June was a whirlwind month with a lot of travel and not a lot of time at home. So rather than doing my traditional monthly recap, I'm going to share three individual posts about the destinations that took up the majority of our time: a cruise to Mexico, a family trip to the Oregon coast, and a pioneer trek.
Starting with the cruise . . .
We kicked off the month (literally on June 1st) with a cruise for a bunch of graduating seniors. At the beginning of the year, Aaron and his friends were trying to decide what they wanted to do for a senior trip, and it didn't take a lot of researching to realize that a cruise would be the cheapest option with the most fun and and the most food.
Mike and I volunteered to be chaperones for two reasons: Aaron wasn't 18 yet, so we thought it might make things less complicated if he wasn't traveling solo; and also, we had never been on a cruise before, and this sounded like a fun way to experience one for the first time.
In total, there were 22 kids and 9 chaperones. We booked a five-night cruise through Carnival with destinations in Cabo and Ensenada.
Overall, it exceeded my expectations. Here are the highlights:
Our group
If Mike and I had done this cruise alone, I think we would have had an enjoyable time. But doing it with this awesome group of kids (actually young adults, I know) and their parents made it so memorable and fun. We only knew one of the chaperones well beforehand; all the others were either casual acquaintances or complete strangers before we got on the boat. There was one other couple, and then the rest of the groups were moms, so seven women and two men.
Sometimes all of the chaperones would be together while other times, we would split off into smaller groups. Mike and I usually stayed together, but the people we were hanging out with changed throughout the day. Sometimes we'd go to breakfast with the Daniels and then hang out on the top deck with Becky and then go to a towel folding class with Jen and Amy.
The same was true with the kids. A big group of them would be making friendship bracelets, and then some would break off to get ice cream, and then those who wanted to would go down the water slides before they all met up for card games and pizza.
I will say that most of the other chaperones seemed to have significantly more energy than Mike and I did. They would still be dancing and singing at midnight or hanging out with the kids playing games at 1:00am, while Mike and I would already be back in our cabin going to sleep. It was not so much that I needed to go to bed early as that I was worn out from all the noise and crowds and needed a chance to decompress.
Dinner
As chaperones, we mostly tried to give the kids their space (even though Aaron might say it still wasn't enough space), but the one place where we all tended to converge was dinner. We made a reservation every night at the formal dining room where all 31 of us took up four long tables and ate together.
This was one of my favorite parts of the whole cruise. I loved the slower pace of dinner: ordering from the menu (which changed every night) and then eating in courses: appetizer, main, dessert. The waiters were friendly and attentive and put on a little show every night. A couple of the kids had birthdays close to the dates we were on the cruise, so we celebrated those at dinner as well. We talked and laughed. In general, the food was quite good (except for the desserts--not sure what that was about).
Kayaking and Snorkeling
The cruise made stops in Cabo and Ensenada. Our group split three ways in Cabo: some went swimming with dolphins, some hung out on the beach, and Mike and I took nine of the boys kayaking and snorkeling.
We booked it separate from the cruise, which made it significantly cheaper (about $80/person). In the days leading up to the excursion, I was quite anxious about it: getting all the kids off the boat, keeping them all safe while in Mexico, and getting everyone back on the boat at the end of it, not to mention the actual kayaking and snorkeling part for a non-adventurous person like me.
But now that it's all over and done and everyone is safely back home, I can say that the excursion was for sure one of the highlights (we did manage to lose one of the boys right off the bat, but he was located within five minutes). Our guides (Casey, Carlos, and Carlos) were knowledgable and helpful.
We each paired up in a kayak. It was about a mile to the snorkeling spot, which sounds fairly easy, but the water was pretty choppy, especially since we had to navigate around a bunch of boats. But we made it without incident.
At first, I didn't go snorkeling. I admit, I was worried about all of us just leaving all our stuff on the beach (including our passports and $1000 in cash because we still needed to pay for the excursion). Also, snorkeling and I have a rocky relationship. I usually like it for about seven minutes, and then my goggles fog up and I started to feel claustrophobic. But when Mike came back in, he said that I absolutely had to come see.
So we left all our stuff with one of the Carloses, and I picked up my gear. And I have to tell you, I had the absolute best snorkeling experience of my life! Not only did my goggles never fog up (apparently dish soap is the magic charm), but the water was clear and filled with all sorts of interesting things to look at. We swam through schools of fish and saw manta rays gliding across the bottom. We all loved it.
Then we all got back into our kayaks (with all of our passports and money accounted for, whew) and paddled back to the beach we started at.
As far as Ensenada, I actually opted to stay behind with one of the other chaperones (the ship was blissfully empty!). Mike and Aaron got off with everyone else and spent a couple of hours shopping and walking around before coming back. Mike bought me a beautiful opal necklace and earrings that he maybe got scammed on, but we'll never know.
Food
Where do I even start with the food? It was unlimited, and the kids for sure took advantage of this and probably averaged six meals a day. Besides a buffet, which rotated through a variety of foods throughout the day, there were many other cuisine-specific options: tacos, burgers, Italian, smoked meats, etc.
The very first food I ate, within 30 minutes of getting on the ship, was a plate a tacos. When I took my first bite, I said to Mike, "This will probably be my favorite food of the trip." And it just might have been. There was something about sitting on a deck chair on a cruise ship in the ocean with a plate of tacos on my lap that felt very indulgent.
The quality of the food was hit and miss. Some of it (the tacos) was very good and some of it (the ice cream) was mediocre. I will admit that the constant availability of food felt gluttonous. There were half eaten plates of food and mostly empty glasses abandoned all over the ship. These were continuously being removed by staff, only to have them replaced by more plates and glasses within minutes.
The Piano Guy, Ben
We took advantage of a lot of the entertainment on the ship, but most of it was underwhelming. However, on the first night, Jen went to the piano bar and discovered Ben Tidwell. After that first time, most of our group went every single night. He had an extensive song list to request from, and his vocals and keyboard skills were pretty amazing. As the week went on, we became the most devoted fans, arriving right when Ben arrived and staying until he closed the lid on the piano, which was three to four hours.
The piano bar was not a large space, so it's safe to say, we monopolized the room and the requests, which wasn't entirely fair of us. There was one other group of seniors from St. George who came frequently as well as two older couples from Orange County. We kind of all became friends over our shared admiration of Ben.
On the last night, we arrived 45 minutes before Ben started so we could claim our seats. The energy that night was palpable. We were all so happy to be together listening to favorite songs and joining in. Sometimes all the kids would jump up and start a mosh pit at the back of the room. One time, one of the older couples even went into the middle of the mosh pit. They closed their eyes and soaked up all that youthful energy. (At the end of the night, one of the husbands told us several times, "I have never been around kids like these. I am just so impressed.)
Our time with Ben ended with "We are the Champions" by Queen and everyone linking arms and rocking back and forth singing at the tops of their voices. Our time in the piano bar honestly felt magical, and maybe even a little sacred.
Relaxing
This is what I was hoping to get out of the cruise, and it delivered. I loved sitting out in the sun (or finding shade if it got too warm) and reading, knitting, or chatting. One afternoon, Mike and I went back to our cabin and watched a movie, which was so lovely. We took walks around the promenade deck, sat in the hot tub, went to shows, ate yummy food, played games, made friendship bracelets, and people watched.
Although I'll admit that in general, the cruise felt like a floating great and spacious building with so much drinking, eating, dancing, singing, and general raucous behavior, but in my little bubble, everything was quite calm and lovely. I loved getting to watch Aaron have such a good time with his amazing group of friends that have meant so much to him throughout his high school years. It was the perfect send off into adulthood.
