Minions (who do my bidding) and Followers (who do not)

About Me

My photo
Mama, wife, knitter, blogger, spinner, wannabe something or other. That's enough, right?

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Cruisin'.....

I promise that I'll have some knitting content one of these days. I have three FOs to show off, plus I owe you all a Self-Imposed Year of Projects update. That might happen...and maybe it won't. I haven't decided if I'm just going to wait it out until the next one or of I should do one now and one again on Sunday. We'll see, I guess.

But, since you all are dying to know (okay, maybe not), we're back from our cruise. We took a little 3-day weekend cruise aboard the Carnival Inspiration. On Thursday prevening, we left Alameda with our bags packed up and started heading south toward Los Angeles. We were staying overnight at an Embassy Suites in Palmdale (which was a bit out of our way, actually) before heading through Los Angeles to Long Beach, California on Friday morning. Traffic was obnoxious. I'm starting to wonder if anyone in California knows that they have cruise control or how to use it...or the general rules of being in the right lane if you're going to drive slowly...or to move over if someone comes up behind you. Honestly, I'm glad I wasn't driving.

Anyway, we got to Palmdale very late (midnight) so we basically went to bed. Friday morning, Little Man decided that it would be a lovely idea to wake Mama and Daddy up at 7am. No amount of trying to lay his cute little butt back down in bed would do. He wanted to be up and he wanted to be up right now. So, we were up earlier than anticipated and, as a result, we left Palmdale earlier than anticipated.

Our drive from Palmdale to Long Beach was only 100 miles and most of it was through Los Angeles. We figured that we'd get stuck in a traffic jam somewhere along I-405 (which was made famous on June 17, 1994 by Orenthal James Simpson driving a white Ford Bronco)...but it was a relatively easy drive, for Los Angeles standards. We arrived at the port a little bit before noon and we were on the boat by 12:30pm.


Once we were on the boat, we had a chance to wander around before it got insanely busy. We spent our first prevening and night getting to know the ship: where we could find food, bathrooms, Camp Carnival, the pool, our room for the weekend, etc. We basically crashed after dinner, Little Man sharing the bed with us.

On Saturday, we stopped in Ensenada, Mexico. We've been to Ensenada (well, Husband and I have been), we didn't feel the need to go back. So, we spent the day enjoying the ship mostly to ourselves. Husband and I both went to the spa (separately) and had a lazy day.

That night was our "formal" night. Now, on a cruise ship, if you're not familiar, you'll have a formal night where you're supposed to get all dressed up (think "prom" for adults). They have photo booths set up and it's a fun time. We actually did "formal" pretty well...better than some others we saw. As Husband puts it, there were "a lot of women auditioning for Whore Island."






These were our family formal photos. Little Man wasn't exactly cooperative for some of them so we had a hard time getting a shot where all three of us look good. We probably had 25-30 photos to choose from (overall)...and these were the three that we picked of the family.

And then........


How much do you love this photo?! This was the first photo taken of him and he was really good for this round. He stood up, clasped his hands like he was directed to do (okay, we did it for him), and he smiled so nicely...

Then he started cheesin' a bit......okay, a lot.....



After these photos, he was completely uncooperative for individual shots (and family photos, to be honest).

We got some good ones, though.


On Sunday, we had a day "at sea" and we were lazy. Who wouldn't be? The pool was packed, the casino was packed...we spent some time walking around, having a drink, and visiting the shopping area on the ship. I'm pretty sure we came home with 4 bottles of liquor and a new teddy bear for Little Man.

We arrived back in Long Beach on Monday morning. We were up early, thanks to Little Man, and we were in our car by 8:30am. We didn't drive straight home, though. Husband has a friend who now lives in Los Angeles. Actually, he was best man in our wedding. So, we went to visit him, his wife, his four year old daughter (Zophyah - like Sophia but with a "Z" sound at the beginning), and his three month old son (Connor) and we wound up at the Los Angeles Zoo. It was hot and we were dehydrated quickly. But, we had fun. We left around 12:45pm for our drive home.

Again, traffic was obnoxious. The worst was after we got onto I-580 headed back into the Bay Area...heading west during sunset hours? Not fun. We couldn't see a damn thing! Luckily, we got back safely, though I felt like crap (motion sickness and allergies) and Husband felt like crap (probably motion sickness)...Little Man was fine except for his major blowout that he had about 4.5 hours into our trip. ::sigh::

Overall, it was a lovely weekend. No knitting happened...well, I did try learning how to CO for toe-up socks but that's rather difficult when you have a toddler trying to climb on your Signature DPNs so I had to forego that. Perhaps once I find my circulars again...

Anyway, I should be back at some point this week, perhaps with a FO Friday post or maybe a SIYOP post (a few days late).

3 comments:

  1. What a great cruise; good for you on getting away. Love Little Man's pics.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like a lovely cruise. Your family pictures are great, and Little Man looks totally adorable in his suit. I can't believe how grown up he looks!

    ReplyDelete