Sabbath Sea Day; Cabo San Lucas; Puerto Vallarta

Sunday was Day 3 on the cruise ship, and it was my favorite day of the whole cruise. We started the morning by going to a performance by Hilary Weeks entitled Sweet Sabbath. 

Her music brought such a peaceful, reverent feeling into our hearts as we listened to what she sang and also the personal things she shared. Beautiful!!

After lunch we went to a Sunday Devotional with BYU coaches and athletes each taking a few minutes to speak.

We spent some time each day in the casino. That's where we had to line up to go to the shows. Nani and Kathy found a way to make the time go by quicker by eating an ice cream cone. 

Nani was impressed with the number of young men and boys on the ship who wore their Sunday clothes the entire day.

Glen wore his church clothes all day. Kathy wore a dress all day. Nani and I opted out until dinnertime because our feet in Sunday shoes aren't that comfortable.

The mid-afternoon devotional we attended was by artist Dan Wilson. He talked to us and shared pictures of the paintings he has drawn of his Experiences Painting the Image of Christ.

Dinner that evening was dress-up attire. Thought I better get in some food photos or it would not be a cruise blog.

Looking down on the Royal Promenade, one might wonder where are all the people???? 

Our evening's entertainment was put on by the Truman Brothers. They provided a very beautiful musical program for us. What a great way to end the Sabbath Day. Loved every minute of that sea day.

Day 4 found us in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We were eating breakfast and looking at this view as we sailed slowly into port.

We had signed up for a city bus tour. We went to this shopping area to line up and wait to get on the bus. 

Got our dork dots stuck on us so they know where to tell us to go.

We were taken to the Cactus Blown Glass Factory.

We were shown how they make glass animals with blown glass. It was an interesting demonstration to watch that process. Then we were turned loose in their store in hopes we would buy their wares.

We spent our time looking at all the blown glass items for sale and then looking at all the stained glass windows all throughout the building. Since we had already learned how stained glass windows are made, it was interesting to see the colorful windows all throughout the building.

Still wearing our tour dork dots, we got on the bus for our next stop.

We next got off the bus at a luxury hotel overlooking the water. Our guide touted it as "the most beautiful place in the world." Uh...we beg to differ...

The multi-level patios provided a place for us to view our cruise ship off in the distance. 

At this port, the cruise ships had to lower their anchors, and we had to get on the smaller tender boats to get us from ship to shore. That always takes a lot of time.

At our next stop, our guide walked us to the big flagpole and told us that would be our meeting place after we wandered around the area for a while.

Our guide took us up to see the historic Catholic Church.

Then we were let loose to shop for a while.

As quickly as we could, once we got back to our drop off point, we got in the long line to get tendered back to the cruise ship. The gigantic BYU banner let us know we were getting on the right ship.

This elephant was our greeting as we stepped into our cabin that afternoon.

The theme for the evening was island. We were each provided with a blue (of course!!) lei which made us all look festive.

Once again, Randy and Susan Bambrough joined our group for dinner.

The evening entertainment was Rise & Laugh with stand-up comedian Steve Soelberg. He had us laughing before he ever came out as silly pictures and jokes were showing on the screen.

I wish I had taken a photo of every single one, but here are three I took.

The comedy routine was very clean, funny stuff. It was an enjoyable hour of laughing entertainment to which we could all relate. 

BYU Cruisin' With the Cougs Day 5 was in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. 

Since we had a late morning arrival time, we decided to go to the sport court and watch the athletes teaching groups of children and youth the tricks to their skills.

Jimmer Fredette is coaching the group to the right.

BYU stuff everywhere!!

We went to a Leading Saints Podcast Interview in the Star Lounge.

After eating lunch, we got another dork dot and went on a city bus tour. This bus definitely struggled with air conditioning. The day was very, very warm. Our guide stopped to let us walk around the waterfront.

We were very impressed with the bright yellow trees that flower year-round. Each tree really stood out, and the vibrant pop of color was so beautiful.

Church of our Lady of Guadalupe.

My favorite stop on the tour was The Tile Park where everything was covered in colorful mosaic artwork. 

Of course there were opportunities to shop. None of us were interested in doing shopping, so we just walked as the sellers were trying to lure us into buying their wares.

Another stop on our tour was a silver store where our tour guide gave our busload of people 45 minutes to shop. Not interested in buying jewelry or objects.

Glen got fed up with the shopping stops and I was fed up with the hot, stickiness of the day. I wanted to get back to the ship and shower before dinner.

So... Glen took matters into his own hands and rounded up a taxi driver to take us back to the ship. That was the best part of the excursion. Glen enjoyed communicating with our driver in his native Spanish language while the back seaters were hoping the crazy, fast driving would result in getting us safely to our destination.

Of course, we could not just walk through the gate to get on the sidewalk to the ship. NO!!!! We were directed to make a long walk through a mall and a bunch of shops before getting to the sidewalk lined with booths and booths of local people trying to sell us things. 

The entertainment that evening was BYU Celebrity Feud. Earlier in the cruise, the passengers had been asked to respond to some BYU trivia questions, and those answers were used in playing this Family Feud game.

It was so fun and funny. So many great laughs at their answers and at their comments. 

We had enjoyed the early showing so much that Nani had the brilliant idea to see if we could possibly get into the later showing since we knew there would be different BYU celebrities and it would be a whole different game.

Luckily, we got in to the second show. We stood in the back for the whole hour, but it was well worth it. So many good laughs once again. We loved it!! Great way to end that day.