Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving


It's appropriate that I would pull up an old banner I made from 2013 because it contains my former foster Declan - who is once again my foster. Yup, he was returned to me last weekend.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Bad, Bad, Blogger

A while back my work schedule changed to 10 hours a day and I'm not going to list all my other excuses for not keeping up. One of these days I will catch up because we've done some traveling I would like to document. Until I catch a breath...............

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Norwegian Westward Bahama Cruise November 1993

My mother in law passed away almost 2 years ago now. Wow time flies. We are still going through some of her things which is amazing because she downsized several times and ended up in an ALF with very few possession. Those that are left to us are mostly personal and precious - like her photo albums. In 1993 we took a cruise, everyone's first, from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas. I combined her photos and a few of ours to make this video.

 

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Jacquie & the Thai Temple

We spent today with my friend Jacquie. Haven't seen her for two years. We were buddies in Seattle and our time in Alaska overlapped by a short amount of time as well. We went to the Thai temple for the food market and a little cultural enlightenment. Then we went to Clearwater beach and drove south through Sand Key beach to John's Pass. Jacquie had her friend Karen with her and now I have a new friend too!
lunch of noodle soup, summer rolls, banana cakes, coconut balls, ad the steam dumpling that I cannot recall the name of
 
Me and Jacquie
 
Outside of temple with the sun shining down

My coworker Tip sharing information on Buddhism to Jacquie. Tip's friend Joy is kneeling to her left.
 
Buddha shrine

Large gong

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

More Quilty Box Surprises!

I forgot to share my last two Quilty Box Reveals so, here they are..........

December
 
January

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Last of Carribean Cruise

This is a photo of the sea walk that jets out over the ship and has a glass bottom for viewing the ocean below.


On our last day we finally made it to tea in the dining room. They came around with trays of scones (wiuth shipped cream & jam), pastries, cookies, and small sandwiches.

You can tell the cruise is coming to an end when luggage starts to appear in the hallway. You have to give your luggage up the night before. Travel tip - bring a bag you can pack your last night's clothes, jammies, & toiletries in because you have to give up your bags.

The last night there was a mardi Gras party in the atrium. There was an opera singer with a beautiful voice too.

My selfie showing sun burn from sitting in the Jacuzzi. It was overcast so I didn't feel it burning. And, after that, I spent an hour on the balcony in the sun watching the US Coast evacuate a passenger off our ship using a basket that comes down from the H60 helicopter. It was amazing.

This is a light fixture.

We had a great time. We went to a comedy show, a broadway-like musical dance number, we watched movies under the stars twice, napped, read, listed to music, ate, watched the "street" performers in the piazza. It was a very enjoyable vacation. Cruises are the easiest vacations in my book.

More Carribean Cruise

Our third, and last, stop was St. Maarten in the Virgin Islands. The island is half Dutch, half French.

There were 5 cruise ships at the port while we were there.

Always the bird watcher. King bird.

The homes, especially in the older part of town, were very colorful.

More cemeteries!

The photo doesn't represent the colors of the Caribbean very well because it was raining off and on.

I was shocked to see desert like foliage. We also saw these huge orange iguanas but I didn't get a photo.


This is the point where the island changes from Dutch to French. o travel issues - it's all the Eurozone.

Seems almost everywhere we go there is a fort. Ft. St Louis on the French side.

The waterfront, French side, taken from the Marina - you can see the fort up on the hill.

There was a straw market set up down by the waterfront but they were packing up when we got there. Weather perhaps? I saw this central area with a gazebo, arena seating and a painted compass.

Photo of the bay from the marina area.

The last two days were spent at sea and included our anniversary (Jan 15th). We woke up to find our door decorated.

My hubby got me roses and a card and the cruise folks gave us a card as well.

I ordered a special balcony breakfast for us. It included a hot meal of bacon, quiche (best I have ever had), baked tomato, and veggie strips.

It also included coffee, juice, and champagne as well as a plate of smoked salmon, capers, cream cheese, and bagels.

And finally, the pastry plate. It we could have ordered it for one, which you can't, it would have been enough for both of us.

Our view as we ate our special breakfast. We had another day of spa services as well.






Saturday, January 30, 2016

Carribean Cruise Jan 2016

Jerry and I went on a cruise to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We drove to Ft. Lauderdale and boarded the Regal Princess - yes, it is the same ship we took on our October cruise to Canada and new England. It took the entire week to figure out the ship so I didn't want to waste that knowledge! We've already booked our anniversary cruise for next January and, yes, it is on the Regal Princess again ;-)

 Our mini suite came with a champagne welcome
 Leaving Ft. Lauderdale. The folks on the beach, houses, and high rises were waiving and holding up signs. I thought a big ship would be annoying to it's neighbors but they seemed happy to send us off.
 A picture of the tenders and lifeboats from our balcony
I ordered chocolate covered strawberries to go with out champagne and for a private sail away instead of going to the Lido for the party.
 Our first stop was Princess Cays - a private beach leased by the cruise line on the island of Eleutrea in the Bahamas.
 The Regal Princess
 We hung out on the beach waiting for our excursion time

We went on a glass bottom boat ride

A picture of the coral reef that we were viewing from the boat
 The next was at sea so we spent some of it at the spa and getting ready for the first formal night.

 Jerry as we entered St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Travel tip - raveling there is easy because English is spoken and the currency is the US dollar.
 The US bought the island from the Dutch
 OK, so they bury one person in the ground and then other family members on top. A genealogist's dream!
My best attempt at a street shot
 Iguanas were living in the rocks and not that easy to spot
 We went up to Mountain Top where the view was awesome. It is also the birthplace of the banana daiquiri, which we did not try. I wished we had time to stop at the botanical gardens we passed.

So, that's part one of our vaca!