2020 Cruise - California & Mexico

In early 2020 we had a trip booked to Japan that was canceled due to this new fangled thing called Covid19.  We already had PTO scheduled at work which was expiring soon, so we looked for a replacement adventure and booked a last minute (as in we booked on Sunday and departed on Friday) cruise to Mexico. 

I'm blogging this about 17 months later, so i'll be mostly letting the pictures do the talking. 

We're on an airplane .... without masks.  This was likely our second-to-last flight mask-free in what would turn out to be years. 

We arrived in Los Angeles a day early and spent some time checking out the sites before our departure from Long Beach port the next day.  

To Brie or Not to Brie?  That is the question! 

This was our hotel in LA.  We enjoyed what would turn out to be our last GOOD hotel breakfast for quite a while here as well:  

Worst hop-on-hop-off bus ever. 

The morning of embarkation, we rode the train from LA over to the port at Long Beach.  On our way through a rough-ish area we had one of the scariest and most spiritually tingly experience.  This was about an hour rain ride and was certainly not full.  Hubby had a window seat and Wifey was in the corresponding aisle googling and mapping our trip.  Wifey noticed a young man standing in the aisle watching her and felt a check in her spirit.  She started praying silently in the spirit.  At around the same time, Hubby asked for her phone, which she handed over, despite it being a ridiculous request.  He looked at it a bit and then stored it away in his pocket.  :(  Sad wifey, but it was certainly not an appropriate moment for arguing.  The young man in question departed the train at the next station.  Hubby's view is that he intended to steal the phone in question just before pulling into station and then make a run for it.  We took an uber to the airport after our cruse returned.  

After getting off the train, we enjoyed our first view of our home for the next few days:

The Cruise ship port:

First views of our cabin. 

One of Wifey's favorite amenities on cruises is the never-ending soft serve .... apparently she found the end on this cruise! Just kidding ... it was refilled soon enough! 

Another lovely meal!

This looks like prosciutto and melon!

MORE SOFT SERVE!

Apparently Wifey thought ordering Avocado Toast was a good idea.  

I think this is a salmon and lox bagel.

Food:

That's our ship as viewed from Catalina Island.  March 3, 2020.

This is Catalina Island as viewed from my cruise ship as we approached during breakfast.

Wifey also had shrimp cocktail for dinner appetizer every night!  

Our cruise also docked at Ensenada Mexico.  We went ashore and purchased vanilla from a local grocery store and used the free wifi! The below two pictures appear to be the only ones I have from that day.

Towel art from our lovely housekeeper.  

On board, we learned how to make towel animals!  Check out our work: