Day 6 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

I opened the blind this morning to a glorious day.  From our bed we look through a large window to the passing scene and it’s a lovely way to wake up.

So….what day is it?  Who knows, who cares.  This is why we enjoy cruising.  Everything is done for you.  Meals are prepared, cleaning is done, entertainment is organised, all you have to do is be in the right place at approximately the right time!

We arrived into Carbo San Lucas, Mexico today and dropped anchor right beside another NCL cruise ship.  What a magnificent sight it was from the shoreline and I’m sure the locals thought all their lucky days had come at once to have almost 5000 people drop into their town.

Cabo San Lucas Harbour

We didn't have a tour organised for Carbo and thought we would simply soak up the atmosphere of the place.  We wore bathers under our clothes because we wanted to, at some stage during the day, dip our toes into the Pacific Ocean at Laguna Beach.  A friend had also suggested that we have a beer in the bar owned by one of the Van Halen members.  The bar is called Cabo Wabo.  We did pass by but the line to get into the hotel stretched right around the block!  As it was a very hot day we had no intention of waiting in the sun just for a beer!

Our rickshaw transport to the beach.  We reckon its a hard way to make a dollar

At Laguna Beach we went to the private beach area that had security guards blocking the never ending stream of hawkers selling every touristy thing you could possibly think of.  The hawkers would stand right at the entrance to the private area and try to catch your eye by holding up various items.  Heaven help you if you showed any interest.  It was very intimidating.

Our view from our beach chairs.  Our ship is one of two in the background.

The temperature of the water of the Pacific Ocean was perfect but as it was a very hot day we only stayed in the water for a little while before heading back under the relative cool of our beach umbrella.  We sipped on our cold drinks, White Wine Sangria for me and Corona’s for hubby and then ordered lunch from our very attentive waiter.  The pulled pork tacos were very delicious with just a little spice.  The taco itself was a soft tortilla and just the right size to hold without spilling everything over your lap.

Pulled Pork Tacos

We were surprised that the Corona came with its own bucket of ice and lemon wedges

After lunch we headed back to the ship for a leisurely afternoon.  I napped for a little while but Philip enjoyed being on the top deck and watching the world pass him by. 

The view from the Top Deck looking towards the "Hole in the Rock" at Cabo

We had a small dinner tonight (Chicken Pot Pie for me and Hamburge for Philip) and then made our way to the theatre for tonights show.  The singer had an amazing voice and sang the songs from the Sinatra era – The Swing Era.  He also sang some of Micheal Buble’s songs.  Did you know that Michal Buble started his career as a clown known as Micky Bubbles who used to sing at childrens birthday parties!

It was a lovely relaxing day and tomorrow we stop at Puerto Vallarta.

Day 5 at Sea

Today was a day at sea.  These are the days we enjoy the most.  It was relaxation by the pool reading a book for me, and the exercise bike for Philip.  We had to put our clocks forward an hour today that threw us  a little because we didn’t sit down for breakfast until 9.30am and they shut the restaurant at 10am! 

The day was not as warm as we would have liked and quite overcast but by the end of the day the sun had come out.

Pre lunch drinks poolside

We enjoyed the bbq lunch poolside and after our lunch had been digested we did a 4km walk around the promenade deck.  We knew that we had to do this walk because tonight is Tepanyaki and from previous experience we know it is a huge meal.

These were delivered to our suite for an afternoon treat.  I had already eaten one before I took the photo!

We had a 7.30pm booking at the Tepanyaki table and as we waited for our chef to arrive we chatted to the people sitting beside us who were from the Hunter Valley.  Surprisingly there are a lot of Aussies on board this cruise. 

We are still acquainting ourselves with the "selfie" and not so good at it!

Our chef arrived and showed us how good he is with knives.  It is quite scary at times when they start throwing those knives in the air!

Our Chef

The meal was delicious albeit huge!  We started off with Wasabi Cocktails, followed by miso soup then came a grilled vegetable side dish alongside Fried rice.  My protein choice was the filet steak and chicken. That is a whole chicken breast and a 250g fillet steak!  I didn't have a hope in hell in getting through all of it. Dessert was green tea cake andgreen tea ice-cream that I was not a huge fan of but I at least tried it.  It was very bitter.

Miso Soup with some sort of bean accompaniment

They called this drink Wasabi Cocktail and it was sooooo delicious!

After dinner we made our way to the Stardust Lounge for the 9.15 pm evening show.  We were late, and the audience let us know so with all that tut tutting. Why do people sit right on the aisle and leave the seats in the middle available so that you have to crawl over everyone’s knees to get to them!  Anyway the show was great but we were once again very pleased to crawl into our beds. 

Part of the show tonight

P.S.  This is my belated birthday present from the man I love......

Day 4 - Norwegian Pearl

Our boarding time for the Norwegian Dawn was 10.30am so we ordered a car to pick us up from the hotel at 10am.  The car was right on time and we commented on how clean the car was compared to the taxi that we caught from LAX to our hotel!  The driver was a book of information and chatted all the way to the World Cruise Centre at San Pedro.  His number one topic was the elections and as he was Hispanic he, rightly so, hoped that Donald Trump was not elected as President.  As we can’t, and shouldn’t have an opinion on another countries election (even thought we agreed with him)  we let him talk until we could politely change the subject to other matters.  This included gun control (he was in favour of), Obama Care and minimum wages of Americans (having to rely on tips to make up their very low wages). After listening to him we were once again very happy to be Australian citizens.

Panorama of the viewfrom our Suite

We were one of two ships departing this port

Once we arrived at the Port we were ushered into a giant hall for processing.  This did not take long and we were then directed to a lounge area where there was food and beverages for us to consume while we waited.  After the welcome talk by our Conceirge we were onboard by noon and directed to Cagneys Restaurant for our lunch.

Lunch was lovely but the service was not and when we finally received our meals they were not what we had ordered!  This was quickly rectified and we put it down to first day at sea and probably the first day for some of the staff.

After lunch we made our way back to our cabin to wait for the arrival of our luggage. 

Bedroom

Main Bathroom

Living Area leading to balcony

Living area looking back to the entrance

As we entered our room – the Emerald Penthouse Suite - we commented that this was probably the largest suite of the four NCL cruises that we had done.  We love the two showers , toilets and dressing rooms! We sat back and enjoyed our complimentary champagne and watched from our balcony as the hundreds of pallets of food, beverage and luggage was loaded on board.  This takes an enormous amount of skill as there were forklifts heading every direction!

When our luggage arrived we quickly unpacked, showered, changed and went upstairs to watch the ship depart the dock.  By this time it was 6.00pm and as we watched the sun slowly sink we said goodbye to Los Angeles.

The traditional "Leaving Port Party" poolside

Goodbye San Pedro

Goodbye again!

We had a very light dinner tonight after our very large lunch and we made our way to the Stardust Lounge for the evening show that we both said was very lacklustre.  We certainly hope that it improves tomorrow evening!

Day 3 - Tuesday - Beverley Hills 90210

I spent most of the night lying awake and reading an e-book but at 2.30am I finally fell into a deep sleep and didn't wake until 8.00am.  After we showered we went downstairs to enjoy the continental breakfast that the hotel included.  I wish I had taken a photo of the fruit salad.  It was the  best I have ever eaten and I am quite the connoisseur of fruit salad!  All ingredients were fresh and included watermelon, pineapple, blueberries, mulberries, rockmelon and honeydew melon. After the very satisfying breakfast we purchased tickets for the Hop-On Hop-Off double decker bus tour.  We seem to do these tours in most countries that we visit and firmly believe they are the best way to get around and see a bit of the place you are visiting.  Today we took the two hour yellow loop that started at Beverley Hills and then passed through the suburbs of Century City, West LA, Santa Monica, Brentwood and Westwood.

Some of the tourist sites.......

We "hopped off" the bus at Santa Monica and wandered out along the Santa Monica Pier. We walked past many talented buskers, street hawkers, homeless and many many tourists.  I was looking for the Carousel but we couldn't find it anywhere! A google search later and we realised that we had walked right around the building housing it!  Duuhhh!

Looking over the Pacific Ocean

Santa Monica Pier

One of the many buskers who did a great job of the song "Crazy"

After the Pier we walked back to the mall where were found a good ol" British pub where we had a feed or Shepherds Pie (Philip) and Steak, Mushroom and Guiness Pie.  We washed these down with beers and declared it the best feed that we had eaten since we left home.

Lunch - John, you would have loved this!

When we looked at our watches we realised that it was time to catch the last return bus back to Beverley Hills.  Many others must have also realised this because the bus was quite crowded on the return journey.

The LAPD Police Cars haven't changed much over the years!

Santa Monica is renowned for its Palm Tree lined streets

It was a beautiful sunshine day with hardly a cloud in the sky and by the look of the country surrounding LA it is probably the last thing they are wanting to see. It is very dry around the city and looks like it needs a good downpour or rain.
The end of the day saw us back at our hotel for happy hour drinks and nibbles (included in our tariff) and now we are showered and waiting for sleep to take us off to dream land.

Day 2 Monday - Brisbane to Los Angeles

Our overnight stay at the Novotel Hotel is Brisbane was uneventful and we both complained of waking many times throughout the night.  Whether it was a different bed or just excitement, it's hard to tell.  We had booked ourselves on the 8.30am shuttle from the hotel to the International Airport and it was right on time.  Our driver was a bit of a clown and kept us all amused on the journey.  We went to the domestic airport first and by the time we reached international, we were the only ones onboard.

A lovely waitress in the Air New Zealand lounge took our photo

Check-in for our flight was straightforward and we headed straight for the Air New Zealand lounge to get some breakfast into our, by this stage, very hungry bellies.  Scrambled eggs with chives on sourdough followed by fruit salad and yoghurt certainly satisfied my hunger.  The coffee, well lets just say the coffee flavoured water, was not so great.  (We have been totally spoilt in the coffee department with our friends from New Guinea bringing us down a carton of truly excellent coffee)

It didn't seem to take very long at all for our flight to Auckland to be called and as we boarded the plane we were very impressed with the business class seating that folds out to full length beds.  Not that we needed that at midday!  Lunch was delicious.  Salmon Gravlax for starters followed by Pork Belly with mustard mash, sautéed purple cabbage and relish. To round off the meal I chose the Lime and Coconut brûlée.  No photos.  My camera was out of reach by the time the meal was delivered.
After lunch I watched the Tom Hanks movie - A Hologram for the King.  I enjoyed the movie and got a giggle out of  it but some may say (rightly so) that it had no substance.
We arrived into a bleak Auckland after a three hour flight and made our way once again to the Air New Zealand lounge to wait for our connection to Los Angeles.....a two hour wait.  Our boarding call came and once again we were on board our long haul flight to LA.  Nothing exciting to report here.  Air New Zealand is a great airline and has rightly deserved the "Airline" of the year title for the past five years.  The service and food is excellent and the full length flat beds made our 12 hour flight to LA very enjoyable even though there was a lot of turbulence.  We arrived into LA at 11.30 am on Monday at exactly the same time and day that we departed Brisbane! We will of course lose that day on the way home.  We checked into the Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive and after a quick bite to eat at a local cafe and a stroll around Beverley Hills, we were tucked up in bed by 6.00pm.

Philip enjoying his meal

On board breakfast menu

Dinner Menu

A glass of champers to see us on our way

Lunch at a lovely little cafe in Beverley Hills - Turkey Club Sandwich with the obligatory fries

Photo shoot!

Day 1 Cairns to Brisbane

We have had this trip booked for well over twelve months and today saw us travelling the first leg of journey from Cairns to Brisbane.  Our flight from Cairns left at 12.20pm so we gave ourselves plenty of time and left home at 9.30am.  The road between Port Douglas and Cairns is notorious for car accidents that can see the highway closed for many hours so it is always prudent to give yourself plenty of time.  Today, we had no problems and it was a nicely paced journey along the newly named Great Barrier Reef Drive.  

Clothes have been laid out on the bed for quite a few days.  It's amazing how often it's changed!

All packed on spot on 20kg!

Check in at Cairns was easy although we were surprised that we weren't asked for any ID. We waited for our flight in Qantas Club where we enjoyed coffee and cake.  We knew that we would get a meal on board our flight so we didn't want to over indulge.

The flight left right on time and in no time at all we were sitting back and enjoying a glass of wine with a pretzel and cashew mix.  The meal was served about half an hour into our flight.  I chose the tomato soup with sourdough followed by lemon cheesecake.  The soup was totally delicious but so hot that I burnt my mouth on the first mouthful!  The soup was so filling that I didn't end up eating the cheesecake.  

Our plane arrived right on time and from the airport we caught a taxi to  Novotel Airport Hotel.  No-one will be surprised that the taxi fare was a staggering $20 for about a 5km journey!  Bring on Uber I say.

We had arranged to meet my sister and her husband at 4.00pm for drinks followed by dinner.  My sister brought along a lovely bottle of bubbles for her and I to enjoy.  My man drank beer while my brother-in-law stayed with the lighter stuff as he was driving.  It was great to catch up on all the family news over dinner we can't wait to see them both again at christmas.  We all enjoyed our meals.  The men had calamari entree while my sister and I enjoyed pizza bread.  For mains my brother-in-law and I both chose the Lamb, my sister chose the Atlantic Salmon and hubby had the Duck.  We all agreed that they were delicious.  

It wasn't a late night and we were well and truly tucked up in bed by 8.30 and I think I was asleep by 8.32!  

This and That

I have been trying very hard to lose a few kilos before our cruise next month so it's been all about healthy eating this week.  I made a delicious Chicken Noodle Soup for lunch yesterday and today I made a vegetarian lasagne.  Both were very delicious and healthy and the added bonus is that most of the ingredients came straight from our garden.
The vegetable garden just keeps on giving and I think this year has been the best we have ever grown.  This is what I picked this morning....

and this is what I turned them into.....

Tomato Sauce, Bok Choy & Silverbeet with Pesto, Roasted Zucchini, Eggplant Sweet Potato

And added all those ingredients to a dish to make a lasagne (this is halfway through the layering)

I received another anniversary present (2nd) from HSV in the mail today.  This time it is a gorgeous leather overnight bag.  How good is that!

I had an overnight stay in hospital last week to remove a very large ganglion from my right hand index finger.  I let it go too long and it took the surgeon almost an hour to remove it.  It had wrapped itself around the bone and had to be scrapped away.

It's still quite swollen but the swelling is not as uncomfortable as the ganglion had become

Philip is on his way to Townsville to bring his mother home for a few days.  She was admitted into Townsville hospital yesterday with pneumonia so we will give her some TLC and hopefully she will be well enough to go on her holiday to Western Australia at the end of the month.  She has also made the decision to leave Magnetic Island and move to Cairns.  The family are very happy that she is doing this.