The Cruise

John and I treated ourselves to a 4-day cruise for our anniversary. We left Long Beach Mon. evening, went to Catalina for the day on Tues., Ensenada, Mexico for the day on Wed., and were "out to sea" for Thurs. We arrived back at Long Beach on Fri. morning. Without going into too much detail ( :D ), we had a great time. A few highlights: 1) Not having to use a watch to do anything or be anywhere. 2) Being able to complete an entire thought or conversation without interruption. 3) Meeting 3 very wonderful christian couples at different stages of this life than ours. 4) My children makin' bonds/memories, being loved, adored, spoiled (a little), and poured into by such a dear family to us. 5) Enjoying the feeling of missing my kids sooo much I couldn't wait to get back to them (at the end of the trip :) ). 6) Remembering that we are each others best friends and realizing how much we have missed each other).



Our Room w/a View.


This has quite a "funny" story. We decided to rent beach cruisers on our Catalina Island stop. We had a map that showed a loop that seemed like it would be nice and scenic. So we went up this humongous "hill" (of which the town sits humbly below) and were very proud of ourselves and looking forward to the downhill ride back to town. However, the road along the beach was closed off so we had to go all the way back up this hill. This pict was taken BEFORE we had realized this (notice how I am still smiling).



This was one of the two times we just sat in the sun and lounged.
With our busy lives we had all but forgotten what these kind of chairs were for.






This was our last sunset on the Paradise. As John and I looked
over the fairly placid water, I told him how cool it would be if we
saw a whale or something. I had no sooner finished my sentence
when we saw a couple splashes and then as we looked out in front of the boat the water teemed with at least a hundred or more dolphins! It was sooo amazing.



Every night when our steward would turn down the bed. He would leave mints and a cute "towel animal" on display. This was a big and little walrus, can you tell?


Here is an almost complete view of the Paradise. Our van full again of our precious treasures as well as Aunt Jeannie tryin' to prolong the goodbyes.