We are back from our 8 day Exotic Mexican Cruise on the Carnival Spirit, courtesy of the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. It was a first-class all the way and more or less free. I take back anything I ever thought about Carnival not being as nice or good as other cruise lines - the ship could not have been nicer, or the food better.

The reason I said it was more or less free was Mr. Troutbend lost $4000 gambling during the cruise, despite my gentle and not so gentle hints that it would be a waste of time to gamble in that casino with those lousy odds. Well you might ask what I thought he was doing all those times he left me alone in the cabin knitting or watching television. I figured he was smoking the cigars he bought in Acapulco and sitting out on the deck in the sun. See? Here's his foot.


Here's the rest of him in case you thought it was some one else's foot.


Not to worry though, he has won it back at the Excalibur this weekend, and we are going to take it to the bank Monday.

We spent a lot of time trying to get a good photo of the sunset. I think the sun looks square in this picture, but there are at least 15 more sunset photos in the camera.



Here is one of the special desserts for our group - baked Alaska with the custom presentation.


We're glad to be home. The last day at sea was very choppy, and we were seasick, and then I was seasick here at home for a couple of days until the ground stopped pitching like the boat.