Resolution

I admit, I have been horrible at keeping up the blog lately. I'm blaming Facebook. But I am recommitting myself to blogging, now that I have a sweet new camera, school is almost over, and I have a big vacation to document! Here's my one disclaimer: I used to blog to entertain you all, but now I am going to blog more for my own benefit. I have a HORRIBLE memory (ask Joe or Kara) and I want to be able to remember all these fun things I'm doing! So if my new blog style bores you, sorry, but no one is making you read it.

Spring Break Day 5

A whole day at sea! What can we possibly find to do.....?

Art auction: This would have been interesting if the first hour hadn't been devoted to browsing through all the pieces! I just wanted to see how fast the auctioneer could talk and laugh at rich fools as they threw away all their money. At least we had free champagne while we waited. And I discovered my favorite new artist: Itzchak Tarkay (pronounced Eat-Sock Tark-Eye). His work is AMAZING! Too bad the watercolor landscape I wanted started at $12,000.

Horse races: Remember that little pony-head-on-a-stick you had when you were little? Who ever thought six of these ponies could come together to create the MOST FUN I HAVE EVER HAD ON A CRUISE SHIP?! You bet $1 on whichever horse feels lucky, and then wait for your dice to be rolled! Sounds stupid, but I swear to you, this is more edge-of-your-seat action than the NBA playoffs. My horse won the first round, Joe's won the second round, and unfortunately, neither of our horses won the final bonus round :(

Gambling: Joe stopped by the casino for some three-card poker action. He'd been lucky in Vegas, but just to outdo himself, he had to hit a three of a kind! That pays 30:1, you know. His single hand paid for my gambling all week. Good job, baby!

Hyponist: If you haven't seen one, you have to go! I laughed so hard that my sides hurt. It was an "adult's only" show and the tasks included:
-- Whenever the hypnotist looked at one of the women, her panties were to immediately begin vibrating
-- The participants were told that they had an extreme case of poison ivy on their asses, and the only way to relieve the itching was to scratch against the person next to them
-- The participants were told that the room was getting hotter than an oven, so they all began stripping off their clothes (underwear stayed on). Then, when getting dressed again, they couldn't find the arm or neck holes in their shirts, so they got tangled in their clothes until directed otherwise.
-- Whenever the hypnotist chose one participant to dance with, all the other participants were to become extremely jealous. But they were glued to their chairs and their chairs were glued to the floor. You should have seen these people FREAKING OUT because they couldn't stop their lover from dancing with someone else.

It was a great day at sea and a great trip overall! Off to bed for a looooong drive back to Salt Lake tomorrow!

Spring Break Day 4

We woke up in Ensanada, Mexico, which is about 130 miles south of San Diego. We took a city tour and learned so much! I won't bore you with all the details, but you can learn all about Ensenada here. Our tour guide took us to the world's third-largest blow hole, "La Bufadora". It wasn't blowing very strong that day, so here's a pic I found online of a big blow (that's what she said)! There were tons of shops near the blow hole, especially pharmacies. I have been to Mexico plenty of times, but I never remember being offered Cialis, Viagra, and Prozac every 5 feet! I would have bought some Botox if I knew how to inject it into myself. We also tried to find Joe a wedding ring because we thought it would make for a good story, but they only had silver and he wants "black metal", whatever that is.

This was our only chance to grab some authentic Mexican food, so we tried a taco combo platter: shrimp, fish, and carne asada. They were AWESOME, and they came with free margaritas! Have you ever had a Mexican margarita? They are nothing like margaritas here -- they are made with Squirt, tequila, and lime juice! Also, the beer is much cheaper onshore than on the ship, so we had to take advantage of that by buying a "bucket-o-beer." We didn't want to carry around all 6 bottles in a big bucket of ice, so the waiter was nice enough to pour each of our 3 bottles into HUGE Big-Gulp-type cups. It was so ghetto and awesome! And we could drink on the bus. It was like the Wendover FunBus except with way better views.

Next, we visited Santa Tomas Winery in downtown Ensenada. The tour was pretty disappointing; it wasn't nearly as cool as the tequila factory we toured in Puerto Vallarta last year. They just showed us a big warehouse full of oak barrels and antiquated equipment, and then tried to sell us a bunch of wine (which we bought, duh!)

We got back to the ship just in time for Formal Night dinner. Can I just say how RIDICULOUS this event is? Every cruise does it, and it is just as stupid every time. Joe and I put all this time and effort into packing our suit/cocktail dress and getting all gussied up, just to walk into the dining room to find half the people in jeans! And the ship staff does nothing about it. If they are going to advertise formal night, they need to enforce it. Why should I look all pretty while other people in sweat pants get to stuff themselves silly?

Off to bed for a day-at-sea tomorrow...

Spring Break Day 3

Joe and I made the 5 hour drive from Vegas to San Diego this morning. I had this really weird experience with California traffic. It's as if I were expecting to just drive straight up to the cruise ship. I didn't factor in all the towns, freeways, and cars along the way. I had to pull over and make Joe drive because I was having so much anxiety -- but that just made things WORSE! He was tailgating people at 90 MPH, and his excuse was, "That's how all Californians drive. If you leave room, people will cut into your lane." Good thing I don't get car sick. I just had to focus on the Kindle or counting all the Chili's restaurants (I think I saw 15 between Vegas and San Diego).

I have to say that I'm VERY impressed with Carnival Cruise Lines. This was my ninth cruise, but my first one with Carnival. Despite showing up without any documents (we are slackers), we were on the ship in less than 20 minutes. And another cool thing we figured out for this cruise -- you can carry on one bottle of wine person. THAT saved us probably $100!

After checking out our room and unpacking, we toured the ship, which took about 3 minutes because it was pretty tiny. Then we headed straight for trivia. Here are some of the stupid questions they asked (answers at the bottom). We probably would have won but we got there late and missed the first few questions.

1. A bear is standing in a house. All 4 sides of the house face south. What color is the bear?
2. An electric train is going westbound at 50 MPH. The wind is blowing 50 MPH to the east. What direction will the smoke from the train go?
3. A plane crashes on the border of the United States and Canada. In which country will the survivors be buried?

We met a really cool couple from Mesa, Arizona, Dan and Lissa. We had dinner with them every night and hung out with them a couple other times on the cruise. Lissa got 2nd place in the ship's slot tournament. And on the second day, Dan and Lissa got engaged! It was really fun to share that with them. We're going to stay in touch through Facebook.

The food was really good on the ship. I had seafood every night. But the best part was DESSERT. I had the same dessert every night on the ship, and guess what it was? A cheese plate! It was amazing!! It was an assortment of cheeses like Port Salut, Brie, Gouda, Imported Swiss, and Danish Bleu. Best thing I ate all week.

After dinner we hung out in the Casino. I just kept losing all the money Joe won (just like in Vegas). We ended up about even after the whole trip. The ship had one of those cool new dealer-less card-less poker tables. It's a cool idea, but Joe didn't really like playing on it.

We checked out the dancing/singing show but it sucked, so we went to bed. Tomorrow, Ensenada...

Quiz answers:
1. White (if all 4 sides of the house are facing south, then the house must be located on the North Pole, so it's a polar bear)
2. Electric trains don't make smoke
3. Neither -- "survivors" won't be buried

Spring Break Day 2

Joe and I had all day in Vegas. We went to the strip mall, and sadly, I kept finding myself in the same stores that we have in Salt Lake -- Charlotte Russe, Nike, Bath and Body Works, etc. It was sad to realize how unoriginal and cheap I am.

We went back to the Strip to find some action. For those of you who have been to Vegas recently, you may have noticed a new hotel going up between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo. We found out that it is going to be part of the new 67-acre CityCenter, "an intoxicating blend of culture, community, and creativity." It will have hotels, condos, casinos, shops, restaurants, etc. and it opens sometime next year. It looks really amazing and it will be fun to have something new to check out in Vegas!

We've been meaning to check out Freemont Street so we finally made it down there on this trip. Unfortunately we went during the day so we didn't get to see the amazing lights, but we DID find some cheap drinks and tables! Joe won probably $300 just by hitting "black" a bunch of times, which was a good thing cause I kept losing it all on "odd".

I used to hate gambling, but I've started to like it after a few winning-weekends in Wendover with my favorite new game, PaiGow Poker! Play it here for free. I think I won back most of what I lost in Roulette.

We went back to the Strip for dinner. I'd heard about this place in the Excaliber that I REALLY wanted to check out -- Dick's Last Resort. Their website says, "From Rug-rats to Old Farts, from High-Class to No-Class, from the Top of the Food Chain, to the Bottom of the Barrel, it’s FUN FOR ALL AND ALL IN FUN FOR THOSE WHO DARE TO ENTER! Sit back and watch, or join in the fun. Dick’s has always been known for its outrageous, surly, energetic waitstaff who inflict humor upon our guests. Our atmosphere makes everyone feel like they’re temporarily breaking all the rules…and getting away with it." Basically, I heard that they treat you like crap! But, once we got there, the wait was 2 hours and the menu looked shitty, so we ended up with Mexican again. HA I'm addicted.

Then it was off to another early (2:00 a.m.) bedtime so we could drive to San Diego in the morning!

Spring Break Day 1

St. Patrick's Day

Joe and I arrived in Vegas around 7:00 p.m. (we got a late start after a long night of drinking and one nasty hangover). We stayed at the Tropicana, which I would highly recommend for the following reasons:
1. cheap as hell
2. great location
3. mirrors on the ceiling!!!

This was my "free week" after a month of eating healthy to lose weight for the wedding, so we headed straight for Mexican food! We ended up at Gonzalez y Gonzalez at the New York New York. I have this goal to find the best chile relleno in Salt Lake, and let me just say, if this place were in Salt Lake, it would win by leaps and bounds. This chile relleno was amazing, not to mention the awesome salsa and the Dos Equis ON TAP!

We spent the rest of St. Patty's just walking up and down the Strip to check out the crazies. The Venetian dyed their river green, but it was too dark to get a good pic. There was reportedly a leprechaun wandering around letting people pick prizes from his pot of gold, but we never found him! Otherwise, the Strip was like Sodom and Gomorrah. I seriously thought I would turn to stone after I saw the people dancing nearly naked in front of Margaritaville. I like crazy, but this was even beyond me. I ended up just taking some lame pics of Strip and going to bed early (well early in Vegas means 3:00 a.m.)

Here are some of the pics I took:

The BellagioThe Paris

The MirageThe MGM

Joe LOVES getting his pic taken (The Venetian)

Check out the sweet Leprechaun tux (and the hottie wearing it)