Today, so far, has gone like this.

1. Woke up at 8 a.m. (Hurray! My 6 a.m. aerobics class was canceled for spring break.)

2. Took Wes to a different aerobics class where kids are welcome. He lasted fifteen minutes and went downhill from there. Left a half-hour early with tears of frustration.

3. At home he played happily with toys while I went upstairs to change. Came down to find my fresh flowers dumped all over the table and carpet with petals and naked stems everywhere.

4. Put Wes in the “Bad Boy Chair” and then asked him to help me clean up. He refused: “No! No! No!”

5. Put Wes back in the “Bad Boy Chair” until he was willing to come help clean up. Much pouty lips from him.

6. Made him toast for lunch. He dropped his plate on the floor and it broke in four pieces.

7. Ate cookies for lunch whilst thinking, “Isn’t this exactly what I’m NOT supposed to be doing as a mom???”

Four hours down, nine to go.

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.

My friend invited Wes and me to an “Active Indoor Playground” place. Wes is two years old and I’ve been thinking for a while that he might be starting to get to the age where he’d like to run and jump and climb in a place like this. I THOUGHT he’d like it, but I wasn’t sure. So I’m glad I had other people to go with to enjoy the experience with (thanks, Angela!).

Picture a warehouse filled with inflatable slides and bounce houses with kids running around like they were just shot in the arm with a dose of pure sugar and you get a pretty good idea what the place is like.

At first Wes seemed a little overwhelmed by the other kids and all the commotion. He didn’t want to get onto any of the inflatable things, or if he got on, he got right back off again. After about half an hour I took him to the “2 & Under” area where he contentedly played with this toy for over twenty minutes. When Wes wants to, he has a really good attention span.

He also liked the tunnel.

What finally broke Wes out of his shell was this, which I call “The Leviathan Slide.” It was the biggest, baddest, scariest (in my opinion) slide to go down in all the joint. And, of course, it was Wesley’s favorite.

(That is NOT Wes standing there, by the way. That kid is much taller than Wes.)

I have to give props to my friend Angela because she willingly carried Wes to the top of this slide and went down with him the first time so he could experience it. And you should have seen the smile of joy on his face as he came down. When they hit the bottom, he instantly turned around and started trying to climb back up.

I took Wes up the next time. The stairs are too hard for him to climb on his own, so I had to carry him in one arm and cling to the side rope with the other to keep myself from falling backwards. This slide is about two stories tall! And steep! And OK, I’m in decent physical condition, even pregnant, but I was sweating by the time I got to the top.

And THEN I was sweating even more when I got to the top and looked down the slide. This slide is no joke! I’m scared of heights, and if Wes weren’t so keen on going down it, I may not have. I asked him if he wanted to go and he clapped and made the sign for “go”, so I sucked up my fear and we went.

Immediately he jumped up and signed “more” and said “moh!” and off we went again and again. I finally had to distract him someplace else because I was getting exhausted! Angela took photos of him and me coming down the slide that I can post later.

After that, Wes was a wild man in the warehouse. Nothing daunted him.

Here he is climbing up and going down a MUCH smaller slide, with only a little help from me and a push at the top.

PART 1: Climbing Up

PART 2: Going Down

After two hours I was totally spent. And Wes had fun. I think we’ll go back again sometime.