Back From Italy

Hello Blog Readers - I apologize for leaving you hanging for so long. As you might remember, first we were in SE Asia for 5 weeks, then back to the USA for a week, then off to cruising and Italy for 5 weeks. With crappy or expensive internet access, or sometimes none, and all the activity, I did not post anything. Now we are back and I am going to start putting together some tales of our travels and select some pictures for you ASAP. So, be patient, and I promise to make it worth the wait! Our travels were interesting and occasionally adventurous (when you are out of your comfort zone you are having an adventure). Elaine managed to catch the cruise crud that was sweeping through the ship, which largely manifested itself in malaise and a deep cough. As soon as she started on antibiotics she started getting better, and was mostly functional within 10 days. By the time we took the train to the Cinque Terre towns and were doing day hikes and exploring by train and foot, she was able to keep up. Now that we are back, we are still getting over jet lag and the 9 hours time difference, but are doing OK. There are lots of chores to do here at Park Sierra before we will be able to head north for the summer, and we have started on those too. Oh No, real life is intruding on our usual travel fun..... Does anyone want to help me wax the RV??!!

Happy Easter

3/31/13 Hello Blog Readers, Hope you all enjoyed a nice day today, whatever that entailed. We are back at Park Sierra so we had a delicious dinner at Ken & Carolyn Kimpton's, along with Brenda & Dave Neil (our across the street neighbors). Brenda prepared fabulous ribs, my favorite! Yum. We have been back from Bangkok for 4 days and I have been trying to find some time to do a proper blog post, with pictures, but alas, there has been no time. Between doing laundry, dealing with accumulated mail, recovering from jet lag and a 15 hour time difference, and all the social activities here, we now barely have enough time to pack for the next trip. Yes, we are leaving again on Wednesday. After driving down to San Diego and staying with Darran & Marielle until Friday, they will drive us to the airport for our flight to New Orleans. On Saturday, we board the Navigator of the Seas for a 15 day transatlantic sailing to Rome. Upon arriving there, we will stay on board for another 7 days of cruising in the Mediterranean. Then we will take a train to the Cinque Terre towns, which are 5 seaside towns not far from Genoa. There are hiking trails between them so we will spend 4 days hiking and enjoying the scenery and atmosphere. Our flight back will be on May 3 from Milan. So reports on all our travels will have to wait until we get back in May and I have some time to post pictures as well. We had some fun and interesting experiences in Myanmar, and also on our Bangkok to Singapore tour, and we had some nice people to travel with in the tour groups. Both Elaine and I stayed well the whole time, and are hoping for the same on the upcoming trip. See you in May!

Hi From Bangkok

3/11/13 Today is officially the 2nd day of our 2nd tour here in SE Asia. This one goes from here (Bangkok) to Malaysia to Singapore and takes 15 days. Last night we met our tour group and it is a very international bunch. There are people from the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Canada, and us. Many are here as part of long trips through Africa, India, and Asia. Everyone seems congenial and we are hoping that it stays that way. There is also a good mix of ages. Our last tour group, which was 15 days in Myanmar, was pretty evenly split between people in our age group and people 45 and younger. By the end of the 15 days there was a tendency for the group to be split because of that. But again, all were experienced travelers and interesting people. This is one of the big reasons why we enjoy Intrepid Travel tours. In a short while, our group will be heading for the train station to take an overnight train to southern Thailand. We have taken trains here before and found them to be comfortable, although they usually have the AC up too high and we have to pile on warm clothes and blankets. Outside it is hot and humid, and we sweat a lot. Today we did a khlong boat ride through some of the small waterways here in Bangkok and that was very interesting. The boats are very long and thin (2 persons wide), and they are powered by huge engines in the back that are as big or bigger than automobile engines. They turn a propeller that is on the end of a very long pole, so they are called "long tail boats". People have built houses of varying size and complexity all along the canals and also we passed lots of Buddhist sites. Then we went to a wat (Buddhist temple) where there is a 45 meter long and very tall and huge reclining gold Buddha. There are lots of stupas as well and even a Thai massage school. Because we have had such limited internet access, and we have been moving pretty fast and doing lots of tourist activities, we haven't been posting on this blog. I am also unable to post any pictures because it is slow here. So I will wait to do a more complete report, and add pictures, once we get back to the USA on or after March 26.

Leaving For SE Asia

2/18/13 Today we are getting everything organized in our rig so we can leave at 5AM tomorrow for the Fresno airport. Our flight leaves at 7:30AMand 25 hours later we land in Bangkok. After 3 days there, we fly to Yangon, Myanmar (used to be called Rangoon, Burma) to start our 15 day tour through that country. Several of our friends have recently visited, and other friends are there now, and all have given their travels glowing reports. So we are getting excited. After that tour is over, we return to Bangkok, and then have another tour from there through Malaysia to Singapore. We fly back to the USA on March 26. So our next posts will possibly be from those areas, if we can find adequate internet connections. Yesterday we took Ken & Carolyn Kimpton to Ducey's restaurant at Bass Lake, as a treat because they are driving us to the airport so early tomorrow. It was a beautiful day. You can see in this picture of us all in the dining room, that the lake which is visible through the windows, is really at a very low level. The waiter said that they let water out at this time of the year to allow it to fill up again when the snow pack melts further up the mountains. We have been enjoying warm weather once again, but tomorrow another cold spell is spposed to hit and also some rain. We are getting out of town, (and heading for 90+ degree weather, just at the right time!

Back at Park Sierra

2/9/13 Here at Park Sierra we are having some rainy and cold weather, although when we first returned here a week ago, it was fairly sunny and warm. My brother, Jerry, and his wife, Diann, visited us last Monday and Tuesday in their RV and we greatly enjoyed our time with them. Here is a picture of them:

They brought their very cute corgi, Penny Lane, with them:

Jerry played golf with our friend, Ken Kimpton, while Elaine and I did some walks with Diann. We shared several meals and also played Pegs and Jokers with them. It was a great bonding experiment. Here are the 2 siblings together:

Now we are just participating in social activities here at the park, and starting to get organized for our upcoming trip to SE Asia. Tomorrow we will do some preliminary packing. Next Friday we are presenting a slideshow for park members before the weekly Social Hour. It is on our trip through the Suez Canal and our time in Dubai, which occurred last April.

Quartzsite

(Once again I can't get the pictures and the captions in the right places. Sorry) Hey Blog Readers, yes, we are still alive. The lack of new blog posts this month was due to the fact that we spent the entire time at Boomerville, outside of Quartzsite, AZ. This is an area of the desert where lots of RV’s filled with members of the Boomer group of our Escapees RV Club gather every January. This year there were over 128 rigs there. In the town of Quartzsite, there is a big white tent set up where there are lots of vendors selling items which might or might not be of interest to RVers. This year the hot items were LED lights for RVs. These little lights are expensive, but they use very little electricity, and throw off a lot of light. We bought several LED light bars to replace our florescent ones, and our friend, Herb Steffenski installed them for us. That is another thing that happens a lot at Boomerville – friends help each other with RV repairs or improvements. Everyday there is a 4PM Happy Hour meeting by a big fire pit, where announcements are made about upcoming events, and new people introduce themselves. Then there is socializing. Our group of friends was located way down on the end of the gathering and we had our own little firepit. When it was warm enough, there was often a fire in the morning with friends having coffee and talking, and then another fire after the main meeting. The first part of the month there was a very bad cold spell, and water lines even froze in Quartzsite. We were running our propane heater almost non-stop and went through 5 gallons of propane in 5 days! Luckily, it warmed up after that spell, and we mostly had sunny days and comfortable temps. Towards the end of the gathering, there were 2 days of constant rain, which was unusual for the desert, and which pushed a lot of the Boomers out of camp, since the activities were nearly over. I didn’t take tons of pictures this year, but I did document a few of the things in which we participated. A surprise visit by Nancy and Jerry Hurley was delightful.

Our friend Nu Young came over and taught some of us how to make Vietnamese spring rolls. This is a picture of Nu, with Anke, Ann & Sam in the background.

This is a picture of the spring roll when it has been assembled but not rolled up yet.

Here I am with the first spring roll I made. We ate them with peanut sauce, and also a lime and fish sauce combo that Nu brought over.

When it was cold or rainy, we had Happy Hour gatherings in our rig. Here are Mike, Sam, Ann & Herb.

Looking the other way at the Happy Hour we see Mike, Anke, Elaine, Nu & Dana

One day Ron & Carol Leonard stopped by and we had a nice visit with them. This is Ron wearing a funny pair of glasses he had just bought in Quartzsite.

For Herb & Anke’s anniversary, we had a big potluck outside. This is Elaine, Dick & Carole Schneider, and Carol Leonard.

In this picture we see lots of the other people who attended the potluck.

Afterwards everyone gathered around the fire pit located in front of Mike & Marilyn’s RV.

Some of the other Boomer events were a chili cookoff, and an auction of donated items with the money going to the CARE center at Escapees headquarters in Livingston. This is a picture of part of the crowd at the auction. Over $3,000 was raised!

The party for Elaine’s birthday, and some other people’s upcoming birthdays, was held in our rig, and also Mike & Marilyn’s rig. Here are Dana Young, Paul & Judy Johnson, Elaine, Sam & Nu.

In the front were Jil Mohr, Ann & Mick Meilicke, Bill & Gisela Pollock, and Herb.

George & Diana Ruelens had hosted us for 4 days when we were in PA last summer. We were happy to see them again at this gathering!

Even though Boomerville is over, we stayed a few more days and had some time with Nancy & Tom Vineski, Mick & Ann, and Mike & Marilyn. Today we left and are driving back to Park Sierra. We need to make sure we got our visas back from the consulate for Myanmar, because we fly to Bangkok on Feb. 19 to begin the 2 Intrepid tours we have booked. We also need to organize our rig for storage on our lot, and get ourselves packed and ready. Perhaps these blog posts will get more interesting once we start traveling internationally again!!

Arizona Adventures

1/10/13 Hello from the Arizona desert near Quartzsite. Today is the first day of a 4 or 5 day run of windy and cold weather for this area, with night time temps in the high 20’s. Hard to believe that a lot of RVers come here for the winter because it is warmer than where they normally live! We have been here for 5 days and have been trying to catch up on travel planning and internet chores, while enjoying the company of Mike & Marilyn Harrison, who are parked near us. Today more Boomers started pulling in, and now there are about 6 rigs here. The Boomer rally is supposed to start on Jan. 14th, so we expect lots more. Last year there were over 115 rigs here. Since it is so cold this year, there is a good chance we won’t top that number. Prior to arriving here we were staying with Ron & Carol Leonard at their casita in the Foothills of Yuma. Bill & Sue Abbott were parked next to us. We arrived there mid-afternoon of Christmas Eve day, and had just enough time to throw together an appetizer for the Happy Hour at Jim & Diane FisherBaker’s, which is nearby. Had a delightful time with the gang with which we would share all the holidays: Jim & Diane, Ron & Carol, Sue & Bill, and Jack and Suzie (AKA the Little People). Christmas Day we all contributed to a great meal held at Ron & Carol’s casita. This is a picture of the guys:

from left to right : Jack, Bill, Ron & Jim. Here are some of the ladies: Diane & Sue, with Carol in the background.

We also had a Happy Hour on Ron & Carol's patio and a bunch of the Boomer's in the area all came:

A RV friend, Eileen Cooper, whom we met in 1995 in Alaska. has now settled in a home in the Foothills. She now has a new man in her life, Neil, so we were delighted to be able to go to their place for dinner. Here are the lovebirds out in her yard:

After dinner we enjoyed a game of Pegs and Jokers. The extra guy in the picture is Gary, Eileen's stepson.

There was an amazing full moon that night also:

The next day was Carol's birthday and she wanted to go to LZ Bar and Grill for brunch because of their fabulous Bloody Marys. You can see in the following picture that the drinks have a whole skewers of veggies, shrimp, and other goodies on them:

Elaine, Diane & Jim FisherBaker also enjoyed a Bloody Mary:

Jack and Suzy were also with us, but you can hardly see them in this picture:

Later in the day, Diane and Jim had us all over for dinner, and a cake for Carol:

Dan & Jenny Shepherd had several Happy Hour parties at their casita. Here are Dan & Jenny:

This enabled us to meet new Boomer friends as well as catch up with friends from former years. We reconnected with Dean Caldwell and his new love, Dana:

New Year's Eve we all were invited to Jack & Suzy Water's new house for a great taco salad dinner. Here they are in their newly renovated kitchen:

And here is the gang enjoying some social time in their living room:

The next day our cruise friend, Denice Osborne, came over for a visit, bringing some homemade cookies. Yum. Her husband, Rick, was sick so he couldn't join us.

Now that we have relocated to Quartzsite, we are having some nice sunrises and sunsets over the desert. The other day I was up early enough to catch this sunrise shot:

Yesterday we were happily surprised when Jerry and Nancy Hurley arrived and parked right in front of us. We had a catch-up visit with them and then decided to enjoy the sunshine and have Happy Hour outside at Mike & Marilyn's firepit. M&M had gone to Phoenix, but we were also joined by Ann & Mick Meilicke, who arrived mid-afternoon. This is Jerry and Nancy with Elaine:

Here is the happy group around the campfire:

We will be here until the end of the month, having more great RV times with the Boomers.

Caribbean Cruises in December 2012

(Once again, I can't seem to get the text to be next to the appropriate picture. It is close - I'm sure you will figure it out.) In late Nov. we drove our RV to Phoenix so we could park it at the Tempe Elks and fly to New Jersey for our 2 Caribbean cruises. While we were parked in Phoenix, we had a happy reunion with Marie and Rainer von Minden, and their dog, Christi.

Marie has been writing some children's books about the National Parks, featuring Christi. She is making them so that they can be published either as a regular book, or as an internet, interactive book. The one on the Grand Canyon is almost done and we got to see it - it was AMAZING!! So if you get a chance to see her books, jump on it. On Dec. 2 we flew to Newark and the next day we boarded the Explorer of the Seas. Some of our cruise friends were already onboard from the previous cruise, and almost all of us were doing 2 cruises back to back. Luckily, the weather was fairly nice the day we boarded and there was no snow. This was our view of New York from the top deck of the ship:

Notice the Statue of Liberty on the front left in the picture. The center part of the ship has a big, wide corridor called the Promenade. They had decorated this area with lots of banners, and also a huge Christmas tree. It looked so festive.

Also, in the Windjammer buffet, they had set up an extensive gingerbread house village, with a model train running through it and Santa Claus' sleigh and reindeer flying over the top:

On our first walk through the Promenade, after we sailed, we were delighted to pass the main 2 singers, James and Ann. They are both really great singers, and we have been on several ships with James before, and he is now one of our Facebook friends.

After James sang at the Welcome Back party, he posed for a picture with us:

The first formal night was the second cruise day, because there were no ports. We all dressed up for this, and here is a great picture of Bob & Jon, two friends we met on a previous cruise:

Linda and Laura, also friends from a prior cruise, decided to share a room on this cruise. They always look lovely:

Marcia & her twin, Lisa, arranged for all of us who had been together on the Voyager transatlantic to Dubai last spring, to have our picture taken together with Christmas hats:

From the left are Daryl & Patrick McGrath, Laura Spyrka, Lisa Romine, Marcia Albritton, Russ Gregory, and Elaine. Most days our gang would get together in the Maharaja Lounge, which was provided for the Diamond and Diamond+ members between 5 and 8:30PM every day. This is where we usually meet new people and schmooze with cruise friends from past cruises.

Our first port was Labadee, Haiti, which is a private island developed by Royal Caribbean, with nice, clean beaches and infrastructure such as bathrooms, zip lines, a roller coaster, water park, BBQ eating areas, etc . Marcia & Lisa had arranged for us all to share a private cabana on a cove reserved for people with suites, and this is a picture of most of us in the cabana:

They selected this one because it had a lot of shade, and this was the view of the ship from our cabana:

The next port of call was San Juan, Puerto Rico, a place we had been once before and enjoyed very much. San Juan is one of the oldest cities in the Americas and our ship docked right downtown in Old San Juan. On our way into the harbor, we passed El Morro, one of the old forts which was built to protect the city. It is now a national park.

Some people from Cruise Critic had offered to show anyone who wanted to join them, how to get to the Bacardi factory for a tour, for a much lower cost than taking the $32 excursion offered by Royal Caribbean. The local ferry terminal was located right next to our ship, so we walked over there and a round trip ticket cost 50 cents per person for seniors. A short ferry ride took us across the harbor. Here is a picture of the harbor which I took as we pulled in towards the dock:

Once we got off the ferry, we walked about 50 yards to a taxi area and for $3 each got a ride to the Bacardi factory where the tour was free. This is a picture of part of the nicely landscaped grounds:

This is the pavilion where we waited for our tour to start, and where we enjoyed the 2 free rum drinks which were offered before and/or after the tour:

The first place on the tour was a courtyard, where the Bacardi symbol, a bat, was prominently displayed:

Also in this courtyard was a series of murals done in tiles, showing the history of the development of rum and also the Bacardi company:

There was an informative movie about rum and the Bacardi family, and also a museum area where we were not allowed to take pictures. One of the more interesting areas was where we could lift the lids on wooden casks to smell the various types of rum which they produce. Then we had a demonstration in a simulated bar where the bartender showed how to make a mojito. As we left the building, we saw this local resident outside:

Our port time in San Juan was 2PM to 11PM. This was delightful because we could go out onto the streets of Old San Juan, which is the premier tourist area, where the old buildings have been restored and made into unique shops, bars and restaurants, to experience the colored lights and all the partying on the streets. Of course, there were many Christmas decoration as well. I didn't get any pictures because I forgot my camera. The next port was St. Thomas. This is such a popular island that often there are as many as 6 ships docked there. This day there were only 2, so it was quiet. The harbor was calm and dotted with ships, as the hills are dotted with vacation homes.

We did the lovely walk from our dock, along the waterfront promenade past the yacht harbor, through an upscale shopping area, and into the main part of the town, Charlotte Amalie. There was a small sailboat race going on, so we watched some of that, and also watched a floatplane landing and taking off. This is one of the ways people move between the islands. St. John is located a short distance from St. Thomas and many people like it better because it is quiet and no cruise ships dock there. On our way back to the ship, we stopped at one of the local craft markets:

The next day we were in Phillipsburg, St. Maarten. This is the Dutch side of one of the smallest islands, and is the smallest island divided between 2 countries, because part is owned by France, and is called St. Martin. Again we walked into town and passed more market stalls:

This part of town has three long streets, one right along the beach and 2 with lots of shops selling tourist items, such as jewelry, clothing, sundries, rum cakes, souvenirs, etc. These streets are a lot cleaner and nicer than on some other islands we visited on previous cruises.

After doing some internet stuff at Diamonds International, which not only provides free internet but also drinks in a VIP room, we started to walk back along the beach street. Our friends Doug & Jane Vickery, and Daryl & Patrick McGrath were having a beer and some food in an open front restaurant so they called us over to join them. That was fun and the beer was good:

Every port has a collection of shops and stalls right where we get off the ship, so they can try to fleece the people who don't want to bother to go further. St. Maarten has a very nice shopping area at the harbor and they had a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, so we posed in front of it:

Back on the ship, we now had 3 straight sea days to get back to NJ. These days were busy, because of all the events on the ship. Marcia and Lisa had a party in their junior suite for all the cruise friends from the Voyager:

You can see Lisa in the mirror and Marcia in front, and see how much they look alike. Marcia had brought lots of Christmas decorations and gifts for all of us, including stockings with our names on them, and a big magnetic sign for our door. Thanks, Marcia! Rod and Jo Shilling were also at the party. Here they are with his special Christmas shirt:

The next day was the last formal night, so we had a delicious dinner at the specialty restaurant, Portofino, with Bob & John:

The loyalty ambassador on the ship, Colette SA Joe, from South Africa, became a special friend of ours. We hope to be with her on another cruise someday.

Our second cruise started on Dec. 13, and once again, it was a sunny but cold day, with no snow. Our RV friends, Lee & Susie Blattner, joined us and it was delightful to see them again.

The second night, we all went to Portofino to celebrate their 50th anniversary. This restaurant has gourmet food, and because we get a 2 for 1 coupon in our Diamond+ book, it only cost $10 per person.

Our waiter brought them a special dessert for this occasion.

This cruise our ports were in the reverse order, so we visited St. Maarten first. This time we decided to take the local bus over to the French side to show Lee & Susie some of the island on the way, and also walk around a bit to see what it was like. This is a view from the bus overlooking one of the bays where there were lots of boats and yachts on the French side:

The French side is a bit cleaner and nicer than the Dutch side and the market stalls are different. One of the buildings had some interesting murals painted on it:

The next day we were in St. Thomas and it was so different than the week before because this time there were 6 ships in port, and one of them was the Oasis, one of the largest cruise ships ever built.

There were also a lot of very large yachts in the harbor near our ship. When we walked by the yacht harbor, there were some Christmas trees set up on the waterfront:

On the walk into town, we saw some wildlife near the creek:

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