Onboard The Star Princess

As I mentioned in a previous post, this was the second cruise Lloyd and I went on. The first was for our five year anniversary in 1999. This one was to celebrate our 15 year anniversary. We would have gone on one for our 10th anniversary, but I was pregnant with Cameron. And yes, we are planning to go on one for our 20 year anniversary - maybe we'll take the kids on that one. Well, needless to say, Lloyd and I just love cruises. We love that everything is included with the price of the cruise - FOOD, entertainment, travel, swimming pools, dancing, etc. Yes, we really like the food part since we love to eat. I'll just mention it now, I ate a lot on this cruise/vacation. I loved every bit of it and I think I even shocked Lloyd with how much I could eat. I wasn't happy when I got home and realized I had gained around 7 pounds, but I have no regrets. I would do it all over again! Originally, we were planning to go on a five-day cruise to Mexico, but when we found this cruise we changed our minds. We went to Mexico on our first cruise and were excited about doing something different. Also, this cruise was right when the swine flu was coming out so we were glad to avoid Mexico. This cruise was perfect because it left from San Francisco so we didn't have to travel a long way to get onboard. We even parked at Lloyd's work! We were also excited about cruising with Princess Cruises, we went on Royal Caribbean for our first cruise and wanted to compare . We were so blessed that my mom and Jay were able to watch the kids while we went on the cruise. They did a fantastic job and the kids loved being with Grandma and Grandpa.
We left on Thursday afternoon, May 7. After we got onboard, we went to our room to check it out. We were really excited to have a balcony outside of our room. Here we are standing on the balcony with the San Francisco bay in the background.
Here's what our room looked like. It wasn't huge, but we had plenty of room. They played reruns of The Love Boat on the TV. It was fun to watch and reminded me of when I watched that show when I was a little girl.
We checked out the rest of the ship. It has four swimming pools. Here's one with a movie screen above it. They show movies under the stars at night! Our only regret was not swimming before the ship took off. Once we were out to sea, it was way too cold and windy to swim in this pool. We did swim in the indoor one for a little while on Friday.

Lloyd checked out the basketball court and a huge chess game.
This was the area was called The Piazza. It was beautiful and had two glass elevators.

This was our first stop. Of course it had to do with food! We both ordered huge sundaes from Scoops Ice Cream.

We enjoyed our sundaes as we sailed beneath The Golden Gate Bridge. There was

lots of music, dancing, and fun as the ship pulled out to sea. It was such a festive atmosphere! We went back to our room and took a nap before dinner. Here we are in the dining room. The dinner was good. I had pasta and Lloyd had a seafood dish.
I was mostly excited about the four desserts we ordered. I love desserts! Can you tell?

After dinner we enjoyed a show called "Words and Music." The cruise singers and dancers performed numbers from different Broadway composers. I love musicals so I really enjoyed the show. Our first day on the ship was fabulous! We went to bed, dreaming about what we would do the next day.

Out to Sea

The next day we slept in and ate breakfast in our room. We were both tired so the sleeping in part was terrific! Then we decided to try out the hot tub and pool. We had to go to the indoor pool because it was so cold and windy out on the deck.

We really didn't last long in the pool. I didn't even get in, but Lloyd swam for a few minutes. Then I had another idea. I thought we should try going to a more private hot tub at the back of the ship. It was extremely windy back there! We could barely walk without getting blown over, but I visioned the air blowing through our hair while we sat in a nice warm hot tub. Boy was I wrong! I guess they don't heat those hot tubs at the back of the ship because nobody uses them when it's that windy. While wearing our swimsuits, we tried getting into an ice cold hot tub and strong winds were blowing all around us. It was probably the coldest moment of my life, but we were laughing like crazy! Then we were going to go for afternoon tea (herbal, of course), but the line for that was very long. Instead we got hot chocolate and I got to eat my favorite snack of all - warm peanut butter cookies. They were fantastic! We also explored more of the ship.

This was the back of the ship where that cold hot tub was. You can see how windy it was!

We decided to get a little work out in with all the food that we were eating. Lloyd ran on the treadmill while I did this exercise class with some other women. The class was really very challenging. It was led by a guy with an English accent and he wasn't even doing the exercises. He just kept saying, "Good Job, Ladies!" and "Keep It up, Ladies!" He had no idea how difficult the exercises were. I finally asked him, "When are you going to try some of these exercises?" I was so hot after the exercise class, I chose to run around the ship instead of running on the treadmill. I think I ran around the ship like 12 times to make three miles. The wind felt nice while I was running!

We dressed a little more formal for Friday's dinner. Lloyd had a steak and I had a steak and shrimp. It was very delicious! Of course, we tried more desserts too.

After dinner we enjoyed a comedy/juggling act. This guy was pretty talented. For his final act, he got out of a straight jacket while riding a unicycle. It was amazing to watch! Then we saw another show by the cruise dancers and singers. This one was called "Destination Anywhere." It included songs and dances from places all around the world like Las Vegas, London, Africa, and even the moon.

We stayed up late on Friday since it was our last night onboard. We ordered drinks and danced a bit. We couldn't remember the last time we had gone dancing. I guess we're getting old. It was fun to let loose again!

Arriving in Vancouver

We were a little sad when we woke up Saturday morning because we knew it was the last day of our cruise. Most cruises are round trip, but this one was one way to Vancouver. We woke up early so we could have breakfast in the dining room. We picked up these souvenir photos from the photo gallery. I also got a really nice scrapbook that I'm excited to work on some day.
We watched from our balcony as the ship pulled into Vancouver. It really is a beautiful city!

We relaxed up on the deck while we waited to disembark. We enjoyed just a few more minutes of the luxuries of our cruise ship. After we got off the ship, we had to go through customs. Then we got a taxi and took it to the bus station. From there we took the bus to the ferry that would take us to Victoria. The bus drove right onto the ferry where it parked in the garage.
On the ferry we enjoyed a buffet lunch. We also saw gorgeous views of the islands of British Columbia.

We were sad our two day cruise was over, but we looked forward to spending two days in Victoria.

Butchart Gardens

Victoria was wonderful. We felt so lucky to be there, but it was a little tricky finding our way around without a rental car. Our hotel was right across the street from the bus depot so that was convenient. We ate dinner at a favorite restaurant of mine - The Spaghetti Factory, also right across the street from our hotel. The next day was Sunday and Mother's Day. I felt bad not being with my kids on Mother's Day, but I still wanted to go to church. We ended up walking over two miles to get to church. It was a nice workout and we were very warm during Sacrament Meeting. It was a wonderful meeting. They gave all the mothers beautiful plants. I ended up having to leave the plant at the airport because they wouldn't let me bring it home through customs. After church we walked back to our hotel and changed our clothes. We ate lunch at a cute restaurant that had been converted from an old gas station. It was called Pluto's and the food was "out of this world." Then we took the bus to the Butchart Gardens. I had visited these gardens in 1986 when I was in seventh grade. I remember them being very beautiful. Once I saw them again, I realized my memory didn't do them justice. These gardens are the most spectacular I have ever seen. I recommend a trip to Victoria just so you can see them. Here's just a few shots of the flowers of Butchart Gardens.

Although, I wasn't with my children, I can't imagine a better place to be on Mother's Day. I felt lucky that we got to be there in spring when the flowers were in full bloom. People who have season passes to Butchart Gardens say they are amazing all four seasons of the year.

Even the trash cans are beautiful!

This is what I imagine The Garden of Eden must have looked like.

My eternal sweetheart and a beautiful view- complete bliss!

The Japanese Gardens didn't bloom as much, but they were very peaceful and serene.

A perfect ending for a perfect day - a double scoop of gelato for each of us. Lucky us!

Victoria

Monday was our last day in Victoria. We were sad to go home. It was an amazing trip, but we were also happy to get back home and see our kids. This was the view of the Victoria harbor from our hotel room.
Monday morning we had a gourmet breakfast at a little place called Abigail's. It was absolutely scrumptious!
Then we went on a harbor boat tour. Our tour guide told us a lot about Victoria and its history.
You can see the Victoria government building in the background.This is the famous Empress Hotel. They serve tea there daily, but it's very pricey so we just walked through during tea time.
Here are some of the water homes in the Victoria harbor. I understand they are very expensive!
I got excited when the tour guide told us this was the same bridge used in the Annie movie. I loved that movie when I was a little girl!
The harbor is not only used by boats, but also these sea planes. We even got to see one take off.
Our last moments in Victoria were spent walking through Beacon Hill Park. It was a very large and beautiful park. We wished we could have enjoyed it longer. We got ice cream and hamburgers at the Beacon Hill Drive In to take with us on the bus/ferry. We took the bus/ferry back to Vancouver. We hung out at the airport for a while. I kept thinking, they're filming New Moon here, maybe I'll see one of the Twilight actors. No such luck! As Lloyd and I flew home and drove back to Modesto, we relished in our trip. We loved it all! The cruise was the best. Victoria was beautiful. We loved going to Canada. The people there are so warm and friendly. We joked that maybe we'd retire there. British Columbia is definitely a beautiful place. We're so very grateful for the wonderful time we had there!

Cruisin' to Canada

Tomorrow Lloyd and I are leaving on a two night cruise to Canada aboard the Star Princess ship from Princess Cruise Lines. Then we're going to stay for two nights in Victoria on Vancouver island. We are so excited! We'll share all the details when we get back. This will be our second cruise. The first was for our 5 year anniversary and this one is to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Bon voyage!