Our Mexican Cruise

So, I'm a little slow to get this up, but its been crazy busy since we got back. Our cruise to Mexico was AMAZING! It was easily the best vacation I have ever been on. It was so relaxing, so fun to be able to just hang out and do nothing with Jenn and Jordyn and so great to see 3 very different Mexican ports, oh yeah and so very, very warm! When we left Portland on the 19th it was like 30 degrees outside. Every stop along the way on the cruise it was 90! The boat was great, I never got bored like I thought I would, there was always something to do, swimming, shows, activities, etc. My favorite things to do on the boat (in order) were swimming with Jordyn, playing poker, eating and singing karaoke at night.

We were on the boat for 8 days. we went with most of Jenn's family (her parents, aunts, grandma, cousins, etc), my mom also went as did our friends Danielle and Doug.

Day 1: boarded the boat in San Diego, ate a nice dinner and saw a show that night.
Day 2: At sea, played cards, ate, sang in the karaoke bar at night, good times.
Day 3: At sea again.....spent almost the entire day in the pool with Jordyn, then at night it was "formal night" so we all got dressed up ate some fancy dinner and went to a show or two.
Day 4: Acapulco. We got off the boat, got in a taxi, prayed for our lives as we quickly learned that in Mexico, the lines on the road are more of a suggestion and not really there to mean anything. Horns are used early and often and speeds reach unknown levels. we ended up on a pretty nice beach and rented some wave runners and just tooled around in the bay.
Day 5: Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa. Here my mom watched Jordyn for a bit and we on a tour that had us swimming with dolphins. It was soooooo fun. the dolphins would come up and "kiss" you, then they would pull us through the pool by hanging onto their fins and finally, two would push you by your feet through the water, it was really cool. Then we went back to the boat, had lunch and took a little boat to a beach on the other side of the bay, complete with tiki huts and a huge reef to snorkel in. We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking pina colodas in the sun. Jordyn ate lots of sand and saw lots of fish. This was by far my favorite stop.
Day 6: Manzillo: Here we got in a scary cab once again and went to a really nice resort. We paid $30 and got a wristband that allowed us full access to the resort, including all you could eat and drink. They had a cool pool right on the beach complete with a pool side bar and full buffet. It was nice. We made sure to drink our $30 worth of free drinks and rented some wave runners again and just hung out at the resort all day.
Day 7: Sea Day, mostly spend relaxing.
Day 8: Packing, eating, ready to go home.

I would highly recommend a cruise to anyone. It was so, so fun. Of course since I'm a photographer and was on vacation, I did not bring a camera and really wanted nothing to do with anything even remotely looking like a camera, but we did take a point and shoot and Jenn took a few shots here and there. Here are a few:

These are my girls on the second night on the sun deck of the ship:

Here is Jordyn and I dancing on Formal night:

Jordyn getting ready to jump into the pool:

Jordyn playing in the sand with the Carnival Spirit in the background in Zihuatanejo:

Jordyn and I in Zihuatanejo:

The top deck of the boat had a huge chess set and Jordyn loved to move all the pieces around:

Ice cream for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack:

These are our dining room servers Ivan and Alena, they are from Croatia and were awesome! This is Dani dancing with them on the last night:

This is me breaking out the karaoke, I think I'm singing a little Garth Brooks here. Jenn's aunts are my backup singers:

Jenn and I at dinner: