California Trip

I am now in Santa Cruz. It is real nice here and it feels so good to relax and enjoy. I had A very busy week. The Cruise was so many things-busy, fun, productive, bizarre, enlightening and a real trip. I worked A lot and I got sick which was super frustrating but I pushed myself and worked through it, only napping the one time.

We got off the boat to go to Catalina Island which is pretty but very brown and dry. Everyone there uses golf carts instead of cars and to be honest I was surprised at this stop there was not much to it. I was feeling pretty crappy though and I went back to the boat after an hour and a half. I may have misjudged this island. It was however, better than the next stop.

Ensenada, Mexico is a big city with some very poor people living there and they and their small children beg in the streets. We bought some candy and a necklace from some of them. The kids looked up and gave me the biggest smile when I paid too much for their Chiclets. We saw many more women sitting in the streets with their babies and small children, it was quite sad. Uncle Paddy gave some of them money. We found an incredible restaurant and I pigged out on fish tacos, I ate until I was going to burst they were so good. We bought few t-shirts and a blanket and headed back for the boat. On the way back I read A sign telling us to not give money to the begging women and children in the streets because they were being exploited by a men who would take their money at the end of the day. It was thoroughly depressing, Uncle Paddy was a bit dejected after reading this bit of info.

The next day was spent at sea, this was a work day spent mostly in conferences. I really learned a lot and my brain was full at the end of this day. We stopped at 4pm. We had a cocktail party at 4:30pm and then the last work meeting which was basically a announcement of who won the marketing contest. My team! They also had a raffle for a PS3 player and one of my fabulous new friends from England won that and then realized that she couldn't use it over there and she gave it to me! Thanks Moira!

We were all feeling fine and had some fun that night. I must say that I really liked the new friends I made. It is amazing how you can connect with some people even though you hardly know them( you know who you are!).

The next day it was on to the Fox Studio tour...