Cruisin': A Celebration of Fifteen Years

December 27th, 2016 was a special day for Nathan and myself; it was the fifteenth anniversary of our marriage in the Denver Colorado Temple. It is sometimes hard to believe we have been married for so long...I don't feel that old inside! (Outside, on the other hand...) However, our home, children, careers, etc. seem to bear this truth out. Just for fun, I decided to (finally) unbox my wedding dress and try it on, after fifteen long years, three children, and lots of extra weight gained.

 

 

And the dress fit me! Sort of. I had to really suck in my breath to get the zipper up (and the second time I tried this on, I wasn't able to get the zipper all the way up! I blame the holiday weight gain). All things considered, though, I was happy with how I looked and felt. I have been able to lose (most) of my baby weight, and even though I have several pounds to go, it was nice to know that the body of my newly married self was still in there...somewhere!!

 

 

It was fun to pose with Nathan and the kids in this dress. There are times when I take a good look at our history together, stretching out behind us into the past, and I marvel at how eventful and transforming our marriage has been. I am truly blessed to be married to Nathan, to have three awesome daughters because of him, and to have a happy, fulfilling life with him at my side.

In November, we were invited to a party at a friend's house. Included in that awesome party was a caricaturist, who was kept busy drawing portraits of all the couples at the party. We were excited to pose for this artist; I was curious to know how I appeared to others! Here's the picture he came up with:

 

I look decent, I suppose, but to me, Nathan looks like a completely different person!! Who is this stranger sitting next to me with the square, army-man jaw and the tiny nose?? Nathan's unique handsomeness, apparently, eluded this artist...but he is still very handsome to me.

The fall of 2016 was pretty busy for us (see my recent blog posts!), so our actual anniversary was fairly low-key; we didn't make any large plans. We were still recovering from Christmas, and also trying to spend time with Nathan's brother Evan and his family, who were visiting town for the season. We went to the theater and watched the latest Star Wars movie (it was Rogue One, for those of you playing along at home), went out to lunch, and that was about it!

But we didn't want to let this significant milestone pass us by. We had talked about doing something special to celebrate our fifteenth anniversary for several months, but hadn't decided on anything concrete.

And then one day in late December, Nathan looked at me and said, "Why don't we book a cruise?"

I was both surprised and intrigued at the suggestion. Surprised, because that had never really been on our list of things to do for an anniversary. Intrigued, because a cruise was something we had dreamed about periodically, but assumed we would do much later in life. We had been nursing grand dreams about trips to Europe or weekend getaways in a fun city. But after a busy, crazy, somewhat expensive fall, we were a bit short on time and cash, and we thought we should alter our plans somewhat.

After doing a little research, we discovered that a cruise was both within our budget (it helped that there was a big promotion going on in December), and easily obtainable (there were several cruises leaving the Port of Long Beach each week; that's an easy day's drive from us!). Another important point in the cruise's favor was that neither of us had ever been on a cruise before; it was something we'd be experiencing together! It seemed like a good fit for what we wanted in an anniversary getaway.

We started planning (somewhat frantically; we booked a cruise with Carnival that left in early February, so there wasn't much time to dilly-dally!). Thankfully, everything fell into place. Nathan's mother agreed to house-sit and take care of the kids while we were away; our passports (which we needed to renew) ended up arriving in our mailbox with plenty of time to spare; and we were even able to score free parking for our car while there! My brother-in-law Paul has a brother living a half hour from the Port of Long Beach, and he graciously let us leave our car parked in front of their house for the week.

Our winter ended up being much busier than we expected (more on that in future blog posts), and before we knew it our trip had begun! Our drive to Long Beach was uneventful, and after a short rest at my brother-in-law's brother's house (whew!), we headed to the port and got into the embarkation line.

Oh, what a long, long line it was!! Either Carnival was understaffed that day, or there were a lot of passengers with issues, because we stood in that line for over two hours. Ugh! The ship was set to leave port at 5:30 pm, and with 15 minutes to go, the line of passengers waiting to board still stretched to the back of the room. Thankfully, the ship waited at the dock patiently until everyone was on board. While we waited for the safety briefing (it's standard operating procedure on a cruise ship), we started exploring the ship that would be our home for the next several days...the Carnival Inspiration.

It had an on-board library! We loved the decor, but ultimately didn't spend a whole lot of time there.

Please note the "window that wasn't really a window." Maybe we'll get an actual view next time!

 

This is what our room looked like. It was small, but cozy. Most of the rooms had cots separate from one another, but they had shoved them together for us, since we'd let them know it was our anniversary.

The staff also gave us a few perks as anniversary gift; a free photo from the ship's photographers (they were roaming around the entire cruise, snapping candid and posed photos of the guests), and some credit at the spa!

Also waiting for us was this cute folded towel animal. The ship's staff left us a new one every time we disembarked, and it was a different animal each time. So adorable!

I cannot overstate how kind, friendly, and helpful the entire staff of the ship was. They were amazing; they even knew our names and greeted us by first names when they saw us walking to & from on our deck. This staff really went the extra mile to make us feel cared for and respected. It was great service, and it made our trip much nicer!

We had not eaten since breakfast that morning, so once the ship finally headed out to sea, we were only too happy to find the ship's buffet and stuff our faces. (It wouldn't be the first time!) After filling up, we wandered around the ship for a while, exploring all its nooks and crannies.

Ping-pong table

The lido deck at night

We played miniature golf on the deck of a ship at midnight on a foggy February night...that's something new to write about!

It was late evening by the time we got on our way, and it was a foggy night to boot. It made my pictures look all the more mysterious and eerie. We loved walking around in the fog, though, and feeling the cool night air blowing through our hair...living in the desert as we do, all that humidity was a welcome change!

As it turned out, that foggy weather was the herald of some rough weather. Our first day out was supposed to be a stop at Catalina Island, several miles off the California coast. However, due to the precipitation and rain, the water around Catalina was too choppy for the ferry boats to safely get passengers off the cruise liner. As a result, our cruise itinerary was changed somewhat; instead of Catalina on the first day, we spent a "fun day at sea," with no land to be seen.

We didn't mind the change much; it was a good day to explore the ship some more, eat a lot of delicious food, and relax. I cannot emphasize how much we relaxed on this cruise. It's true that there was an awful lot to do on the ship; there was a casino, several shops, lots of interactive games, and of course all the dining options. But our activity of choice on most days was to find a nice big window, park ourselves in front of it with a book, and read ourselves to sleep.

I managed to finish this giant biography of Alexander Hamilton while on this cruise. That should tell you we had lots of free time and made the most of it!

We took turns reading inside and outside. Our favorite reading spot inside was actually at the comedy club, which was mostly unused during the day. One thing we loved about the cruise was that the majority of the ship was open to anyone; we could come and go as we pleased pretty much everywhere.

 

 

 Another plus: there were lots of "quiet" places on the ship where we could relax in peace and comfort. We liked some of the busier, more social aspects of the ship, but our introvert souls appreciated the quiet spots too. There was a little something for everyone on the ship!

We did have a few exciting moments on our day at sea; I got to watch this dude do a fancy ice carving!

We also spent a fair amount of time up on the Lido deck, getting some sun, eating some yummy burgers, and admiring the view.

 

And we got to see a pod of dolphins swimming alongside the ship! I couldn't get any good pictures, but it was a really cool experience.

That night was our designated "formal night," in which we were to get dolled up and head down to the nicest dining room for a fancy dinner. I cashed in my spa credit and got my hair treated & styled that afternoon. Then I put on the new dress I bought for the trip and strolled around the ship with my hot husband, waiting until dinnertime (unfortunately, we had the late draw at 8:30 pm, ugh! It was hard to wait that long).

But we got to watch some Bingo being played...yay! And we also got to take a lot of cute pictures of ourselves on our "hot date night."

 I am happy to say that cruise food was as delicious (and as filling) as had been advertised to us. Throughout the four days of our trip, we ate and ate and ate...and probably gained ten pounds each. But it was totally worth it!! The buffet was an embarrassment of riches, with a different "theme" fro each meal, and each dish tastier than the last. We had no self-control in that room at all.

The upscale dining room was particularly good; all the meals were quite delicious (and we spent a lot of time sampling each other's meals, so we found this out first-hand).  We got to try a lot of foods we'd never had before; there were many items on the menu that we were very excited to try...including, on our last night, escargot!

I was scared to try it, but Nathan bravely ordered it anyway. I managed to beg one piece of it off of him. It wasn't too bad...tasted like buttery mushrooms. At least now I can say I have eaten escargot...and a lot of other delicious food, besides! After each meal ended, we would have to waddle painfully to our next location; we really pushed our stomachs to their breaking point on this trip!

Another perk to eating in the upscale dining room (to our surprise!) was the company. We were randomly assigned to a dining table with a bunch of strangers, and these people were to be our table-mates for the duration of the cruise. Our dining companions were two other married couples, one from California, and one from upstate New York. We had little in common with these couples other than our presence on the ship, but they were all really awesome people and it was really fun to get to know them. They were great conversationalists and fun dinner companions, and they made a good evening even more memorable. Maybe we were only fated to be seated together for a couple of nights, but it made the whole cruise feel more welcoming and sociable somehow. It made us think how fun it would be if we could take another cruise with friends & family sometime in the future. Hmmm...something to ponder!

 

 

After a long, delicious, romantic, fun night, we gratefully fell asleep in our cabin, awaiting the next day's adventure on Catalina Island. Thankfully, the weather had cleared up enough that we were able to disembark and spend several hours on this pretty island.

I had had fantasies, before the cruise, of taking a kayaking tour around the island. Nathan wasn't that interested, but he was okay with my taking the tour if I chose. However, our day in Catalina was a foggy one, and visibility of the bay was often quite poor. I decided kayaking probably wouldn't be as exciting on a day when I couldn't see much while on the water.

Luckily, Nathan happened upon a different excursion that we could do as a couple; a self-guided island biking tour! The tour would take us up through the steep hills and twisty roads of the island. Many of the points on our map warned us that the roads were for "experienced bikers only," but that didn't deter us...we wanted to ride the whole course! Soon we were off.

The map didn't lie; the streets were often very steep, and we had to spend large portions of the morning walking our bikes uphill! It would have been embarrassing, if we weren't usually the only ones on the road! I suppose the fog scared off most of the other tourists. As it was, though, we really enjoyed ourselves.

We were exhausted after some uphill hikes, but the cool weather kept us refreshed and we loved the feel of biking through the foggy hills and enjoying the beautiful green wooded neighborhoods.

We got to check out a golf course and a lot of swanky neighborhoods as part of our journey...we even made a short stop-over at a small botanical garden.

It was a lovely place to stop and rest our legs. Plus, the garden was watched over by this huge, imposing memorial to William Wrigley Jr. (the inventor of chewing gum, and apparent friend of Catalina Island). This building was pretty dang impressive...it looked like it belonged in a Game of Thrones episode.

It was fun to take pictures atop the memorial, even though the fog probably blocked the best views. But we didn't mind.

The best part about renting our bikes? The really fast trips downhill! We had a great time, even if our muscles were sore for a couple of days afterwards.

Our cruise ship, looming ahead in the Catalina fog

After wandering around the "touristy" part of the island for a short time, we boarded the ferry back to our cruise ship. We cleaned ourselves up a bit, then headed to the comedy club for a night of stand-up!

We saw two comedians that night, both of whom were pretty darn funny. We only stayed around long enough to watch the "family friendly" shows, but I didn't mind...I can probably tolerate foul language better than some people I know, but I have a hard time stomaching it during stand-up comedy routines for some reason. We had a great time.

Another fun show we attended in the evening was a "Newlywed Game"-style activity in the large stage near the front of the ship. It featured several couples selected from the audience, who were then asked to answer several questions about each other. Some of the questions got a little bawdy, and it was late enough at night that it was all pretty hilarious. Nathan and I were glad we didn't get selected, but it was fun to watch other couples squirm under scrutiny for our amusement. Since we were celebrating our anniversary, this activity felt especially apropos.

The next morning we headed out of the reach of the United States for the day, docking in Ensenada Mexico.

 Our morning was spent taking a bus tour of Ensenada's bay, and visiting a point of interest called La Bufadora. It's a natural waterspout that shoots ocean water almost 100 feet into the air!

The bus drive was fairly long, and our tour guide very knowledgeable, but Nathan and I were a little less engaged while in Ensenada. Perhaps it's because we were still a bit tired from the day before. Perhaps it's because we already live a short drive away from Mexico, and so the tourist trappings were nothing new for us. At any rate, the views of the ocean from La Bufadora were quite beautiful and it was fun to buy a few small souvenirs for our kids.

On the way back to the port, we made a quick stop in Ensenada's lovely civic center, which has a lot of historical significance for the city. I was quite impressed with the wood work and the chandeliers inside the building.

We didn't spend too much time exploring Ensenada; we soon made our way back to the boat and settled in for a fairly relaxing evening. We walked about on the boat, enjoying the atmosphere and relaxing for our last night onboard. We enjoyed one more delicious dining experience, and were then serenaded by the wait staff. They also danced for us!

I have to give all those men & women points for enthusiasm. They really put a lot of energy into pleasing the passengers and I was grateful for it!

By that night, my stomach was finally starting to protest my cruel treatment of it. The endless feasting, combined with the boat's skipping through the waves, left my digestive system a bit of a mess. Thankfully, this only really manifested itself as we left the boat for the last time, and it only persisted for a few hours. By the time we arrived home that night, I was beginning to feel like my old self again. It wasn't enough to sour my overall experience.

Even with my tired-out tummy, I was a little sad to arrive back at Long Beach...it meant our vacation was over! In a way, it felt a bit dreamlike...it was so different from our normal routine, but it was such a fun, pleasing experience. It felt great to be so pampered and cared for, at least for a little while. I am so grateful I got to spend these few days apart from the world with the love of my life. It was a relaxing trip that we both really needed! We definitely want to try another cruise someday...perhaps next time, we'll take the girls along! We think they would love it. But for this cruise, at least, I'm glad it was a trip for two. It was a terrific way to celebrate fifteen years of marriage.