Two Catalinas

We took our three day cruise to Catalina, California (the first Catalina) and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico on January 18th thru the 22nd.  While the cruise was, indeed, a cruise, and it was better by far than any cruise I took while in the Navy, I can't say that it met our expectations as far as what we thought it would be like.  Katie wanted to know if she'd be able to take a cruise at all because she's prone to motion sickness, and she found out that with the help of Bonine and ginger tablets, she was able to ..."stomach" the rocking motions.  So with that bridge crossed, we'll set about figuring out if we're gonna take a cruise get to Alaska in the future.  Way in the future.

The ship we went on was Carnival's Imagination, an 855' long ship with a crew of 920, capable of carrying up to 2,634 passengers, with 14 decks.  A big ship!  Service aboard the ship was very good, with every crew member we met having a smile for us and wanting to do what they could to make our cruise as comfortable as possible.  And for the most part, they did a great job. 

We just didn't feel like it was the right scene for us though, kinda like we didn't quite fit in.  And our dinner food wasn't to our liking either, with the exception of our last night on board.  It looked nice though, so the appearance was good.  And the serving staff was great, and would've done anything to help us out, even bring us other food.  But we just couldn't see eating more that we weren't sure we'd like either.

We took excursions at each of the ports we visited (Catalina Island & Ensenada, Mexico) with the tour of Catalina being more exciting than Ensenada, two days later.  It was in a 50's Flxible bus so it was a little nostalgic, and the tour driver told us about the history of the company that made it.  As most of the island is mountainous, very shortly after we boarded the bus, it was taking us climbing up the steep hills on a narrow road that was built for stage coaches back when the Banning family owned the island.  The bus driver told us about them and how they fit into the history of the island and Los Angeles, along with the next owner of the island, the gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr., and now the current one, the Catalina Conservancy.  I didn't think that the tour would actually take more than an hour, but it filled up more than three hours easily as we meandered on the back roads of the island, taking us to the west side of the island, through the new winery that's being built by Jeff Rusack (he married Allison Wrigley, grand daughter of William Wrigley, Jr.), and finally to the Airport in the Sky. The tour ended with the bus going back down the road that we went up, which is lined with Eucalyptus trees on the cliff side.  The road winds around the hills with lots of sharp curves so the bus couldn't go very fast at all.  But you can see what that narrow, stage coach road looks like here,

and also in this video that was taken by someone going down the hill to Avalon on a bicycle.  We didn't go nearly as fast as this cyclist did.

On the day we went to Ensenada, we got off the ship twice.  The first time was just to go walk around the city to see what we could see.

There was a Catholic Church that we went to see because it was something we could see from the ship, that I didn't get a good picture of before I left the ship and this picture is of it when we're a couple of blocks away. 

By looking on the internet, I found out that it is the Our Lady of  Guadalupe Catholic Church.  Big on the outside, and pretty big on the inside as well.

After that, we just wandered around a little looking for the touristy shopping district after that, and on the way, we were in the mood for soft serve ice cream.  And being as we found the local, friendly, soft serve ice creamery, we stopped in to get some.  Yep, McDonalds.  Not as good as DQ, but it works still the same.

Ironically enough, they didn't want to take our $20 bill although they had the exchange rate posted on the wall, and the person in front of us used US dollars to pay for his fare.  Oh, well!  Can't say that I really needed the extra calories right then anyway.

We went back to the ship and enjoyed one of the hot tubs while the majority of the other passengers were off the ship, then headed out for the afternoon excursion, which was going to the blow hole, called La Bufadora by the locals.  The tour guide on the bus was very knowledgeable of the area and told us lots of facts, such as: fuel for cars and trucks is controlled by the government so shopping for the best price doesn't really mean anything; the area of Ensenada is three times the size of Mexico City, yet has a population of less than 1/2 a million while Mexico City's population is over 8 million; much of the vegetables that are eaten by the US are grown in Ensenada.  There were other facts that she told to everyone, but I just don't remember them all!  (Darn the bad luck!)

The blowhole, La Bufadora, is a marine geyser, one of four such geysers in the world.  When we first got to the viewing platform, there wasn't much going on.  I mean we could hear it blowing, but there wasn't any water being shot up in the air.  Kinda like we could hear something BIG breathing.  Then it started getting more active, with more and more mist shooting up.  The tour guide said that once every seven "breaths" water would shoot up.  I didn't count, but I think that she was correct as water did shoot up about that often for the amount of time we were there.  If ya follow this link for La Bufadora, you can see bunches of pictures, which are probably better than what I took, which looks like below, or you can watch a youtube video here to see what it's like from the water.

I didn't enjoy the walk from the bus to the viewing platform and back as we were constantly badgered and harangued by the vendors along the way to buy their stuff.  Not that the stuff wasn't good, or that they wouldn't have made a good deal for us.  I just prefer to be left alone unless I'm needing help picking out what I want when I go shopping.  And I wasn't shopping then.  But it was like a swap meet - flea market kinda place, but with more aggressive vendors.  Then again, maybe I'm just getting old and don't wanna be bothered like that, ya think?

There was a big cat in one of the eateries along the way, and I snapped a picture before the owner told me not to.  But I'm glad that he had a leash on still the same.  Ya can't see it as it hidden behind the cat.

I didn't think to ask what it was, anyone know?  I'm thinking a Jaguar.  Seemed friendly enough, didn't pounce on me when I was about four feet in front of him getting ready to take my second picture. 

Shortly after arriving back at the ship just before 4 PM, it pulled out, bound for Long Beach, Ca.  Now one of the TV channels that the ship provided was different aspects of the ship, like a live view from the bridge of where we were going, what was happening on the Lido deck, a map of where we were, and other assorted pieces of information, with one of them being the speed of the ship.  Prior to that night, I watched it because there just wasn't much on that I wanted to watch.  And the speed that the ship would usually go at was about 6.2 knots, which equals about 7.13 mph.  You know, just a nice lazy pace as there was plenty of time to get to where the ship was going to next.  Well, as we had more than a few miles or so to go that night (Google Maps says 193 miles), I guess the boys and girls on the bridge found the gas pedal and really stepped on it.  We were doing as high as 13 knots (almost 15 mph!!!!) at times during the night so we'd be able to get to Long Beach at 6:20 the next morning, which was Thursday.  Not exactly break neck speed, but it was moving much faster than it had previously.  

We were able to depart the ship unannounced shortly after they put the gangway up to the third deck, sometime around 8:30 or so.  Katie's sister, Karen, picked us up a few minutes later.  There were many things to do that day, so we sped through getting the dogs from their kennel, having breakfast with Karen and her husband, Bill, driving to the moho and getting food to eat in the moho, and driving to the second Catalina, Catalina Spa & RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs, Ca.  After very little time, we found a spot near the edge of the resort so we could leave the resort easily to walk the dogs without leashes, and then just collapsed as we were both quite tired.  Katie from all the things that we'd been doing, and me from all the excitement of the ship going twice as fast as it had previously.  

Didn't even look for the hot tub until the next day, so ya know how tired we really were.  Now that we've been here six days, we're finding the resort to be very nice.  The pools are wonderful, the hot tub is very hot, and the folks here seem to be nice as well.  I might add that the pools and hot tubs have water supplied by a their mineral hot springs well at 130 degrees, and it eventually gets to the hot tubs where it is changed several times a day, and to the pool where the water is changed several times a week.  The water doesn't stink like water from other hot springs might, which adds to the enjoyment of being in it.  So far, there've been LOTS of adults in the adult pool about 100' away from us every night since we've been here.  I think that we'll be very happy staying here until Sunday.  If you click on the link above, you'll be able to see pictures of it, and if ya click the right buttons, even see a slide show of what it's like. I recommend this resort if you're wanting a good place to stay in this neck of the woods... er, desert I mean.

We'd seen Pickleball played when we were in Wilderness Lakes in Menifee, Ca., some time ago, and I told Katie that I'd taken a Pickleball class when I was living in Portland, Oregon.  She was intrigued enough at what we saw that she bought a set of paddles and balls for it a couple of Christmas' ago, and we hadn't thought much about getting them used last year because we were so busy with work, and so far this year because we just hadn't gotten around to it.  However, a couple of nights ago, we met a woman in the pool who plays it daily at the courts here, and invited us to play.  I went last night and had a blast, and Katie went with me to the morning session and had fun as well.  I'm thinking we'll be doing it again since it's as much fun as it is.  Our biggest problem so far is that we keep thinking that the paddle and ball will have the same characteristics that racquetball stuff has: the paddle is shorter, and the ball isn't nearly as lively.  But I'm thinking that we'll get used to it if we play it often enough.

Ok, that's about it for now.  We'll be staying here until Sunday when we travel to Lake Havasu in Arizona.  Be blessed.