West Coast Cruisin

On January 14, 2008 we were berthed...not from anyone's womb or anything, but rather our ship was berthed in the port of Los Angeles. That's right, this was our second cruise in less than six months - rock on!

Unlike our honeymoon where we had to entertain ourselves;) this cruise was with six of our friends (Steve & Danielle, Mike & Kaila and Jon & Gina). We had such a good time.

Our first day we just familiarized ourselves with the boat and enjoyed a nice dinner together. Our servers were Martina from Slovakia and Julio from the Philippines. All week long we laughed and had a good time with them.

That night in the ship's theater we saw a comedian who just had us all rolling. He was this tall black guy who kept ripping on...well just about every race you think of. I felt like I was watching all of the offensive episodes of Seinfeld in about 30 minutes - Hysterical!

San Diego

The following morning we docked in San Diego and decided to explorer one of America's most historical battleships - THE USS MIDWAY. We got a really cool audio tour of the ship that only set us back 15 bucks each and managed to take a lot of cool videos and pictures like this one below.


We learned a lot about what life was like in the military and how hard it would be to be away from loved ones for long periods of time. (Also we learned that they shower just like we do)

After a few hours we decided to abort the audio tour and we explored the top of the ship. On top of the ship they had 0ver 15 different airplanes that had seen service at some time over the last 50 years. It's every boy's dream to see these up close and I sure had a good time.

After our "three hour tour, a three hour tour" we headed down to seaport village with Jon and Gina. Melissa got a really cool ring that an old man made for her on the street and we started searching for the perfect Mexican Restaurant to eat lunch. We found out the nearest ones were 2o minutes and a $20 dollar cab fare away so we decided to just head back to the ship.

That night the Monarch of the Seas Singers and Dancers did a variety show that was really, really good. The pipes on some those people...phew! They could SING! After the show we just ate more food and then went to bed. All in all a great day not to be at work.

Catalina Island
Catalina Island isn't all what I pictured it to be. I thought it was just some small island with sandy beaches and cheap crap for sale. Instead, it was very mountainous with no sandy beaches and cheap crap for sale. Not to say I was disappointed, it just took me back.

We didn't do a whole lot on the island besides eating a delicious caramel apple and then walking to the casino (pictured above). On the back side of the casino is a little area where you can snorkle and feed the fish. I kept taking little pieces of my apple core and hucking them into the ocean. My goal was to have one of the seagulls snatch the apple core before it hit the water. As it turned out I ended up going 1 for 10 (it was the bird's fault).

Fatigue (and hunger) started to kick in again and the Stewart's and Jackson's decided to head back to the ship. The Cook's and Housley's, however, decided to rent bikes and ride around the island. Remember my comment earlier about the island being really mountainous? Well let's just say they rode on a lot of hills and were beat by the time they made it back to the ship.

That night we enjoyed another delectable dinner and we all tried escargot (snails) fried in garlic butter. They were actually quite good :) The entertainment that night was a singing/comedy impressionist who did a lot of diddies for the older crowd. I enjoyed his Neil Diamond and Jon Denver and so did the majority of the ship. Phew another day spent....one more to go.

Ensenada

So our camera ran out of batteries on Catalina, thus no pics of Ensenada. However, a friend was able to capture this magical moment when Mike and I came across this sign hanging in a window. Don't ask me where they got it, but it was buy 10 get 10 free so of course I took advantage of the deal.

Other than the "poop" for sale, we bought a cool starfish for our bathroom and a winter beanie for the cold. Not much else to do in Ensenada, besides buying cheap crap and eating tacos loaded with dysentery (I had three). So after a long day of haggling and looking at perverted stuff, we headed back to the Monarch.

Back on the ship we decided to go watch karaoke in the Boleros Lounge. We all went with the intent of laughing at other people make a fool out of themselves, but then for some strange reason we decided to be those fools. Steve, Mike and myself (not Jon...pansy) went up and requested a karaoke song. Not just any karaoke song, but "THE SONG." We sang Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" and we brought the house down. Well, maybe not all the way down, but we did manage to get a group of 20-30 drunk Irish people off of their feet. Take a Look.

The next morning we ate a quick breakfast and headed home. We stayed in St. George that night and played a few grueling game of Settlers of Catan. If anyone is keeping track the Stewart's are up 5-1 on the Jackson's. Go us!!!

See you next time. Just take a look, it's in a book - A Reading Rainbow.