Cruise 2013

The connections from Midway to Ft. Lauderdale to the ship were smooth.  I had an inside stateroom but it didn't matter to me since I only slept there.

                                       State room on Nieuw Amsterdam

Every night I returned to the room to a different towel sculpture.

               Monkey towel sculpture

The first night was high winds.  I went out on deck and it was really exciting.  That night the bed felt like it was vibrating.  We didn't make our first stop at Half Moon Cay because it wasn't safe.  This is a little island owned by the cruise line.  There was mostly just swimming and laying on the beach so I didn't mind.  It really is possible to overeat on board.  From 1:00 to 6:00 I ate pizza, lasagna, linguinni, shrimp cocktail, fish soup, prime rib, strawberry pie and chocolate torte.  

The ship has about 2000 passengers.  

                                                                  Nieuw Amsterday

I usually got up early to watch the sunrise.

                                                             Sunrise

   

                                                                  Scene of Crime

I was suprised how low the railings were.  It made me think of a plot for a murder mystery.  A husband takes out a life insurance policy on his wife and books a curise.  She jogs around the deck every day.  One day he waits for her when no one else is around.  He tells her to look in the water, because he thinks he sees a shark.  While she bends over the railing, he grabs both her feet and dumps her in.  (For this to work he has to be bigger).  He casually returns to their stateroom and pretends to take a nap.  Two hours later he reports her missing: " She never returned from her run".  When I shared my plot device with a fellow passenger, it was pointed out that ships now have a heat sensor to detect whenever some one goes overbaord.        

There were 2 pools, inside and outside.  At first I was reluctant to do my pool exercises because there were deckchairs all around all occupied with people looking at me.  Then I realized they were either reading a book or asleep (I never realized how many people sleep with thier mouths open.)  Anyway, the pools were too small to lap swim, everyone was just splashing around.  I exercised every day I didn't have a tour scheduled.                         

                                                              Outside pool at sun rise.

                                                           Indoor pool with roof slid back

I think the ship looked best when I returned from a tour at night.  

                                                    Returned to ship from Cozumel

There were many lounges and a showroom and a library and computer room.  The library was a disappointment.  No news magazines but advice about how to achieve a  "flat stomach, great butt." My favoirte space was the Silk Room.  There was usually no one there.  It has a very strange exhibit of small shoes.  There was no explanation but I am certain it was for women with bound feet.  

                                            Small shoes for bound feet

There ware also two full antique samauri costumes.

Junior entertained us most afternoons on the steel drums.  I asked him how the drum was able to make such different sounds.  I thought it had to do with the thickness.  He said it was caused by hammering.  Most drums came from Tobago. 

          Junior on the steel drums

I liked most of the shows, expecially the Hal Cats.

                                                          Hal Cats

Several times I played team trivia with Dennis and Betty from the Pav Pool.  There was a guy on our team  from  Pittsburg who really wanted to win but unfortunaly there were always better teams. He had a Russian wife and when I saw the couple I thought "mail order bride" because she looked younger.  Later when Betty asked how they met he explained that he was vacationing with a Russian friend who was visiting his home town on the Black Sea.  There he was approached by a middle aged women who asked him if he was looking for a wife.  He said he was and after more questions, she introduced him to her daughter.  They went to the opera and dated for a week.  Then she moved to the states and married him.  

The first stop was GeorgeTown on Grand Cayman and I booked a Duck Tour.  One of those vehicles that goes on land and water.  I saw seven mile beach which is only six miles and a cool beach cemetery. The cheapest land was the beach, that's why they put the cemetery there.  On water we fed the ducks and looked at a shipwreck.  It sunk when all the hands were on land.  It was an old ship, the rivets  came loose and let water in the cargo.  The rice flour in the hold exploded and blew the ship apart.  Our tour guide was a native of Georgetown and very beautiful.

                                               Tour guide on the duck in Georgetown

The tour ended with a visilt to the Seven Fathoms Distillery.  

                                                       Seven Fathoms Rum Dystellery

The owner explained that they "agitate" the rum differently.  They put the rum in Marker's Mark oak barrels and then take it out to sea and submerge it for three years.  The current prevents sediment from forming and helps mingle the rum with the oak.  They make rum from cane extract, not molasses or brown sugar.  There was rum tasting at the end.

Our tour guide said that 30% of the island is owned by a billionaire tax dodger named Dart.  He invented the styrofoam cup.  He didn't want to pay taxes and moved to Belize, than to Grand Cayman.  His mansion is healivly guarded.  The only picture of him made public is from grade school.  

One of the main attractions for me of this cruise was a chance to vist the Mayan Ruins Tulum.  It was an 8 hour excursion.  Cozemel is an island where the ship docked.  I needed to take a boat to Playa de Carmen and then a bus to Tulum.  On the way to the ruins we stopped a at Mayan village to use the bathrooms and to shop.  

                                                                   Maya Village

Here I made the only purchase of the trip.  I bought an obsidian carving.  Obsidian is used for arrow heads and knives but it is volcanic and must be imported to the Yucatan.  It is considered sacred by the Maya.  

I first told the salesman that the carvings were too heavy to take on a plane but he found something suitable for me.  

                                                               Mayan saleman

I didn't unwrap until I got home but I have no buyer's remorse.  

                Obsidian carving

Our guide explained that the name of the penninsula is a corruption of the Mayan Lanaguage.  When the Spaniards asked what the place was called the native replied, "I don't understand your lanaguge."

 The site of Tulum is the only Mayan ruins on the sea and was used for trade and astromomy.  There were plently of Iguana and birds.  I saw a young blonde women taking pictures of herself with the ruins in the background so I thought I would try it.  

                                                       Terrys's hat served me well.

                                                                        Tulum

The guides kept saying how small this ruin is compared to the others so of course I must come back and see the big ones.  We had a half hour on our own and then we were to meet at the bus.  This place was not so small I couldn't get lost.  After walking for about 20 minutes I realized this was not the way we came.  I asked someone and discovered I was on the road to the beach, not to the village and bus parking.  I had many cab driver's offer to drive me but I returned to the entrance and for $2.00 took a shuttle to the parking lot and made it on time.  

I wish I knew the name of the rabbit sized creature than ran across the road at Playa de Carmen.  It seemed to have longer back legs than front legs.  

That night was a Mexican Fiesta and they had a Mariachi band and dancers aboard the ship

                                                Mariachi Band

                                 

I took Betty's suggestion and took the Conch Train at Key West

                                       Conch Train, Key West

This is a place I wanted to see but I am glad that I didn't drive down highway 1 to do it.  I am not a beach person and I don't swim or sail and the only other occupation appeared to be partying.  There were black chickens everywhere.  The guide said they were left over from Cuban cock fights.  The banyon trees were pretty impressive.  

                                   One of the smaller bayon trees

The "wreckers"  of Key West seems to be of a different breed than the ones in Great Britian.  There the wreckers were known to kill any survivors so there would be no wittness to looting the cargo.  In Key West it was legal to salvage anything from a ship wreck.  The wreckers were led by a captain who was entitled to 30% of all the salvage.  During a storm, the captian who kept watch from the widow's walk on top of the house would sound the alarm.  (It was only called a widow's walk when his wife was up there, when the captain was on the look out it was the captain's walk.)  Since their activities were legal they first tried to save any survivors which this statue in the park depicts.  At one time Key West was the richest city in the U.S. due to its wrecking activities.

                Wreckers of Key West, saving people and salvaging, that's a child on the man's back

There was a speed boat competition during this week-end.  There are five classes, includilng extreme. From the ship I could watch the speed boats and sail boats.  

                                 Speed board Key West

                                                         Speed boat Key West

We docked in the morning at Ft. Laluderdale and I had time to take a tour of Saw Grass Recreation Park.  I rode an airboat across the Everglades.  

                                            Captain of the airboat

I have pictures of alligators in water but they are difficult to spot.  I also saw egrets but several birds posed for me on top of signs.  

                                                        Boat Tailed Grackle on top of sign

                                   Black Vultures on top of sign, they are more impressive soaring

They had a sanctuary with rescued Florilda Panthers.

                              Florida Panther

The tour included transport to the airport and I got there in plenty of time.  I don't deserve any credit for this. I first got on the wrong tour bus but the mistake was corrected in time.  The Tour Guide looked at me funny and asked, "Are you with me?"  That's when I realized that this was not "my" tour guide and found the right bus.  It was my first cruise and I hope to try this again sometime without getting lost.  

Terri/Columbia, MO

Megabus was a real bargain.  Because I booked early, it was $15.00 round trip.  However, when I tried to board, the bus driver said he did not have my reservation number and asked me to go to the back of the line.  I showed him my printed e-mail from Megabus and he let me board.

The bus was an hour late and Terri met me at the station.  We bought burittos and drank beer and watched the sunset on the river.  

Terri and Jan's house is recently built and very beautiful.  It has vaulted ceilings and wide hallways.  This next picture is the train station and dosen't belong here but I don't know how to delete it.

                                                                 Good Dog, view from Terri's living room

Their dog Mya is the best trained dog ever.  It hardly makes a sound; they should have named it shadow.  When it accompanies Terri on her bike hikes, she goes on terrain that it too difficult for the dog.  It waits patiently for her at a cattle gate.  

When Terri told me they dug a pond and a lagoon when they built their house, I tought she was telling me that they had two ponds.  But then I learned that a lagoon is an ingenious waste management system. The ground it too shallow for a septic tank.  Terri asked me not to include a picture of the lagoon in my blog and I will respect her wishes.  Jan put purple flags all around the property to protect it from the neighborhood Christians.  He is working on a wheelchair accessible trail around the property.

They have a very comfortable guest bedroom where most guests oversleep.  It had fresh flowers and a MO guide book.  

The only place mentioned in the guide book where  I wanted to go was the Katy Trail.  This guide had 23 pages on Branson but only 2 1/2 pages on Columbia.  

Terry took me on a hike around a lake on Lick Creek Conservation area to test my stamina.  It was good enougth to try the Katy Trail which is 240 miles long and built on the former corridor of the Missouri-Kansas Texas railroad bed.  We hiked through one of the tunnels near Rocheport.  Rocheport has small shops and B & Bs.  Here is where I saw my first bottle tree.  

(I had expected a tree native to MO, when Terri told me I would see a bottle tree).  The bottles are all kinds, from wine and mead to Milk of Magnesea.  The artist came out to talk to us and explained that he was inspired by the bottle guarden near-by.  Terry knew the place and took me to see it the next day.  When we arrived me met a man walking his dog.  He was the owner and said we could take pictures.  His name is Terry McBride (a former cartagrapher for the state) and he grew up in the farm across the road.  He could see this house from his bedroom window and when he retired, it came up for sale and he bought it.  It needed to be completeldy restored.  

The back of the house is new construction.  He modeled it after a childhood toy, a mental chicken coop.

Some of the materials for the decorations of the yard came from underneath the house where the owners threw thier trash.  Terry McBride claimed to also know where all the local junk piles were.  He pointed out that the bottle tree contained a Barbie and Ken.  He had to replace Barbie's dress.  

                               Ken is on the right, Barbe is just below the duck's head

My favorite is the flower bed.  But the fence and chickens are pretty cool also.  

                                             license plate shed

Terry took me to Rock Bridge State Park.  Unfortunately the Devil's Ice Box was closed.  

We went to a vineyard that overlooked the Missouri River and sampled the wine from Les Bourgeois.  Terry served me some excellent local wine.    

Several times we fed apples to the neighbor's horses.  This is messy business.  The horses expect to use your hand as a plate.

The apples are supplied by her good neighbors, Wayne and Joan.  I didn't bring my i-pad when I met them, so I don't have pictures  but they were pretty cool.  They have a daughter living in San Diego that they plan to visit soon.  He raises percheron horses and beef cattle.  I saw the wagon that the draft horses pull and a sled he uses to train the colt. Joan is into quilting.  

Before taking me to the bus statiion, Terri gave me a tour of the University of MO campus.  It is very lovely.  The Megabus stop at Columbia is the best I have seen.  It is a old former railroad station and you can sit inside and wait and see the bus pull up.  (Here is where i should have put the picture of the inside of the station.)  

This time the bus driver did'nt even check for a registration number.  I got my favorite seat, top deck, front row where you can see the best.  The bus was scheduled to arrive at Union Station at 9:40 p.m.  The Metra to Berwyn left Union Station at 9:40 so I expected that I would need to wait unitl 10:40 unless the bus was early.  As we approached Chicago, I had expectations that I would be early.  But for some explicable reason, the driver turned off at Cicero Ave.  I was upstairs and could not hear the conversation but I formed the impression that she had never been to Chicago.  She went south again on 55, turned around at LaGrange Rd. and went north on 55.  She did manage to find Union Station and I took the 10:40 bus home as I had expected to.  

 When I got home I discovered that the oak tree outside my balcony had turned colors.  

It had such fun at Terri's.  I haven't laughed so much in a long time.   I plan to go at least every year if she will have me.