My uncle DaWayne invited me and Nathan to go on a cruise!! We went to the Mexican Riviera and I must say, it was THE BEST VACATION EVER!! I hope you are ready to see pictures, because there are quite a lot of them....
We started our vacation bright and early in the morning. We got to the airport around 8:30 am and headed to Long Beach, California!
 |
| Waiting at the airport for our flight! |
We arrived in Long Beach and hitched a ride on a shuttle to the port. We met up with DaWayne, Jermain and their kids and waited in line to get on the boat!
 |
| Nathan and I and the BOAT!! |
When we arrived on the boat, Nathan showed me around a bit, we ate some food and took a nap!
 |
| Nathan and I |
We also had 2 little roommates to keep us entertained:
 |
| Joe |
 |
| Zach |
 |
| The loooong hallway |
 |
| the elevators in the middle of the boat |
 |
| our room it had bunkbeds!! |
 |
| Nathan at Dinner |
 |
| Me at Dinner |
 |
| Dessert at dinner... looks good right? Well, this particular cake had a little extra kick to it I think his name was Jack Daniels. Luckily I noticed a funny taste after the first bite. |
 |
| Our Dinner table |
 |
| The Magician... he stole Nathan's watch right off of his wrist without him even knowing... I saw the whole thing happening and thought it was pretty funny!! |
 |
| The first formal night... Doesn't he look hot?! |
 |
| Nathan and Natalie (that's me!) |
On Tuesday we arrived at the Puerto Vallarta port. We decided to go to Las Caletas beach for some swimming, snorkeling, kayaking and relaxation. It was a lot of fun!!
 |
| Sunrise at Puerto Vallarta |
 |
| We arrived at Pureto Vallarta at the wee hours of the morning. Nathan and I woke up early enough to watch the sunrise! It was beau-tiful!! |
 |
| Las Caletas Beach |
|
 |
| Nathan |
 |
| 2 monkeys he he he |
 |
| Nathan |
 |
| Nathan taught me how to dive with the snorkel... I found some really cool shells on the bottom!! |
 |
| Our Fiesta leader caught an octopus!! It wiggled it's way out and squirted ink at us!! |
 |
| don't we look attractive? Ya, I thought so too. |
 |
| relaxing in a hammock on the beach... can life get any better? |
 |
| Nathan and I kayaking around the shoreline... we saw dolphins while we were out there! |
 |
| Nathan |
 |
| fishy |
 |
| after kayaking and snorkeling, they had a lunch provided for us... the best part was the homemade tortillas! |
 |
| kissing a parrot |
 |
| hey, there's a monkey on my head! |
 |
| Me and Nathan (these are a little out of order) |
 |
| Nathan AKA Mr. Hottie |
 |
that's me!
Here is a short video of our underwater adventure:
|
 |
| That night at dinner we had a Mariachi band come play for us!! |
 |
after dinner we went out to explore the night life. There was a giant walmart across the street from the port, so naturally we had to see it! On our way over it started to down pour rain and we got drenched!! It was a lot of fun!! Also, it was quite the adventure trying to cross the street without getting mowed over by a car. We are lucky we made it out alive! When we got back, we took a shot of the ship at night and then we ordered...
ROOM SERVICE!! |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| CHEESECAKE!! YUMMMY! |
 |
| Brownies mmm |
|
On Thursday, we went to Mazatlan! Nathan and I accidentally overslept a little bit (our cabin was really dark!!) But we got up and went out without any plans.... and it ended up being a lot of fun!! We found a guy outside the port that offered to drive us around and show us the sites of Mazatlan all day for 20 bucks!!
 |
| He showed us Devil's cave... names so because 2 people go in and 3 come out! Ha ha ha |
 |
| We went to the marina where they were bringing in the big Marlins |
 |
| We drove around the city and he told us history and showed us the local sites, not the "touristy" stuff. |
 |
| we stopped by the local fish market where they sold fish and shrimp galore! |
 |
| he also took us to this cathedral it was amazing!! |
 |
there was such great detail in the architecture and the artwork
and the best part was a little hot dog stand but they didn't sell hot dogs, they sold homemade ice cream and it was THE BEST ICE CREAM EVER!! We tried mango, vanilla and oreo. Oh it was so good!! |
 |
the view of the cathedral
He even took us to see the cliff divers!! It was pretty cool and I thought for sure someone would have to jump in after him... look how close those rocks are!! |
|
|
 |
| every night at dinner, our servers performed for us. |
 |
| each night our room guy would come to turn down our beds and he would leave us with one of these towel animals and some mints on our pillows.... oh the life! |
The next day we went to Cabo San Lucas and we went scuba diving!!
 |
| those suits were hard to get on!! |
 |
| We had to wait in line for a while to ferry back to our ship... it was hot!! |
 |
| a random boat I thought it looked cool, so naturally I had to have a picture of it! |
 |
| more random boats, what can I say? |
That night we got back on the boat and it was another formal night, so we got all dressed up again! Can I say, that I really like dressing up? It's fun!! At dinner that night this was on the menu:
 |
| that's right!! Escargot!! Blah! Nathan had been saying for well over a month that I was going to eat some, I didn't think it would be a good idea because why in my right mind would I put a gross, slimy snail in my mouth and swallow it??? Well, I can't believe it, but he shoved it in my mouth and I didn swallow, I think he must have drugged me or being out in the hot sun all day did something to my mind, because seriously! It didn't taste bad, kind of like a garlicky rubber object, but the fact that it was a snail grossed me out quite a bit!!! |
 |
| me being force fed a gross slimy snail blah! |
 |
| Me and Nathan all dressed up |
 |
what handsome guy!!
The few days were spent at sea heading back to California.... we did lots of fun things!! |
 |
We went to a cooking class where the chefs on the boat showed us how to make different things and we got to taste it... they made this mushroom soup that was mmmm mmm mm delicious and since Nathan hates mushrooms, I got to eat his too! he he he
We also watched movies out on the deck, went hot tubbing, Nathan played in a casino tournament for th slot machines, we walked around, took some naps, ate lots of food, including a chocolate bar! We relaxed and just had so much fun!!!
When we got back to California, we had not idea that we were there because when we stepped outside, this is what we saw: |
 |
| FOG!! It looked really cool!! We waited in line to get off the boat and shed a little tear knowing that it was over... |
 |
| oh, this is us with our server, Nok Nok, from thailand |
On one of our last days of the cruise, we turned on the T.V. to and saw this of my Uncle Dawayne:
We got to the airport around 11 am and our flight didn't leave until 7:30 pm, so we decided to rent a car and explore long beach.
 |
| Nathan and I ... we went to this one place in or near Long beach and they were having a crab festival!! So, we went and checked it out. Then we went to a harbor place that I don't remember the name of right now. The picutres are a little mixed up, but just know it was so fun!! I'm glad we decided to go explore a bit more instead of sitting at the airport for so long!! |
 |
| the boats at the harbor.... i must have a thing for boats! While we were here, they had yachts for sale, so we went on a little adventure and looked at all the pretty water homes. |
 |
| the light house |
 |
| another boat!! Imagine that! |
 |
| we bought some smoothies by the foot... mango and strawberry, they were scrumptious! |
 |
| Nathan and I being our goofy selves. |
 |
| I thought these signs were funny! |
 |
| our rental car |
 |
| I went into the bathroom and when I came out Nathan said he had to show me a picutre of something I missed while I was in there... he said that a huge red dinosaur came tromping by and he took out the camera to take a picture, but the zoom was on and it got away before he could unzoom it and take anohter picutres so all he got was it's scales!! He's so funny!! I sure love him!! |
 |
| and that is the end of our wonderfully wonderful vacation! It was fun and we can't wait to do it again! |
