My Crazy Life

Next Vacation

Well it is all booked and now the planning will begin. We are headed for our next big adventure....Hawaii.

I was there once before but I'm sure there have been tons of changes since 1984. And we have decided to do it cruising this time. With the cost of island hopping and spending time in airports - packing and unpacking - we decided that doing it once and being done would be perfect.

Have to figure out which tours we want to take or if we want to rent a car and go it on our own. I know we will definitely be doing the Road to Hana and I can't wait to see the Big Island and the volcanos. We will also be spending some time in Oahu prior to the cruise and so we will definitely be doing Pearl Harbor.

If you know of any good tours or a must see while we are there let me know

Day 13 {August 28th} Aruba

We think we have found our new home……we both just love this place…..of course, you can’t afford it….well you can afford it if you work a couple of jobs because wages here are $805 a month…..yes you read that correctly a month…..but the dollar is worth a lot more here….$1.75 to our $1.00.  The island is only 19.6 miles long  and 6 miles across – a total of only about 74 square miles and just about everywhere you look you see ocean…and not just blue ocean but gorgeous wonderfully clear blue green ocean.  There are such bright, happy painted houses here….their license plate motto is “

One

Happy

Island

” and really how can you not be happy here.

 

We took a See and Sea Tour today, which showed us a little of the island and then we boarded a submersible ship….it was like half boat and half submarine….this took us out to the Antilles ship that was sunk by the Captain in 1940’s because he felt there was no other way out…..the ship has now become a natural reef for all kinds of fish and creatures…..the camera did an awesome job getting pictures of it since it has an aquarium mode….haven’t really used the waterproof case that we bought for it yet but I’m sure it will come in handy at Castaway Cay and we visit there on 8/31…we have two sea days coming up…maybe I can end up getting some sun in the next two days so it actually looks like I have been on a cruise. 

 

Don’t think that we are going to end up doing the hot stone massage….we have decided that there are better ways to spend the remaining money that we have.  We are really looking into doing the Disney Vacation Club and also we are doing the cruise in October, 2009….how many of you are going to come with us…….

 

Tonight at dinner we went “Around the World” and so I was in Hawaii with Scallop Stir-Fry Aloha, France with Lobster Bisque and Belgium for Brussels Seafood Casselore which had scallops, shrimp, calamari (didn’t eat it) a white fish, mussel (didn’t eat it) and for dessert I was in Russia for Strawberry Romanoff (Grand Marnier Strawberries with Orange Custard, served in a Chocolate Tuile Basket which if you flipped it over was a seashell and a very tasty one at that.  Then we had the Mickey Mouse Club night where two shipmates came in and did role call….we had Goofy, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Minnie and of course, Mickey Mouse….they paraded around the room and you could join in if you wanted to and they sang the Mickey Mouse Club song….I didn’t join in because I had my slider shoes on….they like to make me slide on the tile floors…..but I did get up and dance at my table.  It was a lot of fun and our servers were dressed in the black pants and white shirts that they wore a lot on the show.

 

Tomorrow is Pirate night….so looking forward to this.  It is also Crew Talent Show night and our Cruise Director Christian is in it….our table has been talking about making signs to hold up tomorrow and sitting in the front row…..since we have been able to get to know him so well. 

 

Well we are leaving here in a little bit and headed for Castaway Cay….we noticed tonight that the ship’s coarse has been changed – we were originally going between Haiti and Cuba and now our direction is between San Juan Islands and the Dominican Republic which I am sure is thanks to Gustav or the new one Hannah…oh forgot to tell you – we had a monkey in the room tonight…he was hanging from a hanger and has on my dragonfly sunglasses again. 

 

We have traveled 3693 nautical miles from LA we have 1,094 nautical miles to travel to get to Castaway Cay which is about 100 more than if we were taking the other route but hey to stay out of a hurricanes path…what is an extra 100 miles.

 

Went out on the verandah tonight to see the clear skies because that is really the first time the whole trip that we have seen that….it has always been cloudy.  Anyway below in the water was this huge pool of minnows I think is what they were….either that or sardines.  We saw a lot of these while looking at the

Antilles

shipwreck.  One of our people at our dinner table got to see a Parrot Fish….John asked them if they knew how the parrot fish kept his crackers dry…..I’ll leave you now to ponder that….

Day 10 {August 25th} Panama Canal Day

There are no words to describe this day……this project was finished in 1913….that is almost a hundred years ago and the way that it works and operates and the size of ships that go through it on a regular basis…..they told us today that they have 35-40 ships per day go through and the most they have had has been 69….it took us 13 hours to make the crossing….we started at 6:30 a.m. and finished at 7:30 p.m.  We had 26 crewman aboard the ship handling the lines and so forth and 3 Pilots…..we were up to watch them all climb on board and we were still watching when they all disembarked.  The mechanics of this marvel is unbelievable……maybe that was why I enjoyed it so much because I love to see how things work.  We were lucky enough to have everything happening on port and starboard side when we went through the Gatun Locks and we watched from our verandah as we went into each one and we were lowered 3 times…..for the morning passage we had to be on port side to see everything so we were up on Deck 10….well the railing is a little high for a short shit like me so I found me a chair and climbed on up….well one of the white shirts from Disney didn’t approve and asked me to get down because kids could see me do this and then they would want to…..my first thought was….isn’t that their parents responsibility….but I complied….until he went down to Deck 9 and then back up I went…..well we took a little break and then I went back to Deck 10 to take some pictures of the Centennial Bridge….climbed back up on a chair and lo and behold but who came by again…..yeah the same guy….ugh….didn’t he have anything better to do….I mean really if you don’t want people doing this then make people move off of the front of the ship instead of park themselves there the entire day.  Anyway this is not something that you can really describe but I do have pictures and I am going to try and get some of them uploaded and onto my blog but the way this internet connection is….sometimes it is just frustrating.

 

Dinner tonight was the best…..lobster tail….prime rib……Alaskan King Crab legs for an appetizer….didn’t eat those but still…..and again we got to keep the menu which is awesome because it says Panama Canal, has a picture of our ship and lists the dates and ports.

 

Tomorrow is Cartegena…should be interesting….looking forward to seeing this very very old city.

Day 8 {August 23rd} Sea Day - Part 2

We finished today off with seeing the show….it was a hypnotist by the name of Ricky Kalmon…he was great, of course most of the time it is the people he gets from the audience that make this kind of a show and there were some doozies up there tonight….he is doing an adult show tomorrow night that I think we will go see because of course the adult shows are always so much better than the family oriented ones.  Christian is our cruise director and he was at our table this evening and John asked him if he had ever heard of Jeff Dunham - Christian replied with yes....he was actually booked for this cruise and had to cancel because of a family emergency......could you just imagine....we would have gone into orbit if that would have ended up happening.......of course, he told us that he told Jeff that he would have to leave Ackmed at home.....geez I wonder why?????

 

We had dinner in Parrot Cay again tonight and I got to bring another menu back…..only need one more from Lumiere’s and I will have one from all three…..I really need to collect two from each restaurant because we are having 15 different meals…we will not eat the same type of meal twice.  I overheard tonight that they have a lobster night…..oh baby can’t wait for that one….since crab and I don’t seem to get along anymore lobster has become my shellfish of choice and I am eating shrimp as much as possible as well.  Tonight for dinner I had Grouper, which I don’t think that I have ever had that whitefish before and it was wonderful…also had Papaya & Mango Cold Soup…..boy was that good….again something I wasn’t really sure that I would like but what better place to try out something that you wouldn’t normally order than on a cruise…cuz if you don’t like it you just tell them that and they will bring you something else…..John got really creative tonight….he had a Chicken Caesar Salad and that was it….oh except for dessert which was bread pudding, I had Lemon Meringue Pie which was not as good as my mom makes…see Disney can’t even top you Mom.

 

Forgot to tell y’all last night we went up on Deck 9 and watched the movie on the big screen…..Cheetah Girls….couldn’t believe that John wanted to sit down and watch that….it wasn’t all that bad but it is definitely for your tweens.  We received the list of movies for next week and there are three that we will definitely have to fit in our schedule….P.S. I Love You (almost done with the book), The Bucket List & Wall-E….they are also showing The Incredibles & Meet the Robinsons so we may have to make time for those as well.  The transatlantic t-shirts go on sale tomorrow – gonna have to snag a couple of those.

We came home to a towel rabbit tonight with sunglasses on….seriously I cannot wait to scrap these…..they are great – need to find someone to make them for me every night when I get home as well….see I’m telling ya there are just certain things that you get really use to and after 15 days of pampering, no work, no worries – the real world I have a feeling is going to slap me right in the face but what the heck at this point I still have 8 more days!

 

Oh I think we will try our hand at bingo tomorrow as well….they are giving away a 7 night verandah cruise…..wouldn’t that just be sweet to win!

Day 8 {August 23rd} Sea Day

Woke up this morning to more water on the verandah….so I guess it rained last night…..have no idea cuz I am sleeping like a baby getting rocked in its mama’s arms….gonna have to find a way to rock my bed at home when we get back.  I cancelled our Spa Day again because I wanted to go and listen to Don “Ducky” Williams speak and it was scheduled for the same time.  For those of you who don’t know who “Ducky” is – well he is a Illustrator for Disney and has been working for them for 28 years.  While he was talking about how he got his job with Disney he stood up there and drew character after character with such ease.  He has been drawing Disney characters since he was 10 years old and wrote his first letter to Walt then asking if he could come work for him….Walt himself responded and explained to him that he was happy with his enthusiasm but there weren’t any openings for 10 year olds at this time…..well he never gave up and went through quite a bit to get to where he is now….it took him over three years to get hired on.  He is in the marketing end of Disney illustrators and refers to most of his work as “throw-away” stuff because he does the art work on the times schedules and such at the parks.  When he went to talk to them about working as a illustrator they told him that he needed some polish since he had never had any formal training…they gave him Model Sheets – there are one of these for everything that gets drawn at Disney and told him to go home and practice….he sent 100 drawings a week to them for 2 years and never heard a word…he finally moved to Florida from Massachusetts and after another year finally made it as a Disney cast member…..took some fortitude on his part….but it was his dream from the time he was 10……

 

Next came Wines of Italy….we tasted 5 different kinds of wines and they were quite good…one is a brand new wine and it is called Magicale….wonderful tasting sparkling wine and will only be available here on the ship, WDW and Disneyland….guess I will be getting some of this from Disneyland the next time I am there since I don’t want to pack it in my luggage and I can’t carry it on.  We also tasted a Chianti, a Amarone, Pinot Grigio and one other that I guess I didn’t write the name down…..oops….really enjoyed the Pinot Grigio, wasn’t real fond of the Amarone…too much of a bitter taste at the end.  Two of the wines were Tommy LaSorda’s (manager of the Dodgers) brand.  Our Master Sommelier was Michael Jordon from Napa Rose @ Disney’s Grand Californian. 

 

We left the wine tasting and went right over to another tour which was the Galley Tour….we toured the kitchen area of Lumiere’s & Parrot Cay.  There are 120 chefs on board with 75 servers for the 4 restaurants….they can store up to a 10 day supply of food and then have to replenish.  Disney only does this with their suppliers only and the food is delivered to the different ports of call along the way.  When we loaded for the trip they brought on 83 pallets of food.  They hace 18 cooks for each kitchen and several pastry chefs as well.  There is one guy that all he does is makes chocolate chip cookies all day long every day…..I think I would learn to hate the sight of a chocolate chip cookie after a while.  Disney cooks the food in batches for each dinner meal as to not have the food get cold or to waste too much of it….if the food is not consumed within a 4 hour period they must get rid of it so they don’t want to overmake too much.  On a 7 day cruise they go through about 1.5 tons of flour so they will approximately go through 3 tons on our cruise.  When the food comes up the servers que and their number is called and they come up and pick up their trays which usually carry 9 entrees at a time at a weight of 55 lbs.  There is a food counter when the servers turn in their tickets that counts and advises the chefs of how much of each dish has been ordered so that the correct amount can be cooked.  They have dishwashers that work more like automatic car washes on board and they can wash, clean, sanitize and dry 300 dishes in a 15 minute period.  They planned the menu for this  cruise 3.5 months prior to serving it.  Last night our server told us that the Mexican dinner was the last for a while so he gave me the menu and the dessert menu from Lumiere’s and I am going to work on getting one from each of the other two restaurants as well…..can you tell I’m a scrapbooker!

 

We have a comedienne and hypnotist for the show tonight so that should be a lot of fun….the skies have cleared up since morning but it is way humid outside….75 degrees and 90% humidity…..ugh this is killing me but hey my skin and hair are really soft!  Think I’ll go take a nap now….been a really tiring day….HA!

Day 6 {August 22nd} Acalpulco

Today we docked in Acapulco after a very stormy night at sea….loved it…..the rain, the ocean, the ship swaying back and forth…..guess I was made for this because neither of us are having any problem at all with being seasick.  We now have our own little mini pool on our verandah……

 

We didn’t have anything planned in

Acapulco

so we were in our stateroom until about 11 and most of the time it was pretty black outside.  Went up to Deck 10 to wait for us to pull out and lo and behold the skies opened up with some more of that liquid sunshine…..and it came down…..it was quite a sight…you couldn’t even see land behind the ship….haven’t seen rain like that in quite a while but we enjoyed it immensely….since we don’t see much of it ‘round Arizona.  We were suppose to set sail at 1:00 p.m. but from another guest I found out that we were waiting for 3 people to get back to the ship……it was closer to 2:00 before we left which the Captain is sure making up for the loss of time….we are moving at 23.6 knots per hour….which is pretty darn quick….we have traveled since leaving Los Angeles 1657 nautical miles and have traveled 81 nautical miles since leaving Acapulco which has been just under 3 hours….we have 1357 nautical miles to go before we reach the Panama Canal so we have two full sea days and of course this whole day as well.  Don’t know if I said this in a previous post or not but a nautical mile is 800’ longer than a mile….just in case you want to do the math.

 

Went to see the show for today already which was “The Art of the Story” very cool show…and guess it isn’t one that they do on normal cruises so it is something pretty special.  Then we went out onto Deck 4 and grabbed a lounge chair…..had our books with us and we just soaked up some sea air…..amazing how we weren’t very far from Acapulco but the weather was completely different….light fluffy clouds on a sparkling blue sky with dark blue ocean beneath us….it was hard to keep my eyes open.  We then got up and walked around the deck since it is the walking/jogging track….this takes you up into the bow of the ship and to the area where they have all the mooring lines….well any of you that know John know that we didn’t just walk on past this stuff….he had to stand and analyze and look at it all.  Went to deck 9 and grabbed a bite to eat and now we are hanging in our room with the door open and the ship swaying back and forth……other than not having my babies with me I could get so use to this…..

 

Okay for those of you who asked about the massage….we had a couples massage which doesn’t really mean anything at all other than we are laying next to each other in a room while we both get our own massages…..it was a full body massage and unfortunately I had a woman and John and a man, that was not a complete hunk…..we changed the date of our Exotic Rasul to tomorrow so I don’t have an update on that yet.  Nothing else exciting to report right now…..

Day 5 {August 20th - part 2}

Well that Sunset Cruise that I talked about….didn’t happen…..Puerto Vallerta decided to drop a little liquid sunshine on us and so they cancelled the cruise. Not a big deal to us cuz you know we kinda like the rain…..so we made our way across the street to the Wal-Mart and picked up some water and Red Bull and a couple of other things…..very strange trying to find what you are looking for in a store that is all written in a language that you don’t understand….I really have no idea how people who don’t speak English or can’t read do it…made me crazy looking down each aisle trying to see if it had what we were looking for….the good thing was that everyone we seemed to talk to spoke English so it wasn’t hard asking questions. The prices were a little freaky as well…Red Bull $19.50….a can…..a six pack of water $31.50 so our total when we were done was $331.20 until she pushed a button and turned everything into USD then it was only $30.48 – which was much better….of course we received Pesos back so then we had to go to another window to exchange the money….they gave John back $70 pesos and he received $7.50 USD. We ate at Topsiders this evening and it was quite good….this is usually the buffet area but at night it is sit-down service and a full course meal…appetizers, soup, salad, main course and dessert…..went to the show which was a “Los Caporales Festival Folklorico which was Mariachi Band and Dancers….fabulous show…. Had our pictures taken with Goofy and with Minnie dressed in their Mexican attire which was really fun…I missed seeing all the characters in their dress outfits the other night. Ordered chocolate chip cookies and milk from room service…..and came in our room to find a stingray laying on the bed…..love the towel animals and I figure that they are starting easy and working their way up. Tomorrow is a spa day…..a Well Being Massage for both of us (our first massage evah)…..thinking that they can’t make us well but I sure will let them try….and it should feel pretty good since I am starting to feel the effects from the ATV ride in my shoulders and back. It is also a Sea Day tomorrow so we have a few other things that we want to do like there is another lecture concerning the Panama Canal that we want to listen to, a Tips on Photography class that I would like to attend and the Disney Vacation Club talk….we most likely won’t join this but they give out free stuff to use on the ship so what the heck. Tomorrow night the theatre show is Ronn Lucas who is a comedian and ventriloquist so we will have to do a little comparison to Jeff Dunham….. Oh I do believe that someone asked me if I thought that this would be a good cruise for kids…..by all means YES!!! You would not believe how they treat kids around here…I mean they are good to the adults but WOW I really want to go back to being 10 again cuz on this ship you own the WORLD!

Day 5 {August 20th}

Today we are in Puerto Vallerta…..we have now set our watches ahead two hours….really think that they are getting us ready so we don’t loose any time but is this a little much….wish we could move ahead by half hours instead of full hours…..

 

Had breakfast in the room again….it is really nice to do this….we can go out on the balcony and watch the ship dock which this time was great because even though we are starboard side (left side) we are facing the port….a little pilot boat came out to greet us while we were still in open waters and we watched the Pilot climb on board….don’t know that I would want that job….there was a ladder dropped down for him and he had to kinda jump off of his boat and grab the rope ladder and climb up the side of the ship….probably pays really well but heck hazard pay has to cost a bunch as well…..

 

As we pull into port….what is the first thing that you see…..Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club….woo hoo…..going to head over there and get some bottled water and Red Bull….didn’t have any Red Bull for this morning but it didn’t seem to bother me that much especially once we got to the Dolphin Swim…..I don’t think I have enough words to explain how exciting this was for both of us…..our trainers name was David and our dolphin was Alii….she was 2 years old and just adorable.  We got into the water and the first thing we did was pet her….never thought of a dolphin as being soft but she sure was….and her belly was even softer….I was really surprised to see the size of her teeth…I knew they had them but they were pretty big….they do not use them though to eat the fish with…they swallow them whole…they are mainly used for catching & killing and defending….then David asked for a volunteer….well if you know me….yep I was the first one up there……I got several kisses from her and kissed her several times as well and gave her big hugs…..then everyone else took their turn…..we learned some more things about the dolphins….like they never sleep…their brain is split in half so when they want to sleep the shut off one side and use the other half to maneuver around….oh what I wouldn’t give for that talent…..could you imagine…you could sleep and work all at the same time and then be ready to party the night away!  Anyway….they also can be underwater for up to 10 minutes.  After we learned all about that then we went for a swim with the dolphin…..she laid on her back and you came up and held on to her fins (arms) and she took off in a huge circle….it was amazing I could feel her undulating beneath me….talk about some serious force…..wow such amazing animals….I guess that is why they can make those amazing jumps in the air.   After that was over the two dolphins did some leaps and tricks for us….I just didn’t want to leave…I could have stayed in that pool all day.  We then walked over to another area and there was a sea lion….I couldn’t understand what they told us her name was but she was giving kisses…..and we gave her hugs…..when John got up there she tried to French kiss him….the picture is great….we spent a huge amount of money on pictures but then again…we may never pass this way again.

 

We have a Sunset Sail this evening…..so I will have more later on.

2000 Miles Plus

Yea that is what we drove in the last 96 hours....up to Elk Grove, CA (Sacramento) and back again.  We went to see my only niece graduate from 8th grade - of course, they call it a promotion but whatever.  Here is a picture of the happy graduate with her family which is also my brother (Toby), sister-in-law (Mary), and my nephew Cy. 

Afterwards we went back to their house to open presents of course....I remember when I graduated from 8th grade - my big gift was a electric typewriter....boy have times changed - that was a huge thing then and now what do we give to graduates......

do you think she is excited...I would say...a brand new laptop...see I told you that times had changed...I just got my very first laptop and we won't go into how old I am now.....anyway she was beyond excited.  Sydnie had a graduation party to go to that afternoon so John and I decided to head to Redding, CA about 180 miles North to check out the SunDial Bridge that I had seen someone elses blog.....this is a amazing piece of architecture. 

The walkway of the bridge lights up at night but we got there about 5:30 so we would have had to wait for at least 3 hours before this would have happened so I didn't get any pictures of this happening.  There are several things to do in this area....there are several walking, running, riding paths all through - you could spend a whole day just enjoying everything that this place has to give.  The bridge goes across the Sacramento River and looking East you can see Mt. Shasta - if you look really close in this picture you can see it... just barely though....right here.....also saw this little guy checking out all the wonderful flowers that were all over the area

 

 

 

 

 

 

on our way back to Elk Grove we passed umpteen roadside fruit stands...unfortunately they were all closed at this point and so we decided that we needed to come back up this way in the morning to see what we could get for fresh fruit...all the signs were indicating cherries, strawberries, etc....well they weren't kidding....we drove North again on Friday morning and this is what we found......

Mount Rainer cherries.....unfortunately we didn't get any of these but the red ones....a whole bag...I think by the time we got back to Elk Grove we had eaten half the bag.  I would be making myself sick on fruit and veggies if I could do this here....they tasted so wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Didn't get any of these but look at the colors....they are just so vibrant.  We also picked up some pistachio nuts....don't know if it was the fresh air or what but they just tasted so great....they never made it back to Phoenix....of course, we didn't stop on the way home for any food at all so this stuff kind of sustained us for the 11 hours of travel we did.

 

 

 

Bought some of these.....gonna cut into those today and add them to a big huge salad....can't wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well we are back and really enjoyed ourselves but glad to be back at home again.  We will be planning a trip up around that area again in the future...will go to Kings & Sequioa National Park, Mt. Shasta and probably back into Yosemite again.......if you are one of the lucky ones to be able to enjoy roadside stands on a regular basis just want you to know I'm very envious.......

{Nashville Bound}

Here is one more lay-out for Scrap Etc that I did up.  We are taking a tour called the Nash Trash Tour and we are having a page swap so here is my page for that....

Oh and forgot to tell you I got a new camera on Friday...I know I already have the Canon Rebel XT Digital but sometimes that is too big to cart around everywhere and my old Kodak point and shoot has a few little problems so I went on line the other day and purchased a Canon PowerShot SD750 Elph....this camera ROCKS...if you don't want to go to a SLR Digital....this is a great little camera and it fits right in my pocket which is really sweet.  It is only 7.1 megapixels but for what I am going to use it for it is perfect.  The picture above was taken with it as were the pictures of Tim and my projects in the posts below.  So mom if you are reading this you might want to check into this before you go on your cruise.....hint hint.....

Gotta get busy need to start packing and making my luggage list so the TSA doesn't get totally freaked out by cutters, scissors, crop-a-diles, etc.....will be interesting flying for the first time with all my scrapbook supplies - we will see how it goes......