Cruisin'

The capitalized description of Rayna's bodily functions was getting a little old. But during the month of May I was honestly out of town more days than I was at home, so updates just didn't happen. Things have settled down a little now, and finally I can share some pictures from our cruise!

We had a fabulicious time. Yes, I made up that word to give accurate description to the experience. So fun and such yummy food.

We drove from home to Long Beach where the cruise departed. On the way we had to stop for gas at a random gas station in Scipio, UT. We got there and, what the heck, a petting zoo? A couple days ago we saw this news story about it. Apparently it's more famous than we knew. And not for the baby zebra, but for the hand dryers in the bathroom. Cool.

Cute little goaties!

We had such a lovely time once we were actually on the cruise. The weather wasn't exactly the kind we were expecting (it was more jacket weather and less bring-on-the-tan weather) but we still had an awesome time on the boat. Mexico was a lot warmer though, and good thing, because we seriously had snow in Utah before we left.

Our first stop was in Cabo San Lucas. We spent one day with just our family of three. We rode the bus down the coast. I felt like we were on the Harry Potter Knight Bus the entire time. We fit in spaces no bus should fit. I had to hold whatever rails/seats/bars I could with both hands to avoid a concussion. Bowman was more balanced, so he held Rayna, who miraculously slept?? The crazy child won't sleep in her own comfy crib sometimes, but will sleep on a rampaging Mexican bus. Bowman surfed at Costa Azul while Rayna and I played on the beach.

Our second day we spent with everyone on a beach and snorkeling tour. We visited Lovers' Beach and the arch at Land's End.

 

These crazy waves would drag you out to sea unless you sprinted for your life across the narrow little stretch to get to the arch. It was thrilling to say the least.

The water was so beautifully blue and clear.

My wonderful parents, taking pictures :)

At the end of the tour we stopped on the beach. Ray loved playing in the sand and the adults all loved the tacos they served us. Delish!

Rayna was not a fan of the life jackets, on herself or on anyone else. She held up under all the wind though, and made the cutest faces.

Our third day in port was in Puerto Vallarta. We spent the morning on another snorkeling boat, then made our amphibious assault so as to reach the zipline office in time. It was quite the adventure! Our snorkeling guide helped us save some time by dropping us off on the beach near the zipline office so we wouldn't have to backtrack from the marina via taxi. But "dropping us off on the beach" turned into something more like holding our backpacks and shoes above our heads, timing our jump off the back of the boat just right, not getting run over by the motor of the boat, and swimming for shore. And all of that was punctuated by shouts of vague directions to the office in heavily accented English. We made quite the scene for all the sunbathers on the beach.

But we did make it to our ziplining tour, which was awesome! My mom was so sweet to watch Rayna for us so we could go. She says she's afraid of heights, but really she's just super nice to us :)

The ziplines had awesome views and they were scary on the first line or two. There were 13 lines though, so I started getting more comfortable. I should have kept up my guard though. At one point I was suddenly hooked to the zipline, told to let go (WHAT?) and tipped upside down?? And Bowman, ever the supportive husband, laughed and videotaped:

We loved our adventures in port, but we loved being on the ship too! We had such lovely service, all the time. I loved it, but I also felt guilty because, although I am perfectly capable of turning down my own bedcovers, I liked it better when Chatchawan did it for me! (Chatch was our housekeeping steward who took excellent care of us.) Every night we came back from dinner to find our covers turned down, chocolate mints waiting, and towels folded into the most amazing animals! This was one that I loved/hated. It was a monkey with a very detailed face (kind of hard to see in the picture)... but it was hanging in front of the mirror, watching us, while we slept, which was creeping me out.

On one of the days they had a towel-folding party where you could learn how to fold some of the animals. This is my bulldog of which I am quite proud :)

Vacationing was a little rough on Rayna. Instead of a relaxing escape from life, it was more like life turned upside down for her, with no explainable reason. Poor baby. She was just tired a lot. But she did have a few things she really liked: broccoli and apple juice every night for dinner, unlimited time with Grandma, and the phone in our room. Who knew a room service phone could provide so much entertainment? I unplugged it so we wouldn't accidentally be calling Chatchawan every 10 seconds, and let her go wild. She spent at least 15 minutes a day doing this:

Enjoying her dinner

Everyone during our formal dinner evening