Bon Voyage!

Last Monday, January 10th, Josh & I headed down to Long Beach with my cousin, Steve, & his wife, Jen, to go on a 4 day cruise. It was our 1st cruise and I was a little skeptic about it. I probably watched "Titanic" one too many times and I am not a fan of large bodies of water. I just know a shark is going to pin point me out of hundreds of people in the water and eat me. No seriously I do! So we got to Long Beach & waited in line to check in. Jen wasn't feeling so good since we hadn't eaten lunch so Steve went to go find a vending machine or something. No such luck, but when he talked to someone that worked there they said that we could all go to this special assistance window to check in. They kept us from waiting at least an hour or two in the lines. Josh & I didn't have passports, but had talked to someone at Carnival Cruise Lines and they had said that a birth certificate and photo ID would work just as well. Unbeknownst to us they changed their policy the Friday before we arrived so that when I showed them my birth certificate and my drivers license and they saw my last name was different they wanted a marriage license. No one had said I needed my marriage certificate! It didn't matter that Josh was there obviously with the same last name that I go by now. They wanted proof. I was so angry and nervous that I wasn't going to make it on this cruise that I literally had to talk myself to go on. Thankfully just a few months ago I had to scan our marriage certificate to send into Josh's job to verify things again for benefits so I had left it sitting on the desk. We were able to call Josh's mom to have her go get a key from my parent's house (our landlords) and get our marriage certificate to fax over to Carnival Cruise lines. I'm also so thankful that I was able to call on a good friend at the school to ask if she could also pick up Riley and wait for Veda to show back up at her house. It was all a little crazy, but the fax went through and we were able to board. Also, a big thanks to Jen & Steve for sneaking some food from the ships buffet down to us while we waited with the other 30 couples that were in the same predicament.
Once on board though we all found the room that we shared and surprisingly it wasn't as small as we thought it would be. We all settled in and then checked out the ship. It was incredible!
(This was the main lobby area, but each floor above either had a restaurant, shops, or a lounge area where there were shows.) Tuesday morning we woke up to being at Catalina Island. The weather was perfect while we were there.We walked around a bit and then Josh & I went on a wildlife shore excursion.We were hopeing to see some whales that were migrating to Baja, Mexico to have their babies, but no such luck.  We did however see tons of dolphins.  They came right up to the zodiac. As I said above I just know that a shark can smell me out and sure enough what did we see coming right for the zodiac that we were on, but a Blue Shark.  Then the tour guide says that Blue Sharks are skittish & if it notices us it will take off.  So what does he do?...He stops the zodiac to see if the shark will come closer.  I thought I may have a panic attack.  Thankfully the shark did notice us and took off.We were able to survive the excursion and see one of my favorite animals in its own habitat.   After a yummy lunch there all together we headed back to the ship to rest  and get ready for the Captain's Dinner. 
Afterwards we walked around the ship to work off our dinner and the boys decided to be goofy.The next day we woke up and were in Ensenada, Mexico.My best description of the city is "Oakland on dirt".We rented ATVs and drove about 45 minutes to "The Blow Hole". The scenery was breathtaking. "The Blow Hole" wasn't very active, but we were able to walk the little shops there and got a ton of free sample churros. YUMMY! Unfortunatly, Steve & Jen's ATV broke down on the way back. Here is Jen with her sad/ worried face.Thankfully Steve spoke some Spanish and the locals were nice enough to let him use their phones.Once back in town we all ate at an all-you-can-eat mexican food buffett restaurant called Rancho Viejo. The food was to die for!It was about 4 blocks from the port & not on the main street, but I would recommend it to anyone that goes to Ensenada.Josh could not believe that he was in Mexico.  It was his first time out of The United States & so the whole day he kept saying "Can you believe we're in Mexico?" or "This is so cool!  We're in Mexico!"I had to take a picture to document him walking the streets in another country. The next day was our "Day at Sea".We layed out & drank Virgin Strawberry Daquiris while reading a good book.Josh & I also squeezed in a game of Mini Golf, which I kicked his booty at.  The food was delicious the whole cruise & we ate plenty of it.Some more than others. lol(This was JUST Josh's desert the last night!) 

We had such a great time with great company and I only had about 2 panic attacks the whole time...one being the whole shark situation.I would actually love to go on another cruise in the future which is a humongous deal for me.