Day 11, January 26,2013 Saturday
Partly Cloudy, Rain Showers
High 72 low 64
Sunrise 7:23 Sunset 6:01
At Sea Headed North East
_________________________________________
Breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet smoked mahi mahi instead of the salmon for the lox.
Sue got up and traded a couple of clothing items that she had bough previously for ship credit.
_________________________
Cassie and Newsome
I went to the uke lessons. The two younger girls were late (see below)... but it was good that they kept coming. We learned the notes on the frets. We also worked to hit each string individually in arpeggios of scales to go with the chords that we were pressing ion the neck. My barre chords are getting better. One guy behind me said the sound from ukelele sounded so much better than his. I told him that I had pulled several ukuleles down from the wall when I was choosing mine. The one I bought had the best tone of the ones I was shopping. Mine had better tone than many that cost more. I checked the price of mine in Lahaina ukulele shop in Lahaina and they wanted twice the price for the same one with the "islander" brand on it. Later I think that there was a cost difference because mine is laminated wood and the one I was looking at in Lahaina was solid... both made in Indonesia with supervision from a very respected Hawaiian ukelele company. It was nice to hear that from my fellow student. One of the ones in Lahaina was a dread naught with a front cutaway so that the very highest notes could be played with ease.
The girls borrowed my snark (tuner) to tune their ukes after the lesson. Its hard to practice with a ukelele out of tune.
They said their names were Newsome and Cassey. Newsome was a psychotherapist and Cassie was working as a rec specialist with the same degree as Lindsay's.... planner. They were both from LA. I told them about my daughters. They wanted to know why they were not with us. Newsome was 29 and Cassie is 5 years older. They said that they had not planned on taking lessons on the ship but they were happy to "fall into them" Cassie has natural blond hair and had it up in a French braid. Newsome is a dark brunett with black rimmed glasses. They were also doing the hula lessons.
_________________
Sue bailed for lunch but had been up the whole morning working on the heirloom lei.
She settled for the 5 cheese pizza and headed back to the room for some rest.
I walked into the dinning room restaurant and had lunch in a "made up table" with a couple from Las Vegas.
________________________________
Steve and Connie from Las Vegas
Steve stumbled into the restaurant with a major hurt foot. He had worn a pair of shoes that was not broken in on a hike prior to getting on the ship. Steve was a 42 year old that was a major baseball fan with red hair. Connie, Steve's wife is a 4 foot eight inch asian wife who was having difficulty with her stomach. Steve had been leaning on her when ever they traveled so that he would not need a crutch. She had no problem with that as long as he didn't grab her by the neck to support him.
They were the only couple I met that said that they really would have preferred flying to Hawaii and spending more time on the islands.
Steve presented himself as a 240 pound red haired meatball. He thought that the SF Giants were the best. He was looking forward to seeing a couple of games in Spring Training when he meets up with his friend from Indy who is a Cubs fan. So we talked pitchers and those dreaded Dodgers. he mostly sees Dodger games on TV although he would rather see Giants games. He said that he was not much of a football fan... although he is cheering for Colin Kaeperneck. He has followed his career since he college career in Nevada.
______________________
I have been working on some watercolor illustrations of ukelele and lei maker couple on a card. I was hoping to give it to them as a thank you. Its really pretty far from representation. Sue says that the most distinguishing feature of Ural (the female of the group) is her artificial eyelashes.. they are gigantic.
__________________________
I left my 4 boys in Alberta
A very attractive 43 year old burnett with a gold stud in her nose aske if she could sit down in front of me and drink her coffee and eat her pastry. I said sure.
She told me that it wasn't easy to get a spare seat at the Piazza and that some guys had turned her down. She just shook her head in disbelief. She continued,"Maybe they were afraid of what their wives would say."
She said that her husband and her were from Alberta, Canada. She had left 4 boys with her sister who assured her that she would not do that again. She had been to Alaska with her elderly father when she had lost her sister and her mother 3 months prior. When they finished the land route.. which took them through Canada and back down from Alaska on Holland America, her dad turned to her and asked, When do we do it again?
Her husband who works for the Royal Canadian Police, told her she wasn't going on another until he had gone on one. They figured out a trip to Hawaii but it didn't work out for his cobbled vacation time, but the princess one worked out... so here they are. They have anytime dining but have started to "collect" people from traditional dining spots to join their table. They were collecting people that were closer to their age groups and and little more lively than most of the older set that was on the ship. I told her our number and she said that many people from around us were at their anytime dinning. In our dinning room, room and entire table has disappeared from getting service at their appointed time. Some people did the buffet each night. Some people are not ready to sit through the courses and the social exchanges that are included in the assigned table.
The RCMP dispatcher showed up and I was happy to relinquish my seat to him at the piazza. He had been checking the kids via email and had been making arrangements for pick up in Alberta . They were amazed at the number of people that were from their province on the ship. I told them that I suspected there would be many as they were well represented in the roll calls in the social media forums for this ship. Both Princess through Facebook and Cruise Critic maintain these social blogs and people are happy to meet up with others before getting on the ship. She wasn't too familiar with these venues. She wanted to know what they were saying on them. I said that they were grouping up to save transportation costs on the LA side to get to the port from LAX. She said that they used the Princess connection. I said that I used it to find out information regarding renting a car since most of the information on the corporate websites were for renting a car for 24 hours or more. I didn't know whether they would send a shuttle for ship people or if a taxi call as needed. The roll calls netted someone that had been on this trip before and had all of the answers.
Dinner: Italian
Pat's
Appetizer: Eggplant Parm
Penne Pasta
Entree: Roast Beef with a carrot cooked through the center
Desert: Tirmasau
Sue:
Appetizer: Shrimp coctail
Fettuccine Alfredo
Desert: Limoncello sorbet
______________________________________
Sue made it all the way through dinner . We watched "Safe House" a movine on the in room TV before going to bed.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Day 10 LA to Hawaii Cruise
Day 10 January 25,2013-- Formal Night Dress
Partly Cloudy/ Sunny High 75/Low 68
Sunrise 7:35 Sunset 6:38
At Sea
_______________________________________________________
All night we had more rocking than in travel through the islands. However, it was still not as bad as a couple of days getting to the islands.
I fell back into my usual ship routine:
Breakfast at about 7:30. (We gained an hour going East ... So we were working on ship's time. We eill do this one more time before we get to LA, since Mexico is not on Daylight Savings Time.
Today, people seem a little less frenetic. I met the naturalist in the morning in the elevator. He was headed off to give a lecture on endemic- vs indigenous plants and animals and their migration to Hawaii.
I went to the lecture. It was a good talk with lots of photos on the big stage of the Golden Princess.
_____________________
Ukulele Lessons
I went back to the room to get the ukulele. In class I met a man and his wife who lives in Tampa Bay. He bout a new ukulele on board and paid as much as I did for the one on shore. His had more veneer. He was having difficulty tuning his with the tuner that he bought. I couldn't get his tuner to work either. It had a little light that flashed when the proper note was reached. It went crazy with all of the ambient sound that was in the room as people fired up their ukuleles. Two 20+ year old girls had brought me their ukes too. The instructor had gone over tuning the ukes twice but new ukuleles were hard to maintain a tune since the new strings had not been stressed and then tuned again. They had not bought a tuner like the snark, so I was happy to show them how it worked and passed it to them to get their ukuleles in tune.
We started to work with some of the the songs that will be played for the performance on the night before the last day on the ship. They are pretty difficult and will need some practice. Pearly Shells, Little Grass Shack and Aloha Oui. It will be interesting to see how many of the 50 people taking lessons will show up to perform. There were some new facees in the group at this stage of the lessons. Some people had picked up ukuleles on shore and some wanted to start from the beginning. This could not happen... so the instructors had to give the disclaimer... you can stay and learn as much as you can but they really could not go back and pick up all the basics that were taught as we headed to the islands. They stayed and stumbled along.. no worries. The lessons were provided in the wheelhouse bar on the 6th deck... the promenade, which is L shaped and has large high back upholstered chairs. We kind of had to sit on the edge of the chairs to have room for our ukes and see the sheet music. This led to some players developing what the instructor called the "chicken wing". The instructors did not want people to throw their elbows in the air at an angle as they tried to play the new chords.
Today was the first day back at the lessons after 4 days of on Hawaii port landing. Its been fun to jump in and learn a new instrument while on board. There are lots of people taking lessons that are were interesting to talk to and together we worked out what we needed to learn to play.
The instructors liked the set up in this bar because it is close to the music synthesizer which can slow down a background rhythm. Everyone can work the chord changes. They are always good about counting down 54322 in rhythm when a chord needs to change. The instructors would teach from the center of the L shaped room and people from both sides of the L could see and hear.
________
Laundry
I thought that 2 hours would be plenty of time to do laundry- well--- on the ship not. I thought that I could do laundry before getting dressed for the second formal night. I found the laundry on the 10th deck. It was 3 floors down from our (14th really the 13th deck.. there is no 13th deck on the ship because of superstition). When I checked there was one washer open and one dryer. By the time I had the washer load done, there were no dryers. Some guy came in and was drying in three of them. Then he reupped the money in them and used the fourth. I waited until it was ready and finally a lady from Ohio was finished. they live 10 minutes from where Bob grew up in Columbus. As always in laundromat situations, there is an unequal time that it takes to dry clothes vs wash them. There are 8 different laundromats scattered throughout this ship. This one looked like the closest one with availability. It is really worth the time to take fewer clothes and spend more time getting them washed and reintegrating.
The flat screen TV was playing Sleepless in Seattle was almost finished before I could pull the clothes out and hand the pjs and the cottons around the room to finish drying. $2.00 to wash in quarters and $2.00 to dry. Both were sturdy Maytag units..
Dinner:
Overall I just was too full to eat dinner tonight... so it all worked out with the timing.
Partly Cloudy/ Sunny High 75/Low 68
Sunrise 7:35 Sunset 6:38
At Sea
_______________________________________________________
All night we had more rocking than in travel through the islands. However, it was still not as bad as a couple of days getting to the islands.
I fell back into my usual ship routine:
Breakfast at about 7:30. (We gained an hour going East ... So we were working on ship's time. We eill do this one more time before we get to LA, since Mexico is not on Daylight Savings Time.
Today, people seem a little less frenetic. I met the naturalist in the morning in the elevator. He was headed off to give a lecture on endemic- vs indigenous plants and animals and their migration to Hawaii.
I went to the lecture. It was a good talk with lots of photos on the big stage of the Golden Princess.
_____________________
Ukulele Lessons
I went back to the room to get the ukulele. In class I met a man and his wife who lives in Tampa Bay. He bout a new ukulele on board and paid as much as I did for the one on shore. His had more veneer. He was having difficulty tuning his with the tuner that he bought. I couldn't get his tuner to work either. It had a little light that flashed when the proper note was reached. It went crazy with all of the ambient sound that was in the room as people fired up their ukuleles. Two 20+ year old girls had brought me their ukes too. The instructor had gone over tuning the ukes twice but new ukuleles were hard to maintain a tune since the new strings had not been stressed and then tuned again. They had not bought a tuner like the snark, so I was happy to show them how it worked and passed it to them to get their ukuleles in tune.
We started to work with some of the the songs that will be played for the performance on the night before the last day on the ship. They are pretty difficult and will need some practice. Pearly Shells, Little Grass Shack and Aloha Oui. It will be interesting to see how many of the 50 people taking lessons will show up to perform. There were some new facees in the group at this stage of the lessons. Some people had picked up ukuleles on shore and some wanted to start from the beginning. This could not happen... so the instructors had to give the disclaimer... you can stay and learn as much as you can but they really could not go back and pick up all the basics that were taught as we headed to the islands. They stayed and stumbled along.. no worries. The lessons were provided in the wheelhouse bar on the 6th deck... the promenade, which is L shaped and has large high back upholstered chairs. We kind of had to sit on the edge of the chairs to have room for our ukes and see the sheet music. This led to some players developing what the instructor called the "chicken wing". The instructors did not want people to throw their elbows in the air at an angle as they tried to play the new chords.
Today was the first day back at the lessons after 4 days of on Hawaii port landing. Its been fun to jump in and learn a new instrument while on board. There are lots of people taking lessons that are were interesting to talk to and together we worked out what we needed to learn to play.
The instructors liked the set up in this bar because it is close to the music synthesizer which can slow down a background rhythm. Everyone can work the chord changes. They are always good about counting down 54322 in rhythm when a chord needs to change. The instructors would teach from the center of the L shaped room and people from both sides of the L could see and hear.
________
Laundry
I thought that 2 hours would be plenty of time to do laundry- well--- on the ship not. I thought that I could do laundry before getting dressed for the second formal night. I found the laundry on the 10th deck. It was 3 floors down from our (14th really the 13th deck.. there is no 13th deck on the ship because of superstition). When I checked there was one washer open and one dryer. By the time I had the washer load done, there were no dryers. Some guy came in and was drying in three of them. Then he reupped the money in them and used the fourth. I waited until it was ready and finally a lady from Ohio was finished. they live 10 minutes from where Bob grew up in Columbus. As always in laundromat situations, there is an unequal time that it takes to dry clothes vs wash them. There are 8 different laundromats scattered throughout this ship. This one looked like the closest one with availability. It is really worth the time to take fewer clothes and spend more time getting them washed and reintegrating.
The flat screen TV was playing Sleepless in Seattle was almost finished before I could pull the clothes out and hand the pjs and the cottons around the room to finish drying. $2.00 to wash in quarters and $2.00 to dry. Both were sturdy Maytag units..
Dinner:
Overall I just was too full to eat dinner tonight... so it all worked out with the timing.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Day 9, LA to Hawaii Cruise
Day 9 Thursday January 24, 2012 LA to Hawaii Cruise
Lahaiana, Maui, Hawaii
Sunny High 79 Low 66
Sunrise 7:05 Sunset 6:12
_________________________________
We had excursion tickets for this day to be on the first whale watching excursion trip of the morning.
Sue was up and ready to go. We met in the theater except those that had movement challenges. We were allowed to stay in the adjacent casino to wait rather than wrestle with the limited seating for mobility challenged people in the theater. There is only one half of row in the back of the theater that is devoted to such passengers. It really was more pleasent to wait for the call in the casino on the promenade deck on seven. The casino was not in service because we were in US waters . It completely shuts down until the ship is in international waters and then springs to life.
The ship personnel got us into groups to use the elevator down to the 4th deck where a 150 pasenger boat pulled up beside the ship. Sue and I chose the lower deck even though it had a sort of diesel vapor running around. We had a perfect seat as teh table and chairs configuration of the boat provided great views along its sides right near the waterline. There was an open door on each side that opened to allow passengers to access the rail that ran around the bottom deck. The walkway all around the deck was available for people to stand out there and shoot their photos.
The boat pulled away from the ship and we saw two male whales within 5 minutes who were in competition mode to win the approval of the female whale. The female whale was teaching her new baby. There were all kinds of activity on the surface. I was pretty happy to have the big 300 mm lense on the nikon to see the action and hopefully we will get some good photos. Those running the ship and the commentary over the loud speaker were very well versed in providing us commentary and at the same time opportunity to get as close as we could to the humpback whales as they surfaced.
After two hours of chasing the whales, the boat dropped us on the shore in the same place the tender boats from the ship were dropping off the passengers.
Maui is a tender boat port for the cruise ships. These little orange and white tender boats were continually going back and forth from the ship carrying the ship's passengers and some of its crew to shore.
Sue and I got on the Hilo Hatties shuttle bus once again and it took us to their store on Maui. It was about a 10 block shuttle ride. We decided to walk back from the store to the park with the huge Banyan tree and the dock where we could get a tender ride back to the ship. When we decided to walk back, I pushed Sue in the manual wheelchair along the narrow sidewalk that runs along the front of the Lahaina Bay. We came across Elizabeth and Frank, our dinner table partners on the streets of Lahaina. They asked us directions to Hilo Hatties.. We pointed over our shoulders and they were off.
Elizabeth and Frank had taken the excursion that included a trip to the aquarium on Maui. They had been before and together they encouraged us all to go. They said that it was as wonderful as the last time they had been to the aquarium.
Elizabeth and Frank live near Palm Springs. Our other shipmate couple, Deb and Dave live near Yorkshire/Leeds. Its about a 2 hour drive from where they live to London.
When we got near the courtyard center, we shared a hamburger with Swiss cheese and mushrooms at the restaurant named Cheeseburger in Paradise. Its a gracious place with a menu that is not too expensive. It provided a spectacular view of the harbor and the surfers in the distance that were surfing the reef. The one giant burger was just right for both of us.
Our next stop was the famed shaved ice place that was proudly displaying its honors on Yelp and Trip Advisor as the best place for shaved ice in Hawaii. I think its name is Uluani's. We each had a small. Mine had macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom wand then mainly condensed milk and coconut flavoring for the top. Sue got the 1/2 mango and 1/2 coconut one. The flowers and textures were divine the day temps were in the high 70's and low 80's. A breeze coming down from the mountains made it pretty comfortable.
We found restrooms in the Island Whaler Center. Its an outside mall with many restaurants and jewelry shops adjacent to the Banyan Tree Central Park. The restrooms were on the third floor and we had to go all the way in the back to get to the service elevator that took us up to the third floor. When we were done we headed over to the courthouse park. I got some more photos of the huge banyan tree and the people that were resting under it on the benches... many with the ubiquitous blue bags.
No rainbows were spotted on this cruise, unlike the last cruise to the islands where we had at least one rainbow at each of the ports. A beautiful reflection off the clouds on the mountains as we left was pretty special. The town high up on the mountains provided a pleasant scene for our sailaway from the islands.
_______________________________
Dinner:
Pat:
Appetizer: etouphic crawdads and thinly sliced raw salmon (like lox)
Coconut soup
Entree: Turkey Pot Pie
Desert: Frozen cake (layers of Praline brittle, Chocolate Cake with chocolate ice cream spread between the layers
Sue: 2 slices of cheese pizza and one slice of veggie combo pizza with artichoke hearts on it
__________________________________
We watched the Girl with the Pearl earring movie . It starred Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. Thie story is of girl who signs on to be a domestic helper for the family and ends up becoming an artist's assistant, perparing the paint and then she become the model for the famous painting.
____________________________________
Service at the table has been great. Stephan, our head waiter is from Grenada. Before every dinner meal he explains to the table all of the menu items on the menu. He has sampled them and gives us an opinion concerning whether or not they line up or live up to their titles. The night that the Stiffeild
mousse was served, The Brit, (Deb) asked if she could have some of the real thing beside the made up mousse. She and her husband Dave live within three miles of where the Stillton cheese is made. Our head waiter made it happen, not just for her but for the rest of the guests around the table. Elizabeth said that she missed mashed potatoes with the courses. Stephan said that they are always available... to we had mashed potatoes at every meal there after... amazing.
Our cabin steward, Abdul, was very non intrusive. This style really pleased Sue. When she wants to sleep she dosn't want to be awaken to have her room redone. So it really worked out.
Lahaiana, Maui, Hawaii
Sunny High 79 Low 66
Sunrise 7:05 Sunset 6:12
_________________________________
We had excursion tickets for this day to be on the first whale watching excursion trip of the morning.
Sue was up and ready to go. We met in the theater except those that had movement challenges. We were allowed to stay in the adjacent casino to wait rather than wrestle with the limited seating for mobility challenged people in the theater. There is only one half of row in the back of the theater that is devoted to such passengers. It really was more pleasent to wait for the call in the casino on the promenade deck on seven. The casino was not in service because we were in US waters . It completely shuts down until the ship is in international waters and then springs to life.
The ship personnel got us into groups to use the elevator down to the 4th deck where a 150 pasenger boat pulled up beside the ship. Sue and I chose the lower deck even though it had a sort of diesel vapor running around. We had a perfect seat as teh table and chairs configuration of the boat provided great views along its sides right near the waterline. There was an open door on each side that opened to allow passengers to access the rail that ran around the bottom deck. The walkway all around the deck was available for people to stand out there and shoot their photos.
The boat pulled away from the ship and we saw two male whales within 5 minutes who were in competition mode to win the approval of the female whale. The female whale was teaching her new baby. There were all kinds of activity on the surface. I was pretty happy to have the big 300 mm lense on the nikon to see the action and hopefully we will get some good photos. Those running the ship and the commentary over the loud speaker were very well versed in providing us commentary and at the same time opportunity to get as close as we could to the humpback whales as they surfaced.
After two hours of chasing the whales, the boat dropped us on the shore in the same place the tender boats from the ship were dropping off the passengers.
Maui is a tender boat port for the cruise ships. These little orange and white tender boats were continually going back and forth from the ship carrying the ship's passengers and some of its crew to shore.
Sue and I got on the Hilo Hatties shuttle bus once again and it took us to their store on Maui. It was about a 10 block shuttle ride. We decided to walk back from the store to the park with the huge Banyan tree and the dock where we could get a tender ride back to the ship. When we decided to walk back, I pushed Sue in the manual wheelchair along the narrow sidewalk that runs along the front of the Lahaina Bay. We came across Elizabeth and Frank, our dinner table partners on the streets of Lahaina. They asked us directions to Hilo Hatties.. We pointed over our shoulders and they were off.
Elizabeth and Frank had taken the excursion that included a trip to the aquarium on Maui. They had been before and together they encouraged us all to go. They said that it was as wonderful as the last time they had been to the aquarium.
Elizabeth and Frank live near Palm Springs. Our other shipmate couple, Deb and Dave live near Yorkshire/Leeds. Its about a 2 hour drive from where they live to London.
When we got near the courtyard center, we shared a hamburger with Swiss cheese and mushrooms at the restaurant named Cheeseburger in Paradise. Its a gracious place with a menu that is not too expensive. It provided a spectacular view of the harbor and the surfers in the distance that were surfing the reef. The one giant burger was just right for both of us.
Our next stop was the famed shaved ice place that was proudly displaying its honors on Yelp and Trip Advisor as the best place for shaved ice in Hawaii. I think its name is Uluani's. We each had a small. Mine had macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom wand then mainly condensed milk and coconut flavoring for the top. Sue got the 1/2 mango and 1/2 coconut one. The flowers and textures were divine the day temps were in the high 70's and low 80's. A breeze coming down from the mountains made it pretty comfortable.
We found restrooms in the Island Whaler Center. Its an outside mall with many restaurants and jewelry shops adjacent to the Banyan Tree Central Park. The restrooms were on the third floor and we had to go all the way in the back to get to the service elevator that took us up to the third floor. When we were done we headed over to the courthouse park. I got some more photos of the huge banyan tree and the people that were resting under it on the benches... many with the ubiquitous blue bags.
No rainbows were spotted on this cruise, unlike the last cruise to the islands where we had at least one rainbow at each of the ports. A beautiful reflection off the clouds on the mountains as we left was pretty special. The town high up on the mountains provided a pleasant scene for our sailaway from the islands.
_______________________________
Dinner:
Pat:
Appetizer: etouphic crawdads and thinly sliced raw salmon (like lox)
Coconut soup
Entree: Turkey Pot Pie
Desert: Frozen cake (layers of Praline brittle, Chocolate Cake with chocolate ice cream spread between the layers
Sue: 2 slices of cheese pizza and one slice of veggie combo pizza with artichoke hearts on it
__________________________________
We watched the Girl with the Pearl earring movie . It starred Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. Thie story is of girl who signs on to be a domestic helper for the family and ends up becoming an artist's assistant, perparing the paint and then she become the model for the famous painting.
____________________________________
Service at the table has been great. Stephan, our head waiter is from Grenada. Before every dinner meal he explains to the table all of the menu items on the menu. He has sampled them and gives us an opinion concerning whether or not they line up or live up to their titles. The night that the Stiffeild
mousse was served, The Brit, (Deb) asked if she could have some of the real thing beside the made up mousse. She and her husband Dave live within three miles of where the Stillton cheese is made. Our head waiter made it happen, not just for her but for the rest of the guests around the table. Elizabeth said that she missed mashed potatoes with the courses. Stephan said that they are always available... to we had mashed potatoes at every meal there after... amazing.
Our cabin steward, Abdul, was very non intrusive. This style really pleased Sue. When she wants to sleep she dosn't want to be awaken to have her room redone. So it really worked out.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Day 8 LA to Hawaii Cruise
Day 8 Wednesday January 23, 2013
Partly Cloudy, Sunny
High 77 low 70
Sunrise 7:17 Sunset 6:21
Nawilliwilli, Kaui, Hawaii
_______________________________________________
We had reservations to rent a car. Sue's back was pretty wipped out. She encouraged me to go ahead without her.
The Thrifty shuttle to the airport rental office was pretty painless. I had reserved on-line the same SUV category. Again we scored another Chey Traverse. It was completely tricked out and a pleasure to drive.
I asked the county lady how long the drive is to Wiamea Canyon. She said that it was 2 hours. She was right. The drive one way is about 40 miles. The first part, getting out of lihue, the major city on Kaui was pretty easy and fast. After that the roads are not divided and only 2 lanes. The speed limit is 35 miles an hour for most of the trip. There was plenty of traffic and the speed limit is appropriate.
As the road enters the little towns along the way, the speed drops down to 25. At many intersections the speeds drops down to that too. There are many well groomed houses with big lawns on this side of the island. People have little fruit boxes where they give away the extra fruit they have on their property. Papayas, oranges, and other tropical fruits. The foliage was very green on this side of the island. It changed and became much drier as the road got closer to Wiamea.
Wiamea on Kaui is a thriving little sea coast town. It was the entry spot because of its great natural harbor for Captain Cook. It was a lot of sea port (small boat) attributes.
From the middle of the town of Wiamea is a nondescript sign in a rural residential section that points to the Wiamea canyon road. Its 13 miles of 2 lane was not dissimilar to the road to Lick observatory out of San Jose, California. On several turns you could see yourself coming from where you had been. The elevation gain to the first overlook was 3500 feet. A careful eye had to held for the tourists buses coming at you. It seemed like this is the one destination on everyone's plate. The lookouts dubbed this place the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. They were a part of the state park system and had restrooms and plenty of room to see over the edge. I had to drive around the parking lot twice at one of the spots to find a place to park.
The feral chickens were out in force. They looked a lot like domestic chickens. They scoured the parking lot . One parking lot had a mother hen and four little baby chicks gathering all the cell phone attention that they could muster out of the cell phone photographers.
The view was really worth the drive especially if you are not prone to car motion sickness.
I stopped on the way back in the little town of Eleele. It had a McDonalds and a pork rib sandwich waiting for me. The rain started to come down about half way back to Lihue. The return canopy was welcome and made returning the car painless. I filled it up in Lihue where gas was $4.45 a gallon. I had comsumed $22.00 worth of gas at the 76 station. The shuttle took me back to the ship was provided by Thrifty rent a car. I waited about 5 minutes to catch it.
The navigational system in these rental cars is a must if you do not the roads and where you need to go. The signs and the location of the airport in Lihue is pretty obscure and without confirmation with the navigational system I would not be sure that I was on the right road for the return. The Lihue airport is situated on a long plateau. The turn offs before getting on this plateau could provide some confusion as they look very similar. The navigation was also great for the blow by blow commentary as I traveled across this rather small island. It pointed out history and interesting places to stop and look around. I was pretty sure that that navigation add on was leading me astray but it wasn't. It would be really nice to have a human beside you to help read what the navigation system was broadcasting so that you would not have to take you eyes off the road to anticipate its messages.
______________________________
Dinner:
Pat
Appetizer: ceviche scallops and fanned avacado slices
Soup: lamb and vegetable
Entree: Prime Rib
Desert: Grand Marnier Souffle (another person at our table ordered the black forest cake with cherries
Sue:
Rolls with cheese, fruit salad, chocolate covered strawberries, eclair, and a slice of papaya
____________________________
Our dinner table friends from England had never heard of shaved ice. We were looking forward to our day on Maui. Debra ordered a cup of Irish coffee as an after dinner drink. She was sort of shocked in disbelief when the waiter brought her the drink. It is essentially coffee with a shot of whiskey in it. It has an inch or two of whipped cream on top of this not coffee drink. This drink came in a parfait like clear mug with a side cup of whipped cream. on the whipped cream was a maraschino cheery. In our discussion we realized that there were more classes of cream in the UK than in our culture. This would not fly if you ordered it in the UK. But what could you do... this probably was okay for most Americans.
Partly Cloudy, Sunny
High 77 low 70
Sunrise 7:17 Sunset 6:21
Nawilliwilli, Kaui, Hawaii
_______________________________________________
We had reservations to rent a car. Sue's back was pretty wipped out. She encouraged me to go ahead without her.
The Thrifty shuttle to the airport rental office was pretty painless. I had reserved on-line the same SUV category. Again we scored another Chey Traverse. It was completely tricked out and a pleasure to drive.
I asked the county lady how long the drive is to Wiamea Canyon. She said that it was 2 hours. She was right. The drive one way is about 40 miles. The first part, getting out of lihue, the major city on Kaui was pretty easy and fast. After that the roads are not divided and only 2 lanes. The speed limit is 35 miles an hour for most of the trip. There was plenty of traffic and the speed limit is appropriate.
As the road enters the little towns along the way, the speed drops down to 25. At many intersections the speeds drops down to that too. There are many well groomed houses with big lawns on this side of the island. People have little fruit boxes where they give away the extra fruit they have on their property. Papayas, oranges, and other tropical fruits. The foliage was very green on this side of the island. It changed and became much drier as the road got closer to Wiamea.
Wiamea on Kaui is a thriving little sea coast town. It was the entry spot because of its great natural harbor for Captain Cook. It was a lot of sea port (small boat) attributes.
From the middle of the town of Wiamea is a nondescript sign in a rural residential section that points to the Wiamea canyon road. Its 13 miles of 2 lane was not dissimilar to the road to Lick observatory out of San Jose, California. On several turns you could see yourself coming from where you had been. The elevation gain to the first overlook was 3500 feet. A careful eye had to held for the tourists buses coming at you. It seemed like this is the one destination on everyone's plate. The lookouts dubbed this place the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. They were a part of the state park system and had restrooms and plenty of room to see over the edge. I had to drive around the parking lot twice at one of the spots to find a place to park.
The feral chickens were out in force. They looked a lot like domestic chickens. They scoured the parking lot . One parking lot had a mother hen and four little baby chicks gathering all the cell phone attention that they could muster out of the cell phone photographers.
The view was really worth the drive especially if you are not prone to car motion sickness.
I stopped on the way back in the little town of Eleele. It had a McDonalds and a pork rib sandwich waiting for me. The rain started to come down about half way back to Lihue. The return canopy was welcome and made returning the car painless. I filled it up in Lihue where gas was $4.45 a gallon. I had comsumed $22.00 worth of gas at the 76 station. The shuttle took me back to the ship was provided by Thrifty rent a car. I waited about 5 minutes to catch it.
The navigational system in these rental cars is a must if you do not the roads and where you need to go. The signs and the location of the airport in Lihue is pretty obscure and without confirmation with the navigational system I would not be sure that I was on the right road for the return. The Lihue airport is situated on a long plateau. The turn offs before getting on this plateau could provide some confusion as they look very similar. The navigation was also great for the blow by blow commentary as I traveled across this rather small island. It pointed out history and interesting places to stop and look around. I was pretty sure that that navigation add on was leading me astray but it wasn't. It would be really nice to have a human beside you to help read what the navigation system was broadcasting so that you would not have to take you eyes off the road to anticipate its messages.
______________________________
Dinner:
Pat
Appetizer: ceviche scallops and fanned avacado slices
Soup: lamb and vegetable
Entree: Prime Rib
Desert: Grand Marnier Souffle (another person at our table ordered the black forest cake with cherries
Sue:
Rolls with cheese, fruit salad, chocolate covered strawberries, eclair, and a slice of papaya
____________________________
Our dinner table friends from England had never heard of shaved ice. We were looking forward to our day on Maui. Debra ordered a cup of Irish coffee as an after dinner drink. She was sort of shocked in disbelief when the waiter brought her the drink. It is essentially coffee with a shot of whiskey in it. It has an inch or two of whipped cream on top of this not coffee drink. This drink came in a parfait like clear mug with a side cup of whipped cream. on the whipped cream was a maraschino cheery. In our discussion we realized that there were more classes of cream in the UK than in our culture. This would not fly if you ordered it in the UK. But what could you do... this probably was okay for most Americans.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Day 7 LA to Hawaii Cruise
Day 7 Tuesday January 22,2013
Honolulu, Hawaii
High 77 low 69 F
Sunrise 7:11 Sunset 6:15
________________________________________
The morning started with a waram start. The sun was bright but he wind was there to cool you off.
About 10 o'clock we cleaned up the cabin and realized we needed a nap at nap around noon. We put it together and got the manual wheel chair ready to go. When we got down to the port terminal the Hilo Hatties van was ready to transport us to the store. We had a great shop including a new pearl pennet and earings that matched for Sue. I got two new Hilo Hatties shirts. The Honoulu Hilo Hattie's is know for its exclusive Elvis Presley collection. In the lobby going in, there is a gigantic red shirt of the same fabric design as the red Elvis Presley one. People stop and take photo of their loved ones in from of the world's largest Hawaiian shirt.
Talking with our return driver from Hilo Hattie's, she mentioned how cold it was the week before we arrived. It was so cold that no one wanted to get out of bed. They just tried to stay warm under their covers. Not now.. the temperature was hovering around 80 degrees. The curise before ours had a very rough trip probably due to the weather front that made the island so cold.
When we got out of the store and were waiting for the shuttle back to the ship, I looked at our four bags we brought in and thought for sure that we had left the backpack in the store. I backtracked through the store and their lost and found with no luck. Finally I went back out to where the bus would pick us up. Sue had "found" the backpack hung on the handles of the manual wheelchair. The driver had collapsed the wheelchair and so some very nice people got up out of the front seats of the bus so that sue would not have to walk the length of the bus to find a seat. In the mean time the people just kept loading on to the bus. It looked like there was over 100 people and their Hilo Hattie treasures that climbed on board.
Sue had had enough of the heat and the crowds. When we got back to the ship, I was dispatched to do room service at the Lido buffet.
Our current docking in Honolulu is 1/2 mile from where we docked the last year at the Aloha Tower shopping center. When we came in this morning a large fuel tanker pulled up beside is to download some more fuel. I think that was the reason for the change of location. It allowed us to be closer to Waikiki (still at least 3 miles away) and closer to the China town portion of Honolulu. The Chinatown section was basically just on the other side of the freeway.
I remembered that there was a music shop selling instruments at the end of the Aloha Tower Mall adjacent to the docking site last year.
I was on a quest to get a nicer ukulele. When I walked back to this shopping mall I expected to see that store. It was not there. I asked a stall owner about where it might have moved and all she said was the music store owner had died.
I decided to ask a taxi driver where I could get one. He was a young Asian driver wearing a suit and a spiky hair cut. He said sure.. he got on his cell phone and asked a couple of his friends and they came up with the location of a uke shop. The answer was a shop in the Marriott Hotel compound on Waikiki. It took $19.50 to get here because of the traffic... it was 4pm and like many big cities, the rush hour was on. When we got there he jumped out of the car and ran into the Marriott Hotel ground floor to look for the store. The Marriott had a small grouping of stores on its ground floor. One was even under construction as it look out on the main street.... one way of course. He ran back to tell me that it was there. So I tipped him and headed in.
His directions to me were, "Its right beside the ABC store."
When I got there, the store was closed. There was a sign on the door that said that it would reopen at 5:00pm. I walked out across the street and used my Starbucks card. At 5:05 I walked into the store and it was open... yeah! The name of the store is "Bob's Ukulele"
An older brown skinned man was manning the store. It is hard to know what the protocol is for shopping in a ukelele store could be. The lessons on the ship said that the only way to know what the instruments sound like is to play them. The store had about 10 to try in my range.. up to $225. There was one at 145 that had a very nice sound even to my inexperienced ear. I bought it and the store clerk pulled it out the cardboard box and tunned it and asked if I wanted a case for it for 25 dollars.. yes.
I left along the beach and looked for a bus going back. I realized that the busses were going the wrong way and the whole street was a one way street headed for Diamond Head.
I walked up toward the mountain and a couple of blocks North the street was one direction going the other way.
I was glad that I had bought the soft case for the uke. It made moving it around the streets of Honolulu so much easier.
I could not believe the number of stores along the streets of Waikiki. There were huge crowds of people too. Everyone seemed pretty mellow in their swim suits.
I found a group of people waiting to get on the bus too. About half of them had the classic free bag that Princess gives to each cabin. The looked like people from small towns in Iowa... and indeed they were. The big city was a bit puzzling for them. After a couple of buses passed in from of them that were totally loaded to the gills with commuters they looked a little desperate. One told them not to get on because it was too loaded.
An enterprising van driver with an independent excursion van to airport shuttle service type approached the group. He offered to take the whole group including me for 4 dollars a piece, right to the ship. That was too much for the Iowa Nebraska farmers of the group. Plus it was a little risky because he wasn't a regularly scheduled entity. The bus charged $2.50. Finally the van driver offered to do it for 3 dollars apiece. I gave the driver a $5 dollar bill when I got out and thought it was a good deal.
Another great day in paradise.
Honolulu, Hawaii
High 77 low 69 F
Sunrise 7:11 Sunset 6:15
________________________________________
The morning started with a waram start. The sun was bright but he wind was there to cool you off.
About 10 o'clock we cleaned up the cabin and realized we needed a nap at nap around noon. We put it together and got the manual wheel chair ready to go. When we got down to the port terminal the Hilo Hatties van was ready to transport us to the store. We had a great shop including a new pearl pennet and earings that matched for Sue. I got two new Hilo Hatties shirts. The Honoulu Hilo Hattie's is know for its exclusive Elvis Presley collection. In the lobby going in, there is a gigantic red shirt of the same fabric design as the red Elvis Presley one. People stop and take photo of their loved ones in from of the world's largest Hawaiian shirt.
Talking with our return driver from Hilo Hattie's, she mentioned how cold it was the week before we arrived. It was so cold that no one wanted to get out of bed. They just tried to stay warm under their covers. Not now.. the temperature was hovering around 80 degrees. The curise before ours had a very rough trip probably due to the weather front that made the island so cold.
When we got out of the store and were waiting for the shuttle back to the ship, I looked at our four bags we brought in and thought for sure that we had left the backpack in the store. I backtracked through the store and their lost and found with no luck. Finally I went back out to where the bus would pick us up. Sue had "found" the backpack hung on the handles of the manual wheelchair. The driver had collapsed the wheelchair and so some very nice people got up out of the front seats of the bus so that sue would not have to walk the length of the bus to find a seat. In the mean time the people just kept loading on to the bus. It looked like there was over 100 people and their Hilo Hattie treasures that climbed on board.
Sue had had enough of the heat and the crowds. When we got back to the ship, I was dispatched to do room service at the Lido buffet.
Our current docking in Honolulu is 1/2 mile from where we docked the last year at the Aloha Tower shopping center. When we came in this morning a large fuel tanker pulled up beside is to download some more fuel. I think that was the reason for the change of location. It allowed us to be closer to Waikiki (still at least 3 miles away) and closer to the China town portion of Honolulu. The Chinatown section was basically just on the other side of the freeway.
I remembered that there was a music shop selling instruments at the end of the Aloha Tower Mall adjacent to the docking site last year.
I was on a quest to get a nicer ukulele. When I walked back to this shopping mall I expected to see that store. It was not there. I asked a stall owner about where it might have moved and all she said was the music store owner had died.
I decided to ask a taxi driver where I could get one. He was a young Asian driver wearing a suit and a spiky hair cut. He said sure.. he got on his cell phone and asked a couple of his friends and they came up with the location of a uke shop. The answer was a shop in the Marriott Hotel compound on Waikiki. It took $19.50 to get here because of the traffic... it was 4pm and like many big cities, the rush hour was on. When we got there he jumped out of the car and ran into the Marriott Hotel ground floor to look for the store. The Marriott had a small grouping of stores on its ground floor. One was even under construction as it look out on the main street.... one way of course. He ran back to tell me that it was there. So I tipped him and headed in.
His directions to me were, "Its right beside the ABC store."
When I got there, the store was closed. There was a sign on the door that said that it would reopen at 5:00pm. I walked out across the street and used my Starbucks card. At 5:05 I walked into the store and it was open... yeah! The name of the store is "Bob's Ukulele"
An older brown skinned man was manning the store. It is hard to know what the protocol is for shopping in a ukelele store could be. The lessons on the ship said that the only way to know what the instruments sound like is to play them. The store had about 10 to try in my range.. up to $225. There was one at 145 that had a very nice sound even to my inexperienced ear. I bought it and the store clerk pulled it out the cardboard box and tunned it and asked if I wanted a case for it for 25 dollars.. yes.
I left along the beach and looked for a bus going back. I realized that the busses were going the wrong way and the whole street was a one way street headed for Diamond Head.
I walked up toward the mountain and a couple of blocks North the street was one direction going the other way.
I was glad that I had bought the soft case for the uke. It made moving it around the streets of Honolulu so much easier.
I could not believe the number of stores along the streets of Waikiki. There were huge crowds of people too. Everyone seemed pretty mellow in their swim suits.
I found a group of people waiting to get on the bus too. About half of them had the classic free bag that Princess gives to each cabin. The looked like people from small towns in Iowa... and indeed they were. The big city was a bit puzzling for them. After a couple of buses passed in from of them that were totally loaded to the gills with commuters they looked a little desperate. One told them not to get on because it was too loaded.
An enterprising van driver with an independent excursion van to airport shuttle service type approached the group. He offered to take the whole group including me for 4 dollars a piece, right to the ship. That was too much for the Iowa Nebraska farmers of the group. Plus it was a little risky because he wasn't a regularly scheduled entity. The bus charged $2.50. Finally the van driver offered to do it for 3 dollars apiece. I gave the driver a $5 dollar bill when I got out and thought it was a good deal.
Another great day in paradise.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Day 6 LA to Hawaii Cruise January 2013
Day 6 Monday, January 21, 2013 Hilo Day on the Big Island of Hawaii. Presidental Inauguration, Martin Luther King Day
High Temperature in the high 70s warm breezes
_________________________________
We rented a car (reserved it first on line) . We were after a full sized SUV kind of vehicle. Base rate was 55 dollars a day. This size of car makes it so much easier to load and and unload our manual wheelchair. It was advertised as a Jeep Grand Cheerokee- or equivalent . We got the equivalent. It was a light gold Chevy Traverse.Its a modern cross between a SUV and a staionwagon. It was perfect for our needs. it had a large cargo area which made putting in the manual wheel chair or taking it out a breeze.
We waited at the cruise terminal as the first Dollar and Thrifty mini bus loaded. The second one came and we got on. It was not nearly as crowded as the first . Sue came with me in the shuttle and after some upsaling for insurance costs we got car and the navigational Garmen. It was most remarkable as it had plugged in all the local sights including where we wanted to go.
___________________________
Volcano National Park
I talked Sue into going to the Volcano National Park on the big island about 40 miles South of Hilo. The car quickly hummed up the 4,000+ elevation. The park made Sue feel a bit cold when we got out of the car at this elevation so we bought a long sleeve shirt for her at the park store. We also bought some other science souvenirs. The National Park really knows how to make a perfect gift shop. We also drove over to the Jagger Observatory. It is perched on the edge of the caldera with a drop off of several hundred feet down into the bottom of the cone shape barren sand edge and was monitoring the seismic activity and the gasses. The caldera was putting out a decent amount of smoke the day we were there. Prior to arriving at the observatory, there were several pull outs that highlighted the volcanic tubes which were generating steam somewhat in the middle of the fields. The foliage was pretty stunted from the gasses coming out of the volcano. It was actually heating to cool air (high altitude) to hot and the steam was very visible.
The drive back to Hilo was pleasant. It was neat to see the foliage as Hilo is on the wet side of the island, and all the residents houses had metal roofing. Most of the houses were constructed with revealing area under the house. The houses were constructed on decks so that their was air that passed under the houses.
We made a stop at the Walmart in town to pick up soda and other supplies that are hard to get on the ship.
__________________________
The Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens
When we got back to the car with the manual wheelchair, we used the navigation to get through town and it got us turning in the right places to get to the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens on Onomea Bay.
We got to see more beautiful plants and flowers this time because the sun was out.
Sean learned and practiced the focus first by barely pusing down the triggers than continue to keep pressing down to fire the shot on her cannon pocket camera. I was taking photos with my Nikon 5100. I hope we got some great orchid shots between us.
I needed to do a lot of pushing to get that manual wheelchair back up the hill. We got up to the little plateau and the gas powered golf cart came down and we loaded on it and it took us up to the top of the hill. We still had plenty of time to do the Garden's gift shop and museum.
We used the navigation to get us back to the car drop off spot after we filled the car with gas in town.
We got checked off by the person working the lot. The shuttle came without much wait for us. The drop off spot was located a ways from the airport slot. We were first taken to from the airport. The shuttle driver when he picked us up said that we needed to drop the car off at this spot in the field not back at the airport kiosk.
When we dropped off the car, the shuttle driver that picked us up to take us back to the ship said that there were 17 more cars left to come back at 4:00. We were all supposed to be on board at 5pm.
It was as great day, and we had more fun than climbing on an excursion bus and getting out of it with 12 to 15 other people.
We both arrived back at the ship totally tired.
_______________________________________
Dinner:
Pats:
Appetizer: artichoke dip on brucetta
Soup: Cold green apple juice cold soup with Granny Smith Apples
Main course: Turf and Surf- Steak with big shrimp
Desert: Pineapple flambe with rum raisin ice cream
Sue:
Crab quiche from the Piassa
Ham/prosciutto mozzarella cheese pannini
Coconut rolls and a fruit tart roundels
High Temperature in the high 70s warm breezes
_________________________________
We rented a car (reserved it first on line) . We were after a full sized SUV kind of vehicle. Base rate was 55 dollars a day. This size of car makes it so much easier to load and and unload our manual wheelchair. It was advertised as a Jeep Grand Cheerokee- or equivalent . We got the equivalent. It was a light gold Chevy Traverse.Its a modern cross between a SUV and a staionwagon. It was perfect for our needs. it had a large cargo area which made putting in the manual wheel chair or taking it out a breeze.
We waited at the cruise terminal as the first Dollar and Thrifty mini bus loaded. The second one came and we got on. It was not nearly as crowded as the first . Sue came with me in the shuttle and after some upsaling for insurance costs we got car and the navigational Garmen. It was most remarkable as it had plugged in all the local sights including where we wanted to go.
___________________________
Volcano National Park
I talked Sue into going to the Volcano National Park on the big island about 40 miles South of Hilo. The car quickly hummed up the 4,000+ elevation. The park made Sue feel a bit cold when we got out of the car at this elevation so we bought a long sleeve shirt for her at the park store. We also bought some other science souvenirs. The National Park really knows how to make a perfect gift shop. We also drove over to the Jagger Observatory. It is perched on the edge of the caldera with a drop off of several hundred feet down into the bottom of the cone shape barren sand edge and was monitoring the seismic activity and the gasses. The caldera was putting out a decent amount of smoke the day we were there. Prior to arriving at the observatory, there were several pull outs that highlighted the volcanic tubes which were generating steam somewhat in the middle of the fields. The foliage was pretty stunted from the gasses coming out of the volcano. It was actually heating to cool air (high altitude) to hot and the steam was very visible.
The drive back to Hilo was pleasant. It was neat to see the foliage as Hilo is on the wet side of the island, and all the residents houses had metal roofing. Most of the houses were constructed with revealing area under the house. The houses were constructed on decks so that their was air that passed under the houses.
We made a stop at the Walmart in town to pick up soda and other supplies that are hard to get on the ship.
__________________________
The Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens
When we got back to the car with the manual wheelchair, we used the navigation to get through town and it got us turning in the right places to get to the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens on Onomea Bay.
We got to see more beautiful plants and flowers this time because the sun was out.
Sean learned and practiced the focus first by barely pusing down the triggers than continue to keep pressing down to fire the shot on her cannon pocket camera. I was taking photos with my Nikon 5100. I hope we got some great orchid shots between us.
I needed to do a lot of pushing to get that manual wheelchair back up the hill. We got up to the little plateau and the gas powered golf cart came down and we loaded on it and it took us up to the top of the hill. We still had plenty of time to do the Garden's gift shop and museum.
We used the navigation to get us back to the car drop off spot after we filled the car with gas in town.
We got checked off by the person working the lot. The shuttle came without much wait for us. The drop off spot was located a ways from the airport slot. We were first taken to from the airport. The shuttle driver when he picked us up said that we needed to drop the car off at this spot in the field not back at the airport kiosk.
When we dropped off the car, the shuttle driver that picked us up to take us back to the ship said that there were 17 more cars left to come back at 4:00. We were all supposed to be on board at 5pm.
It was as great day, and we had more fun than climbing on an excursion bus and getting out of it with 12 to 15 other people.
We both arrived back at the ship totally tired.
_______________________________________
Dinner:
Pats:
Appetizer: artichoke dip on brucetta
Soup: Cold green apple juice cold soup with Granny Smith Apples
Main course: Turf and Surf- Steak with big shrimp
Desert: Pineapple flambe with rum raisin ice cream
Sue:
Crab quiche from the Piassa
Ham/prosciutto mozzarella cheese pannini
Coconut rolls and a fruit tart roundels
Monday, March 25, 2013
Day 5 LA to Hawaii Cruise January 2013
Day 5 At Sea- Sunday
January 20,2013
Cloudy rain Showers - High 64 Low 61
Sunrise 7:35 Sunset 6:46
________________________________________
Our waiter warned us at dinner that we were headed for a really rocky night. He was right. This boat/ship was surfing most of the night. The stabilizers helped some of the side to to side but the swale the forward and back movement were the largest we had had on this cruise by far.
I got my kindle charged so I am back in business with it. I am reading the book, "The End of the Line: Romney vs Obama 34 days that ...." its about the behind the scenes strategies both presidential candidates used in the final days of the election.
______________________
The Social Worker from Manitoba
I was eating at a prime spot in the buffett. A couple landed at my table., where are you from? Manitoba. What did you do? I was a social worker not a wheat farmer. They had traveled to all parts of Canada and started living in Montreal. I got to share my memories of Expo 67.
They thought that pharma was cheaper in the states. They were pricing a "shingles" shot. It was $250 in Canada with a prescription it was $175 in the US. With a prescription but the US pharmacy wrote the prescription on the spot.
___________________________________
The First Grade Teacher from outside Nashville
At lunch she was looking for a spot to "land" with per plate full of buffet food. She introduced herself and we talked about 1st graders and articulation. She has 5 grandchildren - had never been to Hawaii and kind of wanted to know where she could get little grass skirts. She had no idea what to get the little boys. I told her about the last time we were in Hilo there was a warehouse right where we came in to port. Lots of little hair clips and silk flower leis and such. She was happy to hear about that. (Sadly when we got to Hilo this port side shopping did not exist. I think that the warehouse was not safe. We had to walk around the outside of it to get to transportation). I also mentioned that there was a bus to Hio Hatties on each of our stops.
_______________________________________
The 49ers Won! On to the Superbowl
The crowd had gathered in the front of Movies in the Stars to watch the big playoff games. Some were sunbathing and watching while others bought their "bucket of beers" and camped out. The Sun had come out and it was pretty nice around the pool. As you can see from the weather report at the top.. it was not exactly hot. In the sun the temperature was a few degrees warmer that the 64... put the breeze and the 24 miles an hour that we were traveling worked against the serious Hawaiian stereotype. We were certainly not in the Caribbean.
There was also a big crowd in the Princess Theater with the notable gray/blue haired ladies chearing with their good Southern accents the Atlanta Falcons. They had plenty to cheer about as Atlanta took an early 17 point lead. When I joined the crowd in the theater later, the Atlanta fans had abandoned their favored team and found other things to do on the ship.
____________
More Ukelele Lessons
I left the game and headed to my place to get my uke lesson along with about 45 others. We learned about minor chords and practiced some alternative fingerings for come chords.
Our teacher teaches with a backup line synthesizer where he can control the beat. I think it drowns out those that have their instruments out of key. Half way through "Under the Boardwalk" he looked down and saw that one of his students was playing the chords to "Amazing Grace." It happens.
_______________
Heirloom Leis
Earlier in the day Sue and I headed over to where they were making heirloom leis. You buy a kit (charged to your ship account) Sue learned to do a popcorn knot in crochet that is essential in make her lei.
The men usually make a kakuie nut lei made with large brown nuts that were originally used to might the night in the tropical islands. The instructors (the ukelele instructor and his wife that taught hula) had big bins of these nuts and other items that could be strung together to make the lei. You gathered up what you think would amount to 25 inches of pattern you designed and strung them up. When you were finished, you brought the lei up to the desk . It was measured and knotted. It was sort of like beading on a huge scale. I made a pretty nice on while Sue worked on her crocheted one.
______________
Dinner:
Pat's
Appetizer: Lox (smoked salmon, slices with touches of cream spatter) lemon slice and capers
Ravioli- stuffed with ricotta and nutmeg with a soft brown sauce
Main: Veal Scalopini in reduced sauce
Desert: Banana souffle
Sue: Hamburger - Fries from the Grill
Fresh fruit from the buffet... pineapple slices, Apples and bananas
January 20,2013
Cloudy rain Showers - High 64 Low 61
Sunrise 7:35 Sunset 6:46
________________________________________
Our waiter warned us at dinner that we were headed for a really rocky night. He was right. This boat/ship was surfing most of the night. The stabilizers helped some of the side to to side but the swale the forward and back movement were the largest we had had on this cruise by far.
I got my kindle charged so I am back in business with it. I am reading the book, "The End of the Line: Romney vs Obama 34 days that ...." its about the behind the scenes strategies both presidential candidates used in the final days of the election.
______________________
The Social Worker from Manitoba
I was eating at a prime spot in the buffett. A couple landed at my table., where are you from? Manitoba. What did you do? I was a social worker not a wheat farmer. They had traveled to all parts of Canada and started living in Montreal. I got to share my memories of Expo 67.
They thought that pharma was cheaper in the states. They were pricing a "shingles" shot. It was $250 in Canada with a prescription it was $175 in the US. With a prescription but the US pharmacy wrote the prescription on the spot.
___________________________________
The First Grade Teacher from outside Nashville
At lunch she was looking for a spot to "land" with per plate full of buffet food. She introduced herself and we talked about 1st graders and articulation. She has 5 grandchildren - had never been to Hawaii and kind of wanted to know where she could get little grass skirts. She had no idea what to get the little boys. I told her about the last time we were in Hilo there was a warehouse right where we came in to port. Lots of little hair clips and silk flower leis and such. She was happy to hear about that. (Sadly when we got to Hilo this port side shopping did not exist. I think that the warehouse was not safe. We had to walk around the outside of it to get to transportation). I also mentioned that there was a bus to Hio Hatties on each of our stops.
_______________________________________
The 49ers Won! On to the Superbowl
The crowd had gathered in the front of Movies in the Stars to watch the big playoff games. Some were sunbathing and watching while others bought their "bucket of beers" and camped out. The Sun had come out and it was pretty nice around the pool. As you can see from the weather report at the top.. it was not exactly hot. In the sun the temperature was a few degrees warmer that the 64... put the breeze and the 24 miles an hour that we were traveling worked against the serious Hawaiian stereotype. We were certainly not in the Caribbean.
There was also a big crowd in the Princess Theater with the notable gray/blue haired ladies chearing with their good Southern accents the Atlanta Falcons. They had plenty to cheer about as Atlanta took an early 17 point lead. When I joined the crowd in the theater later, the Atlanta fans had abandoned their favored team and found other things to do on the ship.
____________
More Ukelele Lessons
I left the game and headed to my place to get my uke lesson along with about 45 others. We learned about minor chords and practiced some alternative fingerings for come chords.
Our teacher teaches with a backup line synthesizer where he can control the beat. I think it drowns out those that have their instruments out of key. Half way through "Under the Boardwalk" he looked down and saw that one of his students was playing the chords to "Amazing Grace." It happens.
_______________
Heirloom Leis
Earlier in the day Sue and I headed over to where they were making heirloom leis. You buy a kit (charged to your ship account) Sue learned to do a popcorn knot in crochet that is essential in make her lei.
The men usually make a kakuie nut lei made with large brown nuts that were originally used to might the night in the tropical islands. The instructors (the ukelele instructor and his wife that taught hula) had big bins of these nuts and other items that could be strung together to make the lei. You gathered up what you think would amount to 25 inches of pattern you designed and strung them up. When you were finished, you brought the lei up to the desk . It was measured and knotted. It was sort of like beading on a huge scale. I made a pretty nice on while Sue worked on her crocheted one.
______________
Dinner:
Pat's
Appetizer: Lox (smoked salmon, slices with touches of cream spatter) lemon slice and capers
Ravioli- stuffed with ricotta and nutmeg with a soft brown sauce
Main: Veal Scalopini in reduced sauce
Desert: Banana souffle
Sue: Hamburger - Fries from the Grill
Fresh fruit from the buffet... pineapple slices, Apples and bananas
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Day 4 Saturday LA to Hawaii Cruise
Day 4 Saturday, January 19th 2013 At Sea
Weather: Cloudy with rain showers - High 61 Low 56
Sunrise 7:08/ Sunset 6:10
___________________________
Today started the progressive ukelele lessons. 300 signed up and 100 showed up for the first class.... or so was the commentary from the teachers. Many that didn't sign up for the progressive classes were there. Two new cords were taught and very quickly integrated into song. My ukelele broke a string last night and luckily I brought a new set to string up... via Amazon. The snark (as suggested my my sister) also came from Amazon. The Harmony uke was given me by my other sister. Those that didn't have their own are out of luck when it comes to practice as the loaners are put in bins after every lesson. Having your own on board is a great. The Cruise Director and the Hawaiian music master on the ship took turns providing the lessons. Each instructor provides a different take on the instrument and it is nice to have this variety.
______________________________
Reunion in Camp Pendleton
At lunch Sue and I met up with a couple who drove from Michigan to get on the Ship in LA. They had traveled many a frozen snowy road to get to LA in January. They were also facing the same journey back after the cruise. The man's main objective was to meet up with his Marine buddies at their training camp at Camp Pendleton.Camp Pendelton is located just north of San Diego He said that it was nice to drive around and reminise about the base. His wife was making a renewed contact with a friend who lived El Monte one of the LA cities. So far everything was working out well for both of them.
________________________________
I am not a big gambler. But on this day I won 200 dollars on the 25 cent slot machine on the ship. The ship has very few 25 cent slot machines. Most of the slot machines in the casino were either 1 dollar slots or penny slots. All are electronic and my guess is that they can change the pay out on a whim. I walked away from the machine after winning the 200 dollars and cashed in the winnings from the card that also serves as the cabin room key. No coins ever pass hands in the ship's casino. I made up my mind that the 200 dollar won from the 40 dollar investment and have it go for toward a nice ukelele when the ship reached Hawaii. And it did.
I watched the lecture from the naturalist on the whales of Hawaii. The humpbacks are the primary whales in Hawaii this time of the year. They have been spotted in Maui on early cruises so we were pretty certain that we would see them when we got to Maui for our whale watching excursion. The nauturalist said that they were around all the island and that we should be looking for them when we were in each of the ports of the Hawaiian islands. Their call could be heard by snorkelers a mile away from the animals.
While I was taking the first ukulele lesson sue had a chance to shop the Princess branded Hawaiian tee shirts... 2 for 20. She also did a buffet lunch. On the deck was the Italian themed lunch items on this day. Fresh mozzarella, and tomatoes were a welcome sight. There were several pasta dishes and some fancy Italian meats that could be used to make a chibata sandwich. It was pretty crowded around the outside lunch but here seemed to be enough for all that wanted it.
__________________
Dinner:
Pat's
Appetizer: Cantaloupe in port wine, set in Martini glasses
Salad: Caesar's Salad
Main entree: Pork shoulder cut in slices with french fries and lima beans
Desert: Chocolate Brownie with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce with a toasted almond topping
Sue: Hamburger with Fries at the grill
__________________________________________
Breakfast on the Ship
The full breakfast buffet is ready each morning at 7:00 am. People start going through at 6 am. At my favorites spa choice. museli is put out in a giant iced bowl with a different flavor combination each day. Its base has oats and very thin green apple slice. As add ons to this it could be toasted coconut, walnuts, granola, and then a fruit sauce much looser than jam, it could be peach or raspberry, or apple sauce.
On this ship, the lox varies with a different kind of smoked fish each day. Usually lox are usually salmon. Today the fish was smoked mahi mahi in place of the salmon.
Weather: Cloudy with rain showers - High 61 Low 56
Sunrise 7:08/ Sunset 6:10
___________________________
Today started the progressive ukelele lessons. 300 signed up and 100 showed up for the first class.... or so was the commentary from the teachers. Many that didn't sign up for the progressive classes were there. Two new cords were taught and very quickly integrated into song. My ukelele broke a string last night and luckily I brought a new set to string up... via Amazon. The snark (as suggested my my sister) also came from Amazon. The Harmony uke was given me by my other sister. Those that didn't have their own are out of luck when it comes to practice as the loaners are put in bins after every lesson. Having your own on board is a great. The Cruise Director and the Hawaiian music master on the ship took turns providing the lessons. Each instructor provides a different take on the instrument and it is nice to have this variety.
______________________________
Reunion in Camp Pendleton
At lunch Sue and I met up with a couple who drove from Michigan to get on the Ship in LA. They had traveled many a frozen snowy road to get to LA in January. They were also facing the same journey back after the cruise. The man's main objective was to meet up with his Marine buddies at their training camp at Camp Pendleton.Camp Pendelton is located just north of San Diego He said that it was nice to drive around and reminise about the base. His wife was making a renewed contact with a friend who lived El Monte one of the LA cities. So far everything was working out well for both of them.
________________________________
I am not a big gambler. But on this day I won 200 dollars on the 25 cent slot machine on the ship. The ship has very few 25 cent slot machines. Most of the slot machines in the casino were either 1 dollar slots or penny slots. All are electronic and my guess is that they can change the pay out on a whim. I walked away from the machine after winning the 200 dollars and cashed in the winnings from the card that also serves as the cabin room key. No coins ever pass hands in the ship's casino. I made up my mind that the 200 dollar won from the 40 dollar investment and have it go for toward a nice ukelele when the ship reached Hawaii. And it did.
I watched the lecture from the naturalist on the whales of Hawaii. The humpbacks are the primary whales in Hawaii this time of the year. They have been spotted in Maui on early cruises so we were pretty certain that we would see them when we got to Maui for our whale watching excursion. The nauturalist said that they were around all the island and that we should be looking for them when we were in each of the ports of the Hawaiian islands. Their call could be heard by snorkelers a mile away from the animals.
While I was taking the first ukulele lesson sue had a chance to shop the Princess branded Hawaiian tee shirts... 2 for 20. She also did a buffet lunch. On the deck was the Italian themed lunch items on this day. Fresh mozzarella, and tomatoes were a welcome sight. There were several pasta dishes and some fancy Italian meats that could be used to make a chibata sandwich. It was pretty crowded around the outside lunch but here seemed to be enough for all that wanted it.
__________________
Dinner:
Pat's
Appetizer: Cantaloupe in port wine, set in Martini glasses
Salad: Caesar's Salad
Main entree: Pork shoulder cut in slices with french fries and lima beans
Desert: Chocolate Brownie with vanilla ice cream and hot chocolate sauce with a toasted almond topping
Sue: Hamburger with Fries at the grill
__________________________________________
Breakfast on the Ship
The full breakfast buffet is ready each morning at 7:00 am. People start going through at 6 am. At my favorites spa choice. museli is put out in a giant iced bowl with a different flavor combination each day. Its base has oats and very thin green apple slice. As add ons to this it could be toasted coconut, walnuts, granola, and then a fruit sauce much looser than jam, it could be peach or raspberry, or apple sauce.
On this ship, the lox varies with a different kind of smoked fish each day. Usually lox are usually salmon. Today the fish was smoked mahi mahi in place of the salmon.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Day 3 Friday, LA to Hawaii Cruise January 18
Day 3 Friday January 18, 2013
Tonight's Dress: Formal
Weather: Partly Cloudy: High 59 Low 50
Sunrise @7:40 Sunset 6:30
__________________________________________
Time Change- one hour back @2:00am between Friday Night and January 18th and Saturday morning January 19th
1)Breakfast@the Horizon Court buffet. I had the recommended homemade muesli with almond slivers and blueberry compote. I had the egg man make me an egg white omelet Denver (with onions, peppers, and ham) a piece of breakfast banger and two links of sausage and two pieces of bacon.
2) I sat across from a Victoria (Canadian) BC couple from Holland. They had lived 30+years in Victoria BC. Now they "winter" in Arizona. They have a son they visit in Sacramento CA, so they were familiar with the Central Valley. I related to them about how much I had seen Victoria grow since 1962 when we were there for the Worlds Fair in Seattle. Dad picked out Duncan as the place we would pick up our mail along the way. We didn't realize how far Duncan was from Victoria on the island. They have since improved the drive with better roads and its not such a big deal to drive from Victoria to Duncan.
_____________________________
Andy the ocean Surveyor from Houston
Andy asked if he could sit at my table... sure.
Andy clicked on his hearing aide at the back of his ear.
He worked as an engineer for the oil industry. I asked if he was a geologist..... no but he worked with many geologists. He had retired and had bought 28 acres in Houston and had a house constructed. He liked to do woodworking and he makes small projects to sell. He had a commission to make 5 headboards for a Band B in his small town near Houston. The house was in the process of being renovated. He researched the design to fit into the era of the house. He finished the headboards and the owner wanted these beautiful cypress wood headboards to be painted white. That destroyed him. He did not like the production side of it to begin with and felt that the cypress wood should be left in a natural finish. He would rather cast himself as an artisan craftsman. So he makes small pieces and has been successful at selling them in the town stores.
He was excited to go see one of his friends that was lecturing this morning. He was also an ocean surveyor His friend's topic was, "Who fired the first shots at Pearl Harbor?"His claim is that the mini 2 man Japanese subs fired the first shots . The lecturer was instrumental in the dive survey that found midge sub A that was hit in the conning tower before the invasion of the aerial bombers. I sat in on the lecture in the big theater and joined about 300 other passengers as we watched the power point and movie snippets about the Pearl Harbor attack.
___________________
Sue and I went down the elevator to the Plaza again. Sue liked the small portions served. She ordered an asparagus quiche which they heated up for her. I had a bowl of albondigas... meatball soup.
The seating is pretty hard to come by as it seems that many others have discovered this place. So people are sort of combined together in order to get seating to have a cup of Starbucks like coffee or a small bite. The also have a chance to learn from each other in the process.
______________________________
The Couple from Alberta Canada
She married the guy from Arkansas that was completely blind. He looked a whole lot like Kenny Rogers with the complete gray beard and round face. He was a social worker -regulation writer in South Dakota at the time. His regulations shut down the South Dakota governor's daughter's nursing home because it was so out of compliance, and sent all of the patients out to other homes in Rapid City. The Governor got his revenge by firing him. The regulation writer asked him why? The Governor said he was blind so how could he do his work? Thanks, the guy said and he was out on full disability.
He came under the regulation that he had written. As part of his rehab plan, he wrote that he had to "work in bands". He returned to being a successful drummer that he was before going to school to become a social worker. He and his wife bought an RV and traveled roaming around the country playing for some pretty famous bands. He said that is a voracious audio book reader.
They told us of the time they were camping in the desert and he had the audio book up and playing loudly. Right beside him a road runner stood perched, watching inquisitively his every move. He was not aware of it until his wife said.. don't move. She ran in and got a camera to take a photo of the road runner observing the strange people.
They traveled throughout Europe. The man had arranged a wonderful night in Venice for his sweet wife, down to getting a fancy room, a gondola reserved, when they were about to go through the night she turned to him and said,"This place smells like shit." He said... it did.
_________________
At dinner I asked the more senior couple what they did when they did in their working life. They replied that they hadn't always lived in Palm Springs. They used to live in Washington state in the Tri cities in Eastern Washington. She was a nuclear technician making Zicronioum tubes and loading the pellets . He was a nuclear physicist. She said that he was more of a math guy than she was. She took her real estate license test and half way through it she was concerned because it required math with using a calculator. She passed. He is a golfer... more so earlier in life. While on board we celebrated her 75th birthday. She grew up in the Dolger homes near Westlake in Daly City very near where I grew up years later in South San Francisco. Her favorite restaurant... Original Joes.
Pat's Dinner:
Shreaded salad with stillton cheese mouse (we all got Stilton on the side because it was the kind of blue cheese that was made near where our Brit table mates were from) It was some pretty neat cheese.
Asparagus soup
Leg of Lamb
Creme Bruuelle
Bananas Foster
Macroons and almond cookies
Sue's Dinner
French Onion Soup
1/2 ceasar's salad (made at the table)
Beef Bratwurst with sauerkraut
Sue left the table before the main course--- Bratwurst was after the dinner----
_____________________
Ukelele Lessons
I went to the ukelele sample lesson with my uke (my sister Kelly had given me one years ago) It could not hold a note .. the strings were too old. I brought a new set with me and finally got some tone from it after I strung it up. I signed up for the progressive lessons---- every day at 11:15 on days that we were at sea. We met at the same place, the wrap around bar that was next to the fancy Italian dinner restaurant.
On the sample lesson people lined up to borrow a ukelele as the ship had about 40 to loan for the free lessons.
On the first lesson poor Tom Dooley got trotted out and so did the whole world---- the 2 chord medley--- c and g7. He added pearly shells c7 and f. 75 people got a short lesson . Some of us, about 25 signed up for the progressive lessons (also free)
I learned the tuning notes....Good Cats Eat Ants
Tonight's Dress: Formal
Weather: Partly Cloudy: High 59 Low 50
Sunrise @7:40 Sunset 6:30
__________________________________________
Time Change- one hour back @2:00am between Friday Night and January 18th and Saturday morning January 19th
1)Breakfast@the Horizon Court buffet. I had the recommended homemade muesli with almond slivers and blueberry compote. I had the egg man make me an egg white omelet Denver (with onions, peppers, and ham) a piece of breakfast banger and two links of sausage and two pieces of bacon.
2) I sat across from a Victoria (Canadian) BC couple from Holland. They had lived 30+years in Victoria BC. Now they "winter" in Arizona. They have a son they visit in Sacramento CA, so they were familiar with the Central Valley. I related to them about how much I had seen Victoria grow since 1962 when we were there for the Worlds Fair in Seattle. Dad picked out Duncan as the place we would pick up our mail along the way. We didn't realize how far Duncan was from Victoria on the island. They have since improved the drive with better roads and its not such a big deal to drive from Victoria to Duncan.
_____________________________
Andy the ocean Surveyor from Houston
Andy asked if he could sit at my table... sure.
Andy clicked on his hearing aide at the back of his ear.
He worked as an engineer for the oil industry. I asked if he was a geologist..... no but he worked with many geologists. He had retired and had bought 28 acres in Houston and had a house constructed. He liked to do woodworking and he makes small projects to sell. He had a commission to make 5 headboards for a Band B in his small town near Houston. The house was in the process of being renovated. He researched the design to fit into the era of the house. He finished the headboards and the owner wanted these beautiful cypress wood headboards to be painted white. That destroyed him. He did not like the production side of it to begin with and felt that the cypress wood should be left in a natural finish. He would rather cast himself as an artisan craftsman. So he makes small pieces and has been successful at selling them in the town stores.
He was excited to go see one of his friends that was lecturing this morning. He was also an ocean surveyor His friend's topic was, "Who fired the first shots at Pearl Harbor?"His claim is that the mini 2 man Japanese subs fired the first shots . The lecturer was instrumental in the dive survey that found midge sub A that was hit in the conning tower before the invasion of the aerial bombers. I sat in on the lecture in the big theater and joined about 300 other passengers as we watched the power point and movie snippets about the Pearl Harbor attack.
___________________
Sue and I went down the elevator to the Plaza again. Sue liked the small portions served. She ordered an asparagus quiche which they heated up for her. I had a bowl of albondigas... meatball soup.
The seating is pretty hard to come by as it seems that many others have discovered this place. So people are sort of combined together in order to get seating to have a cup of Starbucks like coffee or a small bite. The also have a chance to learn from each other in the process.
______________________________
The Couple from Alberta Canada
She married the guy from Arkansas that was completely blind. He looked a whole lot like Kenny Rogers with the complete gray beard and round face. He was a social worker -regulation writer in South Dakota at the time. His regulations shut down the South Dakota governor's daughter's nursing home because it was so out of compliance, and sent all of the patients out to other homes in Rapid City. The Governor got his revenge by firing him. The regulation writer asked him why? The Governor said he was blind so how could he do his work? Thanks, the guy said and he was out on full disability.
He came under the regulation that he had written. As part of his rehab plan, he wrote that he had to "work in bands". He returned to being a successful drummer that he was before going to school to become a social worker. He and his wife bought an RV and traveled roaming around the country playing for some pretty famous bands. He said that is a voracious audio book reader.
They told us of the time they were camping in the desert and he had the audio book up and playing loudly. Right beside him a road runner stood perched, watching inquisitively his every move. He was not aware of it until his wife said.. don't move. She ran in and got a camera to take a photo of the road runner observing the strange people.
They traveled throughout Europe. The man had arranged a wonderful night in Venice for his sweet wife, down to getting a fancy room, a gondola reserved, when they were about to go through the night she turned to him and said,"This place smells like shit." He said... it did.
_________________
At dinner I asked the more senior couple what they did when they did in their working life. They replied that they hadn't always lived in Palm Springs. They used to live in Washington state in the Tri cities in Eastern Washington. She was a nuclear technician making Zicronioum tubes and loading the pellets . He was a nuclear physicist. She said that he was more of a math guy than she was. She took her real estate license test and half way through it she was concerned because it required math with using a calculator. She passed. He is a golfer... more so earlier in life. While on board we celebrated her 75th birthday. She grew up in the Dolger homes near Westlake in Daly City very near where I grew up years later in South San Francisco. Her favorite restaurant... Original Joes.
Pat's Dinner:
Shreaded salad with stillton cheese mouse (we all got Stilton on the side because it was the kind of blue cheese that was made near where our Brit table mates were from) It was some pretty neat cheese.
Asparagus soup
Leg of Lamb
Creme Bruuelle
Bananas Foster
Macroons and almond cookies
Sue's Dinner
French Onion Soup
1/2 ceasar's salad (made at the table)
Beef Bratwurst with sauerkraut
Sue left the table before the main course--- Bratwurst was after the dinner----
_____________________
Ukelele Lessons
I went to the ukelele sample lesson with my uke (my sister Kelly had given me one years ago) It could not hold a note .. the strings were too old. I brought a new set with me and finally got some tone from it after I strung it up. I signed up for the progressive lessons---- every day at 11:15 on days that we were at sea. We met at the same place, the wrap around bar that was next to the fancy Italian dinner restaurant.
On the sample lesson people lined up to borrow a ukelele as the ship had about 40 to loan for the free lessons.
On the first lesson poor Tom Dooley got trotted out and so did the whole world---- the 2 chord medley--- c and g7. He added pearly shells c7 and f. 75 people got a short lesson . Some of us, about 25 signed up for the progressive lessons (also free)
I learned the tuning notes....Good Cats Eat Ants
Friday, March 22, 2013
Day 2 Hawaiian Cruise From LA
Day 2 Thursday January 17, 2013 Weather: Partly Cloudy High 58 Low 50 Sunrise 7:12 am Sunset 5:50 pm
___________________________
Teachers are Travelers
Breakfast at 7:45 in the dining hall was with a add up table. They add a table for two to a table of four and seat six people at it. Two couples were seated and I became the 5th. No others were seated at the table. The other participants were two couples. One lady was was a 6th grade teacher from Columbus, Ohio. The other couple were also retired teachers, were from Pittsburgh (Outside of the city). I mentioned that I had relatives that lived on the Ohio side of Pittsburgh. They said that they lived on that side too. When I mentioned Darlington, they said that it was closer to Pittsburgh than they were. She had taught 7th and 8th grade and enjoyed the enthusiasm that this age showed. The other lady said that that was the season that she retired . Too much for a 6th grade teacher that was suddenly recast as an eighth grade instructor.
The conversation then rolled into previous cruises they each had been on.
They both loved the New England one. On had traveled up and stayed a period of time there in their motorhome. Nova Scotia was wonderful for a month. This couple also did a Fort Lauderdale to the Baltic curise that lasted 28 days. The other couple had done a European river cruise... which they had enjoyed.
_____________________
After breakfast I sat in the big theater and listened two two lectures on Hawaii. One was on the geology, the other was on the features of the big island.
We have a car reserved for Hawaii at Hilo. It should be fun to get out and drive some of this island. Sue is looking forward to going back to the "rain forest" the Botanical Gardens on the big island of Hawaii.
Making Orchid Leis... a free program
I finally got Sue up and she agree to the orchid lei making class. They only let 50 people each day for three days take the class. 90 people got in line 15 minutes early to get a ticket. One per person. Some people did not get tickets. Some got tickets for other than the first day. An older guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted his ticket. I guess he thought that he would stand in line and get a ticket not knowing what he was standing in line for. Once he got the ticket he realized it was not something that he wanted to do. Sure, I took his ticket. So Sue and I both had tickets to the first lei class. The ship's program staff passed out the first 50 to the people that would do the class on the 2nd day when they finished with those that got it on the first day. Likewise on the 3rd day the third set of 50 tickets were passed out. All tickets were passed out on that one line on the one time. The first time we took the Hawaiian cruise I didn't realize that with so many people on the ship it is worth your time to stand in line for the programing events provided.
The first day of the class was this first day at sea. Sue was pretty tired from the big day before, but she got dressed and made it down to the class. There were 10 men and 40 women that took this class. We waited at the fancy pay extra restaurant (Italian) as that was where the classes were held.
At each place on the tables was a pile of purple/pink waxy orchids and a bin with green star beads, one inch star beads, and a long needle that has a hook at the end.
Steps in Making the Lei
1) The stem end of all the flowers need to be removed... pinched off
2) The needle gets threaded through the flower, and 4 green star spacer beads and a one inch straw pieces are also threaded on to they 14 each needle with a hook on it.
3)The needle is hooked through the string (not threaded) and the string is pulled through the items that are threaded on the needle.
When enough flowers, beads and straws are loaded on the string, the lei is tied off and ready to wear. All 50 people were successful- some a little more than others. Some had difficultly with the string fraying. Some had to "backfill" on the other side from where they started to complete the loop.
_______________
After we finished the class, Sue headed back to our home cabin for some afternoon shut eye. Earlier in the day I had Sue sign up for her free 250 minutes of internet time. I left my card on the table and when I returned to the internet cafe, it was not there.
The hotel office on the 6th deck made me a new one and even transferred my coke card to it.... The $57 dollars on the casino account... I had made 17 dollars since it was issued, was transferred back on it too. Thankfully. I started it with $40.
So far the ocean has been very calm for us. As the captain in his noon report each day said, "The oceans are slight."
Sue's back continues to hurt. She opted out of dinner. I thought of mom as the prized dinner entree was lamb shanks.
____________
Pat's Dinner:
Apppitizer: Bay scallops and shrimp
Soup: Pear Mango with a mint leaf
Main entree: lamb shanks, with brown potatoes, brussel sprouts and zuchinni
Desert: key lime pie
Sue's Dinner:
Hamburger with extra pickles and mustard
__________
Sue wanted a table where her power chair would not cause people to have to move their chairs in order for her to get out. So far we have not accomplished this assignment.
The table we were assigned to was really a good one for the people. An educator couple in Sp Ed from the UK . Deb is a program specialist and David is a woodshop teacher. The other couple are from the Palm Springs area . They live on a golf course and love it.
Friday (tomorrow) is the first dress up night. Sue has promised to do dinner... then again she love to put on the bling.
I caught a little of the night's entertainment, a ventriloquist that has appeared on the Letterman show. She (the dummy) offered to sing. She said that she was originally one of the Spice Girls.....Ok... the old spice girl......
The movie under the stars tonight had people bundled up in red tartan blankets.... "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" with Judy Dench.
It has been a great cruise so far.
Fruit was delivered to our cabin while we were out..
2 oranges, 2 pears, and 2 kiwis
We went to bed without much swale in the ship... the ship endeavored to make up for lost time at the dock... Full speed ahead!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Hawaiian Cruise 2013 Getting to Long Beach
Pre Day... Journey to Long Beach for the Night before the Hawaiian Cruise. January 15,2013 and Embarkation, on the Golden Princess
____________________________________
We left Merced at 3pm on Tuesday. Our trip to Long Beach was unadventful except for the prospect of the grapevine pass at night. Construction is still on going by the Getty Museum on the 405. Our destination was our usual Holiday Inn. This Holiday Inn is located away about 8 blocks from the beach on Atlantic Blvd. and closest to St. Mary's Hospital.Our room was waiting and we crashed for the night at 10pm.
Wednesday morning arrived and we had a phone message from the ship informing us that because of the bad weather, the ship would be late arriving to San Pedro. The message told us that our deck, would be loading at 2:45pm instead of the usual 11:30-1:00.
I discovered that the heel to my shes were coming loose from the rubber sole. We used the extra time to hunt down a Walmart and get a pair to depart. It was in Carson, about 6 miles down the major freeway from Long Beach. We used the Iphone navigation to for location. At first we were looking for a Famous Foot ware Store, but the one that was listed apparently had gone out of business and was replaced by some other more lucrative store. LA by Iphone navigation is a real trip.
I bought a pair of Dr. Schools gel athletic shoes for $29 dollars and we picked up a bunch of other items we had forgotten to pick up before we left.
We had stashed our bags in the Expedition and had to make some minor changes from our overnight bag that was to stay in the truck while we cruised with two bags and the manual wheelchair that we took along. All this rearragement occurred in the Walmart parking lot. We must have been a sight to the onlookers.
The Santa Monica Freeway took us back to the 110 and San Pedro, the location of our ship and home for the next two weeks, the Golden Princess.
I dropped off the bags on the curb and Sue got a porter to get the bags on the racks to go in. I found a parking place relatively near the ship. All the prep work that had been done on the computer back at home had been done including boarding passes We showed our passports and rolled right on. It was the least stressful embarkation we had ever had on any ship. No lines, no problem with the ship board elevators . We were in our room at 3:20. with all of our bags beating us to the room with the exception of the one that held two 12 packs of soda. It arrived after the muster. Wonderful.
Since the Concordia accident in Italy, all ships are stressing their muster drills. The captain came over the public address system while we were all at the muster station and talked for 8and half minutes. Our muster station along with all the people in wheel chairs and many more is the casino on deck 7. Our cabin in on the Lido deck, deck 14. This year we had no trouble getting down to our muster station deck with life jackets in hand . We had an issue trying to get back up to our rooms after the muster. All the passengers want to use the elevators to move up or down to their rooms.... all at once. In the meantime, bags and other luggage items are still coming up to the rooms and the power for only so many elevators at once is problematic.
We waited 45 minutes to get Sue into an elevator. I used the stairs and climbed the 6 decks of stairs we both arrived at the cabin at the same time.
Usually muster drills are held when the ship heads out to sea. Not this time. The ship was clearly in port and and would be there for 2 more hours as darkness fell on the city, and San Pedro and the Terminal Island became lit with its evening lights. This sort of put a damper on the "sail away" party luau as people had already eaten and were back into their cabins getting clothes put away and meeting their room stewards. Our steward is Adul. He was happy to see us. We explained that we needed the egg crate and rubber pad under Sue's side of the bed each time. He said that he had done it before so not to worry.
It was really good to be in the same cabin again. We had been in the same cabin on the same ship a year and a piece ago. When we went to Hawaii in October/November 2011. The artwork in the cabin had not changed.
Later I talked Sue into taking the elevator to the International cafe in the center of the ship. She enjoyed the shrimp salad, the tapioca pudding, and the whole wheat bagel with tuna fish salad. To get to the plaza it was very easy from our cabin. Our cabin is close to the elevators that take passengers to the plaza deck which is deck 5. On deck 5 we walk through the art gallery and arrive at the central part of the ship that has wine tastings, the computer lab, library, the international cafe, and the the light shaft to the sky. It also houses the coffee bar with service. The International cafe is supposed to be open 24/7. It is much more relaxed because the chefs serve you rather than you helping yourself as is the Lido buffet on the first evening. The menu is smaller and has more class.
It was all we needed after the crazy day of excitement of getting on the ship.
The ship finally eased away from the dock and headed out to sea.
The Pipe fitter From Indiana
The first night on board, the Movie on Board had not started yet but a handful of us were eating pizza under the walkway just 30 feet from our cabin on Lido deck. A man introduced himself to me and we started the conversation. We went trough the usual topics. He was a big Peyton Manning fan. He was happy to see that he was doing well in Denver. He thought that Andrew Luck, the new quarterback from Stanford was doing well but needed some years to be able to read the defenses. He worked (now retired) for some food factories in the Indiana. He helped put together the condiment factory that made packs for mustard, ketchup, and others. His greatest claim to fame was working in the factory that was the major competitor to fiddle faddle (candy coated popcorn).
He was traveling with his brother who has spina bifida. This impacts his travel since his 55 year old brother cannot travel in the air. His 50 year old girl friend had a stroke when she was 29. She has ll her facilities except for short term memory and form constancy.
He was interested like most of the passengers on this trip as to when it was going to get warm. I answered as best I knew from the reviews of this trip. The usual rule of thumb is that 2 1/2 days from port the seas and the air usually get warmer. It is still very cool outside and he was shocked that the in the evening it was not particularly comfortable.
He went on about how the German farmers are in Indiana and how they are reluctant to change. As a student of history, he forwarded the opinion that how the allies were able to defeat the Germans in WWII. The ability of the American soldier to adapt to the changing conditions when the net barrier was superior to the German one way with persistent thinking.
I asked his last name it was Stanz. It was German. His German father had married a gal from Sicily. I asked him if he had ever been to Italy. He responded no, I cannot travel that far with my brother.
___________________________
We finally got all the clothes put away, I set up my machine and our changers for electronics. I knew that I needed to bring a long extension cord as there are very few electrical plugs in the rooms. The nearest one for my CPAP machine was 20 feet to the head of the bed.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Travelog Diary- Introduction- Port of LA Round Trip
My wife and I once again gathered up our life and headed for two weeks at sea on the Princess Cruise to Hawaii. This literary ramble of the trip taken at the end of January, 2013 comes from a diary that I wrote while on the ship and immediately after.
A bit of disclaimer is in order. As with much of my writing it is as my wife characterizes it a bit verbose and somewhat over explained it reaches some strange large proportions when reporting the events on the ship and off. If long Christmas family letters turn you off. By all means skip this blog streak as I turned two weeks of this travel into 90 plus pages of journal, the source work for this blog ramble. My hope is that later this year I will work up the salient parts of this ramble and make it into an artist's journal with illustrations of the high points.
There are a couple of landmarks and definitions in this ramble. Every night I wrote what I choose to eat for dinner and what Sue choose. She is a tidy eater that always eats significantly less on the road that at home because it upsets her stomach somewhat to eat food not prepared as she would like. I am a bit of a foodie and enjoy that chance to try out foods that I would not get at home. So it is unfair to characterize the contrasts between the two nightly meals. Also in this ramble is a header that basically tracks the day of the week, the dress of the day, the high and low temperatures and the sunrise and sunset times. These were predictive and updated daily and published in the daily newspaper called the Princess Patter. They were fairly accurate of the days temperature and weather conditions. Passengers of the ship used them to plan their activities for the day. Each day was different.
One of my favorite activities on the ship is to get some people into conversation. I collected these into parts of this ramble. Many of the times I did not get a name or take the time to write down a description of their body types or the clothing that they wore. This is probably the main distinction between this kind of writing and real writing.
The ship because of cruise length offered plenty of time to contemplate the diversity of the world. At times this ramble gets a bit caught up in this philosophical play.
I hope that you will enjoy reading this ramble and somehow get an appreciation for ship life aboard the Golden Princess.
A bit of disclaimer is in order. As with much of my writing it is as my wife characterizes it a bit verbose and somewhat over explained it reaches some strange large proportions when reporting the events on the ship and off. If long Christmas family letters turn you off. By all means skip this blog streak as I turned two weeks of this travel into 90 plus pages of journal, the source work for this blog ramble. My hope is that later this year I will work up the salient parts of this ramble and make it into an artist's journal with illustrations of the high points.
There are a couple of landmarks and definitions in this ramble. Every night I wrote what I choose to eat for dinner and what Sue choose. She is a tidy eater that always eats significantly less on the road that at home because it upsets her stomach somewhat to eat food not prepared as she would like. I am a bit of a foodie and enjoy that chance to try out foods that I would not get at home. So it is unfair to characterize the contrasts between the two nightly meals. Also in this ramble is a header that basically tracks the day of the week, the dress of the day, the high and low temperatures and the sunrise and sunset times. These were predictive and updated daily and published in the daily newspaper called the Princess Patter. They were fairly accurate of the days temperature and weather conditions. Passengers of the ship used them to plan their activities for the day. Each day was different.
One of my favorite activities on the ship is to get some people into conversation. I collected these into parts of this ramble. Many of the times I did not get a name or take the time to write down a description of their body types or the clothing that they wore. This is probably the main distinction between this kind of writing and real writing.
The ship because of cruise length offered plenty of time to contemplate the diversity of the world. At times this ramble gets a bit caught up in this philosophical play.
I hope that you will enjoy reading this ramble and somehow get an appreciation for ship life aboard the Golden Princess.
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