The blue bowl is made from Pinion. The box is made from Mesquite. Linda plans put one of her miniature mice in the box.

Norwegian Mexican Riviera Cruise Trip Report number 3 Yesterday was Cabo San Lucas port stop. We enjoyed looking at the various ships, boats, jet skiers, etc in the harbor. The view was very picturesque to look at. Linda elected to stay on board and do line dancing and I went on shore in the tender small boats. An assembly of 9 boats showed up to transport us passengers to shore. I was in group “G” and was concerned I would have a long wait to go on shore. Actually I was the third group to go ashore. And, it was very convenient to do it. We waited in the room before my group was called. It was a choppy ride and the small boat was handled safely. To get off the ship, we were photographed with a camera which was a photo ID system. Returning to the ship, the same system was used and the screen reflected that I was recognized and I was permitted to enter. There is a very strict policy on what we could bring on to the ship and take off the ship. I had a couple of items I was interested in purchasing and neither one of these items would be easy to bring onto the ship. I looked at many coffee mugs and all of them had no lead written on their bottoms and that made me suspect that there was actual lead involved in their manufacture. So, I will wait and buy it off from Amazon when I get home. Safer. I walked a lot on shore and felt safe for the over 8,000 steps (Apple Watch keeps track). There was lots of passengers crawling around the shops and also drinking in the bars. I decided to get a massage and it was a fairly good one. I should have bargained more for the price and was too paranoid throughout the entire process, keeping track of my valuables I had brought to totally relax. Scary for possible theft. No theft and I think that was so because of my constant vigilance. As usual, I over ate and regretted it. We had a crisis in the room where it was too hot. We were in the direct sun light and the AC stopped working. We discovered that the sliding glass door had to have the door shut with the handle in the up position before the AC would work. Who would have known. We did have a maintenance man check it out and by late evening, after we discovered the system of the door handle, it was working. We were going to go to a “Beattles” show last night. When we entered the area for the show, it was already too crowded to be healthy in COVID times. This is not the same area for the big shows. We elected to return to the room after our normal formal dinner. Our next ship stop is “Puerto Vallarta” where we will participate in a tour in the afternoon. January 5, 2022, we visited the port of Puerto Vallarta (yesterday). At this port, the ship had a birth and we walked directly from the ship to land. The entry area reminded me of many modern airports around the world where we were shuttled through a very large shopping areas of twisting pathways. Nice building. We toured on a formal tour in the afternoon called Mexican Fiesta and Lunch. This involved a lengthy bus ride to a tequila factory, tour of the factory, tequila tasting, lunch, and entertainment (performers dancing, guitar playing, horse dancing, busting a pinada). The tequila tasting involved tasting 6 different types of tequila in small shot glasses. Significant amount of alcohol. Personally, I find tequila as being too sweet and still manages to get my shots down (drank). We were entertained on the bus trip by Victor who comes from a large family of 12 children (two additional had died in child birth). He described the history of the area. The down town area has a number of very large apartment buildings and it dominated by them. Our 17 plus floor ship seemed to fit right in. On returning to the city, we were ushered to a shopping area and too specific shops. Linda does not like shops where the items are not priced with a tag and we are expected to “bargain”. So, we did not buy any item. We then followed up with a walk in the down town area and a visit to a very old church. We survived the day and it was very tiring. Boarding and debarking the bus is tiring, and slow. We had many disabled people on the bus and it is taxing to wait for them to get off and get on the bus. Very slow process. We were well behaved and did not stomp on these older ( we are mostly all old on this trip) slower members of our group. Some of our group members appeared ready to do it. The January 5th morning, Linda and I discovered a new area of the ship that we had not been in. It is the forward observation deck (inside) of the ship. It is the most massive area I have seen on a cruise ship. It has a full eating area stocked with a significant variety of food and fully staffed with service personnel. It is a terrific area to eat breakfast, self serve, and then have peace and quiet. Linda and I plan to visit that area in future breakfast stops. The bran muffins and oatmeal are particularly inviting on this part of the trip. Our next stop is in Mazatlan where Linda and I will go on another tour January 6, 2022.

Mexican Riviera Trip, January 2, 2022, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Bliss, Trip Report 1 This was our first major trip that Linda I have taken together since moving to El Paso Texes from California on August 2, 2020. She has been on two quilting trips. During COVID times this was scary for us. The latest version of this disease is highly infectious and we thought that we were sure to catch it, mask and all. Of course, as I write this, it is still not over. Our current emergency is that we were informed by our next door neighbors in El Paso, that our house has a water leak in some pipes because of freezing. I decided to let it leak until we return. Seems like the safest of all actions we could take while cruising. We had the same leak last year in the same location. The plumber had explained to me that I should turn on the water and let it leak when it froze in El Paso. I chose to ignore his advice for this trip. Our day started very early on Sunday when we woke about 3AM to be picked up by a LYFT driver to be taken to the airport. We were uncertain that we could fly from El Paso to LAX because of mass flight cancellations by the airlines because of COVID. The flight went as scheduled and every thing worked well. The cruise line picked us up and took us to the San Pedro port where we were herded into a large building to be tested for COVID. Linda was particularly upset about this because she voluntarily had tested prior to us flying. She was required to repeat the test. Also, her test was not successful here because of claimed lack of chemical on the testing swab. This caused a further half hour delay in a mass seating area where we were repeatedly yelled at for people to go back and repeat their tests. It appeared to be mass chaos and was. Then we were bussed to another building for processing onto the ship, Because we are latitude members (repeat Norwegian cruise participants) we were ushered into a separate area for rapid processing. These operations are massive undertakings with large numbers of people being processed. This ship is very, very large. I would have taken more pictures except pictures were not allowed. I cheated at least once. Shame on me. I had an accident on the plane where I tried to twist to get my overhead carry on and fell down. Fortunately for me, not for others, I fell on my fellow passengers and recovered. I apologized and they were very forgiving to this elderly 77 year old. Appreciate it. Very embarrassing. The whole processing process was a trial in patience, more so then any cruise we have been on. We survived it. On board we ushered to our emergency muster point and we found a bar an sat and celebrated our arrival. We were given a number of free packages as incentives to go on this cruise in COVID times and the drink package is included. The alcohol seemed to reduce the anxiety of this trip, at least temporarily. Very near the bar was one of their fine restaurants where we ate some very good food with 5, 4 star service. The food was terrific. We had taken this same cruise a number of years ago and enjoyed it so much that we decided to repeat it. The entertainment was of such quality that we felt it needed to be repeated. Our room is nice and adequate considering the cramped quarters on a cruise ship. Linda and I decided to try to walk around the ship and scope our new environment. This ship is a monster in size and was activated in 2018. It is no doubt the newest cruise ship we have been on. It seems very nice and so far we are pleased with it. We ended up walking close to 9, 000 steps yesterday and were very tired. Too much for elderly people. Linda’s style of cruising is to unpack it all and hang her clothes up. I on the other hand choose to leave it all in the suit case and take what is needed daily. I have developed this habit over the years having stayed in some less then desirable places and worried about bugs on my clothes. I have the clothes laid out by day in sets to make it easy for live this way. It works. Last night we chose to eat in their cafeteria type area and this was very good. A change for this ship is that their is washing bowls with running water at the entrance to the cafeteria where a person can formally wash their hands before eating. Great service. A staff member is present to insure compliance before being allowed to enter. The food was delicious with a great variety. I am vegetarian and Linda is not and our food selections needs were amply met. We then went to a comedy club type event where a female comedian from Maine entertained with us with family level jokes. She was pleasant and produced some chuckles. Linda and I have to watch that we drink enough water. A few times we were so dehydrated that we were immobilized. Norwegian Cruise, Mexican Riviera Second Report We cruised the first day all day on the ocean. On January 4th, today, the ship will station itself near Cabo San Lucas and we will take small boats, called tenders for trips to this Mexican City. Linda and I did not sign up for organized tours today. We have signed up for organized tours at three other stops. Today, we will take a tender and visit this Mexican City. Our small boat trip is not scheduled until 11:30 AM. The organized tours get first priority and will go off the ship ahead of us. Linda and I have no specific plan and we will wonder around. We have stripped down regarding what we will carry on us personally. We will not carry our iPhones or major money. I will carry a throw away wallet with some cash in it. Our pass ports, room key will be carried on my money belt under my clothes and Linda will have hers under her clothes. We also can “smell” trouble and will stick to what we can determine safe areas in our walking. Life is never without some risk. So, my observations of the cruise continue. The American women “me to” philosophy is alive and well on the ship. Some women, usually over weight and deporting themselves in an aggressive, strutting manner are ready to “boguard” their way while walking and in any meeting confrontation. Being a retired prison employee, I recognize the posture and move aside to allow this problem person to have their way and priority passage. Their attitude is “I am women, get the F at of my way”. By the way the “boguard” word is and ancient word and goes back to France’s train porters. There is a variety of spellings. The formal sittings on the cruise ship serve food that is appropriate and a person will not over eat, as a rule. However, at the buffets, there is a tendency, at least for me, to lose control. The food is of great quantity, volume, variety where I just want more of it. It is delicious and food I would not eat at the same time magically appears on my plate and too great of a volume. I end up returning to the room or event not feeling well. Last night Linda saw an almost two hour presentation called “Jersey Boys”. This type of show is one of the prime reasons we are on this ship. It was fantastic. This particular cruise gets top rated talent for these shows from Hollywood and they are terrific. We applauded many times and stood and clapped at the end of the show. Linda and I have been on many cruises, over 7 or more. Linda has been on more then me. This ship has the typical features; but, in many cases, more of it. This she has the biggest gambling set up I have ever seen. It is very large and quite gaudy. Some of the slot machines are the biggest I have ever seen. Me personally, I have learned very early in life not to gamble. I have had people cheat me and these whole set ups are designed to take your money. Linda does have her favorite devices and did some participation. This ends my second report. Gary Bingham