Rave...Mother/Daughter get-away 2009!

Chapter 1: Cruising

Well, that was fun! No trip is perfect, as your perception is always different than the reality...in the long run though, the unknown is always best...who doesn't like surprises? It adds flavor, good or bad.....

The best part, of course, was sharing the trip with my Mom...something we haven't done since I was a teenager. We had a few hours of driving to LA, a wonderful lunch on the way, an overnight with a friend of mine, in Long Beach, a sunny morning walk by the beach and in her neighborhood, where we stopped at a couple of garage sales. Midday, we got on the ship, unpacked, had lunch and went exploring! (Even after a week on board, we never stopped getting lost!) Always exciting sailing out of San Pedro, with the restaurants along the channel talking to us over their bull horns, and customers waving. Since we lucked out and had a sunny day, we had a beautiful view of Catalina Is. and later, the sunset right next to it. We sat on our balcony and had a glass of wine, had a wonderful dinner in the dinning room, listened to some music, and called it a day...what a full day it was!

Our first sea day was a little bit of a bust as far as weather, as it wasn't exactly warm and friendly outside...overcast, and a sprinkle or two... I think it was more of a problem for the families who were trying to keep kids busy because they couldn't be in the pool! We found lots to do...the ship has movies, an internet cafe, a library, food courts, shops, golf, a casino, a game room, coffee bar, regular bars...it's a small city on the water!!

The second day we got to lounge in the sun, and swim....my Mom was 'hot' in her red bathing suit! I have a cute pic of her, but she said "No way Jose!" at being posted on the internet as a bathing beauty!!! Too bad Mom!!!!! Hey, if you were 'hot' at 80, wouldn't you want the world to know it? We saw gray whales and dolphins when we got close to Cabo and the Sea of Cortez....always a thrill, even though it's a common occurrence at home. We stood at the railing for over an hour...we were so close to land and Cabo, we could see the surf on the beaches.

That night was our first formal night...a chance to get all gussied up and add a little bling. Since I have almost no opportunity to do this at home anymore, it was fun! It's also a good time to have multiple tries at getting your picture taken from several different photographers. Well, this was also an opportunity for us to get multiple chances to LOL not only at ourselves, but at our fellow travelers...we were in such a state right before we were about to be photographed...our eyes were red from laughing and the resulting pictures caused even more 'peeing your pants moments' later in the week when we were trying to decide which ones we wanted to purchase. We went through this again on our next to the last night of the cruise! We did it enough that we actually came home with some good photos!!!!

Mom was missing my Dad every time we were listening to music, as she would rather be on the dance floor, and we were both missing Gary, as we needed him in the piano bar to help us win the music trivia!!

All in all, the ship experience was nice, and we made the best of it, despite some cooler than expected weather. We weren't into the casino, playing bridge, etc. so it was good we were off the ship for three days. More on that later, when we share our time in Mexico.......hasta luego!!!!!