April 1, 2009
Start Cooking
The StartCooking.com website is a great website for beginner cooks like me. There are a ton of short (under three minute) videos where she shows you howto make different things. Tonight I am making pork chops, woo hoo! I like that it shows all of the important things, like what it is "supposed" to look like at several different stages. Check it out if you have a basic question, it is definitely easy to use!
Cruisin'
A couple of weeks ago we went on a cruise to Mexico! We did the 7-Day Mexican Riviera which departed from Long Beach and went to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerta Vallarta. We went with a group of 21, mostly neighbors and their kids and a few of their friends. It was A LOT of fun! Here is the run down:
The night before we left we went to Medieval Times in Buena Park. This is one of those theatrical dinner places, where they serve you a meal while you watch the sword fights and horses and falcons. This was one of the highlights for Christopher! We really enjoyed it too. The food was really good: tomato bisque soup, half of a roasted chicken, one spare rib, herbed potatoes, and then a pastry for dessert. Here’s the catch: NO UTENSILS!!! It was really fun and surprisingly not that messy. Christopher eats like that most of the time anyway but I think that this concept would be really fun for the older kids.
The sword fights were fun too, each section of the ring got its own “knight” and so we all cheered for our guy, who in my (and my sister Kat's) humble opinion happened to be the cutest one. We did end up buying a sword before we left- it was overpriced and made out of foam but it has still been funny seeing Jason get whacked with it when he’s not expecting it!
We kept the program and whenever Christopher and I are looking at it, he remembers who each knight “belonged” to within our family (Dad = Green, Mommy = Blue, he was the one that won, naturally) so it is fun. The only thing that is a little awkward is that when we were getting ready to leave, we went to see the horses at the stable and one of them was a little *excited.* So now, every time we see a picture of this one horse, Christopher reminds me that “that’s the horse who had his penis out!”
Moving on to the boat: we had a balcony room, which in my opinion is the best way to go. The only exception would be if you can afford two rooms and want to stick your kids in the second joining room. It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be, and definitely livable for a week. The shower was tiny but it had one of those handheld sprayers so it was manageable. Our neighbors Steve and Elaine had our room decorated for us, since it was our very first cruise. These decorations turned into victims for Christopher’s new sword as the week wore on, but it was very much appreciated nonetheless!
The night before we left we went to Medieval Times in Buena Park. This is one of those theatrical dinner places, where they serve you a meal while you watch the sword fights and horses and falcons. This was one of the highlights for Christopher! We really enjoyed it too. The food was really good: tomato bisque soup, half of a roasted chicken, one spare rib, herbed potatoes, and then a pastry for dessert. Here’s the catch: NO UTENSILS!!! It was really fun and surprisingly not that messy. Christopher eats like that most of the time anyway but I think that this concept would be really fun for the older kids.
The sword fights were fun too, each section of the ring got its own “knight” and so we all cheered for our guy, who in my (and my sister Kat's) humble opinion happened to be the cutest one. We did end up buying a sword before we left- it was overpriced and made out of foam but it has still been funny seeing Jason get whacked with it when he’s not expecting it!
We kept the program and whenever Christopher and I are looking at it, he remembers who each knight “belonged” to within our family (Dad = Green, Mommy = Blue, he was the one that won, naturally) so it is fun. The only thing that is a little awkward is that when we were getting ready to leave, we went to see the horses at the stable and one of them was a little *excited.* So now, every time we see a picture of this one horse, Christopher reminds me that “that’s the horse who had his penis out!”
Moving on to the boat: we had a balcony room, which in my opinion is the best way to go. The only exception would be if you can afford two rooms and want to stick your kids in the second joining room. It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be, and definitely livable for a week. The shower was tiny but it had one of those handheld sprayers so it was manageable. Our neighbors Steve and Elaine had our room decorated for us, since it was our very first cruise. These decorations turned into victims for Christopher’s new sword as the week wore on, but it was very much appreciated nonetheless!
Cruising itself is a lot of fun. I didn’t really feel the boat move too much, and definitely never was sick from it. There were a few times when I was at one end or the other where I could feel it more, but for anyone who has been pregnant, I would compare it to that feeling- just a baby swishing around in your tummy, except kind of felt the opposite of that. Of course, that analogy might have been in my head because my own period was LATE and kind of freaking me out! I was looking for an excuse for why I was a little puffy and eating A TON of food, but it was a false alarm. By the way, they don’t sell pregnancy tests on the ship.
Back to the food: that was one of my favorite parts of the whole experience! The Dining Room was fabulous. The food was delicious and you can order whatever you want, as much as you want, and no one looks at you funny. Towards the end of the trip they knew to bring Christopher a milk and buttered noodles as soon as we sat down, which was so helpful. Every night I had at least two appetizers and then a delicious gourmet meal and then of course, dessert. In fact on the last night, I ordered FOUR desserts. One of them was for Jason, but when I ordered them I told the waiter that two were for me and two were for him.
There was also a Johnny Rocket’s on the ship, which was a lot of fun. There is a cover charge to go in, but as soon as you are there, they bring you a plate of fries and onion rings and ranch and then you can order whatever you want. And every 30 minutes or so, all of the waiters do a choreographed line dance to "Stayin' Alive." It was really cute and added to the experience.
One night I went dancing with the ladies, which was fun too. We stayed out SO late, I think I crawled into bed after 3:00 in the morning. I haven’t been up at that hour since having a newborn!!! There were so many YOUNG people in this club!!! I am talking high school young. Maybe early college I suppose, but a lot of the people there didn’t look old enough to drink. I think the drinking age is 18 but I am not sure.
Jason went to the casino one night too, and another night him and the rest of the boys went to a karaoke bar on the ship. I heard that was a lot of fun, though I was home babysitting. Which is a good segue into the kids club!
The age for the kids club is 3+. But they also have to be out of diapers. So technically, Christopher wasn’t allowed in. We did try to sneak him in on the first formal dinner night, by putting his friends underwear on over his diaper, but they paged us within 20 minutes or so and asked us to come and get him. We didn’t try the kids club again after that. The older kids seemed to really like it though, and even the four-year old with our group loved it. I am still a first time mom (read: softie) when it comes to that stuff though, and it is hard for me to have a good time when I don’t think Christopher is, and then with the diaper thing added to it, I just didn’t feel right forcing him to cry it out there. I am sure that Baby #2 will not have the same luxury, but for this trip, that is how it worked out. And it is probably for the better, since just about every night towards the end of our delicious dinner, Christopher would climb under the table and start smelling pretty bad, if you know what I mean. That would’ve gotten us kicked out of the kids club officially, I am sure.
One of the other fun things we did was one night, everyone in our group dressed up like pirates! That was really fun, going around the ship and saying “Arghh!” and “Take me to your Captain!” People loved us for the most part, and some people even asked the guys to take pictures with them!
The stops were all amazing, but I don’t want to make this too long so I will talk about them later. There were a few other special things about our ship- we went ice skating one morning and miniature golfing another afternoon. The best thing I would say about the cruise was the service, it was really a nice pampering and relaxing vacation and I am so glad that we went. We will definitely go again.
We cruised with Royal Caribbean, on the Mariner of the Seas by the way.
More soon…
Back to the food: that was one of my favorite parts of the whole experience! The Dining Room was fabulous. The food was delicious and you can order whatever you want, as much as you want, and no one looks at you funny. Towards the end of the trip they knew to bring Christopher a milk and buttered noodles as soon as we sat down, which was so helpful. Every night I had at least two appetizers and then a delicious gourmet meal and then of course, dessert. In fact on the last night, I ordered FOUR desserts. One of them was for Jason, but when I ordered them I told the waiter that two were for me and two were for him.
There was also a Johnny Rocket’s on the ship, which was a lot of fun. There is a cover charge to go in, but as soon as you are there, they bring you a plate of fries and onion rings and ranch and then you can order whatever you want. And every 30 minutes or so, all of the waiters do a choreographed line dance to "Stayin' Alive." It was really cute and added to the experience.
One night I went dancing with the ladies, which was fun too. We stayed out SO late, I think I crawled into bed after 3:00 in the morning. I haven’t been up at that hour since having a newborn!!! There were so many YOUNG people in this club!!! I am talking high school young. Maybe early college I suppose, but a lot of the people there didn’t look old enough to drink. I think the drinking age is 18 but I am not sure.
Jason went to the casino one night too, and another night him and the rest of the boys went to a karaoke bar on the ship. I heard that was a lot of fun, though I was home babysitting. Which is a good segue into the kids club!
The age for the kids club is 3+. But they also have to be out of diapers. So technically, Christopher wasn’t allowed in. We did try to sneak him in on the first formal dinner night, by putting his friends underwear on over his diaper, but they paged us within 20 minutes or so and asked us to come and get him. We didn’t try the kids club again after that. The older kids seemed to really like it though, and even the four-year old with our group loved it. I am still a first time mom (read: softie) when it comes to that stuff though, and it is hard for me to have a good time when I don’t think Christopher is, and then with the diaper thing added to it, I just didn’t feel right forcing him to cry it out there. I am sure that Baby #2 will not have the same luxury, but for this trip, that is how it worked out. And it is probably for the better, since just about every night towards the end of our delicious dinner, Christopher would climb under the table and start smelling pretty bad, if you know what I mean. That would’ve gotten us kicked out of the kids club officially, I am sure.
One of the other fun things we did was one night, everyone in our group dressed up like pirates! That was really fun, going around the ship and saying “Arghh!” and “Take me to your Captain!” People loved us for the most part, and some people even asked the guys to take pictures with them!
The stops were all amazing, but I don’t want to make this too long so I will talk about them later. There were a few other special things about our ship- we went ice skating one morning and miniature golfing another afternoon. The best thing I would say about the cruise was the service, it was really a nice pampering and relaxing vacation and I am so glad that we went. We will definitely go again.
We cruised with Royal Caribbean, on the Mariner of the Seas by the way.
More soon…
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