TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

To celebrate their 50th anniversary, Jonas and Marit Store sat back

and relaxed while the fruits of their marriage -- children and in-laws

and grandchildren -- enjoyed the Mexican Riviera.

The Newport Beach couple spent most of their Christmas vacation

lounging on the deck of the Sea Princess, reading and doing crossword

puzzles while the grandchildren ran past their deck chairs periodically.

The sightseeing, the meeting of new people -- all that was left to the

younger parties of the family.

“We did the same tour last year,” said Marit Store, who’s been on the

cruise a number of times with her husband. “And since [the family] had

never been down to Mexico, they went with us and they saw all this native

stuff.”

The Stores got married 50 years ago on Christmas Eve. They were

immigrants from Norway who found themselves alone in Seattle, Wash., with

family members across the world.

So on Christmas Eve, they got married in a Norwegian church with a

Norwegian minister.

“We had a great 50th anniversary,” said Jonas Store, who served as a

council member for Newport Beach between 1972 and 1976. “Of course,

having the grandchildren there was the highlight.”

The large family -- which includes two daughters, two son-in-laws and

five grandchildren (a third daughter couldn’t make it) played rounds of

“Goof on the Deck.” It’s a fun and easy card game that even the little

ones could play, said Marit Store, 71.

When the ship docked at the cruise’s three allotted ports -- Puerto

Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan -- the grandchildren and their

parents toured the beaches, bakeries and little towns that sometimes

didn’t have electricity.

“We love the sea and we love the beaches, so we would, most of the

time, go to the beach, but we would also take trips inland and look at

the natives,” Marit Store said.

Jonas Store, 74, said one of his favorite -- and most nostalgic --

parts of the trip was anchoring in the exact same spot along the Sea of

Cortez where he and his wife had anchored 20 years ago.

“That was very interesting,” he said.

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail young.chang@latimes.com; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.