Cruising to Mexico on the Holland America Oosterdam ship - Fun times!

We have just returned from our family cruise to Mexico, with stops in Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. We departed from the port of San Diego on Saturday evening for a week of fun.

As we pushed away from the dock, the tug boats swung the ship around and I thought that it would make for a cool photo. I leaned my tripod against the railing from our balcony and shot this image. I made sure that the shutter was slow enough to show some turning motion in the city skyline.

We made our exit from San Diego, leaving a behind rain and cloud cover (which is very rare in this city at this time of year). Shortly after leaving the port and heading out to sea, I looked back and saw that the moon had risen and was lighting up the clouds.

We had a couple of days at sea before getting to our port. I really enjoyed the view from our balconies and was transfixed by the cool patterns in the water below. Much like shooting smoke or water drops, no two shots are alike, and the colors are really beautiful.

On our 2nd night at sea, there was an announcement that we had to make an unscheduled stop, just outside of Cabo San Lucas, to offload a passenger who was having heart problems. I joined the kids who were watching the boat-to-boat maneuver, and shot this image of the security boat when it intersected the moon reflection.

The next morning I woke up just as we were pulling into Mazatlan and shot this image, of their well known cathedral, from the boat.

We departed the ship and hired a driver to take us around the city. We visited all the standard touristy areas and even watched some cliff-divers doing their stuff. These guys are crazy, diving more than 50 feet into water that is only 5-8 feet deep.

We visited the cathedral in the center of the old part of town. As we walked around perimeter of the building, I saw this pretty tree and thought that it would make a nice foreground for a photo. (Photographer note: Any time you are shooting an image of a building or landmark that is popular with tourists, you should try to find a unique perspective so that it is different from the "typical tourist snapshot" photo.)

More photos from the trip to come...