{Cruisin' to Mexico}

Are you ready for picture overload? We had the best vacation and of course that means tons of pictures. I think we took over 300, and I had a really hard time deciding what to post, and ended up leaving out a lot (like 280 or so). Maybe I'll end up doing another post, we'll see. We drove to Bountiful Saturday night and stayed with Derrick's cousin Jen and her family. They fed us a yummy dinner and later we chilled and played rock band. Sunday morning we flew into Los Angeles. We had some time to kill, so our shuttle driver took us to the fish market at San Pedro harbor. It defiantly smelled like a fish market, but the swordfish and halibut they cooked us was good and the coleslaw and onion rings were super yummy!

From the fish market we got our first view of our ship, The Mariner of the Seas.

Getting on the Ship!

Gotta love the mandatory lifeboat drill, complete with sexy orange life jackets!

Derrick checking out the sunset! It really was cool to watch the sun sink down over the water.

The view of the dining room from our table. Isn't the light gorgeous? We sat with our friends that went with us, and two other couples from San Jose, CA. They were so nice and we had fun together. I don't know why we didn't end up with any pictures with them? Hopefully James and Kami have some to share with us!

Formal Night

This was our first port day in Cabo San Lucas.

(Monica, Derrick, James & Kami)

We took a catamaran out past Lands End (remember, from Pirates of the Caribbean?).

Derrick and James snorkeled and apparently saw some cool stuff!

And Kami and I hung out on the boat and relaxed, got some sun and read a bit. (Tierra, am I rockin' the pink polish?)

It was such a nice boat ride. They threw out a trolling line on the way back and ended up catching a big Mahi Mahi, that I didn't get pictures of.

It was the migrating season for whales and we were lucky enough to see quite a few and we really got close!

It was hard to get pictures of them, since one minute they weren't there and then they went back down so quick.

Our next port day was in Mazatlan. We hired a guy to take us to all the sights there. He took us through the old city and into the new city with some stops for sights and shopping. This guy was crazy....He told us for $10 he would dive into that small space at the bottom where the water was less than 10 feet deep. We told him we didn't want to kill him for ten bucks, to which he replied "If I no come up, you no pay!"

And down he went! James and Kami missed it on their camera so they paid him to go again. Crazy!!! Just as amazing as watching him dive, was watching him climb back up the rocks, barefoot in, like two minutes?

This Catholic church was beautiful inside and out. On all eight of the windows on the sides at the tops there were Stars of David. Our guide said that the town didn't have money to finish the church, because of sickness and poverty. A Jewish man came and offered the money to finish it, if they would put the Star of David on the front, but he priest couldn't agree to that so they compromised and put them on the tops of the side windows.

Can you see them up at the top?

Our last port day was in Puerta Vallarta. Our excursion that day was in Unimogs, YEA! Doesn't that look fun? We took a long ride up into the mountains and then did an hour or so long nature walk where our guide (who was an interesting guy, but kept us laughing) pointed out different plants, birds, among other things.After that we stopped at a home in the mountains where they farmed cacti, and this sweet little lady had made us corn tortillas, completely from scratch, even grinding the corn. She pressed them in a wooden press and then cooked them over a fire in a clay oven. The metal platter area she cooked them on was actually a John Deere tractor disc coated with lime. She also made us beans, guacamole, salsa and cactus salsa. Mmmm, so yummy! It was honestly the best meal of the entire trip! Do ya love my war paint and the windblown look? This stuff was from a seed pod that our guide cracked open and it looked just like Cheeto dust. Before I realized what he was doing, he had smeared it on my cheeks, and then everyone elses (mine was worst because I was first). I had to scrub my face 3 or 4 times, hard with soap before it would come off, after spending the rest of the day with it on!From there were went to a private beach, where they fed us again, and we had some time to hang out and enjoy the beautiful beach. Derrick and James were like little kids when they saw the crabs on the rocks, and spent quite a bit of time trying to catch some.

We truly had the best time on our vacation, and it was hard to come home to snow after the 80-85 degree warm humid weather! I was glad to get home to the kids, I really missed them. I have to shout out a HUGE thanks to Ky and Katy, Julia, and especially Lis and Jer and my mom and dad for keeping the kids! It was so great to be able to relax and spend time with Derrick and know I didn't need to worry about them, I owe you all big time!