cruise

(caution: marathon post)

last week was the sibling's spring break, so the parentals succumbed to my incessant pleading to go on another fun vacation. mexican rivierra cruise it is! talk about a fun time!

saturday:

we woke up at 4:30 so we could get ready and on our 6:30 flight. SO EARLY! but when you are excited, it makes it not that bad.

after landing in the world's smallest airport (lgb), we took a shuttle with our new-found bffs to the marina. one small problem. we got there at 8:00, a full three hours before we could get on the boat. how did we occupy our time? breakfast bagels were involved. AND, good news, david made a new friend! his name is homer.

after waiting for what seemed like AGES, we finally got to get on the boat. another small snag though; we couldn't go into our rooms until 2:00 because they were still cleaning them from the previous weeks inhabitants. what started out as not a big deal turned into a huge problem when i got tired and wanted to take a nap. kate+tired=not a happy camper. but 2:00 rolled around, and after a short power nap, i was up and ready to go! but that didn't coincide with when the boat was ready to go, so we had to wait about an hour to see the mountain of a ship back out of the port. it truly is amazing how these boats can maneuver.

the rest of the day consisted of more naps, exploring, and yummy food. this is the children's room. pretty much bomb.com. (pay attention to the room and who is sleeping where, because that will play a part in a later story).

(david on top, annie in the bed below him, and i am to the side)

sunday (sea):

sunday was so relaxing. napped up on deck, read my book, ate yummy food. there really wasn't anything else i had to do. utterly fantastic.

after dinner we went to the blue lagoon (our late-night treat destination) to get some yummy goodies. we had to get our fill while we could because they never had enough food (insert sarcasm here)! after drinking some hot chocolate, my mom and i decided we wanted to spilt a piece of blueberry cheesecake. (Little did we know this would become a nightly occurrence.) anyways, we asked the waitress for one piece of cheesecake to share and she looked at us like we were crazy. she proceeded to let us know that the pieces were small and we should get two, but we assured her that we only wanted one to split because we each didn't need our own piece. this is what she brought:

real sly.

you would assume our fun stories end while we are sleeping, but in the giles family, they just get better. we went to bed at like 10:00 because we were tired, and when you are free-style cruising, you can do whatever you want. anyways, i was in the middle of much needed rest when i was woken up by a huge bang. i reached over to turn on the light, and to my utter astonishment, i felt my little brother's head.

remember the picture above? well this:

minus this:

equals this:

yup, you guessed it. david broke the bar and fell off his bed. ha! after i was done freaking out, (i just watched a bio on natasha richardson so give me a break) we laughed about it for quite some time.

monday (cabo):

trust me when i say i was super pumped to go to cabo. we were going to go kayaking, and i love kayaking. unfortunately, the waves were quite large, so we ended up getting a taxi, seeing the famous "arch," then spending time at the beach.

here is the arch:

while on the beach, we met our awesome friend pedro! he was selling handmade bracelets and henna tattoos. did i get a henna tattoo? yes i did. did he ask me where i was from and did i say utah and did he ask me if i am mormon and did he say he is too as of five months ago? yes, that happened.

sweet henna:

annie came back from swimming and wanted a bracelet, so pedro proceeded to make the COOLEST BRACELET EVER! After seeing him make one, we each had to get one (obviously). We were all so enthralled. it was great.

tuesday (cabo):

on monday, on our way to the water taxi, we walked past a little booth that had a baby tiger and lion that you could hold to raise money to "save the cubs" or something like that. i stopped dead in my tracks to watch. it was the coolest thing ever. so can you guess what i absolutely HAD to do on tuesday? that's right, i had to play with little valentina.

because my padre (spanish for father, ya that is right, i know spanish) was so excited about the bracelets we got, we spent tuesday exploring the backstreets of cabo trying to find the string and plastic pieces for him to try his hand at bracelet-making.

hours later, we had been to a fabric store (purchased the string), a craft store (purchased the beads), and a hardware store. but we were out of luck with the plastic. no one had any of it! apparently they all get it from mexico city.

our quest was not in vain though, we got tacos at a super yummy little taco place. and they had the best fresca-like soda. yum! i very much am in love with mexican street tacos, chicken style, with fresca. wow!

while walking back to the boat, we saw a mariachi band walking up the road so we obviously had to stop them to play for us. 

we also saw this guy that spray paints pictures in like 5 minutes. it was amazing!

(my dad did end up buying some plastic off the guys making bracelets on the side of the road)

wednesday (puerta vallarta):

i had mixed feeling about puerta vallarta when we were getting off the ship. i was super pumped because we were going to drive dune buggies, but i was nervous because they were manual, and i haven't driven manual since the death of my sweet little kia, 3 1/2 years ago.

i had nothing to worry about.

the dune buggies were SICK! i went with my mom, while my dad took the other two kids. i let my mom drive the first two places because i was still pretty nervous, but then i just decided to drive the last two, and i am so glad i did! it was so much fun!

thursday (sea):

i don't like sea days. i got to read my book, which was nice, but it gets old really fast. plus, there was a storm, so the boat was a-rockin' and a-rollin'. i am so grateful i don't get motion-sickness.

friday (sea):

putting the three kids in one room was fine, and fun in most cases, until the last night. we were all so tired and ready to get off the ship, so let's just say, there were a few arguments that may or may not have occurred. i have realized that i am going to have to marry a guy that likes to sleep in relatively cold temperatures, because i CAN NOT sleep when it is hot. annie and david turned the heat up after i went to bed, so i woke up and couldn't go back to sleep because it was so hot! thank goodness princess and the frog with on.

saturday:

we woke up, ate some breakfast, then waited in what felt like the world's longest line ever, to get off the boat. it was like space mountain line status, except there wasn't the best ride ever waiting for me at the end. o well. i was ready to get off the boat.

we came home to snow. it sucked.