DAY 1

We got up before 7 to catch our 7:15 a.m. shuttle to the airport. Normally getting up at 6:30 is a luxury, but it was painfully hard this day because we stayed up so late the night before getting things ready to go. Even Wes didn’t want to get up when he had to. His first word of the day was, “No!”

At the airport we checked into JetBlue, juggling three pieces of luggage, two carry-on bags, a car seat, a stroller, and Wesley. We managed. We had plenty of time until boarding, which was good, because for some reason when we hit the security clearance Wes had a meltdown. Still not sure why. He was so upset he was shaking, and we weren’t sure if he was suddenly sick or what. We pulled our stuff off the conveyor belt and stood to the side for a few minutes. He was still upset, but we decided to just get through security, so we did. It took longer, though, because I had forgotten to remove all our digital equipment from our bags along with the food/milk we brought for Wes (silly me, how could I have forgotten that with a baby soaking my shirt through with tears?). All the baby food and milk we brought for Wes had to be tested for Nitrate residue to make sure we weren’t packing explosives. And then, finally, we got through.

John got Wes to fall asleep while we waited to board. He slept through take-off and half the flight. He looked so tiny, buckled into the huge airplane seat, slumped against John’s side.

While he slept I got to watch home and garden TV shows and John watched sports programming on the nifty JetBlue TV sets built into the seat backs.

When Wes woke up he ate some pretzels, and then the stewardess brought around snacks (hurray for an airline that still feeds you!). Luckily for Wes they offered a Doritos Munchies Cheese Fix snack that included all his favorites: pretzels, Cheetos, chips, etc. Wes is a sucker for Cheetos.

As soon as we got off the plane I took a breath in and, man, California smells so GOOD! It smells warm and slightly humid and clean, like the ocean. It felt good to be in warm weather again.

I took Wes to the bathroom to change his pants. Literally. He was dry upon boarding the plane, but by the time we got off his pants were soaked through. We didn’t have his luggage yet, so he got to hang out in just a shirt and diaper for a while.

John’s mom came and got us and took us to San Pedro (just southwest of Long beach) to the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

We picked it because it’s small, low-key, and cheap. Bonus: It’s right on the beach and after we walked through the aquarium John and I took Wes for a walk on the beach–his first experience walking on sand. He liked to kick it.

The thing about being in LA is you never know when you’re going to get a piece of Hollywood. There was actually a film crew on the beach, and after we finished at the aquarium we saw them wheeling all their equipment off the sand. We learned they had been filming a commercial for Nickelodeon. And on our way to lunch we passed another film crew in downtown San Pedro; it looked like they were filming a stunt between some buildings.

We ate in a little seaside village (shopping/eating area) in San Pedro called Ports o’ Call. We sat on the patio overlooking the marina. We saw tugboats and bigger boats passing by, plus several helicopters flying overhead. Wes was asleep again, so we got to eat about half of our meal in peace. The weather was so beautiful in California, I enjoyed just being outside and breathing it all in. It’s very pleasant and peaceful–when you’re not stuck in traffic.

Which is what we were on our way back to north LA after lunch. It took us a good 2-2 1/2 hours to get home, but at least it was scenic. We drove along Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) through Santa Monica, right along the ocean, for a while, and then we headed east through Topanga Canyon, which is a long winding road through the mountains. It was beautiful, but I was tired and eventually fell asleep. Wes, meanwhile, was awake but perfectly content in the carseat in back.

When we got to the hotel Wes was ready to be let loose.

At night we met John’s step-dad for dinner at The Commons, which is a nice European-style shopping and restaurant center across the street from our hotel. I liked our hotel because it had a mini-fridge and microwave where we could store and heat up Wesley’s milk bottles. John’s mom took me to Ralph’s, a nice grocery store also in The Commons, so I could get Wes’s milk and snacks to last us a few days. By the time we finished dinner we were all so tired and slept well through the night.

DAY 2

This morning Wes woke up around 7:15, and once we were showered and clean we headed downstairs for our continental breakfast in the lobby. They had everything we needed! Maple and brown sugar oatmeal and Yoplait yogurt for Wes, plus bagels and hot chocolate for me and eggs and ham for John.

We spent the afternoon at The Getty. It’s full of amazing famous artwork, but of course all I have photos of is Wesley charging up and down one of the grassy hills outside.

Wes also found a bug to examine.

We had an amazing lunch at a surprisingly nice cafe inside the Getty. Wes ate cheese pizza (cheese pizza is a recurring theme throughout our vacation; it’s the one sure-fire thing I can get Wes to eat for lunch or dinner).

We strolled through the gardens, which weren’t really in bloom in March but were pretty anyway.

The Getty overlooks LA.

DAY 3

On Saturday we woke up and walked down the road to the Calabasas Farmer’s Market. Whenever I travel I try to go to the local farmer’s markets. You never know what you’ll see, and it’s free–unless you buy something, which I was totally tempted to do. I have never seen oranges sold with the leaves still attached, or strawberries that were so perfectly red ripe. It made my mouth water.

The market also had stalls of gorgeous locally grown flowers that I lusted after while John reminded me (a few times) that it was essentially impractical to buy flowers for our hotel room when we were checking out the next day. We saw a lot of locals pushing wheeled carts that they filled with fresh spinach leaves, fruits, mushrooms, breads, and flowers before walking back to their homes. I have never wanted to live in California until then.

From there we walked down the road to find a hair cutting place for John. We stopped in at two places to check prices and had to act non-appalled when we were told a men’s haircut started at $30 and $50, respectively. At the third place it was $20 and we went for it. Bonus: The salon had toys in the corner for Wes to play with. Double Bonus: The salon owners were Persian and it happened to be the Persian New Year. They brought in a box of pastries and passed it around. Nothing like a hair cut and free cream puffs!

Next door to the salon was a bakery called SusieCakes where John let me buy two cupcakes all for myself: red velvet and chocolate peanut butter. Yummmmmmmmm.

That evening John’s mom and I took Wes to a park while John and John’s step-dad went to Fry’s Electronic Superstore. Playgrounds in California are bedded with sand instead of woodchips. I took Wes’s shoes and socks off so he could run free. One thing I liked about the playground is that it was full of more diversity than you would ever see in one place in Utah.

It amazes me how much Wes is turning into a real little boy. He’s starting to climb everything and go down slides fearlessly.

That night John’s mom stayed with Wes so John and I could have a date! We went to the mall, got dinner (peanut butter banana smoothie for me, double cheese burger for John, apple pie from McDonald’s for both of us), and saw Avatar in 3-D. This was my first time seeing it, second for John. Oh yeah, movies in Los Angeles cost a fortune: $15.50 per person. But the film was good.

DAY 4

On Sunday we went to church and then headed to the cruise pier to board our new home for a week. We met up with our friends Koby and Alicia and their baby and stood in line for about 45 minutes. The silver lining was that we were waiting in luscious warm California weather.

We were on the Carnival Splendor.

Once on board we started to get settled. Here’s Wesley “helping.”

Our room was in the middle of deck 4, which is close to the water. I liked it down there because we were close to the water, and the boat’s rocking was less noticeable. Wes liked watching the water go by.

The ship is decked out in a lot of pink, I’m not sure why. The elevators were decorated with big pink circles that every time made me think of Homer Simpson’s sprinkle-topped frosted donuts.

DAY 5

On our first full day on the ship we took a look around. Wes liked to play in the water of the fountain by one of the swimming pools.

He also lounged a little in the sun.

But mostly Wes enjoyed letting off steam by cruising up and down the extra-long hallways on the ship. After a while the crew members knew to watch out for him when they heard the pitter-pat of his feet coming their way.

DAY 6

On Tuesday afternoon John and I took Wes to the splash park on the top deck. It’s like a playground with slides, only with lots of water shooting up everywhere. Wes pretty much hated it at first, walking around with great apprehension and clinging to John’s fingers. After about twenty minutes he found one thing he liked to do, which was bat his hand in this fountain.

The big thing we had planned for Tuesday was dinner at the specialty fine dining restaurant on the ship, The Pinnacle. Before our dinner, I went to an afternoon cooking demonstration by the Pinnacle chefs. I didn’t know what to expect, so when they started bringing out free sample dishes of the food I knew I had made a good choice. Here’s the cheesy chicken and pasta dish they demonstrated for the main course (it was delicious):

The Pinnacle cost an extra $30 per person. When I heard about the $30 fee I was skeptical because, hey, we’re already paying a bunch to be on this ship, and all the other food is included, so why pay more?

But now I am a believer. The food and service was incredible, and we compared our $60 bill to the well over $100 bill we’ve had at nice restaurants back home where the entree alone costs more than $30.

From the start the food was amazing. They brought out a tempter dish based on what we had ordered (pictured below) and the most delicious bread and spread.

Here is my specialty non-alcoholic mudslinger drink (basically a milkshake-smoothie flavored with amaretto and chocolate) that I savored.

We dropped Wes off at Camp Carnival before dinner, but he didn’t last long. They called us after our appetizer and said he was crying and wouldn’t be comforted. John went and got him and brought him back to dinner. We set him up in the highchair and watched as his eyes settled into the half-closed position and didn’t move. He was so sleepy! John finally took Wes onto his lap and Wes was dead-asleep within a couple of minutes. So the rest of our meal looked something like this:

For dinner John ordered New York strip steak and I had lobster tail with fillet Mignon. It was right up there with the best meat I’d ever tasted anywhere–flavorful and melt-in-your-mouth delcious.

Here’s all of us with dessert:

For dessert I had cheesecake with homemade honey ice cream (which tasted aMAZing).

The sunset on Tuesday was gorgeous.

Day 7

Wednesday was our first port stop: Puerto Vallarta. We had booked a hiking tour through a local tour company. It was the only hiking tour that welcomed children, so we went for it.

Once we disembarked the ship we took a taxi to Bike-Mex Tours (which was interesting since the taxi driver didn’t know the city’s street names; John ended up pulling out a map and explaining in Spanish where we needed to go).

Bike-Mex Tours doubled as a tiny storefront and the owner’s family’s living quarters. When I asked to use the restroom I was directed to a typical Mexican bathroom that was dirty and cob-webby, with a shower spicket hanging from the ceiling and the family’s four toothbrushes in a dirty container by the sink. But at least the toilet flushed, and there was toilet paper.

Our tour guide (and store owner) was Oscar. He provided us with water bottles and a hip pack to carry them in. We set off on our hike by walking through a part of the city until we came to a bus stop. John carried Wes on his back.

The bus took us out of Puerto Vallarta and up through some villages and into the mountains. By riding a real Mexican bus we got the real Mexican experience. The bus was dusty and bumpy. It drove on twisty, steep roads that no bus in the U.S. would ever consider. It blew a tire on the mountainside, but the driver got out, looked at it, and determined we could keep going, so we did. This video was taken on our way home.

Once we got off the bus we hiked along a dirt road until we came to the Rio Cuale (Cuale River). Oscar knew some people who lived along the way, and we stopped a couple times to meet them and see their homes, animals, and gardens.

The jungle was pretty.

It was also very hot. We kept reapplying sunscreen and tried to stay in the shade when we could.

Once we started hiking along the river the temperature cooled and felt much more pleasant. Wes fell asleep.

The scenery around the river was beautiful. Oscar would stop and point out lizards, birds, and interesting plants. We saw one plant called Mimosa that was sensitive to touch and would close when you touched it.

The trail required us to wade across the river three times. The first time we went over with bare feet, but the next time we pulled out our water shoes because the river bottom was covered with rocks. Wading in the water was my favorite part–the river was warm and clear.

We paused for lunch (sandwiches made by Oscar’s wife, fresh oranges, and soda) by a swimming spot in the river. I didn’t swim, but I got to wade some more.

The one negative about this place was all the Mexican mosquitoes. They seemed to sense our foreign blood and went crazy on us. Even with insect repellent on, Koby, Alicia, and John all got bitten a lot. I didn’t fare so badly, with just a few bites on my arms, but Alicia’s legs looked like she had a skin condition. Oscar built a fire to help repel the insects.

We enjoyed the hike back (Wes slept the whole way, strapped to John). Overall, we got to see a unique aspect of Puerto Vallarta and we were glad we could do something semi-active even with our young kids.

However, we were TIRED by the time we got back on board, and that night John and I got a massage at the spa. Ahhhhhhhh, it was nice.

DAY 8

Thursday we stopped in Mazatlan. We had booked a tour with Mazatlan Frank, which I had read great reviews about on the forums at cruisecritic.com. And we weren’t disappointed. Compared to the arduous nature of our hike the previous day, a day spent in an air-conditioned van being chauffeured to different sites was terrific.

We went first to Mazatlan’s most historic cathedral. Frank dropped us off so we could take a look inside. There were a lot of tourists, but also some actual worshipers praying near the front.

From there we walked down the street to the marketplace where there were vendors of all sorts, obviously a place meant primarily for locals and less for tourists. We walked through the open-air meat market where we saw stuff like peeled pigs’ head and chicken feet. Also, it smelled exactly like the Farmland Foods factory I worked at as a teenager (i.e., NOT good).

Next Frank drove us to the coast to watch the cliff divers. These young men jump from a height of about 45 feet into a rocky, shallow part of the ocean. It’s their job. They make their money off the tourists, which, you can see, there are a lot of.

Frank drove us next to Old Mazatlan and walked us around the area. Once the Golden Zone (think tourist area) was built a few decades ago the older part of the city became more run down. But now it’s being fixed up and is a quaint and historic place to visit. We stopped in at an art store where my friend Alicia and I both bought some inexpensive jewelry.

Frank also took us to the Golden Zone to The Silver Bucket store. Obviously he was getting some kind of kick-back from taking us there, but I didn’t mind because the store had free non-alcoholic pina coladas, cookies, and restrooms.

From there we went to Tony’s on the Beach for lunch. It was kind of expensive (about $14 for an entree), so John and I split the steak fajita plate and a bottle of Sprite. This was the only actual Mexican food we ate while in Mexico. I was not disappointed. It may not look so great in the picture, but trust me, it was delicious. And the homemade salsa was amazing.

Wes looks sad in the picture above because he had been sleeping in John’s arms but was woken abruptly and unhappy about it.

We had a picturesque view while we ate.

After lunch we strolled down to the beach and played. Wes was totally content to sit and dig in the sand with the toys we brought. I couldn’t even get him to the water to dip his toes in the ocean.

The weather was perfect, the ocean was beautiful. We enjoyed this time.

Before heading back to our ship Frank took us to Mega, which is like a Super Wal-Mart. John and I went to Mega last year when were in Mexico, and I remembered how much I liked the bakery. It’s different than bakeries in the U.S. where food is carefully covered. Here, all the varieties of bread and pastries are in the open air. You pick up a silver plate and some tongs and select which items you want. Then you take it to the counter where they weigh and wrap your purchases. I wasn’t hungry when we walked through the Mega bakery, but it made my mouth water anyway.

We had a really good time seeing Mazatlan with Frank. The other family in our group went to a spa while we were at the beach and got a 60-minute massage for just $15 per person. Maybe next time…

DAY 9

Our final port stop was Cabo San Lucas, which is a beach community on the very tip of Baja California Peninsula. I loved our time at Cabo.

It’s a tender port, which means you have to wait in line to get on a smaller boat and be tendered to the pier. It took a long time before it was our turn, about forty-five minutes. Wes was getting antsy while we waited and, sure enough, the second we were seated on the boat and started moving he fell dead asleep.

John carried Wes through the streets of Cabo as we explored. Cabo has a ton of pharmacies that will sell you anything, no prescription required. If you wanted cheap Viagra or anti-depressants, this would be the place to go.

We actually didn’t explore a whole lot; Alicia and I bee-lined for a store called Del Sol, which sells products that change color in the sun. I bought a gift for someone else, but then John wanted to know if I had gotten myself anything. No, of course not. With his encouragement I bought myself a necklace whose beads change from white to brilliant blue in the sunlight. It’s my new favorite necklace.

We didn’t have any other activities planned at Cabo, but no matter; tons upon tons of merchants stand along the roads trying to get your attention to purchase various tours through them. John struck up conversation with one guy who gave us a good deal on a glass bottom boat water taxi tour. The water taxi has a couple of clear panels in the bottom where you can see fish swimming, which the driver attracts by tossing fish food into the ocean.

This tour was our favorite part of Cabo. The driver took us south along the peninsula and pointed out rock formations, all of which had names. We also saw bonus sites: couples totally making out on the beach between the rocks. I didn’t take pictures of them, but here are a couple of rock formations near the famous Lover’s Beach.

The weather was gorgeous and the ride was pleasant. Cabo has a lot of sea lions that we saw both in the water and sunning on rocks.

The most famous landmark here is the Arch, which you can see behind us here.

We also saw the Key of the Pacific, which is the first place where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean.

Here’s Land’s End, which is the last rock formation in the Sea of Cortez before entering the Pacific Ocean, plus a sighting of a baby sea lion on a rock.

Once we were past Land’s End they took us around the edge of the rocks and we entered the Pacific Ocean. It was a more bumpy (and more fun!) ride. We saw the opposite side of Lover’s Beach, which they jokingly call Divorce Beach.

The taxi dropped our friends off at Lover’s Beach for some swimming, but John and I decided to head back to the mainland and then to the ship for lunch.

Wes ate some of his signature cheese pizza.

He also saw a lot of birds. Some passengers on the decks above us were throwing food to the birds, so they were hovering near our window. Wes knows the sign for bird (although he does his own version of it) and can say “buh” for “bird.”

Days 10-11

All day Saturday we cruised towards home (a.k.a. Long Beach). We played a card game called Dominion with our friends and worked out in the gym. On Sunday we disembarked in the morning (very slowly; it took longer than we were told it would, but there was a good movie on TV so I didn’t mind too much). John’s mom picked us up and took us back to Calabasas to the Hilton Garden Inn. We hung out and watched Titanic on TV (maybe a good thing our cruise was over by then).

Day 12

Our last day we started in Malibu, which is about twenty minutes from our hotel (John, who grew up in Newbury Park, used to say that he lived over the hills and million dollars from Malibu). John’s mom took us to the Malibu Country Mart, a small up-scale outdoor shopping center with a playground in the middle.

We ate lunch at John’s Garden Lunch and Snack Shop. In addition to selling salads, sandwiches, wraps, smoothies, and shakes it’s also a health food store that sells things like meatless jerky. Our sandwiches were pretty tasty, but the milkshakes were particularly good.

John and his mom popped into a chocolate shop called K Chocolatier by Diane Kron, which has locations in Malibu, Beverly Hills, and NYC and touts itself as “the finest chocolate in the U.S.” It also boasts about some of its clients, like Whoopi Goldberg, Gucci, Microsoft, Lauren Bacall, etc. When they went into the shop John’s mom picked out some bags of candy and said, “Let’s get these.” John reminded her it might be good to know what it costs first, and its a good thing he did, because along with being “the finest chocolate in the U.S.” it might also be the most expensive. So they reduced the size of their purchase, and I got to try some fine chocolate by Diane Kron. I liked the chocolate-covered teddy bear crisps.

After lunch Wes went to the playground while John read a book.

Wesley liked the swing.

…And the sand.

…And the slide.

…And the monkey bars.

After we finished in Malibu we headed to Hollywood. I’ve always wanted to visit Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, after seeing the “I Love Lucy” episode where Lucy and Ethel take John Wayne’s block.

I didn’t find John Wayne’s block, but I saw the signatures and hand/foot/nose prints of a whole bunch of famous classic stars that I’ve grown up listening to on old radio shows and watching in movies and on TV.

My hand’s about the same size as Marilyn Monroe’s, but that’s about all we have in common.

It was fun to be in downtown Hollywood. There’s a lot to do and see there, but we only had about an hour before we had to head back to the airport.

Our flight home was really good. It was a night-time flight, so I thought sure Wes would sleep on it, but he was awake the whole time, from about 7:30 PST to 10:30 MST. We let him watch some of his favorite shows on our portable DVD player and he was perfectly quiet and content and didn’t cry once. Flying doesn’t seem to bother him at all.

It was our first real family vacation, and it was a good one, but we were glad to be home.

This weekend John and I dumped Wes off at another family’s house, got a 4-star hotel off Priceline.com for 40% off, and spent a couple nights in The Big City.

Travel Savvy Tip: Before you bid on a hotel on Priceline.com go to betterbidding.com or biddingfortravel.com to see what rate other people have been winning hotel stays with. These Web sites also teach you about “free rebids” and how to use them to maximize your bidding experience.

Friday night we ate dinner at Christopher’s. It was perfect: ambiance lighting, soft jazzy music, and delicious food. As we ate we realized it had been a long time since we had gone out for a nice dinner together, just the two of us. It was nice.

Travel Savvy Tip: When you stay at a nice hotel, book your dinner reservation through the concierge. First, it saves you the hassle of doing it yourself, and second, often they have partnerships with area restaurants and can offer you discounts or special offers.

We got a free appetizer coupon through our concierge, but we ended up not using it because we were eating early enough to order their early bird special–four courses for $28. I had shrimp cocktail (yum), green salad (yum), Parmesan encrusted halibut (oh my gosh yum) with mashed potatoes and green beans, and for dessert bread pudding (on the floor dying of yumness).

I ordered the bread pudding because they were out of creme brulee, but normally I’m not a big fan of bread pudding. This was until I met Christopher’s bread pudding that’s served warm dripping with caramelized butter sauce. Every bite melts in your mouth and makes you think, “Oh my gosh! This is GOOD!”

The halibut, too, I was surprised by, probably because I don’t eat a lot of fish and the only other halibut I’d had was at Magleby’s (the place that tries to pass itself off as a nice restaurant but is really sub-standard–except for their chocolate cake, which is made by someone outside the restaurant named Lenora and is really to die for), and let’s just say the fish at Magleby’s Was. Not. Good. But the Parmesan encrusted halibut at Christopher’s was juicy and tasty and melted in your mouth. So glad I got that.

After dinner we walked around Temple Square.

There was a concert in the Tabernacle by the Orchestra on Temple Square. It had already started by the time we got there.

We waited outside, and during a break between songs we were allowed in. We heard a song by a 12-year-old virtuoso pianist from Hong Kong and then an orchestra piece by Wagner. I play the cello and love orchestra concerts, so this was a nice treat.

After the concert we walked to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and watched the movie about Joseph Smith. It was sad. Good, but sad. It’s hard to watch a lifetime of trials and hardship condensed into an hour and ten minutes. But it put me in awe of how faithful and obedient Joseph was even when he didn’t know God’s plan for him. No matter your religious background or personal beliefs, you should admire Joseph’s willingness to obey faithfully.

Saturday was actually the reason we came to Salt Lake City. I attended a Zumba instructor training workshop. It’s meant for people who want to teach Zumba but never have. Because I already teach Zumba and am a member of the Instructor Network I could take the workshop for half price.

It was a good review and so much fun! One of my students-turned-instructor was there, which made it even more fun. That’s her on the left, with Lindsey (who led the workshop), and me.

We jammed all day long with the merengue, cumbia, salsa, and reggaeton. It was great to meet the new soon-to-be-instructors, and I set some new goals for myself as a Zumba instructor.

Back at the hotel John and I went swimming, sat in the hot tub, and visited the sauna. The hot tub and sauna felt SO GOOD. And normally I don’t like saunas. They’re too hot. But it felt good on my body after being so active all day long.

Travel Savvy Tip: Before you travel someplace go to Tripadvisor.com and research your hotel, restaurants, and activities. There’s a wealth of information there from other travelers who have been there, done that, so you can know before you go what to expect.

We came home on Sunday and picked up Wesley. He didn’t seem to miss us at all. I didn’t hear much about what he did while we were gone, except that he went to two basketball games, got a pony ride, and had a lot of fun.

Last month John and I spent a week in Mexico on vacation (sans Wesley). It just so happens we picked the one week of the year that the swine flu was making international headlines. We were staying south of Cancun and north of Playa Del Carmen, which is miles away from the heart of the swine flu problem, so we weren’t much affected by it.

We stayed at the Mayan Palace Riviera Maya. It’s right on the beach, wherein I did lots of this:

The hotel had an amazing pool that went on forever. Here’s just one small part of it:

One day we spent all day lying on the beach, reading, and swimming in the pool. The pool has a swim-up bar (a bar IN the pool, with actual stools in the water). Being a non-drinker, this was kind of a foreign experience. I knew strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas could be made virgin, so that’s what we had. And we discovered something called a mudslide, which is a pina colada with chocolate syrup. Truly heavenly.

Check out the blue water of Mexico:

The one major way the swine flu affected our trip was that the Mexican government closed all the Mayan archeological sites to help contain the spread of the flu. This was a major bummer to us, since a primary reason we chose Mexico was to see the Mayan ruins. The only tours we had booked in advance were two full days with LDS guides. And the night before our first scheduled tour our guide called and said the sites were closed. Disappointed as we were, we managed to find other things to do that we probably wouldn’t have done otherwise.

One of these was a romantic lobster and steak dinner cruise on a lagoon in Cancun. We really didn’t know the details of the cruise until we got there, so we were happy it turned out well in spite of our ignorance. The guides picked us up, drove us to Cancun, and got us on board an old Spanish sailboat, like so:

There was an open bar (more strawberry daiquiris and pina coladas for us!) and a terrific saxophone player that reminded me of Kenny G. We cruised out to the middle of the lagoon near the famous Cancun hotel strip and cast anchor. We watched the guy put the anchor in, and John asked him if the water was very deep. (John served an LDS mission in Guatemala City ten years ago, and the locals said his Spanish was still very good.) To our surprise the guy said the water was only teen feet deep. Then he thought a second and amended it to five feet. So any fears I had of drowning that night immediately fled.

Dinner was surprisingly good. They grilled the lobster and steak right there on the deck. I wasn’t sure I would like lobster because I’d only had it once when I was eleven and in Boston, and what do eleven-year-olds know about fine cuisine? Turns out I like lobster.

When we finished dinner we went back on deck and sat and watched the sun set while the saxophonist played and the breeze warmed us. Such a nice night.

One day we went to Xel-Ha (pronounced Shell Ha), which is an ecological park. We floated down a lazy river in inner tubes, went snorkeling and kayaking, and got mildly sunburned. Here’s a photo; see how clear the water is?

Iguanas were everywhere:

On our last full day we took a snorkeling tour to Cozumel, an island twelve miles off the coast of Mexico. Apparently it’s only second to Australia for coral reefs and amazing snorkeling/diving. Our tour picked us up at our hotel and drove us to Playa Del Carmen where we caught a ferry to Cozumel. The ferry ride took about 45 minutes and was very choppy. The ferry boat had two levels; we were in the lower, enclosed level, and pretty much the whole time we watched huge waves of water crash up against the windows as the boat rocked side to side. Yeah, I got motion sick.

Cozumel was a fun day trip, though. We met our snorkeling guides on a boat that took us around the side of the island to two different snorkeling spots. We were provided snorkeling equipment, snorkel vest, and flippers. The water was clear and there were a lot of fish that would swim right up to your face to say hello. It was like swimming in Finding Nemo-land. The snorkeling was great, and I also enjoyed the boat ride back to land.

We sprawled on the deck, drying out in the sun and warm breeze, listening to Latin music. This was an unexpected benefit of being in Mexico–Zumba music all the time! I loved hearing tunes on the radio and being like, “Oh yeah, I know that song. And how to dance to it.” I heard a few new songs I’m going to add to my Zumba line up, too.

After our snorkeling was finished we went to Mr. Chili’s, a restaurant that provided lunch as part of our tour. We had fajitas and orange soda. Man, we were so famished by then that the food was the best food I’d ever eaten. I can still taste it. Best. Food. Ever.

Then we had time to walk around and shop. Normally Cozumel has thirteen cruise ships docking there EVERY DAY. But with the swine flu NO ships were docking. (In fact, when we got back to the states we learned that our bishop and his wife had been on a cruise to visit the western coast of Mexico the same week we were on the eastern side. Their cruise ship didn’t dock once. They spent all week on the ocean.)

Normally the streets of Cozumel are buzzing with shoppers, like this (photo from Internet):

But with only the lone ferry bringing people from the mainland (and our ferry wasn’t even half full), the streets looked like this (my own photo):

Other things I liked about our vacation were taking a nap if I wanted to without worrying about Wes waking me up, the banana and Nutella crepes with gelato in the hotel creperie, and having lots of time with John. Things I don’t miss about Mexico include using bottled water to brush my teeth, the huge gap between the touristy areas and the actual living conditions of most Mexicans, and speed bumps on the highway. Seriously. BIG speed bumps.

We’re glad to be back.