Anniversary Cruise

These pictures are probably kind of boring because they're all of us standing in front of something! This is on the ship before we took off from Long Beach. We got on about noon and the ship left the harbor about 5:30. It either went really slow or parked out in the ocean somewhere because it took all night to get to Catalina Island! Actually, I'm sure we didn't really park because we discovered later that our cabin was pretty close to the anchor and when they let it down or pulled it up, we knew it!
This was on the "cruise elegant" night where we were supposed to dress a little nicer for dinner in the dining room. This picture shows the "atrium", or the middle part of the ship. All the food was very good, but dinners in the dining room were comparable to a fine restaurant. The meal came in courses, servers seated us and put the napkins on our laps, etc. Charles got lobster, shrimp, and other delicacies he doesn't get at home. They had very interesting vegetarian dishes each night too. We did go to the gym every morning, but we're still going to have to work off some extra pounds!

Besides the dining room, there was a buffet that was always open. It had a salad bar, pizza, grilled sandwiches, Thai food, Italian food, hamburgers, desserts, etc. In the morning they served a buffet breakfast. It would have been impossible not to overeat under these circumstances!
We hung out on this level outside quite a bit. It had lounge chairs, miniature golf, a short track, etc. We later discovered a better place, which had finer lounges, two spas, beach umbrellas, and no children allowed. It was right on the back of the boat where you had a great view.
This was our first night there. We weren't too shy about asking people to take our pictures. The cruise line had photographers who wanted to take a lot of pictures too and we kind of had to let them, however, we didn't have to buy them!
This was on Catalina. Smaller boats took passengers over there where we just hung around and looked in the shops. We didn't stay all day, but it was fun.
This place is called "Bufadora". It's a famous blow hole in Ensenada. We took a tour bus out there, about 25 miles from where we got off the ship. There was also a flea market with some very aggressive shop owners! As you can imagine, I was looking for a leather purse again. They really don't like for you to go in and look around and then say you might be back. They want to make a deal on the spot and get a little hostile if you don't! I did end up going back to the first place I looked, but he wasn't as appreciative as he should have been. He ended up accepting my price, but appeared to not be happy about it.

They were trying to sell their post cards for 2 for $2.50. We couldn't believe it. We finally got some for 3/$1.00, but when I tried to write on them, found they were coated with some sort of plastic-like stuff so ink wouldn't stick. Those are the post cards I sent to you after going over them with an emory board first!
Here we are at the blow hole.
The stewards did this fancy towel folding. Each evening, they would make a different creation and leave it on the bed. This one has chocolates for its eyes. Almost all of the employees seemed to be Filipino. They said 57 countries were represented, but they mostly looked like they were from the Philipines. I looked it up on-line when I got home and found that because of the country's extreme poverty, cruise line jobs are highly coveted. They have to go out on cruises for 6-9 months, then get to go home for a few months. We talked to our steward one evening and tole him Gene and Suzanne had been on a mission in Manila. He said he noticed we were Mormon because of the magazine on our table and that he saw lots of Mormon missionaries when he went home. This guy was really nice and always greeted us by name.
Here's Charles with the towel origami.

We paid for a room with no window, since it cost a little less, but got one with two portholes. It was a lot better being able to see outside!
This was the fine deck we discovered on our last day. This is the very back of the ship.
So we had a great time! It was a very memorable anniversary celebration!