I'm Back!

It has been over 5 years since I posted here, but my kids and I are quitting FaceBook together (that's the plan anyway).  And in the middle of the night I got a text from an old friend (hey Teecie!) asking me where my old blog was.

This was the view from work as the sun came up on New Year's Day.  Hey there 2019!!!

Samantha, Jason and Jace rode up to Julian on NY Day because it had snowed up there. Traffic was nuts and it took them forever to get there, but they saw snow! 

Jace's new preschool is great about sending updates throughout the day. Here is one of them. Isn't he adorable cooking his burgers??

Here is little Jace on his first day of Preschool. Yes, Samantha said, the apple is for his teacher :)

Here, Michael and I are trying on clothes that Samantha sent us for Christmas.

Caribbean Cruisin'

As you know, Kathryn and I go to the beach every year during the summer. This being a special summer - I graduated from culinary school in May and turned 50 in June - Kathryn, being the extra special and extra loving sister that she is, decided our summer outing should also be special. Toward that end, she purchased for both of us a Carnival cruise. Six days, five nights aboard the Carnival Elation, cruising the Western Caribbean. She also purchased an excursion to Chichen Itza, site of the ancient Mayan ruins for us during our stop in Progreso, Mexico. 

Bill, being the extra special and extra loving man that he is, purchased tickets for me to fly down to New Orleans the day before the cruise departed, then back the day after we were finished cruising. 

I arrived and Kathryn picked me (and my totally messed up knee which is another story altogether) up at the airport. We went to her place for the evening to anticipate and prepare for the cruise.

Alicia, Ashley, Ana, Alivia, and Alison came to visit us the night I arrived in town. We ate pizza and bonded. A game of Twister ensued. Several games, actually. Due to my bad knee, I could not participate, but I was able to capture some photos of the event.

Ana is absolutely gorgeous! And the spitting image of her mom.

Twister fun. Kathryn was giving it hell and really held her own against the children.

I wanted a picture of "just the girls". Here they are. Shiloh, Kathryn, Ana, Alivia, Alison, and Alicia. Aren't they beautiful?

I also had to get a picture of Alicia's beautiful family. Same people as before except Kathryn's out and Ashley's in. Shiloh, too, is out. 

Samantha, having recently been on a cruise, told us we should bring some alcohol aboard. Kathryn  is trembling from breaking the rules as she pours Absolut vodka into a mouthwash bottle. We will pack this in our luggage and see if it makes it aboard.

After much standing in line, we boarded. Here is our room. The window is not a porthole at all, as you can plainly see. It is a very nice view of the shores of the Mississippi River at this point. Later, a calming, beautiful view of the sea. My bunk was the one under the window.

We began to explore the ship. This is a dining area on the Lido deck by the pool.

Many kind and friendly waiters (who apparently have amazing memories as they always remembered our names) walked around the ship offering the "drink of the day". It was a tropical punch sort of thing. It wasn't until we'd each had a few that we realized they are chock full of alcohol. Here's Kathryn holding up the first drink.

This is the stage by the pool. Various events were held here, including an ice carving demo, a hairy chest contest, and a "Carnival Idol" sort of competition. This deck blasted out very loud music all the time and we spent very little time here. 

This is a Mongolian Barbecue station on the food line. There was a place for you to gather your raw ingredients, like mushrooms, spinach, onions, tomatoes, noodles, etc. then you would step up and select your protein. They offered chicken, pork, and beef. Next, you would choose a sauce - they offered a variety of sauces, ranging from straight soy sauce, to black bean, to ultra spicy. And before your eyes, they wok'ed it out.

The dessert station. They had chocolate, cheesecake, sponge cakes, cookies, pies, cupcakes, jello, puddings - anything you heart desires. I showed Kathryn how to properly fill a cone with soft serve ice cream.

The Deli offered wraps, sandwiches and paninis of all sorts, along with composed salads, like potato and macaroni.

This pub area was exceedingly comfortable. The comedian performed here, and this was also the site of some trivia and bingo.

Kathryn enjoys the drink of the day. As you can see from the background, we've not yet left port.

I enjoyed the drink of the day. Many times. :)  

Here's Kathryn just as we were about to set sail. New Orleans is in the back.

This is the Serenity Deck,  No kids allowed! Well, that's what they say, but  after spending part of an afternoon there, we decided they need a deck with no one under 40 allowed.  :)

I think this picture is self explanatory.

As we drank our drinks and explored the ship, we spent a little time here on the Lido deck. This is right by the pool area and is really in the thick of things. Much activity goes on here.

The staircase you can barely see beside me leads up to a water slide. I was pretty darned sure I was going to go down that slide at some point.

The atrium. It was very impressive. Two glass elevators. These were the sort of shopping areas of the ship. The bars, restaurants, and stores are all along these hallways. I don't think any of the staterooms are on these levels, only public areas.

Ah..... Riding down down the Mighty Mississip on a cruise ship at sunset. Life is good.

Here I am having my coffee the next morning.  Now we are at sea. My poor knee is elevated and in a  knee-brace. 

The water was so blue it looked fake. Like those fountains in the mall with bright blue colored water. This water was that blue.

And look how calm! I'm on the side of the ship - those ripples are being made by the ship. 

This is a small seating, relaxing area on one side of the ship, almost at the very back. We played some games here and spent some time reading here. It was nice and shady (and right next to a major food and beverage source).

I can't stop photographing (or posting) these water/sky pics. It was really amazing.

Here's our little room again. Kathryn is sitting on her bed. Speaking of the bed - these beds were amazingly comfortable! The comforters were soft and felt like they were filled with feathers. I had better sleep at sea than any sleep I remember in many years.

Here is Kathryn's favorite sight. The wake. She likes being at the back of the boat where you can hear and see the wake. I like it too. I sounds like waves at the beach.

And here is Kathryn sitting in the area facing the wake. We spent a lot of time here reading, relaxing, talking, and generally just hanging out.

This is a little skinny walkway between two seating areas. I thought it was cute and traversed it several times.

This is looking up in the atrium! Yes, that's the ceiling! It's glass. At night they light it up in reds and blues and various colors. Truly amazing.

Last night, having overly imbibed, we ate barbarian style from the many buffets. Tonight? We dine. This was "formal night" in the dining room.. After laboring over what is "formal" and finally settling on what to wear (and throwing a one pair of shoes in the trash because they were ugly) we headed out to dinner.

We had "your time" dining. Kathryn had never used that option before. Normally, you would choose early or late dining, and then show up at either 6 or 8 and sit down at the same table with the same people and be served by the same server. 'Your time' dining allows you to show up at the dining room any time between 5:45 and 9. You are seated at an available table and served by any available server. This was not something we would choose again. Service was very slow and generally poor.

Kathryn looks lovely as we await our server. We had a different server each night, which is a drawback to "your time" dining. 

The bread was great, though, and there was plenty of it.

After dinner, we returned to our room and found a cute little towel animal sitting on my bed, along with the FunTimes paper telling us what's going on the next day. And some chocolates :)

Looking down at the atrium.

See Kathryn across the lobby waving? Hi Kathryn!!

Same view again.

This is the dining area beside the pool. It was cheerful and bright.

This is the beginning of Day 3. My camera has come from cold a/c to hot and humid weather. We are heading ashore for an outing to Chichen Itza, the Mayan ruins. Here I am with the Carnival Elation,

This is the bus we rode on. 

It was a longer ride than what we thought. It was an hour and a half.

A WalMart.  Ha ha....

These red flowers were everywhere and the picture does not do them justice. I'd also like you to note how beautifully blue and clear the sky is.

We stopped to eat and visit el bano (the bathroom) and maybe shop a bit. Here I am in front of a map.

Kathryn joins me in front of the map.

Here we are with a mural of Mayans.

Here is our bus. Waiting for us. It was a really nice bus, even though our tour guide kept it frigid.

Kathryn and I pose on this lovers' bench. It was very hot and very humid here, but we enjoyed the stop.

The lunch they served us. Ham on my sandwich, some unidentified bologna-type substance on Kathryn's. 

Finally we arrive at Chichen Itza!

Hey this doesn't look like Mayan ruins! It looks like a market place.

This drawing (for sale at one of the shops) shows some of the Mayan symbols.

Armando (just like Faye's cat) leads us around once we arrive. He was a font of information.

Colorful goods for sale. I want.

Colorful goods again. I can't wait to do some shopping here!

Demon masks..... 

Armando says "Look toward the bottom of that tree. That's what you had for lunch!"

A better look at the bottom of the tree. That Armando.... What a card.

Our first glimpse of a Mayan pyramid.

While Armando was a font of information, it was hot as balls and we stood in the same spot for quite a while. Here's Kathryn kind of trying to pose with the pyramid without looking like she's posing. Note also the sky. Hmmmm.... Some clouds.

I pose without regard to appearances :)

Armando is describing the sacrifices they used to do here. He passed around many pictures while he talked. Kathryn gives an "Eek!" face.

Human sacrifice pic.

This tree produces cotton balls. Really. Look at the thorns on there. Huge thorns!

The two of us.

The pyramid is very old with various parts of it ranging in origin from 900 BC to 1200 AD.

Inside the pyramid is another pyramid, and then yet another. Deep inside the innermost pyramid is a carving of a man and a carving of a cat. These carvings have some blue stone inlays. The mystery is where they got the blue stones, which are not anywhere around this area of the Yucatan.

Oh my. Clouds are really rolling in.

This girl.... She must have taken a hundred pictures of herself using assorted phones and cameras. She literally spent the entire tour posing for herself then reviewing. She changed clothes twice during the outing. Amazing.

Heads carved into the stone.

All the walls and structures had carvings. Can you just imagine how long it took to carve all these stones?!?

This was a gaming arena. Large hoops are on either side mounted to the walls. A 7 pound ball was thrown through these hoops to score.

See the hoop? It's pretty darned high up there.

Some of the stones have been cleaned up (the white stones) and some have been stolen (where the carved stones are missing).

OK, now we hear thunder. This is the last picture I took, as shortly after it started to rain. When I say rain, I mean POURING rain. Huge drops!!! We were in a wide open space between the pyramids. My knee being injured, all I could do was hobble across the open area while everyone around me ran for cover. I told Kathryn "Save yourself!" but she stuck with me. My white skirt was rendered transparent by the rain and my blue plaid underwear shone through plainly. So did my butt and thighs. I was basically half naked. In an effort to help me preserve some bit of modesty, Kathryn walked behind me, squooshed up pretty close, while I held the front of my skirt out to keep it from clinging.  In this fashion we walked (I limped) all the way across the field to the relative shelter of the trees. We were completely soaked, but Kathryn bought some rain ponchos. I tied one around my waist but it was no use.
I found a t-shirt vendor and asked for the biggest t-shirt he had. "What color?" he said. "I don't care. Just not white!" He produced a black Chichen Itza t- shirt, size XL and I bought it without even attempting to haggle about the price. We were soaked to the skin. We stopped briefly in the ladies' room to wring out our clothes an grab some paper towels and then headed to the rendezvous spot to catch the bus back to the ship.

Yep. This happened. I took off my skirt and hung it on the emergency cord on the bus.

I rode back to the ship in the t-shirt, wearing it dress-like. Our guide still had the a/c cranked up and it was ridiculously cold. It took much longer to return to the ship than it had to get to Chichen Itza due to the torrential rain. We were told not to stop and shop, just get off the bus and board the ship. I was sad to have missed out on the shopping at Chichen Itza, too. I wanted the colorful goods.
The ship was waiting for us. We gave a lot of credit to our driver, seeing as how he couldn't see the road but got us safely to the ship.

Here is the ship as we returned from the harrowing day. There was a line to get aboard, and the wind was very cold and it was whipping our clothes and hair around. All the people in line huddled together for warmth. And yes, I put my skirt back on before we got off the bus.

We went immediately to our room, where we warmed up and changed clothes. This was the front edge of a tropical storm, we now know. I bought a bucket-o-beer to calm my nerves. Kathryn got a margarita.

The sea is no longer lovely and blue and calm. And the boat was rockin'!

Here we are leaving Progreso. The captain came on the loud speaker to tell us to hold on because it was gonna get bumpy.

Kathryn spent a little time in the casino. She was up by $30 at one point, but then lost it all again.

This is just a shot of the casino.

This little seating area at the edge of the casino was pretty much always full of people but we had no interest in this place and spent close to no time here. It was more of a pathway to other things, like the Music Cafe.

Day 3 dinner in the Imagination (or is it Inspiration?) dining room. Again the service was extra poor but the food was extra good.

Kathryn has another margarita.

I had fried shrimp. It was very good.

Because the sea was rough, the ship was pretty deserted. Here's the slide I mentioned earlier. Go down it? No way. That was just drunken bravado.

We left the storm (but not the rocky seas) behind and the result was a stunning sunset.

Kathryn chilling out watching the sun go down.

I took like 20 pictures of the sky, but I'll spare you all of them but a few.

Kathryn and the sunset.

Me and the sunset.

OK, that's the last one.... but isn't it beautiful! You should have seen it in person. Absolutely breathtaking.

Next we hit up the piano bar. Look at the statue of liberty head! 

We sat a the bar which surrounded the piano. That thing Kathryn has (the red, white and blue cord around her neck) in every picture is a carrier for a key card. You are issued the card when you board. This card serves as your ID, your room key, and your payment method. It's everything when you're on board. I had one, too, on a black cord around my neck.

This guy was pretty good. He played and sang his heart out. It being a piano bar, we all sang along with him. It was good times.

And when we returned to our room, this little guy awaited us.

Another morning, another outing. We did not purchase an excursion in Cozumel but got off the boat to explore. The Elation's sister ship docked next to us.

This shopping area was right at the end of the dock. It was lovely. Very tropical. The buskers were pretty aggressive and had no problem blatantly lying to you in order to get you to come over and view their items. "One dollar! One dollar!" they would scream. But nothing was one dollar.

A square bush. Huh.

The ships as seen from shore.

By this time, my knee felt ON FIRE so I sat, old woman style, on a wall while Kathryn shopped. I was surrounded by beautiful gardens.

And soldiers with guns.....

Photo Op!!!! Doin' it up Gilley's style. 

I made Kathryn do it too, but her heart doesn't seem in it.

Big Foot Kathryn! Love this picture :)

This guy was by the duty-free shop. Had I felt better I would have posed Kathryn up behind the wheel, but unfortunately I was limpy and in pain. Poor Kathryn had to bear the brunt of my knee injury during the whole cruise. 

We went in a drug store. Look! Viagra and Cialis right out on the shelf for sale. They had Amoxicillin and Z-Packs and flexeril, too.

I bought some Voltaren (a creme for inflammation that I've been prescribed before) for my knee. Just six dollars. 

And here we say goodbye to Cozumel. The weather is trying to catch up with us again. Kathryn relaxes and reads.

This is the pilot boat that led us out of Cozumel. Bill explained to me that the boat doesn't really do anything except deliver the harbor master to the ship. The harbor master then drives the ship out of the harbor, then he reboards the pilot boat.

Adios Cozumel!

Adios little piloto boat.

It was another extremely rocky and windy afternoon aboard. Here's Kathryn far forward.

This is the top level of the ship. There is a basketball court (a couple of courts, actually) up here.

Windy!!! Kathryn takes a picture of me.

We just wandered the boat for a bit. Look at those lifeboats, all strapped to the sides around one whole deck.

Hey, putt-putt! Again, Kathryn is screwed because of my stupid knee. There's no way I'm trying to play putt-putt.

My hat was blown off my head by the ferocious wind. It's possible (ok, it's a fact) that we were drinking a little bit. I offer as proof this photo of Kathryn - right in front of a big yellow sign saying NO ADMITTANCE - trying to pry open the door to reach the area where my hat is. Kathryn is a rule-obeyer. I'm sure she's appalled by this picture. :)

The sea was very choppy and many people were sick. This left the boat fairly deserted. 

The locked hallway where my hat landed. See it? It's almost dead center in this picture.... For all I know, it's still laying right there.

That night, we prepared to go back to the dining room for dinner. This very odd scene played out below us. There are photographers everywhere on the ship. They take pictures every time you turn around, then develop them and put them in a hallway photo area hoping you'll buy them. Apparently, this father and son thought it would be cool to get a picture in their Carnival bathrobes. And combat boots. Awkward.

And sunglasses. Very awkward.

After dinner, this little guy was on my bed.

I had Chateaubriand, by the way. And goodness was it wonderful. Really really super good. The service, as always, sucked. But the food, in this case, made it all worthwhile. This was the best meal I ate on the ship and would gladly eat it again any time.

Day 5. Last full day. A fun day at sea. We were hanging out playing a game of Scattergories on deck when I said, "Hey what time is it?" Kathryn says "1:10" and I said "Wasn't there an ice carving demo we wanted to see at 1?" so we hoofed it over to the stage to see the demo. It was already done. Sheesh, that was very fast! The result was this Indian head. Cool.

Afternoon snackie in the buffet room. This is a puff pastry shell with vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce, and a little cookie for the head and neck. It was really tasty, too.

A view of how they display all the photos they've taken of every passenger.

At any given time, there might be several packages of photos of you. They take them every time you leave the boat. They take them when you get on the boat. They take them at dinner. Also, there are several places set up on the boat where you can just stop anytime and get them to take your picture. When they do that, they pose you up in like 5 or 7 different poses and take pictures. We bought two photos - the one when we first boarded in New Orleans, and then our Formal Night dinner photo. They were 22 bucks for EACH PICTURE.

Our last day had a beautiful, calm, blue ocean again. It was very relaxing and soothing.

After our last night's dinner, this heart shaped towel was on the bed. Sniff, sniff... Our last  towel figure....

And the final morning finds us docked in New Orleans.

Right there, sticking half out from under the portico is our bus that takes us back to the car.

Back at home, Kathryn pours back the vodka. We aren't as young as we used to be.....

All in all the cruise was amazing and fun and relaxing. I can't say how much I appreciate it, Kathryn. Thank you so much. Bonding time was wonderful. My knee situation put a damper on things, but did not ruin the trip. 
Kathryn took great care of me. Now back to the world. Perchance to see a doctor.