny & Jeramiah!! We are driving to Maricopa today and staying the night with J&J and driving to San Diego bright and early tomorrow morning. We are mostly packed and ready to go. I realized Sam didn’t do Erin’s laundry on Sunday while I was at work so it’s going now. First load is already in the dryer.Hopefully, we won’t come home to chaos on Tuesday. Alex arrived here during the night and is currently dead to the world on the couch. I’m hoping the kids get to school on time tomorrow and Friday. I hope Jake doesn’t slack off and not do his homework. Like Alex says, “Mom, can you reach the ceiling?“ Mom, “Why?“ Alex, “Because this whole house would fall apart without you!“ He’s joking but truer words were never spoken. Grandma will be picking the kids up Friday around lunchtime. My friend, Maria is taking Erin to Sunrise on Sunday to get her free season ski pass.I think I covered all my bases and wrote everything down for everyone. I even copied the health insurance card, wrote down their medical information and one of our pediatrician’s said Alex or Grandma can call her on her cell phone if needed. She even knows that if Jake gets hurt that he’s probably exaggerating it 10 fold. I know I need to relax and not worry about the kids, but that’s easier said than done. We will not have our cell phones on for the entire cruise because international service costs so much. So, I’ll take a deep breath and trust that they will be fine. Erin already misses us, but the other two don’t give a crap!!
The weather forecast says there may be some rain. Please, no rain!!
I probably will not post about the cruise until the 16th.
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10 Days until Carnival Cruise
We are real excited about the cruise as you can imagine! The poor kids will be left behind. Sam and I haven’t had a vacation alone since our 10 yr anniversary when we went to NYC for a few days and I got sick and had it coming out both ends. We are going on the Carnival Elation to Cabo San Lucas on Oct 9-13 for those who don’t know. You can check out their website to see our ship and all the stuff we can do on it. The food looks especially wonderful. Jenny and I are NOT on our diets while we are on the cruise! Our shore excursion in Cabo includes sailing and snorkeling- yes, I will be in a bathing suit. I bought a new black dress for the cruise too. Jenny and Jeramiah invited us to go with them since they were planning a cruise to celebrate their one year wedding anniversary. At first we weren’t going to go but they coaxed us into joining them. Another couple who is friends with J&J are going too.
In other news, Tara is going to her first formal dance with a boy, Kevin. It is the Homecoming Dance on Oct. 4th. I ordered her dress online when I ordered mine. It is brown and white and very elegant. I will post pix of them for sure.
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It’s hailing like crazy!
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