Celebrating 7 Years - Day 6, 7, and 8

I wish I had more pictures to share with you on the remainder of our cruise, but unfortunately my camera went swimming in the Pacific Ocean on our last day in Puerto Vallarta.  The rains had cleared out, it was again MUGGY, and the beaches were just crazy with waves and an enormous amount of silt and debris that had been washed up from the day before.

We took a cab into downtown to take a stab at the flea market (which we made out of very successfully).  Then we headed over to the beach for a stroll and some lunch.  That was all we had in mind for the day since we had to be back early afternoon to get back on the ship.

I loved the buildings there - very old, Spanish style.  But there were still some newer designs in place that just gave Puerto Vallarta some wonderful character.

This is where our camera died.  So please excuse the quality of the following pictures - we had to snag a couple disposable cameras for the remainder of the trip.

We had lunch at a little restaurant right on the beach.  We had, again, fish tacos, ceviche, and lots of chips and salsa (and water).  We had smoked marlin fish tacos.  The best fish tacos we've ever had.  I SO WISH I had written down the name of the place we ate at because it was so incredible!

Then, Jon decided to try his hand at parasailing.  I think I forgot to mention that at the zipline I had injured myself - I got a little too over zealous with the speed of the last line (Predator Line), and came in super hot.  I   scraped up my arm pretty good, gouged my thumb, given myself a little whiplash, but thankfully I had a helmet on.  So, I opted out of parasailing the following day.

Afterwards, we just relaxed on the beach, grabbed some drinks from McDonald's so that we could use their bathroom (by the way, their $1 drinks here in the states are $3 there!), and headed back to the ship so we wouldn't be left behind.

Our steward, Arnold, left us another lovely animal towel treat - Elephant.

The next 2 days were lazy days for us.  We slept, a lot, hit the spa, a lot, sat on the deck, a lot, and ate, a lot.    They had a full on chocolate buffet that day, which was taken advantage of by myself.

All of the relaxing areas were full from the beginning of the morning.  Everyone had the same idea as we did. This was out on the Lido Deck.

The last day, the crew was already getting things cleaned up on the ship, preparing for the next group of travelers.

The dining areas were virtually empty (Lido, Splendido Buffet)

They had closed off most everything to clean, including the splash pad for the kids (bummer for the parents!)

 and the waterslide.

This was a view of the center of the ship, looking upwards from the 3rd deck.

Our room, small, but more cozy than anything.  It was awesome.

Our last animal towel from Arnold.  Wow.  Impressive.

Sitting on the deck, drinking Pina Coladas.

And one of the best things we did on our cruise?  We bought a spa package and spent every day in there.  This is the Thelasotherapy pool.

Finally, home, back in the Long Beach Port.  The seagulls were there to greet us, and the crew were very curious.  This guy, from the Philippines  I think had never seen one before.  He was very eager to feed them some bread.

Goodbye, Splendor.  We'll see you in a few years.

It was a fantastic vacation.  I would highly recommend a cruise for anyone looking to get away and disconnected from life for a week.  I know I want to do it again, very soon.  It has been hard to come back to reality, but these 2 little cuties make it all worth it:

Celebrating 7 Years - Day 5

Day 5 took us to Puerto Vallarta.  The minute we stepped off the ship, we began to melt.  It was so incredibly humid.  We had also waited too long to have breakfast on the ship, so we hopped into town and had a bite to eat at the Pancake House.  Yup.  In Puerto Vallarta.  Hilarious.  We had some French toast with fresh fruit.  Very yummy.

Then it was off to Canopy El Eden for a little zip lining action.  Here is some of the scenery during our 1.5 hour ride out of PV and up into the jungle.

After our little zip lining adventure (12 zip lines total, and LOTS of climbing), we headed over to the restaurant for a seafood feast.

Also there at the restaurant, they have a rope swing that goes out over the river where everyone is allowed to swim and cool off.

The restaurant is built right into the mountain.  It was beautiful!

You can barely see someone going down the zipline in this photo.

Mmmmmm....fresh lobster.

Crab, chargrilled. Yum.

OH!  And I almost forgot to mention that this is where the movie "Predator" was filmed!

And lastly, here are a few videos of the rain that we received at the end of our tour.  We have never seen rain like that, or lightning, or thunder.  It was incredible.  AND we had the unique opportunity to ride all the way back down the mountain and into PV in an open truck.  We were soaked.  The locals had a good chuckle at us as we drove back through town.

If you want to see what El Eden is all about (since they wouldn't allow us to take pictures during the zip lining), check out this video:

Celebrating 7 Years - Day 4

Day 4 brought us to Cabo San Lucas.  Because of the hurricane, we would only be allowed 1 day in Cabo instead of 2, so we wanted to make the most of it.

Coming into port, watching the Tenders arrive (those are the boats that ferried us to the docks since the port was so shallow).

 More pelicans at the docks.

A square where festivities are held (Viva Mexico!)

Our driver in the "Little Van That Could", taking us to the ranch.  The story behind it?  About every 2 minutes, the van would overheat.  The driver had to constantly put the van into neutral, turn it off, allow it to cool down, and restart it, all while we were still moving.  It was quite hilarious.

When we got to the ranch, we were geared up to ride our ATV's.

My friend, Jessica, called us "Banditos" or robbers.  Ha ha ha, too bad we were laughing the whole time.

They also offered horseback riding here.  They had a set of beautiful horses.

Me, setting out on the dry river bed.

I wish this picture had turned out better, but there were several herds of cows or steers along our ride.  All of them just watching us like we were crazy gringos.

Me and my fetching driver.  He did an excellent job.

Our guide had us going up and down sand dunes all day.  It was awesome.

Can you find Jon in this picture?  Crazy guy.

I thought this was hilarious - they had tied a bunch of cow skulls to cactus.  Said it was for the tourists.  This one was a full head - not sure if it was real.  I wasn't willing to hike up there to check it out.

We were SO STINKING HOT with the helmets, bandanas, goggles, and oh.my.humidity.  Do you like the lovely brown streak across our foreheads?

Heading down the hill towards the beach.

And this is my favorite shot of the ENTIRE trip.  Absolutely gorgeous.  The rain is from Hurricane Miriam.

My "spray on tan."  All of that is dirt and dust.  Wow, I look REALLY white there.

Celebrating 7 years of marriage.

Very tiny snails in the crevices of the rocks on the beach.  They were about the size of a pea.

Some locals were fishing on the rocks.  The water is apparently too  dangerous to swim in at this location.

This is Jefe.  Oh so sweet horse.  He let us love on him a bit, he is very old.

Heading back down into Cabo and to the ship.

A little fish taco before we leave?!  YES PLEASE!  We stopped by the Shrimp Factory and loaded up on shrimp tacos (the best we've ever had of course) and beverages.  We spent probably a good 15 minutes just trying to convert the currency.  Our poor waiter.

Then it was off to the flea market to buy a few souvenirs.  Then it was adios, Cabo.  We enjoyed you, very much.  See you again soon.

We got back to our stateroom, and began the cleaning up process.  This is how dirty we were, this is Jon's undershirt!  Can you imagine how dirty our clothes were?  Yikes.

Sushi for dinner...

And another night of comedy before we CRASHED!  Oh, and almost rolled out of our beds from the huge swells from the hurricane.  Again, FUN!