Clipper Nation

Basketball Fan: No
Luxury suite, good food, friends and a basketball game on in the background: Yes

Last night my mom got us all suite tickets to the Clipper game through her firm. Christian's friend Perry from Marcus & Millichap also joined us. They confiscated our camera at the door because it violated the "no lenses longer than 3 1/2in." policy. Apparently iphones aren't exactly equal substitutes for SLRs...yet.

Next Assignment...

We just got off the ship in San Diego and we are visiting my family in LA. In May (yes, after 3 months vacation) we are joining the Holland America Zaandam in ALASKA!!! We couldn't be more excited about the ship and location...it is exactly what we requested! Now the only challenge will be finding some cold weather clothes since we've been in the Caribbean for the last two winters.

OMG

Christian and I were running errands yesterday when we stumbled upon this little treasure opening this week. I think Manhattan Beach real estate just went up 50%. We'll be there opening day to show our support!

Acapulco Cliff Divers

We finally saw the world famous cliff divers in Acapulco. They jump from off 133ft cliffs into a narrow water passage.

Waiting for the divers to start at Hotel Mirador.

Lookout point in Acapulco.

Dinner is served. If you don't want chicken...there is always this option:

Visitors!

We just finished our last Panama Canal cruise on the Maasdam and Grandpa & Grandma Whiting came to cruise with us. Here's a few highlights from the cruise. The days basically revolved around food, food and more food!

A turkey for a turkey:)
Baked Alaska with Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream!!

Eating in the fancy Pinnacle Grill steakhouse. Since we are "officers" the meal is now compliments of Holland America!

Christian & Grandpa showing off their new Movados!

Grandpa bought us matching diamond studs!!

The grand finale dinner!

Tarzan Style

In Costa Rica Ruth and I went on a canopy tour in the rain forest while the boys went fishing! For the canopy tour we started by taking an aerial tram in a gondola to the top of the mountain and then traversed down the canopy on zip lines…amazing!
The gondola ride to the top of the canopy!

Ruth getting ready to take off down the 1000 foot line.

The fishing ended up being more about the boat ride. They saw lots of fish, but didn’t actually catch any.

Some dolphins swimming by the boat. A crocodile we saw on our way back.

Colombia...check

We went to Cartagena, Colombia last week, but I took hardly any pictures. It was an absolutely beautiful town. I'm afraid if I don't make at least some documentation of it though I'll forget we even went there. So here's one for the scrapbook.

Sailing into Cartagena!

Driving through the walled city.

Panama City by Night

We made a late night stop in Panama City the evening before going through the canal. We were planning to just do our own thing, but about an hour before arrival Christian found out that crew were not allowed to go ashore unless they were on a tour. Fortunately, shore excursions were able to squeeze us onto a tour of Colonial Panama City.

Gone Sailing

We went on a sailing trip around the 9 bays in Hualtuco, Mexico.

I thought, "If this lady tells me one more story about her European cruises...I think I'll jump overboard".
There was about 20 of these pics...Christian thought it was hilarious to take pictures of me eating a bag of cereal.

Christian saw some locals diving down in these caves to find oysters. He spent the rest of our beach time looking for one in hopes that there would be a pearl inside...

He took it back to the ship, cracked it open in our shower, and there was only one huge slimy mess to show for it.