The long awaited post about the cruise!

Well, a week ago today I was coming home from the funnest vacation of my life. Three of my friends (Steve, Cohan, and Brodie) and myself went on a 5-night cruise out of San Diego that had stops in Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada, Mexico. We knew going in that we were going to eat a lot and that we were going to sleep little and that we were going to have a fun time. I could go on and on and include a trip summary of every day and how it was speant, but I think I will just try and include pictures that will highlight the most important facts about our trip. As far as the overall cruise goes, for $350 it was totally worth every penny. All you can eat dining. And we're not talking about Denny's quality. We're talking crab, shrimp, lamb, escargot, fillet minon, etc. This was top notch dining as well as a 24-hour pizza bar, ice cream around the clock, complimentary room service. If food is not your thing, they had quality comedy, dance, and magic shows as well as dance clubs, karioke, and events all day as well as mini golf, swimming pools, slides, basketball, volleyball, running track, ping pong. It was ridiculous!! Well, I will start with the pictures. Not all will be included and so if you want to see more, they are on my facebook account. If you don't have facebook, email me and I can send you some more.

The guys in front of the cruise ship in San Diego. It was called the Elation and it was as big as the picture shows it to be. From left to right is Steve, me, Brodie, and Cohan.

The shudder was half closed on this one, but it shows us all dressed up nice at the dining room. We were clearly the best dressed at the whole thing. Dane said all you had to do was look for the white shirts and you knew they were Mormon. That is true because everyone else was in colored shirts.

The first night we were sitting at a booth in the Lounge waiting for the show to start and these 4 girls walked up and asked us if they could sit with us. We weren't about to turn them down and it turned out that they were all four from BYU. They were roomates and just wanted to get away like us. We ended up doing everything with them. They are some of the coolest girls I've met and it made the cruise that much better. From left to right is Tara, Rachael, Whitney, and Liesa.

The highlight of Cabo San Lucas was the parasailing. They hook you up to the back of a boat and pull you around. It was great and I was probably up in the air for like 8-10 minutes. Doesn't seem very long but it is. Right before they bring you in they dip you in the water and take you back up for a few more minutes. We also went to the beach in Cabo as well and did some snorkeling but before we did that, we decided we would do some rock climbing and while we were doing that, a bigger wave than expected came and crashed up against us. Besides being lucky our friend Steve is still alive, our cameras got soaked for the day and we had to let them dry out. Hence, no pictures of the beach.

This is a picture of us enjoying the midnight buffets. One night they had all these cool ice sculptures and some fruit carved into cool looking flowers and birds and stuff. The ice sculpture here is a dragon. It was cool looking. The food was just okay. Other nights they just had a buffet with just the food. It was good food as well, just no special decorations. Don't ask me how we ate as much food as we did. I can tell you though that it isn't healthy.

This is the night life! We danced every night and we sang karioke every night. Both were a blast. I've never had so much fun dancing. I just stopped worrying about whether or not I look ridiculous and I just dance. They had a great selection of songs for karioke, and if it is the right song, I can really be the ladies man (as I am in this picture).

People were buying these fake tatoos that would last for about 10 days or so and they cost around $15 or so. I decided I was going to get mine for free in Cabo San Lucas. It hurt for about 72 hours and gave me a low grade fever, but after that it wasn't so bad and will last about the same amount of time. If you ever go to Mexico, I have some advice. Use higher than SPF 55 and apply it every hour or so. Two or three times during the day will not suffice.

One of the days at see we decided we would wear nothing but our robes around all day. (of course we had our swimsuits on underneath) It was a blast and we got quite a few comments from people on the club. Someone even said we were part of the "Hugh Hefner Club". Sounds elite, but not something I am into.

The main attraction in Ensenada is this water fountain that blows about 120 feet in the air. It is called "La Bufadora" which means female buffalo. Supposedly that is what it sounds like when it blows water into the air. It is caused by this underwater cave and when the water flows in, it fills the cave with water and pushes all the air out of the cave. It is pretty cool.

This was on the last night of the cruise. Our friend Whitney tried out for and got the part of Aretha Franklin in the "Celebrities Show" that was on the last night. They had a bunch of people trying out for different celebrities. She did an amazing job. It was a great cruise with great people and it was sad to realize that the real world awaited us back at home. I definitely want to make this a habit though and go as often as possible. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done.