Merry Christmas!

Tuesday ended up being the "day at sea" since the weather was very windy. But it also made for a rough day on the boat especially if you have a tendency to get motion sickness. The schedule originally had us in Catalina Island for the day but since tenders are used to transfer passengers from the boat to the shore. It was deemed too rough for the transfers.

Wednesday wasn't much better and after going in circles all day and night, the ship decided to skip Catalina headed south for Ensenada. We arrived around 3pm (only 6 hours later). And, like most on the ship, we took the opportunity to wander around a bit on solid ground.

Ensenada seems really run down and it was more than a little depressing. Every 10' or so someone is waving something in your face to buy. Not pleasant. Once we got to the tourist shopping district, there were shops with familiar names such as Starbucks and MacDonalds. After all, you wouldn't expect the tourists to try something new and different.

On Thursday, Christmas Eve, we went on a tour of the wine producing areas outside of Ensenada. I figured that I would want to get out of town for a while and this seemed perfect. It turns out that due to our delay of a day, we were the only ones on the tour. Talk about personalized service! Instead of riding a bus we took a Ford Expedition. We visited two wineries on the trip the first was a smaller winery that also produced olive oil and plain and spicy jams. The guide did a fantastic job.

The second on the tour was the largest winery in Mexico and produces about 90% of all the wine in Mexico. They provided samples of not just the wine but also cheese, olives and olive oil. I didn't realize that Mexico produced any olive oil as what I see in the store is typically from the Mediterranean region. In addition to these barrels, they used smaller oak and some unusual oval barrels for their premium wines.

At the second winery, this cat was being friendly and is just slowly flowing off of the bench where it was enjoying the sun. It was a very friendly cat and came by to visit while we waited for the winery tour to start.

Anyway, that was the cruise. Just four short days. Too much good food. A little bit of motion sickness. A little bit of wine tasting. And a little bit of limoncello (to get the tiny cup, right?) We are now back on our way to Long Beach harbor and disembark before 8:00am tomorrow. We will be in L.A. For a few more days before heading to Chicago. Brrrr! Getting cold just thinking about it.…

Since we're by definition at or above sea level, this (circled in red) iPhone GPS elevation shouldn't bother me?

 

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