and the rest of those days: old news on the cruise

two part post

Part 1: Marie
geez. sometimes it's so annoying to be so slow. but anyway, here's the end of the cruise, in a nutshell.

Laine is obsessed with mail, right now, and specifically the receiving of mail. but she's also discovered that it helps to send mail if you hope to get mail. here she is writing postcards at the mini-table in our room. she wrote portions of it in spanish (like Hola and como estas), once we overcame this little hurdle, "Mom, how do you write H in spanish?" (you need to imagine her saying that in her best spanish accent. hilarious.)

here's catalina - another big boat (the ferry) taking us to the island; hanging out with uncle jer on the "submarine" where we got to shoot "torpedos" of fish food, thus causing absurd numbers of fish to swarm around us through ridiculously long kelp (it can grow 24 inches in 24 hours, incidentally - how's that for fecundity, cath?) we cruised around on a golf cart (only the run-of-the-mill regular kind, not the tricked out mercedes or hummer versions that the locals drive), ate some really fabulous tacos...and went back for more, picked up Laine's most coveted souvenir of the trip - Del Sol fingernail polish that changes color in the sunlight! just ask her about it. AND we made it back to the ship in time for some freezing swimming! awesome.

Part two: Jim
"oh oh Mexico. i've never really been but I'd sure like to go." I'd bet five bucks James Taylor was not thinking of Ensenada when he wrote those words. Not that Ensenada isn't great. It is all about managing expectations. If you are looking for a street where you can buy anything from dried sea horses to pink sombreros, to really inappropriate coffee mugs....This is the place for you! We did happen to be looking for dried sea horses (and starfish) as well as pink sombreros so we were not disappointed. (no coffee mugs for us, thank you. yuck.)

Right off the bat we also had to hit some of the standard stops on any Ensenada street. We bought a bracelet with Laine's name on it and we got her hair braided into corn rows. I'm not sure why, but Laine sat still and chatted up the locals for about 20 minutes while the woman braided her hair. Laine won't let us put a clip in her hair without running away twice and crying at least once, but she did great here. It must have been the large bag of beads she got to choose from. Then back to the boat for another cold and windy swim on top of the boat. (blessed be the name of my brother Jer for getting into the freezing water with her and being an awesome uncle.)

And finally the drive home. We were scared of the drive to California and back but both worked out great. We stopped in Vegas and stayed with our great friends Eric, Jennie, Mollie, and Rubie. The kids had a blast, we had fun catching up. Such a fun vacation! Thanks mom and dad for making it happen!


Stay tuned for the next addition......you might be a redneck if.......you like to dig your own grave....with your own tractor. Yeah - go Jackson family!