Mother's Day 2013

I walked into my room one day and saw an orange evelope on my pillow with my name written on it.  Inside I found a colorful, smiley face card from my amazing husband.  Inside the card was my early Mother's Day gift- a sweet note and an all expense paid trip for 4 or 5 days to anywhere I wanted to go.  One of his friends (an old college roommate), Cory, did the same for his wife, DeeAnn.  DeeAnn and I have been joking with our husbands for a long time about sending us on a trip to make up for all the time they're away hunting and fishing.  I guess they got the hint :)

DeeAnn and I chose to go to LA and take a cruise to Ensenada, Mexico.  The cruise was relaxing and so much fun.  The best part of the ship was the serenity deck.  It's an area that tends to be quiet, because there are no kids allowed.  It also offered one of the best views of the ocean because it's on the end of the ship.  We loved laying out on the deck for some much needed R & R.  We took advantage of serenity's relaxing hot tubs each night after dinner.  We went to some shows and ate a ton of yummy food.  I splurged and bought a couple of virgin pina coladas.  They were worth every penny.  I crave them just thinking about it.

In Ensenada we went with a local tour guide to go horseback riding on the beach, visit La Bufadora (a marine geyser), and shop at Ensenada's flea market. The beach was beautiful! I loved watching the waves crash and the birds flying around.  As I was riding I kept looking down at all the seashells that had collected in the sand.  La Bufadora was quite impressive.  It's a huge geyser that explodes every few minutes.  It's a good thing I had my waterproof camera with me because the water went everywhere.  The flea market is right next to La Bufadora and we spent a lot of time sampling food and bartering with shopkeepers.  The food was to die for!  Everywhere we looked were samples of pina coladas, strawberry daquiries, and churros. Ensenada doesn't allow alcoholic beverages on their public streets, so everything was non-alcoholic.  We bought fresh fruit from a fruit stand and it was like I had never tasted fruit before.  We had mango, pineapple, watermelon and coconut- sprinkled with fresh lime juice and chili powder.  Ensenada is a colorful, lively city.  I definitely want to go there again someday.

When we got back to the port in Long Beach, I picked up our rental car and we headed to our hotel in Santa Monica.  It was a beautiful hotel on the beach.  The Santa Monica pier is lovely and the weather was perfect.  We went to Hollywood's Walk of Fame and had cupcakes at the Magnolia bakery.  Unfortunately we didn't put enough money into the parking meter, so I got my very first ticket.  On our last day we had breakfast on the hotel's patio, overlooking the ocean.  As I sat there in the cool ocean breeze, I was excited to get home, but sad to leave such a beautiful place.
It was an awesome trip and I'm so grateful for Jason giving me such an amazing Mother's Day gift.  Now I need to figure out what to give him for Father's Day.  He set the bar high this year!
                                           

 Some of my favorites: