Me gusta la playa

Our last day in Acapulco was overcast and slightly rainy. If you know Wade well, or if you’ve been to Del Rio or Possum Kingdom with him, you know this is the ideal beach day as far as he’s concerned. Thus, we lathered up, grabbed our snorkeling gear and hopped on a local bus for Playa Caleta, described in our guide book as the most “kid friendly” beach in Acapulco. The bus is great. It costs 4 pesos per person (less than a dollar as they don’t charge for Emma). A cab would be five bucks. Sure there’s no a/c and some of the passengers are less than savory, but overall it’s safe transportation. We arrived at Playa Caleta and spent just a few minutes there before catching a boat to Isla Roqueta, where our guide book said the best snorkeling can be found. Emma’s initial encounter with snorkeling didn’t go so well. She had all her gear on and was just about ready to put her head in the water when a giant wave overtook us. Spitting out salt water and running to the shore she announced, “This wasn’t such a good idea Mommy.” A couple of hours later though, she was ready to try again and really enjoyed herself. When she described the fish she’d seen, one of our shipmates told her they were Sergeant Majors. THIS NEXT SECTION IS NOT FOR THE WEAK-STOMACHED -- SCAN UNTIL YOU RETURN TO ALL CAPS. (Aunt Sharla, you’d better not still be reading this!!) We had lunch on the beach. First we had quesadillas from a vendor who was walking up and down the beach. Wade and I had fish y queso and Emma had solo queso. Yummy! Next, Wade and I ordered fish. We were all set to have shrimp because the fish was too expensive and then the waiter came down on his price considerably so we switched. Or, we thought we did. Instead, we ended up with both and got totally hosed in the price of our meal. Must learn to speak Spanish. The guy even admitted we were paying gringo prices! Looking my food in the eye isn’t one of my favorite moments, but I was hungry. I started with the shrimp and moved to the fish, telling Wade this was our best meal in Mexico even if we were paying too much for it. Thirty seconds later I was reaching for Emma’s sand bucket and throwing up all over her new collection of shells and coral. At this point Wade is trying to hold onto his own lunch while Emma’s crying “my treasures! Mom’s puking all over my treasures!” After what seemed to be the sixth or seventh round of this, I paused to drink some water and said to Wade “I’d like to resend my last remark concerning this meal.” Then, being the incredibly loving supermom that I am, I walked over to an area of the beach behind some rocks and began to dig through my vomit to find and wash Emma’s treasures. She was quite pleased when I returned with a clean bucket, treasures intact. WEAK STOMACHS RESUME HERE: We spent about another ½ hour on the beach before taking the boat back to Playa Caleta and the bus back to the marine terminal. To end the day on a bright note, the High School Musical Concert Series was in Mexcio this week and they were playing it on the television terminal so we ended our stay in Acapulco listening to “We’re All in This Together.”

Cliff Divers

We left the water park just before five in an attempt to catch showers before our 6:45 meeting time for our evening excursion. SAS had a trip to watch the famed Cliff Divers followed by a waterscreen projection of the history of Acapulco. The Exec. Dean’s wife bragged on what a good traveler Em is, as did his mom! I’ll post a photo of Emma and Wade with the divers.

Hasta Luego Liz & Jeremy

Day two in Acapulco. Breakfast this morning was bittersweet. We’ve enjoyed many meals with Liz and Jeremy over the course of the past week and they graciously met us again this morning for breakfast just thirty minutes before they needed to catch a taxi for the airport. Emma enjoyed telling them about the fish she’d seen last night and a bit about Fuerte San Diego before they had to exit. After big hugs and promises to meet up next summer, they went to grab their bags. Emma and I sat down at the table and then the waterworks began. We knew they would only be sailing with us a short time. It was really a blessing they were here at all. Jeremy participated in a half iron-man competition in Ensenada just before our arrival. Liz had agreed to distribute surveys for the University of Arizona to the SAS students during the first two days of class. Thus, they would be sailing only in between Ensenada and Acapulco. Still, having them on the ship just felt right and their presence will be greatly missed. In an effort to combat the sadness Emma was experiencing (okay, we all were), we caught a cab to CiCi’s. No, we did not hit a pizza joint. Cici’s is a water park. What an incredible time we had! This park was incredibly kid friendly, and as we got there just as it opened, it was not at all crowded for the first half of our visit. A section created just for those who don’t really swim was a Godsend. It had two small and four large slides, several waterfall areas, climbing equipment, etc. As Emma climbed the steps for the first big slide, Wade heard her say “This is PARADISE!” Next, we hit the wave pool and then (drumroll please) the Tobaggan. Wade went to the area where this ride ends and I climbed up 90 stairs with Emma. (Can you say winded???) Minimum height was 1.10 meters, and that’s exactly where Emma currently stands. They wouldn’t allow us to ride together and she insisted she was okay going alone. Wade said he was quite surprised to look over and see her coming down solo! The first words out of her mouth after she landed in the pool? “Otre ves; Otre ves!” I’m not sure the exact number of times we went down this slide, but my leg muscles say it was quite a few! We let her go again and again because we feared our inflatable tubes would be gone when we returned from lunch. We paid 20 pesos each for two and had to put down a 10 peso deposit. We decided to risk losing the deposit and leave the tubes on a lounge chair, but didn’t really expect to see them again. Arms stamped with the green CICI’s logo, we walked over to the Hard Rock Café. Stop judging! Yes, local cuisine is part of the experience, but we are traveling for TWO MONTHS here people. And, we’ve been collecting Hard Rock stuffed animals for Emma since she was just over a year old. I have this vision of them lining her dorm room shelves, reminding her of the wonderful times we’ve had as a family. I’m sure by the time she leaves for college, that idea will not be appealing to her, but she placates me for now! When we walked into Hard Rock, the first people we saw were from SAS. Our friends Ana and Elsa and their children were just finishing a meal. Husbands Gary and Cory had gone to a Mexican cooking class and they decided to venture out with the kids for a bit. Hard Rock has a great play area where the kids can go with no outside entry or exit, so we broke our “eat and then play” rule so Emma could spend time with Mariana, Nicolas, & Emma Esperanza. Brandt stayed in his stroller and hung out with the grown ups. The funniest part about running into them is that Ana and Elsa are Max Brandt’s daughters. If you read our first Acapulco entry, you’ll remember that Max is the one who was so disappointed that we weren’t eating entirely Mexican cuisine at this port. The first words out of their mouths were “you can’t tell!” We agreed, but reminded them it was their husbands who had ratted us out to Max the previous day. We’re enjoying getting to know these families. The girls sailed with their parents a number of times growing up and say it’s a dream come true to have their families aboard this summer.

Sunrise in Acapulco

Thursday morning Emma woke bright and early so we were all able to head up to the 7th deck and watch the ship come in to the port. The pilot boat came alongside at 7:30 and we were dockside about 8:00. I’ll try to post a picture of the sunrise coming up over the hills. Around 9:15 the U.S. Consular addressed the shipboard community and Emma graciously drew pictures and sat quietly for his entire talk. The ship was cleared for disembarkation around 9:45. Wade sent a few trips on their way and by 10:30 we were off the ship. The Watki being on land 45 minutes after the ship being cleared is an absolute record! We walked into Acapulco with Liz and Jeremy for a while and then we each went our own ways, agreeing to meet in “Purser’s Rhombus” at 5:00 to head out for dinner. Lunchtime found the Watki eating Italian food in Old Acapulco (yes, thank you, we’ve been chastised for the Italian food in Mexico bit plenty, especially since Max Brandt, professor of ethnomusicology and the Exec. Dean on our Spring ’04 voyage got wind of that). Then we walked with “super fast feet” back to the ship so Wade could send off some afternoon trips. Our trio joined a walking tour and spent the early afternoon at Feurte San Diego. This pentagonal maze of massive walls was built by engineer Miguel Costanzo in 1783. We were able to go inside and see original fort storerooms, barracks, the chapel, and the kitchen. The entire fort museum illustrates the local pre-Columbian, conquest, and colonial history. We learned much about pirates, including Francis Drake, Thomas Cavendish, and John Hawkins. Exiting the Fuerte, we walked down a narrow lane and entered Casa de la Mascara. The house of masks contains six rooms with masks from floor to ceiling. These indigenous handcrafted pieces were a sight to behold. Some were beautiful, some scary, some downright hideous. While in most of Mexican society these masks now serve only theatrical and celebratory functions, there are still parts of rural Mexico where people believe donning a mask allows them to soak up the supernatural power of the god that the masks depict. One grouping of masks was dedicated to the Day of the Dead. Our guide explained that in Mexican tradition many families celebrate this day by cooking the favorite foods of loved ones who are no longer on earth and then taking this food to their graves. When the family members leave the cemeteries, the homeless communities move in and have quite a feast. Some family members return to pay their respects later in the day, quite pleased to have had their food consumed by their lost loved ones! The mask museum was the final stop for the Watki on this tour. After a couple of hours walking and three bottles of water, Emma requested a trip back to the ship, which we were happy to grant! We stopped only to buy a large container of water for our cabin and then returned for showers and a brief rest before joining Liz and Jeremy. The five of us had dinner at El Amigo Miguel, where Emma endured some cultural differences. First of all, when we ordered auga mineral, it came out fizzy. Oops. Wade then asked for auga natural and the waitress brought some still water for Emma and me. We didn’t want Emma to have the carbonation and even after squeezing in a couple of limes, I couldn’t take the fizzy stuff. The next snafu came when they didn’t tell us until they brought out all of our meals that they did not have the calamari Emma had ordered. We asked if they could just bring her some tortillas and rice and they said they could. The rice was fine, but the tortillas were tostadas and Emma was none too pleased with this. While visibly disappointed, she refrained from big complaints as Jeremy pointed out this was all part of the adventure of travel. Liz and I also received surprises as our shrimp tacos came in fried tortillas. Okay, so I didn’t really mind this too much but Liz and Jeremy are very health conscious so Liz just cut hers open and ate the insides. We’re hoping their personal choices rub off on us a bit! Long after our food was consumed, we sat at the table and visited, played several games of tic-tac-toe (knots and crosses for you Brits reading this!), and watched the U.S. vs. Canada football game on a TV at the restaurant across the street. Walking back to the ship we stopped on several occasions. Once, we bought some bread from a street vendor (YUMMY!); once, Wade and Emma watched a fisherman fillet a flounder – man was he fast!; and once, we sent a quick email home because the internet on the ship had been down for several days. During this stop, Emma spotted several tropical fish including “a puffer box fish, a black fish, a skinny butterfly fish, and a blue one with polka dots”. Very cool! She also saw some “really skinny cats, some of them babies” and exercised some serious restraint as she wanted to pet them badly. She didn’t though, because she’s learned that many animals we love back home carry diseases in other countries.

The Journey Begins

At approximately 5:00pm today (Father’s Day) the ropes were thrown off the MV Explorer and our Journey of Discovery (SAS language; not mine) began. Standing alongside old SAS friends Liz and Jeremy and new SAS friends Oscar, Jill, Kyla & Emma Marie, we watched our ship pull away from the docks. Although we were joined around lunchtime by 302 SAS students and 47 lifelong learners, not many people were around to say goodbye. Three years ago in Nassau, we watched a host of parents of SASers disappear, but today as we departed Ensenada there were only a couple dozen ISE staff to bid us adieu. Still, they made it an exciting one.

Dolphin Sighting!!!

Wednesday night, following a 9:00pm lifeboat drill (Yes, that’s 11:00pm on Emma’s body clock – YIKES!) we departed SanDiego for Ensenada, Mexico. Emma and Diana were asleep when we pushed back, but awoke in the night to the vaguely familiar and very soothing rocking the MV Explorer provides when at sea. Emma thrust open the curtains at daybreak and Diana, who accidentally slept in her contacts the previous night, called Wade to the window to look at what she thought might be something surfacing, diving and resurfacing. At first, all he could see was kelp, but then he saw them: “Dolphins!” Diana scrambled for some rewetting drops and our trio watched dolphins swimming for about five minutes. Incredible!

Children at Sea

Faculty and Staff boarded the ship on Wednesday afternoon. Emma was beside herself with excitement anticipating the arrival of other children, especially two other five-year-old Emmas. Our Emma Caroline has a room next door to Emma Marie, and Emma Esperanza lives just down the hall and around the corner. In Costa Rica a fourth Emma (7) will join us for a couple of weeks. Other children on board: Johanna (9), Kyla (10), Amanda (14), Santiago (8), Sarah (7), Danielle (5), Campbell (7), Malcom (4), Mariana (9), Nicholas (6), Brandt (1). Three or four others are scheduled to join us in a couple of weeks. ISE has hired two Dependent Children Coordinators for this voyage. Oscar Zavala and Jill Hurd (parents of Kyla and Emma Marie) are fantastic! We are fortunate enough to live next door to them and they have some fabulous activities planned for the kiddos on board. “School” runs from 9-12 and 2-4 on the days we’re at sea. Monday will be the first official day, so we’ll post more on this soon.

Working for Wade; Walking for Diana & Emma

Tuesday morning presented Wade with the first of a very long stream of meetings. Diana and Emma had made plans to go to the San Diego Zoo and after consulting a map opted to walk there rather than waste the money on a Taxi. Fifteen blocks away from the harbour, three blocks to the left and through the park sounded manageable. We had no idea how HUGE Balboa Park was. One hour and twenty minutes later, we arrived at the gates of the San Diego Zoo. The ticket package we purchased allowed us unlimited use of the Skyfari, the hop on hop off bus (yes, this zoo is big enough for that to be a necessity rather than a luxury), and the guided tour bus. We took advantage of all three. Emma drew a picture of a Giant Panda in her journal that night and counted the two we saw and the Wild Animal Show as the highlights. During the Wild Animal show, we watched a Cheetah and her companion dog playing side by side. They really do live together and the zookeepers told us the Cheetah actually whines when the dog is removed for short periods of time.

The Clampets Board the MV Explorer

We arrived at the B Street Cruise Ship Terminal on Monday afternoon, carrying twelve bags. We each checked two and carried two on the plane with us. Looking (and feeling) absolutely ridiculous, we joked we needed shirts that said, “We’re going to be at sea for two months!” Jill Wright, SAS Vice-President and Senior Academic Officer (and Executive Dean for half of our previous voyage) brought us hugs as we waited to be cleared through ship security and board the MV Explorer. When we finally lugged everything to Purser’s Square (which isn't really a square), we learned that we’d been assigned two rooms. Wade and Diana were to be in cabin 4081 and Emma in 4079. We discussed going back and requesting a different room, but opted not to fuss. One of the buzzwords for the Semester at Sea Program is “flexibility”. The Watki are flexible. So, we decided to make Emma’s room a playroom of sorts and have her stay in ours. Simple enough, right? Oh, no. Emma was completely insulted by the suggestion that she would not sleep in a cabin of her own. “They ASSIGNED me a room. They think I’m BIG ENOUGH!” After a good bit of bribing and coaxing (okay, and a new pink fluffy sleeping bag) she agreed that one of us could sleep in her cabin the first night. Since then, Emma and Diana have been sharing a single bed in Wade & Diana’s cabin. Things are about to get a lot more comfortable for Diana and Emma and less so for Wade because today the cabin steward moved the two beds together -- HOOORAY (can you tell who’s writing this entry?) With no other children scheduled to board for a couple of days, Emma quickly made 4079 a home away from home by putting up Barbie and High School Musical posters alongside snapshots of friends and family back home. After some unpacking, we disembarked and found our way down the pier to Anthony’s Fish Grotto for dinner and kicked off our two month fresh seafood spree with calamari, fish & chips.

The Tower of London

Saturday found us at the Tower of London (www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/). Normally we dismiss it because there is so much to do here that is free and the tickets are quite pricy (adults are the equivalent of $32), but the opportunity to visit with cousins Sherry and McKay was too good to pass up. Our first hour was spent with a Yeoman Warden, who gave us a free tour of the grounds and the chapel. The only way to get inside the chapel is to join the tour. While in the chapel, he told the stories of many who were burried there. He was quite an animated fellow and liked to involve the audience. Emma was not thrilled to be a part of his act, and when he shouted "accused of witchcraft" and pointed to her, tears quickly followed. She was quite pleased to move on to seeing the crown jewels. I'd heard that the lines to do so were horrible, but we made the decision to brave them anyway -- we had to get our money's worth, right? Disney style lines are set up and we watched video of the Queen's coronation and information on the different pieces we'd see once we entered the jewel tower. The line moved so quickly that most didn't watch the videos, but we jumped out of line to watch since getting back in would be no problem. I told myself to let Emma take her time here (I'm horrible about rushing her through things at times), but didn't have to worry about that for two reasons. One, she's a smart little girl and knows her dad is more patient so she chose to walk with him. Two, when we actually went by the crown jewels, we were on a moving sidewalk. They ensure one doesn't lollygag I suppose. While the jewels were magnificent, I think Emma was more fascinated with the ravens that reside in the tower. Legend holds that if the ravens leave the tower will crumble, so the Brits have clipped their wings just in case! Quite a few individuals were dressed in costume and told their stories, including a man who later escaped from the Tower of London. He shared his plans with Emma and made her promise to keep them secret. She also heard secrets from a woman disguised as a commoner who was really nobilty. Leaving the tower, we walked along the river Thames and then took Sherry and McKay to Covent Garden to listen to Terry. The five of us dined outdoors at a pizzeria, where McKay discovered tea comes only in hot form here. To his credit, he gave it a try . . . and we bought our little ring bearer turned high school graduate a Coke on the sly to reward him for branching out! We closed out the day with some obligatory photos in Picadilly Circus.