Mexican Riviera New Year's Cruise 2009

Here's some salsas we made in Mazatlan, and a Spanish speaking parrot in Puerto Vallarta...

Making salsas & guacamole in Mazatlan. Yum!!!

In Cabo... Lorene & me at "The Office". We were also having cold drinks at Una Mas in Cabo.

Our ship ~ The Vision of the Seas on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines...

The large gingerbread village on the ship.

My friend, Dianne & me in Long Beach. And Don & his best friend, Tim...











Zip Lining pictures from Puerto Vallarta...

Yup, it's been a long time since an update.... so yes, I thought it was about time to get busy. I spent the afternoon uploading pictures from our cruise for my facebook page.... so thought I'd go ahead and update here too.

December: Christmas. Came quickly, and went quickly. We spent Christmas Eve at my house with a big party, and then Christmas morning, we went to Meg & Drew's house. Her home was beautifully decorated, and we had a wonderful time. I helped her cook the dinner, and it turned out wonderful. She had, I think, 15 people over... and it was a fun day.

The next day, Don & I packed... ready to go on our cruise vacation to Mexico. We got everything done, and got to the airport several hours before our flight. Good thing, because of all the flights that American Airline was flying to Dallas that day, OURS was the ONLY ONE that was cancelled. I couldn't believe it. They gave us an 800 number to call, and the person on that line said that American couldn't get us to LA until Monday. Don was about to go ballistic. They said that they couldn't get us on any other flights that day.... but if we could get OURSELVES to Dallas, they could fly us out tomorrow... No way!!! Sooooo, I sent Don down to the Frontier counter, while I got on his cell & called Southwest. I told the gal, "Please, you don't understand, we HAVE to get to LA TODAY".... and she found a flight for us, direct from KC to LA, and that we could also go standby for earlier flights, which is what we did. So, we had several hours to kill at KC, but we did make it onto the early flight on Southwest. It was great.... only it cost us an extra $800.... oy.... I'm heading to my travel agent tomorrow to try and get our other tickets refunded. Anywayyyyyyyy, we made it to LA in good time... a 3 hour flight. Not bad. Once we got there, we hopped on the Super Shuttle to take us to the hotel in Long Beach. What should have been a 20 minute ride turned into TWO HOURS... We had 3 other old ladies to drop off first..., so we got the royal tour of San Pedro. Anyway, we finally made it to the hotel, which was lovely.... and had a nice dinner with our good friends from LA, Tim & Dianne... We walked around on the pier in Long Beach.. had a lovely time.

Sunday we boarded the ship... sailed a week to Mexico & back. We had a wonderful time... New Year's Eve was especially fun. Don & I got all gussied up, me in black sequins, he in his tux, and we danced the night away in the Centrum area, while drinking champagne, and watching 2009 balloons drop from the top of the centrum... The band was playing 70's music, ya know, DISCO, and then Big Band music....it was so much fun.... I got all sweaty, tho.... LOLOL

We cruised with our good friends, Jerry & Lorene. They have twins who are the same age as Dyan. They grew up together until early elementary years, when we moved away. We have maintained our friendship over the years... and had fun cruising with them this last week!

In Cabo, we went to the Glass Factory... tried to eat lunch at The Office, but it was too crowded since it was New Year's Eve.... So Don & I grabbed a water taxi and went back to the boat. Got some good sun that day.

In Mazatlan, we did the Salsa / Salsa / Margarita thing. It was lots of fun.. We learned to make 5 different kinds of salsa, guacamole, and 2 different margaritas (which were not that great). Then we learned how to dance the salsa. It was lots of fun. After that, we took a taxi to the old part of town, toured through the cathedral and "free" market. It makes me so grateful for what we have here in the states for shopping. Their market.... all the meat was just sitting out, same with fruits and vegetables. They had LOTS of PIG HEADS.... a traditional food for New Years. I couldn't believe my eyes...

In Puerto Vallarta, we zip lined. I thought I would be afraid, since I'm terrified of heights, but I made my mind up that I was NOT going to be scared. After an hour long ride in the back of a truck, we made it to the mountains and the jungle. We got all strapped up, and they showed us how to do it, and then off we went! First time for me, he said just sit back & lift up your legs.... and so I did it and away I went.... talk about FUN!!!! I could't wait to do it the rest of the afternoon! First landing was rough though... I ran smack dab into the tree trunk... bruised up my hip. I wasn't "breaking" hard enough. I fixed that next time around. I went before Don, so that way I could stand on the perch and watch him. Totally fun. I have lots of pics on my FB site if you want to see them.

The last 2 days at sea were very cloudy and a little choppy.... so we basically sat around and read / slept / read / slept / played dominoes / read / slept... Very relaxing.

We did enjoy our cruise and especially our time with Jerry & Lorene. However, I won't take another Mexican Riviera cruise again. I prefer to stay with the Bahamas or Caribbean... much warmer and way more sun. The Pacific was just too cold...

Now I'm back to the daily grind... well, actually, this week, I've hardly done anything except unpack & do laundry and clean up a bit. Don's been so sick, and I've been loading him up with medications and herbal stuff... He caught my sinus infection and it got really bad for him and has gone into his chest. He's now taking some coconut capsules from the pure extract, along with several other herbal stuff & nyquil... LOL He doesn't feel like he has pneumonia, but I bet he has bronchitis... I'm giving him some antibiotics that I found yesterday. I know, not great, but hey.... ya do whatcha gotta do. I worry about him, ya know,..

Okay, gonna upload some pics and call it a day. I'll try and not wait so long to blog again, Julie..... I've missed you too!

Happy New Year, everyone! May God richly bless each one of you this year!