thanksgiving in paradise

now that i have done 100 loads of laundry, restocked our fridge with food and finally taken down halloween decorations to get our home ready for christmas, i want to tell you about our thanksgiving in paradise!

simply put, we spent a week where the hardest decision we had to make was what to eat for dinner. believe me, sometimes that was a hard decision. when we were on the ship our schedule went a little like this: eat breakfast, lay out, eat lunch, take a nap, eat dinner, visit the spa, go to sleep. see a theme here? clearly we did a lot of eating and sleeping. just how a vacation should be, right?

i didn't take many pictures because i was just enjoying myself the whole time. our first stop was cabo san lucas. we went snorkeling, saw a couple of whales and walked through the historic area of cabo which included an old church that was built nearly 300 years ago. we also ate lunch at a cafe where we were serenaded by the cutest little mariachi band. that moment was one of my favorites of the trip. i was thinking of everything i normally do on a wednesday afternoon and it felt a little bit surreal that instead of the usual routine, we were sitting in mexico, enjoying the warm sun, and eating lunch while we had our own private musical performance sung by a few men who are just trying to provide for their families.

after two days in cabo, we sailed to puerto vallarta. it was just as hot and humid as i remember. we took a cab downtown for some shopping and explored the city a bit. it's very green and pretty. we ate thanksgiving dinner on the ship. mike had their version of thanksgiving dinner, and i ate shrimp.

i'm embarassed that i didn't get a decent picture of mike and i (hello missed christmas card photo opportunity!) but we did get this awesome picture of me, evan, and crista:

there are photographers everywhere on the ship taking photos in front of the most ridiculous backgrounds. we thought it would be funny to indulge some of the many photographers who wanted to take our pictures. we also took a few pictures wearing sombreros and ponchos, and i entranced the photographer with my "fierce and seductive eyes." 

so there you have it. if i could, i might spend every thanksgiving in mexico. it was perfect.