#6 We took a Christmas cruise to Mexico.

We thought we would share our trip with you.

Saturday 12/13

Manzanillo, Mexico

 

                      We woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean.

Following breakfast, we trotted over to the Rolling Stone Lounge to meet up with the excursion group for the Manzanillo City and Shopping tour.

They soon called our group and off we went to meet on our air-conditioned tour bus.  The driver’s name was Jaime (Jimmy in English) and our guide, Rolando.

First stop was the Historic District plaza. A lot of building repairs were underway. The plaza was beautifully decorated for Christmas with a large Christmas tree, garlands, lights and a sleigh. It was funny to see all the winter related items in a tropical setting.

 

There was a film crew shooting a Colombian TV series in the plaza. We saw a large statue of Snoopy holding a sailfish. Apparently, Manzanillo is the Sailfish capital of the world, and the statue was donated by some Americans.

 

We strolled through the plaza and turned down a side street where we found a shop that had a banner above the door that read “Buenvenidos Turistas” or “Welcome Tourists.”  Bill found a great tan, Panama hat for only $10. What a deal!

The tour took us about nine miles to the hotel district and up a steep hill by Hotel Las Hadas by Brisas. It looked like the Greek islands with all the whitewashed buildings perched on rugged hills. The view from up there was fantastic. The most harrowing part of our tour was the trip back down from the hills. The road was very narrow, and we passed within inches of a dump truck that we thought was going to crash through the window on our side. Our driver was very good.

As we emerged back onto the main road we were amazed at the presence of American businesses, like Burger King, Lil Caesar’s Pizza, KFC, WalMart, Sam’s Club, Carl’s Jr, Chevrolet dealers, and some Chinese and French car dealers we don’t see in the US anymore like Renault and Peugeot. This part of the city was much more developed and well-maintained. There was a proliferation of what they call tuk-tuks. (Three-wheeled motor scooter taxis) Speaking of taxi’s we saw an overturned taxicab next to a building with all the emergency crews on scene. We couldn’t figure out how the car got upside down. A pickup truck of fully armed Mexican Marines passed by our bus window. After we drove through the city we came to the coast and drove along the beaches. The beaches were beautiful.

 

                                                      

Last stop was at a restaurant for drinks it was called “Corona y Tridente” the Crown and the Trident. We had free cold, bottled water next to the beach. Again the views were fantastic. We met so many people on this tour from Canada and all over the US.

Finally made it back to the ship where we were greeted with cold towels, cold lemonade and ice water! How nice!  We passed through security and onto the ship. When we got to our stateroom, Bill couldn’t find his cellphone! He zoomed back down to the entry door and found he’d left it in the tray at the Xray station. They’d held it for him! How nice!

Bill met Janet up at the buffet, it was amazing that we found each other in the crowd at noon.

At dinner in the main dining room, we were seated at a table for ten people. We had among others, a retired Tupperware lady, journalist, speech therapist and others. Th table was so large it was difficult to converse with everyone.

We saw it was already 7:30 when we finished dessert and missed the beginning of the singer Mary-Jess again. We listened to some Christmas tunes and a song from Frozen “Let it go” in English and Mandarin.

 

# 5 We took a Christmas cruise to Mexico.

We thought we would share our trip with you

Friday, 12/12  

 

Woke up to a lovely sunrise over the ocean. The weather was warm and moist, with a marine layer coming in. 

The city is lovely on the coast with the mountains behind it.

            So, after breakfast we headed to the Fitness Room, lifting weights and did the treadmill, the pool was sparce. Went for a swim.

The pool’s water was very warm, close to 90F and small, very small. Swimming was a challenge just to do more than 2 strokes without hitting your head on the other end of the pool. We got comfortable on one of the lounge chairs with our towels and both of us fell asleep, we went out like a light!

            We came back to the cabin and showered and headed to lunch at the buffet. It was nice with no crowds. We went to the origami class and made small turkeys with Michelle from Rhodesia. She had a lovely accent. When we finished went to the promenade to take pictures of the shore.  The weather was 70F with 63% humidity.

Dinner was eggplant hummus, Peruvian chicken, and blueberry pie with whipped cream.

We have an early departure tomorrow for an excursion to Manzanillo.

 

 

# 4 We took a Christmas cruise to Mexico.

We thought we would share our trip with you

Thursday 12/11  

Still at Sea

The ship had us set our clocks ahead for another hour last night because now we are in the Central Time Zone. I think we are suffering from “jet lag”, we’ve gone two hours earlier in two days. We woke up to a sun shiny morning at sea. We sat on our veranda and enjoyed the sound of the waves and the rising sun. We passed an area where pods of dolphins leapt out of the water, putting on quite a show.

The ship offered a Mexican Brunch. We sat with two other couples. One from Victoria BC and the other from Palm Desert CA. They were fun to talk with.

Afterward we went up top to the Crow’s Nest, observation deck, and enjoyed the warm sun on us.

At 1:30, after a buffet lunch, we headed for the Explorers Lounge to hear the 2 pm Vivace duo on piano and cello. The wonderful classical music that ranged from Dvorak to Mendelssohn while sitting next to the window as the waves passed by was a heavenly experience.  

The swimming pool and whirlpools were crowded, so we didn’t get to swim or soak.

We found the dining room a great place to have dinner!

We were served by waiters and white linen tablecloths for every meal. The food selections were what we would call gourmet. We decided we could get used to this!

Such a relaxing day!!

 

#3 We took a Christmas cruise to Mexico. 

We thought we would share our trip with you

Wednesday 12/10  

Day at sea

            After a nice breakfast in the Dining Room, we worked out at the Fitness Center, on the treadmill, lifting weights and bench press. We stood in the middle of a rainbow caused by the mist of the rutters and a huge fog bank which we sailed into. How cool is that?

            Stopped at the Crow’s Nest in the bow of the ship, it’s like an observation deck with places to sit and foot cushions and plus a beautiful view of the ocean. We had herb tea and relaxed, both of us almost dozed off. Then off to lunch in the Lido Buffet.

We went to our stateroom, sat on our veranda, and watched the sea gulls fly by, we were above them looking down. The water was calm and the sailing smooth. The sun shined on us finally making us warm and comfortable.

            We checked the excursions for tomorrow, Puerto Vallarta. We had been there a few years ago, it is pretty and much like Hawaii but didn’t see a need to see it again.

We realized we were late getting to our 5:30 dinner seating and jumped into nice clothes (dress code-dressy). Made it just in time. Sat next to a couple from Pensacola, Florida. Very nice couple. In fact, everyone at the table was nice.
After dinner we stopped for a solo concert Michael Kontos, Celloist he was Italian and excellent. We enjoyed it very much.

When we were done, we went to a show with a vocalist, Mary-Jess who had a lovely voice. She sang popular classics and spoke Mandarin Chinese. She went through her life story which was amazing.

 

#1 Christmas Cruise to Mexico

San Diego

                We left Huntington Beach after lunch and headed to San Diego. Traffic was good, no tie-ups on the way.

Made it to our hotel, Homewood Suites by Hilton at 2:30, registration was easy. The hotel was nicer than we expected. Our room came with a small kitchen, equipped with dishwasher and microwave, full-size refrigerator, glass top range stove, and a dishwasher too! We thought of getting something to cook here for dinner but talked ourselves out of it.

We toured the hotel, spa, pool and workout room with dumb bells, bikes, and treadmills. We debated what we wanted to do and agreed to relax. The patio is very nice. It had a full chess set 3 feet tall!

 

They had a manager’s reception dinner special of soup, salad and hot beverages. The chicken noodle soup smelled good. The salad bar was full of goodies!

We learned the Hotel Del Coronado was all lit up for the holiday. We planned to drive by to see it. But we checked with the front desk, they confirmed that there would be heavy traffic going and coming. Talked ourselves out of it. Very disappointed.

We explored the hotel lobby after dark; it was beautifully lit with lights.

 

We made hot chocolate and brought it to our room. It is 66F outside (6:00pm), quite chilly. The cold weather and hot chocolate reminded us of our stay in Stockholm, cold windy and rainy. Though it is not raining and windy here.

We are looking forward to cruising to a warmer climate. Boarding tomorrow is at 12:30pm. So, breakfast will be at 6:00. They have a hot breakfast buffet in the hotel.

Autumn in Canada #16

Autumn in Canada

 #16

Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Long Beach, CA 

 Still suffering from raging head and chest colds, we dragged ourselves down to breakfast. All morning we had a feeling things were not going to go smoothly. Bill had scheduled Uber to pick us up between 9:30 and 9:40 and deliver us to Trudeau Airport.  Our Delta flight to Detroit was at 12:30 then a three-hour layover and connection to LAX. The hotel lobby is large and comfortable so, we waited on some sofas until Bill got the text that our car would be there.

 Janet stuck her nose out the door, it was cold, misty and very windy. Just what we needed with head and chest colds!

 Jonathan was our driver and he called to ask if we were okay. Bill said “Sure. We’re waiting in front of the hotel for you.” He replied that he was at the indoor pickup point…”What indoor pickup point?” After a pause, he said, “I’ll come outside and get you.” The black Audi M5 arrived and Jonathan loaded up our bags.  He was very talkative, just what we needed with plugged ears and sore throats. He was Montreal native who used to work for Air Canada and really...really wanted to move his family to California.

 Traffic was slow going, but we got to the airport in plenty of time. Trudeau airport is a far cry from what we had at LAX.  We schlepped our bags to the bag check-in point, then hoisted them onto the scales while feeling like crap.  Security was a mess with long lines. None of the TSA rules applied since we weren’t in the United States. Off with the shoes, belt, laptops, etc., then to US Customs. All of the American Immigration personnel were abrupt and downright rude. We’ve decided on two things. 1. No more Delta and 2. We are contacting our travel agent!  But wait, there’s more… our aircraft to Detroit was small and our “Business Class” seats were against the front bulkhead where we could not stretch our legs.

We landed in Detroit and tried to find our departure gate. No one seemed to be helpful in directing us to the proper gate.  Then we tried to find the Delta SkyClub where we could relax like in LA. Remember we were sick as dogs. We got to the entrance desk and the Delta person said, you aren’t eligible to use the Lounge. Bill said “What?” We have business class tickets. She told us only if it was an international flight or if you have a Delta Platinum American Express card. We told her we flew in from Montreal and were going to LAX. She told us that because the particular flight was considered a “transborder” flight and not international we were not admitted. Bill was a bit steamed. He talked with another Delta employee who told us the rules changed a while ago. As a result, we hiked about ¾ mile under a tunnel to the other terminal where our gate A68 was at the far end. (This day was getting worse and worse.) Starving, we found a Mediterranean restaurant in the airport and spent almost $40 for lunch! 

 At least, Bill thought, this will be a bigger plane and we’ll have nice seats…WRONG. The seats on the 757 were almost identical to the small jet. At least we could get our toes under the bulkhead.  There were a lot of people coughing and sneezing – Bill turned to Janet "We’re gonna die when we get home".  Janet thought we were just as sick as everyone else on the plane.

 Landing at LAX, both of us taking bets what next will go wrong! But we were glad to be back in So Cal where it was warm. The next trial was to see if our baggage got here from Montreal without getting lost in Detroit. Even though all the baggage from our flight ended up on the wrong carousel from what was posted, our bags were there! Miracle of miracles!  Janet was relieved when Bill showed up rolling the two large bags behind him.  Things were looking up. Next, we called for an Uber to take us and our bags home. We had to go upstairs to departures and meet the car at the sign marked “C". Another miracle, our car showed up exactly where and when it was supposed to. Maximo was our driver in a brand-new 2019 Toyota Camry hybrid sedan. The ride home was smooth and uneventful.

 We arrived home to find everything was fine. Happy to be home, bushed and sick.  We popped over to In N’ Out for a couple of hamburgers, before turning in.

All in all…a great vacation.  We even got some ideas for our next book series!

Autumn in Canada #15 Montreal

Autumn in Canada

 #15

Monday, October 14, 2019
Montreal, Canada

We discovered that it was going to rain all day today, our last day in Montreal. So we spent time yesterday getting food so we can stay in the hotel all day while packing for our trip home tomorrow.

When we woke up this morning Bill had a head cold, Janet was hurting all over and both had headaches. So glad we are staying in today.

After breakfast, we counted our Canadian dollars and cents. We decided to try and use the 3,00 ($3.00) at Starbucks for hot chocolate. The goal is to use up all the coins.

          We spent the day sleeping, eating, and reading-just plain relaxing. We did have marathon HGTV with a program called “You live in what?” It ran all day until 9:00pm. Actually, it was fun to watch while we were awake.

We watched the sunset out the north-facing window, then the twinkling lights of the city. It was just beautiful!

We spent the evening packing and getting the paperwork ready for our flight. We really liked this room, just like our Boston hotel room. However, this room has a magnificent view.

We have a  tradition of buying ornaments for our Christmas tree where ever we travel. Since it is hard to find ornaments in the summertime, we often buy key chains and remove the ring. When we get home, we tie on a ribbon and write the year on the back.  Decorating the tree is always a waltz down memory lane for us.

Here are the key chains/ornaments we bought on this trip: