Travels With Mary & Elaine

2012-01-30T19:29:00.000-08:00

1/30/12 We are now in the parking lot at the Lone Butte Casino in Chandler, AZ. This is south of Phoenix and not very far from Gilbert, where we have an appointment at 8AM tomorrow to have our inverter/charger repaired. This casino has a very liberal parking policy for RVers, which we appreciate. It is conveniently located and they don't care how long anyone stays. Our friend, Marie von Minden, has been here off and on for months while she writes a book. So we have had her over for dinner the last 2 nights and I have enjoyed petting and walking her little cairn terrier named Kristi.
I promised to post some pictures from Boomerville at Quartzsite, where we spent most of January. The Boomers is a sub-group of the Escapees RV club which meets every January on the desert and besides all the Quartzsite shopping and RV shows, the Boomer group has lots of other activities. No one is in charge; each activity is suggested and coordinated by a volunteer. The other appeal is that so many of our friends attend this. So we have social events with friends as well.
The first night we were there we had this view:

The second day our Park Sierra friends, Glenda & Elleen, arrived and stayed overnight with us. They had planned to come in their own little Minnie Winnie, but just before they left, it had an engine problem and before they could get it fixed, it caught fire and their rig was totaled! So they stayed in with us and we had a great visit. The next day they went on to Phoenix and flew to Florida for a vacation.

Our friends David & Diane Wilson have cruised with us many times. We talked them into joining us for 10 days in their RV. Then we showed them all the charms of Quartzsite and Boomerville. Here they are in one of the many shopping venues in town:

There are always lots of gems and minerals for sale, including fossils like these from Morocco. When we were in Morocco we saw similar ones and I think they are cheaper here!

There is a small museum which has some wonderful displays of crystals such as this:

One of the first Boomer activities was a chili cookoff. I made some, and so did about 20 other people. Here are some of the judges tasting the entries:

There were also lots of good side dishes to go with the chili, and we ate with our friends, David & Diane:

One of the Boomer couples, Gretchen and Bob, made pancakes just about every other day for anyone who wanted to come and have some. This was quite a feat given that there were over 130 rigs at Boomerville. All they asked was for donations, which went to CARE. This is a place at Escapees headquarters in Texas where members can go when they need assistance due to a medical situation. Here is the pancake queen:

Down in our area, which Carole Schneider nicknamed "The Ghetto", we had a big 46th anniversary party for Anke & Herb. It was on the 21st and it was so windy out that Mike and Marilyn Harrison, the co-hosts with us, pulled their rig over near ours to make a windbreak. Here is the happy couple with their wedding picture in between:

Lots of the friends were having a great time, as you can tell by this picture of Judy & Paul, Ann sitting on Elaine's lap, Mick & Dona:

Betty & Duane, one of the sweetest couples, came to help celebrate. They are high school sweethearts themselves:

Elaine was partying with Dick & Carole Schneider while Mick took pictures:

Dona & Joe, new members, sit with Beth and Elaine:

Marilyn, her cousin Jeanne, and Diane:

Marilyn sits with old friends Sam & Bob, and the couple they brought along, Nu & Dana:

Herb & Anke with Mary & Elaine:

And with the other co-hosts, Marilyn & Mike:

Anke is a really good cook and baker and she gave Diane, Elaine and me a lesson in making rolls:

Herb & Anke had provided really expensive and delicious champagne for the party. The next day, while we were baking in our rig, Herb brought over a leftover bottle of chilled champagne and 4 glasses for us to share.

Another Boomer activity is the Geraldine contest/fashion show, where some of the men dress up like women in fancy outfits and with very funny explanations. Connie Farquar was the commentator, so she dressed in a man's suit. It is very entertaining and here are this years participants:

Larry and Joyce Space were with us when we drove down to Panama and back in 2004. They
attended Boomerville this year and here is Larry in his Geraldine outft:

Other good friends, Carol & Ron Leonard, sopped by for a few days. Here they are with the friends at Mike & Marilyn's campfire:

Morning coffee around the campfire helped everyone bond.
Sometimes someone would bring out special treats to serve, such as when Herb shared some crostinis:

Another evening we drove to the other side of the valley for a potluck with some Park Sierra friends. The food was delicious, and it was nice to reconnect with our "neighbors". Then we all enjoyed a campfire:

Our other favorite group is the RoVing Rods, and they were also meeting over on Plomosa Road. We joined them for a fish fry on the 27th. Ron and Barb Bonham are in charge of the group and coordinated the potluck/fish fry:

Betty had made several really delicious pies for Elaine's birthday. Here is Elaine with Betty:

And here are the pies:

Then there was another big campfire:

Besides socializing, other things get handled too. Tom Vineski took the time to investigate and troubleshoot our electrical problem and coordinate things with the Xantrex technician on the phone. In exchange, Doctor Elaine did some work on the foot of his wife, Nancy:

Every year we have to have a big party for Elaine's birthday, and this year she was 65 so Saturday night there was a celebration. Our very dear friends Lee & Susie drove over from the Boondocker gathering and here they are with the birthday girl:

Some of the other party animals were the Rayners, Jan, Joyce Space, and Dick & Carolyn Babione:

There were actually 3 birthday people this year, so here are Dick, Nu, and Elaine with the cake I made for them:

Life on the Arizona desert often involves some spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Here is one of the sunrises (yes, I was actually up that early...)

And I will close with a sunset over Mike and Marilyn's rig. Goodnight.

2012-01-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

Hey Blog Readers, We have been camped in the desert outside of Quartzsite, AZ for several weeks with the Boomers. Things are winding down here, and most rigs will be gone by Sunday or Monday. Our cruise friends, David & Diane Wilson, came and parked in front of us for 10 days so we showed them around. They have now joined Escapees and Boomers, and they are a welcome addition. Other friends have stopped by for a day or two as well. There have been many activities, some of which we have enjoyed, and some that we missed because we were doing other things with other groups such as Park Sierra friends, and RoVing Rods. I have taken a few pictures and am planning to share them with you but loading them will take forever while we are still camped here because the signal isn't really good.
Sunday or Monday we have to drive back to Phoenix area to get our inverter/charger repaired. Tom Vineski, a Boomer friend who used to do solar installations and who is a very knowledgeable RV guy, helped us troubleshoot it yesterday and also talked to the Xantrex guy on the phone. It looks like we need a new mother board. Damn. So we will be in Phoenix next week and I will do a complete Quartzsite report with pictures at that time.
Today is Elaine's 65th birthday and we will be having a Happy Hour party at our campsite. If you read this today (1/28/12) and are in the area, please come! Party reports and pictures will be in the next post from Phoenix.

2012-01-12T12:00:00.001-08:00

Blog Update 1/12/12
Recently we spent some time in a couple of pretty interesting places where I took lots of pictures, so I thought I should share them with you. The first place was Anza Borrego State Park, where we boondocked near Pegleg and took the car out for a drive towards Borrego Springs. Our first goal was to find the fruit stand where we had bought some oranges and grapefruit in the past, because they were so sweet and juicy. We found it and it was a corner stand with bags of fruit in stacks, prices posted on the wall and the honor system for payment. We bought 2 bags, ate an orange immediately and were again pleased with the quality of the fruit.
The second goal was to find some of the metal sculptures which our friend Laurie Brown had posted about on her blog. (She writes an awesomely interesting blog called “Semi-true Tales of Our Life On The Road”. Google it and click on it and you will enjoy reading it a LOT.) Apparently there are 129 of them in total. When you see signs on plots of land both south and north of town that say: “Galleta Meadows Estates, you will see behind the signs, huge, rust-red, metal sculptures of prehistoric animals and birds, horses, giant tortoises, and mastodons, some set well off the main road on winding, sandy tracks.

The sculptures are crafted by Ricardo Breceda. Beginning in early 2008, Dennis Avery, who owns about three square miles of undeveloped property throughout the desert town, commissioned Breceda to create a menagerie of metal beasts. Most are life-size or larger sculptures of creatures that once roamed the Borrego Valley when it was a lush forest. Mammoths, camels, turtles, wild horses and giant sloths are some of the pieces that have been attracting the curious to town.

Early last year Breceda installed an awesome 350 foot long serpent, with a dragon-like head, which even spans Borrego Springs Road. It took 7 months to build and install and cost Avery $40,000.

We definitely agree with Laurie when she says: “As interesting as the sculptures are, I am equally amazed by the generosity of Mr. Avery. Each of the Galleta Meadows Estates signs say the same thing: “Hiking, horseback riding, picnicking, photographing, bicycling – no motorized cycles, camping limit three days. Privately owned desert estate.” When was the last time you saw a sign inviting you onto private property? Inviting you to camp for up to three days? To stick around, explore, enjoy the interesting sights he has commissioned and installed for your pleasure? In a world of liability fears and “No Trespassing” signs, it seems miraculous. Borrego Springs has a great benefactor in Dennis Avery.”
The second place we visited was The Slabs, or Slab City, near Niland, CA. Our across the street neighbors at Park Sierra, Mary & Rich Baughmann, usually spend their winters there, and they invited us to stop by. We had never been there before and were curious about it. It was quite an amazing place, once we saw everything that was there.
When you drive into the area, the first thing you pass is this old guard house, now painted with a welcoming message and if you look at this picture carefully, it says “the last free place”.

Yes, it is a free place – it is an area that is now owned by the state of California, but between 1942 and 1946 it was a marine base called Camp Dunlap. The marine base was for artillery training and there is still a very large and active artillery range nearby. After WWII the camp was deactivated, the buildings were removed, leaving just the concrete floors and thus giving this area the name, The Slabs. People in buses and RVs started coming here and using the slabs for patios, gathering areas, etc. Over the years, different areas have developed to meet the needs of the various people who come here for extended periods of time.
The second thing you notice upon entering this area is a huge, colorfully painted area on the side of a mesa called Salvation Mountain.

Leonard Knight started painting his Biblical messages on the sides of this “mountain” in 1985. He used to sleep in the Salvation Truck, a decorated vehicle with a house on the back. The truck, like the mountain, is lettered with biblical quotations and a large "REPENT" warning. In December, he had to relocate to a care facility as his health deteriorated.

There is a large area for members of the LOWS (Loners On Wheels). The area where year-round residents stay is called Poverty Flats.

Not very many people stay here all year because the temperature gets above 125 degrees in the summer. But it is very nice in the winter and lots of people stay here between Oct and April, thus saving a lot of money to use the rest of the year.
Driving into the area, this is a picture of a typical camper there:

It often gives a bad impression to middle-class RVers, and they turn around and leave. Mary & Rich have been coming here for years and love it! They have an area where friends from years past come and camp with them. When we arrived, there was plenty of room for us to park and not be too close to any regulars. Their nearest neighbor, Larry, was almost finished building his little unique home:

It is on a flat bed trailer and he hauled it down from Oregon! Mary had arranged a very nice Happy Hour so we could meet their friends.

One of their friends was Chili Bob, a guy who has been camping there in the winters for 6 years, and Mary arranged for him to take us on a tour the next day. By the way, lots of people we met had nicknames, such as Chili Bob, Half Pint, New York Larry, etc. No one’s last name is ever used, and lots of people do not want their picture taken. Perhaps there are a few who have outstanding warrants, etc???!!!
He has a 4 wheel drive car and we needed that feature often. There are paved roads near the slabs, and firm and level gravel roads in other parts where people camp. But if you get off the beaten track at all, the surface gets soft in parts. He started by taking us to the library:

A woman had built this wooden structure, maintained it and organized the books until her death. Now it is still functional but deteriorating. Chili Bob said there were 4 libraries in Slab City.
Then we drove to the Gopher Flats Golf Course, an 18 hole course complete with flag pins in the holes, and tee areas. Of course, there aren’t any water hazards!

Right near it was the aqueduct which runs along the edge of Slab City with the artillery range on the other side.

It is fenced off, but the residents find a way to get in there and go swimming, especially in summer. On Jan. 1 they had a Polar Bear Plunge here. The water is irrigation water for the many large agribusiness fields in the area.
There is an area set aside where residents who have lost their pets have established a pet cememtery:

Further on are 2 huge water tanks which used to store water for the Marine base, and which now have been painted by local artists. One of them has big business logos on it,

while the other one is completely covered with fornication poses such as you would find in the Kama Sutra.

From the hill where the tanks are you can look down on some people who choose not to park in the more congested area of the actual slabs:

Next we drove to the hot spring
.
The water looks a little cloudy in this picture but there was a guy enjoying it and it usually is between 104 to 108 degrees, depending on where you are in the spring. As you would expect, it is a clothing optional area.
Leaving the Slabs area, Chili Bob drove us south to a geothermal plant where there were many large grayish mounds sticking up in a field. Here is a picture of me standing next to one,

which shows how tall they were. We climbed up on the top of one where there was an opening and we could see a large, bubbling mud pot.

The very hot water just under the surface, pushes up through the soil and makes these mud mounds. Bob told us that there were 9 geothermal plants in this area which collect the 550 degree water from under the ground, run it through turbines to create electricity, and then pipe it back into the ground to be warmed up again.

On we went to the nearby Salton Sea. It was created in 1905 and here is an explanation about it:

The water is very far from the previous shore line now, so there is a huge expanse of salt from the evaporation as it receded.

Just off shore there was a little island that was covered with sea birds. And not too far off was a big pile of salt left over from the days when they used to mine salt here.

There is an obsidian mound around the bend from the road in, which shows the extensive volcanic activity here. And near the shore there is also a nice wildlife preserve and small interpretive center named after Sonny Bono who used to be the congressman for this area. The funny thing was that there were hardly any birds in the actual wildlife area, while the 2 fields just before we got to the wildlife area were loaded with snow geese:

On our way back to the Slabs, we went through the town of Calipatria, where we saw a VERY tall flagpole, and this sign:

Heading back to the Slabs, we passed a natural gas plant which has set aside an entire acre of land which it is in the process of covering with solar panels.

We were happy to see this because they get so much sunshine down here, it is a shame to keep relying on fossil fuels when solar energy can be easily obtained.
Back at the Slabs we visited the Sculpture Garden started by some artists in the past and which has workshops and tents for ongoing art projects, as well as a viewing yard for some completed works. Here are just a few of the displays we enjoyed: a wall made of bottles and cement:

an artistic house just a bit on a slant

an art car

the sign on the back of the art car says: "beer, 4 out of 5 people prefer it to prozac".
Our last stop was at the Oasis Club. Membership dues ($20) cover the whole year, and meals, twice a week,have different prices. There is a library

and a roomy lunchroom. Mary & Rich play cards here several times a week. There is a nice garden, and it seems to be an enjoyable place for people to gather and interact with other residents.
The last night we were there, Mary & Rich had us over for a very nice dinner. We ate outside and it was getting pretty cold because this is the desert and it gets cold as soon as the sun sets.

Every night they have a campfire, and all the people staying in Mary & Rich’s area come over to share and chat. On Saturday nights, there is also a large slab area called The Range that has been set aside for musical groups to play under some large lights, with lots of old chairs and couches scattered around for people to sit and enjoy. Dances are held there too.
We were very glad that we visited The Slabs while we had friends there because we had a whole different impression of it than we would have had if we had just driven in there. And we saw a whole lot more thanks to Chili Bob’s tour. THANKS Rich & Mary, and Chili Bob!

2012-01-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

1/4/12 Happy New Year Everybody! We have been staying at the SKP park called Jojoba Hills which is located in Temecula, CA. We came here in late Dec. in anticipation of having a fun New Year's party, and also seeing some much-appreciated Boomer friends. Immediately we encountered sunny and warm weather and that has been continuing. Yesterday and today was in the 80's. We have been staying in the boondocking area which is pretty nice, although there are no hookups. There have been lots of social occasions, such as Happy Hours and group meals. Unfortunately, I have fallen into the mode of "kick back" and I have not been taking many pictures.
Vicky & Terry Webb, and Dick and Carole Schneider came over one evening for drinks and appetizers. Laurie & Odel arrived on the 30th and they were here for the New Year's Eve party at the Ranchhouse, and also a traditional German meal at Carole & Dick's site on New Year's Day. Other Boomer friends were there as well. Elaine and I have been trying to clean up and organize our rig, and also diagnose our electrical problem. Yes, the electrical problem we thought we had solved in Yuma is still with us. We have power to our plugs for the 2 TVs and my computer power strip when we are on the inverter, but when we run our generator, these plugs don't work. Hopefully, we can get this fixed when we go to Quartzsite later this month.
The other drama has been Elaine and her new tablet. She got a Samsung Galaxy Tab but when she was using it she was having great difficulties and being very frustrated. Luckily, Sarah Blackwood had her IPad2 at the New Years Eve party and she showed Elaine some of her apps and websites. Elaine realized how much easier her tablet was to use so yesterday we took her Samsung back to Costco and returned it. Then we drove directly to the Apple store in Temecula and got an IPad2 for Elaine. I think she is much happier with it and so am I because I don't have to listen to all her cursing when she can't figure out what to do, and I don't have to drop whatever I am doing to try to help her. I have never had a tablet, so parts of it are a mystery to me too!!! I am sticking with my Toshiba laptop!
Monday we drove to San Diego where we had a great visit with our son, Darran, and his new wife, Marielle. Both of them are such Sweeties! What a surprise when we walked into their place and he had a beard! Here is a picture of them with Elaine:

Darran's good friend and guru, Brian Lowe, and his wife Jen & 2 year old daughter Mckenna, joined us and we all walked on the path beside Mission Bay. Then we walked along the Pacific Ocean walkway down to the Crystal Pier and had lunch at a very good restaurant near there called Fat Fish. And Darran & Marielle picked up the check! It was so much fun to be with young people who are in the throes of starting their families and working hard on their careers. Here is a picture of the whole gang which was taken by a passing person on the beach walk:

Today we cleaned the inside of the rig and packed for tomorrow's departure. We will be heading for Anza Borrego for one night and then be visiting Mary & Rich Baughmann at the Salton Sea. By the 14th, we will be in Quartzsite, camping with our friends Mike & Marilyn Harrison and waiting for all the Boomers to show up for Boomerville. It runs from the 14th to the 30th. See you there!

2011-12-26T19:21:00.000-08:00

12/26/11 Time to catch up. My last long post was the day we left on the 2 one week cruises we did from Galveston, starting Dec. 4. I had neglected to post a picture of our friends Al & Donna Ellis whom we visited in Chandler while we were getting ready to fly to Houston before the cruise. They are former RVers and very active in PFLAG in the Phoenix area, which is Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. We had a delightful lunch with them:

The next day we had dinner with Marilyn and Mo at their home in Sun City West. They are new cruise friends from the recent Holy Land and transAtlantic cruises we took in Oct-Nov, and we had a delightful time with them.

We already told you in a previous post that Dorothy and her friend Mary took very good care of us when we arrived in Houston, despite the fact that Dorothy's husband Duane was in the hospital. Here is a picture of them with Elaine in the living room:

Dorothy had prepared a truly delicious dinner for us, and when we were helping clean up the dishes, we noticed this on her fridge, which really gave us a laugh:

The first port call on the cruise was Roatan, Honduras. This is one of the Bay Islands off the north coast of Honduras and the last time we had been here was when we were driving down to Panama in 2004. We stayed about 5 days that time but this time we just had the day here and this is what the port looked like:

The nicest area was the new buildings which the cruise line had built near the pier. The rest of the town was pretty small and laid back and there wasn't a lot to do except shopping.

The weather was pretty warm and this picture of me with some of the local flowers shows how tropical it is:

This is a picture of what some of the local houses look like away from the pier:

Roatan is a good place to do excursions such as scuba diving and snorkeling, not hanging around the port area.
The next port was Belize City, which we also visited in 1995 when we drove to Costa Rica, and in 2004 when we were on our way to Panama. Here also the port area is quite nice, but once you get away from the port, the city is pretty dismal.

This is also a good place to do shore excursions, especially since Belize has the second biggest and best reef in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef. We just walked around the town and tried to see the differences from our previous visits. And, as at every port, there was lots of shopping.
The last port was Cozumel, where we have been several times before. Usually we walk into town and back, which is about a 7 mile walk, round trip. This is a picture taken from the ship looking towards the downtown. You can see another cruise ship down there. This day there were 6 big cruise ships at the various docks.

Right next to our ship was the Allure of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world and also one of the Royal Caribbean ships:

Just as we returned to our ship, there was our old cruise friend, Letty Reeser, getting off the Allure. It was quite amazing running in to her, since there are abour 5100 passengers on that one ship!
There are also lots of fun things going on during sea days on the ship. Here is a picture of us dancing together at the Welcome Back party for the top tier cruisers.

See, we do clean up OK.
The second week, David & Diane Wilson joined us and we always love being with them.

The first port was Cozumel, where we had just been, so we mostly explored the nearby Carnival Pier where they have really nice shops and restaurants.
The first week there had been 57 cases of norovirus on the ship, so they decontaminated it. The second week there were even more cases, and I was feeling pretty punk myself for about a day and a half. So I missed getting off the ship at Grand Cayman. This was a bummer, because we had never been here before. Elaine and Diane explored the port a little and bought me a nice shirt there.
The last port was Falmouth, Jamaica, where we also had never been before. It wasn't a great place to spend much time except in the newly built shops right near the ship. Some Jamaican guys on stilts were there to greet us as we exited the ship:

There were also lots of great wood carvings which had been made by the locals:

The main street in the part of town where the locals actually live looked pretty historical, but we were being hasseled so much to buy things from the vendors that we just gave up and went back to the ship.

From the top deck we took the following picture which makes this place look pretty nice:

The ship was getting pretty badly buffeted by heavy winds and waves while we were there, and we left the port about 8 hours late because they were replacing one of the stabalizers and they couldn't get it off.
Once the cruise was over, we flew back to Phoenix and picked up our RV at the Tempe Elks. We were having an electrical problem, so we decided to drive directly to Yuma where we know lots of RVers and could get some help diagnosing our problem. Our good friends, Ron & Carol Leonard have a small house in the Foothills with some RV spots behind it, so we stayed with them for about a week. Ron helped Elaine determine that we had a bad breaker, so they replaced it. Hooray - problem fixed for only $9.14.
Our old friend Eileen Cooper lives here too and we had a delightful dinner with her and her grandson, Mitch. We so admire her because when her husband died a few years ago, she went back to college. Here is a picture of her when she graduated:

Mitch fixed us a delicious meal. Here are the happy eaters at the table:

Our good friends Lee & Susie Blattner also were at their lot at the SKP park, so we went out there one day and I made lefse with Susie. I was so intent on what we were doing that I forgot to take any pictures. But the lefse (a Norwegian potato pancake type dessert) was delicious. We also got them to come over here to Ron & Carol's on Christmas Eve when Elaine and I fixed a clam chowder meal for everyone. Here is a picture of Laurie & Odel who are also visiting here and they came for dinner:

This picture was taken in Ron & Carol's living room, and you can see Ron, Laurie, Lee & Susie, Diane Fisherbaker, Carol, and Jim Fisherbaker:

On Christmas Day we all ate on Jim & Diane's patio:

You can see what a sunny day it was, and today was even warmer. We all got together for lunch today with another one of our cruise buddies, Denice Osborne. Here we are at Parrishes Bar & Grill:

You can see that we have been having lots of socializing, both on the ships and with our RV friends. The social whirl will continue, because we are leaving here tomorrow to drive to the Escapees park near Temecula for Carole & Dick Schneider's New Year's Eve party. Perhaps when things slow down a bit I can finally get an end of the year holiday letter written and sent out. Until then, we wish you all a healthy and happy year in 2012. Hopefully, it will be a great one for us all!!!!

2011-12-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

12/25/11 Haven't had time to add to this blog lately but I do want to wish all of you out there a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! We are in Yuma with friends and will be having a sunny afternoon feast on their patio. Tomorrow I promise to catch up and let you know what is up with us.

2011-12-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

12/4/11
We have now boarded the Mariner of the Seas for 2 weeks in the Caribbean, and we are hoping for some sun because it is drizzling in Galveston right now. Yesterday we flew to Houston and took the Supershuttle to Duane and Dorothy's house in west Houston. The original plan was that we would have dinner with them, stay at their place, and they would drive us to the ship today. When we arrived, Dorothy was there with her best friend Mary, and Duane was in the hospital! His lungs had filled up with fluid and he was having trouble breathing. They got him straightened out and he is back home this afternoon, but probably they can't travel for a while. The 4 of us had a wonderful visit and delicious dinner, which we were amazed at because Dorothy pulled it off despite the health crisis. Mary drove us to the ship today and we greatly appreciate that she did this, and that Dorothy arranged it for us. We have GREAT friends!
Yesterday when I was posting pictures from the Mediterranean cruise, I didn't finish before we had to get on the airplane, so hopefully, I can finish now.

Northern Israel (continued) The ruins at Capernaum:

The Monastery at Tabgha, built where Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, had wonderful old mosaic floors:

When the tour stopped for lunch at a restaurant near the shores of the Sea of Galilee, David, Diane, Elaine and I had a picnic. You can see by this picture that the water has receded quite a bit, because they have been over-using it, and also there has been a drought. The Sea of Galilee has fresh water in it, and the people of Israel depend on it.

Here is a picture of us dipping our hands into the Sea of Galilee to see how warm it was.

The last place we visited on the Sea of Galilee was this church built where Jesus preached about the Beatitudes. The grounds were beautiful and the church had many mosaics inside with all the words of the Beatitudes.

One of the ports, Kusadasi, was in Turkey, so David & Diane shopped for a carpet. Here is the carpet shop:

Lots of the streets in Kusdasi are clean, have decorative cobblestones, and cute shops. We wandered one block off the main shopping street and found this area where the "real" people live:

There is a nice harbor in Kusadasi and we were there on a sunny day:

One of the highlights of Athens was going to the changing of the guard at the Parliament building. On Sundays at 11AM the entire regiment takes part and it is quite colorful and they do interesting high-stepping:

Of course, most people visit the ruins when they are in Athens. Here is a shot of the amphitheater:

We were in Greece during the strikes and labor protests. On the walk through Piraeus to the metro to go to Athens, we encountered this effect of the labor strikes:

While we were on the ship, we received an award for having 280 cruise days with Royal Caribbean:

The island of Rhodes was our favorite. The old town is completely surrounded by walls, gates, towers and moats. Our ship docked right next to it.

One of the gates in Rhodes:

The narrow streets in Rhodes are lined with nice shops and often have trellis or flowering vines hanging down:

Our favorite handicraft item in Rhodes was utensils made of olive wood.

Some people devised innovate ways to market olive wood!

Most of the places we have been on this cruise have mosques with minarets. This one could be clearly seen from our ship and was within the city walls:

Chania, Crete has a delightful Venetian style port area. You can see it just behind us:

Greek people enjoy drinking ouzo, so we tried it while in Chania. It tastes like licorice and we liked it:

On the next cruise, the transatlantic, Ken & Carolyn Kimpton from Park Sierra joined us and we all went out for dinner at Portofino:

Palma de Mallorca has one of the largest cathedrals in Europe:

Funchal, Madiera has always been one of our favorite ports, partly because they have such decorative sidewalks:

An interesting looking fruit we found in the market was a combination of banana and pineapple. It was delicious!!

We explored Funchal with Carol & Byron, so Byron took this picture when we stopped at a streetside table for a local beer:

In La Palma, Canary Islands, we enjoyed the scenic small streets with colorful buildings:

Also in La Palma there is a life-sized replica of Columbus' ship, the Santa Maria. You can see our ship in the distance at the top of the picture:

On some of the sea days during the transatlantic crossing, they had special High Teas for Diamond+ members:

And we had a special gathering of all the cruise friends who are now "Newts": From left to right are June, Susan, Dorothy,Carol, Elaine, Diane, Marilyn, & Letty.

After the cruise we went home with David & Diane to Austin and enjoyed a wonderful BBQ dinner at a unique place in the country. They have a lovely home and here they are in their family room:

2011-12-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

12/3/11 We are now sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Houston so I will try to post some pictures from our Holy Land cruise and the transatlantic. If you want the information about these places, you will have to scroll through the previous posts.
One of the beautiful views from the Isle of Capri, near Naples, Italy:

One of the more unique and interesting places in Capri was this perfume factory and shop:

Elaine and the view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives:

Graves on the Mount of Olives, a prime (and expensive) place to be buried:

Olive trees in the Garden of Gesthemane:

Front of the church built in the Garden of Gesthemane:

Oscar Shindler's grave:

Street cart selling Jerusalem bagels:

Walls and one of the gates of the old city of Jerusalem:

Narrow streets in Old Jerusalem:

Inside of the church that was built over the rock and tomb where Jesus was laid after his crucifixion:

One of the mosaics in that church:

One of the little shops along the Via Dolorosa in Old Jerusalem:

Snacks for sale in the narrow street of Via Dolorosa:

Men playing board games near the shops in Old Jerusalem:

Jewish man in traditional garb in Jerusalem:

Women at the wailing (or Western) wall in the women only section:

Man in fancy fur hat, a form of traditional garb for wealthy Jews:

Sign when we went to Bethlehem, which is in Palestine:

Graffiti on the wall separating Palestine from Israel:

View of Haifa from the top of the Baha'i gardens:

Closeup of part of the immaculate Baha'i Gardens in Haifa:

Church of the Immaculate Conception built over the ancient town of Nazareth:

One of the mosaics of Mary and baby Jesus sent from Thailand:

Back view of the church:

Ruins of the town of Nazareth located under the church:

They grow and eat a lot of pomegranates here:

First view of the Sea of Galilee with the Golan Heights towering over it:

Baptismal site on the Jordan River:

They even grow bananas in Israel:

2011-12-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

12/1/11 Opps, it is now Dec.1 and I haven't posted for almost a month because we have been just too busy. Once we returned from the transatlantic cruise, we had to retrieve our car at Darran & Marielle's in San Diego. The next day we drove to Park Sierra, where we had left our RV, and we started loading it up with everything we thought we might need to clean, repair, and paint the vacant rental house in Santa Clara. The next day we drove to the house and got started. We had hopes of parking on the street near the house but Santa Clara police told us in gruff terms that we could not "live" on the street. So we went to the Santa Clara Elks Lodge, which was only 3 miles from the house. It was a bit expensive, for an Elks Lodge, but it worked out quite fine.
Luckily, the former tenants had not left a bunch of junk and they had also done a partial job on cleanup, so we were able to start painting almost right away. Elaine's daughter Tarra, and her husband Alonzo, helped us with some of the cleaning and repair work, plus they got some of their contacts to come over and give us bids for work that we couldn't do, such as carpet repair, exterior painting, shed roof repair, etc. So, by Friday, Nov. 18 we felt like it was in decent enough shape to put an ad in Craig's List and start showing it. Within 30 minutes we had 3 calls and the first 2 people who came over applied to rent it. The next day we got 2 more applications. The first couple who applied qualified and they are now our new tenants. They have also been very helpful in getting some things finished even after we left the area. We continued painting and fixing and finished the interior on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Hooray!
Thanksgiving we had a delightful time and delicious meal at Tarra & Alonzo's house in Fremont. Their 3 girls were there too and it was a fun family time. The next day we went back to Park Sierra to get our rig ready to travel to the Southwest for at least part of the winter, and also to start packing for our 2 one week cruises to the Caribbean which start on Dec. 4.
We then headed south and one of the first things that happened was our tow bar snapped a spring on one side, so the arm wouldn't stay extended. That meant driving the car separately. At least no damage was done to the car or the RV when it collapsed in. We have contacted Blue Ox and apparently it will be a fairly easy and inexpensive fix once the part arrives.
So now we are preparing to leave our rig and car and fly to Houston on Saturday. Our cruise friends, Duane and Dorothy McCarthy, who were with us on the transatlantic cruise a few weeks ago will be our hosts overnight, and they will also drive us to Galveston to the ship on Sunday. This 2 week period in the Caribbean will be a welcome vacation after all the hard physical work we did on the house. When we return, Dec. 18, we will have to make some decisions as to where we will go next. We DO plan to attend Boomerville in Quartzsite between Jan. 14-30 and also go to the big fireworks festival called Winterblast in Lake Havasu City in Feb. Hope to see some of you in these 2 places! The pictures I promised to post from the Holy Land cruise and the transatlantic cruise will be posted tomorrow, hopefully! Thanks for your patience.

2011-11-04T08:48:00.001-07:00

11/3/11 My Goodness – it is November already (!) and the days have been flying by while we are cruising on the Mariner of the Seas. Since we have started the long trek across the Atlantic now, we are having 6 sea days in a row before we arrive in Nassau. This is Elaine's favorite part of cruising because it means long, lazy days on the ship, where we have all our needs met by the labors of somebody else! For example, we just finished having a nice lunch in the dining room with our old cruise friends, Duane and Dorothy McCarthy and 6 of their old friends, whom we didn't know before. Now we have several hours of down time before meeting friends in the Diamond Plus lounge for drinks. Later this evening there will be a special party and ice skating show for returning Crown & Anchor members in the top tiers. Then we will attend a first-rate violin performance in the theater by a lady we have seen before on another cruise. Tough life, isn't it?
The ports we have visited since my last posting have been fun and interesting. Our time in Athens turned out to be fine because it was Sunday and they usually don't have strikes and riots on Sundays when no one is working. We did see riot police in Syntagma Square, but all was well. At 11AM on Sundays the changing of the guard at the Parliament building becomes a big event because there is a marching band, and the entire regiment in their really unique uniforms marches in too. Then they do some tricky routines with foot stomping, balancing on one leg, pivoting and rifle maneuvers, before two guys actually replace the 2 that have been on duty. I got some really good pictures, which I will post when we are back in the USA. Elaine says she has never seen so many men wearing skirts in public!
By the time we got to the Acropolis, we had been walking around a while and Elaine was tired because of her cold, and I had a headache. There were big crowds to get in so we decided to just walk the perimeter on our way to the train back to Piraeus and see what we could, and then do an extended visit to all the ruins on our next visit. It was a lovely, sunny day and just walking around was enjoyable. Getting into Athens from the port was easy and cheap using the Metro. Whenever we can explore on our own, we always get so much more out of the experience.
The day we had in Athens was right after we had been in Kusadasi, Turkey and we found out from the news on TV that they had a huge earthquake in the eastern part right after we had left. Our hearts go out to those poor people when we see all the crumpled buildings and hear the stories about the deaths, injuries, and the rare instances of rescues. Many of our friends e-mailed us to make sure we were OK, and we appreciated it that we were the recipients of such caring concern. Thanks to those who wrote.
The next port was Chania, Crete, and we had a short day there, but it was charming. Once again it was easy and inexpensive to get to town using the public bus which picked us up right at the ship. The local market was right where we got off the bus and we got to have samples of raki and ouzo, two of the Greek liquors we have heard a lot about. They taste like licorice. We walked through the old, narrow, cobblestone streets filled with shops and restaurants, down to the port area. It was constructed during the time when Venice was a major world player, and thus is like a Venician port. There is also a fort on one side and a lighthouse on the other side of the harbor entrance. When we returned to the bus stop, firefighters and police were gathering in droves in the square and it looked like some sort of demonstration was going to be taking place, so we got on the bus and returned to the ship. Later we learned that the ship sailed late due to the difficulty of getting all the passengers back on board once those demonstrations started and the bus route changed. Good thing the bus drivers didn't decide to join the work stoppage!
The first cruise ended on Oct. 26 when we returned to Civitavecchia. It was rainy and cold so we stayed on the ship for a very nice special lunch for back-to-back cruisers. Then we started running into all our old cruise friends who were coming on board for the transatlantic. It was great to see everyone again: Carol & Byron Hall, Len & Letty Reeser, Duane & Dorothy McCarthy, Ken & Carolyn Kimpton, Susan Matthews, and June & Ralph Shortill, all joined us. The first night in the Diamond Plus lounge was chaos, even though they had moved us to Ellington's, a much larger lounge than before. Things are somewhat better organized now, although there still isn't a lot of available seating because there are so many return cruisers for these long transatlantics.
Palma de Mallorca, Spain, is a lovely island off the east coast of Spain which we have visited once before. Royal Caribbean has sunk to using deceiving tactics such as putting in the daily Cruise Compass that shuttle buses are “required” here and in Funchal, Madiera, and they are charging $12 per person for them! We knew they weren't so we just walked out of the port and caught the public bus with David & Diane for 1.25 Euros each way. Had a lovely day poking around this scenic and historic city. The cathedral there is immense and easy to see from all the way across the harbor. Gaudi did some of the renovations near the altar about 100 years ago, so next time I want to go in and see it even though it costs 4.5 Euro to get in. We have trouble convincing ourselves that we should pay to get into churches....
The next day we were in Cartagena, Spain and again we lucked out and had lovely weather. This is a small and scenic town we have visited about 5 times so we mostly just walk around, shop a little, and did some computer stuff at the free WiFi at Burger King, near the port. It was interesting to see in the supermarket that they are now selling wine in 1 liter waxed cardboard cartons at very reduced prices, such as we had in 2001 when we were in Chile. It tastes great too. And, there were some small boxes too, like juice boxes, three in a pack, for about 1 Euro. Additionally, they have some wine in plastic 1 and 2 liter bottles, like Coke bottles. We didn't try any of that. One of the benefits of the cardboard boxes is that you can bring them on the ship in your daypack and they don't confiscate them because they don't know it is wine! We also passed a bride getting out of a limo in front of the church in a very gorgeous wedding dress, with the church all decorated and everyone looking so spiffy. Of course, she didn't look as pretty as Marielle, our new daughter-in-law who just married Darran in San Diego.
Our day in Funchal, Madiera was actually hot, but of course, these islands are off the coast of Africa, yet this one is Portugese. Lots of our friends went off to do the toboggan ride from Monte, the town near the top of the steep hills towering over Funchal. They have wooden sleds which they slide down the steep cobblestone streets with strong men wearing shoes with rubber tire soles who turn them, slow them down, and stop them when necessary. A ride costs 25 Euro for one or 30 for 2 people. I have yet to convince Elaine that we should try this, but Letty & Len loved it. We walked around and also went to the market with Byron & Carol. Letty wanted us to pick up some poncha for them; it is a local liquor made with rum, lemon or tangerine juice, and honey, so we tried it at a bodega. It was good but sweet, and we didn't get any for ourselves. The town is so scenic with streets and sidewalks inset with black and white stones in patterns, and lots of narrow pedestrian streets, which open onto small areas where there are tables and chairs outside for people to sit around and drink coffee, beer, or smoke and talk. We stopped at one in a quiet area and had a local beer called Coral. It was good, but not unusual.
The next day we were in La Palma, Canary Islands, and again the weather was warm and sunny. The Canaries belong to Spain. We were going to catch a bus around the island with Ken and Carolyn, and Diane Wilson, but it was a bank holiday so the bus schedule was erratic, and we might not have made it back to the ship on time. Instead we walked through the scenic little town to the other end where there was a replica of one of Christopher Columbus' ships, the Santa Maria. There was also a scenic viewpoint from a fort located fairly high above the town and the seafront. The town was loaded with beautifully restored old buildings with wooden balconies, most of which had wonderfully colored flowers artfully arranged all over them. I'm sure the town will seem very different if we go there again when most of the businesses are open. This time it seemed like a nice, quiet, sleepy, picturesque town with no stress and lots of beauty, with a very comfortable climate. The island itself has very high mountains that seem to rise very quickly from the seafront towns, so it is not heavily populated.
That was our last port until Nassau, and then one week from today this cruise ends in Galveston. The weather has still been sunny and warm on the ship but we have been experiencing big swells, and fairly often there are big booming noises at the front of the ship when it gets hit by rogue waves. We are hoping that the “motion in the ocean” doesn't get any worse because then people will start to become seasick. Also, the ice show and the production numbers in the theater, with lots of dancing, will have to be postponed.
Elaine is over her cold and we are able to work out in the gym every day and also attend some lectures and other activities. Probably I won't post to this blog again and until we are back in the USA and I can add some pictures. Thanks for cruising with us!

2011-10-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

10/22/11

Our latest travel adventure has been fun so far. On Oct. 12 our friend Flo Palumbo drove us to the San Diego airport. We were there way too early, considering it was merely a “puddle jumper” flight to LAX, but they had told us to be there 3 hours early because our flights were international. At LAX we had no problems getting our British Air flight to Heathrow, which arrived at 10AM on the 13th. Then we had a short wait before the flight to Rome. Arriving at about 4PM, it took a while to get our one checked bag and get to the train. Had to take one train to Trastavere Station, which took about 30 minutes, and then catch a different train to Civitavecchia, which took 1 ¼ hours. So it was dark by the time we arrived. It was also a fairly warm evening. On the train we met Nobi and Brooke, a couple from San Francisco who were taking our cruise and also staying at the Villa Susanna with us. We all walked to the hotel, which was about 5 blocks away. It was a very clean, no-frills place where we were warmly welcomed by Luigi, given a map, and suggestions for dinner places. We four had a very welcome red wine and pizza at a local restaurant and got better acquainted. The shellfish spaghetti others were eating smelled and looked wonderful, but when we tried to order it, they were out, darn it. Maybe we can get some on our next day there – the 26th.
Villa Susanna was a nice quiet place, with everything we needed and at a good price, considering this is Europe. The next morning we had cold pizza for breakfast and hauled our luggage into the main part of town where we caught the free shuttle bus to the ship. It was like coming home to board the Mariner of the Seas, since this is the ship we took Around the Horn in 2009, a 46 day cruise, and in January of this year we took all our kids onboard for the last Mexican Riviera cruise the Mariner did before moving back to Florida. We had a happy reunion with David and Diane Wilson in the Windjammer buffet over lunch, and fell right back into the usual routine of having Happy Hour drinks in the Diamond Plus lounge. As usual, we have been seeing people we have met on other cruises.
Our first port day was in Naples, where Elaine and I have been before. That time we walked through the city to the train station and went to the ruins at Pompeii, the city which was covered during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD. This time we walked to the hydrofoil station and took a fast boat to the Isle of Capri. Thank goodness we weren't taking a regular boat because it was very windy and there were fairly high waves with whitecaps. Upon arriving on the island, we took the funicular to the town above the port area. There were tremendous views and the small town is full of boutique hotels and expensive stores. It was quite a charming place, and we enjoyed walking to the Gardens of Augustus. On the way we passed a place where there were old stills outside as part of the landscaping in front of a perfume factory and store. It is an industry that has been in effect here since the 1300's. The clifftop views from the gardens were incredible, as Capri has quite steep slopes. There is also a natural arch in a sea stack off another part of the coast, so we walked through another part of the town to see it. The fun of doing all these walks is to see the flowers, houses, streets, stores, restaurants, etc. on the way and see how the people here have lived for hundreds of years.
After 2 sea days, we arrived at Ashdod, Israel, which is the port nearest to Jerusalem. We had booked a tour through Guided Tours Israel so that we could explore in a smaller group than if we had done a shore excursion offered by Royal Caribbean. Our group had 16 and we were hauled around in a comfy Mercedes van by a very competent driver and an enthusiastic guide named Isaac. There was some trepidation about what might happen this day, because it was a holy day, and also the day when the big prisoner exchange was going to take place. Israel wanted one of their soldiers back, he had been kidnapped 5 years ago by the Palestinians, so in exchange, they released more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners, many of them terrorists. However, as we drove to Jerusalem, it became obvious that the holiday was working in our favor because traffic was lighter than usual. The streets are very narrow, hilly and winding and our driver was an expert at getting us to the sights.
Our first stop was at the Mount of Olives, where there are thousands of graves because the Jews believe that at the second coming, anyone buried there gets raised from the dead. A grave there today costs about a million dollars. Suddenly there was lots of gunfire, which our guide said signaled the successful prisoner exchange and everyone's joy that the Israeli soldier had been returned alive. We went to the very beautiful church towards the bottom of the hill with an ancient olive grove. Then we walked through the Zion Gate through the old city walls and into the heart of Jerusalem. Here we spent hours exploring the Jewish and Christian quarters, Church of Holy Sepulcher, the Via Dolorosa (the walk that Jesus did with the cross, so the stations of the cross are marked), tried a Jerusalem bagel, walked across some roofs for a good view back at the Dome of the Rock and Mount of Olives, and shuffled our way through the Shuk, or marketplace, full of small stalls and very much like the convoluted streets and bazaars called souks in Morocco, Turkey, and Syria. Then we went to the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, which was VERY crowded, due to the holy day. Our guide gave each of us a small piece of paper, told us to write a wish on it, and then we were supposed to roll it up and put it into a crack in the wall. The papers are eventually collected and buried in a holy place. There is a men's section of the wall and a women's section. The wall is supposed to be holy because it was part of the original temple.
After a visit to the Garden of Gethsemane, we dropped off our guide and crossed into the Palestinian Territory to see Bethlehem and the church of the Nativity. Israeli citizens are not allowed in Palestine, so we had a different guide there. At the end of that, we were taken to a big shop which sold nice jewelry, and lots of religious items. Shopping is required for all tours in Palestine because their economy is so depressed. We didn't buy anything.
The next day we were in Haifa, which is in the north. It is a hilly city, like San Francisco. The world center for the Baha'i faith is there and the gardens and buildings which stretch all the way up to the highest street are the most incredible we have ever seen. The gentle Baha'i faith believes in the unity of all the major faiths, tolerance, peace and justice. The sounds like a great philosophy to us! From there we headed out of the city to see Nazareth and the Annunciation Church (largest in the Middle East), Capernaum, Tabgha, Sea of Galilee, a kibbutz, a baptismal site at the Jordan River, and the Mount of the Beatitudes. Going on this tour was the best way to see the countryside which is much greener than near Jerusalem, and where most agricultural pursuits are taking place. The Sea of Galilee was a lot bigger than we expected and towering over the eastern slope were the Golan Heights. We now have a better understanding of the topography and some of the difficulties the Israelis have been facing since 1948.
Yesterday we were in Rhodes, which is one of the most interesting walled cities we have ever been in. It is a Greek island, but only a few miles from Turkey. In its long history, it has been held by a wide variety of countries, (Italy, Turkey, Germany, Greece), and also the Knights of the Order of St. John, which have all contributed to its charm. So there is quite a variety of ruins, churches, mosques, minarets, etc. here, and wonderfully convoluted streets within the old city walls. Of course, shops, stalls, boutiques and restaurants have all taken over the best spots along the main walkways. There is a nice promenade along the waterfront, and we had a beautiful day to explore on our own, with David & Diane. We tried to follow a walking tour I had downloaded, but it was impossible so we just wandered around and got lost and it was delightful.
Today we were in Kusadasi, Turkey, which is about 10 miles from the ruins at Ephesus. We all had been there before, so we skipped the tours and wandered around the town on our own. It is mostly about shopping and the streets are clean and pedestrianized with nice shops and restaurants all over. We walked through the old part of the city where the buildings are distinctly dilapidated, the streets are dirtier, and clearly where the local people live. Most of the cities we have been walking around are infested with cats of every age and condition, probably because they can find food and shelter easier than dogs. One of the Turkish carpet sellers got us into his place and gave us a lesson about the different qualities, materials, and prices. David & Diane were interested in getting a carpet for their bedroom, so we looked in a couple of other places too. At the end of our excursion, they went back to the first guy to see if they could bargain for one that had caught their eye there.
Tomorrow we will dock in Piraeus, the port for Athens. There is some question as to whether we will be able to go into the city, because of all the strikes, protests, and outright rioting that have been taking place there, especially in Syntagma Square, one of the tourist areas. We would like to see the changing of the guard at the Parliament Building and also visit the Acropolis and the Plaka, since we have never been to Athens before. We are hoping that it will be calm tomorrow for our excursion.
Elaine has picked up a cold and is taking it easy this afternoon so that she will have some energy for tomorrow.
Internet minutes are costly on the ship and I haven't been taking my netbook off the ship to find WiFi places, so I have not included any pictures with this report. Once we have a chance to add pictures at a later date, I will share them with you.

2011-10-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

10/11/11 It is sunny in San Diego as I am writing this in Darran & Marielle's apartment. We took the newlyweds to the airport yesterday morning and they are now in Puerto Rico, enjoying their honeymoon. I'm sure they needed some rest time after all the preparations for their wedding, which was so perfect and beautiful. The ceremony was at 5PM Saturday on the lawn of the Dana Hotel, overlooking Mission Bay. It was sunny and a comfy temperature. I didn't get very good pictures of the ceremony because we had to stay seated in the first row, but I will post a few of the ones we got before and after.
Here is a picture of the newlyweds with her parents, Ann & Bill Gomez, and Elaine and Mary (the Moms):

You can see how beautiful both Marielle and her dress were. Here is a picture of her with her sister, Meg, her matron of honor, holding onto her train:

Marielle's parents put up lots of bucks for this event and many of their family members and friends came from New York, which is where Marielle and Meg were raised. Here is a picture of Ann & Bill walking Marielle down the aisle:

Darran's best friend, Brian Lowe, and his wife Jen, have been such supportive friends for Marielle and Darran while they have lived here in San Diego. Brian has been the main force encouraging and helping Darran start his own construction company, which renovates commercial spaces. Brian was Darran's best man and Brian and Jen hosted a wonderful rehearsal dinner in their backyard on Friday night. It was a tropical BBQ, the food was delicious, and they had entertainers which did dances and music from many of the South Pacific islands. My pictures didn't turn out very good because it was dark, but here is a picture of Brian and Jen at the wedding:

When Darran was in junior high and high school in Roseville, his best friend was Kody Bush and he practically lived at the Bush house when he wasn't in ours. Both Kody and his brother Chase were groomsmen in the wedding and here we are with them:

Terri & Chuck Bush and their youngest son, Jesse, sat at our table at the wedding, which was a real treat for us after all these years of not seeing them:

Maybe you can tell from these pictures that the reception was held in a very beautifully decorated room at the Dana, with wonderful food, great service, and lots of dancing music. The party went on until nearly midnight. We all had ample opportunity to interact with people we hadn't seen for years, and also meet Marielle's family and friends from the East. Darran's Dad, Bob Clemo, hadn't seen his sister and her family for nearly 20 years. Here is a picture of him with his sister, Joyce, who came from Colorado:

For 4 days we were blessed by having all the rest of our kids, their partners, and families with us at the beach house we rented. Here are some pictures of them:
My daughter, Laura, with her fiancee, Dennis, and her girls, Michaela and Paige:

My son, Thomas, lives in San Francisco and drove down with my niece, Kathy, and her daughter Camille. His partner, Robert, couldn't attend due to a recent surgery, so here I am with Thomas:

Kathy is the only daughter of my sister Myrna, who passed away in 2005. Here she is with her daughter, Camille:

Elaine's daughter, Tarra, her husband, Alonzo, and their 3 girls, Ari, Alia, and Analy were such a big help at the condo, and also these girls enjoyed the beach so much, just watching them made us smile the whole time:

I'm sure there are other people I should mention or pictures I should include, but probably I have taken enough time already. Please forgive me if you are reading this and I left you out. Today we are rushing to get laundry done, pack, and do the last minute prep for our flight to Rome tomorrow. Luckily our RV friends, Flo Palumbo and Co Eisele are nearby in their RV and are going to join us for dinner tonight and then drive us to the airport tomorrow. Don't know when we will have a chance to post again, since we will be on a ship for 28 days starting on the 14th.
Watch this space for more travel tales and less family oriented reports....

2011-10-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

10/4/11 This is our last night at Park Sierra, after a hectic couple of weeks of packing, socializing, and getting ready for our next batch of travels. Tomorrow we leave here, in our car, heading for San Diego. Elaine's son, Darran, will be getting married to the perfect woman for him, Marielle, on Saturday evening. Tomorrow afternoon and evening we will be staying with our long-time friends, Kathy Cleveland and Sally Wurts, at their condo in Poway, near San Diego. Thursday, we will drive to Pacific Beach, an area of San Diego where Darran lives, and where we have rented a large beach house located between Mission Bay and the Pacific Ocean. After we get the keys and do a bit of shopping to stock it with a bit of food for the hungry family, we will be enjoying the solitude while waiting for the kids and grandkids to arrive. Elaine's daughter, Tarra, her husband Alonzo, and their three daughters, Ari, Alia & Analy will probably arrive first. Late in the evening, my daughter Laura, her fiancee Dennis, and her 2 daughters, Paige and Michaela, will arrive. Friday, my son Thomas, will arrive with my niece Kathy, and her daughter Camille. So there will be 14 of us staying at the beach house. Luckily, it is really 2 condos hooked together, with 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, and 2 patio/decks w/ BBQ's. The beach is 2 blocks away and Mission Bay is just a few blocks in the other direction. The Dana Hotel, where the wedding will be, is also just a few blocks away.
Friday evening we will all attend the rehearsal dinner, at the home of Brian (the best man) and his wife, Jen. Saturday is a beach day and then at 5PM, the wedding. Sunday will be another free day to enjoy the beach house, then everyone leaves on Monday. Elaine and I will stay in Darran & Marielle's apartment for 2 days while they are on their honeymoon in Puerto Rico. On Wednesday, the 12th, friends will drive us to the airport, so we can catch our flight to Rome. On the 14th we will board the Royal Caribbean ship, the Mariner of the Sea, for a 12 day cruise to Turkey, Greece, and Israel. Our good cruise friends David & Diane Wilson will be with us. Then we 4 will stay on the ship for the next cruise, which is a 16 day transatlantic from Rome to Galveston. On that cruise we will be joined by at least 6 other cruise friends. We will be back in Galveston on Nov. 11.
Wile we have been here at Park Sierra, we have been having some fun social times. Our friends Flo & Co brought their friends Pearl and Cheryl with them, and were also joined by another rig of women: Ann, Susan & Anne, all from Superstition Mountain Resort in Apache Junction. We had them all over for Happy Hour one night and then they all brought dinner another night. Here is a picture of Pearl, Cheryl & Anne.

At the other end of the tables, our Park Sierra friends Glenda & Elleen were enjoying their time with Ann, Susan & Flo

Saturday was Susan's birthday, so we all went to the Queen's Inn Wine and Beer Garden in Oakhurst, and followed it up with dinner at the Sweetwater Steakhouse.

Both the wine and the food were excellent, although the service left a lot to be desired.
There were lots of food events with Park Sierra people too. Here we are having dinner at the clubhouse with Vicki & Jan, Brenda & Dave Niel, and Wally & Verna Baker.

There were also several excellent dinners at Dave & Brenda Neil's place, our across the street neighbors, because they had friends visiting. Happily, we were included because Brenda is a fabulous cook! Here is a picture of Elaine, Brenda, Judy Tillery, and our other neighbor, Jeanne Taylor, on the Neil's patio:

Our other neighbor, Carol Rodely, was taking care of her grandchildren for a few days, so they made cupcakes to share. Her she is with Camille, offering us some:

One of the first days we were back, we attended a very nice wine tasting and dinner at Birdstone Winery, because we are members of their wine club. They had live music, prizes, and as always, wonderfully delicious wine to go with the nice appetizers and dinner. We sat at a table with 6 people we did not know, and had a delightful evening with them:

Yesterday we had a Happy Hour here at our lot to welcome back our neighbor Jeanne, and also say goodbye to our friends before we leave again. About 20 people were here and we enjoyed having them very much. The weather had turned cool, so we had a fire in our pit which was toasty warm. Quite a change from just a few days ago when the temps were in the 90's!!! Here are our friends Gloria Taylor, Ken Kimpton, Elaine, Roy Jensen, and Rich Baumann. Of course other friends were around, probably at the food tables!

Please check in again after this weekend because I hope to have lots of wedding pictures posted!

2011-09-18T21:38:00.001-07:00

Sept. 18
As I am typing this, we are driving south on I-5 in northern California on our way back to Park Sierra. The sun is shining and we are enjoying that after fairly cool and occasionally rainy weather in Washington and Alaska the past few months. I haven’t posted since the beginning of our Alaska cruises on Sept. 2, so this update will be lengthy. Those of you who check this blog merely to see where we are and how we are, can quit reading after this paragraph if you want – we are both doing well, although I am recovering from a cold I picked up the last 3 days on the ship. Of course, we also picked up a few pounds despite the fact that we worked out in the gym nearly every day. Now the task is to get those off before the next two cruises start on October 14!
The Radiance of the Seas is a beautiful Royal Caribbean ship, which we were eager to compare to the Jewel of the Seas, her sister ship which we sailed on in April-May first to England and then to the Scandinavian countries and Russia. The Radiance had just undergone about 3 weeks in drydock before she started the Alaska season, so there were some major differences in the ships. Our cruise started in Vancouver, always a beautiful city and mostly sunny the day we sailed. Here is a picture of Elaine on the ship with the Vancouver downtown skyline behind her.

We sailed out of Canada Place, right on the downtown waterfront, with beautiful views all around the entire harbor area. It was exciting to sail under the Lion’s Gate bridge which connects downtown to North Vancouver. That evening we joined our cruising friends, David & Diane Wilson, Carol & Byron Hall, Mark Lorenzetti, and Pene DeMore at Chops Grille, one of the specialty restaurants, to celebrate David’s 65th birthday.

Diane had surprised David with these Alaska cruises as his BD present and secretly convinced all of us to join them on the ship. Chops is always the best restaurant on the ship and our dinner together was delicious and also fun.
After a day of cruising along the Canadian coast, and up through the lower part of the inland passage, we reached Ketchikan. I will let the pictures tell most of the story: Elaine and I are standing on the dock across from the gangway in Ketchkan in this shot, and you can see there are lots of small boats there and wooden rustic houses on the hill.

In most of the Alaska ports the hills and mountains rise dramatically up right behind the town buildings and the towns are small. Ketchikan is in what’s called the “rainforest”, and it rains at least part of the day, an average of 360 days a year! This rain gauge was near the docks

to remind us of this fact. Happily for us, it wasn’t raining! This is also “the king salmon capitol of the world” (self proclaimed), and this is the time of year when the salmon are returning to the rivers and creeks where they were hatched in order to spawn. So we headed up to the area of the creek where we could see them. This is a fish ladder.

It enables the fish to get off to the side of the raging river to swim and jump upriver in calmer areas created by the ladder. Here is a picture of some of the salmon resting in one of the fish ladder areas:

You can see the rushing water of the main river on the left. We saw quite a few dead fish lying alongside the river on some grassy areas too.
Proceeding down the creek on a wooden boardwalk, which is called the Married Men’s Trail, we came upon many wooden buildings built partially over the creek, which used to compose the Red Light District when this was a mining and logging town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Now most of them are either restaurants or shops to entice tourists. Dolly’s House was one of the more famous (or infamous) and long-lasting bordellos, and it is now restored as a museum with one of the “girls” offering tours for $5.

Of course, right where the cruise ships dock there are lots of gift shops selling genuine Alaska artifacts, tee shirts, jackets, etc. While we were on Creek Street, we started shopping for Ulu knives, which are implements used by the native people to do everything requiring cutting, even filleting fish.

We already have one which we mainly use to chop veggies. But ulu knives make great gifts because they are one of the few Alaska souvenirs which is useful. Diane wanted one for her daughter, so we started the search for a unique one which took us to a lot of stores in every port for the entire 2 weeks! While we were shopping, we saw a some very nice baskets, made by First Nations people, such as these:

Especially valuable and attractive baskets are made of baleen, which are the fibrous filaments found by the thousands in whale mouths, used to filter the krill that they survive on out of the seawater.

Later on we learned that many items being sold to tourists such as whale bone handled ulu knives, baleen baskets, carved walrus ivory, etc. are not allowed into Canada and would be confiscated by customs people when we returned to Vancouver. Many people had these items shipped, or mailed them home.
Totem poles carved by the First Nation people, or Inuits, are found in a couple of centers in Ketchikan.

We noticed some scattered around the downtown, and a few in front of people’s homes:

When we returned to the ship, I took this picture of a home located across the inlet from Ketchikan:

It shows all the methods of transport needed by someone living on the Inside Passage, where it is not possible to drive into the towns– you must come by boat or plane. These people have a float plane, several boats, and a car to drive into town.
Juneau, the state capitol, and our next stop, was overcast when we arrived but the setting was still stunning, since the mountains surrounding the city are so steep and waterfalls cascade down above the houses:

Some of the buildings have decorative murals on them

Our gang took the local bus out to the Alaskan Brewing Company:

Elaine and I like Alaskan Amber beer, and in the tasting room there were 9 beers on tap, with each person being allowed 6 free glasses to sample. There was also an informative talk about how the brewery got its start:

They have lots of colorful gear for sale and very friendly staff. By the time we left, it was raining, so we took the bus back to the ship.
We arrived in Skagway very early in the morning so we missed seeing the town as we parked, but later got this shot showing what a beautiful setting this place has.

Here is a picture of the main street, showing a cruise ship parked at the end of town and mountains with glaciers on top towering over everything.

Here is a closeup of the glacier:

Skagway developed as a gold rush town in 1897 because of its location near the passes leading to Dawson City and the gold fields. First it was a tent city, then wooden buildings and boardwalks emerged, which still exist today, after being restored, I’m sure. Most of the buildings are now shops selling everything tourists demand:

Because it was near the end of the season (our cruise was the last for Radiance in Alaska this season) there were huge sales in every town, with 50% off merchandise in most places. Having no intention of making this a shopping trip, we ended up buying some nice sweatshirts, shirts, and fleeces just because they were so inexpensive and of good quality. Shopping tip for the future: Juneau and Skagway were the best places to shop with the biggest discounts and the most selection. Skagway also has some creative ways to see the surrounding area such as the White Pass to the Yukon, the Chilkoot trail, and Emerald Lake :

The Red Onion Saloon is from the Gold Rush days and is a lot of fun today too. The White Pass and Yukon railroad takes you through a stunning area, but is a bit pricey at about $120 per person.

This picture shows the locomotive with the huge blower on the front which is needed to remove snow from the tracks in winter

We didn’t do any out of town excursions since we spent quite a bit of time here in 1995 in our RV and had explored everything then, including hiking part of the Chilkoot Trail. Here is a picture of our group heading back to our ship (in the background) with several full shopping bags, and you can see by the way we are dressed, it was a cool day!

Sailing out of Skagway, in the Inside Passage, we had some incredible scenery to watch.

This is when we really appreciated seeing Alaska from the water since people who drive up and back miss these water views. In 1995 we drove our RV up and returned to the USA by taking the Alaska Marine Ferry which you can see here:

It doesn’t look very big but it carries lots of trucks, RVs, cars and people all over the Inside Passage. We took our RV off at every port and spent several days exploring each place – it was great!
The next day the amazing views continued as we entered Yakutat Bay and our ship went very close to the Hubbard Glacier.

In this next picture you can see the front of the glacier and the “river” of ice behind it.

It is one of the longest glaciers at about 76 miles, and it starts in the Yukon! The face of it, on the water, is about 6 miles wide, and our ship got to within ½ mile of it. Ships don’t go any closer because of “shooters” which are ice fragments that break off under water and shoot up, possibly causing hull damage. There were several loud booms, and some big pieces of ice fell off the face, which is called “calving”. Here is a closeup of the Face:

Later the sun came out and shone brilliantly off the snowcapped mountains towering over the glacier:

The ship stayed at the glacier for several hours, doing 360 degree turns, so that everyone on the ship would have a good view and plenty of time to take pictures. Later, as we sailed away and down the Inside Passage again, we had many hours of scenic viewing of the mountain range running along there, and the tallest mountain called Mt. Elias.

On Friday, Sept. 9 we arrived in Seward, on Alaska’s mainland, where most of the passengers debarked. About 66 people stayed on board for the return cruise to Vancouver, and they had a very nice lunch for us in the dining room while the ship was being prepped for the incoming hoardes. Then Diane, David, Elaine and I went off to explore Seward

You can tell by our jackets and hats that it was very cold. Seward is also in a gorgeous setting:

Our ship was docked near the small boat slips and tall mountains with glaciers on top were all around. There are nearly 100,000 glaciers in Alaska! Seward is mile 0 on the Iditarod Trail.

Miners blazed trails to the gold fields in central and western Alaska and sled dogs carried supplies from ships to the goldfields using this trail. Now the Iditarod starts in Fairbanks and ends in Nome every year and is merely a strenuous race. Seward is the smallest town we were in yet there was a free shuttle from the port to the downtown. We walked around and noticed lots of RV parking right along the waterfront. At the boat slip area a charter boat had just come in and hung up the day’s catch for a photo:

I should have taken this picture with someone in it so you could see how big these halibut were – the center one weighs over 100 pounds!
The second week of cruising we visited the same ports, which worked out well because we mostly had different weather and/or experiences in each place. The Hubbard Glacier day was overcast this time and we could see the colors of the glacier better than when the sun was shining on it.

There was also a large number of icebergs in a stream near the glacier

and in this shot you can see that some showed the blue color:

Icy Strait Point was formerly a place where there was a salmon and crab canning facility mostly run by the Hoonah nations people. It has been acquired by Royal Caribbean and the huge cannery building turned into a museum and also shops.

We took the tender in with Diane and David and went for a walk through the nearby forest.

Royal Caribbean has built the world’s longest zipline here, but we didn’t take it as it would have cost $99 pp. Then we walked through the old cannery. Here is Elaine near the huge crab pots they used:

The canning equipment was old but has been restored and explanations were posted.

Some of the Hoonah nations people let us take their picture:

The tenders returned us to the ship

As we were moored there, we saw the spouts of lots of humpback whales.
Of course, besides the ports, ship life is also enjoyable. Byron & Carol received an award for achieving Pinnacle status – that means 700 cruise points with Royal Caribbean!

The rest of us are merely Diamond + members but that is enough because we get free drinks every evening from 5 to 8:30 in the Diamond Lounge which had great views and fabulous service, by Jaime, from Brazil, and Rodrigo from Mexico. Here is Jaime with one of the drink trays:

The last night he picked up Rodrigo for this picture:

Here is our gang in the lounge:

On the ship there were some new specialty restaurants (which we paid extra for) so we tried 2 of them. Here is our gang at the Samba Brazilian Grill, which had wonderful ambiance, great views, beautiful dishes, delicious appetizers and side dishes, and 9 main course meats served on a sword with the waiter slicing off as much as you want. ALL of the meats were extremely salty and very over cooked. We would never go there again.

The second restaurant, Izumi’s, was a sushi place and I had my doubts because I don’t like it that much. But the food was fantastic! Look at this lunch assortment:

And here is my happy sushi lover enjoying it:

We went back twice.
On cruising days we often ate at the Park Café in the Solarium, which had good food, a nice atmosphere, no crowds, was free, and had good service. Here are Pene, Mark, and Elaine in the Solarium:

This ship had the youngest captain in the fleet and maybe the best we have had yet. We met him several times at various functions and because he is Norwegian, I think he looks like my youngest brother, Jerry.

I’m sure the ship was as fabulous as it was because his presence was constant everywhere on the ship and he always gave so much credit to his crew.
Thanks for traveling with us!!!

2011-09-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

9/2/11 Just a quick post before we catch the shuttle to the Radiance of the Seas here in Vancouver, BC. On the way here we stopped in Seattle and visited with my granddaughter, Paige when she was at work at Nordstrom. Here are some pix:

Then we visited Linda Lightfoot, a longtime buddy of Elaine's from school in Illinois, and her partner Greta. Here is a picture of them:

After a nice overnight stay with them, we drove up here to Vancouver and stayed at a hotel where Carol & Byron Hall were also staying. So we went out to dinner together last evening at a Vietnamese place. Good food and good company.

When we get on the ship today, we will be joining David & Diane Wilson, Pene DeMore, and Mark Lorenzetti to celebrate David's birthday at Chops tonight. Let the partying begin!

2011-08-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

8/30/11 This will be my last post before we go on the Alaska cruises. Currently we are set up at the Elks Lodge in Port Townsend. Tomorrow we will move our rig to the dry storage area for the 16 days we will be away. Then we will drive our car to the Kingston ferry which will take us across Puget Sound and over to Edmonds. My wonderful granddaughter, Paige, works at Nordstrom only 9 miles from there and we will be taking her out for lunch and having a visit. She will also help Elaine find a suitable outfit for the Oct. 8 wedding of her son, Darran, and Marielle, the best daughter-in-law ever. In the late afternoon we will return to Edmonds to stay with Linda Lightfoot and Greta McKay. Linda and Elaine have been friends since kindergarten, back in Illinois! The next day we will drive to Richmond, BC where we have a hotel booked, and where we can also leave our car for 2 weeks while we are cruising. Lynda & Jo, 2 other friends live near there and will be visiting us at our hotel that evening. Friday we take the hotel shuttle to the ship and the next adventure begins!
Since I last posted, we have been very busy because the Sekiu fishing and the processing continued until a few days ago. I showed you a few pictures of Elaine and Peggy and their big fish, but I neglected to show what happens next: cleaning the fish! Here is a picture of Chuck, Elaine, George and Ron at the cleaning station, which is right on the dock where they moored their boats.

Then the brining, smoking and canning commenced. I took lots of pictures at the many social functions we had with the group but none of them turned out very well so I won't include one here. But here is a very unusual picture, because everyone knows how Elaine is not very fond of animals and is also allergic to cats.

This dog in her lap is Sassy, George and Judy Hilke's dog, who was so cute and friendly and who decided she just loved Elaine and jumped in her lap at every opportunity. After a few times like this, I think she had won Elaine over!
A few of the days at Sekiu were sunny and gorgeous from the very beginning of the day, and on one of those days we drove out through Neah Bay to the very northwest tip of Washington called Cape Flattery. There is a nice hike from the parking lot on a fairly easy trail, through a nice forest, which they say is 1/2 mile, but really is a bit longer. Towards the end, there are a few places where a side trail took us to nice overlooks, such as me at this one:

In the forest we saw this interesting sight, a tree artistically hosting some fungus:

Then we reached the end of the trail where there was a viewing platform and we could see the island about 200 yards away with the lighthouse on it. Here are some pictures from there:

And some lovely views of the coastline:

Sunday we left Sekiu and drove back to the SKP park at Chimicum. Ron & George had been out crabbing in Port Townsend and everyone got together again for a crab feed and potluck at Chuck & Peggy's lot. Everything was delicious and we met some very nice people who are park members.
Yesterday was my 67th birthday, so we went into Port Townsend for a scenic walk. Port Townsend has a lot of historic buildings and many of them have been nicely restored. Here is a picture of me on one of the wharfs with Port Townsend in the background:

Most of the buildings are from 1889 such as this one:

Then we walked down to the marina, where there are some interesting boats, especially during the Wooden Boat Festival which will start on Sept. 9 this year. Here is Elaine at the marina:

On our walk back through town, we passed a row of women with a sign in front of them which said: "Women In Black". They do not speak because words cannot express the tragedy that war and hatred bring, and they dress in black because they are mourning the lives broken or lost through violent acts such as war. They meet every week on Mondays and stand there making this silent statement for an hour.

This was very sobering, so we went to drown our sorrows and also celebrate my birthday by having a microbrew on the outside deck of Sirens, a local restaurant and bar. Here we are enjoying the amber ale on tap there:

Of course, one beer isn't enough to celebrate 67 years of a great life, so we returned to David & Ann's at their lot in Port Hadlock for another tasty Happy Hour with more delicious treats and chilled champagne and wine. Here Elaine & Ann are setting up the feast:

Then Joss, Gail and David joined us for the goodies:

Of course, we brought them some recently caught salmon, and we will be bringing some on our visits tomorrow too with Paige and Linda & Greta. Does knowing this induce any of you to encourage us to visit when we are in your area? We hope so!!!!

2011-08-20T05:39:00.000-07:00

8/20/11 Just had to post a few pictures to show that Elaine, Peggy and Chuck are finally catching some nice salmon. Yesterday Elaine caught a nice sized silver:

And Peggy did too:

They caught several others too, which Chuck and Elaine rapidly cleaned and filleted.

The past few days I have been busy smoking and canning their catch so we can enjoy these beauties all year!
Of course, since the season for catching Chinooks (Kings) ended Monday, Wednesday Elaine caught a really nice big King that would have been a keeper just a few days before. And yesterday Peggy caught a huge silver that was too big for the net, and when they were trying to get it into the boat, broke the line and escaped with the best lure still in its mouth.
Hopefully, today the catching will still go on because then we have happy campers here!

2011-08-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

8/17/11 Another sunny day at Sekiu where we are still fishing with the RoVing Rods. Unfortunately, for Elaine, the fishing hasn't been as productive as she had hoped and she is starting to become rather frustrated. So far she has only caught 6 fish, and the limit is 4 per day. She has been going out on Chuck and Peggy's boat and they have been giving her some of the ones they caught too, but they haven't got many either. Part of the problem has been that one of the couples here brought their 2 young grandsons, and when this many people are depending on going out on one boat, everyone has to take turns. Ron & George have been going out in their own boat and have been getting their limit nearly every day, but they stay out longer too. And one day, Ron caught an 18 pound king fish - the best fish caught by the group so far. King season ended Monday, and now they have to hope they catch silvers, although pinks (or humpys, as they are also called) are just fine with us because they taste good when they are brined, smoked and canned.
We have been having many sunny days, but that does not mean that they are warm days. The wind comes off the water and often it is cold. Yesterday was pretty foggy too. The good thing is that we haven't had much rain.
We have managed to get 2 smokers full of fish to can and here is a picture of what the pieces look like when I get them out of the smoker:

We have been having Happy Hours with the group and also some potlucks. Besides the 5 rigs that are here, Carol Noyes and Maggie Speight drove up for a few days and stayed in the motel. Carol fished one day with Chuck and Peggy and Elaine.
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Here are two pictures of one of the potlucks at our picnic table. This is the Underwoods with their two grandsons:

Here are the Palumbos, Bonhams, Hilkes and Elaine:

One day Elaine and I drove into Forks for some supplies, and then drove out to La Push, which is on the ocean and in an Indian reservation. The beach there has a lot of driftwood:

And there are lots of islands offshore:

Today is Barb Underwood's birthday so Elaine and I are fixing spaghetti and homemade sourdough bread for everyone and Barb is making her own cake. Tomorrow is Ron Bonham's birthday but we haven't made any plans for that yet. Perhaps there will be Polar Bears (an alcoholic drink with uses vodka, kahlua, ice and vanilla ice cream in a blender). Quite decadent and they really sneak up on you, not to mention the calories....
We are planning to stay here for about 10 more days and hope that the catching of fish starts to pick up!

2011-08-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

Blog Update August 4, 2011
Hello from Sekiu, WA which is a small town mostly inhabited by visiting sport fishermen and located on the Straits of Juan de Fuca near the farthest Northwest point of the USA. On our arrival, Monday, it was warm and sunny, which is a fairly unusual occurrence here.

Although we have had 2 more sunny days since then. We established ourselves in the campground on the bluff overlooking Olson’s Marina, and are waiting for the rest of the RoVing Rods to arrive, probably next Monday. There are always plenty of chores we can do of a housekeeping nature while we are “alone”. On one of our first walks around here, we went down by the boat ramp where there are three rock formations called the “Three Sisters”. Here is a picture of Elaine with the carved eagle near there, and the Sisters are behind her.

We will be here for the month of August because of the fishing, and also the only reasonably priced option when you stay here is to pay the monthly rate. Also, we are planning to stay in the area until early Sept. when we will be leaving our RV at the Elks Lodge in Port Townsend, while we drive the car to Vancouver, BC and take a 2 week Alaska cruise on the Radiance of the Seas. That will be between Sept. 2 and the 16th. Some of our cruise friends from other voyages will be along and it should be great because we haven’t been to Alaska since 1995.
When we last posted to this blog, we had contacted Laurie & Odel, from our Boomer group, and were planning to meet them over on Whidbey Island where they were staying in an RV place in Oak Harbor. Saturday we walked on the ferry between Port Townsend and Coupeville. It runs fairly often and is probably the biggest bargain in WA because the Senior rate meant we paid $5.50 for both of us to go over and back! Here is a picture of Elaine with Laurie and Odel when they met us at Coupville and the ferry is in the background.

From there we went to the Farmer’s Market in Coupeville. It wasn’t a big market but there were some interesting produce stands, in that they had unusual stuff. Here is a picture of some of the big cabbages they were selling, one of which isa Dutch cabbage, kind of flattened and has thinner leaves than a regular cabbage.

Right next to it were these cauliflowers of varying colors:

We hadn’t seen Mick & Ann Meilike since January in Quartzsite, so we were delighted when they drove over to join all of us for lunch. Laurie & Odel had previously eaten at a restaurant called Kim’s which is scenically out on a dock and located right over the water, and which had delicious mussels.

The cove here, called Penn Cove, is famous for mussels and you can even buy them in 5 pound bags in Costco. They had a very nice menu and we all ate lots of good seafood. Then we got another patron to take a picture of our whole group:

Coupeville is an old town with lots of history and the small shops along main street are cute.

We walked around a bit and also stopped for an ice cream cone. Thank goodness Elaine and I shared one because they were huge, but Ann, who loves ice cream enjoyed every bite of her own, as you can see in this picture.

It is a mystery how she stays so trim! After more walking along the cliffs, enjoying the gorgeous sunny day we were having, Mick & Ann left and we four went over to Fort Casey, an old military installation on the bluffs near the ferry terminal. There were lots of cement bunkers sunk into the ground so that they could not be seen from approaching ships until the huge guns were raised. Here is a picture of Elaine and Odel on the bunker with one of the guns behind them.

Later, when we were on the ferry, we marveled over how well hidden this entire installation was. Overall it was a great day with good friends, made even better by sunny weather and delicious food.
One other day we drove to Port Hadlock and had a delightful happy hour with David Brown and Ann Howells.

We met them years ago at Boomerville in Quartzsite, and stayed with them for a week when we were in South Africa in early 2008, because they always go there during our winter and rent a house there in the winelands near Capetown. When you are with David and Ann, you always have delicious appetizers served with interesting and good wines. They park their RV on a lot overlooking the water in Port Hadlock and we were lucky enough to be invited to have our Happy Hour in the yard of their “landlords” Gail & Joss, and on another brilliantly sunny day.

Gail & Joss built their own house and it is perfect for this site and full of many unique features in wood and glass because Joss does woodworking and Gail does stained glass. After we adjourned to the RV, we had good travel talk with David & Ann. These are four delightful and talented people!
While we were still staying at the SKP park in Chimicum, we enjoyed social situations with members of the RoVing Rods, and also Flo Palumbo and Colette Eisele. Flo is Chuck’s twin sister, but we had previously met Flo & Co at a women’s community and they are also friends with many of the women couples in the community near Port Townsend. They invited us to go with them to a public concert of the Port Townsend Summer Band at a local park. Here is Elaine sitting with Co & Flo at the concert.

Some of their friends were members of the band. Here is the band crammed into a very small bandstand:

Then they took us to the party put on by some of their friends, Gail & Jan, out in the Cape George Colony, which is a very beautiful and pricey residential community overlooking Discovery Bay.

We met lots of very nice women who all live in the Port Townsend area, at least in the summer. They made us feel very welcome and also sorry that we probably won’t be back here for a while to enjoy their company again.
The next day we drove out here to Sekiu. It is only about 90 miles from Port Townsend but it took us all day to get here because we made so many stops. Sequim was our longest stop because there is a Costco and WalMart there and we wanted to stock up on things before coming out to this fairly remote area. We used to stay in Sequim on the property of Elaine’s cousin, Sheila, who owned the Juan de Fuca Cottages. This was the most upscale lodging choice on Marine Drive, overlooking the Dungeness Spit, and on a clear day you can see Victoria, over on Vancouver Island. Sheila sold it a few years ago and we hadn’t been back, so we drove out to look at it again. The new owners have developed the 5 acres behind the cottages which Sheila was using as a pasture, and the place still looks great. It gave us feelings of nostalgia to see it.
The main reason the RoVing Rods come here is to catch salmon, and they are currently running. Today our neighbor caught a very nice sized King salmon, and nearly everyone is catching a few silvers and limiting out with humpies (pinks). Some people look their noses down on pinks but we find that if you brine them, smoke them and can them, they are very good. And since they seem to be plentiful, we are hoping to catch quite a few once the guys get here with the fishing boats. So hopefully, the next post you see will have lots of pictures of us catching and preparing salmon!!!

2011-07-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

7/28/11 Finally, I have a little time to do this blog update! It has been difficult since we have been on the move, visiting friends, and having Michaela with us. Now we are on our own again and staying for a few days at the SKP park in Chimacum, WA, near Port Townsend. We have been surprised by how many people we know who have lots here, and it has been a social whirl ever since we arrived 2 days ago. Many of those friends are from the RoVing Rods, the group we will be with for salmon fishing at Sekiu, out near the northwest tip of Washington and right on the Straits of Juan de Fuca. That will take place between Aug. 7 and 28. So, since we have arrived, we have seen Chuck and Peggy Palumbo, his twin Flo and her partner Co, Ed Bonham, Jack Vincent, Henrietta, Gerry & Carol Hanson, and Don and Nikki Boston. Today we will be having Happy Hour with Ann Howells and David Brown; this is the couple we stayed with for a week in South Africa, near Capetown, when we were there a few years ago. They have a lot overlooking the water just a few miles from this SKP park. And Saturday we will be taking the ferry to Whidbey Island to have a happy reunion with Laurie & Odel, and Mick & Ann Meilieke.
Our 2 1/2 weeks with my granddaughter, Michaela, ended on Monday. We stayed at Cabelas in Lacey, near Olympia, and her sister Paige came down Sunday to join us for dinner and stay overnight. Monday we packed up Paige's car with all Michaela's stuff, then we all drove to Tacoma and spent several enjoyable hours at the Museum of Glass. They have many wonderful exhibits, as well as a hot room, where experienced glass blowers and artists are actively making glass art. The renown glass designer and artist Dale Chihuly is from Tacoma, and has entirely decorated the bridge which goes over the freeway and which connects the museum and waterfront to the downtown. Here is a picture of Michaela and Paige in front of several of his glass creations on the bridge:

There are also several wonderful glass sculptures in fountains at the front of the museum and in a big fountain. Here is a picture of the girls and Elaine in front of the museum:

After we finished at the museum and treated them to lunch, off they went to Paige's apartment in Seattle where Michaela will stay until Friday when my daughter Laura comes up on her vacation. Hooray - we got our space back in the RV!
In my last post I described our stay at Farewell Bend camping with our friends Mike & Marilyn Harrison and Linda and Pat Jenkins. I couldn't add any pictures so I will do so now. This picture shows Michaela and me in front of some of the rapids in the gorge of the Rogue, which was very near the campground:

We took her to Crater Lake, and here she is with that beautiful blue water behind her:

We enjoyed the day just being with Linda & Marilyn:

Every morning and evening we had a nice campfire. Here at the two happy couples (Mike & Marilyn & LInda & Pat) enjoying it:

Marilyn & Elaine on one of our walks along the river leading to the gorge:

After the camping trip we drove over to Mike & Marilyn's house on Agency Lake. Unfortunately, as we left the campground, we didn't notice that our steps had not retracted and we bent them on a tree. So when we got to Chilicum, Mike & Pat took them off for us, and we had to drive them in to Klamath Falls to a welder to have them straightened. Then, Pat & Mike put them back on. Fabulous friends, aren't they!!!!
Our stay at their house was greatly enjoyed by Michaela because she had her own bedroom in the basement. Unfortunately, she fell out of a tree down by the water and hurt her wrist, so I was unable to take her out in the canoe, and we also couldn't give her driving lessons using our stick shift car, two activities we had promised her we would do.
When we left Mike & Marilyn's, we drove up to Estacada, just southeast of Portland, to visit Gary & Cecile Thompson. They are working at a day use park there for the summer and their 14 year old niece, Justine was visiting them. The girls hit it off, and Cecile and Justine had been making yarn hats on looms, so they taught Michaela how to do it. Elaine took her to a thrift store where she got her own loom and some yarn and she started to make some very nice creations. We also went to a local organic farm and bought some strawberries and blueberries, which we used to make chutney. Usually we make jam, but we haven't been eating much of that, and chutney is good on meats and in side dishes. We had also made rhubarb chutney at Mike & Marilyn's. Cecile and Justine used some of their berries to make a delicious trifle:

We also had some delicious joint meals with them, and a few campfires too:

From Estacada we drove about 40 miles and just across the border into Vancouver, WA to meet up with our old friends Lee & Susie Blattner. We all stayed at the Elks Club and finally had some very warm weather there. It was perfect for the farmer's market that we went to in the downtown park. Here is a picture of Lee, Susie and Elaine at the market:

There were lots of beautiful displays of produce, baked goods, arts and crafts, and people playing various instruments. There was a firefighter's event going on too and there was a bagpipe band that played for that. Their outfits were wonderful:

After that we went to a park along the river to do a long walk. Here are Lee, Susie and Elaine in front of the swimming beach at the lake near the river walk:

It was a wonderful day for a family picnic and reminded me of when my parents used to take us to the lake for playing and swimming when we were kids in Minnesota.
That evening, Lee & Susie took us to the tavern that one of their sons owns in Vancouver. We have gained a new appreciation for the downtown part of this town because it is developing into a place where there are little restaurants, bars, upscale stores and condos, and would be a delightful place to live and just walk to these places in the evenings. Here is a picture of Susie with Jerry, one of their sons who works at the tavern.

The next day we had to leave and drive to Lacey because we were meeting Paige for the glass museum trip on Monday.
Now that our trip with Michaela is finished, I will leave you with this last picture of the three of us in front of our RV. Perhaps she will never travel with us again, and this will be her only RV experience. I hope she enjoyed it because we love this RV lifestyle and after 17 years, are still enthusiastic about it.

2011-07-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

Blog Update July 12, 2011
Hello from Farewell Bend campground on the upper part of the Rogue River. Since the Rogue starts at Mt. Mazama, near Crater Lake, only 27 miles from here, it is a fairly small river at this spot. We arrived here Sunday, and Mike & Marilyn Harrison and Pat & Linda Jenkins arrived yesterday, so we have a jolly camping group. Additionally, my youngest granddaughter, Michaela, age 15 is with us for a few weeks. On Saturday we drove to Colfax and met my daughter Laura at the Pizza Factory, so she could hand off Michaela to us. They live in Sparks, NV and we had left our rig in Sacramento. As soon as we got Michaela we hightailed it north on Interstate 5, with the goal of getting out of the heat. Our plan worked. Saturday night we stayed at the Klamath River rest area and it was slightly cooler. And since arriving here the weather has been definitely cooler – in fact it is overcast today and even rained for a few minutes. Last evening we had a very nice joint dinner with all the friends, and sat around the campfire talking until dark. Michaela has been enjoying camping, except that the mosquitoes seem to like her quite a lot and when she gets bites, they really swell up and bother her a lot. She will be traveling with us for a couple of weeks, as we work our way north to Washington. Her older sister, Paige, is in college and working in Seattle, so once we arrive there, we can have a visit with her also, then leave Michaela there with her until Laura arrives at the end of the month to pick her up.
One reason we got away from Park Sierra earlier than expected is because Elaine told the doctor at her post-op appointment that she would remove her own stitches. Her hand has been healing very well and any day now she will start removing the sutures.
July 13 Opps, got interrupted yesterday so I will finish this today. Elaine has removed her sutures and her hand looks fairly good and she should soon be able to go without a bandage. Today we drove to Crater Lake with Marilyn and Linda. There was a LOT of snow up there this past winter – 56 feet, so even now there is still a lot of snow on the ground and the rim road is not open all the way around the lake. We saw the video about snow removal, and one about the history of the mountain and the park, then we went to the rim lodge. It was a partly cloudy day, so we had periods of sun which always makes the lake look extra blue. This is the deepest lake in North America at 1932 feet. With the volcanic island in it called Wizard Island, and the steep sides of the caldera leading down to the crystal clear blue water, it is quite an impressive place. I think even Michaela was impressed with it.
Once we got back to camp, she started immediately to work on another wire wrap project. Yesterday it was rainy and overcast in the late afternoon, so Marilyn and Linda were doing craft projects while Elaine, Michaela and I went for a 4 mile hike along the Rogue Gorge and river. When we got back the rain started, so Michaela went to Marilyn’s rig and she taught her how to make jewelry using wire bending. She is very artistic and immediately picked it up and made herself a very nice necklace using Marilyn’s tools and wire. When we got home, Elaine got her tools and wire out for Michaela and now she is starting another project. That should keep her busy when she gets tired of being with all of us adults. The other thing that is bothering her is that there is no TV, phone or internet service here. The woods are too thick and there are no towers around. On Friday we will be moving over to Mike and Marilyn’s house, and then she can catch up with all her friends.

2011-06-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

Today I added a post about the events of this week, so be sure to look at the post which follows this one. Since I have a bit of time today, I am going to post the rest of the pictures from our May cruise. The last 2 ports were Tallinn, Estonia, and Gothenburg, Sweden. These pictures are from those 2 places:
View of old part of Tallinn from the ship:

Gate in the old city wall:

Restored houses from medieval times:

Some fancy carvings over a doorway:

Mary & Elaine in the main square with the town cathedral behind us:

Main church in upper town, called Toompea:

Tom, Toby & Elaine in doorway of inner wall:

View of old Tallinn from overlook:

Street in the old town:

Different gate in old city walls:

In Gothenburg, we were met by some friends from a different cruise who showed us all around, plus we had a great reunion with them. Their names are Myra & Louie:

They met us at the train station, which is a wonderful old granite building:

Here are the four of us near a sculpture outside the fish market:

This is the main Lutheran cathedral in Gothenburg:

And here is the organ, inside:

Then we walked through a large botanical garden:

There were unusual flowers in a solarium there:

Sweden has many wonderful glass factories, where products such as these are made:

In Helsinki and also Russia, there were lots of chances to buy things made with fur:

And, of course, in Russia, Faberge eggs of every size, color, and description:

Everything was very expensive, so we restrained ourselves from purchasing anything.

After the cruise, we stayed with Darran & Marielle, and for his birthday, we had cheese fondue:

And on our way home, we stopped in the LA area to see our old friend, Anja, and her 2 year old son, Kip. Ole, the husband and father was away on a filming project.

2011-06-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

6/26/11
This has been my recovery week, since I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand on Monday. The hardest part was that I didn't even get hauled off to the surgery room until 2PM, and I was thirsty and starving because I wasn't allowed to have anything by mouth after midnight. I had very little pain the next few days and not much swelling, so I have been fine. Of course, I have stitches and big bandages which won't be removed until Thursday, so my movements have been hampered by that. Thursday, Elaine will drive us to Kaiser in Fresno, and while she is being prepped for surgery, I am having my stitches out. Then I will be able to drive us home after her surgery. Hers is much more involved than mine and will take longer, and she will be in more pain. She has been an excellent caregiver during my recovery because she knows I will be taking care of her starting Thursday, and it will be PAYBACK time! We are hoping that she will get her stitches out and we can get back on the road in our RV sometime about July 15.
Bill and Priscilla Scott, Boomer friends, came to stay at Park Sierra and when they haven't been exploring Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, or Nelder Grove, they have been walking with us mornings and evenings, and socializing with us at park events. Friday, my daughter Laura, and her new partner, Dennis, arrived from Reno for a weekend visit. This was their first visit and we enjoyed having them very much. Our generous neighbor, Jeanne, is on a cruise and offered the use of her RV home next door for this visit. It was convenient to have them so close. Friday evening they were here for the weekly social at the clubhouse, as were Bill & Priscilla. Saturday we 6 went wine tasting on the Madera Wine Trail. Of course, we went to Birdstone, our favorite. Here is a picture of us in the Birdstone tasting room:

Then we went to a Madera winery named Cru. They also have a very nice tasting room, and we enjoyed their wines. There was also a nut tasting place next door, specializing in pistacios. By then we had certainly had enough wine, and a few snacks were in order, and very enjoyable. When we got back to Park Sierra, our neighbors Mary & Rich Baumann and Carol & Alan Rodely joined us for Happy Hour on our shady patio.
When it was cooler, in the early evening, we went for a walk around the park. This is the season when we have lots of quail running around, especially little ones. Later we had a delicious spaghetti dinner because Laura brought the homemade sauce. Dennis made mojitos for us to try, and we had another enjoyable evening chatting with them.
Today we took Bill & Priscilla, Dennis & Laura over to Chukchansi Casino for the champagne brunch buffet. It was a nice chance to visit, and have lots of food choices too. Here we are in front of the casino fountain:
Then Laura & Dennis left to head back to Reno through Yosemite and over Tioga Pass. It is absolutely beautiful at this time of year. I was very grateful for the time I had this weekend to spend with Laura, and also to get to know Dennis a lot better. They seem very happy in their relationship, and I hope this continues. Here is a picture of the happy couple:

Bill & Priscilla will be leaving tomorrow and heading for Napa. Our social times with them have been wonderful and we will miss them. Now the daily routine goes on at Park Sierra until Thursday, when it takes another twist.

2011-06-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

When I was posting my new entry today,(see below), I realized that this connection was finally fast enough to post a few of the pictures I promised you from our recent trip to Scandinavia, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn. If you want the narrative for these, please see my previous post earlier in June.
Copenhagen - first port on the second cruise. Has many fine old buildings, such as this cathedral:

At the scenic inner harbor area called Nyhavn we took a canal boat tour:

As usual, there were lots of big statues and buildings in the city center:

And on the stock exchange building, a very twisty spire:

Stockholm- There is a 24,000 island archipeligo which we went through to get to Stockholm, and again when leaving. Many of the islands have summer homes on them:

We took the Hop On-Hop Off boat to get around because the main part of Stockholm is on 14 big islands. Here are a few buildings as seen from the water:

We attended the changing of the guard ceremony at the palace:

Rosenborg Palace has a nice park which we walked through on our way back to the ship. Here is the front of the palace:

St. Petersburg - the Winter Palace is now called The Hermitage and is a world class art gallery. Here is a shot taken across the river:

And here is a closeup of the front:

The inside architecture is fabulous:

This is one of the ceilings:

The throne room:

One of the reception halls:

A domed ceiling:

One of the display rooms:

Art gallery:

The church of the Spilled Blood had the most spectacular facade and onion domes:

St. Isaics Cathedral has the 3rd largest dome in Europe:

Amber is one of the biggest selling items, apparently, since it is sold everywhere, but quite expensive:

Here we all are in front of a statue of Peter the Great - Carol, Rick, Denice, Elaine and Mary. Thanks Byron for taking this picture:

Smolensky Cathedral was quite beautiful, both inside and out:

Beautiful flowers were planted all over the city:

The Kazan Cathedral was designed to resemble St. Peters in Rome:

Our guide took us to a local indoor market:

They were selling caviar at the market:

Peterhof was about a 30 minute hydrofoil ride outside of the city, and spectacular:

There were lots of fountains on the extensive grounds. This was one of them:

Flowers and fountains:

One of the buildings for ladies in waiting:

The Grand Staircase Fountains:

People in period costume on the grounds:

Grand Staircase Fountain and view towards Gulf of Finland:

No pictures were allowed inside Peterhof, but at Catherine's Palace we took pictures both inside and out:

The most famous room in this palace is the Amber Room, because it is made entirely out of small pieces of amber:

After our tour we went to a typical Russian restaurant for lunch. Here are some shots of the interior:

We ate in a curtained off area in the middle:

I am out of time now, so next time I will post some pictures of Tallinn and Gothenburg.

2011-06-19T17:06:00.001-07:00

6/18/11
Just a quick update from Park Sierra. We have been doing rig cleaning and repairs which is always a fairly boring subject. Because I am having carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand on Monday morning, (left hand was done last summer), I have been washing and waxing the RV, shampooing the carpet, etc. while I still have the use of both hands. Elaine's surgery on her right hand, for Dupeytin's Contracture, (left hand was also last summer), will be on June 30. By having this 10 day space, we can take care of each other in recovery, and also one of us will always be able to drive.
The weather here has been nice and warm, with only a few really hot days so far. On one of those days we drove up to Yosemite and the weather was just perfect. Two Australian visitors to the park, Art and Stella, rode up there with us because they don't have a tow car. This was an excellent time to go because with the huge snowpack from the winter melting now, the waterfalls are at their fullest. First we drove up to Glacier Point, because there are excellent views of Yosemite Valley and several of the waterfalls from up there. Some patches of snow were still on the ground as we climbed. The first overlook was Washburn. From this viewpoint we could see Vernal and Nevada Falls. Here is a picture of us sitting on the wall with those 2 falls in the background:

Glacier Point has amazing views of Half Dome, Yosemite Falls (both upper and lower), the entire valley floor, and also Vernal and Nevada Falls. Here is a picture of us with Half Dome behind us.

This was a dome that was sheared off when glaciers carved out this valley sometime between 20,000 and 100,000 years ago. It is over 8,000 feet high, so just imagine how big the glaciers were! And here is a picture of both the upper and lower Yosemite Falls:

We drove down the mountain and towards the valley floor. Just after passing through a mile long tunnel, there is a place to pull over and park on the left where there is a spectacular view of the valley as you enter it. You can see El Capitan cliff on the left, Half Dome in the background, and Bridal Veil Falls on the right:

A little further along is a view of Horsetail Falls:

We stopped to hike a ½ mile trail to Bridal Veil Falls. Several bridges go over the rivers of water that are created when the falls hit the valley floor, and here is Elaine with the raging water behind her.

It was cool along here because after all, the water is from snow melt. There was so much mist created by the falling water hitting the ground that we would have been completely soaked if we had tried to hike any nearer.
One of the disadvantages of visiting Yosemite at this time is that it was packed with people and cars. There is a free shuttle to take people to various places in the valley, but people have to drive their cars into the valley to use the shuttles, so parking is a problem. We wanted to go inside at the Ahwahnee Lodge because it is historical and rustic, but we couldn’t find a place to park. Instead we drove to a picnic area for a picnic and then headed toward Mariposa Grove, which is full of majestic sequoia trees. Again, there was no parking so we were sent to an auxiliary parking area and then took the shuttle up to the grove. Sequoias grow in only a few places on earth because of their precise requirements for water, temperature, humidity, and sunshine. There are 75 places in California where they are found, but this is one of the largest. Thank goodness it was protected when Yosemite was created, because it really is located pretty far from the valley area where the waterfalls are. It is quite convenient for people who enter Yosemite on highway 41, which is what we did, of course, since that is the highway that runs right by Park Sierra. Here is a picture of one of the sequoia trees, which are always very tall (60 to 200 feet) and most are between 500 and 2000 years old, although the oldest one was 3,200 years old.

Some of them have fallen over, and here is a picture of Art, Stella & Elaine near the roots of one that fell in 1921.

There is a nice trail taking visitors by some of the largest or most interesting trees. There is also a tram tour, which lots of people were taking, but at more than $25 for an hour, we decided walking the trail was the best idea!
Besides that day trip, we also have entertained ourselves by having a couple of parties at our site. Ginny & Bob O’dell, former park members, were visiting so they had a party at our site, since we have a good spot for it. Then last week we had another one to welcome some neighbors back and also for the 3 Australian couples who were visiting.
This coming weekend, my daughter Laura, and her new guy, Dennis, will be visiting Park Sierra for the first time. I am hoping that I am far enough along in my recovery to be able to do some things with them other than just sitting around!

2011-06-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

We have been back at Park Sierra for a few days and I have been trying to post the following report, but every time I attempt to add pictures, the internet connection goes out. So I will post this report for now and put some pictures in when I have a better connection.

Blog Post - After Jewel Cruise 6/2/11
We recently finished a very busy but enjoyable cruise on the Jewel of the Seas. There were 7 ports in 12 days and all of them were interesting places.
In Copenhagen we had a sunny and warm day walking around with Byron and Carol Hall. Walking into town there were many interesting buildings, fountains, parks, etc. Once we got to Nyhavn Harbor area, we took a canal boat ride for an hour which not only took us through other parts of the city but also through areas where there were unusual apartments. Of course, we took lots of pictures and had an enjoyable day. Stockholm, the next port, we also had a very sunny and nice day. This time we went with Byron and Carol, Irene and Leslie, and took a public bus into the inner city and then a hop on-hop off boat which took us to most of the sights anyone would like to see. The changing of the guard ceremony at the palace was interesting, and then we wandered around the old town, which is called Gamla Stan. There wasn't enough time for the others to go to the Vasa Museum, which was a shame. This showcases a 16th century sailing galleon which was built in Stockholm and which sank in the harbor on its maiden voyage. It was raised from the harbor bottom in 1961 and has been beautifully preserved and restored and is one of the most unique exhibits to visit in the world. We did this in 1997 when we were camping in the Scandinavian countries for several months. Helsinki was the next port and we were very grateful that we had been here before because it was a bitterly cold day with heavy rain, so we decided to stay on the ship.
Then came the highlight of the entire journey – St, Petersburg. Denice & Rick Osborne, Carol & Byron Hall, and Elaine and I did a 2 day private tour with a company called Red October. We got off the ship very early each day and were met by our van, guide and driver for several very full days of sightseeing. The first day was sunny and beautiful which really helped us enjoy the sights. First we did a drive through the city, stopping at several places to admire the many incredible buildings and take pictures. It seemed like every few hundred yards we were passing something amazing, such a onion-domed churches, triumphal arches, obelisks, statues, fountains, etc. Smolny Cathedral was an impressive blue and white building outside and exactly what we expected of a Russian Orthodox church on the inside. There was a choir singing when we entered and they were surprisingly good. Another fabulous cathedral we saw only from the outside was the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood. It is huge with multi-colored onion-shaped domes and beautiful mosaics. This marvelous Russian-style church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in March 1881, which is how it got this fairly gory name.
Coming to St. Petersburg has always been on our “bucket list” because we wanted to go to the Hermitage, a world famous art museum situated in the winter palace of the Tsars. The Winter Palace was built between 1754 and 1762 for Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great. The building is a marvel of baroque architecture and is as incredible as the art treasures. We toured it after our city tour. Because we were on a private tour, we got in before it was even open to the public, and thus avoided the long lines to get in and the hordes of people in there once it opened. Our guide, Helen, was very knowledgeable about everything, and had supplied us with listening devices so we had earphones and could hear her clearly no matter where we were. It was full of priceless paintings, sculptures, tapestries, urns, furniture, and jewelry.
After several hours in the Hermitage, we went across the street to the riverside pier on the Neva River where we boarded a hydrofoil which took us very quickly out into the Gulf of Finland. We ate our picnic lunches onboard while we motored towards Peterhof. Peterhof is an immensely luxurious and beautifully preserved Imperial estate, founded in 1710 by Peter the Great on the shore of the Gulf of Finland (Baltic Sea). It combines several ornate palaces, a number of beautifully landscaped parks and a dazzling array of magnificent statues and fountains, lending it the epithet "The Russian Versailles". We walked all over the vast grounds where there were beautiful flower displays, forested areas, and tricky fountains designed to surprise and soak unwary people who stepped on the wrong stone. Then we toured the incredible interior, which has so much carved wood covered in gold gilt that visitors are simply dazzled. After our tour there, the van picked us up and we drove back to the ship, which took about an hour but also enabled us to see some of the countryside and the suburbs outside of the main part of St. Petersburg. In the city everyone lives in big apartment blocks, some very nice looking and others very typically Soviet cement and grim-looking. Outside the city there are houses, as well as apartments, but Helen said that the houses are very expensive. And the metro doesn't run outside the city so it is difficult for people to get to work. There was lots of gridlock on the roads every time we were driving anywhere.
The second day we were picked up at the ship and driven about an hour outside the city to Pushkin where there is a marvelous ensemble of palaces and parks. It is particularly famous for its impressive baroque Catherine Palace, where Empress Catherine the Great lived and died. The palace was almost totally destroyed during World War II, but has risen like a phoenix from the ashes due to an extensive restoration program undertaken since the war. The same was true of Peterhof, and indeed, many of the 34 palaces owned by the Russian royal family. This palace is famous for the Amber Room, which was a room made of pieces of amber in many different hues, and quite spectacular. Many of the treasures of the various palaces were taken down and hidden when the Nazis invaded, but the Amber Room was left in the palace and disappeared during World War II. It has never been recovered, so the one in the palace today is a recreation. The day had started out rather overcast and gloomy and by the time we exited the palace, it was raining, so we skipped walking through the grounds, which weren't that impressive anyway compared to the grounds at Peterhof the day before.
Back in the city, we were driven to a small local restaurant where we had nice lunch of typical Russian food. We were seated at a table in the middle of the room with sheer curtains with scenes on them hanging all around us, kind of separating us from the other tables. Besides a salad of local greens served with sour cream dressing, we had very delicious seeded bread, borscht, a hot soup made with beets and beef and also served with sour cream, small dumplings filled with a chicken sausage type meat, and apple strudel with vanilla ice cream. Everything was delicious and very filling.
Red October, our tour company, also has a big shop selling typical Russian handicrafts, art, and souvenirs so we stopped there to pay our invoices and shop. We had visited one of these the day before also. These shops always offer free coffee, tea, vodka and cordials, so we tasted the vodka and a cherry liqueur at each place. The vodka was very good and in a bottle with a nice Russian scene on it, so Elaine bought one for Darran's birthday. The rest of the articles we took pictures of because it was the only way to bring them back – they were expensive and also would take too much luggage room! The girls working in these shops speak very good English and I asked some of them lots of questions to find out about their lives and also what some of the costs and concerns were of regular people living in Russia today. They all said the worst thing is the corruption. Nothing gets done without paying off people, and many successful businesses have to deal with extortion by either government officials or the Russian Mafia. This makes visiting St. Petersburg very expensive. Our 2 day private tour cost us $400 per person, and the ship's tours cost nearly as much also.
It was now mid-afternoon and we went to the Kazan Cathedral, a church built in the same style as St. Peter's in Rome. Again there was very beautiful singing going on as we entered. There were also some incredible buildings located on Nevsky Prospect, the main street of St. Petersburg, near this cathedral.
We were supposed to end this day with a canal boat tour through the city because, after all, it is called “the Venice of the North”. Just as we were waiting to board the boat, the skies opened up and a huge downpour which looked like it would not be a brief one, caused us to change our plans and return to the ship. With that kind of weather, we wouldn't have seen anything on the riverside anyway.
The next day we had sunny weather for our day in Tallinn, although it was a bit nippy and very windy. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, and is located on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland only about 53 miles across the water from Helsinki. At the historical and medieval heart of the city is the hill of Toompea, covered in cobbled streets and filled with medieval houses and alleyways. The lower town spreads out from the foot of the hill, still protected by the remnants of a city wall. This marvelously preserved city is a UNESCO world heritage site, with the first fortress dating back to 1050. It has been invaded and owned by nearly all of its neighbors, especially the Danes and the Russians, but regained its independence in 1991. It is a charming city and we spent a delightful day with Tom & Toby doing a walking tour we downloaded from Rick Steves website. It was easy to walk in from the pier and also explore on our own.
Finally we had a sea day after Tallinn and we all really needed it. We had managed to contact some cruise friends named Myra and Louie Lehmann, Americans who have lived in Sweden for the last 38 years, and they arranged to meet us in our last port, Gothenburg, Sweden. Again it was cold and overcast, but we took the shuttle in and met them at the train station. It was delightful to walk all over town with them, exploring and also questioning them about life in Sweden. After nearly 5 miles of sightseeing, we ended up in the large shopping mall where we found a small restaurant for some lunch. By the time we sat down, it was raining outside. By the time we finished, it had cleared a bit so we went to the arboretum and park nearby. While we were in the solarium, quite a heavy rainstorm hit which was a shame because there was an outside wedding going on. Once it slacked off a bit, Myra and Louie walked us back to the shuttle and we returned to the ship. That was our last port. After one last sea day, in which we packed, we disembarked at Harwich, England. We shared a van to Heathrow airport with Denice & Rick, Carol & Byron, and Andree & Dick, and we flew back to LAX.
It was an interesting and exciting cruise with lots of great ports, wonderful entertainment on the ship, good food, and many happy social hours with new and old friends in the Diamond and Diamond Plus lounge. We booked a couple more cruises for 2012 and 2013 but as always, our plans are flexible and we never know whether we will actually take them or not until final payment time arrives.
The last 2 days we have been staying with Darran & Marielle at their place near Mission Bay in San Diego. Yesterday was his 34th birthday and we pretty much prepared the birthday dinner and baked a carrot cake to celebrate. Marielle's sister, Meg and her husband, Ben joined us for the meal and helped make it a festive occasion. Darran has been working hard to get his new construction business going, and has still been working at UPS in the evenings, so he has been a very busy guy. We were grateful that he took last evening off to be with all of us.
Today, on our drive through LA, we visited Anja, an old friend we met in Mexico 10 years ago, and her 2 year old son, whom we had never seen. Her husband, Ole, was working out of the area so we missed seeing him. Now we are almost back at Park Sierra where we will be getting our rig ready for a summer trip to Oregon and Washington. We have to do this while we both have 2 working hands. On June 20 I will be having my second carpal tunnel surgery and on June 30 Elaine will be having her second surgery for Dupeytin's Contracture. These are the same ones we had last summer only on the other hands. When we recover enough, we will be heading north.

2011-05-16T03:31:00.001-07:00

5/15/11 Hello from the Jewel of the Seas, which is forging ahead towards Brest, France, our port for tomorrow. This is a small town on the coast of Brittany, with not any major sights so probably we will just poke around and try to absorb the ambiance. The next day the port is Cherbourg, where some people will be going to Mont St. Michel, the second most visited place in France. We were there years ago when we were camping through Europe for the summer, so we will stay in Cherbourg and see what appeals to us.
This cruise started May 6, in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and we have mostly had sea days so far - Elaine's favorite. Usually we try to work out every day in the gym when we are sailing, but we have missed a few days this time because we have been so wiped out by the time changes. First we lost 3 hours when we flew to Florida. Then, nearly every sea day we have lost another hour. This messes up our sleep time, so we are up late and then sleep later in the morning. This is part of the reason why we like an inside room. It is so dark in here that I even slept until 11:30AM one morning. I don't think that has ever happened before in my entire life! Usually I am an early riser.
Our first port was 2 days ago and it was Punta Delgada in the Azores, islands which belong to Portugal. We have been there many times so we weren't going to be going sightseeing anyway, but the weather was ugly the whole day. There is a nearby small mall with free WiFi so we spent our time there. I intended to update this blog then, but Blogger was not working at that time.
This cruise has been fun because we are on board with friends from previous cruises, and we have made some new friends in the Diamond Lounge in the evenings. Here is a group picture of our gang:
The people in the Diamond Plus lounge are a bit snooty, but on this ship they allow us to get our drinks in there and then carry them in to the Diamond Lounge, which is much nicer than our lounge (and bigger because there are more Diamond members). Much better views looking out too. The other day we saw quite a few dolphins and also a whale came up near the ship quite a few times.
Here is a picture of our entire group of friends from the lounges:

One night we went with Rick & Denice and Byron & Carol to the specialty restaurant called Chops.

The food was good and we had a great time. Several days later we went to Portofino, the other upscale restaurant and it was horrible. But we looked nice anyway, don't you think?

There have been three formal nights and we all dressed up. Here is a picture of Rick & Denice, Byron & Carole looking really fine:

On the last formal night we had pictures taken with Mark & Harald, friends from a previous cruise who are getting married in Germany in 3 weeks. (they live there)

(Today we are wandering around Brest with them and it is fun!)
On the 18th we will arrive in Harwich, England, where this cruise ends and we are staying on board for the next cruise. That is also a 12 day cruise which goes to the Scandinavian countries, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn, Estonia. We haven't been to Scandinavia since 1997 when we camped through Denmark, Sweden, and Norway in a camper van and also took an overnight ship to Helsinki for a day. We enjoyed these places then and I'm sure it will be interesting to see them again now. But the most exciting part will be seeing St. Peterburg for 2 days. Our friend, Denice has arranged a 2 day tour with a private company called Red October for 6 of us which is costing $800 per couple! Quite expensive. But the ship's tours are double that. And, we will have our own van.
Our next posting will be after we have a few more adventures.

2011-05-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

5/4/11 Today we are in sunny San Diego where we stayed with Darran & Marielle last night. Darran needed a new truck and we found a very good used one for him at Park Sierra, so we drove it down to him yesterday. It is a 2005 Dodge Dakota 4x4, and will be perfect for his new business, which is commercial building contracting work. It was actually over 90 degrees yesterday when we arrived which is unusual for this area because it is so close to Mission Bay and also the ocean.
This afternoon Elaine and I will drive down to a hotel near LAX where they have a good park and fly package. We can stay there one night and leave our car there free for 14 days. Since we will be gone 25 days, and will be staying overnight there again when we get back, we are going to try to convince them to let us park there free the whole 25 days. They also have a free airport shuttle, which we will use early on Thursday to go to LAX for our flight to Fort Lauderdale. Then on Friday we will board the Jewel of the Seas to leave on the transatlantic to England. Rick & Denice Osborne and Carol & Byron Hall will be onboard with us, so that will make it more fun.
We are both doing much better now that we have had a few weeks of recovery from back pain. For some unknown reason, my back went out one week, and then Elaine's went out the next week. And we had even been walking regularly and doing our usual daily exercises in the rig. Could it be the dreaded getting older factor??!! Nah.
Next post will be from far-flung places, we hope.

2011-04-22T14:42:00.001-07:00

4/22/11 Yes, we are finally having some warm weather here at Park Sierra. Not as warm as usual, but much better than the past few weeks. It was great that it started in time for Stagecoach Daze, which is the major fundraiser, with the money going to the social part of the park called Sierra Oaks. It funds the various breakfasts, lunches and dinners as well as other special events which occur here all year long.
Before it started, Bill and Gisela Pollock were here, as I mentioned in my last post. Just before they left, last Monday they had us over for a delicious dinner in their lovely rig. Here is a picture of the 4 happy eaters:

They splurged and served beef tenderloin steaks, which had been grilled perfectly and were fork tender. We paired them with one of the delicious red wines we had bought the day before on the Madera wine trail.
The next day there was a big lunch picnic gathering at the pole barn for the unveiling of the newly refurbished stage coach. Many of the members had been working on repairing the stagecoach for months, and also building a new covering for it. The many woodpeckers here in the park had done quite a thorough job on it, and it was riddled with holes. Now the new covering structure has netting all around it to keep the critters out. Here is a picture of the new stagecoach:

Some people even dressed up for the occasion, such as our friends Ken & Carolyn Kimpton:

After some speeches recognizing people who were founding park members, they hooked up the stagecoach to a tow vehicle and a parade of golf carts and people formed behind it. Some park members acted as the "horses":

It was hauled down the hill to the spot near the clubhouse where the new enclosure was built for it, and now it is elegantly parked there for all to see as they enter our park.
Throughout the next few days a lot of entertainment was presented. After the first dinner, our neighbor, Jeanne Taylor, acted as the "bag lady" in this skit about 2 ladies trying to outdo each other at a bus stop. It was hilarious.

And here is a picture of Elaine with Rich and Mary Baumann, our across the street neighbors, at one of the meals:

Our Boomer friend, Betty Prange arrived after the first day and was able to join us for the Social Hour on Thursday. Here she is in between Mary & Dave Fountain:

Two other couples of gals are also park members here, and they have become our good friends. In this picture they are (left to right) Elleen and Glenda, Vicky & Jan.

There was also a casino night where we played poker all evening, although there were other options.

A prize was given at the end of the night for the person with the most money, but I only came in third. When I was whining about it on the way out of the clubhouse, the sheriff put me in jail:

Betty joined us for dinner on Saturday night, so here we are together at the table.

There were lots of raffle prizes, door prizes, and 50-50 drawings during all of the Stagecoach Daze events, but we didn't win any of them!!!! Oh well, the event made over $10,000 for Sierra Oaks, which is just wonderful.
Now I have to get ready for the Friday night social, and later Elaine and I are going over to Chukchansi Casino for a performance by Journey Unauthorized. They gave us free tickets, so of course, we will go. Hopefully, these free tickets won't cost us a lot as we pass by the gaming tables and the slot machines!

2011-04-10T19:57:00.001-07:00

4/10/11 Hi from sunny Park Sierra, although it still isn't really very warm here yet. In fact, 2 days ago we woke up to about 2-3 inches of snow all over everything, with more big, wet flakes falling! Here is a picture of our rig and car on our lot:

From our living room slide we could see all the trees in the greenbelt next to us covered with snow.

Here is a picture of Elaine on our snowy patio:

But by mid afternoon, the sun was out and most of the snow had melted:

Two days before all this snow and cold, we had a Happy Hour gathering at our lot in honor of Gary & Cecile Thompson, who were giving up their lot at the park. It was so nice that people were sitting outside in their shirtsleeves! Here is a picture of June and Stan Dean, with our next-door neighbor Alan Rodely, and our friend Carolyn Kimpton:

And here is Elaine with Gary Thompson, and his neighbors Gloria and Marvin Taylor:

Our Boomer friends Bill and Gisela Pollock had arrived on Tuesday, and we advised them to go to Yosemite National Park on Wednesday because we had heard there was going to be a big change in the weather. Also, if there was a government shut down, the park would be closed. So they went on Wednesday and had a beautiful day there. We have been having fun social times with them ever since they arrived. Here is a picture of the 4 of us together at the Park Sierra social gathering on Friday:

Other good friends, Judy Farrow & Lou Stoetzer, and Mary & Dave Fountain shared our table with us:

Yesterday we went to two of the wineries on the Madera Wine Trail with Bill and Gisela. Our favorite is Birdstone, which has wonderful wines and a charming tasting room:

Additionally, the owners and winemakers, Kim and Tony Kirk, are warm and welcoming. We met them last year and shared a few glasses of wine at the Isle Hour winery event in Oakhurst last summer. It was great to see Kim again when we were at their winery yesterday. Here is a picture of the 4 of us with Kim at the tasting room:

Our second stop was at Chateau Lasgoity, where the wines were also good and we enjoyed chatting with the owner, John Lasgoity. He told us that he has established a connection with Chinese wine merchants and had an interesting visit to China last year where he observed a lot of their growing and wine making techniques. The Chinese now buy all his wine which is left over at the end of the season.
Bill and Gisela are having us over for dinner tomorrow and then leaving on Tuesday. Too bad they can't stay because the biggest event of the year at Park Sierra starts Wednesday. It is Stagecoach Daze, and it will be 4 days of meals, auctions, craft shows, craft classes, games, raffles, a casino night, a melodrama, and stagecoach rides. We will be helping with some of these events, and enjoying all of them, I'm sure.
In any spare time we have, we are still working on slimming down before our May cruises, and also getting our paperwork in order for future travels. I also managed to get our taxes done, and we got our shed cleaned up a bit. By the time we leave Park Sierra on May 4, it will be our longest stay here (5 weeks) since we became lot holders in 2002!!!

2011-03-27T17:50:00.001-07:00

3/27/11 Finally, a partially sunny day here at Park Sierra with no rain!!! And the forecast is for gradually warming dry days in the week ahead, so we are now happier campers. Last Monday night was when we returned to Park Sierra, after spending the weekend at the Fremont Elks. Our intent was to work on cleaning up the backyard at the Santa Clara rental house, and cutting back some of the trees while we had free pickup by the city out in the street. But the weather was so bad, with freezing temps and constant heavy rain, that we couldn't do anything except inspect the place. The tenants might be moving in July, so we will tackle the mess then. The one positive weekend event was having some time to see Elaine's daughter Tarra, and her family who live in Fremont. Can't post any pictures because we hadn't received our camera back from Olympus repair yet. They all are doing fine and look happy and healthy.
Monday we stopped in Fresno to have some recall work done on the RV brakes, which should not have cost us any money. But when they took the wheels off and exposed the rotors, they were very badly cracked. This was probably caused by the sticking calipers which was what the recall was about, but of course, Workhorse won't pay for the damage to the rotors, just what it costs to fix the calipers. So $1189 later, the RV was fixed and we drove to Park Sierra. Our very nice neighbors, David & Brenda Neil, had a delicious dinner waiting for us. It was great to have some visiting time with them. Here is a picture of them on Ken's deck today:

There have been so many social events since we returned to the park that our weight loss program, which was going well in Sacramento, has now stalled. Today we were at a birthday party for Ken Kimpton down at their lot, and we also had dinner there one night too. Here is a picture of Carol Rodely, Carolyn Kimpton, Elaine & Brenda Neil on the Kimpton's deck:

Last night there was a tostada dinner for everyone in the park to celebrate the Volunteers, with homemade cake for dessert. Here is a picture of Elaine with Viv Rogers, our neighbor Jeanne Taylor, & Brenda:

Every Friday there is a big park Happy Hour with "heavy" appetizers so that usually is dinner. And Elaine cooked a big corned beef dinner for some friends this week too. Since it was raining almost every minute, these social events were certainly welcome because it got people out of their rigs where they had been trapped for weeks. And we have been having a wonderful time catching up with the news and doings of friends.
As the weather improves and we can be outside, there are rig projects and other chores on the lot we need to take care of. In mid-April, the main park fund raiser, called Stagecoach Daze, will be held for 4 days. There will be lots of activities and meals, and we will try to do something to help. Ken & Carolyn are handling the auction, so I suspect we will be working on that with them. This 5 1/2 week period of being here is probably the longest time we have ever been here, and we have been members since 2002!
One of our park members took some pictures of Coarsegold Creek, which runs through the park down near the bottom of the property which I will post below. In the summer this creek is nearly dry. Last week it was a raging torrent with a constant roar.
Here is an overview look from the hill above:

Here is the place where members usually drive across in their golf carts:

2011-03-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

3/16/11 Two more weeks have gone by since my last post, but we have been VERY busy. Working on the rental house everyday keeps us busy from early morning until 5 or 6PM. Then we drive back to the RV, fix dinner, and try to catch up on other things such as e-mails or paperwork. Our sympathies go out to you people who still work every day!!! This is reminding us how great it usually is to be retired.
One big social event we have had during our time here was that my daughter Laura, my granddaughter Michaela, and Laura's new guy, Dennis, all drove down one Saturday for a visit. We fixed a nice dinner to have at the RV so we could sit and chat with them and get to know Dennis. He seems to be a great guy and Laura clearly is very enamored with him. We hope that they find much happiness together. It was also wonderful to have time to talk to Michaela and find out what is going on in her life. She is 15 and we feel like we barely know her because her Father would never let her have visits with us. He felt like we would corrupt her, I guess. So one of the big benefits of Laura's divorce is starting to have a better relationship with her. Here is a picture of me with the three of them:

The second social event was 2 nights ago when we drove over to Cal Expo RV park to see Laurie & Odel who are staying there a while so Odel can have a knee replacement at a local hospital. The renovations they had done in their RV look wonderful, and so do they! We had a drink and snacks and chatted a while, then walked over to Applebee's, which is not very far away. They like to eat there when they are on Weight Watchers because Applebee's puts the point counts in the menu for some of their dishes. The food was good and we enjoyed being with them, as always! Couldn't take a picture because my camera is still being repaired by Olympus.
Now that we have spent two weeks working very hard on the rental house, it is ready for new tenants. Last Friday night we put it on Craig's list, and on Saturday three sets of people had come to see it and we had 2 applications. Sunday 2 more couples came to see it. One of the applicants seem perfect and their information checks out so we agreed to rent to them. Tomorrow at 5:30PM they are meeting us at the house and we are collecting the deposit and giving them the keys. They wanted our house because it is large (4 bedrooms and very spacious) and near Zamora School, which some say is the best school in Woodland. They have 3 kids and one on the way and the oldest one is 6. So we hope they decide to stay in our house until ALL of the kids get through school!!!!
Friday we will be driving down to Fremont to stay at the Elks Club. The Santa Clara rental house is badly in need of some cutting back of trees and shrubs in the backyard so we will be doing that this weekend. Santa Clara has a "clean up campaign" every Spring which allows us to put any amount of anything out on the street and they haul it to the dump for free. And this is our weekend to do that. We will also be seeing Elaine's daughter, Tarra, and her family, who live in our Fremont house.
Some people are wondering when we will be returning to Park Sierra. Monday we will be driving back to our lot there, if all goes well in the Bay Area. We are looking forward to some much needed rest and socializing with friends!! Also, Stagecoach Days will be mid-April, and that is always a very fun event there.

2011-03-02T20:15:00.001-08:00

3/2/11 Can't believe it has been two weeks since I last posted! Sorry for the delay. We have been moving fast and seeing lots of people since we got off the Explorer of the Seas. The day that we docked back in New Jersey was sunny and warm and quite a bit of the snow had melted. We got off the ship early because we had packed light and were taking our own luggage off. At the airport, we waited for our flight to Atlanta (with a subsequent flight from there to Phoenix) and we realized that every flight that was leaving was overbooked. This was probably because it was President's weekend and everyone had an extra day off. They were calling for volunteers to give up their seats. Finally, the gate agent called us up by name and said that if we allowed them (Delta) to change our flight so that we went through Minneapolis and then on to Phoenix, they would give us each a $400 voucher for future travel, a $7 lunch voucher, and put us in first class for the Minneapolis to Phoenix leg. We would be arriving only 1 1/2 hours later than planned. So we took it. Wow, it is neat to fly first class!!!
Back in Phoenix, we slept in the rig at the Elks Club, and then the next day had lunch with Joyce and Don Lipari, Elaine's former sister-in-law and her husband. After a nice meal with them and cheesecake and coffee in their new home in Mesa, we headed for Tucson, arriving just at dark. Once again we stayed in the yard of Elaine's Aunt Marion and spent the weekend having fun with her, and also Penny, Elaine's sister. We had no food in our rig because we had been away so Penny brought over some food, and Sunday Aunt Marion's friend Louise took all of us to a nearby casino for a delicious prime rib dinner.
Monday we left and headed for Yuma, where we stayed on the lot of Ron & Carol Leonard in the Foothills. Diane & Jim FisherBaker were also staying there, as were 2 of Carol's nieces. We had several enjoyable Happy Hours with them over the course of the next few days, had a delightful time and delicious dinner with Lee & Susie Blattner at their rig at the SKP park, got to see the new mobile home and lot that Diane and Jim had just purchased about 1/2 mile from Carol & Ron's, and had a quick visit at Dan & Jenny Shepherds casita. Sure wish I could be posting pictures of all these enjoyable events, but I still have not been able to get my camera repaired.
Our Yuma visit was also short because we needed to head back to CA to deal with some rental issues. We drove to Jojoba SKP park for a quick visit with Joe & Carla Calwell and Dick and Carole Schneider. Had intended to stay both Thursday and Friday but the weather forecast was for very cold temps and snow down to 500 feet starting Friday. We needed to get through the mountains surrounding Los Angeles before snow fell, so we decided to leave early Friday. That gave us Thursday with our friends, so we all went to a nearby BBQ restaurant for lunch and then to the Shadow Mountain Winery for an excellent wine tasting - and some buying as well. Nearly every one of their wines was excellent! That evening Joe and Carla had us all over to their 5th wheel for a delightful dinner of green chili stew, with lots of talking, drinking wine, laughing, and catching up on each others news. It was great.
Friday we left early and yes, beat the bad weather and made it over the mountains, although there was snow on the ground in the Tehachipi's. It took 2 days for us to drive up to Sacramento where we set up our rig on Ron & Carol's property. The weather was cold but sunny for the next few days. We made several visits to our property in Woodland to try to hurry along the moving process of our tenant, but it still took her until last night at 7PM to get totally out. We were happy that she left without necessitating the hiring of an eviction attorney. So today we had the locks changed and started cleaning up the big mess that she left us. Tomorrow we will be able to start painting. We are hoping to have this place fairly well cleaned up and ready to show to new prospective tenants within a few weeks. We will also have to drive down to the Santa Clara house for a few days mid-month to do some yard cutback and cleanup during the annual cleanup campaign that the city has every spring. It is a chance to get rid of huge amounts of stuff because the city picks it up off the street at no charge for 2 days. These rental issues are a lot of work but since we have no pensions, only rental income, and we like to eat, we periodically have to pay attention to business!!!

2011-02-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

Blog Update From The Explorer
2/15/11
Today is the first of three straight sea days because the ship is heading back to New Jersey from the Caribbean. There is a special performance of the ice show for repeat cruisers, which we will attend in a few minutes. Every late afternoon and evening we have been enjoying the drinks and appetizers in the Concierge Lounge with the Boy Toys and other new friends.
And there have been four singing and dancing production shows which have been excellent. Mornings we have been spending a lot of time working out in the gym on the elliptical machines, and also doing some weights in an effort to get in better shape, as well as take off the “bread roll” we acquired on our India trip last Nov. The weather has been pretty good, and we especially enjoy the warmth, which we will perhaps be losing as we head north.
There were 6 port days in a row on this cruise, with the first one being Labadee, Haiti. This is really just a tropical peninsula with nice beaches and other amenities which is privately owned by Royal Caribbean. Roger and Martin arranged for the 5 of us (Jack was with us) to rent a cabana for the day in an area that had restricted entry. Here is a picture of us in the cabana:

It was a nice, shady place to hang out, with tables and a special buffet lunch served right behind it. Here is a picture of the gang at lunch:

About 20 yards in front of our cabana was a very nice beach with floating mats and snorkeling equipment we could use. And, it was such a nice sunny day that we enjoyed going in the water.
Unfortunately, there aren't any more pictures from the other places we have been because the new camera which I bought on the Adventure of the Seas in December, has already gone kaput. I will have to try getting Olympus to fix it once we return to the USA.
The other ports of call were Semana, Dominican Republic, St. Kitts, St. John's, Antigua, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. Most of these places were repeat visits for us, so we either didn't get off the ship, or we just walked around a bit in the towns. Usually the only activities are going to the beach or shopping, unless you book an overpriced shore excursion from the ship. In Semana, we took the tender boat ashore, and then walked to a local outdoor restaurant Roger and Martin knew, where we ate plantains and drank local beer. It has actually been hot a couple of the days, especially yesterday in St. Maarten.
This cruise started in Bayonne, New Jersey on Feb. 6. We were lucky because there was decent enough weather that we were able to fly in there on Feb. 5 with only a 2 hour delay in our arrival. The day the ship sailed was a very clear and cool day, and we could see New York and the Statue of Liberty quite well across the harbor. Here is a picture of us with New York in the background.

There was also an interesting memorial right in the port at Bayonne called the Russian Teardrop. It is a big granite piece, split in the middle with a big metal teardrop there, and the names of all the victims of the 9/11 attack etched in the base. It was donated by Russia. This information was supplied by our shuttle bus driver, so I hope it is accurate.
If you ever have a cruise leaving from Bayonne, be prepared for a huge mess at the port. There is only one lane of traffic to get to the area where cars park and taxis and buses drop off passengers, and there is a huge backup. Also, you leave your luggage in a big tent area with the porters and then there is another long line just to get into the building where Royal Caribbean checks you in. Then you have to get on a shuttle bus which takes you about 150 yards to the entry to the ship. Not a very efficient way to check in thousands of people in a short period of time.
We will be disembarking from the ship on Friday morning and taking a shuttle to the airport. Our rig is at the Elks Lodge in Phoenix, where we hope to arrive in the evening. After a day or two in Tucson, visiting Elaine's sister and aunt, we will be heading back to California to deal with some rental problems.

2011-01-25T19:54:00.000-08:00

1/25/11 Have been having warm and sunny weather here at Boomerville, which is the Boomer gathering at Quartzsite, AZ during the last 2 weeks of January. There are over 100 rigs here and we have been having nice social times with a lot of our RV friends. When we first arrived and went to the group Happy Hour, we were quite amazed at how many people we knew since we haven't been here for 3 or 4 years. We are parked right across from Mike & Marilyn Harrison, and Sam & Bob Fleckner, and right in front of Mick & Ann Mielike. Here is our rig parked in the desert:

Carole and Dick Schneider arrived last Saturday and are parked just down the row from us. Every day there are lots of activities, including a 9AM walk which we have been doing every day. Here is a picture of todays' walking group - at least the gang that made it all the way to the 2 1/2 mile marker. From left are Elaine, Jim Baker, Carole Schneider, and Linda and Sonny Kingsbury:

When we were first here, Escapees had a big Happy Hour which we attended and where we were able to reconnect with our good friends Lee & Susie Blattner:

Additionally, there were several Park Sierra neighbors at this event, and here is Elaine with Dave & Brenda Neal, and Val Jones:

Every year at this time hundreds of thousands of RVs come here because there is a gem and mineral show and a lot of other vendors who sell stuff here. But most of us come just to get together with all our RV friends who also attend. Here is a picture I took while we were on our walk. You can see all the white areas, which are RVs:

The Boomers donate items for a auction and the money goes to support the Care Center at Escapees headquarters in Livingston. It was held yesterday after Happy Hour and more than $2400 was raised!
Most evenings our little neighborhood has a campfire and we sit around a chat for a while, usually over a drink.

Then the desert sky starts to get pink and we have spectacular sunsets. Here is one of them:

Friday is Elaine's 64th birthday and we will be having a little party for her around the campfire.
Before I end this, I want to put a picture here which we took on our drive across highway 58 near Boron. It shows how flimsy RVs can be when they are hit by another vehicle. This one was a 5th wheel. I think we are a little better protected in a motorhome.

2011-01-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

1/17/11 Yesterday afternoon we returned to our RV at Park Sierra after driving back from Los Angeles. The family cruise on the Mariner, which went to 3 ports in Mexico, was a wonderful week with the family and we all also greatly enjoyed the warm weather. This was the last week the Mariner was doing this itinerary so it also became the week of the reunion cruise for those who were onboard in 2008 when the ship traveled Around the Horn from Florida to Los Angeles. So our friends Len & Letty, Rick & Denice, and Carol & Byron were on board with us. Here is a picture of Darran & Marielle with (left to right) Denice, Byron, Carol & Rick.

During the week there were two formal nights so everyone got dressed up and we had a formal picture taken. From left to right in front are Paige, Mary & Elaine. Back row: Marielle, Darran, Alonzo, Tarra, and Laura.

For those of you who don't know the family, Laura is Mary's daughter, and Paige is Laura's daughter. Darran is Elaine's son and Marielle is his fiancee; Tarra is Elaine's daughter and Alonzo is her husband. Mary's son, Thomas, and his partner, Robert, were unable to join us for this cruise.
It was fun just being on the ship with the family and one of the first things they did was get into the hot tub together:

After a day of cruising, we started three days of ports. The first one was Cabo San Lucas. There is no pier there so we had to be tendered in. Here is the picture we took in front of the marina:

After some exploring in town and also a little shopping, we ended up at an outdoor bar where David, the bartender made margaritas from fresh juices and good tequila and we all enjoyed them. One of the entertainers from the ship was there and he took this picture for us:

The next day we were in Mazatlan. Tarra and Alonzo went off on their own while the rest of us took a water taxi to Stone Island for a day at the beach.

There was a long row of beach palapa restaurants so we grabbed a table and chairs at Victor's, which had been recommended by Jack, one of our cruise buddies. It was a good choice, and we spent the day eating garlic and coconut shrimp, chips and salsa, drinking local beers, enjoying each other's company, and shopping (by the kids) from the beach vendors.

Port number 3 was Puerta Vallarta, one of our favorite Mexican cities. We caught the local bus right outside the port gate and got off in the old downtown area. Here is the family at one of the sculptures along the malecon, which is the scenic beach walk.

The cathedral was nearby, so we walked over to check out the inside. The outside tower has a very different looking top - a replica of the crown worn by Emperor Maximillian.

A few blocks away was the Rio Cuale market on an island in the middle of the river. The kids bought a few Mexican handicrafts to bring back as gifts to their friends and families. We just enjoyed the sunny day and the warmth.

There was a nice outdoor restaurant alongside the river so we gathered there for a drink before having lunch at a small local restaurant in town.

Then Elaine and I did the walk along the malecon and enjoyed not only the permanent sculptures, but also the sand sculptures made by some of the locals.

The next two days were sea days so we all rested and enjoyed being together, especially at dinner. The kids enjoyed the food, the entertainment, and hung out by the pool. Of course, the weather got cooler as we traveled north again. Sunday morning the ship docked back in San Pedro and we took them to the airport. Now it is back to "real life" for everyone.
Our fridge got fixed today, and it is cooling nicely, so we have finished packing up the RV and will start heading for Quartzsite and the Boomer gathering in the morning. Hopefully, the heavy fog we had today will have disappeared by departure time.

2011-01-03T19:04:00.000-08:00

1/3/11 Happy New Year Everybody! It has already been a good year and we hope it continues for us and all of you too. We attended the New Year's Eve celebration in the clubhouse here at Park Sierra. There was finger food which was brought by everyone, and a band which played a variety of music for listening and dancing. We shared a table with our good friends Glenda & Elleen, Ken & Carolyn, and Polly & Ernie. This being the home park of lots of fairly elderly people who often go to bed early, the event took place between 6 and 9. We were still getting used to this new time zone, so we were happy with this arrangement.
Today we returned from taking our RV to Manteca Trailer to have the bedroom slideout repaired. It was making loud screeching noises every time we opened or closed it, and underneath the outside part we were getting some scratches. We drove up there yesterday, in the rain, and got set up on their lot so we could have an early morning appointment today. We had fears that they would have to take the whole thing off to fix it, but they were able to adjust it and lube it from the inside and now it works well. They charge $132 per hour for labor (Yikes) but it only took an hour and minimal parts. Now we just have to leave our RV parked here at Park Sierra while we are cruising with our kids next week, and when the cooling unit for the fridge arrives, it will be installed. Then we can drive down to AZ for the last two weeks of January and attend the Boomer gathering at Quartzsite.
Yes, the long-awaited family cruise will be starting next Sunday. Elaine and I will drive down in our car on Saturday and stay overnight at a motel near the port where we can also leave our cars during the week we will be gone. Darran and Marielle will be bringing Laura and Paige with them from San Diego because they are flying in the night before. Tarra and Alonzo will fly into LAX Sunday morning. Now we just have to hope that the weather cooperates! Our next blog post will probably be a report about this event.

2010-12-29T16:34:00.000-08:00

12/29/10 It is rainy, windy, and cold here at Park Sierra and we are wishing we were back in the Caribbean again! We have only been back a few days and are already out of sorts and complaining about the weather. Time to make a resolution that we will absolutely NOT spend any time here next winter!! Maybe the fact that Elaine is still suffering from a cold she picked up on the cruise, and I am still suffering from a knee injury that started on the ship, is contributing to our dark moods. The fact that our fridge has gone wacko and we now need a new cooling unit (which will cost $900 installed) hasn't helped. Our friends Curt and Viv have loaned us a small electric fridge to use until Jan. 17 when our repair will take place. They have also fed us 2 delicious meals, and Ken and Carolyn have fed us one meal, so we aren't starving - and we have enjoyed their company. It was lucky that this happened when we had been away, because we didn't have a bunch of food that got spoiled.
The last 2 islands that we visited, Curacao and Aruba, were both very colorful and interesting. And because they are so close to Venezuela, the weather was very warm. On Aruba, we took a local bus with our new friends Jeff and Dorothy and went down to the beaches in the hotel zone. It rained a little bit while we were sitting in a beach bar trying out the local beer. When we returned to the ship, we were amazed at all the water that was in the streets. They had a huge downpour there, and it was only a mile or two from where we were. Tropical weather, I guess.
Friday, the day we docked back in Puerto Rico, we got off the ship in record time. Such a difference from when the Adventure of the Seas disembarked. So we had a long wait at the airport, then another layover of several hours in Miami. Lorraine and Steve, other new friends, were flying with us, so we enjoyed a nice Christmas dinner together in the Mexican restaurant in the terminal. Because of the layovers, and the time zone differences, it was a very long travel day by the time we landed at LAX, rented a car, and drove to Darran's apartment in San Diego. Had intended to stay there a few days but the weather wasn't very nice and Darran was in New York, so we drove back to Park Sierra the next day (Christmas Day). After watching all the travel difficulties on TV, we have resolved never to travel at this time of the year again. We were just lucky that we had no delays or cancellations, probably because we were traveling in warm weather areas.
I have not managed to organize my time efficiently and so have still not written a holiday greeting to all our friends and family to send out. It will have to be a Happy New Year greeting, I guess. Our New Year's Eve will be spent celebrating here in the clubhouse with our Park Sierra friends. We are hoping that all of you have a Happy New Year celebration and a wonderful year in 2011. I will also be organizing and posting some pictures in the next few weeks, to go with our travel experiences of the last few months.

2010-12-20T07:35:00.001-08:00

12/20/10
Hello from the southern Caribbean, where we are having our first sea day. Tomorrow we will be in Curacao and the day after that, Aruba. The weather down here is warm and sunny and we have been enjoying it, especially after watching the snow storms in Europe and the heavy rain in CA on TV. Yesterday we were in Grenada and we did a shore excursion which involved a fairly convoluted drive on the island to a river where we had a river tubing adventure. It was interesting to see the homes and the topography of the island. In 1983 our government was invited here to drive out the Cuban communists who were taking over, and in 2004 this island was almost totally destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. It has taken a lot of work to get things going again, and there are not only a lot of houses still standing with missing roofs and walls, but lots of new and colorful homes which look much more substantial. I'm sure their building codes have improved. This island is called the Spice Island because they grow lots of things like nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger and cacao here.
The river tubing adventure was fun. The tubes had a rubber flooring tied into them which turned out to be a very good thing because there were lots of areas where we were scraping our butts on rocks and the flooring offered good protection. There were about 10 young men who were stationed in the river along the route who made sure that we did not end up on the big rocks, and who often spun us around and splashed us as they propelled us on our way. Because it was such a nice temperature out, we were never cold either. They have this type of excursion on some of the other islands as well, and there are also at least 3 islands where zip-line adventures in the canopy are available.
Today there was a delicious brunch offered in the dining room, so we have just waddled back from that. Later there is going to be a special gathering for Captain's Club members offering gourmet treats and cocktails, So sea days on this ship are seeming like gluttonous events. We do think that having a brunch like this is so much smarter than the usual midnight buffets, because so many more people attend and it is a much better time to be eating. There were even 2 chocolate fountains, one white and one dark.
Our usual holiday greeting e-mail will be late this year because we don't fly back to CA until Friday. Then we have to pick up our car at Darran's, in San Diego, and head back to our RV at Park Sierra. So look for our Holiday letter sometime between Christmas and New Year's. We are wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a very Happy New Year.

2010-12-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

12/15/10
Hello Blog Readers from the island of St. Kitts. Today was the 3rd day of this 11 day cruise on the Celebrity Millennium. The cruise started in San Juan, which was a most delightful place. Too bad getting off the Adventure of the Seas on Sunday morning was so difficult due to delays by immigration. It used up some of our sightseeing time there. We did manage to make it down to Old San Juan and enjoyed it immensely. Next time we will stay longer because we can see that we could have such fun exploring more of the island. Monday afternoon we boarded this ship and by Tuesday we were docked in St. Croix. We did some walking around in town and a little beach combing, then worked out in the gym on the ship. Today we did the same here in St. Kitts. The last time we were here we hired a taxi and explored the whole island, so didn't need to do much today. The weather has been sunny and about 80 degrees, so we are having a very tropical experience. In a few minutes we are attending a special Elegant Tea, for Elite members here on board. They have been treating us well, the food is really abundant and delicious, and we are enjoying everything.

2010-12-08T03:07:00.001-08:00

12/8/10
Hi from the middle of the Atlantic. I just finished the India travelogues so here is the last one. Enjoy!

India Travelogue #10
11/21/10 to 11/26/10
We had enjoyed the little hotel right on the waters of Allepey but it was time to head out of town in our van. Too bad three of our people were sick. First we stopped at a special Hindu temple, called Mannarsala Temple, which was the snake temple. It was made of wood and there were lots of people there. We were not allowed to take pictures inside. There were areas where people were lined up to pay money for special blessings (from 10 up to 20,001 rupees) and also an area where people put their kids on a scale and weigh them with rice, or bananas, gold or silver, and then donate that to the temple as a thank you for having the child, because this was a fertility temple. It seems amazing to us that in such a crowded country, with 1.2 billion people, and hard economic times due to too many people, they are so concerned with fertility!! But that is because there is no social security and people depend on their children to take care of them in their old age.
There were also areas where they could buy sweets to take home which were made by the priests, so the blessings could be spread around at home. And a place where they sold music, statues, etc. So it seemed like one big area of sucking money out of the faithful. Shanji told us it is the only temple where a woman is the high priestess. It is also unusual because it is made entirely of wood. We had to go barefoot, and we weren't allowed in the inner sanctum.
Next we stopped at the Krishnapuram palace, which was also made of wood and had beautifully manicured grounds. It was built for a maharaja about 250 years ago. There were a lot of collections of things in there: coins, swords, statues, etc. And it was a good example of how buildings were designed in those days to ensure nice breezes and open courtyards for resting and socializing in the court.
Kerala gets a lot more rain than the north and this is an unusual year, so it started in again. It rained pretty steadily the whole time we were driving and was raining hard by the time we reached the hotel, the Deshadan Cliff Resort in Verkala – a sister hotel to the one we stayed at in Munnar, up in the mountains. The hotel was nice with a beautiful pool right in the middle, and a nice little restaurant (open air) off to the side. The room was nice too and happily had more lights than the last 2 and also a TV with good English stations. At lunch at 3 in the restaurant, we watched the rain pour down and Shanji had arranged a birthday cake for Tom, who was 23 that day.
Verkala is a sacred town for the Hindus. It also sits on a 2 km long ragged coastline of red cliff. The shops, restaurants and hotels are all on the cliff, with lots of steps leading down to the beach area. It clearly is a place that has been adopted as a hangout for western young people who are staying around a while, and there are lots of good tourist restaurants and buying opportunities at the many stalls nearby.
Hooray – the next day was a bright, clear, sunny day. John drove us to the 2000 year old Janardhana Swamy temple where we walked around and Shanji explained more about Hinduism. This temple is on the top of a hill and as we walked up the steps we stopped at an area where a man was stationed to accept money from people as they entered, then he shot off a very loud firework which was supposed to drive away the evil spirits. Once again, we were not allowed in the inner sanctum, but there were lots of interesting areas around the main one. Then we drove to the beach area where priests were having consultations with people who had a loved one die recently, and who performed special rituals for them. To bathe in the sea here is considered holy, especially on the new moon of the Hindu calendar.
Verkala is the final resting place of the great social reformer, Sree Narayana Guru, so we went to his Ashram called the Sivagiri Mutt, took pictures of some of the people there for weddings, and also saw the guru's house and the temple built for him. Ghandi visited him once and stayed overnight so that is also a big deal for the faithful. He was in favor of treating the lower classes much better, and for fair treatment for everybody, including women.
The day was very warm and sunny so we enjoyed the fact that we had some down time by the pool.
Dinner was at 6 with the gang and we went to the Cafe Del Mar, on the cliff. The food was good, with lots of non-Indian choices that we haven't had for a while but it took a long time to arrive. We had a spinach salad and a pizza with gorgonzola, mozzarella, tomato sauce, chicken, and mushrooms. The crust was very good. As we were eating, it started pouring down rain again; this has been a very wet year!
Tuesday (11/23) we had to leave by 9 because we drove back to Kochi and it took about 5 hours.
Along the way we stopped to see two Asian elephants in a field. Elephants are still used for work here, and we have seen them carrying big loads as they walk along the roads. One of the towns had a replica of the Taj Mahal, and we had tea in a restaurant where we watched a two-foot long mud snake catch and eat a frog.
When we got to Fort Cochin we stopped at a big laundry place where they wash, dry and iron the clothes, all by hand. Shaji said that there are not enough people who want to do this kind of work anymore, so it is a dying occupation. I guess they are going to have to buy washing machines.
Late afternoon, we went to a Kathakali performance. It is an ancient dance form which is mostly dependent upon facial movements to communicate thoughts and feelings and mostly only found in the Cochin area. First we watched the guys put their very elaborate makeup on, then toured a museum showing some of the outfits they wear, then there was about a 45 minute performance. First they explained the facial expressions and the hand movements, then they had a little play/dance. There were guys with drums accompanying them and also some annoying chanting which might have been an explanation of what was happening on stage, if we could have understood it. It got to be a bit tedious, but happily it didn't last that long.
11/24/10 was the last day for this tour. We did a walk around Fort Cochin which included going to a big church nearby which is the 2nd oldest cathedral in India, and on the way stumbled on a street where lots of little girls were all dressed up and lining the street waiting for a procession of important people. Then we walked to the church where Vasco da Gama was originally buried. His home while he was there was across the street. Queen Elizabeth had also visited this church, and there is a commemorative plaque. Then we walked along the riverfront to see the big Chinese fishing nets, which require about 6 guys to work them. They are mostly a tourist attraction now, although there were stalls selling fish nearby. We all took the ferry to Mattancherry area where Jew Town is. There were very nice stalls there and it was very clean. There used to be a big Jewish community (from the 1500's) which was very well accepted but when Israel was created, most of them moved there. Today there are only 6 Jewish families. Most tourists go to see the beautiful synagogue with great handmade floor tiles from China and a nice chandelier from Belgium. Next we went to the former Maharajas palace. There were some kama sutra type frescoes in the basement and there is a copy of part of it in our room at the hotel! Elaine and I walked back from Jew Town to the hotel and it was interesting walking through the industrial area and places where they sell spices.
That evening we all walked to a really nice hotel and restaurant down by the water where we had a delicious departure dinner. Elaine had a calamari dish and french fries, I had coconut chicken, and we shared an eggplant and spring onion starter with peanut sauce. The food was all good and it was a fun last evening with everyone. Once again it rained heavily while we were eating so we were glad to be inside. No wonder it is so green here!
On Nov. 25 we got up early, said goodbye to Shaji who was a great tour leader and a delightful person. He arranged for a taxi to take us to the airport, which turned out to be an hour and a half drive due to people trying to get to work. The buses were absolutely packed, and none of them have side windows, which is so surprising because they get so much rain. It was the beginning of a day and a half of travel since we had to fly to Delhi, then wait nearly 10 hours for our flight to London and subsequent flight to Barcelona.
The new Delhi terminal is very nice but the system they use is stupid. You can't get into the airport building if you don't have a ticket, and when you do, you are in the area where the check-in counters are and only a couple of small stalls selling food. You can't go through security until you check in and you can't do that until about 2 hours before your flight. So all the good stores, food court, restaurants, etc. are on the other side of the security check area, and by the time you can go there, you don't have time to use them! We wanted to have a nice dinner at the airport but couldn't get back to the restaurants because flight check in for us wasn't until nearly midnight. When we went to check in, Elaine caught her hand in the luggage cart and smashed it pretty badly, including her wedding ring. The bathroom attendant helped her get it off with soap which was good because her fingers started to swell and it would have been a disaster if her ring was still on. Once we got through security, I got her some ice at McDonalds, in the food court, and once on the plane, she iced it the whole flight. Her hand stayed swollen for many days and eventually was very colorful, but probably nothing was broken. We arrived in Barcelona the next day at about noon and took a taxi to the Holiday Inn Express, which was a wonderful place to recuperate from the rigors of travel. We slept from 3PM until the next morning! The hotel is not in a tourist area, but there is a shopping and restaurant area within a block, and a metro stop 2 blocks away in the other direction. We had 24 hour free WiFi, and the daily included breakfast was huge and delicious. We highly recommend this hotel if you need a place to stay in Barcelona.