Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Good luck to all the cooks out there that get to dress the birds!

We had rain!

Last night about 9pm I stepped into the boys room to put away some clean clothes (they'd been tucked in for about an hour) and I realized I was hearing rain pound on the rooftop. Usually you can't hear the rain in the house unless a window is open. Seeing that the boys were still awake, I excitedly (to put it mildly) asked if they could hear the rain too. We opened a window and happily listened. I called my Dad to tell him - (he loves the rain too and we'd both been on a rain watch all day.) My oldest asked if we could look at the rain, so we went out on the porch (yes, destroying all hopes of them sleeping anytime soon) and realized Mike was in his car using his ham radio in the driveway. Knowing that he would want to stay dry, the boys mounted a rescue mission to get him out. But the Daddy wasn't ready to come in yet so they had to walk around for a bit with pj's rolled up to stay dry. It rained so hard that when it hit the sidewalk it bubbled almost as if it was boiling. It was really cold, but really worth it. They had such a great time walking up and down our sidewalk. Our lives are made up of some many little things, like playing in the rain, that we kind of dismiss as "well, that was fun." and forget it. But I hope they remember this one time, when the sky opened up.

How can Thanksgiving be here already?

Do you ever get surprised by a holiday suddenly arriving?

How about a whole season? I don't normally. I wasn't aware that fall had really come until a few days ago we had fog! Yeah, I know, you people that get snow are laughing at my fog excitement, but we had fog! Woo hoo!

I knew that Thanksgiving was coming, but how is it in 2 days? Yikes! See you at the market!

The day started out good....after La Paz

The following is probably too much information. I apologize. I tried to keep it light.

We got back on the ship, and had a late lunch on deck. I had this odd feeling like I should take any and all pictures that I wanted while I could and to not wait until the last day like I generally do. So I was snapping photos all over, documenting the silly places we had been, like David getting food at the Lido Deck Grill, us eating (for the A/C) inside Tiffany's. I stood for an hour or so and photographed us leaving La Paz, the sunset, and lots of coastal images. I have a new camera that I am not used to so I had fun using some of the different settings. That night we went to dinner. Steven mentioned his tummy kind of hurt, but he'd been playing his DS Lite game "Legend of Zelda" and it makes him nervous so Mayme (my Mom) suggested it was nerves and I thought she was probably right. Dinner was great. We tried new foods, I had a stuffed bell pepper that we split 4 or so ways and for dinner I had turkey. It was great, dessert (as shown by Wen) was lovely and our wait staff of Marina and Tommie took great care of us. We went to get seats for the "family friendly" hypnotist show. The menfolk stayed with the kids and the women window shopped near by at the on ship store. We got back, and Squish & Mr W were playing video games with the cousins. All was well. We saw the show, and after Squish said he really had to go to the restroom. Fine. We stopped to return a shirt I had bought Mr W who used to love everything and upon turning 12 really doesn't like much now. Squish was becoming urgent, so Mike took him to the room.

Goodbye vacation. We didn't know it, but he had probably contracted the Noro Virus and it would spread to me next, at about 5 am the day we were going to go to Ensenada. I have never seen Squish so sick. Let's just say it was horrible.

The next day was "a fun day at sea." (That's what the ships really call it.) I sent Mike and Mr. W to enjoy the ship I think. I don't remember much about it. Squish learned he could hit the toilet's flush button behind him on the wall with his head while seated. If only I could use that for the talent show at his school!

Wednesday morning. Oh no. I'm sick. Off Mike goes to the Medic for me, and fills out the forms. The medic says that I am to stay in isolation with Squish in my room and turns off my key card and won't let me off the ship. Not that I could have gone.

Mike and the others went to port, and took the "La Bufadora" tour. When they were returning on the bus Mr W was struck ill. (My folks joke that they saw 2 bufadoras that day.) At one point during the night Mr. W was so sick that Mike had to take his pulse to see if he was still with us. It was very scary and I just kept thinking that we had never been that sick before. Mike fell ill during the night, and that was the final straw. Mr W couldn't walk, and Mike couldn't carry him now, so we had to have Mr. W leave the ship in a wheel chair. All four of us must have looked pretty. We were all, Squish included, still being sick, and had a decently long drive home ahead. We had originally hoped to spend the day or 2 days hanging out in San Diego with the family, but we had to go home. We made it home, and about a week later, were declared heathly enough to go back out into public.

Would I go again? Heck yeah! But I would take Clorox cleaning wipes and wash everything in my room down, and I would make the kids wash their hands a lot more!

La Paz, Mexico - What a beautiful place!

Hi there World Travelers! I wanted to record the beauty and peace of La Paz in case there was anyone "out there" thinking of visiting. Oddly, when I uploaded my photos to this blog, they all went on in reverse order. I keep trying to fix this, but they ignore me an stubbornly stay in the wrong order. So please forgive me, and just look at the pic's top to bottom. This is a long post, mostly because I want to record the day for my kids.

La Paz, Mexico. When you arrive in port, you actually land in Puerto de Pichilingue. (Pee-chee-lean-gay). There were mariachi to welcome us, and some little stalls and a few tents with vendors selling their wares. You walk into the building (shown down at the bottom of the photos) and are handed a map of La Paz, one per family. (Women - GET THE MAP. I let Mike take it and I had no idea it held the route to the "marketplace.") Then you board a bus, which is comfy, air conditioned and had cushy seats, like the kind you would have on a chartered bus, not a school bus. It did have a bathroom which I did not use. There was a "host" who told us little tidbits about Pichilingue and La Paz. Apparently the majority of day to day goods are imported although they do have a power plant. The host tried to teach us "Cielieto Lindo" and told us that it would be part of our return ticket if we wanted to get back on the bus. He was of course kidding. I'm just trying to show that he was friendly. He was (I think) very new to playing tour guide on the way to La Paz, but he did a good job. He said that there was a rock formation that you could only see on your way back to the ship that they called something like "the old woman". We never saw it, but as we were going back to the boat Mike saw a poster and excitedly said "I bet this is what he was talking about!" I think my photo of that might just be about in the right place. Just a fun little thing, but I liked it.

As we drove along, the guide/host showed us these beautiful coastal areas with names like "treasure cove" (because buried treasure was found there) and "Stingray Cove" (because apparently the water is shallow and warm so the stingrays like to hang out and....sting things there.) The water was sooo clear, we only saw it from the bus windows, but they were beautiful.

So we got into La Paz after about a 30 or so min. bus ride around 9:30am. You walk in the bus terminal, and because it was the dia after the Dia de los Muertos they still had a small shrine for someone that had passed. I had looked everywhere for proof that Dia de los Muertos was still celebrated in Cabo, and not finding it, I shot a photo of this. There were several small shrines set up for the holiday around town. You walk through the bus terminal, and there you are with shops to the left and the right, and before you - the ocean, and this neat seagull statue. All along the ocean from time to time are these great copper (now green) statues. It was a Monday morning and no one was really at the beach. It was hot hot hot already, so I thought that was odd. Then I realized that none of the stores were really open yet either. There were a bunch of people in line at one store, where the line went out the door and down the street and around a corner. Mike went up to find out why, what were they waiting for? It looked like a bank to me. Turns out cable TV had just gotten to La Paz and they all wanted to sign up for it.

La Paz is one of those unique places where it felt like Mexico. Cabo in the 1980's was the same way. No one hassled you to buy stuff, there weren't 50 or so street vendors offering you "real silver Lady! Only a buck!" or asking you to buy a doll or whatever. People were just going about their lives and seemed kind of surprised to see all the tourists there. Anyway, at 9:30am there really isn't much open. So you walk, and sweat. It's really humid there, and I think it was like 95 degrees. (I think that day at home it was about 65 degrees and had rained the day before. *sigh*) Most of the people did not want to haggle about prices. The price marked was firm, and many of them did not speak english or know how to convert American money to pesos. I thought this was cool. I wanted to see a Mexican city, not little California. I guess it really, really annoyed a lot of the people.

While we walked the city, looking for someone to sell us something (grin) I was taken with all of the statues and buildings around. There was a Wyland wall that was gorgeous, and near by was these 3 odd statues of women wearing seashells for bodies. There was this great old brick building that was now only one wall, and we passed it about 4 times and each time I just wanted to kind of stare at it. Trucks drive up and down the street with those billboards attached to the back like you see here in the US but they played loud music to attract your attention. My Mom said they used to do that back when she was younger in the US. There was a big department called "3 Hermanos" (3 brothers) that I wanted to check out, but was closed. Another one, called "Mas" looked cool, but I saw it near the end of our visit and we were too focused on finding the marketplace to stop and check it out. (Mas means "More!" I figured we could all use a little Mas!) Before my folks left us my Dad took a picture of us by a statue that was called "The Pearl of Jesus" or "Jesus of the Pearl" something like that. It had been sunk off the coast to give divers something cool to look at in 1995 or '97 and had recently been brought back up and displayed. You couldn't tell that it had been underwater.

After my folks left we were standing along the ocean, I decided that while Mike talked to some guy in a boat the boys and I would walk along the ocean. We found a sand bar and Squish and I took off our shoes and waded in the crystal clear water. There were little silver fish that swam around our feet and we looked for shells in the orange-y creamy colored sand. Mr. W was positive he had to sit on the wall and protect the backpacks. Mike finally picked him up, took off his shoes, and he carried him into the ocean. I was surprised by how many shells there were, and how tiny there were. Wading there in the ocean made my trip. Yes, I'm simple. I love clear ocean water. La Paz is the 5th best place to dive in the world and Mike was on one level or another dying to go back under the sea. But he was sweet and stayed with us. I hope we can go back soon, for longer, so he could dive and still have time to translate for us. We decided to go in search of trinkets, (to make the Momma happy) so off we went.

We came upon some tourists who told us they were looking for the marketplace, which they showed us on the map. BLESS THEM - THEY SHOWED ME THE MAP. It hadn't occurred to me that the map had information on it we needed. DUH. So, none of us could tell where we were, so we huddled in the doorway of a teen apparel store doorway's shade (our faces were so sweaty it was embarrassing!) Mike went and habla'd with - as luck would have it - a paramedic at a Jack in the Box. She told us where it was and we went off, looking for it. It was supposed to be about 9 blocks or so. While we were walking I decided we all needed something to drink. We found a soda & water machine, but it only took pesos. These 2 local men were walking by, and offered us thier pocket change to buy a drink. We didn't take them up on it because we needed 4 and that would be too much. But can you imagine being out, realizing you didn't have enough money, and having a total stranger offer to buy you a soda? They were truly good Samaritans!

We were walking up a gentle hill at this point, and I was trying to be the brave Mommy whose face was sweating off and watching our children melt into puddles. Thankfully, we soon turned a corner and found a leather boot shop that had a soda refrigerator out in front. We ripped open the door and chose our sodas. Oh, I was holding something cold in my hand! The saleswoman came out all friendly, with a smile that said "you aren't going to steal my sodas are you?" We asked her how much, and realized she didn't speak much English. she said 40, 10 each. Mike said "no, it can't be 10 each." I was so thirsty, I didn't think that she meant 10 dollars but I was ready to pay that for my bottle of cold apple soda. (I LOVE apple soda.) She and Mike are kind of discussing the cost, Mike keeps saying "you can't mean 40" and she's saying, "si, 40." So I pull out my 3 years of high school Spanish and say (mostly in english you'll note): "do you mean diez, diez, diez, diez?" (10, 10, 10, 10?) She says "si, diez, diez, diez, and diez." Clearly we are speaking the same language - woman speak! I say "great!" and walk in the store to pay, pretty sure we can work this out at the register, but ready to pay what I had to get a drink for our boys. We ended up paying a little extra because the cashier didn't have any American money, but they were $1.00 each. They were worth the $10. because they gave us that oomph to keep going. (Can you say "sugar rush?")

Suddenly we were in the marketplace. And even more shocking, they had all opened their shops! It was about noon. The kids were getting out of school, and the city woke up. They had all these fabulous open air stores, where you could buy lots of stuff by the scoop. Spices, dog food, pasta, dried herbs and peppers, all by the scoop. We found this great party supply store that had these 4 or 5 foot tall pinatas out in front and lots of fun things inside. We found this great spice/pasta/dog food shop where the nicest people worked. Steven is in a photo by some of the bins of merchandise. They only spoke spanish, but when they learned we were visiting they talked to us about the spices, how they ground the peppers to make the very colorful powdered pepper spices, and there's one shot that has these brown cone shaped things in them. That's sugar cane! I tried some, it was...sugar! It was kind of scary to put in my mouth, but they were so excited to give us samples, I didn't want to turn them down. The shopkeeper kept taking pinches of the powdered peppers and wanted us to do the same. Just walk up and take a pinch. After much encouragement Mike did. When I look at the photos now and see the dog food right next to the spices I laugh. The store was really cool, and I wanted to buy something to thank them for their hospitality, but I knew I couldn't take food back with me on the ship. So I bought another apple soda! And his were cheaper, and he gave us change. I should have bought 6. If I had known I wouldn't have much to buy in La Paz I would have. There were street vendors, but they didn't hassle you. One was selling this white stuff in a large green stem that was cut open on one side. It was fresh sugar cane. I wish we'd stopped to look, but we were trying to see it all. At one point in the morning my dad was happy to see a vendor with a cart labeled "hot dogs." Hey, we all get excited about different things.

As we walked, Squish found a sort of open air pet store. It was almost in a garage with the door up. But not anyplace near a home. The boy who longs for a pet gave me the dimples, but we didn't think the US customs would much appreciate bringing a pet back, nor would the cruise ship or Daddy's allergies, so we kept walking.

Eventually we found this wonderful store that had these adorable Barbie dresses in the window. It was a bridal store, but the dolls were wearing traditional sequined and/or regular cotton Mexican dresses complete with petticoats. I had to stop! There is a photo of the shop owner and his nice employee who did not speak any English. But the owner did, and he told us of living in Orange County, CA and picking strawberries 20 years ago for 10 dollars a day. He said he moved to La Paz and it is the best city in Mexico. I agreed with him. Everyone there was just as nice as could be. Mr. W and Squish got a little boyish while I was ooohing and ahhhing over the Barbie dresses but they didn't mind and it was a great experience.

About that time we realized we were out of time, and while we hadn't really shopped, it was time to head back. It turned out we were closer than we thought, and poof! There we were at the bus terminal. La Paz was a wonderful port, and I wish we could have had much more time there.

Did you really read this far? Wow. Go have some chocolate now, you deserve it! It took me about 2 hours to write this, I hope it didn't take that long to read!
Thanks, Barb

Cool Carnival Pool

After being in the port the fellas all wanted to go in the jacuzzi and go down the pool slide, so being the good scrapbooker, I went along with camera in hand. David was a little scared of the slide at first, but by the end we almost had to pull him off of it! Kids are so funny.

Carnival is a Treat on Halloween!

First off, Halloween was great. My Dad wore his pumpkin shirt again and how can that NOT make an evening fun? We went to dinner in costume, and at about 7pm the trick or treating began! The plan was that you go to a specified starting point and are given a map. Then, from looking at the map, you are supposed to go from point to point and get candy from employees on the ship. I knew it wasn't a good sign when, at our first stop - the disco - they asked "oh, are you guys all done? Congratulations!" and we had to respond ".....uh, no. This is our first stop." "Oh! That's okay! Go get more candy and come back here at the end!" That's when it hit me how late we were starting the activity. So at the second stop they told us to just go back to the disco for the "wrap up" party and we'd get more treats there. Lots of the Camp Carnival staff were there with m&m's brand candy to hand out to the kids, and gave them several handfuls when they learned we'd only been to two stations. They had dancing and photos with "Fun Ship Freddy" who was all Halloween'd up (so our kids refused to go near this "scary Freddy." - see photo.-) They had costume contests by age, and all the cousins won their categories. The gal that was in charge of the 6-8 year olds was so excited by the coincidence that she wanted their picture taken with her, so of course I needed one too. *grin* She was very nice, from Croatia I think. She spent about 30 or more min. talking to David and getting to know him. Later after we were home David was telling me about our trip and told me about "his girlfriend" who he'd met at the Halloween party that wanted him to visit her at the kids club. Yeah, it was the employee. But how sweet.

The next morning Mike went on a 2 tank scuba dive in Cabo San Lucas and my folks and I and the boys hit Cabo for the sights and shopping. The cousins went with their folks on tour, so we didn't see them until we got back on the ship. It was the "Dia de los Muertos" and I was really excited to buy some "Pan de Muerto" (bread of the dead). If you click on the link for the Dia de los Muertos it had some neat info about it. I really wanted to buy Dave J. a sugar skull (shown on the web page) but I couldn't find any. *sigh* No sugar skulls, no pan de muerto, no cute skeleton figures, it was kind of a bummer. It was hard to tell that it was any kind of a special day in Cabo. We had a good time shopping in the insanely humid heat and all too soon it was time to get back on the boat. When you arrive in port there is no dock, so the ships hire these tenders to haul you and your stuff back and forth from the ship to the port. It's a short ride, and I love to see all the choppy water from the back of the tender. It just makes the water sparkle.

Mustard? Don't lets be Silly!

Okay, So we get on the ship, and what do we do first? Eat of course! Steven was amazed by the dessert bar set out for lunch. After everyone had checked in with their tummies, we went back to the rooms for a little cousin time at our place. The kids did a puzzle, played old maid or Uno, and just played. All too soon we were called to "Muster" to the muster stations with our life preservers. We kept saying that line from Alice in Wonderland that the Mad Hatter says "Mustard? Don't let's be thilly!" Yeah, we cracked ourselves up.
We were finishing up the drill when we realized the ship had started to move! Woo hoo! We were on our way! Mike & Rob took the life preservers to the rooms and we all found a place on deck for the kids to run & dance to express how excited they were to going. It was great, and soon we needed to get into our costumes for dinner and trick or treating.

Living the Suite Life

Hello! We're back and I want to share photos, but I think that I'll post them in batches.

First up - the room! We were so excited! When you walk in the room, to the left is the walk in closet and to the right is the bathroom with the jacuzzi jet tub. Then as you walk in further, on the left is the vanity area and on the right is the king sized bed. ahhh. It had such a nice mattress. A little further in the room on the left was the TV on top of an enclosed but mirrored on the inside glasses area with wine glasses & champagne glasses (that we really enjoyed drinking the bathroom sink water in.) And below those was a hidden refrigerator. (It had a slider door to close it off from view.) A little further in the room was the sectional leather-ish couch that made out to a bed on the right with a coffee table and a end table, and on the left were 2 arm chairs and another little table. Through the door was our heaven - a balcony with 2 chairs and a good supply of neighboors all leaning over the railing to talk at odd hours of the night. *grin* This room almost saved our lives later in the week when we became ill and I sincerely felt that God had given us this room so we could survive our illnesses. If we had been in a dinky room with our kids sleeping above us with no place to "be" and no way to get fresh air I would have gone absolutely crazy. But I could walk out on the balcony and feel at peace, like it was ok and that our Father in Heaven knew what we needed. It became a spiritual experience for me to have that little connection to the rest of the world when I needed it the most. (But more about our cootie experience later!)