Jake and I got to go on our first real vacation! Thanks to an amazing job we headed to LA for a Seven day cruise. We gave the kids hugs and loves and off we went, its the longest we have ever been away from them. We drove straight to the cruise terminal to board our Royal Caribbean ship Navigator of the seas. We had our suits and got our first ice cream cones and pina colada’s of many.
Our first stop was Ensenada. We were off the ship pretty early and took the shuttle into town. We decided to just walk around and shop. We were the ONLY ones not from Mexico out shopping. We got the first deals of the day everyone kept saying hahah. We scored fun souvenirs for the kids and were pretty proud of ourselves for haggling and shopping.
In the buffet there were guys that sang all the songs, but made it about its germs and washing hands. We loved how creative they were. Jake and I played mini golf and explored the ship. We had all our favorites down. Jake tried the flow rider and did really well, it’s much harder than it looks. I was too cold for that, but as soon as the afternoon sun came out we hit up the water slides. One of them goes so fast, I couldn’t even open my eyes by the end because you flew down that slide. The other one is propelled and even goes out over the ocean in a clear tube for part of it. We loved them.
We hit the shows every night. There was a singer, comedian, dance show, drone show, ice skating, broadway show and magic show. I think our favorite was the comedian. He had us laughing at both his shows we went too. It was so fun to be able to do dinner and a show every night. Even though some of the shows weren’t our favorite, there were so many and kept us entertained all seven nights.
Our second stop was Cabo San Lucas. As we ate breakfast that morning we watched seals, dolphins and even a giant manta ray doing flips out of the water. That was really neat and something I’ve never seen before. We got off the boat and walked around till we found a guy that we hired to take us around on a boat. We went out and saw pelicans rock first, it’s a lonely rock, but has so many fish everywhere, it was crazy how many fish were in that area. We saw Neptune’s finger, and lands end which is the very last part of land where the Pacific Ocean meets the sea of Cortez. We saw the pacific window which is just that where you can see through to the Pacific Ocean. We also went to lovers and divorce beach. One end is lovers beach with calm waves and the other side is divorce with rocky waves. It’s really neat both bodies of water are at one beach. The Cabo arch was beautiful. All of the rock formations were so pretty, when we left Cabo at sunset the whole view was inspiring. Definitely a perfect scene out of a movie or book.
After our boat tour we had lunch at a restaurant right on the beach with another beautiful view. We were the only ones there and got delicious tacos, nachos and drinks. Next was the beach. The water was a perfect temperature. Jake had never been in an ocean that was that blue, clear and not freezing and we loved it. We walked around town and went to Cabo dolphins, we just walked through the building upstairs to look around and they had a viewing area ten feet from the dolphins doing a whole show. I was in heaven and loved every minute, we could have sat there for much longer, but didn’t want to miss our boat. We picked up some more deals shopping and headed back.
I was really proud of myself all week. I tried new food and drinks every chance I got. Definitely will never eat some of that food again. Beef carrpaccia is probably going to live in my nightmares haha. I’m glad I’m tried so much though because I found some delicious new favorites too. Jake was in heaven eating steak every night for dinner and I got him loving virgin dauquiris as much as I do. We both loved the coconut cookies and ate those every day as well. We were excited when we found our custom order pizzas that were so good. We ate too much, but enjoyed every minute.
The next day was Mazatlan and at this point Jake and I felt like pros. We passed all the guys and explored the town ourselves. We walked quite a bit, and it was so humid so we were pretty sweaty. Our first step was a stunning cathedral. History is one of my favorite subjects and so I loved seeing all the details put into the building so long ago.
We went to the market and got the best deals o our whole trip! We were both so excited and loved seeing everything going on from food, to meat, spices, veggies, fruit, clothes, toys, sculptures and more. We filled our bags again and probably would have gone back if we had time. I even got to use the very little Spanish I know since no one spoke English.
We walked down this beautiful street with older homes that were so colorful and the designs were so creative. The humidity in the air sure makes for stunning plant life with flowers and greenery everywhere. We made it to the beach where we saw a rock formation with an ocean pool and a slide into the ocean. We watched guys jump off a cliff into what seems horribly unsafe waters, but they made it. While we were walking we passed a thriftys ice cream store front, it’s our fav so we had to get some. Jake got a little too close to the “ cave of the devil” and we saw a giant iguana going inside it. No thank you.
The last two days were ship days till we got home. Luckily neither of us got very sick. I read two books as I sat on the decks watching the ocean. There probably isn’t anything I love more. Jake hit up the gym and walking path. We met up with coworkers a few times and played Bank and Monopoly. It got intense and we had a blast. Every night we ate in the main dining room and caught up with everyone with what they did during the day. We saw dolphins swim by the ship multiple times and loved soaking up the sunshine with all our drinks and food. We both had the best time and the whole vacation could not have gone better.
We got off the boat really early in the morning and had some free time. We decided to go to downtown Disney and see all the Halloween decorations and continue are eating habits with scrumptious scones covering us in powdered sugar. We went and saw the new Joker movie which we didn’t know was a musical and it was horrendous. So horrible! We were exhausted and went to my great aunt and uncles house but got stuck in traffic for 2 1/2 hours. The next day we met with Benjamin and his team for his tournament. It was great timing that we were there and got to watch. We went to the beach and watched dolphins and enjoyed dinner with just Jake, Benjamin and I. We never have time the three of us and it meant a lot because these kids grow so fast. Benjamin’s team made first the first day and finished second the last day which put them second overall. Great end to our 10 days away from home.
