Last week I went on a cruise with four of my girlfriends from back home. One friend I met when I was a baby - we lived on the same street growing up. Two more I met when we all went to the same GATE magnet school in 3rd grade and the last friend we met at girls camp when we were high school age. Yes, we are all LDS. We all turned 40 this spring (our birthdays are all in March, April and May) and we decided to get together for a girls trip. I have never done anything like this before and I was nervous about going and leaving Scott with all the kid duties (he was fine) but I'm so glad I went. We had an amazing time. This is us - back row - Cindy (met in 3rd grade), Sally (met at girls camp - high school age), Melissa (met at age 1), Amy (met in 3rd grade) and me in front. I've only been on one cruise before (with Cindy in our single days) and it wasn't nearly this nice. We went on Princess Cruise line from LA to Vancouver, Canada. Lots of our pictures have one person missing (the one who took the picture). We also haven't all gotten together since high school. There have been a lot of times when some of us have gotten together but often one person is missing. A lot of times its been me who is missing because they still all have parents who live in Southern California while I do not - so they see each other on Christmas a lot.
A year ago we were all on the west coast somewhere but now we are starting to scatter. Melissa lives in Hawaii now, Amy in Seattle, Sally in Orange County, Cindy recently moved to Virginia and now we are moving to Utah.
Here are a ton of pictures of our adventures.
Our cruise started on a Wednesday afternoon. Scott had driven me to the airport before taking the kids to school and I flew to LAX. I met Cindy at the airport and we Ubered over to the cruise ship. While we were in line to check in our other three friends who had stayed with their families in Fullerton (our hometown) the night before all showed up. They carpooled together to the ship. The ship was really nice - it was the Emerald Princess with Princess Cruise Line. Its a ship that goes to Alaska. They LAX to Vancouver cruise that we were doing is pretty much just to move the ship to Vancouver for the start of Alaska cruise season. We got a good deal for that reason.
Lots of pools on this ship
Since there were five of us we stayed in two different state rooms right next to each other. We got interior state room to save money but most rooms have a window. Amy and I were in this room with two beds. We were the last two to vote on which room we wanted so we got the more expensive option (it was fine - we enjoyed our one bathroom for two people). Cindy, Sally and Melissa were in the next room that had two bunk beds hanging from the wall above each bed. They folded up during the day.
Here we are at dinner our first night. We had the option of going to a sit down dinner or a buffet. There were some other food options like a pizza place by the pool and a little cafe that has salads and sandwiches. There were also fancier dinner options if you wanted to pay a little extra. We went to the sit down dinner the first night. You show up any time during a 4 or 5 hour window and can be seated alone or with other people. I thought the food was really good. The first night I ordered an Alaskan salmon dish that was really good. A lot of the others didn't like their entrees so we didn't eat there very much.
Dessert was good too
Sadly the first night things got really stormy. In the night the ship started rocking and rolling...and that continued for about two days. The captain came on the loudspeaker and told us we were going through some very rough seas from a storm. Usually I am really prone to motion sickness but I didn't get too sick. I took one motion sickness pill the whole week. The rocking at night was kind of soothing (being rocked to sleep) but during the day it was a little crazy. It was freezing with gale force winds outside and splashing all the pool water out of the pools. The first morning I tried to run on the treadmill in the ship gym. I made it three miles but had to keep one hand on the rail most of the time so I didn't fall down. Then I got pretty sick afterwards. Cindy stayed sick most of the time we were in rough waters. It was a bummer.
The night before arriving in Victoria we got dressed up to go out to eat. I didn't even bring a dress 'cause I didn't know we were doing that so I had to throw something together with a t-shirt and skirt.
We all got birthday serenaded at dinner and a special birthday cake dessert
And went to see a show after
By the time we got to the Strait of Juan de Fuca the seas had calmed down quite a bit. When we arrived in Victoria, BC it was beautiful weather!! Here we are just before disembarking.
We're in Canada!! We walked around Victoria for a while...
Poutine
We got a little lunch in Victoria then made our way via minivan taxi to the Butchart Gardens.
The gardens were so beautiful
Me photobombing Sally
She gets me back later
We had a proper English tea
I ate everthing
We really enjoyed the gardens. It's worth the trip and Victoria is so beautiful. I want to move there!!
On our way back to downtown Victoria and the ship
Sally gets her revenge. :)
We walked around downtown Victoria for a while, got a few snacks and walked through the neighborhoods back to the ship. Here we are by the water. We walked around most of the day and a couple of us (me included) got pretty dehydrated that night. Got to drink more water. We ate a late dinner on the ship.
Disembarking for the last time. :'(
The next day we arrived in Vancouver and our cruise was over. Her we are getting off the ship.
That's the back of our ship (this might be in Victoria
(Goodbye Emerald Princess!!)
We stowed our luggage with a company at the cruise port then walked around a little bit.
We saw the steam clock. Apparently that's a thing.
Then we walked too Granville Island. I wanted to see the famous public market there.
And it was pretty amazing but pretty crowded - this was a Sunday and Mother's Day.
At the market I got a great sandwich with chèvre, Bosc pear and mango chutney on delicious bakery bread. So good! This was from A Bread Affair next to the Granville public market. I really like food in case you didn't know. I would like to go back to the market another time when its not a weekend holiday.
We took a water taxi back from Granville Island to Vancouver.
After visiting the market we had to make our way back to the cruise port to start catching our flights and buses back home. Melissa and Sally left first to catch their flights. Cindy and Amy and I sat in a cafe and talked for an hour or so before saying goodbye to Amy. Then Cindy and I took the SkyTrain to the airport (very convenient and cheap). Then I said goodbye to Cindy who had a layover in Canada so she was in the domestic terminal and I was flying international back to San Jose. It was so fun to hang out with my friends. We mostly just talked and talked the whole time and it was so great. I think we should do this more often - like before we have our next big milestone birthday.
And I have also definitely been won over to cruises. Princess Cruise Line was so nice. I want to do the roundtrip Alaska cruise from Seattle with Scott. I'm trying to talk him into it. Probably won't be able to for a couple years but maybe someday. Thanks girls for such a fun trip. Miss them already. :'(
Bonus Photo
Here is a slightly edited picture of us from girl's camp. That's me in the middle.
Yes, I am trying to make a weird face. :)
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