I Might End Up Somewhere in Mexico

I have got to plow through this!  I'm finishing this weekend.  I'll start it now, though I may not finish Thursday tonight.  By the way--I updated the Tuesday 2/28 blog post.  There wasn't a lot to add, especially since I don't remember a lot of it anyway.  I think my brain had already gone on vacation at that point.

Anyway, on to Wednesday, February 29th.  Not a spectacular Leap Year Day, but quite memorable.  We anchored in Puerto Vallarta, and debarked fairly early.

There was a lady there who let us sit a parrot on our shoulders (for a small donation).

We all piled into a van/taxi for a trip to the Chico's Dive Shop for our snorkeling excursion.  Here are some pictures from the van ride.  Here are some pictures from that ride.

The dive shop was near a beach with some cool sand castles.  We had to pay the remainder of the bill for the excursion, but their card reader was down, so we ended up paying around $70 in ones and fives.  Uh, that was fun.

 
They took us on a little boat ride (tendering?) to the diving boat.  I'm sure Rachael was thrilled at that (she loves small boats).

The dive boat took us to "Los Arcos," a cool rock formation.  There were some others on the boat who went scuba diving.  Some of us went snorkeling, which was okay.  We saw some fish and urchins, and Seuao got hold of some kind of sea star.  The water was pretty murky and the weather was a little cool.  Even so, let it be known that I was the first person in the water.  One of the crew members was taking pictures and videos with his iPad, so we got this little nugget for posterity.

I also took a short video of what I thought would be just the feeding of seagulls by throwing of bread in the air.  Of course, it ended a little more dramatically than I had anticipated.

Poor little dude.  Fortunately, that was the last time he puked on the entire vacation.  Sarah ended up barfing too (the water was quite choppy), but she did feel better once she did.  Anyway, we had lunchmeat and processed cheese sandwiches (which tasted pretty good, considering) and Mexican soda.  Then the crew moved the boat to another rock, and the rest of the fam got in the water.  I think it had gotten colder by this time, and there was very little to be seen.  Their dives didn't last very long.  Of course, I was a little more concerned that all of the wipes and such I used in my little trip to the bathroom (including certain feminine hygiene products) were flushed out into the diving area.  I don't know what I expected, but I wasn't too happy about seeing my, uh, stuff floating in the water where people were diving in.  Not very cool.

Well, that was about it.  They took us back to the beach near the dive shop, and some people stayed behind to play for a while.

Here's proof that I was there, however trashy I may look (I probably should have fixed the cover-up, eh?).   Allen was sunburned and I was exhausted, but at least Benji was feeling better.  When we got back Allen, Benji and I took a cab back to the boat, because we were just done with the whole thing.   As a side note, yes, you can see the scars from my shoulder surgery last year.  It surprised Mom a little, but I really wasn't faking the gimpyness!  Take care of your shoulders, people!

Anyway, we went back to our cabin and got cleaned up, then I started some laundry before we went to dinner.  During this time, I realized I couldn't find my ship-board cell phone.  I was so stressed out about it and angry at myself for having lost it (they charge you a $250 replacement fee for those suckers!), that I didn't take any more pictures for the rest of that night.  The miracle, however, happened while I was taking out my frustrations on the laundry.  I was hauling laundry back and forth from our cabin to the little laundry room, when I saw Allen and Benji walk past me, and Allen had a big smile on his face.  When they got back to our room, he pulled out my phone.  Miraculously, some good Samaritain had found my phone in the cab we took to get back to the ship.  They called the Allen's phone and he picked it up from them.  Truly, it was a miracle that a) another Disney family took the same cab we did, b) found the phone and knew what it was and what it would cost the owner to replace, and c) were kind enough to return it.  There was a lot of relief and gratitude, even if I didn't deserve it.  Thanks again, unknown friends.

The show that night was "Toy Story: The Musical."  It was really well done, and it was fun to see.  It was based on the first Toy Story movie, and it was cool how they integrated some screen stuff into the show, to remind you of the toys' perspective.  I don't remember doing much else that night, since I was physically and emotionally exhausted from the day.  I think we all slept pretty well that night, since we were going to be up early for PRINCESSES, fishing, and Cabo in the morning.  Stay tuned--much more to come!