SHARING OUR 50th ANNIVERSARY CRUISE

About two weeks after arriving at Mesa Regal for our winter stay, we went out for dinner and relaxation at Organ Stop Pizza where Gary presented me with confirmation for a three day cruise to Ensenada Mexico to celebrate our 50th anniversary.  Surprise, surprise!!  Our first cruise, time to get our feet wet and see if we like it!!

The drive to Long Beach from Mesa (east of Phoenix) was a beautiful trip.  I love the mountains. And each area we go to has very different ones.

Interstate 10

So glad to say that we enjoyed our cruise very much and are looking forward to our next one.  Maybe to Alaska or maybe somewhere from the east coast!!

Carnival Imagination

Next time I will put something in our window, so we will
see from outside where we are located.  All I know is that
it was on floor 5 from the elevator.

We had heard that you could eat all of the time!!  But we found out real fast to be selective so that we could sleep well!!  We boarded at 1 pm but did not leave the pier until 5:30.  Dinner began at 6 pm and we did know that we had best eat early for digestion!

Our neighbors at the next dinner table were from Bejing China, relocated to Los Angeles seven years ago. He is with World Media News and spoke English well.  Much was translated for his wife. They were a very sweet couple and we ran into them a couple more times, in Ensenada and on ship.

Our waiter dancing during our anniversary
evening dinner.  He was cute.  The waiters
and waitresses did this every dinner time,
 before the dining hall entertainment.

Our waiters at dinner on our last evening surprised us with a dessert and candle, and sang Happy Anniversary!!  It was a surprise and so nice.  We had to think a bit to figure out how they knew about it.  -  -  Gary thinks that he mentioned the occasion when he made the reservations.  But it made it memorable.

Needless so say, we did a lot of walking and stair climbing on ship to check out all of the fun things. We even found their small casino, but learned very quickly that there were no good penny machines!! But we found other things to do, including going to the very top deck by stairs.

Miniature golf on top deck, front.

Swimming pool a couple floors down from the top.
The ALL day and evening buffet and grill was behind
this area.

Looking down a few floors.  We ate lunch out
on that second deck.

Water slide

Our room though small, was very adequate with a king size bed.  We slept well in spite of the rocking motion, especially the last day and night at sea.

All we could see from the window was in port at Long Beach and again at Ensenada.

I think it would be wonderful to travel along a coast and view all the scenery on land, but not sure that they can travel that close to shore.

Now for some sites about the ship!!

The only singing group that we cared for.  But we did tour all
of the lounges to check them all out.

Main lobby floor in the atrium.
We certainly saw all mode of dress, and undress!!

View of many floors from across the atrium.

Glass elevators in the atrium.
There were four other banks of elevators
about the ship.

Our second day was a stop for the day in Ensenada Baja Mexico.  This is the view from our ship window where we are tied to dock.

Ensenada Mexico

Ensenada Mexico

We chose to do a bus tour of the city, and we think that we chose well.  Our tour guide, Leslie,  was very fun and presented her history lessons well.

Our first stop was the first casino, built in the new world in 1924.  It has since been turned into a civic center.  Such wonderful architecture!!

The original casino room.

Vendors outside of the casino, civic center.

Dorado Casino

Our second stop was a winery, for tasting and buying.  Quite a variety, but only one that I would consider.  But then I am not a wine drinker.  Give me a sweet mixed drink any day.

Last stop was an hour in tourist shopping area.  I will say that you could get good prices though.  Just keep shaking your head, no!!  Gary got me a silver with turquoise bracelet, so I have my keepsake!!

What turned me off wasx the use of little children, maybe age three or four, trying to sell!!  Needless to say, we did not buy from them.  Give us a store any old day.

The embarking and debarking the ship was a very smooth process.  We were pleased and would do it again.  We had our luggage taken on ship, but we carried it off ourselves since we wanted to get out of the parking garage quickly.  The sooner on the highways, the less traffic since it was Sunday.

We got a motel in San Bernardino so that I could make a visit to see my Uncle Howard, who turned 91 this past February.

Audrey and her uncle Howard.

It was good to see him, but sad to know that the memory was not very good.  He could recall childhood, but other things only as we asked.  He probably asked us twenty times that hour if he knew us and how.  But I guess we can all get there eventually.

I still have not solved my photo program problem!!  Hopefully, I can find someone here to solve it, or maybe Victor can un-install the program and then re-install.  I would only loose the photos from the time we left Ohio until we got to Mesa because everything else is on an external hard drive.  I just found another way to resize my newer photos without taking them into the program.  So I am saving them in file folders for now.  To be so computer illiterate is surely a handicap!!

BEGINNING WINTER AT MESA REGAL RESORT

Hello again!!    DROPPED PICTURES IN 10-31-14 !!

Another three weeks have gone by since my last writing, and still no pictures to use.

After reaching our destination of Mesa AZ, we began our new jobs October 7th for the Sales Office in a sister resort down the street.  After two weeks of office work and checking out the park model units that are for sale, as well as hosting five Open Houses with four other workampers assisting us by showing.  Our last she-bang was our boss, Mike's dog day (hotdogs, that is) with a New Model open for show and us as Hosts and set-up/clean-up crew of two. However, after our first week of floundering, we began asking ourselves if we really needed this stress.  We finally decided not and gave Mike our notice.  Hated to do that to him, but I am sure that he will find someone else better suited.

We have only been out sight seeing once since arriving.  Drove over to Globe though the mountains.

Often we see people repelling here.

We had lunch at Judy's Cook House.

Apache Casino stop on way back from Globe AZ
It is the most patron friendly casino that we
have been in for years!

Gary found this in a Wendy's parking lot!!

We spent an afternoon this past week window shopping at the Mall.  But could not afford a sport jacket that Gary needs next week for dinners on a Carnival Cruise we are doing for our 50th Anniversary on October 24th.  Gary surprised me with the confirmation when we went out to Organ Stop for lasagna one evening.  Had a great evening listening to the organ music on that great Wurlitzer!!

We are looking forward to the cruise and hope that it leads to more in the future.  When we first got here, Gary got the flyer advertising it in our mail box.  Surprise and surprise!!  Great price.

We also found all that we needed, including Gary's sport jacket, at a local thrift shop!!  Some awesome buys, and things in great shape. The dry cleaning will cost more than the items did!!  So we can put on the dog as we are supposed to.

Still shopping around for a church to our liking.  One of these Sunday's we will light and stay put. Things have changed in the church we attended two years ago.

It was great connecting with our Salem friends, Bill and Jane, who were already here at Mesa Regal working.   We have played cards with them and they took us out to the South Mountain where you can look out over all of Phoenix.

But we all were disappointed with closed roads.  Seems that they have suffered around here with washed our roads too.  So much more rain than usual this year.

We are looking forward to another couple friends, Bill and Esther, who should get here in mid-November from Salem.  They are going to workamp also.

So we are settling in, and enjoying the weather though high eighties and low nineties. Just one bad day of rain the first day after we arrived.  So hope that is all the heavy stuff.  We are also hoping no more hurricanes to spoil our cruise plans.

Take care and I will keep you posted.