4-4 Aruba

We're in Aruba this morning.  We decided not to do any tour here, so we just walked the main street.  They just happen to have a Starbucks, so we're taking the time to upload my blog text.  Not sure if I'll get any pictures uploaded.  Connection isn't super!

There's really nothing to report from here.  Food is good, entertainment is great, and we're sleeping like babies.

Check back to the Flickr photo page to check if I got any of the photos to upload:

Cruise Photos

4-3 Day 2 at Sea

Again we start out slowly.after having breakfast at the Bordeaux dining room, we head to the $10 Holiday Store sale in the province dining room. All items are $10.  I end up buying a watch and wallet.  Tony.'s find is a manicure set.  Then back to the room to catch a morning siesta - just 2 hours out of bed!!!

Around noon we head back to the. Atrium to listen to the Rhaposdy Trio play classical music.  We also take some great photos of the atrium area.  This is the center of the ship which serves as a meeting place for cruises and hosts many of the social events on the ship.

At one we head into the princess theater to listen to the informative lecture on Cartagena.  The lecture include historical background of the city and logistics on how to Manuver when in the city.  It actually didn't start until 1:30 so we get up and walk around a bit, stopping at the art auction hoping to cash in on hue free champaign. Nos core on that, so we head back to the theater. I leave the lecture around 2 and head over to the advanced photography class, and Tony stays for the remainder of the Cartagena lecture.  Later we meet back at the room.  Time for a bit more R&R. Then at 4 I head back to the princess lounge to listen to the returning cruisers presentation.   This is our 2nd cruise on Princess.  The presentation consists of music, videos on the new cruise ship design, and a drawing for elite status during the cruise. Darn, the luck winner get free laundry for the duration of the cruise.  Something to work toward!

Tonight we'll head to an early dinner.  Tomorrow we'll be in Aruba.

4-2 Our First Day at Sea

What a great night. For the first time since we've left home we slept like babies.  The rocking of the island princess was a lullaby to us.  We woke to room service with a pot of coffee and croissants with preserves.

BTW, happy birthday to me!   So after a slow start we he'd down to the buffet for breakfast. The tour the ship to get familiar. At 10 we headed to the theater to catch an education presentation of "when icebergs were seen on the. Florida coast".  The presenter spoke about the origin of the sand on the beaches of Florida and scientific evidence of origin of the quartz based sand- the Appalachian mountains. Interesting.

 At 11 we head over to the wheelhouse bar to meet with the cruise critic gang.  This group is nothing like our Mediterranean group on the legend. There were roughly 20 people.  We spent the majority of the time with a gal from Tucson. She had singled me out because on the cruise critic roll call she had mentioned it was her husbands birthday on the 2nd.  And I had responded that it was my birthday too and we needed to celebrate. Well, there wasn't a lot of celebrating with the group, but we had a nice conversation with her and her husband and then decided to head out for a bit more exploring.  We needed to change our dinner reservations fro 8 to 7:30 because we wanted to have enough time to make it to the Piano Man performance at 9:45.

At 1 we headed to the aft lounge to hear an intro to photography lecture. It was actually quite interesting. Basic, but interesting. The presenter spoke about the special setting ps on an slr camera. The nice thing was that it was a Nikon lecture. Past photography classes I've attended we're always canon based. Although similar, it was nice to have a Nikon lecture for a change.

Later, we ended up back in our room for an afternoon nap. The seas were a bit rough today and we both were a bit tired so we ended up watching superman, Man of Steel.


We had dinner reservations at the bayou cafe at 7:30.  I had filet and t had chicken. I ordered the filet medium well.  Note.  Order medium next time.  This one was too well done. But the dinner was wonderful and the piano man and waiters sang happy birthday to me. Good memories.

after dinner we headed to the theater to watch the musical group perform Billy Joel, Barry Manalow and Elton John music.  Even with a rocking boat the show was great. And afterward we decided to catch the Scott Walker comedy show too.  He was a hoot.  So it's almost midnight and it's time to hit the sack. The ol' Island princess will be rocking us to sleep tonight.

The Atrium

4-1 Setting Sail on the Island

So I found my sanctuary. We got on the Island Princess around noon, had a cold beer and some lunch. Then walked around the ship to get the lay of the land. Our room is the last room on the port side of deck 10. Just behind us is a ship width aft deck. This will be my sanctuary for the next two weeks.

We should be setting sail about 330 this afternoon. I have a beer in my hand and I'm ready to watch us leave the Port of Fort Lauderdale.

Before we loose our data connection, here are a few pics of the ship.  Island Princess

3-31 Miami and South Beach

Our time is running out, and getting around down here is difficult for us spoiled Southern Californians.  The freeways are a mess with lots of construction, and drivers are incredibly aggressive.  Yes, this SoCal driver did say that!  I've seen more people cut off and flipped off over the past few days.  So we opt not to go to the Everglades and instead do some laundry and head down to Miami to check out the beach area.

We found the Art Deco area of South Beach, and it probably took us more time to find a parking spot than it did to have lunch and walk around (note strong German sarcasm).  The beaches are beautiful and were quite crowded as it's spring break season.  That means lots of young scantly clad bodies floating around, many that were a bit intoxicated.  It was quite a site.  OK, back to the buildings, which were beautiful.  But I think their real beauty is displayed at night with all the neon lighting.

That was about it for our day.  On our way back to FLL we stopped at LensCrafters to have a nose pad replaced on my sunglasses.  Oh, you're probably not too interested in all that housekeeping stuff.

Well, that's it folks.  Tomorrow we board ship around noonish.  And set sail around 3.  Check back occasionally.  I'll try to post an update somewhere along the cruise. Neighbors are sitting outside.  

Here are a few pics from Miami:  Day 5 - Miami

3-30 Driving back to FLL

Today we took our time getting out of bed.  The only things we had on our schedule was to visit the Hemingway House or Truman's Little White House.  Then we were heading back up to Fort Lauderdale.

We decide on Truman's Little White House and we're glad we did.  The conch style home, (1-2 story rectangular with full width porches on each floor) was built in 1890 and initially served as the naval stations's Command headquarters.  In 1946 President Truman began using it as a winter White House.

In 1974 the Naval Submarine Base closed and the house sat unused or years.  Then in 1987 the museum was transferred to the state of Florida where it became a protected property and it is entirely supported through donations and tour sales.  The home can still be rented by current and past US presidents, their children and grandchildren.  But a fee is charged because every time someone stays overnight, all the original antique furniture is removed and replaced with functional furniture, and then reversed after the visit.  The last person to stay there was Susan Ford and her children a few years back.  The Obama's have never vacationed there.

It was nostalgic touring the house.  Bess Truman's bedroom furniture was blond wood, the same color of the bed set I still sleep in when I visit my mother.  Another deja vous item was the studio sofa in the president's bedroom.  I remember my mother having a "studio sofa" in her den after her 1950's remodel.  The studio couch was used for daytime naps because back then one didn't climb back into one's bed during the day. Perhaps that why I don't like to nap in my bed during the day.  It's an old cultural custom!  Unfortunately no photos were allowed in the building, so I've had to rely on the internet for some pics of the interior.

The Little White House - Key West

Bess Truman's Bedroom - Note the blond furniture

Harry Truman's Bedroom - He made his own bed 

and napped on the studio sofa.

So after our tour we headed back up Highway 1 to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale.  Tomorrow is our last day in Florida and then we set sail.  Not sure how much I'll be blogging during the cruise.  Out of the 15 days, half of them will be at sea.  Don't think there will be a lot to report ... or if we'll even have internet.

Here are a few pics from our drive back up Highway 1:  Day 4 - Overseas Hwy

3-29 Dry Tortugas

Wow!  What a day!  First off, we had great night's sleep.  I think our colds have finally decided to take leave AND we've adjusted to the time difference.  On to vacation! 

After a quick hotel breakfast we head back down to Duval Street.  We wanted to walk around without the crowds.  One of our stops was Kino's Sandals, a Cuban sandal maker who's been making sandals in Key West since 1966.  Pretty cool.  Everything is made locally. Their sandals are on a counter, you select a style, give them your size, a pair is grabbed out of the appropriate box (mostly discarded beer cases), you try them on and then either buy or not!  Check it out:  Kino's Sandals 

After our brief shopping excursion, we return to the hotel to prepare for our big outing of the day - boarding a seaplane to Fort Jefferson located in the Dry Tortugas National Park.  The Park is located on one of the seven Dry Tortugas islands, the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys.  Although never completed the Fort is the largest brick structure in the US. 

Dry Tortugas National Park 

At 1:30 we head over to the Key West airport, sign our liability release forms and join our fellow passengers on the 10-passenger seaplane for the 30 minute flight to the Dry Tortugas. Liftoff was surprisingly quick and before we knew it we were skimming only 500 feet above the Gulf of Mexico.  Throughout the flight we skim over the shallow flats of Key West, an area off the coast that's less than 5 feet deep for miles off the shoreline, see underwater sand dunes, and the wrecks of two sunken ships.   The weather was a bit hazy, not bad considering rain was predicted.  We didn't know what to expect with a water landing in a sea plane.  But this one was incredibly smooth.  I've never been on a flight where the pilot encourages the passengers in back to open the back doors for some fresh air.  

Once on the island we were on our own for 2.5 hour.   Our first objective was to Walk through the ruins of Fort Jefferson.  And if time permitted, we planned to do a bit of snorkeling.  So we headed out to explore, walking through the 150 year ruins of an attempted fortress.  Check out the pics on my Flickr site.   

Did I mention it was really hot and humid (98%)? By the time we ended our tour we were both drenched. So we headed to the beach for a quick dip.  We did attempt to snorkel, but the water was quite rough making the water quite murky.  But the dip was very refreshing.

On the flight back to Key West, Tony got to sit up front with the pilot.  He was all smiles and was able to film a bit.   Will try to upload the video - if I can figure it out!

Time for bed.  Tomorrow we head back to Fort Lauderdale.