Boston & Brilliance of the Seas Cruises

Oct. 25 Hello Blog Readers. This is the first opportunity we have had to update you, due to lack of time on the cruise ship, and also limited internet opportunities since we were in Canada a lot of the time. So updating you will be a long post, with lots of pictures, possibly done in several increments. Before I begin telling you about our doings, I will share with you that today is the 5th anniversary of our wedding, which was held at our RV clubhouse in California. Tonight we will be celebrating in one of the specialty restaurants on the Brilliance of the Seas. Our good cruise friends, Marcia Albritton and Lisa Romine, will be joining us. They are identical twins, and Pinnacle members, so everyone calls them "The Twinacles". Next post I will have a picture for you. The last update was after our first day in Boston when we were escorted around by Nancy & Bob Colbert, and had a great day. The next few days we were on our own but managed to see and do a lot because we bought a 7-day pass on the subway, which they call the T. Our first use of it was to go from the airport to our room, which we had secured on www.airbnb.com. Here is a picture of Elaine enjoying it.

The first day we were on our own, we took the T to Boston Commons, which now is a huge park with grass, trees, statues, etc. But it used to be used as a gathering place and training ground for militia troops. The day we were there they had a display of globes, all of which had been decorated differently by artists, to urge eco-friendly causes, and behaviors which help with recycling, global warming prevention, etc.

We noticed guides near the information booth, waiting for their tour groups to gather. They were dressed in period costumes from the 17th century, such as this guy:

These tours usually cost between $20 and $60 dollars. We had found a site called www.freetoursbyfoot.com, which offers free walking tours and all you do is tip the guide at the end. So we met our guide, Brian, who was not dressed up, but who gave a very informative and entertaining tour nonetheless. There were about 15 people in our group and the tour lasted 2 1/2 hours. Right near the gathering spot we had a great view of the Massachusetts State House, the dome of which was originally covered in copper sheeting produced by Paul Revere's foundry, but today has a beautiful shiny gold plating, costing millions.

One of the places we went was to the Granary Burial Grounds, a cemetery where the Boston Masssacre victims are buried, as well as other early important patriots such as Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Peter Fanueil, Paul Revere, and the parents of Benjamin Franklin. Here is our guide, Brian, at the grave of Samuel Adams:

He gave us so much history on this tour, it was hard to keep up with him because he was talking so fast! Here is the church which is right between the Granary Burial Ground and the Boston Commons:

Brian took us into the Omni Parker Hotel, one of the oldest hotels, which has a gorgeous wood interior:

Lots of history has tken place there, including fairly recent events concerning John F. Kennedy. He used to eat there often and this was the place where he asked Jacqueline to marry him in the dining room:

The tour ended at Fanueil Hall, which has shops on the bottom floor and some interesting looking halls and displays on the upper floors, BUT they were closed due to the government shutdown.

Damn Congress. We explored the Quincy Market nearby, but it was lunch time and it was packed with people. As we had been following Brian, we noticed brightly painted pianos, with attached benches, all over the city. It seems these were an art project, and they have been painted by artists with different themes and scattered all over so people can play them in public places.

Several times we passed people playing them who were really good pianists. It reminded us of our visit to Bratislava where they had painted cows all over the place. The next day we met our tour guide at the Bell In Hand Tavern, which wasn't far from Fanueil Hall and located near the old waterfront, where there were many picturesque old buildings, taverns and restaurants.

Our tour guide today was Beth, a retired university professor from New York who retired to Boston with her husband. There were 4 people in our tour group, plus Beth:

Once again we had an excellent tour, with so much history and fun experiences. This tour was called a Food Tour Through Little Italy, one of the oldest parts of the city which is heavily Italian now, and where many really good restaurants, stores, delicatessens, etc. are located.

One of our first stops was at an Italian market and deli where Mike, the owner, explained some of the food and gave us lots of samples. Then we visited the bakery next door, where we saw many beautiful creations such as these:

We bought a cream filled phyllo dough creation with an Italian name that I can't remember now and they boxed it up for us to enjoy later. Another Italian market had authentic Italian goods for sale

After a bit more prowling around, we stopped at Ernesto's Pizza, where we had a huge slice of pizza and it was hard to choose because they had so many unusual and delicious-sounding choices.

We then visited several more shops, delis, and markets where Beth explained the food items and made suggestions. When our tour ended after 2 hours, we were not far from Paul Revere's house, so we decided to visit. It is the oldest surviving house in Boston, and that is miraculous because it is made of wood.

Some of the furniture is also original to the Revere family. There were costumed interpreters, one of whom did a good job of explaining the process necessary to fire a musket. My goodness, what a lot of steps they had to do, while being shot at too! Both days after our tours were over, we used our T passes and explored other areas. In looking for the Mapparium, we ended up at the public library which was a huge old building made out of marble and with a huge and beautiful courtyard, large reading and study rooms, and even carved lions:

It was very impressive. One of the fun things we did was take a free tour of the Sam Adams Brewery, the oldest one in the USA.

While waiting for the tour, we looked through their little museum area, and they had some of their more whimsical labels on display, such as this one:

The tour involved seeing and tasting some of the toasted grains and hops, then an explanation of the tanks and filtering:

It ended when we all were herded into a big room with tables where we were given a glass to keep, and tasted 3 of the beers they produce.

This was when we discovered that we really like one of their seasonal beers: Oktoberfest. Try it if you get a chance. Sunday, Oct. 13, we took the T to the Black Falcon Cruise terminal and boarded the Brilliance of the Seas. We were on this ship last Fall when we took a transatlantic from Copenhagen, which stopped 2 days in Iceland, and ended in New Jersey. Our first room was the usual inside room (cheapest), on the 3rd deck, and it looked like this:

This is the largest inside room we have ever had, but it was under the dining room so we had noise at various times. On the second day of the cruise, we learned that we were the "high cruisers", which means we had the most points of anyone on the cruise. So they gave us flowers and champagne at the Welcome Back party:

We also saw Julie Sherrington, the Guest Services Manager who remembered us from last Fall. She asked us if we wanted to be upgraded to a suite, since one was available, and we jumped on this opportunity. Wow - it was an Owners Suite. Here are some pictures of it:

And of course, Elaine took advantage of the jacuzzi tub:

The next night, formal night, we were invited to have dinner at the Captain's Table hosted by Dean Bailey, the Hotel Director, and Julie. Here we are with Julie at the dinner

The food and wine were delicious, of course, although Julie ended up having an emergency appendectomy a few days later, so hopefully this dinner didn't cause that! Usually when one of the cruise friends has a suite, there is a big party. We were on this ship with not one person we knew. Luckily, there was a fun and active group of women aboard called the Getaway Girls. One of them is a travel agent and she arranges trips where these women travel together without their husbands because they are all old friends. They now are from all over the country and have been doing these trips for 15 years. We got to be part of this group when we met them in the Conceirge Lounge. So to celebrate our suite, they all came over for a party, which was really fun. Some of them came again a few days later too.

And some of the Getaway Girls were with us when we were invited to the Captain's Quarters for a party for Suite guests:

From left we have Elaine, Heidi, the Captain (Steig), Marie, Sue & Mary. Now that I have reached the part of this update where we start discussing port stops, I am going to run out of time. So I will post this part and do the ports in the next one.

Boston - Day One

10/10/13 Yes, we are traveling again and will be having more frequent blog posts. Yesterday we flew to Boston and we are staying in a nice little apartment-type room we found on airbnb.com. It is MUCH cheaper than a hotel room in this expensive city! Today we were picked up by our RV friends, Bob & Nancy Colbert, who drove over 2 hours from their place on Cape Cod to show us around. We went to a fort on Castle Island which enabled us to see some of the waterfront area on the way there, and as we walked around the point. Here is a picture of them in front of the fort:

Of course, because of our stupid Congress, this is what we saw:

One of the places we had really been looking forward to seeing was the JFK Library, which we drove to, in order to appreciate the outside architecture, but that was closed as well - Damn it. The highlight of the day was going to the fishing pier where Bob's Father used to fish, and where Bob & Nancy treated us to a delicious seafood lunch at No Name Restaurant.

It has been a long time since we all had been together, so we ate and talked for hours. Here is a picture of us there:

Boston is a large city but it is made up of neighborhoods, and there are lots of interesting buildings. Most of them are what Bob & Nancy call "3 decks", meaning they are 3 stories tall and each floor is a separate condo or apartment. Bob grew up in the Dorchester area so we went to the top of the hill where very important battles of the Revolutionary War were fought, and which is now a park with a tall tower on it. We could see all over the city:

There was an interesting sign showing how much of the city is original land and how much has been filled in:

There is no doubt that this is a very different place than it was in the 1700's. But tomorrow we will be doing a walking tour of the Freedom Trail, where we will hear all that history and see a few of the structures that were important in those times.

Laura's Wedding at South Lake Tahoe

9/15/13 Today I get to share a special event in our family - my daughter, Laura's wedding to Dennis Calvin at Nevada Beach, South Lake Tahoe. The wedding was on the 7th, but we have been too busy for me to go through all the pictures and get this post written until today. As mentioned in our previous post, we had our RV in Sacramento at the property of friends, Ron & Carol Leonard. We drove up to Lake Tahoe in our car, stopping on the way in Diamond Springs in order to have a quick visit with RV friends, Odel King & Laurie Brown. Last year they stopped RVing and purchased a manufactured home in order to help take care of Laurie's elderly parents and aunts. Recently they sold their RV, after 9 years of full-timing. They have a beautiful park, with a lake, pool, and walking trails. Additionally, they have been busy making professional looking modifications to their home, and just before we visited, they had finished landscaping the front yard. Here is a picture of them in front of their new home:

They have been foster parents for a couple of kittens, and when they got old enough to be adopted, they returned them to the shelter. One of the kittens was adopted immediately, but they other one wasn't. So guess what - Odel went back to get him and now he is theirs. Here is his picture:

There is always 2 reasons occasions such as a wedding are so delightful: 1) the celebration of the love and commitment of the couple getting married, and 2) the opportunity for our family to have a reunion. Laura and Dennis rented a big, beautiful house near Heavenly Valley ski area where they provided housing for Dennis' three grown children and their families, as well as his Mother, and also Laura's college daughter, Michaela. They also used the home to provide a cocktail party on Friday night, and a brunch on Sunday morning. Elaine and I rented a big house only 2 miles from Nevada beach, the wedding site. Elaine's daughter, Tarra, her husband Alonzo, and his family of 3 delightful young ladies, my son Thomas, Elaine's son Darran & his wife, Marielle, my granddaughter Paige, and her roommate Allison, and our friends Mike & Marilyn all stayed at our rented house. It was on 2 levels and had a big deck with a hot tub on the main level, and a big bonus room with a pool table, TV, games, etc. on the lower level, plus 5 bedrooms. Here is a picture of Elaine with Tarra, Alonzo, Ari & Alia out on the deck when they first arrived.

After dinner on Friday, all of us drove over to Laura's house for the cocktail party. Our 4 kids were all raised together since they were very young, and they consider each other siblings, so I tried to take lots of pictures of all of them. Laura was looking radiant, as you can see in this picture with Tarra:

Here is a picture of Elaine and I, called The Moms by our kids, with Laura and her fiancee, Dennis:

My son, Thomas, had hitched a ride up with Tarra, and he was also happy to see his sister, and his Mom:

He has lost 55 pounds since Darran & Marielle's wedding 2 years ago, so it was a real surprise to see him looking so fit and healthy. He also has quite a lot of grey hair in his beard, so he has more grey hair than his Mom!! My granddaughter, Paige, who we recently saw in Seattle when she graduated from college, came with her roommate, Allison. Here she is sitting with Alonzo's 3 daughters, Alia, Analy, and Ari:

I couldn't resist putting this picture in - The Moms with the 2 daughters:

One of Laura's good friends flew out from Omaha in order to prepare all the food for the parties and the wedding. This is an example of some of her work:

After the party, everyone returned to our house where the kids made good use of some of the amenities. Here are Thomas and Analy with the pool table in the bonus room:

Good thing no one else wanted to get in the hot tub because it was very popular. Even Elaine enjoyed it!

Saturday everyone kicked back at the house all morning and then got ready for the 2PM wedding. Here are the Monges girls all dressed up:

Darran & Marielle didn't fly in from San Diego until Saturday morning and had trouble getting their rental car, so they barely made it to the wedding on time. Darran arrived in an air cast because he messed his ankle up on one of his construction jobs:

The wedding was held in the pavilion at Nevada Beach which had been nicely decorated for this event. You can barely see the beach and the water in the background because smoke from the Rim Fire near Yosemite was polluting the air:

While waiting for the ceremony, we had the opportunity to take some more family pictures. Here is Elaine with her son, Darran, his wife, Marielle, Elaine's daughter, Tarra, and Tarra's husband, Alonzo:

My niece, Kathy, and her daughter, Camille, drove up from Sacramento for this event and posed with the family. They are all the way on the right in this picture:

I wanted to be in one of the pictures too, so here is one with me in it with Marielle, Darran, Elaine, Tarra and Thomas:

Our friends, Mike & Marilyn Harrison, were the main organizers and helpers at our wedding 5 years ago, and they have also become great friends with Laura and Dennis quite independently. They stayed at our house and helped with everything there, and with all the events and Laura & Dennis' place too. They always get along well with everyone and always look well dressed and elegant:

Laura had told us to wear "beach wear", so Elaine and I, plus part of our family did that, and everyone else didn't, so we looked like the beach combers! Laura walked in wearing the most amazing wedding dress, which she and Dennis had bought at a charity auction quite some time ago. They wanted to contribute to a good cause and they also got a good deal on it. It had red panels and really elegant beadwork. Of course she looked gorgeous in it:

She and Dennis had both been married before and they wanted the ceremony to be simple, yet elegant, so they didn't have any attendants. Here they are with the minister:

They said some personally composed vows to each other, Laura's youngest daughter, Michaela, sang a song to them, and then they walked back looking happy:

I'm sorry that picture is so dark, but the light was behind them and I can't seem to get it lightened up on my computer. This picture of their backs shows what an awesome train she had on her dress:

Then everyone dragged their chairs over to some tables on the other side of the pavillion, where we had all the accoutrements for tequila shots.

After we all ate a nice buffet and drank lots of frozen margaritas, Laura and Dennis cut their beautiful (and delicious) red velvet cake:

Before the dancing started, I managed to get this picture of (left to right) Michaela, Allison, Paige & Thomas. Paige and Allison had been helping so much with the wedding, that this was the first opportunity we had to do this:

The bride and groom had their dance, then Laura danced with her brother, Thomas:

And Paige had a dance with her new step-father:

Sunday morning we closed up our rental house and went over to Laura's for brunch. This was my chance for a last picture with my 2 biological kids, since we will be traveling a lot and won't see them for a long time:

Sunday night we stayed with Mike & Marilyn at their condo in Reno. This gave us a chance to spend a little more time with Darran & Marielle, who were not flying home until Monday. They joined us over at the condo and then Laura and Dennis, Paige & Allison came over also. I'm sure Mike & Marilyn were in overload mode by the time everyone left!! Monday morning Elaine and I went for a long walk along the Riverwalk in Reno, which has been greatly enhanced and beautified in recent years.

Now we are back at Park Sierra and are catching up on mail, doing RV fixup and cleanup, and making more travel plans. In October we are flying to Boston and spending 4 days exploring, then going on a 2 week cruise up along the Maine coast and maritime Canada. Now doubt our next travel report will be from there.