cruising – Page 4 – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

Jan 22 Off on the Legendary Blues Cruise

I have four kids, and with their partners, their children and their partners, and their children’s children, it’s a good sized family. I often hear of moms who take their entire families on reunion trips and cruises, and it sounds like so very much fun. That would take a lot more dollars than I can manage, so my choice is to take each of my children on a one-time special trip of their choice. One-on-one time with Mom, which is also nice, and usually doesn’t happen during the big family get-togethers. My eldest daughter Deborah chose this Legendary Blues Cruise as her dream destination, one that she probably wouldn’t be able to manage on her own any time in the near future.

Of course, Deb and I wanted to fly together to Miami, and the Portland airport is big enough to serve as a good jumping off point. The weather cooperated fairly well with my choice to drive to Portland on the Friday of our late evening flight. I left at 7 in the morning from Rocky Point and chose to go the I-5 route, even though it’s a bit longer, it seems a lot safer than icy HWY 97 at this time of year. It was a lovely drive and I was in Portland by 2 in the afternoon, just in time for Deb to arrive home from her short work day. Deb is a financial director for a non-profit in Portland and has a long commute. I guess the price of a good job sometimes is that dang commute. When she got home, she was pretty excited. Deb works hard and doesn’t get much time for vacations so this coming week is pretty special to her.

The skies were gray and chilly, but the traffic was light. I love being a passenger when my daughter drives through Portland traffic because she is really good at it, and knows just when to jump off the freeways and wind her way through downtown back streets to get to the airport.

We chose to park in the economy lot to save some extra dollars, but the shuttle was quick and efficient and without any glitches we were in the terminal, checked in, and through the security line. Since we had a long layover in Seattle before our red-eye flight, we skipped some of the great restaurants at PDX in favor of killing time nicely with dinner in Seattle.

The Alaska flight from Portland to Seattle is less than an hour, with just enough time for the crew to deliver complimentary wine and beer from a local brewery and winery. I guess that makes up for the little planes and the fact that you have to do a gate check of your carry-on if it is much bigger than a purse.

Once in Seattle, we were already inside security with a three hour wait so it was nice that there are some very good restaurants available. We settled on a slow delicious supper at the Alaska Grill with yummy seafood and Juneau’s great brew. Our flight was on time and it didn’t seem very long before we were settled in to our seats for the long overnight flight to Miami.

As we approached Florida, we could see nothing but thick fog blanketing the landscape. As we circled Miami, I felt the ominous lift of a plane circling back higher, and before long the pilot announced that we couldn’t land and would have to return to Orlando for fuel. It didn’t take very long to fuel up again and fly back to Miami, but once there we continued to circle and circle. I heard later that one of the planes coming in couldn’t land anywhere and was running on fumes. Eventually we landed, a couple of hours late, but it didn’t matter because we were scheduled far enough in advance that it wasn’t a problem.

I love that first smell of Florida when I get off the plane in the early morning, walking up the jetway. It’s thick and robust, wet and organic in a way that you don’t often get out in our dry western landscape. The skies were cloudy and the temperatures were in the low 50’s. Once again, Florida was experiencing a colder than normal week and we were in the middle of it. I hope that someday I can get back to Florida when it is full of gorgeous warm velvet air, but this year I haven’t been very lucky in this regard.

We barely had time to pick up our bags when a Holland America representative met us, “Are you Deborah and Sue?” In just a few moments we were whisked off to the curb, our bags were loaded into the shuttle, and we were on our way to Ft. Lauderdale. Once there, before very long we were through security, checked in and received our cruise cards and were on the ship. I have been on only 6 cruises now, but this was the slickest embarkation I have experienced so far.

We wound our way up the gangways and started exploring the Holland America MS Eurodam a bit, and within just a few minutes it was announced that our staterooms were ready. That was fast! By 11 we were in our room unpacking, checking out the large closets, the nice veranda, and the very comfy beds. The skies were still overcast and breezy and the views of Fort Lauderdale were a bit dingy. We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the ship, trying to find where all the venues were located, and enjoying a great lunch buffet at the Lido, the main area for casual dining on the 9^th deck.

The mandatory safety muster was easy, with no requirement to wear our life jackets, but we had to be there on the Promenade Deck 3 below our designated lifeboat to check in. It’s surprising to me how differently this is handled among different cruise lines, with some doing the entire thing in one of the bars. The sail away was a bit confusing because I have this “thing” about wanting to be at the high point on the ship as we leave. However, the Eurodam is designed in a way that makes it hard to find the highest point very easily, with convoluted access to some of the decks, and stairways that stop in the middle of a restaurant and don’t go anywhere. As a result, Deb missed the waving crowd along the Fort Lauderdale beach while I led her around in circles trying to get to the top of something. Silly me.

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It was pretty cold and windy out on the aft deck, but the music was good and the atmosphere was energizing while everyone danced and drank and laughed and started up what was to be a seven day party. Deb and I had the cruise drink of the day, something called the “Bluesarita” that was a tasty treat at around 5 bucks, plus tips and taxes of course. The “Sail-Away”party was in full swing by 4:45 with a rear deck southern bbq with ribs and all the fixings, but we didn’t eat because we wanted to enjoy our first full dinner on the ship in the main dining room. Rick Estrin and the Nightcats set the pace with some rousing blues and everyone was having a great time out on deck. They even closed down the aft deck swimming pool for this cruise and converted it to a dance floor. Deb and I found the stairs to the 10th deck above all the party people for a better view and more room to dance. The banners on the ship above the party deck were certainly not your ordinary cruise logos!

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When we purchased our tickets, we scheduled early dining at 5:45 so that it wouldn’t interfere with the music of the night during the cruise. We thought the seating was for a table of six with Deb’s friends, but when we arrived at the dining room, it seemed that it was open seating. This turned out to be the case throughout the cruise, with our choice of table changing each night and our seat mates coming and going at will. We didn’t get to know our servers in the way that you do with assigned seating and I missed that a bit.

Dinner was lovely, and our choice of table by a big rear window was great, with views of the coast fading in the distance as the sun set through the dim gray skies. The excellent dinner was typical of the rest of our dining experience on the Eurodam. I liked the food on this ship. While not of Celebrity quality, it was still very good most of the time, flavorful and well prepared, and served with a bit of flair. Much better than our recent Princess cruise, but again, nothing like what Mo and I experienced last year on the Solstice when we went through the Panama Canal. An example would be the Bananas Foster dessert, on Celebrity it was flamed directly in view of our table, and on the Eurodam there wasn’t a flame in sight.

In the blur of activity, I have no idea what we did that first night after dinner. I am sure that music was involved, and I am sure Deb was dancing at one point or another. I have lots of blurry photos of people dancing and Deborah laughing and hugging her friends from Portland that had been on this cruise in the past and were really excited to be doing it again.

I spent the obligatory hundred dollar bill to ensure internet access throughout the cruise, making good use of my great little wifi booster that I bought back in Desert Hot Springs. I had an excellent connection in my stateroom and never had to go wandering off to a ship café to get good internet. However, “good” is relative with the ship’s satellite connection and it was never as fast as I needed to really peruse for any length of time.

It had certainly been a long time since I left Klamath, and a long day since we landed in Miami, so I was definitely ready for my comfy bed with the down comforters and the high end pure white cotton hotel style sheets that awaited me.

If you care to see the rest of the photos, with pictures from around the ship, and including those blurry dance photos, the link is here.

Getting ready

OK. It’s a cruise. More than a cruise, it’s a Blues Festival on a ship. It’s a birthday present for my daughter and I am going to be there with her. Relaxing? Maybe not. Unlike my daughter who is an avid blues fan, and has volunteered often at the big July 4th Portland Blues Festival, and traveled to Memphis for other big festivals, I simply enjoy blues now and then. I also like to dance, now and then. I love to cruise, enjoying the turquoise blues of the Caribbean and the gorgeous white sands. I love sea days. Last cruise Mo and I went on together, we thought there really wasn’t enough music around. I would imagine that won’t be a problem on this cruise. I am taking ear plugs as well. Someone suggested noise cancelling headphones. I might have to give that a try! Just check out the music schedule! O good lord, should be a ton of fun. Mo isn’t going. Ha. Chicken!!!

2010 Keep it short, right? hahahahahaha Part 1

Mo and I have an inside joke. I worry things to death and she thinks in a very straightforward way. I have 12 thoughts to every one of hers. Her thoughts are usually practical and help get things done. My thoughts are usually all over the place and don’t accomplish a lot. Last night as the evening settled in to a close along with the year, I thought a lot about what I learned this year. This morning at 4am I woke up thinking about all the things we did this past year, all the changes, trying to decide what and how much to write. Lots of the stuff I thought about wasn’t the least bit blog worthy, and other stuff was probably not blog appropriate. Somehow, in the early morning in the dark, I realized how important the family times were this year. This great group includes Mo’s siblings and their offspring, my four kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, friends that are so dear they count as extended family. We managed wonderful visits this year with lots of people who are important to each of us, and who are scattered all across the country.

I was delighted this morning when I opened the “Travels with Emma” blog and found lovely collages of the previous year. Ahh. Perfect. With kudos to Judy for her idea, I decided that would be the simplest way to try to share and summarize the year just past. If it gets too long, you can just click that little x on the upper right corner of your screen and ‘poof’ I’m gone. With that in mind, I decided to write exactly what I wanted to, with pictures! I did figure out some of the things I learned this year, but that is fairly boring, so I won’t elaborate too much. For instance, I learned that I don’t have to spend a lot of money, and I learned that I could actually wait to get something I think I desperately want. See what I mean? Silly stuff for someone just turned 65.

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January was momentous for me. I retired from 30 plus years as a soil scientist with the USDA-NRCS and celebrated with a 14 day cruise through the Panama Canal. Mo and I spent many sea days actually relaxing and the five port days were perfect.

Our cruise with Celebrity on the Solstice was wonderful, and we spent days in Cartagena, Colombia, in Costa Rica, and three ports in Mexico.

We came home to the manufactured home where I lived in California and put it up for sale for the last time before returning to Rocky Point and a reasonably mild winter.

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In February, we took a short trip to McMenniman’s Brewery at Edgefield in Troutdale (about 300 miles north of Rocky Point east of Portland) and enjoyed a day trying out finely crafted beer and walking the gardens. The day was fabulous for me, since I spent a couple of hours in the Ruby Spa getting a facial with all sorts of amazing aromatic oils and soft lights. It was an easy trip since Mo was already in the area house and dog sitting for her brother away in Hawaii. When we returned home to Rocky Point, the winter was already fading and we actually started raking pine needles that month.

We moved most of my furniture out of the mobile in California to Rocky Point and I spent much of the month fixing up my part of the house, painting my bathroom, doing all those little things that feed my nesting spirit. It was my first winter back in Klamath since I left in 2006 for California and I was so grateful to be home again, with my daughter and grandkids just a few miles away in town. Just so you don’t get confused; Rocky Point is part of the Klamath Basin, which I refer to as Klamath, although I may call Klamath Falls (city) Klamath as well. It doesn’t help much that there is a “Klamath” in California, both the river and the town, and the national forest. Just to be clear.

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Since March in this part of the country can be incredibly tiresome, we planned a trip to the warmest place in the US that we could think of, Key West. It wasn’t THAT warm, however, with the coldest March on record, but we still wore shorts and enjoyed the velvet balmy air. I learned that Key West wasn’t the least bit tacky if you looked in the right places. I loved it. We spent time on the water, exploring the Dry Tortugas for a day, kayaking the lagoons on the bay side of the keys and eating. Lots of amazing seafood, key lime crepes for breakfast, and still brilliant in my memory is a crab stuffed shrimp with key lime hollandaise. We walked everywhere in Key West, and the rental car developed a thick layer of dust while we explored the side streets and took photos of conch cottages and turquoise water. We flew to Miami and rented a car for this trip, but cruised through the gorgeous state parks dreaming of the winter when we will take the MoHo south and spend it in Florida.

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Winter showed up again at Easter in Rocky Point, but by April we were able to slip out of the MoHo barn and travel north to Silver Falls State Park near the town of Silverton, Oregon. We spent a nearly week camping in the rain, hiking the falls, and enjoying a visit from my daughter, Deborah who lives in Portland. Silver Falls is the largest state park in Oregon, and certainly one of the most beautiful. We camped without hookups, since the electric sites were all reserved by a flotilla of baby fiberglass rv’s, but it wasn’t a problem at all. We stayed warm and comfortable and had a wonderful time. We visited the Oregon gardens, reveling in all the brilliant early spring blooms, toured the town of Silverton, and spent a day trying out more finely crafted beers from 100 or so breweries at the Oregon Garden Beer Festival. I learned that I could actually drink a full, entire beer if it was really good.

That’s part one of my year summary, with two more to follow. It’s a great pastime for a snowy New Year’s Day at home. I love going back over the memories, looking at the pictures, reading my own blog and trying to sum it up.

Cruising Alaska Day 6 and 7 at sea

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Yesterday we enjoyed a sea day. Tonight we will dock in Victoria, but not until 7PM, so I would say this qualifies as a sea day as well. On sea days, the time just rolls by, and before you blink, it’s time to dress for dinner. On this cruise, both formal nights have been held on sea days, which is really quite nice. By morning yesterday, we were in the North Pacific, west of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and shrouded in fog. The fog persisted all day, and it was chilly, so not really conducive to hanging out on the deck. Mo and I had a late breakfast, wandered around the ship a bit, listening to the pianist in the Atrium. We spent some time in the casino, where I actually won a tiny bit of money. We knew it would be a late night, so took it easy, playing cards in our stateroom enjoying the view of nothing, but still enjoying our balcony. There are a lot of scheduled activities on a cruise ship on these sea days, but I do love most the chance to do just about nothing. I get very few real “nothing” days at home in my regular life.

Even though it was chilly in the afternoon, the sun tried to warm the fog a bit and we decided to try a swim. We are on the 12th deck, and the terrace pool at the back of the ship is on 12 as well. We discovered that we could leave our room and travel all the way to the back of the ship without having to go into a public space at all. The hall emerges within feet of the pool. It was perfect for us, with no one else in the pool. It was also pretty nice to make a run for the room and the hot shower after our swim. The water was heated, and is fresh water, which is nice, but the wind was still really cold. It did feel good to get in a bit of a swim, though.

We dressed early for dinner, and took our cute little printed invitations to the Captain’s Circle cocktail party. Since we are two time cruisers with Princess, we are now part of this elite group. The captain informed us later that this elite group numbers more than 10 million, so I guess it’s not that elite. We had complimentary rum punch and cute little canapés while we listened to the captain tell his story, and applauded the cruisers with the most cruise days on princess, a couple with 440 days at sea! Gee, that would be a year and a half of continuous cruising. They were pretty old, so maybe they have had 20 years or so to rack up those days. It would have been interesting to see their trips. The third place couple were fairly young, but only had 150 days or so. I guess you would have to really like cruising to get into a group like that!

There were door prizes as well, and we wondered a bit how much longer the program would last and what we should do next. Calling out the names of the winners, suddenly there it was, “Ms Sligar?” Mo won a bottle off champagne! What fun that was for us, and they eventually delivered the bottle to our dining table and then we took it to the stateroom. The formal dinner was excellent, with lobster and shrimp and beef wellington for Mo. The prawns were nearly as big as the lobster, but even as a shrimp lover, I was delighted with the lobster. Yum! We went to the casino to win a little bit more and then to the last production show of the cruise, “Do You Wanna Dance”. Once again, this show was truly excellent, with great dancing and costumes, and lots of lights and glitz. I loved it.

I so love the dress up nights, as much for watching all the other folks as for dressing up myself. It’s fun to be shiny and glitzy and have a chance to wear rhinestones and sparkles and not appear ridiculous.

Today has been another quiet time in the cabin, punctuated by a meal here and there. After morning tea, we started watching a movie with Sandra Bullock, “The Proposal” and couldn’t get away for breakfast until after ten. Of course, the Neptune deck “Taste of Alaska” buffet was scheduled for 11:30 so I had just over 90 minutes to get ready for more food. Finally this ship came through with the carved fruit, ice sculptures, and fancy production. The Alaskan salmon was poached, delicate and perfect, the sushi was fresh and tasty, and I do love having all the pickled ginger that I want with my sushi. Mo and I shared another Alaskan Summer Ale with our meal and then headed back to try to finish spending our casino money.

On this ship, if you win, you have to cash out to your cruise card. This could be really dangerous, since there is a green button on the slot machine that is called “charge to your cruise card”. Stay away from THAT button. If you win, you cash out to your cruise card casino account and the money is waiting for you the next time you put in your card. I had 6.95 left in my casino account that I really needed to finish off, so plugged in the card to play. After a long time, I had to decide to give up since I couldn’t seem to lose. I cashed in my casino card just an hour before the cruise casino official closing with $70.00 to the good. With the champagne for Mo and the winnings for me, it turned out to be a winning trip!

This afternoon we are slipping into the quiet time of packing for disembarkation tomorrow and finishing up our day. Our landing in Victoria awaits, but it’s a bit of an afterthought, especially so late in the day. We haven’t planned much, but hope to enjoy the city a bit before getting back on ship by 11 for our final sailing to Seattle.

Ahh, something else I forgot to mention. In the past I have had a lot of trouble with being sea sick. The last couple of cruises have been easier, and on the last one I only needed a patch for a very short time. However, after getting terribly ill in Key West on the trip to the Dry Tortugas, I bought some sea bands. They work by applying pressure to meridians and are said to work for morning sickness as well. I am a huge fan! They really DO work, and no drugs. I will keep them with me always, not just for cruises, but for busses, and any other time I might get motion sickness. What an amazing thing!

Cruising Alaska Day 5 Skagway

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We set the alarm for Skagway, knowing the day ahead would be long and full. This time we decided to do one of the Princess excursions, because we didn’t want to miss the chance to do the two things really important to us and still get back to the ship on time. Skagway is a delightful little town, with an old fashioned boardwalk, and some good shopping, but our focus on this day was riding the White Pass Railroad and going kayaking.

T he White Pass Railroad is part of the epic history of the Klondike Gold Rush, with the construction of a narrow gauge train 112 years ago. The White Pass & Yukon Route was designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, along with the Eiffel Tower and our recent destination, the Panama Canal. In addition to the many hazards and obstacles the builders overcame, they built this railroad in two years, two months, and according to some storytellers, two days, two hours, etc. etc. Riding this train is a fabulous experience, unlike the many touring trains that dot the western landscape, this one has real views, and tunnels, and trestles, and has such an amazing history.

Fascinating as well, was the young woman narrating the journey. She was born in Skagway, a town of about 800 residents and a population that drops to less than 500 in the winter. She graduated in a class of seven, all them them with close to a 4 point average, and all of them continuing that average when they went away to college. Her family has a gun business and a restaurant and were long time Skagway residents as well. She is entering medical school this fall and plans to be a plastic surgeon. She gave us lots of information about the train and the journey, but because we were in the “sound car” we got to hear her side conversations with some other people about what it was like to grow up in a small tight community like Skagway.

The train climbs from sea level in Skagway to nearly 3,000 feet at the summit of White Pass, in just 20 miles, passing through some of the most magnificent terrain in the US. The purpose for this train was to get people in and out of the Klondike, in anticipation of the huge gold rush expected there. What I didn’t know before this trip, was that that huge gold rush actually burned out after only two years, with very few people actually making any money. But the stories of steam engine number 9, and the rotary snow plow number 1 were fascinating. Other stories from Skagway include the notorious “Soapy” Smith, a thug who ran the town until he was killed by another thug who was then eulogized as the man who saved Skagway. I took a photo of the “trail of 98” where men hauled literally a ton (2000) pounds of goods over the pass for hundreds of miles on their backs. They had to make many trips because the Canadian government at this time wouldn’t allow a foreigner in the country without enough provisions that they wouldn’t become a drain on the Canadian economy. It was said if you lost your place in the line of men on this tiny trail, it could take a day to get back into line to continue forward. What a story.

After White Pass, we got off the train at Frasier, British Columbia, to begin our kayak trip on Glacier Lake. Our guides were typical young, adorable river boys, who gave us a lesson in tandem kayaking with a rudder, helped with our skirts and life jackets and let us out into the lake. Now you know that Mo and I are kayakers, but we do usually each have our own. It’s fun trying to figure out who is in charge when there are two people in a kayak. We did fine, eventually, and I did eventually figure out the rudder pedals. The lake was lovely, clear, and windy, with protected coves. The wind saved us from what I assumed would be legendary bugs, with only one mosquito to mar the day. Just one. That was amazing in itself! The mountains around us were topped with snow with several glaciers visible. The lake is in a place called Tribulation Valley, desolate and windy and incredibly harsh. We were on the water for just over an hour, not nearly enough, before we had to return to Frasier and the waiting coach. The train up the pass follows the east side of the river, and the Klondike road on the west side of the river was our route back down to Skagway. Our coach driver told us stories about Skagway and the local history as she negotiated many bikers from Sockeye tours who refused to move to the right of the road to let the bus pass. She had a few pithy comments about Sockeye, and asked us to please not do a tour with them, ever. From the way everyone talked, it was obvious that this was a small community, supportive of each other, but also much like a small family with some infighting as well.

By the time we got back to Skagway, I was starving and grumpy, and made a beeline for someplace to eat. After an Alaskan Amber and a burger at the Alaska Brewing Company I felt much better. The restaurant was great, and looked historic and interesting, but a closer look at the historical walking tour brochure revealed that the building was erected 3 years ago, called Old Town Skagway. The town itself is completely taken over by tourism and the cruise industry, with only a few local businesses on some of the side streets. Again, Diamond International and all the associated Caribbean jewelry stores dominate the main street of Broadway, with just a few interesting local shops caught in the middle. The town was crowded and busy, and with a population that swells daily from 800 to 10,000 or so with the cruise ship arrivals, it was certainly more like Disneyland than a true Alaskan frontier town. Mo and I were shopped out, even though we haven’t really bought a lot of “stuff”, and walked back to the ship. Again, the flowers were brilliant and gorgeous, the skies a perfect blue, and the mountains magnificent.

When we left Skagway, Kathy talked on the microphone about the glaciers and waterfalls, and Mo and I braved the incredible winds at the front of the ship to get great photos. We passed Haines on the right, the mountains adjacent to Glacier Bay to the north, and got an extremely rare view of three magnificent glaciers as we cruised down the sound. I took a ton of photos. Perfect. Perfect that is, until this morning, when I discovered the horrific fact that I left the smart card in the computer and took all those photos without a card in the camera. Geez, you would think a camera would tell you something like that. So, no photos of the extremely rare sunny departure from Skagway, while we listened over and over to just how incredibly lucky we were to see the glaciers and the mountains. We were, I just don’t have photos of that experience!

Again, we skipped dinner in the dining room at 8 in favor of the production show. It was well worth it, finally, this show was fabulous. “I’ve Got the Music” was filled with great dancing, great singing, and all the bells and whistles. We felt that we had truly been entertained. It was so good that we decided we would have to go to the 10:15 show after our formal dinner at 8 on our sea day tomorrow.

I fell into bed filled with visions of mountains and glaciers and lakes and all the wonders we had seen on this day and slept like a rock!