For vacation this year Russ and I decided to go on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We were so excited. Well I was doing most of the planning for the trip and Russ kept telling me to wait to book our reservations because we were trying to wait for the rates to go down, I got tired of waiting and booked the cruise clear back in February. Me being the great wife I am decided to play a little trick on my hubby. Like I said I planned and paid for everything clear back in February, well about March Russ finally decided it was time to book because we were leaving in May. Well I told him I'd look into it and told him the the ship was full and that we'd missed out and would have to go another time. He totally bought it and felt terrible for making me wait so long. I told him we'd try again for June and see if I could get anything in our price range. I should also note I made him feel really bad about missing the deadline... well he had to believe it was true. Anyway I planned, packed, and arranged for us to be up in Salt Lake on the date we needed to fly out and surprised Russ with the cruise the morning we left. He was so surprised, confused, and totally excited. It took him till about half way through our cruise to finally sink in. I loved it and it was hilarious. 
Getting ready to board the Carnival Splendor, at the Long Beach harbor in California.
The reason this was the best worst vacation ever is as follows... 2 days before we were supposed to leave the swine flu scare hits the United States and all cruise ships were re-directed or cancelled for all sailings to Mexico. So instead of a sunny trip to the beach I bought 4 new swimsuits to wear in glorious CANADA! Our trip was re-routed now stopping in San Fransisco, Victoria British Columbia, and Seattle Washington. Except for Canada Russ and I had been to both San Fransisco and Seattle, so our excursions were not the excitement we had anticipated because we had planned to go swimming with the dolphins and zip lining through the Mexican jungle. We made the best of it though, and had a great time anyway. Seven days by ourselves on a vacation where I didn't have to cook, clean, or do anything I didn't want to is always a plus.
The weather however was less than could be desired. California was the warmest at 69 degrees, the rest of the trip the weather didn't even hit 50 degrees! Luckily both Russ and I had brought coats, which I wore most of the time. Not only that it rained 6 out of 7 days.
Our first stop was at San Fransisco. I had never been here before and was really excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz was cool to look at as we passed it by in the harbor.
Trying to catch a few rays in the "sun room." This was an open area of the boat where they had a pool and lounge chairs because the ceiling retracted to let in the warm Mexico sun.... however in our case the ceiling was closed the whole time due to rain and less than warm temps. Not only that the waves were so large that it was making unsafe swimming conditions on the pools on deck and we weren't allowed to swim on the boat either.
This was one of the funniest things. This picture is taken in no joke 49 degree weather. Some people were so insistent on getting some sun that they did it in too cold of weather. There were a few eccentric ones who had to use the new suit that they had bought for the warm sandy beaches of Mexico, however most of the people caught the sun in their coats, or blankets. 
Russ taking in some sun!
Because our itinerary changed 2 days before departure, the boat was geared and ready for Mexico. These are a couple window displays. The music of the ship was tropical, and the jumbo movie screen always showed pictures of surfing, the setting sun, and beach loungers. To make matters worse the gift shops were chuck full of souvenirs of places we didn't even get to go. All of the postcards were from Mexico, Mexico T-shirts, etc. 
After all was said and done we returned back to California to fly home. Our trip also unexpectedly included my grandmother's passing, an eye infection, motion/sea sickness, and a stolen cell phone. We really did enjoy the boat and there was lots to see and do on the ship. It was nice to spend time with Russ and the vacation was totally worth it. The crew really did try to compensate for our inconvience, and the food was of course fabulous. Russ and I have decided to cruise again and hopefully our next cruise will be less eventful.
