Cruisin' with the fam

My family celebrated my brother's 30th birthday by going on a cruise to Mexico. It was great - I got to spend time with aunts and uncles and cousins that I hadn't seen in a while. There were 17 of us in all, which was a bit chaotic at times, but it was fun. I flew out to L.A. a day early to spend a day with my sister and her family, because they weren't going on the cruise. The munchkins are growing up so quickly!

Grace and Corinne heading off to school.

Little Alex loves grandpa! He wouldn't leave my dad's side.

There's our ship!

L.A. Harbor.

Mmm...smoggy!

My brother John and his wife Amy relaxing on the deck.

Looking very macho.

Strawberry pina colada. Delish!

Going to the mandatory muster drill. Good times.

This was our regular dinner table....that's cousin Steve and his girlfriend Mandy.

During our first night at dinner, we just happened to pass by this lighthouse at sunset. So I ran to the window and snapped a picture before the sun went down. I didn't think it would turn out this good!

The next morning we woke up and we were already docked in Ensenada.

As was another cruise ship.

We went into town and walked around a bit.

Whoever translated these signs did an awesome job.

Papas & Beer was getting ready for Dia de los Muertos. (My apologies if I spelled that wrong. I never took the espanol.)

Go John! It's your birthday!

Mandy had a coupon for a free margarita. And this is what she got.

We went to a churro stand for freshly-made goodies. If you've never had a churro, you don't know what you're missing. (I don't think I've seen them outside of the West Coast.) It's basically a fried stick of dough covered in cinnamon and sugar. So yummy!

And Mr. Churro puts caramel in them!! Also, he looks just like that picture. I swear.

We decided to take a carriage ride back to the ship. Our driver was slightly crazy, but also hysterical.

Our formal dinner was later that night. But that didn't stop the guys from goofing around. (Like my nice v-neck sunburn? Pretty classy.)

Clinky!

After dinner we got involved in a game of Family Feud.

And we brought home the gold. Go Texas Rangers!

Then we headed to one of the lounges for some karaoke fun. This is me with cousin Candice.

Glowy shots!

I ended up getting sick later that night, and I basically felt queasy for the rest of the trip. Sunday I kind of laid around and did nothing. After dinner on Sunday, I went to the room to lie down for a bit and had planned on going out with everyone later on. But I was OUT. I slept for about ten hours. Apparently my mom came to my room with food and tried to make me eat, but I don't remember any of it. It was a crummy way to end the trip, but at least it happened at the end and not at the beginning. Be sure to check out the rest of my pictures here.

One more thing....as I took off from LAX, I could see the wildfires all down the coast. I took this picture from the plane:

On Sunday afternoon, I was sitting on the deck reading, and I kept getting all these black flecks on my skin and clothes. I realized later that it was ash from the fires. Later that evening, we could smell smoke pretty strongly. People started to panic, thinking the ship was on fire. So apparently the captain made an annoucement saying that the ship was in fact NOT on fire, but the smoke was from the fires on the coast.