Cozumel - Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Cruising into Cozumel.

Four ships were in port already. 
We made #5.

The shops at the end of
the pier in Cozumel.

Norwegian Escape streaming
in made ship #6.

Our original arrival time in Cozumel was supposed to be 9:00 a.m. Due to our fog delay on embarkation day, the new arrival time was noon. People who had shore excursions booked in Cozumel were told we would be in port until 7:30 p.m. instead of 6:00 p.m. and their shore excursion times had all been rescheduled. Even that had unforeseen consequences.  

Some of the ladies in our group had a shore excursion in Cozumel to swim with the dolphins and other activities at the same location. Originally, they were supposed to go from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. With the re-scheduling of their tour, they did not have the same amount of time at their destination. The locale closed at 4:00 p.m. and they had to catch either a 3:15 or 4:15 p.m. shuttle back to the ship, thus cutting off almost 2-1/2 hours of experience time at their destination. They were thrilled to swim with the dolphins, but they didn't have time for anything else!

Peri and I and a number of other ladies in our group decided to stay on the ship. I think a couple of them got off just to walk and shop in the area by the ships. 

A popular activity on the day in port was a day pass for the spa. There is a Thalassotherapy pool, saunas, beauty workshops, places to relax, showers, and a workout room. Wait, what? A workout room. Well, I guess if you are indulging in the buffet and every other food joint on the ship, it would be good if you exercised. I don't think anyone in our group did, though. I mean, we ate, but we didn't exercise (except walking all over the ship).

Our dog towel.

Our oceanview stateroom
looking toward the window.

Looking toward the door.

Angie, Peri, and I did a ladies' tea in the afternoon. They had a string quartet playing classical music, tea, a dessert tray, and cucumber sandwiches. It seemed like they ran out of cucumber sandwiches, you know the ones I'm talking about that are triangles. We only got one small triangle each. I thought that was pretty skimpy.

At the Ladies' Tea before
Angie joined us.

After the tea, we walked around the ship. I took photos, and Peri and I did some of the games. They had a "Carnival Tower," which is like Jenga only it was hard rubber blocks (instead of wooden ones) stacked on the floor up to about four feet in height. Once the blocks were set up, we had a big die that we rolled on the floor. Then we had to do what it said. For example, "Any Two," "Mid," "Side," "Wild" (when you got "wild," you could only use your elbow or foot to remove blocks).

The next game was a facial recognition logic puzzle. There were two teams of two. Each team had ten pictures of the same people (cruise director, bartender, steward, captain, etc.). By process of elimination using questions, the goal was for your team to be the first one to guess who the other team picked as their person. Peri and I won three rounds and the other team won two.

We spent time reading on the Serenity Deck, but it was too hot and humid, so we ended up in the library and then back in our room. It was a laid back day.

At 6:00 p.m., we had our early dinner in the Scarlet Restaurant. Our waiter, Yugi, was lots of fun. He had us up dancing next to the table a couple of nights. 

Yugi, our waiter, danced a lot.

After dinner, we headed to the Encore! Theater for the evening show "America Rocks!" It was right up my alley because I love rock 'n' roll. I was singing along, clapping, and dancing in my seat. 

Encore! Theater's America Rocks!

Later in the evening, Peri and I went to hear two comedians in the Punchliner Comedy Club. The lady we saw first was funny, but you had to get past her incessant swearing. Not my thing. The guy who came on second was really good. He had insightful, intelligent humor. Being a former musician, he used music and lyrics in his humor repertoire.

Then it was time for snacks. We spent about 1/2 hour in the buffet area eating soft-serve ice cream. They had a chocolate strawberry swirl that was pretty darned good. 

Time to head back to our room for sleep.

Incommunicado - Monday, February 17, 2020

Well, I just got back in the groove of writing blogs and now I'll be off for a bit. Tomorrow, 12 ladies from the RV park are off on a cruise to Mexico. This is to let you know you won't hear from me until at least Sunday, February 23.

Today, Peri and I got manis and pedis. That was a treat!

I'll be taking three people in my car. Their big suitcases are already in the car and in the morning, they'll bring their overnight bags. On our way to Galveston, we'll stop for breakfast.

Our concern in the morning is a forecast of dense fog in Galveston, Texas. If that is the case, our ship will arrive in port late from the cruise before us. They will have to debark and then the ship will need to be loaded. We could be late getting out tomorrow.

We'll visit Cozumel and Progreso (on the Yucatan Peninsula). We're pretty excited! Talk to you later!

I Did NOT Drop Off the Face of the Earth! - Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Well, well, well, look who's here! It's been quite a while since my last blog. This is my first blog in 2020! I've definitely been busy. There are all kinds of excuses I can come up with for why I haven't done my blog. 

I spent the last few days looking through photos from our eight-month trip and I am energized to write again. My writing mojo is back. 

Since it's today and there are some exciting things happening in my life right now, I am going to share those first. You all know walking is my passion and AVA: America's Walking Club (Volksmarching) is where I put my energy. 

So, I will be presenting a seminar at the Escapees Escapade RV rally in Rock Springs, Wyoming in June. The title is, "Are You Ready to Walk?" My co-presenter will be Steve Sandridge, AVA Rocky Mountain Deputy Regional Director, AVA Life Member, and a member of the Falcon Wanderers Volksmarch Club out of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Both of us have lots of experience in Volksmarching. I am also an AVA Life Member, a member of the Randolph Roadrunners Volkssport Club in San Antonio, Texas, and have been a Volksmarcher for 23 years. (That's 750 events and almost 7,500 kilometers! These feet are made for walking and that's just what they do...) 

Today, I was approved by Escapees RV Club to start an Escapees "Birds of a Feather" (BoF) group called AVA: America's Walking Club. We will have events a couple of times per year and the members are encouraged to take part in any of the other AVA walks nationwide (and in Canada). It seems like a perfect pairing: people RVing across North America, many of whom love to walk or hike, being able to find ready-made walks. Personally, for our eight-month RV trip, we planned many stops because there was an interesting walk there, e.g., Watkins Glen State Park in New York, and part of the Appalachian Trail in Baxter State Park, Maine. The list goes on and on!

Another great honor is that I will have my second article published in the May/June issue of Escapees full-color glossy magazine. (My first article was in 2016.) That will tie in perfectly with the seminar in June! It's all coming together. [This is to let you know I didn't completely stop writing.]

On January 26, we celebrated my BFFs 60th birthday at The Melting Pot in San Antonio. It was awesome. Many years have passed since the last time Bob and I ate at a Melting Pot. The food was so good, as was the company. Here is photographic evidence.

Susan and Darren anticipating our dessert:
a Rocky Road fondue.

The grand finale...setting the chocolate fondue ablaze.

Completely satisfied with our dinner!

Tomorrow, a number of us in AVA: America's Walking Club are spending the day stuffing bags for the Texas Trail Roundup (TTR)/ International Marching League (IML) event the weekend of February 21-23 in San Antonio. I will be stuffing bags from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and then attending our TTR planning meeting from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Next Monday, 12 ladies from the RV park are going on a five-day Carnival Dream cruise from Galveston, Texas, to the Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel, Mexico. My roommate will be Peri who I met at an RV-Dreams Rally in 2012. We've been great friends ever since. Can't wait! It's been cold, dreary, and rainy in San Antonio for the past couple of weeks (with a few 80-degree days thrown in to confuse us).

Our friends Jim and Peri. 

In other news, Mom is doing very well in assisted living. She turns 90 in March and Bob and I will fly to Oregon to spend a week with family. We'll take Mom to dinner on her birthday. She doesn't want a big party.

At the end of March, Susan Medlin and I will do a walking weekend in Memphis/ Germantown, Tennessee. It looks like it will be a fun time complete with a Happy Hour one evening. 

No dust gathering on these fingers or my brain. I just have to put fingers to keyboard and get all my thoughts out here. 

Travel Bug out.

McDowell Creek Park - Mon., June 13, 2016

We had smoothies for breakfast this morning. I wanted to shop at the Discovery Shop second-hand store. Then I wanted to take mom hiking at McDowell Creek County Park east of Lebanon, Oregon.

At the thrift store, I was looking for a good deal on jeans. But the only jeans I found were way too short for me. However, I found two really cute T-shirts. You'll be seeing them on me in the next few days.

McDowell Creek County Park beckoned with promises of hikes to beautiful waterfalls: Royal Terrace Falls, Crystal Pool and Majestic Falls. First we needed to eat lunch, so we made a stop in Albany, Oregon, at Elmer's Pancake House. The hazelnut crusted cod sounded pretty good so we both ordered it. Mom ordered a side salad and I had beef barley soup, plus when our meal came, we had steamed vegetables and rice. It was very good and we were properly nourished for a two-mile hike.

Upon arrival at the park, we needed the potty. The maintenance man had just cleaned them. As we started to leave the parking area, the maintenance guy said, "Do you know your lights are on on your car?" Oh my gosh! I'm used to automatic headlights and forgot to turn off the lights on Mom's car. I'm glad we hadn't left on the trail yet or we would have returned to a very dead battery. And we were out in the country, far from a service station. Whew!

I was reading the description of the hike on OregonHikers.org. The trail we were taking had a rating of "easy," and called it a "Lollipop Loop." Hah! I wish I had the photos to show you that I took on my cell phone, but I cannot get my cell phone to send the photos to my email. I have been trying for three days! (Yes, I FORGOT my camera. Shame on me.) You can see photos of the falls on the link at the top of this paragraph.

Royal Terrace Falls is a lovely, 119'-tall tiered waterfall. Our walk instructions from OregonHikers.org said to do the loop, backtrack a few feet from Royal Terrace to the stone staircase. Well, the stone staircase started out with a very big first step. Mom headed up the stairs and she thinks there were about 86 stairs. We huffed and puffed our way up. Maybe this was a lollipop loop for young, frequent-mountain-hiking studs, but we were an 86-year-old and 63-year-old. To us, this was NOT an easy part of the loop!

Anyway, we next had beautiful views at the top of the waterfall and continued along the upper trail high above the river. We walked and walked, finally finding a fork in the trail. All I could figure without a trail map in front of us was that we should turn left and go down to the river level. (There were no trail signs or maps on this trail indicating which way to go.)

When we got toward the bottom, we could see that a big tree had fallen across the trail. In order to get down to the road and river, some temporary steps had been carved into the hillside. The steps were huge and had slippery mud. I helped mom down. When we got to the road, we looked back at where this trail left the road to go uphill and it looked like there had been a tape across the trail to keep people from going that way, but the tape was broken.

We then crossed a bridge and got on what we thought was the trail to Majestic Falls. People coming from the other way confirmed it was the right trail, but warned us there were steep, slippery rock steps ahead and some of the rocks were hidden in the undergrowth. One of the ladies said she almost fell. When we got to the stairs, we decided not to go down them and took the "easy" part of the loop back to the car.

The lady we talked to on the trail told us we could drive to Majestic Falls, so that's what we did. When we arrived at that part of the trail, there were more steep, slippery stone steps down to a viewing platform of Majestic Falls. I went down and took a photo for Mom. She didn't want to go down more of those rock stairs and I don't blame her. Neither of us wanted to fall!

Today ended up being more of an adventure than we planned, but we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, cool weather and the waterfalls.

When we got home, I took some photos of the flowers in Mom's front garden. She has lilies and geraniums, plus trailing petunias in her flower boxes.

Such pretty lilies

It's a big, outdoor flower arrangement!

Lilies and geraniums

Trailing petunias

We made it home at 7:15 p.m. and had left-over trout in lettuce wraps with avocado and tomato. We also had steamed beets.

It was quite a day. That evening we vegged out watching American Ninja Warriors. That is my favorite sports show!

All for today! Isn't that enough?

Leaving On a Jet Plane - Sat., June 11, 2016

Bob will be holding down the fort while I'm on vacation. Thank you, honey, for letting me fly away for ten days.

After work today, Bob is taking me to the San Antonio airport and I'll fly to Portland, Oregon to visit family, friends, and do the Columbia Gorge Volksmarching Weekend! Yay, waterfall hikes galore.

I will write blogs as time allows. Look for some "gorge"ous nature photography starting June 16. Hopefully the rain will hold off.

During the four-day hiking weekend, I signed up for four hard 10k hikes, one medium 10k hike and one easy 5k walk. My feet will be ready for a rest after all that.

Thank you again, Bob, for taking care of the home front. I love you. 

Off Our Rockers* - Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015

San Antonio didn't want to let go of us on Wednesday morning. The state vehicle inspection for Rigamarole (our 5th wheel's nickname) is due in November. Since Rigamarole was out of her site and on the road, we drove a couple of miles down the road to have her inspection done. She passed with flying colors, but (there's always a but, right) when the inspector entered the information in the computer, he couldn't find our records. What? We registered it one year ago.

Back to the drawing board. The inspector figured out he had used the manufacturing I.D. number rather than the 5th wheel's VIN number. Once he had the correct number in the computer, the printer spit out our approved inspection. Now we can renew our registration.

With that piece of business behind us, San Antonio was soon behind us as well. The weather cooperated beautifully...no rain, and the wind was not strong enough to push us around, except when we had a tail wind. Thank you, Mother Nature. That's always welcome.

Interstate 10 was our route until Junction, Texas, where we headed north on U.S. 83 to Eden, Texas. Then we drove northwest toward Big Spring. Part of the drive was through Hill Country but no spectacular scenery to note today. We drove through the Permian Basin oil fields and saw some huge oil rigs reaching to the sky, most waving American flags on top or at the base.

In the town of San Angelo, we stopped for diesel fuel and to change drivers. Bob's back was hurting and he needed a break. After we got to our destination Wednesday night, one of my blogging friends mentioned on Facebook that the Monarch butterflies are currently at San Angelo State Park. I think we'll stay in San Angelo on our way back to San Antonio and look for those beautiful Monarchs!

For a while, we drove through areas of oil fields, windmill farms and cotton fields. Some cotton is being harvested. We saw how it is baled, and the cotton picking machines. In areas where cotton is grown you will see Gin Association buildings; those are not drinking clubs, they mean cotton gins (those cotton pickin' machines).

Baled cotton with denuded cotton plants in foreground

Cotton compactor machine - gets cotton ready
to go to the cotton gin. (Thanks, Jerry, for the info!)

I had an oops when we were driving through Big Spring on U.S. 87. Yes, I was driving in a city during rush hour with no freeway. (I HATE that. It scares the $h*t out of me.) Anyway, I was doing fine, the lights were all green; until they weren't.

Going down a small hill at 40 mph I saw the light start to change. It was one of those moments when you have to decide to stop or go for it. Pulling a 17,000 pound 5th wheel is one of those times I should have gone for it. I tried to stop, and I thought I was going to make it. However, by the time I stopped I was in the middle of the intersection and the light was red, I had to run it. So I floored it and no one got hurt. Thankfully, the road I was crossing was a one-way street and everyone waited because they could see I wasn't going to make the stop in time. I was very fortunate and very shaken up. It could have been a much worse outcome.

We made it to Whip In RV Park in one piece. Just before we arrived at the RV park, Bob and I did a Chinese fire drill at a stop sign so he could drive into the RV park. Our site was a pull through with full hookups.

Unhitching was not necessary to go out for dinner as we had leftover spaghetti for dinner from Tuesday night. We settled in and had dinner. Bob watched "Mysteries of Laura" and baseball playoffs. I watched "Survivor."

Our site was near the dog park and the dumpsters. Around 10:00 p.m. Bowie started running around the 5th wheel snarling. He kept looking out the back window toward the dumpsters. He came and sat near me at the computer and snarled like he was trying to protect me from something outside. Both cats were very agitated. Don't know if it was stray cats, 'possums, raccoons, or coyotes out there, but something had them very upset. They finally settled down when I went to bed.

Our mileage today was 290 miles. We left San Antonio at 11:00 a.m. and arrived in Big Spring, Texas at 5:00 p.m. That was enough miles for one day!! We heard thunder and saw lightning late into the evening and again in the morning. We did not get much rain.

*Off our rockers = out of our spot in San Antonio and on the road!

Gardens - Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Peaceful, serene, beautiful, fragrant, charming, exotic, tropical, lovely, experiential -- all describe how I feel about gardens. We have seen our share of gardens in locations around the world.

It's spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. Let's get in the mood for spring and summer flowers with a look at these beautiful places. You'll have to indulge my inclusion of so many Pacific Northwest gardens...they are world class! We did live in the area for over 30 years.  (I do not have photos at some of the gardens as we were there before I had a digital camera. Links have been included for you to view the awesomeness at those gardens.)

The Pacific Bonsai Museum, 2515 S. 336th St., Federal Way, WA 98003

This beautiful garden with museum has 100 bonsai in its collection, about 60 of which are on display at any given time. The bonsai come from Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United States. The collection was started by Weyerhauser Corporation in 1989. Even though the garden is small, its uniqueness and the artful shapes of the trees make up for the lack of size. A Domoto Trident Maple is a featured bonsai tree which is 100 years old in 2015. This garden is a gem south of the Emerald City. The Bonsai Museum is free and donations are accepted. Next door is the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden which charges a $5 admission. All of this is about 20 minutes south of Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle.

Butchart Gardens, 800 Benvenuto Ave, Brentwood Bay, BC V8M 1J8, Canada

Butchart Gardens is the granddaddy of rock quarries turned into gardens. From the first time we set eyes on this grand old garden, we were hooked. Over a century ago Jennie Butchart started building one of the world's premier floral show gardens. My personal favorite garden here is the Sunken Garden. Other gardens include The Italian Garden, The Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, and Mediterranean Garden. 

Portland International Rose Test Garden, 850 SW Rose Garden Way, Portland, OR 97205 

Drive up a hill through elegant old homes to Washington Park overlooking downtown Portland, Oregon. There you will find a world-class rose test garden. On a clear day Mt. Hood can be seen standing proudly in the distance. Do your best to visit in June or July when the roses are blooming in their full glory. You can sniff your way to heaven on the scents emanating from roses in full bloom. The primary purpose of this garden is to serve as a testing ground for new rose varieties. Different sections are the Gold Medal Garden, International Rose Test Garden, Miniature Rose Test Garden, and the Shakespeare Test Garden. While you are in Washington Park, be sure to visit the Portland Japanese Garden a short drive up the hill.

The Oregon Garden, 879 W Main St, Silverton, OR 97381  Below is a write-up from their website:

"We are an 80-acre botanical garden, featuring more than 20 specialty gardens showcasing the diverse botanical beauty that can be found in the Willamette Valley and throughout the Pacific Northwest. We have educational specialty gardens for everyone, from the Sensory Garden and Rose Garden to the Children’s Garden and Pet-Friendly Garden, or the Silverton Market Garden and Amazing Water Garden. We also offer a complimentary narrated tram tour April– October, and we are pet-friendly."

Here are some photos from our cold, windy, rainy autumn visit to The Oregon Garden.

I see a sea monster!

Dancing trees

Split by lightning a few days before we arrived

Reflecting ponds

Hunter Valley Gardens, 2090 Broke Road, Pokolbin NSW (New South Wales) 2320, Australia  This is Australia's largest display garden. Below is a description of the garden from their website.

"Nestled at the foothills of the Brokenback Ranges, in the heart of the Hunter vineyards, you will find ... Hunter Valley Gardens - over 60 acres of spectacular international display gardens ... will amaze you with sensational sights, colours, fragrances and adventures. Exploring over 8 kilometres of walking paths, visitors are able to experience each of the ten individual feature gardens with a range of statuary and superb feature gardens, all of a standard you won’t see elsewhere in Australia."

Here are our photos from Hunter Valley Gardens taken in November 2012.

Bob in Indian Tea House

Moongate Garden

Male Superb Fairy-wren

Fashionably late!

Huge hedge around Border Garden

Border Garden

Bob standing under hedge

Red-browed Firetail

Skinks, methinks!

Cape Chestnut - native to Africa

Water lilies

Willie Wagtail bird

Booderee Botanic Gardens, Booderee National Park, Village Rd, Jervis Bay Territory ACT 2540, Australia

From the ParksAustralia.gov website is the following information about Boodaree Botanic Gardens:

"Booderee Botanic Gardens are the only Aboriginal-owned botanic gardens in Australia. Here visitors can learn about bush tucker and medicinal uses of plants and the long association that Koori people have with the area and the plants of south eastern Australia."

Bob is not much of a botanic garden kind of guy. But he is a good sport. He told me to go ahead and explore Booderee Botanic Gardens while he took a nap in the car. Jolly good.

Off I went armed with a map of the gardens, my camera and a bottle of water. As I set out on a rather deserted track through brush, my imagination and worries kicked in. What if I fell? What if I got lost? What if a poisonous snake or spider bit me? But I pressed on and quelled the demons. Come along, take a look at what I found...

Delicate flowers all over this tree

Booderee Botanic Garden trail

Turpentine tree

Broad-leafed paperbark

If you were a 'roo wouldn't you want to live here?

Walking through the botanic garden all alone, feeling like the only person experiencing it, is great. However, it's disconcerting when you feel you're being watched! 'Roos and wallabies have perfected the art of standing stock still in the forest and watching. If you don't look closely, you'll miss them. I enlarged the photo below so you could see what I mean. If one of them hadn't been in the sun, I would have missed them all together.

Can you find two 'roos?

Echidna (small hedgehog-like animal)

'Roos

Japanese Tea Garden, Brackenridge Park, 3875 N St Mary's St, San Antonio, TX 78212

San Antonio's Japanese Tea Garden was built in the abandoned Alamo Cement Company quarry over 90 years ago. The sunken garden showcases koi ponds, stone arch bridges, a waterfall, an island, exotic plants, and a two-story, stone, open-air pagoda overlooking the garden. The Jinghu House Cafe is at the entrance to the garden. This garden is a delightful find and is located next to the San Antonio Zoo.

Entry gate

Under the pagoda

Going into the sunken garden

Pagoda

Water lily seed pod

Exotic sunken garden landscape

Pagoda with downtown San Antonio in the background

Portland Cement Company ruins

Koi pond

Jerusalem sage (phlomis fruticosa)

Waterfall in sunken garden

Pond and bridges

San Antonio Botanical Garden, 555 Funston Pl, San Antonio, TX 78209 

This 38-acre botanic garden showcases Texas landscapes and habitats. The towers of the indoor pavilions housing the fern grotto, palm and cycad collection, tropical collection, and desert pavilion are often photographed for their space-age appearance. The garden is divided into a number of areas: South Texas, East Texas Piney Woods, Hill Country, Rose Garden, Old-Fashioned Garden, Sensory Garden, Wisteria Arbor, Children's Garden, and Kumamoto En (Japanese Garden) [not to be confused with the Japanese Sunken Garden above].

 The following photos are mine:

Anole

Botanic garden pavilions

Pollinator

Amaryllis?

That's enough gardens for this blog. I do want to mention one more: Mother Nature's Garden. Here in South Texas we are currently getting a wonderful wildflower display. Enjoy the flora wherever you may be.