M/S Splendor - Mázatlan

Haiku by Erin:

Saddle up the beasts.
They have leadership issues.
Mázatlan horses.


Wednesday morning, Trish, Erin and I disembarked in Mázatlan, made our way past the soldiers,

dock cargo, vendors, and time-share sellers, and met Randi at the dock. Randi owns Randi's Happy Horses!

Near the boat dock where we caught a water taxi to Stone Island, there is a fish market. The pelicans love it there!

German immigrants came to Mázatlan in the mid-1800s and started the Pacifico brewery in 1900.

It was raining pretty steadily on our boat ride to the island. We were a little worried about the weather for our ride. Luckily, the rain stopped by the time we got to see our steeds saddled up!

A little boy who lived at the ranch.

Of course, Erin was able to find a kitty.

Erin on Pinto.


Trish, mounted on her old nag trusty steed.

Portrait of Pinto








Heading back to the ship.

The ride was great fun. You may remember me telling you last year that in true non-USA fashion, the rules and regulations are quite relaxed in Mexico. We got on the beach and could run the horses as we and they liked. And they did like! Erin's, mine, and a couple others all wanted to be first! It was a blast galloping down the beach.

After our ride, we spent some time at Victor's, a beachside restaurant, where we ate good food --shrimp quesadilla and shrimp ceviche-- and drank good cold beer. Trish bought trinkets from the vendors. I was called on to bargain for her. I'm getting better at that. It was a lot of fun!

This is a shot of the beach we rode from the other side, as we were sailing away.

While we were riding, Mike and Kevin took a hike up to this lighthouse. See it at the top of the hill?

Kevin also got to snorkel while in Mazatlan.

Back at the ship, some maintenance workers were keeping the Splendor ship-shape.






Mojito Time!

Yo! Mázatlan was fun!

M/S Splendor - Puerto Vallarta

On Wednesday we stopped in Puerto Vallarta for the day.

Kevin, Trish and I got up early for a Jeep Adventure! Trish chose this excursion, and it was fun!

We got in a Jeep and, along with half a dozen other Jeeps, caravaned through Puerto Vallarta and surrounding areas for a cool adventure! Kevin was so tired, after having a very fun, late night the night before. He slept a lot of the way, even on the bumby dirt road!

We stopped at the start of the dirt road. ¡Bienvenidos a México!



Instant banditos!








We got to drive through some little water crossings--we were encouraged to go fast to get a big splash!

Whoooo-hoooo!

Our first stop was a small village in the rainforest. We learned that Mexican families live a simple, yet happy, life.










Kevin slept. He lives a simple, yet happy, life.


There was a cockfight -- no one got hurt.






We stopped at a tequila factory and learned how tequila is made, and we got to try some. I had never sipped a high-quality tequila. It was pretty good!

The hearts of agave before cooking.


Old-fashioned cutting and crushing machinery.


Three distillations before the good stuff.

We next drove to the beach where we had a nice lunch: quesadillas, nachos, and cold beer. We stayed in the cool of the covered restaurant patio for the hour we were there.







Driving back through the business part of town was an adventure in itself. Seemed like the streets were a free-for-all. There were unusual go-right-to-turn-left spots, sort of like what we had in New Jersey. There was a lot of traffic, and I was determined not to lose the caravan, like I had a while back! I had to be assertive--especially with the yellow lights! Yee-haw!

We made it back to the ship safely! What fun!

M/S Splendor - Sea Days

It was another fabulous, relaxing vacation! It was so much fun having Trish along. Hopefully it is the first in another long streak of taking vacations with her!

As you may know, there are photographers everywhere on the ship taking pictures. We never bought one, until now. Here we are, boarding the Splendor on Sunday.

Every ship has a muster drill for safety. Aren't those jackets soooo fashionable?


Here we are at sail-away, which was delayed because just as they pulled off the dock, they had to pull back in to let a passenger off who had medical issues.







Inside, waiting for dinner and watching the sunset.




First night dinner (Cruising is all about the food, yanno!)




First of seven Chocolate Melting Cakes for Erin:


The next two days were sea days, and we enjoyed our relaxing time.

Monday was cool and foggy for much of the day, so we didn't spend much time outside.

Monday night was the first "elegant night," where we had the opportunity to get dressed up, go to the captain's cocktail party and eat lobster tail!

Kevin's version of dressing up:

Bad boys......


Fab girls.....


First towel animal: Elephant!


Mike doing a Steve Irwin with a towel animal. RIP, Steve Irwin. He was a really good guy, tasteless photos notwithstanding.


Tuesday was a perfect day at sea: sunshine poolside, cards inside when it got too hot, and we played a game of Scattergories, somewhat modified, and we won!! We got medals!

7 Days

In 7 days we will start our 7-day journey over the Pacific Ocean.

It's Cruise Time again! Yippee! We set sail next Sunday, August 9! This time we are sailing on the Carnival Splendor.

And guess what? Trish is coming with us! Yay!

If you are interested, you can follow our ship with this website. Also, the ship's website has a couple webcams. One of them is trained on a pool deck. See the webcam link on the right side just underneath the banner.

Our itinerary as the same as the cruise last August: A couple days at sea and then stops at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Cabo San Lucas.

We'll be saiiiilllllin'......

More Vacation Pix

Here are some other vacation pictures, in no particular order.

The Mun-kais.

There was a spectacular full-arc rainbow on Sunday evening. I shot this one on the way to BobBIE's house.

Ladies out to lunch!


We didn't get good video, but you should have seen a horse named Cat dancing in the rain. The minute it started to downpour, he went out and ran around and reared up and danced! Too slow with the camera, darn it! Here are both the horses enjoying the cool-down.