Cruisin' the Mexican Riviera

Jeremy and I met up with some friends from dental school that we hadn't seen in several years and went on a cruise through the Mexican Riviera.  We had a great time!

 Here we are boarding the boat.  This was our first cruise.

Proof that I did some exercising on the ship.  We were at sea the first three days and we tried to get in some exercise each day.  Heaven knows we ate more than enough food to make up for it.  I fell in love with the soft ice cream machine.

 At dinner with our friends that we were traveling with--the Berchtolds and the Wellmans.  We were enjoying some lovely steak, especially Tom.  His steak was huge!

 Our first stop was in Puerto Vallarta.  We took a boat across the bay from where our boat was docked and then took a jeep ride to a zip line where we had a grand adventure.  We started out the zip line tour by riding a donkey up the mountain.  Then the there were several zip lines and a couple of water slides.  It was a great time!

 Heading back to the ship after our tour was over.  The boat drove us close to some of the famous sites in Puerto Vallarta.

 Arriving back to the Norwegian Jewel.

 
 Some of the insect life in Puerto Vallarta.  That beetle was huge!  We should have put a coin or something by it so that you could actually see how big it was.  The butterflies were just beautiful and vibrant.

The first night on board the ship put a show on that showed us the variety of shows that they would be putting on throughout the week.  Part of the show was dancing and I couldn't stop giggling!  One dancer in particular was extra animated.  I went to a zumba dance class one morning and he was our instructor.  I had to concentrate hard on my moves so that I wouldn't burst out laughing.  I learned that his name is Sasha and he is from Ukraine.  The night the show was dancers only, my friend Melanie and I decided we couldn't pass up a picture with him.  The only thing was that he put his arms around us and he was drenched in sweat!  I had to then concentrate on smiling for the picture instead of being completely grossed out.

Our second stop was in Mazatlan, Mexico.  We decided to enjoy a beach day.  We camped out in front of a restaurant ate food and read books and talked and laughed.

 Melanie and I enjoying some Pina Coladas.

 Jeremy and I on the beach enjoying the view.  It was a spectacular day.

 All of us enjoying lunch together.  They name of the restaurant was Lety's and it was both tasty and relaxing.  After enjoying most of the day on the beach, we decided to venture into town and do some souvenir shopping.

 Our last stop was in Cabo San Lucas.  Jeremy and I did some diving with Jeff and Tom while Melanie and Julie did some snorkeling.  It was the strangest dive we had ever done.  It consisted of swimming around and finding a place to put a statue as part of an effort to "rebuild" a reef.  The dive was quite shallow and there wasn't a lot of sea life or coral and the visibility was horrible.  But it was interesting.  Our bottom time was over an hour and I had had it.  I was thirsty for water (which wasn't available) and needed a restroom.  Despite my best efforts, I couldn't pee in the ocean.  I am sure the fish were thankful.  So the boys decided to do another dive and I went into town to do some shopping.

 Me with my shovel swimming around looking for a place to put the sculpture.

 Tom (above) and Jeff (below).  As you can see the visibility wasn't great.

Digging around in the sand preparing to place the sculpture.  This made the visibility even worse.

The sculpture all placed and ready for fish.  We placed sand inside it and rocks all around so it wouldn't float away in the current.  Like I said, it was a strange dive.

 

Jeremy's second dive the water was much more clear.  They did a shipwreck dive and really enjoyed it!  Top left is Jeremy with Tom, bottom left is Jeremy with Jeff.  Right is Jeremy hanging loose.

I got back to the ship first and took a shower and then went and walked around on deck.  The views were amazing.  I also was able to call and talk to my family.  We sure missed them!

 For our last night on the ship we got some dinner at the Teppanyaki restaurant.  It was so fun being all together.

 Catching a piece of food in my mouth.  I caught it on my first try.

 Jeremy's turn catching food in his mouth.  He didn't quite have the skills that I did.

It was a great vacation and I was sad to say good-bye.  Hopefully we won't wait another 14 years to all get together and hopefully next time all our friends will be able to come. We had such a great time making memories together!

 Back at home we showered the boys with the souvenirs that we had bought.  McKay thought the viking helmet we picked up for him was pretty cool.  I knew he would.

Jaxon looked cool in his new RayBan shades that we picked up for him.  Josh received a funny t-shirt about the Star Wars force and sharks.  Kayden loves baseball so we got him a baseball carving from wood.  It was good to be home.  They boys are now looking forward to when we take them with us on our next cruise!

Jeremy made a video of highlights of our trip to share with our friends.  Sweet Caroline is the chosen soundtrack because our friend Tom put on quite a show singing that song one night at the karaoke bar.  Good times!