Tuesday Night

After returning from Puerto Vallarta we wondered around the ship and took some pictures.

Here is the city at night. I am not sure what I am looking at or thinking about, but obviously not paying attention to getting my picture taken. The green space from earlier in the day at night. The Holland American ship all lit up. The outdoor pool of the ship at night.

After taken pictures we got ready for the evening. My friend Sarah had given me this cute skirt, and it was perfect for the Island themed night. After we ate dinner we went to the Mexican Fiesta deck party.

It was dark, so the pictures are not the best, but here is Odysea playing on the stage.
Another one of the band. Again we were recruited by the Cruise Staff to take part in the activity – they needed people to dance. Since Karen had participated in the drink making challenge it was my turn to participate.

Here I am dancing with Jesse. Jesse and I waiting for the next song to start. Here is Jesse posing with Rachael in the background. Here is Karen, Jorge and I. After the dance party on the party on the deck, we moved up to Skywalkers for a while and then to bed to get ready for our day in Mazatlan.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009 – Puerto Vallarta

Karen and I were both very excited to get to Puerto Vallarta, friends of ours from the bike tour, Walter and Geri spend their winters about 20 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. We had contacted them before we left and made arrangements to spend the day with them. The ship was scheduled to dock around 10:00 am, but got in earlier. Karen wondered out and took some pictures of Puerto Vallarta from the ship.

Here are some other boats as we are pulling into the city. Here is the Holland American ship we saw all week. Different view of the city Here are some partially built high rises. This area was booming until the recession hit and now there are many building that sit half built. If you are looking for some real estate in Mexico, not is the time to buy. This is a pirate ship - I think you can do that as an excursion. The beach – with a boarder of foam type block. Here is a close up of the blocks. This looks more tropical. For the crew the highlight of this port is the nice, close Walmart. Rex our room steward told me he gets off the ship once a week to go to Walmart here. We got off the ship and quickly found Walter and Geri. It was so nice to see them. Karen had spent 9 weeks with them over the summer, but it was September when that time was over.

We let them be our guides for the day. First they took us to walk down the touristy section.

Here is the beach. Another view. Here are some very cool sand castles. It is amazing to see all the details that go into them!!
This is the touristy walk. Here are Karen and I on a little bench. In the back is street in town. A view up the street. This is me with Walter and Geri walking. Here is a building on a corner. Each Mexican city, village, town has a square in the middle that is the hub of the communities social interaction. In Puerto Vallarta, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church sits on the square. Karen and I walked up to get some pictures.

Here is another picture of town as we were moving from the touristy section to where the local’s go. Walter and Geri brought us to one of their favorite places to eat, a lovely outdoor place. They had great Margaritas. Here is Geri showing off all our drinks. After lunch we headed up to Walter and Geri’s. Here is some of the traffic. During the bike tour, Walter and Geri took their motor home across North America and during the day Walter would park it along the route and it served as a rest stop for the cyclists. Early on the tour Walter had watermelon for the cyclists one day. It was such a big hit, he started having it every day and it earned the nickname “Waltermelon” Everyone on the tour stopped to visit Walter at the motor home (I even did when I drove the route.) Well after the tour Walter and Geri turned in that motor home for a new one. It is gorgeous!

Here is their sign outside. Walter, Geri and I inside. Yes those are marble counter tops!! We found this on their counter – so true for them!! This is their seating area outside. Their set up is so great – I could totally live there. After visiting at their place for a while we walked down to the beach and then into their town’s square. We wondered around the market and visited the stall where the school children sold things. I bought a bag for my niece and a little case that is perfect for my ipod.

They showed us the local school and told us how the kids only went to school half the day, some the morning and the rest in the afternoon because they didn’t have the resources for all the kids to go to school all day. They also told us how they and their neighbors were raising money to build an orphanage. It is amazing what they have been able to do. We drove over to where they are building the orphanage and we could see the progress they were making. The stories of the children and how they were just abandoned by their parents broke my heart. In fact the whole day really touched me. I know I am very fortunate to live in the United States and that is one thing this trip really helped me realize – both by seeing the real Mexico, not just the touristy spots and in talking to Karen about life in Canada. I kept going back to that great American spirit and drive. That you can do anything, if you work hard and make good decisions you have the opportunity to be successful. I can’t even imagine what those kids who only have the opportunity to go to school half a day can hope and dream to aspire to. What their standard of a better life is compared to mine. It made me really sad for them and so very thankful for the opportunities I have been blessed with.

After seeing their home, Walter and Geri took us back to the ship. Here they are with the tracker that also crossed North America over the summer. We had a great day and got back on the ship for another fun night.

Monday, February 2, 2009 – Fun Day at Sea

Monday was a second day in a row at sea. Karen got up early and went and exercised, I slept in, but was up and ready in time for morning Trivia at 10:30 am. We again joined Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick and we were on fire!! We totally won the game and walked away with the highly coveted luggage tags.

After trivia we decided to lounge around at the pool for a while. It was really busy, which was not surprising since it was a beautiful warm day. We grabbed some pizza for lunch and ate by the pool. The downside of making friends with the cruise staff is that they come to you when they need participants for the silly contests. At 1:00 there was a battle of the sexes cocktail making contest. Sean came over to us and said we are short one woman, we need one of you to do this. I convinced Karen since she knows more about drinks she should help. So Karen became one of the contestants. I became Karen’s official photographer.

The basis of the contest was that each group had a bartender who told then how to make a drink and they had to make it as fast as they could, then the next person would come up and make another drink. It was like a drink making relay. Once the drinks were all made the teams were judged on taste, look and presentation. The contest itself was a mass of flying drinks and ice, people running all over the place and the crowd cheering.

Here are the women intently listening to the bar tender as he explains how to make each drink. One of the other women making her drink. Here is Karen’s finished drink. The women soliciting support from the crowd. Here is Karen smiling for the camera.
It was a close call, but the men just edged out the women for the win.

After the drink contest Karen and I continued our lounging.

Eventually we made our way back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. On our way to dinner I had Karen take a picture of me in my blue dress. This was a dress I bought before the Alaska cruise for $12 and I loved it, but I didn’t have any pictures of me in it.

Here I am in the blue dress. Karen and I ate dinner, just the two of us and then headed over to Club Fusion for the Majority Rules game. This where a question is asked the answer the most groups come up with is the right answer. If you had that answer you get a point. Part of the fun of the game was that someone from your group had to run the answer up to the front and everyone would race up there. Trevor was the cruise staff running the game after everyone turned in their answers; he would read them aloud and tally the votes. We joined the regular group and Rich and I took turns running the answer up. Most of the questions were pretty funny and some lead to some rather adult answers. One of our answers was a bit questionable, so when I ran down there and handed it to Trevor I simply said, I’m sorry. He flipped it over and just started laughing. When he read the answers out loud he needed to paraphrase ours, which of course lead our table to cheer. Again we were the loud ones. We did not win this time, our streak was over, but we had a lot of fun.

After the game Karen and I went to the production show “Do you wanna Dance?” It was a good show with lots of great music and dancing. After the show we headed to the second heat of Princess Pop Star. The round was not as entertaining as the first one; Marcus tried again, but still did not win. After Pop Star we went up to Skywalkers. Karen went out on the deck and took this picture of the moon off the back of the ship. It was another late night and the next day we were in Puerto Vallarta, so we did not stay out too late.