Cruising to Paradise...and Ensenada

Oh my gosh, you guys. I feel like I have a bazillion things to write about and not enough time to actually sit down and write. Let's be real: I barely have enough time to clean my house (yep, it's looking pretty rough). And right now I could be cleaning. My out is that it's Sunday. And, as we taught our CTR 5 Primary class today--cleaning the house on Sunday is not resting. So blogging, here I come.

Today's lovely topic is the cruise that Ben and I went on for a honeymoon. Yes, we did our honeymoon four months later than regular honeymoon standard time (you know, the week after wedding festivities). And we loved it. While we were wedding planning we really had a hard time deciding on a honeymoon. We wanted to do something awesome while keeping it affordable. And frankly, summer time is not necessarily the cheapest time to travel.

We kicked around so many ideas. We loved the idea of a cruise (neither of us had been on one) but we had such a hard time figuring out the details and keeping that idea within budget. Long story short: we finally realized that booking a cruise in off season is waaaaay cheaper. Plus it would give us time to plan details and save a little bit more money. Couldn't ask for a better deal. So we went ahead and booked it.

Was I sad that we didn't go on our official honeymoon until 4 months after we got hitched?

Absolutely not.

It was the best decision ever. I don't regret it all. And I would highly recommend it.

Only problem with waiting was that honeymoon phase has long passed.
As you can see by the fact that Ben was not at all discreet about his nose picking.

Cruising was definitely a different brand of vacationing. Anyone who knows my family knows that we are NOT the sort to be waited on or even to just sit an relax. Our "vacations" usually consist of backpacking. And Ben's family is pretty similar. So taking it easy on a ship was a bit of a difficulty for us. Here are the things we liked and didn't like about cruising:


We loved hanging out in the middle of the ocean. The sunsets were extra awesome.

 We, however, weren't the biggest fans of the sea sickness. It didn't hit us bad, thankfully, but that first night we felt pretty dizzy and a little disoriented.

We loved Catalina. The town is super cute, very well kept,
and just all sorts of fun.

Ensenada was another story. Don't get us wrong-
we still enjoyed it. But the city was kinda trashy
and it wasn't really authentic Mexico.
I guess that's what you get when you only
go 70 miles south of the border

We loved the towel animals!!!!!
And, not to brag, I'm pretty sure they loved us too.

But we weren't the biggest fans of the fact that our room was right above the anchor. Hello shaking and crashing at 6:30 in the morning. I will admit that the porthole windows almost made up for this.


We loved snorkeling in Catalina. Pure awesomeness.
We didn't love how dehydrated we got while wandering the streets of Mexico.

We loved elegant night. It was so much fun to dress up for
dinner,a show, and some dancing
(interestingly enough, our dancing attracted some older Asian women to party with us.
They were completely infatuated with Ben. Kinda hilarious).
Anyhow, pretty classy, right...?

Unless you were these skanky chicks.
Yep, look closer. That old man is capturing wind swept photos
of these obviously teenage slu...I mean... girls.
Ew.



Loved the food.
Breakfast and lunch were all you can eat deliciousness.
And dinner was three courses of elegant dining.
Best part: you're never the only one eating more than you probably should.



Won't beat around the bush on this one:
LOATHED the "churro" in Mexico.
I've been to Mexico once before and that time I got churros from a street vendor.
They were to die for. A million times better than any churros you'll find in the states.
This time I saw a vendor that advertised churros. Couldn't let yummy authentic churros pass me by.
 So I let my fluent husband order me some.
I received a cup filled with candied peanuts, crouton things, pig fat and tomato juice.
What the hell, Mexico? Yep, it's worth cursing for so I'll say it again:
What. The. Hell?

Luckily, that night the ship had a Mexican food night where they served real churros. Helped relieve some of the trauma.

There were lots of other things we loved and a handful of things we didn't care for as much (trust me, I'd keep going but I feel like I'm competing with one of Whitney's uber-posts...and I really think she's the only one who can pull those off so I'll stop). But overall it was a rockin' awesome time.