The Hawaii Journal

This is a summary of the blog entries that follow.
The Ship: The Golden Princess, 109,000 tons. Original Cost 405 million dollars 18 passenger decks

Our stateroom: L252 (Lido) or deck 14.
Embarkation:Port of Los Angeles
Disembarkation: Port of Los Angeles

Sailing Date: October 26,2011
Sailing Time: 4 pm
All passengers onboard by 3:00 pm
Arrived Home: November 9th, 2011


Night before cruise: The Westin Long Beach (Hot Wire)
Length of cruise: 14 nights

Itinerary for Cruise:
Wednesday: Los Angeles Pier 93 (October 26,2011)
Day 1 Thursday: At Sea (October 27,2011)
Day 2: Friday: At Sea (October 28,2011)
Day3: Saturday At Sea (October 29,2011)
Day 4: Sunday At Sea (October 30,2011)
Day 5: Monday Hilo, Hawaii, Hawaii (October 31,2011)
Day 6: Tuesday, Honolulu,Oahu, Hawaii (November 1,2011)
Day 7: Wednesday, Naniliwili, Kaui, Hawaii (November2, 2011)
Day8: Thursday, Lanhania, Maui, Hawaii (November3,2011)
Day9: Friday, At Sea (November 4,2011)
Day10: Saturday: At Sea (November5,2011)
Day11: Sunday: At Sea (November 6,2011)
Day 12: Monday: At Sea (November 7,2011)
Day 13: Tuesday: Ensenada, Mx (November8,2011) (4 hours docked)
Day 14: Wednesday: Los Angeles (November 9,2011) disembark.. by 9:30am)

Tues: We left Merced at 3:35. We waited 2 hours to make sure that we could see both cats were inside before we left. Georgie, the white manx cat hid out in the garage for two hours in protest. Nigel was out too, but came right in after waiting on the front patio while I read the newspaper.

At 5:30 we were at the base of the grapevine pass. We had traveled over to Los Banos and whistled down Interstate 5 mostly at 70mph. The cheveron on top of grapevine had a subway sandwich shop. The manager was bemoaning the lack of business.. hoping that it would pick up. We filled up and headed into the basin after dark.
Tuesday night we arrived at the Westin Long Beach for the bed that Sue wanted to take home it was so perfect. The Westin would accommodate her whishes for $4200.
It was almost 10pm when Sue sent me out for "something to eat" Around the corner from the Westin was a crepe house.
The manager said that since it was 10 minutes from closing time, all that I could order was "take out." He offered up the whole menu for take out however. I ordered a scallop and shrimp filled crepe and a vegetarian crepe. 16 for the seafood, 14 for the vegetarian. The seafood one had a delicate lemon sauce. The veggie had potatoes and mushrooms. Both of them were great choices. Sue choose the specialize in the seafood one.. but there was plenty for both of us to share, and we did.

Embarkation Day Wednesday, October 26.
I was up in the morning at 6:30. I tried to capture in digital photos the public art in Long Beach. What was cool was the art deco like mosiac tile art in a couple of blocks around downtown.
The last time we were Long Beach I ran across a restaurant on Atlantic that claimed that it had the best burgers in town, also serving lunch and breakfast. It had a drive through and a blue collar look about it. It looked like a prime spot for a stack of hot cakes, my latest obsession. I was not disappointed. 5 dinner plate sized cakes were delivered to my booth, along with 2 tubs of butter and 2 tubs of syrup. The very thought of syrup would bring Sue a negative reaction.
Back at the hotel room Sue opted for a "naked" coconut/pinapple smoothie and a cinnamon/raisin bagel from the coffee nook across from the hotel.
Sue needed a "hat" for the trip, so after checking out (I checked out for the guy one floor below us first before Sue pointed out my mistake), we fired up the Expedition and hauled over to the nearby Albertson's and then the CVS pharmacy. the hat was found and we made our way across the two bridges from Long Beach to the Port of Los Angeles. Our embarkation was simple and characteristic of Princess form for its preferred customers. It was the easiest of any ship we had traveled upon. Plenty of time to unload the the power chair and the wheelchair and two of the largest suitcases you can buy, a backpack and a carry on. Don't forget the purse too.
On the Ship
We were on the ship and in our cabin by 2:00.
The ubiquitous muster occured at 3:15. What a mess! We have a cabin on the 14th deck-Lido. Our muster station along with everyone else is on the 7th deck. Getting there via the elevator was not difficult. Getting back.. oh my. I climbed the 7 floors to our room but Sue was at the mercy of an elevator that had too many people in it and all of them having to jump or wait for her to get out so they could exit at their floor. I walked/climbed the 7 floors and beat Sue to the room. I did this so that the other people that really needed the elevator could use it.
When I arrived, the 2nd big bag was waiting for me in the hall. They collected them when we got on the ship and delivered them later to each cabin so you didn't have to walk your bags up the floors to your cabin. The wheel chair came soon after.
At 6:30 we still could see the Channel Islands as we moved toward Hawaii. Dad said that the ship travels at 18 miles an hour so still seeing the island 36 miles off the shore is kind of unique. Usually when we leave the port of LA we are headed for Mexico. Its usually a later departure too.
We are on the top deck (our stateroom) with the pools, indoor and outdoor, the horizon buffet, is also on this deck.

Our cabin stewardess is Rosalie. She came in our cabin tonight to drop off a pretty blue Princess bag with our chocolates with a reminder to set our clocks back one hour. Its now a quarter to seven, it is in real time tomorrow a quarter to 6pm.

We are very close to the pizza and hamburger stand. A bar separates them. The pool is between the outdoor pizza stand and the buffet court. No stairs, no elevators, that might not be such a good place to encourage shipboard interaction.

The Golden in the Princess line seems large. Even with its size, this time of the year, yields a very aged group. I did not see any kids at the muster. Sue saw a few preschoolers with their families when we were getting on. We also saw a one couple ahead of us in line that had two fortyish people hauling with them 6 thin oxygen tanks each behind their wheelchairs.
Sue and I choose off the buffet for dinner tonight .. pineapple (fresh) honeydew(fresh) and mixed veggies , about 5 hard rolls each . For me I added the borscht, and the cappra (salami) and Sue ate a slice of pork from the carving station. There was also some really yummy sugarless chocolate cake with fresh stawberries on it for desert.

On Princess, at the buffet, you pick a place to sit down, and the waiter serves you with water, and a cloth napkin and silverware. Sue loves the hard rolls that are from the ship. She also had a slice of cheese pizza.
I let Sue rest in the cabin while I brought her the dinner mentioned above in "take out" form.
Our room is really large. Its one of 25 accessible rooms on the ship. The bathroom is large. I bought two extra cords for the charging of the powerchair, my cpap machine and the recharging of our cameras and phones. There are only two outlets for the room and they are way into the corner of the room. Many of the other ships we have been on only have one outlet.
There is a nice writing table and a small flat screen TV over the mini fridge.

Tonight there already has been some mechanic drilling holes in the panel in our hall. This is not a very good sign.

I went to the "Welcome Aboard Show" in the main theatre.
Dancers and Singers (sampler: we are family)
Cruise Director-Introduced Staff
Filmed "fly over" of various parts of the ship video
Black comedian from San Diego, did part of his show

Cruise Director's "gag":
His wife called him to tell him that she bought curtains that were pink.
He asked,"Where are they going?"
She answered,"they had to be big enough to cover the computer monitor.
Why?
They use "Windows"
Everyone groaned on that one.
The slot machines are now using cruise cards to spend gambling and to collect the winnings. What winnings? No one seemed to be winning.
I bought a mojoito at the piano bar. They were running a "fill the card" scam with the completed cards having a chance at having your complete bar bill paid for at the end of the cruise. You need to have the equivalent of 30 beers (the lowest valued) to get your card into the drawing. This bar has olives with mystery fillings as its draw. Some olives are stuffed with garlic cloves, others with pimentos, others with almond slivers. I was assured that they were the only bar on the ship that had them. Mojito was good. Was a little more on the lime side than the mint side in flavor.
I am looking forward to Lox in the morning. They had a start for that on the deck sandwich bar today. No bagels, however.

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On the Sea for Two Weeks and Climate Change

What is your life worth? Can you give two weeks of your life to travel the seas to a tropical island and back? Why not .. if you can.. and we did.

I know that you can get on a jet and zoom over to the Hawaiian islands in roughly 5 hours experience a ton of fun things to do and the weather, zoom back home and life goes on.

We had never done that.. I am not saying that it is bad. Its a little different when you travel and arrive and return via a 109,000 ton ship with 26000 passengers on it like the Golden Princess.

We have been to Alaska a few times of the ship.. Its a great 10 day trip in the summer. You get into the rhythm of sailing and sailing and getting off at a port and enjoying the port for a day and then clambering on board and sailing off to the next port. At night you gather with your intrepid fellow travelers and there is a chance to share with them the adventures of the day. The choices are made and the food is served. Its really a graceful way to travel and develop a community with strangers.

We decided that we could do the same with a cruise to Hawaii. The price was roughly the same.. about 1200 dollars apiece. The journey would be 14 days round trip out of LA.


With some careful scrutiny of travel arrangements and cabin selection.. we needed one of the 25 accessible cabins on the ship, we made plans to sail the end of October and return after the first week of November.

We had warm days in October in the central valley. When we returned in November the warm days are gone, replaced by the rainy cool Fall weather. When we left the afternoons would get into the high 80's. In November there is no such warm. The high temperature is more likely to be in the 60's. What a change. The shorts weather we had were exchanged for the more winter oriented long khakis and tee shirts under short sleeve shirts. 

Cat/house sitters were found and bags were packed to arrange an overnight stay in Long Beach with a short no worries, "walk on the ship embarkation" the next afternoon. The ship, The Golden Princess was there as planed and we rolled and walked on with our usual moves when we take the NCL ship at the same harbor to Mexico for 7 days.

The next set of entries to this blog are from the daily diaries of the log I kept every day of the journey. The accounts are not meant to brag or in anyway insult or complement the people or the events contained in them.  If you are not interested in this account it is okay and I will not hold you responsible for a test on its contents at its conclusion.


So.. at the top of each day there is an entry that divides it from the previous day. It has a Day number a date and a weather forecast.  I used the Princess Patter.. the daily paper delivered to each cabin the night before to gather and insert this information. 

I hope you enjoy "Pat's Patter" which this is all about. : ) Pat

Writing from the Dialog

After reading A Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate, I have changed my writing style. She writes her novels from a first person perspective of each character. The tricky part in writing this way is getting the context descriptions to fit in. Its quick and easy to write what a character should be saying, its a lot harder to write how they said it or where they said it without breaking the narrative.

If you read her books you will discover an author that seems effortlessly fluent in her writing. She has taken out most of the bumps that change the rhythm. I am studying her writing style to get a handle on the "Aunt Betty" rescue narrative that I am writing.

Taste of Salt is a book about a black girl growing up in Cleveland who is enamored by the sea. She becomes a marine biologist on the East coast. Her family struggles with alcohol addiction. Mom a registered nurse, her dad an auto assembly person that reads the classics after working hours provided the background for her growing up. Her brother who was a trainer for the Cavaliers, a professional basketball team in Cleveland lost his job from using, despite repeated attempts to engage in rehabilitation. Her father becomes estranged due to his alcohol addiction. When that happened his reading after work stopped.

There is little sub cultural dialog in her writing. The reader does not have to "translate" from white to black English. The author is well versed in writing a story from an educated black perspective.

The reader can just roll right along into the narrative dialog as it tells the story. The diad is often the reader and the character in the book rather than the character and another character in the book. This adds to the intimacy of the writing.

As a public figure Martha Southgate  was outspoken in objection to the movie and the book The Help. When she was interviewed by the morning talk shows about The Help, she said that it was well written but should have had an authentic black author writing it since it was written from black person's perspective.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy this book.
: ) Pat

Tuesday Morning

Its Tuesday morning in Merced.
This morning it seemed a little warmer. Looking at the weather forecast it should be warmer today. I collected the sunrise today without any clouds in the sky. Since my walk however, the breeze has picked up and is jangling the wind chimes in the front. This time of the year we have winds that come down off the mountain and warm up from the friction. We seldom get coastal fog but during this time of the year, sometimes the coastal fog is non existent. The friction in the air and no fog was part of the weather conditions the resulted in huge losses in the Oakland fire a few years ago.

Top of the agenda today is to cut the yard with the lawn mower, do some laundry. Maybe I will go after some volunteer berry bushes in the back yard.

What is really nice about this time of the year is that when you have the thermostat set in the high 70's it the air conditioner does not go on. In the evening it is not so cold that you need a jacket on if you are not up in the wee hours.

Today I was up before the sun to get my walk in. They have changed the layout of the furniture in our Starbucks. The walls were painted new colors and new corporate artwork was hung. New furniture was added. We now have a section of tall bar stools and tables in the center. On the outside edge of the turret shaped interior are low tables of 4 instead of more smaller tables of 2. We got back a couple of upholstered chairs and we now have a coffee counter with chairs as we come in. Most veteran customers are not at all amused by the new set up. While I have been going to this one for about 4 years this is the second time this Starbucks has incurred a furniture switch. On the surface it would seem that those that sit down and need to work with the wifi and the lap top computers would be the most pleased of the customers. They have turned out to be the least tolerant. When a group of students came in and sat at the center tables they "hogged" all the electrical outlets that the regular laptop customers use. We will see how all of this washes out.  Some customers were so concerned that they have threatened to move their business to another branch of starbucks. Its a mile and half away. I guess if you arrive and leave using your car it wouldn't matter.

Have a happy day! :  ) Pat

A New Brush

I have been playing around with a new brush.
Yes they are dear... I won't go into details about their cost.
But

I got my hands on a couple of

Isabey Kolinsky watercolor brushes.

They are made in France from Russian sable. They are accurate and hold a huge amount of water  and paint for their sizes. 

My current art work has taken me out of the atmospherics temporarily to some small canvases that can reflect a smaller subject.

The first one was the monarchs that are in my daughter Linzi's possession. My latest number is a very small 4x12 of my Starbucks coffee shop from the outside. My first inclination was to draw an outline with a pencil. The problem became that the lead in the pencil entered into the value structure of the painting. This was not good. I decided to "sketch" this new brush using non staining paints.. and it really helped to keep the painting from going grey. I have never been very good using a brush as a sketching tool. This new brush with its accuracy and its supply made sketching much easier. I am headed for some bigger versions of this brush.

The retail list on a bigger version of this brush is almost 300 dollars. Ebay to the rescue! I am hoping to get a size 12 for around 100.  I am keeping my fingers crossed!

: ) Pat

Fall Mix

 Inspiration

One of my nieces, Cammie, published her latest Summer of Happiness Mix. Its really pretty good. There are a number of reggae rhythm songs connected into to a very pleasant listen. Congrats! You are an inspiration!

I got to thinking about a new mix for myself.  Using my library from ITunes I started to think of some songs that would be great together.

The criteria for these is an interesting premise. I want a non or at least a non love song dominate mix. I wanted a mix that was pop but not country.. or at least particularly country.

I just could not resist to put one in... its one that could run around in your head for a long time.  Norah Jones does a duet with Sasha Dobson. It goes back to the reference of rodeo from Garth Brooks that we included in the 2000 fouth of July. I think that the background support tracks are what make this song special.

These songs all have a special support tracks for the vocals. There is a very unique rhythm and musicality for each.This is a very unusual mix in that these singers are seldom mentioned together since they represent diverse musical backgrounds. It is actually a fusion mix.

How was song order determined?

I arranged them in an order of song energy. Each song was rated on this scale. 1 repsented a whisper song and a 10 was a screamer. There were no songs in this group that bit anywhere near either of these polls. The softer songs at the beginning of the CD are rated as 4s. Near the end of the CD there are some 7s and 8s. Many of these songs are not by the original artists.  These tracks were selcted for there sounds not for their origins.

There are 17 tracks in the mix:
_________________________________________

Pat's Fall 2011 Mix

1. Pills Stopped Working- Hem
2. Blue Bayou- Norah Jones, M Ward
3. Innocent Bones-Iron and Wine
4. Its Gonna Be- Norah Jones
5. Bull Rider - Sasha Dobson, Norah Jones
6. Lets Get Lifted- John Legend
7. Huym4 My Soul- Joe Crocker
8. Ride my See Saw- Moody Blues
9. Takin Care of Business- George Throogood
10. Museum- Herman's Hermits
11. Burn this Disco, Michael Jackson
12. Bring it On- Seal
13. Nag- Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
14. Treat me Right- Pat Benatar
15. River Deep, Mountain High- Celine Dion
16. Gear Jammer- George Thorogood
17 Dancing Queen- The Yayhoos
__________________________________
Okay.. So what do you think?

: ) Pat

Transition into Fall

The first storm of the fall came this week.

In one day in Merced 3/4 of an inch of rain dropped. Its very unusual to have thunder and lightening with it.

This pretty well ends the commercial tomato season... too much mold in the product unless they are harvested immediately.

Highway 99 was replete with tomato trucks driving like made to make their way to the paste factories.

With mold in the air it will not be long until we see the cotton harvesters working their wonders through the fields and in their deposit long white caterpillar mounds upon the field.

I know it is darker now in the morning. Its much easier to collect sunrises on my walk.

Contrails in the sky are now much more visible. They are going North/South

We were in the Bay Area this week and it was Fleet week. This weekend is Columbus Day weekend.

The hills look really dry

The evening temps are down in the 40s where last week the were in the high 50's

The front yard grass loves the rain and the cool weather. Its the best its looked all year.

Baseball is just about over.

There is no sign this year that basketball will ever return to the airways.

Hockey is back.

Its long pants and tee shirt weather. The shorts get put away. It looks like the end of 90 degree weather.


All this happening with one storm. Yep.. That is California Central Valley weather for you.
: )  Pat