Cabo Aniversary #10 - OOOPSS #9, but who's counting?

***Warning: This blog entry is long on the pictures. (Grandma Jo may be the only person willing to actually look through them. But, hey! It was already hard to cut so many of them out and since this is our family photo album for the year...)

For our ninth anniversary (but what we actually thought was our tenth when we booked) Jay and I traveled to San Diego and took a 5-night cruise down to Cabo San Lucas. Neither of us had been there before and we especially liked that we would be spending two full days there.

The best part...Grandma Jo agreed to let Collin and Sydney come stay with her in Arizona for the week while we were gone and entertain them with the help of Grandpa Bob. This was NO minor undertaking we recognize and, while Jay and I had a great time, I think that Collin and Sydney enjoyed themselves even more with all the games and puzzles and movies and books...

This is Jay in front of the S.S. Midway which is now a museum. Jay has been wanting to visit it for a while now. Maybe next time. At least we got to see it from the ship.

San Diego skyline.

LAND'S END

When we arrived in Cabo you could immediately see Land's End and the arch.

These guys were everywhere and so cool to see up close. Just had to get a picture of him.

This wasn't Pelican Rock but it looked like it should be called that.

LOVER'S BEACH

A very crowded Lover's Beach which we didn't even set foot on because there were too many people there in the late afternoon.

THE ARCH

SCUBA

We thought we would like to learn to scuba while in Cabo. We took an intro course the first day there and the second day did a two tank dive. Here we are heading out the first day.

"Just hold on to your mask and regulator."

There she goes! I am not sure Natalie knew what she was getting herself into, but she had a great time!!!! Our dive operators were awesome! We highly recommend their company Aquatix, if you are ever in the area. They came from all parts of the world. We called it a DIVERSITY DIVE. The owner (Lars) was from Germany, the dive master (Jo) was from Japan, and our captain (Jonathon) was from Mexico, but grew up in Chicago. It's amazing that they all spoke great English in Mexico. This was Jonathan, our friend and captain. His girlfriend, by the way, was from Colorado and her parents live in Utah, and is a member of the LDS Chuch. Also, the couple that dived with us was from Dallas, and were members of the Reorganized LDS Church. Small world or large religion. After the second dive, Jonathon took us out to see the arch and Lover's Beach.

Jonathon looks so majestic piloting this 18 foot scuba boat. He was born to be a sailor and took his job very seriously.

Jo snapped photos of us during our intro dive.

Natalie looks like she has done this a million times.

Schools of fish were everywhere.

This lobster was huge! Photo doesn't even begin to show the size of it and we saw a couple of them. They are about 3 feet long!!! Mmm.....tasty.... Jay had two lobsters tails at dinner, but they were not that big!

It sucks that something this much fun costs so much money. Both of us can't wait to get back under the water. Plus, the weather in Cabo was 100 degrees with 100% humidity!!!! The water was the best place to be.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE SHOW
The night of our last dive and on the way back to San Diego we decided to go to the show at 10:30 p.m. We found our seats and started to settle in when Jay decided he needed to visit the little boy's room before the show started. On his way out of the theater, the lights suddenly went out and before the stair lights came on, Jay rammed his foot into a step splitting his big toe open. I guess he just silently hopped around on his good foot for a while holding his toe and nobody bothered to ask if he was alright. By the time he was able to come get me and let me know what happened his toe was gushing blood. We decided to head down to the infirmary (it was bleeding too hard to just stick a band-aid on it and besides, it was the only part of the ship that we hadn't seen yet). He ended up leaving a heavy blood trail all the way from the theater, through the hall, on the elevator and into the doctor's office that looked like someone had bled to death. Needless to say Jay has left his lasting mark on the Carnival Elation.

When the nurse looked at the toe, it was evident that he would need some stitches. Jay hates doctor's offices and hospitals and the nurses and doctors even more. (This dates all the way back to when he was seven and had to get stitches after ripping his knee open on sprinkler head. The doctor said "Don't worry it won't hurt," while he proceeded to clean the wound out with a toothbrush. It hurt like *&@#$&&**&$#@!#!!!) Despite his fear, Jay ended up loving the nurse from South Africa who coaxed him into getting a shot to deaden the pain and then gave him five stitches to close the wound. She even convinced him to get a tetanus shot (and he hates shots). The experience ended up being a surprisingly good one for him.

Jay's BOO-BOO up close

DINNER MATES

The first night at dinner, as we were all being seated, there was an awkward silence as everyone was looking at everyone else wondering if this seating arrangement was going to work out or not. We ended up having a blast getting to know everyone and most nights our table was the loudest one in the dining room! I'm sure, at least, we laughed the hardest and had the most fun at our table.

Four of us were teachers, another was a "GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR" that didn't like working with his wife (ha, ha - inside joke). There was a web-page designer, an HR recruiter, a nurse, and a water treatment plant operator. It was fun to hear all of their stories. They were all celebrating anniversaries. Mike and Mary celebrated 31 years, Pam and Bob 30 years, Dew and Jerry combined there old marriages and came up with a number of 42 years, and David and Rosetta 22 years. Heck! We can't even remember how long we have been married and it has only been 9 - I mean 10 - I mean 9 years.

Clockwise from bottom:

Jay, Natalie, David, Rosetta, Jerry, Dew, Pam, Bob, Mary, Mike (Loved these people!)

Another highlight of dinner was our Maitre d' Kris from India. He told the funniest stories, one being about how he came to be married to a girl from Tennessee. He also knew our last Maitre d' Yussef from Turkey ("Show Time!"). He had our table laughing so hard one night about how he had to plan a 49 day cruise where the average passenger age was 75. He said they ran out of prunes the first three days half way between Miami and Cancun. Every stop they made they tried to buy more prunes but none of the South American ports had any. They also had to move up the dinning times to 4pm for early seating and 6 pm for late. After 7pm he said that boat was dead. I think he meant it figuratively, not literally. He also told us about the "NUDE CRUISE" where all the passengers belong to nudist colonies/groups and they charter a cruise liner for a week every year (and some 2.5 million dollars). He had us in stitches a couple of nights.

SUNSETS

Jay loves to take pictures of every sunset. Here are a couple of shots.

We got bored of everyone taking our pictures, so we decieded to take one on our own outside on the deck.

TOWEL ANIMALS

These pictures are mostly for the kids' sake.

The ships in port.

This ship came into the port for just an hour or so on its way south to Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. It happens to be the ship that we will be taking in January: The Splendor.

Thanks again to Grandma Jo and Grandpa Bob for taking care of the kids. They didn't want to leave Lake Havasu. They had a wonderful time with you. Thanks to Nana and Papa for taking care of the critters while we were gone. I know it wasn't easy with all you had going on last week. We really do appreciate it very much!!!!