Austin's senior pictures!

Anniversary Cruise

We had planned to take a big trip for our 15th year anniversary, but that was right when we moved to Utah 3 years ago and Dave was looking for a job.  Then we had all sorts of problems with our renters in Texas and just kind of held on for a few years.  This year I decided that we needed to take that trip.  We probably couldn't afford it, but we did it anyways!

With it being the busy season at work I knew that we would have to make it a quick get away.  So we booked a 4 day cruise over the weekend from California to Mexico.  It was nice to get away and it was Dave's first cruise and only my second. 

We flew in and out of LAX and were able to walk on and off the boat at the port without having to stay a night at a hotel or rent a car either.  It was well timed.  Actually we did have a big problem at the beginning of the trip.  Halfway to the airport I realized that we didn't have our passports and so we had to zoom home and get them and then speed our way to the airport, park the car, and literally run to the gate.  Luckily the flight was delayed 10 minutes, otherwise I'm not sure we would have made the flight and in turn would not have made the cruise...that would have been a bummer!

But we did make it to the boat.  We arrived at the port at 2:30 or so and boarding was from 12-4pm.  We walked right on, no waiting in line, no crowds.  It was perfect.

Our first destination was Santa Barbara.  We tendered in on the smaller boats and did some exploring on our own.  We walked about 3 miles to the Santa Barbara mission...it was a nice day and we just kept walking.  We took a self guided tour of the mission and learned a little about it's history.  It was your typical mission.

 Our second (and final) port of call was Ensenada, Mexico.  Neither of us had ever been to Ensenada, but we were ready to explore the area.  We booked an excursion to La Bufadora (or the blowhole).  The tour bus operator was very knowledgeable and we learned a lot about the town of Ensenada and the natural phenomenon of the blowhole.

We arrived at La Bufadora and had to make our way through 1/2 a mile of street vendors that were very insistent that you look at their merchandise.  Some of my favorite lines were, "99% off" and "cheaper than Walmart".  We got to the blowhole and watched it for quite a while.  Some of the geysers were small and then we were treated with some of the big ones.  What happens is the surf comes in to the cave below and then the undercurrent comes out and when the next wave comes in it creates a geyser to go way up in the sky.  It's pretty neat!

After watching the geyser we did wander in to one store.  We were in search of a pottery bowl that we could take back as a reminder of our trip.  I found a beautiful blue fluted, hand painted bowl and bartered them down 50% of where they started.  Hopefully that was a good deal!

After "shopping" we stopped at this tiny food stand and had a taco.  All in all a beautiful day!

 

After Ensenada, we boarded the ship and headed back to Los Angeles.  We had a full day and night at sea which was super relaxing.  I think I took two naps that day and one was outside by the big screen TV.   I did get a little sea sick one night and that was not fun, but I think we'd be up for another cruise to island hop in the Carribean.  Other than that I think I prefer being on land and exploring the area more fully.  But it was a great get away and just what we needed!