Alaska Cruise Review, Part 1

We drove from our home near Portland, Oregon to Seattle Saturday morning, July 19, anxious to begin our Princess Cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage. We looked forward to 7 days aboard the Golden Princess, which was scheduled to return us back to Seattle the following Saturday.

Checking in was a breeze due to my parents knowing one of the supervisors who works there. Our "cruise cards" - kind of a combination onboard credit card and key - were already made out for us with a VIP sticker on them. We were escorted very quickly through the process. We felt special.



















Here was the view as we departed Seattle right on time at 4 pm:
















The first night was a casual night in the dining room. Actually, they call it "Smart Casual". In other words, you don't have to wear formals, but you shouldn't wear jeans or t-shirts either. We had elected for "Anytime Dining" as opposed to "Traditional Dining", which means that you get the same menu and quality of service in the same type of dining room, but you get to choose what time you go. Think of it as going to a restaurant without a reservation, whereas the Traditional diners have a reservation. Two different dining rooms, but everything is the same. I didn't think to bring menus home, but believe me, the food choices are awesome. If you are really interested in seeing menus, check out this review from a fellow Cruise Critic member, cezovski. There are menus from their cruise at the bottom of the review. Ours were almost identical.

The first full day was a day at sea. I should have kept notes because it's hard to remember what we did. I'm pretty sure Hubby and I went to play Bingo that day, and I think that's the day Mom & I went to an arts and crafts class where we learned to make crepe-paper flowers. Of course, we shopped. There are 2 floors of great stores on that ship. Before the week was over, I bought a Swarovski Crystal fish, and Hubby bought a Citizen Eco Drive watch.

The first stop was Juneau. It was only about 50 degrees, the skies were an ugly grey, and it was drizzling off and on. Not what I had hoped for, but we didn't let it stop us. While Hubby headed out for a gold panning trip (he got a few flakes), Mom, Dad & I boarded a motor coach and visited Mendenhall Glacier. It's pretty awesome in person. The pictures don't really do it justice.
















After we returned from the tour, we met up with Hubby and toured the town a bit on our own.
















That night was our first of 2 formal dining nights, so we got all spiffied up and went to eat dinner. Dinners are quite an event on a cruise. If you don't want to spend 90 minutes to 2 hours having your meal, then go to the buffet, the hamburger place, pizza place, or order room service. Again, I wish I had brought back a menu, but take my word for it - the food is delicious and you can eat as much of it as you want. Our waiter kept telling people that if they didn't like what he brought them, he'd bring them something else. I didn't like my dessert and he did just that.

This could take forever, so I think I'll post this for now and work on the rest in a draft. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a bald eagle. We saw several of them.

Back to Reality

We're back from our cruise to Alaska. It was wonderful and I took 500 pictures!! Wow. It'll take time to go through them all and upload the ones I want. I think I'll put them on shutterfly.com . Once I get that done, I'll post a link here. In the meantime, enjoy Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm Fjord, and a picture I snapped during a train trip. UPDATE: I have begun my cruise review. It is currently in draft form. I hope to have it up sometime next week. Please stand by.

Anniversary weekend

Saturday was our 12th anniversary (oh hey.. 12th on the 12th.. just noticed that!) and we took a trip to the Oregon coast. There is an Indian casino we go to, and we had enough "points" on our player's card to get a free night in their lodge. We had never stayed there before and were very impressed by it. Here are a couple pictures of our room. I didn't get one of the bathroom, but it was nice with marble countertops and tiled floors.

































Anyway, so naturally we gambled. Hubby hit a 4-spot Keno his very first game. Cha-ching - $225. I didn't know about it, because I was playing machines. I was on my last $40, which I put into a red-white-and-blue 7's dollar machine and I hit 4 white 7's. Cha-ching - $400. So I go in the Keno lounge to tell hubby, found out about his win, and sit with him while his last 3 games are played. It was down to the last 2 balls drawn on his last game, and he hit another 4-spot. Cha-ching - $225. So we decide to take some of the winnings and play machines a little bit, and I hit 3 mixed color 7's. Cha-ching - $160. When all was said and done, we went to our room with $960. Naturally, I took a picture.
















After a free breakfast the next morning, we headed towards Depoe Bay. First, we stopped at the Taft district of Lincoln City. It was a beautiful morning. It was only 8:30 when we got there, so not many people were out. Here are some more pictures. I thought the fish sculpture was neat.
































Next stop was Newport for lunch, then to the man-made jetty where we saw the most unusual starfish. It had 15 arms. I'd never heard of such a thing, but looked it up on the internet, and discovered that it is called a sunflower starfish. Anyway, we had a lovely trip and managed to stay away from the 100 degree heat back home. (It was 70 at the coast) Here's a picture of that starfish.

You don't look a day over 200

Happy Birthday, America !!

Ok, I lied

I said I'd post pictures from our trip to the Washington Coast. Truth is, I didn't take any. I wanted to. I had my camera right with me. It was the sky that did not cooperate. Over the water there was a dense fog, and overhead were some low, thick, dark clouds. It never did rain, but it was just a dull color of gray outside. The water and sky were the same color. Not very pretty. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get a sunny weekend, but hey - it was a weekend away from home as well as some quality time together, so I can't complain.

Just so it's not a total loss, here are pictures of what it should have looked like.

Feeling Guilty

I know! I know! I'm a bad, bad blogger!! I have one in the hopper, but it requires a video which I can't get to load. I've been told it's too large. So sorry. We're heading out of town this weekend and I promise to post pics of the trip. We'll be visiting the Washington coast and staying overnight in Long Beach, WA. Until then....

Today, she's a my birthday too!!

Forty-five years ago today my mother gave birth to a beautiful 7 lb 8oz blue-eyed baby girl. She was the apple of her father's eye and the most beautiful thing her two big brothers had ever seen. Why, she was the darling of Van Nuys, California. People came from blocks around just to be in her presence.

Ok, ok. Enough of the fairy tale stuff. It's my birthday today. Happy birthday to me! I think we're going out for Mexican food tonight. My present was the bikes we got about 3 weeks ago. In fact, that was my husband's birthday present too, and his birthday isn't until September!

By the way, the line in the title is from an episode of I Love Lucy when they are in Italy and it's little Ricky's birthday. A little Italian boy tells Lucy "Hey! What do you know? Today, she's a MY birthday too!". Congrats to anyone who got the reference before I explained it.

A Fill-In-The-Blank Meme

This meme came from "the bluest butterfly". Kinda looks like fun. Leave a comment with your fill-ins, and/or post it on your blog.

1. My best friend is___________________.
my husband.

2. I love it when____________________.
the weather is beautiful on the weekend and we do something fun.

3. My favorite movie is _________because _________.
Too hard to pick just one. I like Shawshank, Pulp Fiction, Forest Gump, Rebecca, Green Mile, Sixth Sense, Awakenings, Grease, just to name a few off the top of my head.

4. I can't stand it when________________________.
people are mean or rude for no reason.

5. If I could have any job in the world it would be______________.
probably a travel agent. I love to plan and take trips.

6. Most weekends I ____________________.
stay up later than normal and sleep in later than normal. I try to go somewhere.. anywhere.. at least once each weekend day, even if it's just to the grocery store. The best weekends are when I get to take a day or weekend trip.

7. _____________ tastes so good!
Things that are bad for me

8. Why does _______________________?
a child get a terminal disease

9. I have lots of _________________ around the house.
dust collectors

10. Blogging satisfies my need for ________________.
expression and communication

A lovely Saturday drive

On Saturday, we decided to take a drive to the Quartzville Recreation Corridor east of Albany, Oregon near Sweet Home. It's a 50 mile-long back-country byway connecting Hwy. 20 & Hwy. 22. The first half of it follows Quartzville Creek, and that's the part we went to. The color of the creek is a gorgeous turquoise. Apparently there is plenty of gold to be found. We saw a few people trying to get their share. There is also fishing, camping, boating, swimming, hiking, you name it. It was gorgeous, and we will definitely go there again. I took way too many pictures, 6 of which are below. Enjoy.

What's in YOUR mug? (THIS IS MY 50TH POST!!!)

After posting this, I realized it was my 50th post!!! So do I get a gold watch or something?

I got this from Driller's Blog and thought it was a fun idea. He got it from someone else, and so on. Go to his blog to find the original source if you are so inclined.

Describe your favorite coffee mug. Is it large or small, plain or with a design? Does it have a big man-sized handle or a tiny little teacup-sized one? Maybe you got it on vacation, maybe it has a funny saying on it, or maybe it's an insulated travel mug. And what kind of beverage do you put in it? Is it always coffee? Do you take it black or with cream, sugar, or both? Whatever the case may be, leave a comment and let us know!

I have several mugs and have included a picture of three of them. I happen to enjoy Winnie the Pooh and his friends, and they are well represented in my mug repertoire. I also have a couple of I Love Lucy mugs, as I am a Lucy lover from way back. Then there are the vacation ones; Hawaii and Las Vegas just to name a couple.

The really funny thing is that I don't drink that much coffee! If I do, it's black. I enjoy it at a restaurant for breakfast or for a fancy dinner, but I really don't drink it much at home for some reason. My husband drinks a few cups every day of his life, but I'd rather drink something cold. Every now and then in the winter I'll have some hot spiced cider. Yum. I just like coffee mugs. Nobody ever said you had to actually USE them.

So how about you? Comment here and feel free to continue this topic onto your blog. Be sure to link mine in your post.

Thanks, Uncle George!

We got our "Economic Stimulus" money May 6th and decided we'd better go ahead and stimulate. We did put most of it in savings. Afterall, we have a cruise in July (which is paid for, but we'll need spending cash) and a trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving coming up. But we took a portion of it and bought ourselves bicycles. We're on a health and fitness bender right now, and these bikes will fit right in.

I was skeptical, as the last bike I had (*cough*) 20 years ago was a standard, old-fashioned 10-speed. You know the type... small seat that kills your booty, handlebars that make you bend over to reach them, and a shifting system that I could never figure out. Needless to say, I hated it. So we discovered something called a "Comfort Bike". It must be made for the middle-aged folks like us. The seat is more roomy and padded, but most importantly - you sit up straight to ride it. And the gear system is sooo easy. Just the twist of a dial next to the hand grips, and you're off and running. It has 21 gears and in the low gears, inclines are as easy as can be. Raise it to about 12th or more and peddling is a breeze. Higher than that, and you can coast down a hill without riding the brakes.

I love my bike! We've been all over our town with them. It'll be great to take them camping with us this summer. We've gotten all sorts of little extras. Flashing lights for nighttime, speedometers, cargo carriers, etc. What we probably should have gotten were knee and elbow pads and helmets!! Pictures below are off the internet, but they are the same bikes in the same colors as ours.

OMG!!! She actually blogged today!!!

After 22 days, I felt it was time. I've been lazy. Sorry. I just don't know what to talk about, so I'll talk about nothing. Seinfeld... it's a show about nothing.

Let's see. I'm watching American Idol right now, even though I've heard all the performances at the best Idol blog around. My prognostication for elimination order is Jason then Syesha, making a battle of the David's with David Cook coming out on top. Of course I'm probably completely wrong. I usually am.

We got our yard all gussied up for Spring. Went to the plant show at the fairgrounds and spent $90 on flowers and baskets. It always looks so pretty with fresh new little flowers. I just keep my fingers crossed that everything lives because my thumb, she ain't so green. I'll get a picture up soon. Not of my thumb... of the yard.

Went to my niece's birthday party on Sunday. She turned 7. She's growing up way too fast. There were 10 girls there and my sister-in-law had a craft for them to do. I was there to help them, but it was so fun I wanted to do it myself!! She bought flip-flops and stuff to decorate them with. They had ribbon to put around the perimeter, beads and feathers to put on the top, and just all kinds of cuteness came out. I didn't know there was actually such a thing as "flip-flop glue".

We're going on a cruise in July and I am sooooo looking forward to it. I've been frequenting a cruise message board to get tips and ideas, and have filled one piece of notebook paper with all the things I want to remember to bring or do. The cruise is to Alaska and we're going with my parents, who paid for it (bonus!!). 74 days and counting. And you KNOW I'll blog about that when we get back! Along with pictures galore.

What else? We're still going to the gym. My husband has been a little burned out on it and has been skipping days. Sometimes I skip with him, but I have gone by myself several times. I've lost 22 pounds since mid-December, which ain't too bad. Last I heard, Hubby had lost 30, but that was before he skipped almost 2 weeks. No biggie though. We all struggle.

Ok, I think that's it. Till next time. And it may even be less than 22 days!!

Global Warming?? My Patootie!!

I can't believe the weather we've had this Spring. We pretty much know by the end of February that we're not going to get any more snow, but not this year. This past weekend the Northwest had a freaky snowstorm pass through. This is almost the end of April. What the heck is going on?

Danny Noriega? Is that you??

On our weekend trip (previous post) I saw a guy who I think looks a lot like Danny Noriega, a former top 20 contestant on American Idol. What do you think? Edited to add: No, I'm not trying to say this IS danny. I know it's not. I'm only posting this for the "hmm, he kinda looks like Danny Noriega" entertainment factor.

Road Trip!!

On a whim, we decided to go to the coast for the weekend. We have been having LOUSY weather all year and finally the weatherman said Friday and Saturday would be nice, even at the coast. So early Saturday morning we headed to Pacific City, Oregon. If you can even see the names on that map to the left, it's about one-fourth of the way down. Anyway, boy did we get lucky on the weather!! It was absolutely gorgeous GORGEOUS!! We had only talked about going for the day, but the weather was so wonderful that we ended up spending the night. (Thank goodness for that "emergency" kit we keep in the car. We've done these spur-of-the-moment trips before, so we decided to stow away a bag with toiletries and a change of undies. It came in handy!)

Pacific City has this giant sand mountain that you can climb -- if you don't have a heart attack first. It's very steep and difficult to climb. You can see the hill in the picture below. Anyway, we climbed it and were treated to a spectacular view from the back side of the hill. As you can see in the pictures, the sky and the water were a spectacular color of blue. There was not a cloud in the sky that day, and it was unseasonably warm. We loved it.

Along the shorter section of hill - the part that sticks out into the water, there are tidepools. There are lots and lots of starfish, anenomes, and sea urchins clinging to the sides of the rocks. There are also little pools containing fish. In the first picture, it looks like we're looking through an aquarium glass, but it is actually one of the little pools of water. Wow. Here are some pictures. Enjoy. You can click on any of them to make them bigger.

Your Virtual Cruise ... The Final Chapter (A Tad Bit Late)

Ok, boys and girls, today (just play along) the Sapphire Princess arrived in Tauranga, New Zealand. I have no idea what the temperature was, so, what the heck... I'll say a balmy 85 degrees. (Fine. It was probably 60 degrees. Work with me here.) The shore excursion for today is called EZ Tauranga. (Wow, that's original. Wonder how they came up with that one.) This is a 4 hour tour (sing along... "a 4 hour tour"... Ok, I'll stop being silly).

We start off with a scenic drive around the bay. There are beautiful view of Mt. Maunganui and lots of Kiwifruit fields as we drive through the Te Papa Peninsula. We pass the Maori War Canoe, believed to be the world's largest with a capacity of 135.









First we visit Elms Mission Station, a restored Missionary house with impressive gardens. (Again with the gardens! Sorry, Mom & Dad!)








Next is Kiwifruit Country where we get an insight into the secrets of the furry little fruit formerly known as the Chinese Gooseberry. Here we will have morning tea. Make sure you poke your pinky finger out.








You will return to the ship at 12:45 pm. Just in time for a nap before you enter that shipboard talent contest. Later tonight, enjoy your last dinner onboard, for tomorrow we reach our destination, Auckland.












There my parents had 2 nights at the Rendezvous hotel. They were scheduled for a city tour, but by the evening of the day the ship got into port, they both had horrible colds and didn't feel like doing anything. The endured a very LONG flight back to Phoenix via Los Angeles, then collapsed for several days. Dad's cold ran it's course, but Mom had what I think was either bronchitis or walking pneumonia. (She wouldn't go to the doctor, so I don't know for sure.) It's been 3 weeks and she's just now starting to feel better. It was a glorious trip, but they've vowed to takes cruises closer to home in the future.

So there you have it. Late, but it's done.

It's beginning to look a lot like "spring" (??)

Does the calendar say Spring? I thought so. Doesn't that mean green grass, daffodils and birds singing? Then what's this?

New car!!

We bought a new car on Saturday.

We have a 2004 Chevy Venture minivan, which is pretty much "my" car, and my husband's ride was a 1995 Ford F-150 pickup. Well, when gas prices started going out of control 3 years ago, it wasn't practical for him to drive the pickup to work since it got 12mpg, so he started driving the van, which gets about 24mpg. Therefore, since I do childcare and can't take more than 2 kids at a time in the pickup, I was without a vehicle during the day. Most of the time it didn't bother me, but on a nice day, it would've been nice to be able to go to the park or library. So now Hubby drives the new car, which gets 31mpg, I have my van back, and we got rid of that gas-guzzling pickup.

The other issue is that Hubby builds and flies model airplanes and used the pickup to haul them to the field. In order to get a more economical vehicle, he thought about getting a small car that could tow a little trailer. You know... those little ones that U-Haul rents out. Well, then we went to a Chevy dealer and he showed us an HHR. It looks a lot like the PT-Cruiser, which is a Chrysler. Chevy's version is a little longer and a little wider. The great feature is that when you fold down the back seats, it has 5 ft of cargo space. If you fold down the front passenger seat as well, you get 8 ft (on that side, of course). So this seemed like the perfect solution to us.

At first we were looking at a used one, but GMC was offering 2.9% financing on new vehicles compared to the 6.25% loan we would have used on a used car. So for not very much more per month, we decided on the new car. I'll admit it's a little weird looking, but it grows on you. It is designed after the 1949 Suburban. Both pictures below. Hubby talked them into installing running boards on it for free. They'll be installed next week.

One neat thing about it is that a button on the remote allows you to start the car before you get in it. You could stand at your living room window, push a button to start your car, and it would be warmed up by the time you get in it. Oh, and it comes with one year of On-Star, which we're discovering is pretty cool, and 3 months of XM radio. We have Sirius in the van and love it, but XM is great too.

My camera is home

I got my camera back! It was in the hospital getting a new something-or-other so it could initialize. Huh? In plain English, it wouldn't turn on. Cost me $107 to send it to Canon to be fixed. It was either that or buy a new one for $400. Anyway, I'm happy to have it back. I love my camera! Here is a description and review of it.

** BOUNCE **

The sound you just heard was that of me dropping the ball. I sort of left this cruise saga hanging. Well, you wanted to stay on the ship an extra few days anyway, didn't you? LOL. I will finish when the mood strikes me again. My parents are back in Phoenix -- with colds.