Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Getting back to the routine!

Mark and I had a fantastic time aboard the Oosterdam, one of Holland America's ships. We left from the Port of San Diego on January 9 and returned on the 16th. We were at sea the first two days then we had three consecutive port of call days. Our first stop was Mazatlan where we joined an all day beach excursion to Stone Island. It included transportation (a rather old "tub", but fun)to the island, a very good lunch, all the drinks you wanted and two activities. We only chose the horseback riding activity and enjoyed that. Riding on horseback in the sand by the Pacific was great fun.

Our second port was Puerto Vallarta which was by far my favorite port. It is such a gorgeous seaside resort town. We have been here before so didn't join any excursion and simply hailed a taxi to the center of town and wandered the boardwalk by the sea and generally just relaxed by the sea. Our last port of call was Cabo San Lucas. We decided to take a military type water craft to see the whales up close and personal. We did! It was awesome to see these creatures so close to the boat. This craft went between 60-70 mph so we got around to each whale extremely fast!

The last day was spent at sea returning to San Diego. That was our only "cool" day because we were heading home and it was windy and the temps were lower than Mexico but it was still shorts weather. You always hear about so much food onboard and it sure is the truth. Our evening dinners were delicious and we tried most of it! Lobster, filet, prime rib, basa, rock fish, etc. This was a trip we will always remember and I would bet money that Mark and I have another cruise in our future. It is so much fun!

Some shots of the cruise and short video of our whaling adventure!