Part 2: The Ports and California

Even though life aboard the ship was amazing, it was nice to visit some fun places in Mexico. Our first port was Cabo San Lucas. We actually visited Cabo two days in a row. Cabo is a smaller town, but oh so beautiful! Our first day there we took a glass bottom boat tour out to Land's End--the beautiful beach and land formation below.

The boat tour was great. Tyler loved seeing some seals up close. Everything was beautiful.

The boat dropped us off at a fun beach. As you can see, the weather was beautiful the days we were in Cabo. We were able to soak up some much needed Vitamin D. The kids loved playing at the beach. We thought it was kid of funny to have the cruise ship break our view of the ocean...kind of gives it perspective on how big it is. It was fun to have the vendors just walk by. The lazy way to shop:) They made a few dollars off Jacob when he decided to get a fake tattoo. He was feeling quite studly:) At the end of beach time on our fist day in Cabo, Dave took the younger kids back to the ship and left the rest of us to enjoy an amazing authentic Mexican dinner --complete with mango and strawberry smoothies. YUM-O!

Our second day in Cabo we split up a bit. Dave and Ann-Marie went with all the boys, minus Nate, para sailing. They had such a great time, but I don't have any photos of that yet. I'll try to post them when I get them from the Proctor's. So , while they were out doing that, Matt, the three amigos, and I went back to the beach and spent some quality time shopping.

Our third port day was spent in Puerto Vallarta. This day we all split up to make the most of some booked excursions. Jacob and Stevie went on a Carnival sponsored "Extreme Canopy Adventure". They did a boat ride, mule ride, repelling down a waterfall, zip lines, etc. etc. Something just perfect for fearless 18 year olds. Stevie took a few photos, but I have yet to get them. Miranda went with the rest of the Proctor's on a tree top canopy zip line adventure. She loved it. Again, you'll have to wait for the pictures of that one. Matt, Tyler, Nathan, and I did some shopping and then headed to our dolphin swim and encounter. Matt and Nathan did a dolphin encounter where they got to kiss and hug some dolphins and a few other things. They got to spend about 20 minutes with the dolphins. Tyler and I got to do a dolphin swim. We had two dolphins for our group of 6 people. We got to ride on the dolphins fins and do lots of fun tricks with them. Our favorite was when you floated on your tummy with your arms out in a "T". The two dolphins would come up behind you and each put their nose on a foot. Then they would push you up out of the water and across the pool like Superman. It was a pretty cool experience. The dolphin park was located inside a water park. It made it quite handy when we had to wait for each other's group to be done. Sadly no photos with the dolphin's. They didn't let you take a camera in and they wanted $150 for photos they took. Kind of a bummer, but we did get one of Tyler at the water park:) Since we were in P.V. until late that night, after dinner Matt, Miranda, and I got back off the boat and did some shopping. I think they really liked using their mad Spanish skills to get some great deals:) It was pretty cool seeing the ship all lit up at night.

So, after two more days of playing on the ship, doing more of those fun things I already talked about, we docked back in LA. It was raining. We were both happy and sad to get off the boat, but mostly just exhausted from playing so hard:) I wasn't sure I was going to make it through three more days of playing in CA. (You're probably already exhausted reading all this. Sorry. Only three more days to tell about:) After getting off the boat we went to our hotel room and spent most of the afternoon in and out of naps. Later that night though we were able to go visit Matt's aunt and uncle that live in Orange. We had some yummy Easter treats and had a great visit, but sadly forgot to take any photos.

Early Monday morning Matt, Nathan, Tyler and I headed out to satisfy Nathan's 8th year old birthday wish---LEGOLAND!!! We left Miranda and Jacob to take a taxi to Knott's Berry Farm to fulfill their wish to ride lots of scary rides. Well, Legoland lived up to all the expectations and then some. Mini-land was a HUGE hit. They had models of just about every major US tourist spot. DC, Vegas, NYC, etc. They also had scenes from all the Star Wars movies. All the decorations throughout the park were made out of Legos. It was a bit crazy.

Even most of the rides looked like they were made out of Legos. Another one of Nathan's favorite spots was the place where you could build your own car and then race it on some tracks against other kids. However I think his favorite thing of all was the gist shop. he had saved ad saved for this gift shop--not spending money on the cruise at all. He had a glorious time picking out TWO new Lego sets. (And yes, we did have to stay up a bit late that night to put together at least one of the sets:)

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Tuesday morning started early. That's what you have to do when you only have one day for all of Disneyland AND California Adventure! Lucky for us most of the Spring Breakers had already gone back to school. The longest line we had to stand in was about 25-30 minutes and that was for the brand new Toy Story ride. (yep, bad mom--I let my kids miss three days of school so we could spend time in CA after our cruise--so worth it!)

We were able to go on all the rides on our list, plus a lot of extras. Basically we just did everything. We even got to ride Small world twice. We were able to watch the new "World of Color" show. Aside from having to stand it was AMAZING!! Jacob LOVED it so much I thought he was going to burst from excitement--or break out in tears:)--yes Grammy..there's quite a bit of Sant in that kid:) Nathan got to ride Space Mountain--his first roller coaster. I think he's still deciding if he liked it.

So after spending 15 hours at Disneyland we went back to the hotel and crashed. Sadly we had to wake up before the crack of dawn to get Jacob to the airport (OK so Matt and Jacob woke up before the crack of dawn--the rest of us woke up AT the crack of dawn) and then start the 12 hour trek back home. We crawled into the house at about 9pm, unloaded the car, and went to bed. Real life had to start early Thursday morning- The first of us were out the door by 6:15 am. Exhausted. Drained. Needing a vacation to rest up from the AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL vacation we just had.

And as a "special" welcome home, two days later we woke up to this........ Take me back to CABO!!!!!!