Booked Alaska!

We managed to find space on two "back to back" Alaska cruises on the Ryndam. When we went to book this cruise, it was Sold Out. What luck! A cabin freed up. We are now booked and ready to go. We also found flights on Westjet right out of London, non-stop.

Wendy has always wanted to go on an Alaska trip so why postpone? The price was certainly right since we used our accumulated Airmiles for both the cruise and the flights. Our friend Bernie from Philadelphia (we met on our first cruise on the Westerdam five years ago) is already booked from back in February. It will be good to see Bernie again.

ITINERARY

DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART Fri Jun 5 Vancouver, BC, Canada 5:00pm Sat Jun 6 At Sea Sun Jun 7 Ketchikan, AK 7:00am 3:00pm Mon Jun 8 Haines, AK 10:00am 11:00pm Tue Jun 9 Juneau, AK 7:00am 6:00pm Wed Jun 10 Sitka, AK 7:00am 4:00pm Thu Jun 11 Hubbard Glacier, AK 7:00am 11:00am Fri Jun 12 Anchorage (Seward), AK 7:00am

DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART Fri Jun 12 Anchorage (Seward), AK 8:00pm Sat Jun 13 Hubbard Glacier, AK 2:00pm 5:00pm Sun Jun 14 Sitka, AK 8:00am 5:00pm Mon Jun 15 Skagway, AK 8:00am 9:00pm Tue Jun 16 Juneau, AK 8:00am 6:00pm Wed Jun 17 Ketchikan, AK 2:00pm 8:00pm Thu Jun 18 At Sea Fri Jun 19 Vancouver, BC, Canada 7:00am

Spring And Memories In Springbank Park

Click a picture to enlarge

Spring is here, the crocuses bloom (or is that croci) and Wendy and I took a spin through Springbank Park. We stopped by the old waterworks pumping station on the banks of the Thames River. The pumphouse building was constructed in 1878 There was a dam there which I suppose could have been used to provide hydraulic power to run the pumps. The park’s name, Springbank, reflects the natural sulfur springs that flow from the riverbanks and nearby hills.

It was easy for ‘vandals’ to carve their names into the soft yellow bricks of the pumphouse. Over the decades thousands of names of visitors and their sweethearts are recorded here. Many of the names are obliterated by newer names scratched over top as the process continues. We discovered many names from the early to middle 1900’s and even one or two from the 1800’s. We located our names. Wendy’s seemed to be amazingly preserved in the center of more recent entries all around it. The name is clearly legible ‘Wendy Taleski 1959’. She thinks she remembers that it was carved there by her Uncle Ray as Wendy wouldn’t likely perform such a malicious act of vandalism; besides it was up too high for such a young girl to reach. Beside that, you can see her initials 'WGT 71'. My inscription was also there as ‘Tim Carroll 1971’. I was 22 at the time and hadn’t yet married Wendy. I wonder what we talked about that day? We married July 1972.

Click on any picture. They are amazing up close.

Here's where Wendy's name from 1959 survives the decades. THAT'S FIFTY YEARS AGO!

Over the years, some have disappeared, just as quite a few of the people named here have passed on, but it’s always fun to search for familiar names. I mentioned to Wendy that in these times of paint graffiti, the new wave of vandals have not yet discovered this historic treasure. Maybe the authorities of the past were just as disgusted with our form of ‘wall art’ as we are with the paint vandals. Our inscriptions were even more indelible than paint.

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What the...?

On Monday we awoke to a terrible odor. The smell seemed to be coming from the basement. Oh no! How could this be happening? I’m still half asleep. “Stop the furnace recirculating fan!” barked Wendy “Open the doors and windows. Start the kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans.”

Déjà vu? Like a bad recurring dream, all this would have been more terrifyingly mysterious if it hadn’t actually happened before.

Ten years ago we were awakened from our sleep by some sort of fumes that were so strong they literally made your eyes water. The odor in the fumes was so intense that we could not distinguish what it was. Remarkably, there didn’t seem to be any smell outside. The air in the house seemed to be slowly changing from almost a coffee-like but sickeningly, musky, reek to more of a sharp, acrid, burning rubber sort of aroma. The fumes irritated the eyes and they were so strong that they woke you from your sleep. We opened the doors to try to dilute the stench. What was it? A leaking natural gas line? Sewer gas? At a total loss for an explanation, we made an emergency call to the gas company. The voice at the other end (those were the days when you got a human) said they would send someone. Incredibly, the person on the phone didn’t advise us to evacuate.

About a half hour passed. The sun was just beginning to rise as the gas serviceman’s truck pulled into our driveway. I met him outside and explained that we had no idea what has happened here. Without hesitation he said “You have a skunk. I could smell it before I even turned in.”

Our back patio deck is a wooden structure, elevated a foot or so off a gravel base on wood columns. Under the deck, our clothes dryer vents outside. This arrangement is probably not allowed by today’s codes, but our house was built in the fifties and has other unorthodox idiosyncrasies. It seems the skunk must like to crawl under the deck and probably finds warmth near the dryer vent. I don’t know what provoked the skunk to spray, but it must have let go into or very near the dryer vent. The odor traveled into the basement laundry room and was dispersed throughout the house by our furnace fan.

The amazing thing is, everyone in the world knows what a skunk smells like. How could we not recognize the stink?

A skunk’s spray has a totally different smell from a distance, outside, where it is diluted with fresh air. Just ask anyone who has been sprayed. Confined inside our house, the scent was concentrated so much that our senses seemed to be overwhelmed and we were unable to tell it was a skunk. I’m sure others could smell it on our clothes, but we became fairly sensitized to it.

The first time this happened, we were completely baffled as to what had happened. This week, we instantly recognized what it was when we awoke.

The smell has faded out now, but the memory lingers. When will Pepe LePew strike again?

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John and Jean (UK) Booked Norway Cruise

Picture from Nov. 2008 on the Water Island Ferry, St. Thomas, V.I.

John commented that he was pleased to see that Lobsters were not an endangered species in the Caribbean, but what ever you do don't mention this to Cheryl and John LOL.

Hi Wendy and Tim
Many thanks for sending the March Blog photos they looked wonderful and especially seeing Water Island where we all went on St Thomas brought back happy memories when we were all there. (SEE NOV 2008 ARCHIVE)

John has just booked us on the Costa Atlantica on the 21st June out of Copenhagen to the Fjords the first week and then on to Scandinavia and Russia, hope we don't say when we return "Whata Mistakea to Makea" as we went on Costa to the Med some years ago on Costa Rivieria and they played games in the evening they do get excited. But when we went on the Costa Allegra out of Hong Kong it was different again wonderful holiday.

Our second week in the Baltic and Russia commences on the 28th June until 5th July whereby we go round the North Cape. Looking forward to it but would be great if the gang was there too. Thanks again for the Blog. Most enjoyable and hope we can all meet up again soon.

Lots of Love

Jean and John xx

ITINERARY

DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART Sun Jun 21 Copenhagen, Denmark 7:00pm Mon Jun 22 At Sea Tue Jun 23 Hellesylt, Norway 8:00am 9:00am Tue Jun 23 Geiranger, Norway Noon 6:00pm Wed Jun 24 Flam, Norway 8:00am 6:30pm Thu Jun 25 Bergen, Norway 8:00am 5:00pm Fri Jun 26 Stavanger, Norway 8:00am 1:00pm Sat Jun 27 Oslo, Norway 8:00am 5:00pm Sun Jun 28 Copenhagen, Denmark 9:00am

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Pictures Of Grand Princess Cruise - March 2009

It looks like Wendy and I missed a great trip this year. Barry sent his email recap and a few pictures. Thought you might like to see them.

Morning Tim & Wendy:

Hope all is well! Just got back from dropping Holly off at work and thought I would drop you a line on how and what we did on the trip as I finally got my pictures downloaded yesterday . The weather here is snowing and looks like we are in for a good dumping...

The trip was fantastic as we had said before, we weren't too sure on how we would be on a larger boat with so many people but we found it to be more then adequate and did not fine it crowed what so ever. I know I have said before that I never wanted to sail with that many people but I must say I didn't find it any different, the boat did have a bit of movement but it never bothered me at all although we didn't have any real rough sea's.

The layout of the boat gave you that open feeling and it seemed like you could wonder around for hours without getting bored or lost for that matter. The atrium was neat and the dining facilities were spacious although the Lido buffet was a little cramped at times depending on when you were there but we never had a problem finding a table to sit at once you had filled up your plate. The lounges were large and the theaters were more then adequate to always find a seat, the only crowed time was the day at seas when you wanted to find a lounger to sun in but you always found something. The only drawback would be the lower promenade deck as they didn't have any loungers on the deck as the deck was fairly narrow but they had the wood benches all along or you could just hang on the rail, we would always do our walk about when we were sailing away 3 laps was equal to a mile so it was a good hike around the boat. Getting on and off the boat in port was never a problem never a line up (bring booze back on was never a problem) and the disembarkation was really easy as they offered the walkoff with your own bags.

Dinner was always good, a couple of iffy nights on the menu but you always found something to chow down on, I think they had lamb on the menu at least four times. Our waiters were great Dennis and Henzel nothing fizzed on them and they were good and professional they always had us fed and out of the dining room within an hour and twenty minutes. Dennis's father was a head waiter on the boat so there was a bit of kidding always going on and our head waiter Rafel was a 6'2" 280 lbs Mexican (he was big guy for a waiter also the biggest mexican I've seen) but he was funny and chatty was a joy to have him at the table each night for laughs. The entertainment was probably the best overall we have ever seen on our trips, the boats singers and dancers put on 4 different shows which were excellent. Tony B (Vocalist) and Dan Horn (ventriloquist) we have seen them before I'm pretty sure they performed on the last Sun Princess cruise we were all on but they were just as good in fact Tony B will be in Toronto in October playing at Stage West in October. The juggler Rick Novell, comedian Cary Long and Al Katz, vocalist Sonia Selbie (we talked to her on a number of occasions, very interesting career she has had, British, starting at the age of 3) Illusionist Alexander all had excellent performances. Maurizio (vocalist, piano) played each night, he started in the Promenade Lounge but because of the number of people watching him they had to move him to the Atrium so that everyone could watch and listen to him. He even did a performance in the main theater the one night and he filled the place.

Formal Nights John and Cheryl (above) Chris and Deb (next) Barry and Holly (below)

The rooms were small but different layout that gave it a roomy effect, fridge in each room, washroom small with shower, not as many shelves but overall it was comfy. Great location of the room as one floor up to the Lido, three floors up to the Sun deck, 6 down to the dining room and theaters. The elevators were probably the worst very slow and always tied up and you never knew what day it was, we definitly missed the mats that Holland America have telling you the day of the week. They had 4 pools, hot tubs, sauna and even steam rooms which were neat as I had never been in one before. They had a jumbo screen where they had movies on each night under the stars. They had the loungers with pads, a blanket, pillow and would serve you popcorn as long as you stayed awake.

Sunburnt!

The ports were great as we always did something:

Aruba we went to Eagle Beach, loungers, umbrellas with lots of shade if you wanted it. Best part was the ride there, walked past the usual taxis and found Senior' Manuel (not sure of his real name), he had an old school bus, windows all knocked out, plywood covering the holes in the floor, towels from the different ships covering the ripped seats, all painted up in different pascal colours, spanish music whalling away, painted footprints on the inside ceiling of the bus along with different memorabilia from his past and on the top of the bus a 12 foot painted paper mache Iguana. What a hoot!!! we all boarded and when he tried to start it, nothing, with screw driver in hand out of the bus he went to jump it, taking off in a cloud of black smoke with the horn going, playing the mexican hat dance song all the way to the beach. we laughed all the way there, will definitely find him the next time to take a longer run before hitting the beach.

Aruba - Senior Manuel's Bus (Virginia in the foreground)

David and Reenie on Manuel's bus

Curacao we headed down to Mambo Beach where we swam, snorkled and walked down to the sea aquarium where you could watch the dolphins and sea lions from outside there compounds. Holly had a great back massage on the beach then back into town for a walk about in the town center.

Curacao - at the beach, sea aquarium and the pontoon bridge

Grenada - Sea and Grand Princess boats

Trinidad got cancelled due to a dock strike or something but they took us to Grenada where we took the water taxis over to Grand Anse Beach. They are always bugging you here but its all fun swam and walked the beach.

Grand Anse Beach

Barbados we just walked towards town as there was a number of shops in the "Artist Village" just down from the port entrance. We ended up downtown but turned around and headed back wandering through the fish market (Thank God I had a cold at the time) Heather had to make a run for it! lots of different fish.

File photo of Curtis Miller see archives Dec 2006 - Sun Princess

As I had said before we did bump into Curtis and hashed over the trip of a life time on his "Bus", he's probably still laughing unfortunately I hadn't taken the camera so I didn't get a picture of him. We will definitely look him up the next time we are there also looked for Anderson from the fall but didn't see him.

St. Kitts - a couple of shots from the lookout and the beach

St. Kitts we headed down to Raggae Beach which is right across from Nevis only 2 miles away. Spent most of the day just swimming but it did cloud up which was a relief to all as the sun was really hot. Had a great drive down and back as there is a lookout with great views, then just wandered the shops at the pier but it did pour rain just after we arrived back from the beach.

St. Vincent we took a tour over to the Botanical Gardens and up to Fort Charlotte which was great. Both places had some interesting things and amazing views. Ended up back in town wandering the downtown back to the ship, its not a wealthy Island and being a Saturday everyone was shopping at there markets so it was busy.

St. Vincent - views from Fort Charlotte of Kingstown, the boat and a flower called the Bottle Brush plant at the Botanical Garden

St. Thomas a couple of shots out on Water Island - picture of David he's getting to look more like Gabby Hayes everyday

St. Thomas we headed over to "OUR" private beach on Water Island, Heidi still selling beer and hamburgs, had about 1 1/2 hr of sun before it started raining but headed back to the boat hitting the stores at the pier.

Water Island Ferry, St Thomas V.I.

La Romano we grab a cab and took a tour of town then out to Casa du Campo Resort which is gated community, then to Altos de Chevon a recreated 15th century spanish village then to the La Marina where we wondered amongst the boats (WOW).

La Romana, Dominican Republic

La Chevon River and Altos de Chevon

La Romana - at the La Marina just a few of the small ones.

Grand Turk ended up being cancelled as the winds were to high to dock, ended up cloudy and rainy all day.

The flights down and back were great so overall we had a great time with lots of laughs the only thing was we missed having both of you with us sharing in the laughs but we did keep you in mind each day.

I'm sending you some different pictures of the trip, the only thing is our computer only allows me to send three at at time without bogging it down. Hopefully I haven't bored you and sorry for being so long winded, its almost taken me 3 hours to do this with all my tea breaks etc. but can't do too much as we now have almost 4 inches on the ground.

Take Care and we will talk to you soon;

Barry