Sick Again!

It was February this year Wendy and I developed what had to be the worst cold of our lives. I was hoping to go a year before we caught another, but alas...Wednesday I developed a light cough that progressed into a full-blown chest cold by Thursday. The last couple days have been horrible. I've been in bed for more hours than I have been up. I don't have a temperature but I'm achy all over. My throat and airways are stinging and my nose and sinuses are running. The good news this morning is the painful, unproductive cough is now turning productive and the pain and aches have eased. Hopefully we'll get through this one quicker than the last.

One always wonders where they caught their cold and of course there is no way to tell but both Greg and Holly had a cough on our cruise and now Wendy is starting to "bark". Also the server Debbie at Cockleshell Beach bar in St. Kitts had a killer cough. Holly and Barry stayed on the ship for another 10 days so I hope she's not hurting like me. Wendy and I are both glad we are not still on the Noordam with this crippling cold.

Needless to say I haven't posted all my pictures yet, but I've done up to Day 07 Martinique. I'll post more as soon as I'm able.

UPDATE: Over a week in bed and things are starting to get back to "normal" (Thurs. Dec 4)

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Back Home Safe with Pictures to Post.

It was a very exciting landing (much turbulence and wind made for a high speed touch-down) and quite an interesting  drive home from Buffalo. Sustained wind speeds of 60 to 70 km/h with frequent gusts of 90 to 120 km/h were reported Monday afternoon but everything went OK and we arrived home about 5:30 PM Monday evening.

I have started to add pictures from our trip. Usually I try to post some during the cruise but this time on the ship's web page, there was cautionary notes about uploading and slow internet speeds. I decided to upload the pictures within the next few days, starting from the first part of the cruise. Check back often to see, as the pics and commentary are added this week.
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14 Back To The Real World!

Ships in Port: Celebrity Constellation, Noordam, Caribbean Princess, Royal Princess (Total passengers 7676)

Heading home is always so sad. Fortunately our flight leaves at 10 AM so we don't have a long wait. We were the first ones off the ship at about 7:30 and the taxi dropped us off at the Southwest teriminal for $14.10 plus tip.

We later met up with Cheryl, John, Chris, and Deb in the terminal but the plane was delayed about 25 minutes to 10:25 AM, probably because of gale force winds which allowed us to make it back to Buffalo with a good tail wind in a record time of about 2 hours.

Photo shows a streamer of snow that paralyzed Buffalo last week.

 Fortunately the warm weekend temperatures have melted all the snow that completely covered Buffalo in a record-breaking 5 or 6 foot deep blanket of the white stuff, causing the deaths of 13 people. Our car was completely snow-free and the roads were like nothing had happened.
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13 Half Moon Key Sunday Nov. 23

Ships in Port: Noordam (Total passengers 1918)

Happy Birthday Wendy!
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12 At Sea, Saturday Nov. 22

Noordam Main Atrium/Grand Staircase.

 Sea days are good for wandering around the ship, taking pictures of just anything.

A Bellyflop Contest is always fun to watch. Personally I don't think I could compete with this expert.

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11 St Thomas Friday Nov. 21

Ships in Port: Celebrity Summit , Noordam, Royal Princess (Total passengers 4556)

Saint Thomas (Spanish: Santo Tomás; Dutch: Sint-Thomas; Danish: Sankt Thomas) is an island in the Caribbean Sea and, together with St. John and Water Island, forms a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie. As of the 2010 census, the population of Saint Thomas was 51,634[1] about 48.5% of the US Virgin Islands total. The district has a land area of 31.24 square miles (80.9 km2).

This view through the Lido Dining Room glass shows our little red ferry boat is waiting to take us to Water Island.

So many of us, the ferry had to make two trips. It is limited to 26 people and there were 16 in our party alone.

Mark, ever outdoing his cousin John, is always the perfect gentleman. He insisted on carrying everyone's bags up the long grade to Honeymoon Beach... so John could see the pictures and learn by example. What a guy!.

Last night saw one of the only car accidents ever on Water Island. A drunken lad in a borrowed pickup was not injured but the car is toast. Mark and Louise don't miss a "photo op".

The floating bar was a big success. Cheryl wants one for their new cottage in Muskoka.

Joe's Bar at the end of the beach is now called Dinghy's. Joe sold out and moved back to continental USA.

Sharon enjoys yet another Pina Colada.

Lots of drinks in the hot sun can tire a person out... not Sharon.

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