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So Liv is gearing up big time for her April trip to London. I thought I might start going on a little bit about my family's next big trip.

In June, I'll be going with my family and my mother-in-law to Los Angeles to hitch a ride on the Disney Magic, which is spending this summer cruising along the Mexican Riviera. This will be our last cruise for a couple of years at least. But it'll be a lot of fun.

The ship will be stopping at Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. I've already settled on going Scuba Diving at Cabo -- I've heard that it's one of the best places for diving in the world, and I sure wouldn't want to miss out on that. Sadly, I am in danger of being forced to miss it, as the contractor that Disney signed up with has a weight limit for divers, and I'm about 25 lbs over it. So I'm working to meet my goal ASAP.

Regardless, I expect this trip to be a great way to celebrate our 30th anniversary. And give my mother-in-law one of the biggest thrills of her life. Goodness knows, after all the stuff she has gone through in her life, she deserves something good for her sunset years...

I had the opportunity to run stage crew for some very wealthy entrepreneurs one time who do this annual conference on private sail boating, and this particular one was Mexico...

The images they showed for that area are spectacular!!! Some of them make most American's ideals of vacation seem silly (ie- Hawaii, Bahamas, Jamaica.)...

It was just gorgeous.

Liv wrote:I had the opportunity to run stage crew for some very wealthy entrepreneurs one time who do this annual conference on private sail boating, and this particular one was Mexico...

The images they showed for that area are spectacular!!! Some of them make most American's ideals of vacation seem silly (ie- Hawaii, Bahamas, Jamaica.)...

It was just gorgeous.

I've been to Baja once in my life, but that was just Ensenada, not all the way to the tip of the peninsula. It was OK... but rather desert-like. I was 14 at the time. Got me some cool firecrackers and a deck of cards with photos of nekkid ladies.

I expect to have a slightly more mature approach to this vacation this time around...

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:I expect to have a slightly more mature approach to this vacation this time around...

Suuuuurrrrre.....

Liv wrote:

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:I expect to have a slightly more mature approach to this vacation this time around...

Suuuuurrrrre.....

Well, for one thing, the ship's security team won't allow anyone to bring fireworks back on board.

But seriously, I believe we have everything necessary lined up now. I made sure my mother-in-law got her passport back in December, so there's no problems there. For the rest of us, our passports don't expire until next year.

I bought our airline tickets to LAX (non-stop from CLT) back before the current spike in gas prices, so I bet that saved me a good bit of cash. And I got a 10% discount on this cruise by booking it on my last cruise. That saved us a very good bit of money. So yeah... things are looking pretty good at this point.

Now if we can all avoid major disasters between now and the summer......

I'm now buying everything through the airline website's "shopping page" so I get miles too!!!

I'm so going to start doing that in the future...

Ordered security bags for the trip at Sears, and got miles on AA....

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:Sadly, I am in danger of being forced to miss it, as the contractor that Disney signed up with has a weight limit for divers, and I'm about 25 lbs over it. So I'm working to meet my goal ASAP.

There's nothing to stop you from going with a local dive outfit in Puerto Vallarta (say). They're not quite so fussy. I also found that if you sort things out with locals when you get there you can negotiate the costs down to 1/10 easily. e.g. Chico's Dive Shop will take you on a Snorkel trip to Los Arcos for $31 (US) per person. We rented a boat and guide for the afternoon for 8 of us for $40 just by going to the village and talking with a local. We did provide our own snorkels.

A Person wrote:

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:Sadly, I am in danger of being forced to miss it, as the contractor that Disney signed up with has a weight limit for divers, and I'm about 25 lbs over it. So I'm working to meet my goal ASAP.

There's nothing to stop you from going with a local dive outfit in Puerto Vallarta (say). They're not quite so fussy. I also found that if you sort things out with locals when you get there you can negotiate the costs down to 1/10 easily. e.g. Chico's Dive Shop will take you on a Snorkel trip to Los Arcos for $31 (US) per person. We rented a boat and guide for the afternoon for 8 of us for $40 just by going to the village and talking with a local. We did provide our own snorkels.

Hm. You make a good point. I just did a search on Cabo scuba shops and found several that run 2-tank trips in our time frame, and no mention of a weight limit. We've gone with an independent dive shop before (in St. Thomas) and it worked out pretty well. I think I'll go with this option... and continue working on losing weight anyway.

Nearly at the last milestone on my preparations for vacation. Considering that I am a prior customer of Disney Cruise Line (they call us the "Castaway Club), we are able at the point of 90 days before departure to make reservations for the cruise. So I made all the arrangements for cool stuff like special dining, shore excursions and spa treatments for my wife and her mother. And we have completed the on-line check-in process. All that's left to do before we sail is clear up a few mundane details for the house and figure out which dive shop to sign up with at Cabo.

And of course, I need to start driving Sanjuro batty with my incessant talk of not being able to wait until I can set foot on my adopted home at sea...

Go gets some good Carnitas tacos for me!

Liv wrote:Go gets some good Carnitas tacos for me!

Well... I'm no fan of Mexican food, generally. I wasn't really thrilled with Mexico in general during the times I've been there, other than during my visit last fall to the ruins at Tulum. I'm going on this trip for other reasons: this year marks my 30th wedding anniversary, for instance. I figured that needs a pretty big celebration. And I love spending time on the Magic.

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:

Liv wrote: I'm going on this trip for other reasons: this year marks my 30th wedding anniversary, for instance. I figured that needs a pretty big celebration. And I love spending time on the Magic.

Just make sure there isn't a cement weight on your dive suit....

Liv wrote:

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:

Liv wrote: I'm going on this trip for other reasons: this year marks my 30th wedding anniversary, for instance. I figured that needs a pretty big celebration. And I love spending time on the Magic.

Just make sure there isn't a cement weight on your dive suit....

We usually use lead. Far more dense, you see.

For some reason I have a picture of SFI diving and squeezing the goo out of sea cucumbers.

Liv wrote:For some reason I have a picture of SFI diving and squeezing the goo out of sea cucumbers.

I know better than to touch a sea cucumber.
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Divers call it "the world's worst sneeze."

It's funny we went on one of those educational classes at the Monterey aquarium a few years back.... the aquarium in Star Trek (big whale one).... and I was upset that they didn't have a whale tank outside like in the movie.....

but.... we did play with a dead stupid sea cucumber...

3M breed them to make the glue for Post-It notes.

No way, serious?

Wonder how you "breed" a sea cucumber....

and are the babies called sea pickles?

Liv wrote:No way, serious?

Wouldn't surprise me. We get an awful lot of products from biological processes.

Wonder how you "breed" a sea cucumber....

That's a trade secret. Films of the process would be confiscated by the FBI as too obscene for even adult viewing.

and are the babies called sea pickles?

Sure... why not?

At the risk of sucking all the fun out of the thread.

Liv wrote:No way, serious?

No that was a joke.

Wonder how you "breed" a sea cucumber....

Sea cucombers are close relatives to sea urchins and starfish. They breed in the same way by squirting eggs and sperm with gay abandon into the sea - it's not a body contact sport. Adults are harvested for the muscle and the skin is made into trepang soup.

and are the babies called sea pickles?

The free swimming larval phase are called plankton, but the juveniles are pickled and sold as gherkins.

You said "Gay."


... HEATHEN... Cucumbers.

Some species are hermaphrodites, some change sex and some are straight, so gay is not completely inappropriate. But I was using the expression in the Shakespearian sense

You said "Gay" again....

Heathen... Shakespere...

Update:

Of all the... My mother-in-law has informed us that she had hit a bad patch during the past month, including a blown engine on her only working vehicle and an unexpected medical bill. Consequently, she is concerned that she very likely needs to take out a loan against her house and get a job to pay off the loan. This, she thinks, will force her to turn down the cruise offer. Which has already been paid for...

So we are working hard to figure out ways that we can get her to still go with us. I'd hate to have to get a replacement passenger at this stage. Bloody Murphy's Law....

Sounds like a holiday would be a neccessary medical expense. Call it anti-depression treatment.