Cruising with my hubby smiles…. part 2…. Ensenada, Mexico

Last week I shared the first part of our cruise with you and told you about our stop at Catalina Island, CA. We love cruising for an economical get away. It is even more fun when cruise with friends. If you want to join us next time or plan your own cruise leave a comment or email me at

Jandltravel@charter.net

Here are the smiles I got from the next part of our cruise.

After spending a lovely May day on the Island we taxied back to our ship and set off for Ensenada, Mexico.

We arrived in Mexico early Wednesday morning.

Even though we’ve done it before, we took the city tour and the trip to see the blow hole call La  Bufadora.

Our first stop was at the Central Social and Cultural Center called Riviera de Ensenada.

It is a beautiful structure built by the Hearst Family as a resort and casino years ago.

From the tile floors to the wood patterned ceilings, the art work is beautiful.

Every where we looked we were amazed by the lovely wood carvings and art.

We had an excellent guide who did a great job telling us about the history and interesting facts.

We drove for about 45 minutes on our bus through Ensenada and along the coastline.   Can you see the circles in the water? They don’t show up very well but they are tuna farms. Fishing is a big industry for Ensenada.

Then we arrived at the blow hole… La Bufadora. There are only 3 of these blowholes in the world. The other two are in Australia and Hawaii.

She put on quite a spectacular show for us because it was high tide…

… but she didn’t want to show off for us when we were in the picture. (We took about 20 pictures but could never time it just right when we were in the picture.)

We enjoyed the pretty scenery for a while….

… and then we walked back to our bus through the large flea market you can see at the top of these stairs. I shopped for a while. In years past, I’ve bought some nice jewelry there. They specialize in silver and gem stone pieces. You can get some good deals but you can also get fake stones. It is best to only shop at the stores recommended by the cruise lines. This year, fine jewelry wasn’t on my list… (too bad)

but I did get these two cute bags that I am enjoying using.

After our 4 1/2 hours of touring Ensenada we were exhausted and returned to our Ship. There is another flea market right by the ship….with lots of shops…. but I was too tired to do any more shopping. ( John was glad. See how he hurried to get back on the ship before I could change my mind.)

We enjoyed our 2nd port day in Ensenada…. We like going there. If you are looking for a inexpensive, short, get-away cruise… this is a good one to take. Last Oct. I took it on a Princess ship with my friend Jan. This time John and I went on a Carnival ship. Both were nice experiences and a great value for our vacation dollars.

That evening we sailed away from Mexico and headed back to Long Beach. … but we still had another sea day day to enjoy our vacation on the ship.

Next post I will share our ship smiles with you.

Until then I hope that your week is “ship shape”.

Hugs, Grammy Lura

Cruising with my Hubby smiles part 1- Catalina Island

We just got back from taking a short cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico.

We left on Monday, the day after Grampy’s birthday and we came home on the following Fri.

It was a double celebration cruise….. We were celebrating Grampy’s birthday and

me having my last (I hope) surgery procedure done. On May 14th they removed the stint they put in me last Feb. to stop the bile leak I got after having gall bladder surgery. It went from my liver to my intestine and had to be removed.  I was dreading getting that done. John thought that booking a cruise would give me something to look forward to. He was right… it did!

John knew I wasn’t physically up to flying anywhere so we just drove an hour to the pier to take a local cruise.  Our Ship was docked right next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. We’ve cruised to Mexico several times, but it is still fun and an easy get-away.

We boarded about noon on Memorial Day. The ship had a big flag flying

and a Memorial Day tribute that evening.

That first day we found our cabin, unpacked, rested,  explored the ship and…

….Hit the buffet line of course.

Tuesday morning we boarded a tender boat,

left our ship and

taxied over to Catalina Island, CA

We took a Catalina Adventure Tour. It wasn’t much of an adventure….

…But it was a nice tour of the island with some pretty, scenic

views of the city and the bay. Can you see our ship in the harbor?

Our tour let us off at the iconic Casino Landmark. It is a museum now.

We learned some interesting facts in the museum… like…

The gum millionaire, Mr. Wrigley,  bought Catalina Island as a place for his Chicago Cubs to do their spring training…. and….it was where the young  Norma Jean (Marilyn Monroe), who lived there when her military husband was stationed on Catalina,  realized that men considered her to be really sexy from the reactions the soldiers had towards her.

After spending a fun day on the island,

we taxied back to our ship. We took it slow and easy all day but we were still tired and happy to get back to the ship where we continued our cruise. 

I’ll share the rest of our cruise story in my next post.

I hope that you are having a good time cruising through your week too.

Hugs, Grammy Lura