We knew when we returned from our cruise that life would be incredibly busy for a few days. What we didn’t know was that the universe had a few surprises for us just to make things a bit more interesting. Our plan was to get off the ship in time to pick up the car and get to Klamath Falls before the vet closed so we could pick up Jeremy. Check. The disembarkation process on Princess this time was probably the slickest I have ever experienced. We signed up to handle our own luggage, and were off the ship by 8:15, through a non existent customs check (even though we had theoretically been to Mexico), and in our car on the Embarcadero by 8:35. Incredible. In spite of the rainy morning, traffic was manageable and there wasn’t a speck of snow on the pass over Mt Shasta, in fact the mountain was incredibly beautiful with a snow capped peak sparkling in the sun contrasting with the dark green forests on her lower flanks. Nope, no photo. I was pictured out from the cruise and decided to just enjoy the view.
We picked up Jeremy, who after two weeks boarded at the vet was a bit traumatized but in no time he settled into Mo’s lap and snuggled up for the drive home. What I haven’t talked about is Mo’s bout with a cranky cold, sore throat, cough, and eventually bronchitis that she picked up on the ship. It made our last few days a lot less than pleasant for her, but she was a trooper and hanging in there. Mo slept a lot those last few days, slept most of the way home to Klamath, and still isn’t quite up to par. It isn’t a flu, she had no fever, but it was definitely a nasty thing picked up on that ship somewhere. Not good.
The next part of the plan required a fast trip the next morning to Grants Pass to meet and pay the builder who had completed the MoHo shed. We were excited to see how it looked on the property and to get the MoHo safely tucked away from winter snows. The lucky part for us is that there isn’t yet a sign of our usual winter snows, and with just a slight flurry over the 140 pass, we made the trip to Grants Pass easily. 
We were tickled to see the building all bright and shiny, solid and ready for the MoHo. There was plenty of room to drive directly into the driveway, then reverse and back into the building with room to spare. Mo had it built bigger than we needed for the Dynamax in case we ever get something bigger, or if someday the property is sold, someone could fit a 40 footer in there. The building is 21 x 40 with 16 foot ceilings and a 14 foot roll up door. Plenty of room! Also plenty of light with the translucent panels at the top, made from some new tech material that won’t discolor. Once we got the MoHo settled in, we knew it was time to check out the cottage.
We were a bit concerned about the roof of the cottage, which we knew had some problems. Mo worked on it last month but it is really hard to tell exactly where the leaks might be, and she wondered how things had fared during the recent downpours. Check. Well, we knew that eventually we would have to remove this ceiling and find the problem areas, and the rains just helped it along a bit. We turned on the old fashioned gas heater which works great and settled in to wait for the builder. I called my friend Bel, and was incredibly happy to learn that her sister had never left after coming to help out while Bel was hospitalized. My visit could be postponed, much to my relief. I was really having a hard time trying to figure out how I was going to get back on an airplane in two days and go to Florida for a week! It was all just too much. If Bel had been alone, I would have done it, but I decided any amount of extra charge for cancelling my ticket was worth it. Whew! and Check.
Next on the list, we had to drive to Lapine where Mo’s brother lives to get Abby. It is about 115 miles each way, and I knew I would be driving that one as well, since Mo was still pretty sick. We called and talked to Roger and Nancy, and explained that I had the Christmas table for the Ladies Luncheon to do and we couldn’t leave until Friday afternoon, and they insisted that instead of us driving up there, they would bring Abby home to us. Check and Yippee!! So far so good.
I managed to find the glue gun, get the napkin rings made, polish the silver, pack the stemware, and put on a pot of soup for lunch for Roger and Nancy before heading over to the social club to set up the table. Our annual Ladies Luncheon at Rocky Point is one of the special delights of living in a small community. Ladies volunteer to do the tables, and some of the men volunteer to cook and serve, and we have a wonderful time. I was excited to do my first table this year and really looking forward to the day. Check
Saturday morning dawns, and Mo and I are congratulating ourselves on managing to get all the little details handled so well with such a tight schedule and thinking pleasantly about the few days ahead with plenty of time to settle in and actually relax. That is when the universe threw in a little surprise. 
At 10:00 am I was happy and fine, getting dressed for the luncheon, and by 10:15 am I was completely and totally incapacitated by vertigo and severe nausea. Crazy. I lost my breakfast, and couldn’t raise my head without being sick. Now what? Geez. My sister and niece arrived, and I kept thinking I could maybe get over it and manage to go but I lasted about five minutes before Mo had to bring me back home. I spent the rest of the day and night in bed with what I discovered to be withdrawal symptoms from the Scopolamine patch!
I have used the patch before, and had a few bits of dizziness afterward, but attributed it to just getting used to being off the ship, and didn’t realize it was related to the patch. When I was finally able to raise my head yesterday, I started reading more about it and learned that this can be a huge problem for people using the scop patch, and that there can be symptoms of withdrawal that can last for weeks. There are all sorts of recommendations for coming off slowly, using drugs to deal with the nausea that will happen when you come off the scop, and ways to avoid using it altogether. I used the patch on this cruise as it was prescribed, and had it on for the entire trip after being so sick the first day. I guess I won’t do that again! Or at least if I do, I’ll try to manage the withdrawal better. Discussions on the internet talk about people waiting to stop the patch until they have time to handle the vomiting for a few days. Sheesh!
I have no idea when we will cruise again but you can bet I will be looking for alternatives to the scopolamine patch. Mo and I were quite a pair today. We spent all of Sunday on the sofa and in the recliner, doing absolutely nothing. It is weird being ill, though, and especially weird having Mo be ill since she is so rarely sick. Makes my world feel all discombobulated and loose. I fell asleep last night at 9, only to wake again at 11 and have been awake ever since. Decided at 2:30 that I might as well get up and try to remember what I am supposed to be doing!
Everyone enjoyed the luncheon, Mo said my table was a hit, and everyone pitched in to help collect my dishes, crystal, and silver after it was over. Some volunteer I am! Sheesh.
Mo seems to be coughing less, and I seem to be a bit less disoriented, so maybe life will return to something looking like normal this morning. I am ready. Christmas is coming and I am pretty sure I am supposed to be doing something important! Check.
Tag: cruising
Cruising New England with Princess
We are comfortably settled in to our room at the Ramada Inn in Reno, great view of town, comfy bed, fat pillows, inexpensive breakfast downstairs, and screaming fast free WiFi on the tenth floor. One of the disadvantages of living in the west is the dearth of cruise ports, meaning if we are to cruise anywhere but Alaska or Mexico, we have to fly east to board a ship. Yesterday was a very long day, awake at 5 or so as we sailed into New York Harbor, then the long process of disembarkation, airport shuttles, airport security and time changes. We definitely needed a good night’s sleep before getting on the road today and traveling back to Klamath Falls.
I plan to write about each day of the cruise in the next few days. For those who do follow along using the various blog rolls, those posts will not show up because I plan to set the post date for the actual cruise day. A heads up in case you are interested in reading about this particular cruise. Just pop over to the archives and there you will find titles based on the date and the port. Eventually.
This morning I tried to count cruises, and I think this was the 8th one for me, and the 3rd cruise on Princess. To say it was disappointing might be an exaggeration, but to call it memorable would be a serious stretch. We have discussed a bit just what we missed on this cruise, and came to the conclusion that it was that sense of luxury that makes a cruise so enticing that we missed most.
In fairness, the Caribbean Princess was a beautiful ship, one of the biggest in the Princess fleet with 3200 passengers on board. The common areas were lovely, the ship spotlessly clean, the staff friendly and accomplished. Our stateroom was roomy and the balcony a nice amenity, our steward unobtrusive in the background, but everything was done well.
What I missed most was truly great food. The Palms dining room was basically adequate, but not spectacular. In fact, it was so nondescript that I felt no need to take food photos or even document the menu for the day. The one night that we passed on the dining room and chose to eat at the Horizon Court Buffet was a huge mistake. If we thought the dining room was bland, that was before we had the truly awful supper at the buffet. Another time when Mo decided to try the Calypso deck pizza for a late lunch was a huge bust, with crust that competed directly with thin cardboard and toppings thin enough to match. Ugh.
In addition to the bland and boring food, there were no great artistic presentations, beautiful ice sculptures, carved fruit, not a single special deck food event, not a midnight buffet or dessert extravaganza. Breakfast was tolerable, but the pastries were dry and nondescript as well, the bacon greasy and flavorless and the fruit not very sweet. ah well. It isn’t just about the food, but it should be at least more fun than a local cheap buffet restaurant. After paying big bucks for a cruise it just irritates me that to get a good meal we are expected to pay 25 per person extra for a meal in the steak house or the Italian restaurant.
We chose this cruise to see New England in the fall, minus the traffic. New England wasn’t in much of a mood for color, however, and we only saw a little bit of color here and there. That certainly has nothing to do with the cruise line, of course, but was still disappointing. We also discovered that when booking a cruise, we need to be sure that there are sea days spaced in between ports. Day after day of walking and exploring new places left us fairly well exhausted without much time to actually enjoy that relaxing thing that can happen on a longer cruise. Next time it will be a longer trip, with more sea days, probably somewhere WARM, and probably with a different cruise line.
I will save my leaf peeping for a time when we are willing to drive to the east coast and visit with the friends I have there. Yes, the traffic will be awful, the roads narrow, the campgrounds expensive. Hopefully when we do it we can take our time and follow the leaves on their terms. I do so much love hardwood forests and want to see them in their full glory of color.
There were definitely high points in some of the ports. I loved seeing Newport, Rhode Island, a place I barely heard of before we spent the day walking the town and the Cliff Walk. The weather was gorgeous, the town lovely. Boston was a treat, and we walked all day and enjoyed a wonderful bowl of truly good clam chowder at Cheers. The beautiful surprise of the trip was Bar Harbor, (or as I am told Bah Hahbah) Maine, on Mt Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park. We WILL return to Bar Harbor and the park someday with the motorhome and take our time exploring the breathtaking Maine coast.
Saint John in New Brunswick was an interesting city, with very old stone buildings and nice shopping. We don’t do cruises for the shopping, however, but we did enjoy seeing the Bay of Fundy in spite of the overcast day and dingy buildings. Halifax Nova Scotia was a complete bust, with our ship’s captain making the decision that 50 knot winds and 14 foot seas would not make for a comfortable ride. Instead we were routed into Portland, Maine. Docking in the rain, we looked out over the gloomy city with apprehension. Once walking around, however, we enjoyed the town and even found some great Mexican food to offset all that bland stuff we had been eating on the ship. Hot salsa and more jalapenos please in my lobster quesadilla!
Here in Reno the sun is shining and the skies are clear with temperatures predicted to be in the 70’s. Our route home via 395 will be beautiful, and we are both really looking forward to picking up the dog and the cat at the Double C and getting back home to our cozy house in the forest. We miss the MoHo as well, and the expense of this trip, the uncomfortable hard bed with a lumpy foam topper surely reminded us that RV travel is the true luxury, even if I do have to cook my very own fabulous food. At least it is fabulous and tasty!
I hear that the aspens are turning in Klamath, and am looking forward to seeing how our trees are doing and if the green tomatoes I put on the counter before we left have turned red. I look forward to writing about our port visits and having the time to review the photos as I think about what we enjoyed most about this cruise.
The beginning and the end
It is the beginning of our New England cruise trip but the end is all about the last hour of our flight to New York’s La Guardia airport! Our non-stop flight from Denver was 3 hours of simplicity until we reached the east coast, until we reached New York, where there was a wild mess of storms that spawned tornados in Virginia. Thinking of Erin and Mui, of course, and hoping you two didn’t get hit by all that wind.
We circled over La Guardia for almost an hour with rumors of a diversion to some smaller airport who knows where before the pilot finally received the notice that we could land. The turbulence was a bit exciting, and watching the plane circle around those big thunderheads made for some interesting views. Our seatmate was a frequent flier from New York, you know, those kind of folks that are supposed to be so calm and jaded?? This lady was NOT calm, and with every jump of the plane she screamed and even said once, “I want my mother!”
Even though I had my camera packed and buried, I suddenly remember “airplane mode” and the camera in the iPhone 4 (no not the 4s yet) and pulled it out for some great photos of truly dramatic clouds. Once we landed, it was amazing to me how one dimensional the cloudy sky appeared compared to the three dimensional shape changing views as we circled.
We began our trip with a nice drive from home to Reno, down 139 to 395 into the wide open dry and very warm deserts. Staying at the Ramada, with the Park and Fly option, our room only cost 79. with all the taxes and ten days of parking for the car, including free shuttle to the airport. The room was lovely, and just 12 blocks from downtown where we parked right on the street near the Silver Legacy Casino. After dropping a bit to support Nevada in the slot machines we found dinner at Sterlings Steakhouse. A bit of a sticker shock didn’t stop us, though, and we proceeded to have one of the finest dinners we have had in a long time. In addition to perfectly mesquite fired steaks, our dinners came with amazingly seasoned spaghetti squash, butternut squash, snap peas, and sautéed spinach. Yum and double wow!
My daughter has supported me through the 40 days of 500 calories a day, and now I am on maintenance, and wow, maintenance is so much fun, Deborah! Somehow skipping the bread and potato and dessert didn’t feel a bit like any kind of suffering at all. Can you believe I brought my scale along on this cruise and will be watching daily? I don’t want to mess up all that hard work, and this morning somehow I was down another 2 pounds. Yay for Deborah and all her encouragement!
Our flight from Reno left at 6am, calling for a 3am wake up call and a dark ride to the airport. Check-in was simple, and security in Reno wasn’t the least bit daunting and we were in the air as the sun rose over the Rockies. Denver is a huge airport, but lucky for us we didn’t have to change terminals so spent a lovely 90 minutes wandering the great shops and eating some more of last night’s yummy dinner that I carried with me.
Once in New York, an hour late, we called the Comfort Inn shuttle to pick us up. No lost baggage was a relief, and in a short time we were settled into our very tiny room. Here in New York, the rooms aren’t cheap, with 157 dollars, yes that is US dollars, for our one night here. We are actually in East Elmhurst, Queens, not far from the airport. The room is at least very clean, but the bed is a bit hard and as I said, it is TINY! I guess that must be a New York thing.
We walked a couple of short blocks to the local recommended restaurant, Joey’s, an Italian place. A glass of wine and some simple antipasto with a ceasar salad was the perfect ending for a long day. We were entertained by a couple of big Italian guys at the table next to us speaking rapid Italian. I realized that on the west coast where we live there aren’t a lot of Italian neighborhoods, except maybe in San Francisco.
I have never been to New York before and am looking forward to our drive to the Brooklyn pier today and a gorgeous sunny, if windy view of the Statue of Liberty as we sail from the harbor tonight.
Home from the Caribbean
I have been home from the 2011 Legendary Blues Cruise on the Holland America Eurodam to the Eastern Caribbean for a few days now. My land legs have finally returned, and the ground is no longer rocking and rolling. My daughter and I wore wrist bands on the ship and never got sea sick, but the swaying earth didn’t subside for several days after we landed. This wasn’t your ordinary cruise, and that photo of my feet propped up on the verandah was carefully posed. The cruise was all about the Blues, with only three days in port and the rest of the time filled with music, parties of all sorts, including Mardis Gras costume night and a wig party. The bands played till the wee hours of the morning, and then got together on deck after the formal performances to jam until daylight. It was an experience, to say the least.
I haven’t yet really settled in, since I went back to work immediately upon my return. I have 294 blog posts in my google reader list, and something tells me I might never actually catch up on all that everyone is doing. Eventually I will post the stories and photos of our days on the water, but that might take a bit of time to sort out. Usually when I am on a trip I have the time to blog, but on this one with my daughter, I barely touched the computer the entire time. I have finally labeled and uploaded my photos, and with the daily activity sheets from the ship I should manage to recreate what happened from the amazing blur of activity. I really do owe some good cruise stories to E squared and Mui who kept me so entertained with their recent cruise blog posts.
Mo and I are planning to leave on Saturday morning and pick up the MoHo for another trip to the California coast with our kayaks, and I am looking forward to some warm temperatures and relaxation! In the mean time, I just thought it would be nice to pop up in the blog world and say, “hey, I’m baaaaaack.”
Day 7 Holland America’s own little island
I think most cruise lines that have Caribbean itineraries must own a piece of the Bahamas, some own whole islands, as this one owned by Holland America, others seem to own Cays on a bigger island somewhere. Either way, it’s usually a day before the final disembarkation that the ship slides into it’s own private dock and with only 2000 people or so to spread around, it can even feel a bit remote if you know how to get away from the crowds.
This morning our private island was Half Moon Cay (key), somewhere in the Bahamas. I finally looked on Google Earth to try to get the lay of the land among the sea, but still don’t have a good handle on all of it. This little island is very small, just a few miles across, and very low to the earth. The vegetation is short and scrubby with the only palm trees some newer planted ones around the newer fake West Indies Village.
I didn’t care about all that, though, because today we had pre-arranged our one ship excursion and were going to kayak on the inland lagoon. It was a good day to choose a bit of entertainment, since there wasn’t much else to do on the island except hang on the beach and listen to the music. Have I mentioned music on this cruise? Several bands were conducting our own private beach party by the water and it drew most of the ship’s crowd to that localized area for most of the day.
Deb was excited about the kayak trip, and we both knew there would be plenty of time for music later. We stayed on the top deck to watch the ship pull part way into the bay and see the tenders coming out from shore. These tenders are stored on the island so are much larger than the tenders carried on the ship, with a 25o person capacity. They would run all day at fifteen minute intervals so cruisers could come and go at will.
Once we landed, in no time we were on shore, signed up for our little kayak trip, and told to wait under the shelter for a half hour or so before we would be driven inland. There are pathways and narrow roads, with small open air vans that transport people to various water excursions, including para-sailing, jet-skiing, sailing, all the typical cruise excursion types of activities. We were glad we hadn’t tried to do any snorkeling with the cool temperatures, and high winds. Even kayaking was a bit of an effort in that stiff breeze, but it was still great entertainment.
I have to admit, I felt like I was slogging along the entire time on that heavy, sit-on-top plastic boat, with paddles that weighed five times as much as my slick new Werner’s. Deb and I asked for single boats and two other couples were part of our group in tandems and we set out on the crystal clear lagoon that was landlocked on the island. There were mangrove alleys to explore, but the tide was too low for entry, so we stayed on the main part of the water. Our guide was young, very talkative, and provided a basic view of the island life but didn’t have much knowledge of the actual ecosystem beyond grade school level, so that was a bit disappointing to me. I was there for the boating, however, and managed to have a great time.
Afterward, Deb and I chose to walk the pathways back to the beach and the big island bbq provided for us, with ribs and chicken and all the fixings. It was a decent meal, and I really enjoyed the watermelon and fresh berries. We then ambled down to the beach to find a couple of chairs and sit in the sun. The far end of the beach was quiet enough, but it was getting colder as a storm approached and the winds made it too uncomfortable to think about snorkeling, so we swam a bit and sat in the sun a bit before walking back to the beach party.
I walked to the far end of the beach, watching the people on the horseback riding excursion following the leader along the beach. They advertised riding in the ocean, but I didn’t see them enter once. They looked hot in long jeans and helmets, even on this cool day. Deb had considered the “ride the horse in the ocean” excursion, but we thought better of it and decided to kayak instead. I’m glad we did.
We needed to get back to the ship before 3:30, and the tender line was quite long when we went there at 2:30. It probably took 45 minutes to actually get back on the ship, but standing in line was entertaining while we listened to great music and had interesting conversations with other line-ees.
Once on the ship, we cleaned up, relaxed a bit, and went to the last dinner of the cruise in the dining room. This time we asked for a table for two only, not wanting to have to carry on conversations this evening with anyone but ourselves. It was good we went early, because the dining room filled almost immediately with very large groups of people pulling tables together and raucously celebrating the final night of the cruise. The dinner was excellent as usual, with the obligatory surf and turf meal that is usually offered at least one night on a cruise like this one. I am not a filet lover, and that was the steak on the menu. I also am of the mind that any good steak requires charcoal, so wasn’t too excited about my choice. When it was served, however, with our bottle of truly great Spanish wine, I was impressed. It was butter tender and flavorful even without the smoky flavor I think I require.
As we approached the end of our meal, I asked our waiter if the crew was going to do the dining room dance, the one where all the folks wave their napkins. I know it’s silly after the first time, but Deb hadn’t experienced the first time, and I remember how tickled I was when this happened to me on my first cruise a long time ago. Our waiter said, “No, we don’t do that on a charter cruise like this one. But if you wait just a few minutes there will be a special surprise.” In a few minutes, a few members of our Indonesian dining room staff took center stage in the brilliantly lit stairwell and proceeded to entertain us with a rousing blues tune that they had practiced for two months in readiness for this cruise. They were received with a standing ovation and lots of rowdy calls while several diners jumped up to dance. The small band played a few more songs and then played some of their own local Indonesian music for us as well. It was really sweet, and a real treat, and they were so proud of themselves. I’m glad the blues cruisers were the kind of people to appreciate their efforts and cheer them on. Old travelers can get a bit jaded and hard to impress sometimes. I was glad to see the happiness on their faces and the delight on the diner’s faces as well, including mine.
The dress code for the evening was pajamas. We decided to NOT wear pajamas to dinner, but afterward went to change. I have to admit, I felt truly silly in my pajamas, cute capris though they were, and while many people were wearing all sorts of get-ups, including shorties and big slippers, many people had avoided the pajama thing entirely. I wished I had been one of those, and before long went back to my cabin to change into something a bit more reasonable. It was just too dang early for pajamas.
Many more photos of this blue day on Half Moon Cay are located here.
The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales 