Cruising without the kids

This past week my wife and I took a four night, five day cruise to Catalina Island and then Ensenada Mexico with a group of top producing Realtors from Bradley Real Estate. In nine years of working with Bradley, Rob and Melissa Bradley have been exceedingly generous and lavished many extravagances upon their employees. This was actually the second time we’ve cruised with Bradley, and it was just as incredible as our first time. What I didn’t remember from our first voyage was how much I thought about my daughters while we were gone.

My daughters are now 10 & 12 years old and I was surprised that I couldn’t go anywhere without thinking about what they would be doing and how they would be feeling if they were on the cruise. First and foremost I know they would have loved every minute of it. How could a kid not love being in a place where all you could eat pizza and ice cream is served 24/7?

It wasn’t just the food that my daughters would have loved. There was a Kids Zone on the boat, where parents could drop off their kids at 10pm and not pick them up until 3am! They could stay up all night and play all night, with regular pizza and ice cream runs. It was a scary thought that circled back to food. Overindulgence was a reoccurring theme on the vacation, particularly with the buffets which my daughters would absolutely have adored to their detriment. I know I did.

Fortunately like the last hotel we stayed out, the ship had a great fitness center. Had my kids been with along they would have regularly alternated between the buffet lines and fitness center. My girls do the elliptical, they ride on the bikes, run on the treadmills and they get a kick out of lifting the machine weights, often trying to see how far they can stretch a pulley from a machine. I’ve seen the ten year old stretch one halfway across a room! Actually the way they play in fitness centers is the reason kids aren’t usually allowed, and in the ship’s fitness center the 10 year old wouldn’t have been allowed while the twelve year old would have needed parental guidance: like that ever stopped her from fooling around!

On the beach at Avalon on Catalina Island I thought about what my kids would have been doing. They would be playing in the cold, beautiful water, and maybe even snorkeling. The crystal clear visibility was an amazing 30 feet and I could see lots of fish from the shore. Unfortunately I was getting over a double big toe infection and fracture, and I couldn’t swim in the ocean, the ship’s pool or use the hot tub. My staying dry would not have stopped my kids from swimming in the ship’s pool, slipping and sliding down a big water slide and broiling themselves like lobsters in the hot tubs.

Our day in Ensenada consisted of a 4 hour downtown hike and shopping excursion. I’m pretty sure my daughters would have lost patience in the outing quickly, and typically I really don’t like shopping but I had a surprisingly good time. It was comical, almost every downtown vendor tried to lure us into their store with, ‘It’s almost free,’ and ‘99% off!’ Among other things I bought a SF Giants cloth backpack from a vendor named Fernando who at 10am was taking and offering free shots of agave tequila that his uncle made. He invited me to join him, pointing to back shelf and a dented, half full plastic bottle with its label long ago torn off. The liquid was an almost alien shade of yellowish green, and as tempting as the offer sounded I declined. I’ll never know what I missed but I knew who I missed.

Before we left as much as I couldn’t wait to get away from my daughters and enjoy time with around adults. Yet when it came down to being away I couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without thinking of them. When they get older and move away I might not feel the same, but for now more than anything I really enjoyed missing my daughters.