Steven and I are back from our cruise on Carnival to Ensenada, Mexico and back. We had a fantastic time, mostly just being able to relax and spend time together. Here is a pictorial guide through our trip!

The first picture above is of us after we waited in the big long line to get on the ship. This picture is in front of the ship that would be our home for the next 3 days.

This picture is of me in front of the main pool of the Carnival Paradise, with Long Beach in the background.

After we watched our departure from Long Beach, we were busy unpacking, meeting people at dinner, and attending the comedy shows and various entertainment for the evening. Saturday we arrived at Ensenada, Mexico and we headed out for a Wine Country Tour mid-morning.

The first thing you see in Ensenada is the HUGE Mexican flag.

We were escorted by a tour guide on a bus, and we thought it was a great way to get an introduction to the city and countryside. Of course, as we’re heading out of the town right alongside us is the Mexican military (?) with huge guns. Great.

We arrived safely at the first winery, the second oldest in Ensenada. Casa Pedro Domecq has equipment from the 1700s, and clay pots from the 1600s. The picture below is the view from the front, with replica clay pots and the beautiful scenery. It was funny to us that in no way does this part of Mexico look like Los Angeles…

Here we are posing with one of the token humongous wine bottles often found at wineries, with the fields behind.

Next was L.A. Cetto, a winery founded by an Italian immigrant with gorgeous views.

Here is Steven demonstrating how huge some of the aging barrels were at L.A. Cetto.

Here are the four bottles of unremarkable but nice and very affordable Mexican wines that we purchased.

Believe it or not, the ship in the picture below is the ACTUAL Black Pearl from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies! Apparently Ensenada is an affordable place to store ships.

The downtown shopping district of Ensenada was alright, the picture below was the cutest part.

As most of you probably know, I don’t use profanity in my conversations. However, I had to post this because I thought this was the funniest sign. Sad thing is, I think they were referring to the real thing, if you can see the signs behind… wow.

Here’s a picture of our souvenirs – Steven got a belt and Advil Ibuprofeno, I got a lace table runner, some maracas, vanilla (they were all saying that Mexican vanilla is very high quality – we’ll see), a magnet, and some Agave syrup. The agave plant is the same cactus they make tequila from, but I’m interested to see what can be done with the sweet syrup.

Saturday night was elegant night on the cruise, so we got all dressed up and enjoyed feeling fabulous For formal night we went to the Captain’s Cocktails and enjoyed free drinks and appetizers, and dancing with live music! After a great dinner we went to the revue show celebrating music through Hollywood movies and then some late-night comedy. Since we were celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary a little early, this is our official anniversary picture!

Sunday was a day at sea, and was surprisingly chilly. We hadn’t quite planned for it to be 59 degrees, so I ended up buying a cover-up with long sleeves! We did have fun strolling around the ship, watching various pool contests, and attempting to play mini-golf. Let me just say that it is hard to play mini golf wind at 16 knots, rolling your balls away! We were thrilled to see two humpbacks right off our ship, but we didn’t have the camera. Every night with the evening bed turn-down the steward would make a different towel animal. This picture is of Steven and a monkey hanging from our TV, which was definitely the cutest!

Sunday night we saw another show called “Shout,” which did all genres and time periods of great American music. After the show we decided to hang around and play Blackout Bingo and go a little late to dinner. We are so glad that we did, because we won!!!

Here we are after winning Bingo, tired but super happy! We went on to dinner and then to a comedy show, then turned in early. This morning we were up at 6:00 am so we could walk out our stuff by 6:30 am. After breakfast we went straight off the boat and through customs with hardly a wait. We made it home by 8:00 am, just in time for a nap

All in all, it was a great introduction for me since I’ve never been on a cruise, and we are already looking forward to our next vacation!