Mexican Cruise

My stepdad (Papa Schu) retired, after 37 years, from Gill Studios in Lenexa, KS this past October. To celebrate this huge milestone, my mom took my sister and her family, my family and my mom and Papa Schu on a cruise from LA to Mexico. This was my first time ever in the state of California! Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend much time in CA, but I did enjoy what little I got to see. We left Kansas City in the afternoon, had a very long layover in Minneapolis, got delayed, and finally arrived in CA late Saturday night. We ordered room service for dinner and went to sleep. The next morning, we headed to the port and boarded the ship for a wonderful week in Mexico.

I've put several pictures from our trip on here, but not all of them. There are still several professional ones we bought that I need to scan too, but for now I just wanted to get something on here about our trip.




AIRPORT:

Jaxon, at the airport in Minneapolis, LOVED the moving sidewalks.



On the flight from Minneapolis to LA. Jax borrowed Memaw's headphones to watch his Cars DVD. Both kids did amazing on all of the flights. Sissy got pretty antsy on the second leg of each trip, but luckily there were plenty of us to walk around the plane with her and entertain her.



Jaxon peering at all of our bags once we landed in LA.



Page decided to build a fort with all of the luggage! Aunt Ninny and Papa Schu went to pick up the rental cars, then off to the hotel for some sleep.



We boarded the ship on Sunday and spent the day exploring and taking naps. As soon as we got on the ship, we went to the 11th deck for lunch. Jason said he wasn't feeling well and a few hours later he puked up his entire dinner from the night before! I thought this was going to start us out for a bad week of him being sick, but as soon as he puked, he felt 100% normal again! We left LA at 5:00. We were at sea the rest of Sunday evening and all of Monday. Our first stop was Cabo San Lucas on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, I woke up Monday morning really sick - and it wasn't motion sickness. I have been fighting something since November off and on and it followed me to Mexico. I decided to suck it up and participate as much as I could, but I made sure to take a nap with the kiddos every single day.



CABO SAN LUCAS:
In Cabo, we did a land and sea tour. We started by taking a boat along the shoreline and got great views of The Arch and some beautiful condos along the beach. We took the boat back to the port, loaded up in some vans and were driven to a resort that over looks the ocean. It was a very relaxing day and we got to see several parts of the city.


Dakota and Aunt Ninny on the boat tour.




Our view of The Arch from the tour boat.




Jason and I at the resort. You can see The Arch way behind us.





MAZATLAN:
On Wednesday, we stopped in Mazatlan, Mexico. We took a quick boat ride across the bay to a little island called, Stone Island. This was a very poor island, but the locals were very happy to have guests. We spent the entire day lounging at the beach and ate an amazing traditional meal.



A view of our ship, The Mariner of the Seas, from Stone Island.



The "limo" that took us across the island to the beach.



Still feeling very crummy, I spent most of the day laying in this chair. I only got up to eat and barter with some locals for a swimsuit cover-up for my mom.



Our fabulous lunch. Homemade tortillas, fried Mahi Mahi and BBQ chicken.



Jaxon enjoying the beach. I never made it down to the beach, but Jason said the water was pretty cold.



Page and Jaxon building a sand castle.



Dakota at the beach.



Teeny tiny toes in the sand.



I think she loves it!



Here comes Page!





PUERTO VALLERTA:
On Thursday, we made our final stop in Puerto Vallerta. We decided not to book any excursions and just explore the town on our own. We took a taxi to downtown Puerto Vallerta and spent the day shopping.


Look who's feeling better!



Some guys were sand sculpting along the shoreline. Here is a Christmas tree, with presents too!



Happy New Year - 2011!



Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.



Mary holding Christ after the crucifixion.



The beautiful cobblestone streets of Puerto Vallerta. Our taxi driver said these streets were very old and bad on his car's shocks.




"Look Mama, it's a McDonald's," Jaxon pointed out! He really wanted to eat lunch there, but I didn't figure we went all the way to Mexico to eat McDonald's for lunch.



Oh yes we did. I can now say that I have been to Wal-Mart Supercenter in Mexico. It was a great experience, to say the least. We needed just a few essentials, but got a full education. It would take too long to tell you everything, but maybe some day.



The view of Puerto Vallerta from the ship.





FORMAL DINNERS:

Dakota and I on our first formal night.



Handsome Jax ready to go down to dinner on our first formal night.



Jax, Memaw, Dakota and me on formal night.



Dakota is all smiles on the second formal night.



I can't resist that ruffle booty.



She's so sweet and happy!



Daddy's girl.



Memaw and our handsome Jaxon on the second formal night.






INFORMAL DINNERS:

Kota and one of the waiters, Craig, from Jamaica.



The kids with our head waiter, Robert and assistant waiter, Lawrence. Robert is from the Philippines and Lawrence is from India.





ARCADE:
There is a great arcade on the ship and Jaxon had a blast playing games with his dad on the days we were at sea.


He looks way too comfortable here. Do we have a hunter in our future?



"I won Mom!"





TOWEL ANIMALS:
What would a cruise be without towels in the shape of animals?






SPORTS ON THE SHIP:

Enjoying a round of mini-golf with his daddy, Aunt Ninny, Uncle Austin and Page on the windiest day. He had a great time and said he scored "one" on every hole - so I guess he won!



Here's Daddy climbing the rock wall on the ship.



Daddy and Jax playing a game of basketball on the ship.