Dique & Tuni's Blog o' Fun: I love it when we're cruisin' together.

Holland America cruiseship The Ryndam at night in Topolobampo, Mexico.

Dique's parents (J & B) are fans of cruises, and after our honeymoon and our (literal) maiden voyage - I can see why.

Picture this: there's a really nice hotel docked in the beautiful bright blue bay of San Diego. You check-in to the hotel, unpack your things, crack open a bottle of champagne and sit on your deck. At sunset, the hotel leaves the bay and sets sail along the Western Coast of Mexico. Each night you see the sun set out over the Pacific Ocean and each morning a friendly gentleman brings you a huge tray filled with breakfast goodies.

Sometimes you see dolphins. Sometimes you see whales. Every day tops out at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit - not too hot, but hot enough to render a margarita acceptable at any time of the day.

During the day the hotel's pools, restaurants (and by "restaurants" I mean "dessert buffets"), casinos and movie theaters are open to you... and everything (except the aforementioned margarita and it's alcohol-based relatives) is pre-paid.

The hotel stops at a few ports where you can walk around a small (or large) Mexican city, go on adventures or just sit by the water, eat tacos and drink cervezas. The hotel eventually brings you back to the bay of San Diego and you return to normal life: rested, relaxed and rounder (thanks to ginormous breakfast trays, margaritas and other endless amounts of food).

J&B found a 10-day cruise on Holland America out of San Diego on Monday, the 23rd, and it was the PERFECT thing for us. We stayed at the Fairmont on our wedding night, then flew to San Diego on Sunday evening, after a lazy breakfast at the hotel, and an even lazier afternoon at SFO drinking Saucy Shirley Temples, waiting for our delayed flight.

The cruise spent the first two days at sea, then we hit Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Topolobampo, Loreto, La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. And then we had another day at sea before landing back in San Diego on Thursday the 5th of March.

We met really nice people on the boat - nice people who kept asking us why we were on that boat because it seemed to be geared towards an older crowd. Our answer remained the same: we all moved at the same pace.

Sleeping? Good.

Eating? Good.

Drinking? Excellent.

In Puerto Vallarta we did a 6-hour "Outdoor Challenge" where we rode a high-speed raft down the coast to the south end of the city, got on what seemed to be a military troop transporter vehicle (like a jeep that could fit 15 people), and then rode mules to the top of the jungle hills before we zip-lined down. All in all, we went on about six or seven zip-lines that day. One was directly into the river (as in, you break by landing directly into the water) and one was really high-up over the jungle valley. We also repelled down a waterfall, then did a free-fall repel off a platform. We crossed some suspension bridges, and basically had a fantastic time. On the raft-thing back to the ship I spotted a whale behind us which was amazing (and only slightly terrifying since I have a bit of a random fear of whales, which is altogether a different blog).

The next day is Mazatlan we went zip-lining again, though this time we were inland where it was very hot and very dry. The course went around and over agave plantations - and you can bet we did some tequila tasting afterwards.

The next day, in Topolobampo, we went on a "Romantic Sunset Cruise" to celebrate our whopping Week 1 of being married. Dique will tell you we were on a small boat at sunset, but it was not a "Romantic Sunset Cruise" by any means. It was more of a nature/wildlife tour of the bay - but maybe that's because neither of us find pelicans and plastic red cups filled with gnarly margaritas romantic. We did see a lot of dolphins and birds and were all too happy to come back to the ship and have a table for two waiting for us in the dining room.

We took pictures up until the "Sunset Cruise" when we killed my camera's battery - which was really okay since our M.O. at the rest of the ports was to find a nice little bar or cafe on the water, sit in the sun, drink beer and play dominoes for hours on end. It. Was. Fantastic. And, isn't something that needed any documenting.

In Loreto we purchased our one and only souvenir - a miniature nativity set to have out on future Christmases. In La Paz we learned about "micheladas" which involve a large salt-rimmed glass with ice, beer and lime or tomato juice. Any way you make it, it's refreshingly delicious and goes well with marinated pork nachos or ahi tacos.

In Cabo we witnessed some funny Spring Break behavior, watched a poor guy step directly into dog poop on the beach, and had quite a few mango daiquiris (which did indeed make PoopGate 2009 funnier). We also went to Cabo Wabo, and had excellent guacamole, but unfortunately did not see Sammy Hagar.

We had a blast, and thank Dique's parents so much for turning us onto cruising! And I'll shut up now and leave you to some pictures.