Donna and John’s Travel Blog Dec 26-30, 2011

Donna and John’s Travel Blog

Dec 26-30, 2011

Monday, Dec 26

Lat 19.44 N Long 155 .03 W

Hilo, Hawaii

We made landfall for the first time today at Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii.  We were off the ship by 8:30 to a wet and windy morning.  We could not see the mountaintops of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in the distance, due to the low clouds, but the warm weather is nice.

We had some difficulties with our Alamo rental car agency, who informed us that our car was not reserved until noon, which was totally unacceptable for us, as we had to return by 3:30 and we had prepaid for a whole day, starting at 9:00.  They finally gave us a pickup truck, which would do, but were unwilling to work with us for the next two days.

After a frustrating half hour of phone calls, we decided to take a drive around Mauna Kea, a route we had never experienced before.

Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are separated by a mountain highway known locally as the Saddle Road.  Older maps advised rental car owners not to take this route, but we are experienced mountain drivers and ignored it.  The route from Hilo takes you up into a lava desert.  We passed up the side trip to the observatory, since there was snow at the top and it was fogged in. 

We drove to the small town of Waimea and the Parker Ranch. This Parker Ranch is largest cattle ranch in a single location in the country and it appears to also include much of the town. Donna needed a haircut so we drove into the Parker village and got the cut along with a few things at the super market. We laughed at the stop signs here as they were the same shape and color of a normal stop sign but since it was on the ranch they all said “whoa”.

We continued our drive around the NE side of Hawaii back to Hilo hoping to find an internet café but the only one we encountered was closed due to the holiday.

The evening was another lovely semi-formal one. There are 4 formal nights and 5 semi-formal dress nights during the 14 days so we are getting the opportunity to see lots of lovely evening outfits. That is definitely different than our normal attire, on the island at home, so it is fun to “play dress-up” so many times.

The show in the evening was presented by the ships’ singers and dancers and was very elaborate. We have seen lots of stage shows on ships but none as good as these. They could easily bring these shows to Broadway. The dancing, singing, costumes and sets are above anything else we have seen on board any ship. And the ambiance of this formal theater, with its box seats, dark woods and velvet seating simply adds to the beauty of the shows. It is nice to see everyone all dressed up for the theater every night.

Tuesday we will dock at Nawiliwili on the garden island of Kauai.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Lat 21 57 N Long 157 21 W

Nawiliwili, Kauai

This is our second port of call and we are visiting the island for the second time. After a fair amount of time on the phone with Alamo’s national phone number, we finally just went to the local office and picked up our car without any difficulty.

Since we had not seen the east and north sides of the island before, we decided to spend our day driving through those areas.  This was a wise choice.  What spectacular vistas!  The crashing waves and majestic mountains transfixed us.  We drove to the lighthouse at Kilauea on the north shore,  one of the last homes of the nene, the Hawaiian flightless goose.  This animal has no fear of humans, since it has no predators.  We also spotted countless seabirds, including albatross and shearwaters.

We pulled our car over to the side of the road, picnicked at a lovely beach and took a dip in the ocean.  An offshore reef protected us from the crashing surf.  After the swim, John could not find his watch.

We now understand why so many movies are made on this side of The Garden Isle.   The backdrops are truly spectacular toward the land and the sea.  The north shore town of Hanalei is a funky tourist town, complete with surfers, kayakers and a variety of independent tourist types.  It, of course has more than its quota of pizza places, tee shirt shops and tattoo parlors, no of which attracts us. 

Reaching the end of the highway, we turned around and headed the 30 miles or so back to Lihue, where John purchased a replacement watch (waterproof) and we returned our rental car and reboarded the ship.

The evening’s entertainment was first class, as we had come to expect from the Queen Victoria.  An excellent Nat King Cole impersonator nearly made us believe that Nat, himself, was still alive!  We had forgotten that Cole had only lived to age 46.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

At anchor

20 52 N, 156 41 W

Lahaina, Maui

We landed in Maui at the very busy port of Lahaina. Every time that we arrive in this port we are surprised to see just how much it has grown and how crowded it has become. When we first visited this town many years ago, in 1979 (half a life ago), it was a sleepy little village but now it is a bustling town with traffic and tourists everywhere.

We picked up our rental car and decided that we wanted to drive to the Iao Needle so we headed up to the mountains. As the elevation increased, so did the rain and winds and by the time we got up to that area, it was clouded in, windy and the rain was heavy so we decided that the hike into the Needle would have to wait for a future trip and we headed back down to the clear and warm ocean. We drove out to Kihei, a place that has also become very touristy, but we had no luck in finding a parking spot at the beach parks so we proceeded up to the Kanaapali resort area to find a place to park and play in the waves. We found a nice beach and got the chance to get some nice beach and water time.

We are enjoying the relaxation that it usually so rare for us on board ship. Usually we have so many lecture shows scheduled that we don’t find a lot of time to kick back but with four different lecturers on this ship, we don’t have many days of work so we feel like we are actually on a vacation. Our last two lectures are not until Monday and Tuesday so we still have the weekend to relax on this lovely ship. We are looking forward to an elegant New Year’s Eve celebration and more nights to “play dress-up”. We are actually enjoying the opportunity to “dress to the nines” as we don’t get to do that much in our normal lives.

The musical show in the evening included both of the ship’s orchestras and the production vocalists and was again wonderfully presented. The evening shows in the main theater each night have been the best productions that we have ever experienced on ship board and we have thoroughly enjoyed each one. They add to the classiness of this elegant Queen Victoria.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

21 18 N, 157 52 W

Honolulu, Oahu

And so, we are going ashore this morning.   Our ship will be heading back to North America tonight.

After several days of driving, we decided to walk from the ship to Waikiki, a distance we thought would be fairly short.  Two hours later, we discovered that we had walked a total of five miles.  We were proud of our accomplishments and soon arrived at the International Marketplace, across from the Surfrider Moana. 

John was a bit hungry and stopped for some at the marketplace for Chinese food, which he later found was nearly indigestible. 

The beach at Waikiki was packed with holiday visitors from Japan and around the world and we decided to stay off the sand to avoid stepping on someone.  We were looking for an internet café, but due to the smart phones and other devices has caused these businesses to disappear, especially in developed countries.

We took the city bus back to the ship in mid-afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful weather relaxing on the Promenade Deck.  The evening program was put on by a Hawaiian children’s dance program, which all enjoyed. The ship stayed late and departed about midnight.

Friday, December 30, 2011

22 39 N, 152 22 W

at sea, 316 miles NE of Honolulu

This has been a sea day for us.  The weather has been pleasant and we have had some time to relax and take in all of the other ship’s activities, including Sabbath services and the wonderful evening programs, a production show about the late 1800’s called “Victoriana.”  Cunard does an excellent job preserving the British traditions.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

24 46 N, 144 19 W

at sea, 777 miles NE of Honolulu

New Year’s Eve was a day of celebration on board the elegant Queen Victoria. The ship was decorated with hundreds of balloons in the dining room and in huge nets hanging over the atrium and in the Queen’s Ballroom. They were ready for the big balloon drop at midnight.

During the day, we walked the decks as we usually do when we are at sea. We try to walk at least a mile or two each day on the promenade deck when the weather is good. If it is too windy, we walk inside. Today we were able to walk outside as the weather was windy by warm.

We had not been to high tea but once since we departed so we decided to participate in that daily activity today. This is a very nice formal event that many of the guests enjoy. It is very nice to see the white gloved waiters and waitresses and we feel very “British” as we are served tea, little sandwiches, cakes and scones.

This was another formal night and we enjoyed “dressing to the nines” again and seeing all of the gorgeous dresses, tuxedos and kilts worn by all of the guests. Definitely not something that we can do in our normal life.

Dinner included hats, tiaras and noise makers for the holiday so it was fun. Everyone got these and wore them throughout the night.

Dec 25-26 Hawaii

Dec 25-26 2011

0630 Hawaiian time

(one hour time change today)
Travel Blog

We will be docking in Hilo this morning.

Christmas onboard the Queen Victoria was as close to perfect as could be.  The weather was sunny, with no wind across the decks and we go to soak up that wonderful tropical sun on deck 10 with no responsibilities.  In fact, later in the afternoon, we retreated to the shade of the starboard promenade deck for our relaxing.

There was a minister and priest on board so they held both midnight services on Christmas Eve and morning services. There is also a rabbi on the ship for the Hanukkah celebration each of the eight evening.

John spent an hour attending a class on Microsoft Excel while Donna attended the arrival of Santa, who made to ship a bit later than most places on earth, 11:30 am Christmas Day. After Santa arrived at the ship, he then “came down the funnel” and made his way to the Queen’s Room (ballroom) and spoke to each of the 100 or so children on board. He also presented each child with a nice wrapped gift such as a board game, etc. He was a great Father Christmas and all of 1000+ adults enjoyed his jokes and asides.

Dinner was formal attire.  Donna wore her new green dress and John wore his tux, complete with a red bow tie to mark the season.  Everyone looked so nice.

The evening program was nice Christmas music put on by the ship’s orchestras and dancers.  We then went dancing in the Queen’s Room and turned in relatively early.

We are looking forward to getting our lands legs after five days on board. We rented a car for 3 of the 4 ports so it will be fun to drive around the islands for the day and maybe find some nice beaches.

Travel Blog Dec 21-24 At Sea

Travel Blog

Dec 21-24, 2011

At Sea, North Pacific,  aboard MV Queen Victoria

Saturday Dec 24

Lat. N 25 28, Long W 140 11

Speed 19 kts,  heading SW

We are now less than two days from Hilo, our first port of call on this voyage.

We drove from Desert Hot Springs to the Port of Los Angeles cruise terminal at San Pedro in just over two hours, a distance of 120 miles.  The freeways were not crowded and moving smoothly so we had no trouble with our trip. 

We had to wait for boarding for nearly two hours, due some earlier problems with customs that the ship had to deal with on the voyage that disembarked prior to our embarkation.

Cunard’s Queen Victoria is a modern ship with most of the traditional features of the typical cruise ship as well as much of the elegance of the great historic ocean liners.  We were warmly received and were introduced to some of the expected Cunard vocabulary.  Our ship is a liner and not a cruise ship.  We are on a voyage and not a cruise.  We have a stateroom and not a cabin.  We are guests, not passengers. Our stateroom on deck one is larger than we are used to and has a nice window overlooking the ocean.

We were impressed with the many traditions that Cunard is preserving.  Most of the senior staff is British.  The décor is fascinating.  Emphasis is on comfort, classiness and elegance.  The line features “White Star Service,” a tradition maintained since the line’s merger with the White Star Line in 1934. There are also three levels of service and dining rooms reserved only for the top paying guests. We haven’t been invited up to the Queen or Princess level which requires a different type of key card. It would be interesting to see how the other guests are living. We have seen video of these accommodations and most are larger than our 2000 sq ft home! But we don’t expect to be invited to see these decks.

The guests onboard are from a variety of countries.  We have only about 700 Americans from the total of 2000.  There are nearly that many Brits, with many from other countries.  We were pleased with the friendliness and courtesy from guests and staff alike.

The weather has been overcast with some sun breaks.  Until today, we have not had much deck chair weather, but as we approach the tropics things are improving.  A following wind means that there is very little wind across the decks and walking is comfortable.

We have early seating for dinner, at 6:30.  Thursday and Friday were formal nights.  John wore his tux one night and a new blue suit the second.  Donna wore a beautiful purple dress the first night and long black skirt and a brocade jacket on the 23^rd.  We were amazed at the number of tuxedoes present. Our tablemates are Californians, originally from Northern Ireland and are pleasant company. 

Wednesday was the second night of Hanukkah and we attended the candle lighting and services the first two evenings.  There was a turnout of about 50.  We will continue to go this event until Hanukkah ends.

We enjoyed attending the functions held in the Queen’s Room the last two evenings.  A black-and-white ball was held Thursday and a Masquerade Ball last night. There are other formal balls planned on the various formal evenings.  They also present high tea every afternoon with white gloved waiters serving finger sandwiches and tiny pastries. With all of the guests from the UK, tea time is very important and attracts many of the guests each afternoon.

We were well-received at our lectures in the 820 seat Royal Court Theatre, which is fashioned after a West-end London theatre, complete with box seats.  There are three other lecturers onboard, each of whom covers different subjects. We have never had so many other lecturers on board the same cruise so it is interesting to listen to these other men present their shows. Donna is the only female lecturer and we are the only lecturers that are not selling their book. Maybe we should write another book so we can sell it on future cruises!

Our first presentation, Wonders of Hawaii, at 10:00 am on Thursday had an attendance of about 600.  Friday, during the noon hour, we did our second program, Wayfinders of the Pacific, with a slightly smaller attendance. Our lectures are televised and shown on cabin television the next day, for those who missed the live program.  We have received many nice comments from guests. We are not scheduled to present again until after we have visited the four scheduled ports on different islands in Hawaii. We will be presenting two additional shows on the voyage home.

There is classical entertainment throughout the ship  all day long with string quartets, harp players and lots of grand pianos all being used. The evening shows have been quite good. There is lots of gorgeous costuming and dancing from different countries of the world. There is a casino on this ship but we have never seen more than a dozen guests in there gambling. 

Today there was a gingerbread house building contest judged by the captain and tonight there will be caroling and midnight mass. The ship is tastefully decorated with dozen of Christmas trees and poinsettias and garlands on every table, banister and railing.

We are looking forward to the four days in the Hawaiian Islands as we have reserved a rental car and will explore areas of each island that we have not seen on previous trips.

Travel Blog, Dec 19 2011

You Tube video of winning house

We just got back from seeing the holiday light displays in Cathedral City.  We can understand how the house on Estio Rd won the award for the best holiday lights on the CBS Early Show. The whole neighborhood called Candy Cane Lane nearby there was also spectacular. It is a great way to enjoy the beauty of the season.

The saga Continues

The Saga Continues

We are now in the holiday season, which includes Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years (Chinese and others), Winter Solstice, the ancient Jul, the Return of the Sun Festival, Kwanzaa and a bunch of others that I probably forgot.

Like literal snow geese, we decided to flee the storms and dark, foggy days of the Puget Sound winter and loaded our Hyundai Santa Fe headed south on December 12.  Our trio consisting of Donna, John and Ocho, our Persian cat, had 1200 miles to travel to our winter home in Desert Hot Springs, California.  To our immense relief, we experienced clear weather across Washington, Oregon and California.  The dreaded mountain snow on the Oregon-California border did not appear.  We had light traffic all the way, even in metro Los Angeles!  We stopped for only one night in Corning, California, averaging 600 miles per day.  None of us had any complaints.  In fact, Ocho is a great traveler.  He loves the closeness and attention he gets in the car.

“Why not Arizona?” you might wonder.  Although Arizona is dry and has similar weather to our Palm Springs area, we are especially fond of the many cultural and recreational opportunities here in the Coachella Valley. This is a unique area which celebrates diversity which has an active artistic, intellectual and environmental consciousness, with less of the insular attitude of the Mountain States.

We arrived at the Sands Golf Resort, where our home is located, by 4:00 pm on the 13^th and immediately were invited to a birthday party-potluck, where we were warmly received by old friends from previous years. 

We had anticipated purchasing a new refrigerator for our park model this year, but, to our relief, discovered that our old Whirlpool was operating fine, with just a bit of noise. Getting set up, unpacking and cleaning is a challenge after 8 months of inactivity.  A few challenges included purchasing a new time for our golf cart and spending over $250 restocking our food supply. 

We had anticipated transferring our DirecTV account to this location would be simple.  No such luck!  After running up at least four hours of precious cell phone time getting transferred from one frustrating automated telephone system to another, we were finally resigned to having a professional installer come out Sunday morning to do the final install.

We have spent much time getting together with old friends and meeting new ones.  John played the banjo on Saturday in one of the Sands’ monthly jam sessions and we invited by our friends, Kitty and Donna for a wonderful dinner later that night.

The weather here the first week was not warm. We even had a few days with rain and the more common wind, but we were able to wear shorts and sandals much of the time during the day.

We are now in the final process of packing our formal and casual wear for another cruise job.  John purchased two nice suits Saturday at a “vintage” clothing store and Donna will looki her best in a lovely new dress.  Wednesday, we will be boarding Cunard’s Queen Victoria, at the Port of Los Angeles for a two week round-trip cruise to Hawaii.  We will be delivering a series of lectures on the cruise.  This is a new cruise line for us on this luxury ship and we want to do our very best.

Donna is now off to her daily water aerobics. 

Look for further posts on our blog at Http://donnamollan.blogspot.com .

mediterranean trip blog

Travel Blog beginning Friday, November 4, 2011
Nov. 4-5
We are now off to Rome.
We would like to thank Bill and Barb Meints, who were kind enough to drive us to the Lakewood Transit center, taking the 11:00 ferry so we could take the 574 Sound Transit bus to Sea-Tac. Our first flight, Delta 40 left on time at 3:15 and we were soon in Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport and after a short layover we were on our long flight to London, where would catch our Alitalia flight to Rome.
The Delta flights were uneventful. We only had a screaming baby behind us on the first, shorter flight and the books, music and in-flight entertainment seemed to shorten the long stretches. We did manage to get an hour or two of half-sleep, even though the seats became quite uncomfortable. After 8 hours onboard this second flight, we were glad to get to Heathrow shortly before noon on Saturday. We have lost 7 hours of time changes so far and would lose one more before reaching Rome.
The arrival area at Heathrow seemed nearly empty and we had to go through the security scanning and then spent another four hours in terminal G waiting for our connection to Rome. We did find it curious that there was no customs or immigration check coming into Heathrow, so we expected one in Rome.
We then boarded our Alitalia flight for our 2 ½ hour flight to Rome. The old airbus was only about 1/3 full and seemed shabby, in contrast to the Delta Boeings that we had been on earlier. All-in-all the flights were quite smooth and we arrived at Rome’s airport at about 8:30. After a long wait for baggage and a longer wait for the airport shuttle we finally checked into the airport Hilton, exactly 27 hours after boarding the ferry from Anderson Island!
Sunday, November 6
We woke early this morning after a few hours of sleep. The 8 hour time difference is still playing a few tricks on our sleep schedule. We were told our transfer to the ship would pick us up at 6:30 am so we at an excellent, but early buffet breakfast at the Hilton. After waiting outside for quite a period of time, we checked with a hotel employee who checked and notified us that our transfer would pick us up at 8:00. so much for getting up early. Eventually our van came and we traveled with the ship’s crew the 35 or so miles to Civitiveccia, Rome’s port. Our driver ignored stop signs, but we arrived safely, without the bother of traveling into Rome, itself.
After a relatively short wait at dockside, we were onboard by 11:00 and were met on the gangway by members of the cruise staff. We were very impressed by the organization.
We were asked to present our first program at 10:15 pm on the first day of the cruise right after the welcome stage show. This was definitely a new experience for us as we had never presented in the evening and never on the first day of a cruise. We were both very tired from our 27 hours of flight that we really had to work hard to smile and be as enthusiastic as we always try to be when we present a show. It was a new show for us so we rehearsed in our state during the first afternoon

We went to dinner and met our table mates who seem to be very friendly. We were glad to be assigned to the main seating at 6:00 giving us a enough time to change clothes and attend the big stage show right before ours. We then came back to our stateroom and were asleep within a few minutes!
Monday, November 7
Today was a port day so we bought a ticket on the shuttle bus and went into the port city of Livorno, Italy. It is a marine city and we decided to simply walk around the city and not book any tours. That is what we like to do best, simply walk through the cities on our own.
We found this to be a very pleasant city and much bigger than expected with a nice canal running though the center of town. We saw the central market and spent hours walking and exploring city before returning to the ship.
We still were tired due to 9 hour time difference from WA. so after the stage show in the evening, we crashed and went to sleep expecting a pleasant day in Toulon, France upon wakening.
Tuesday, November 8
When we left our room for breakfast we saw that pleasant wasn’t exactly the word to describe our day in Toulon. The rain was coming down in a shower but being from WA. we know rain so decided to take the shuttle into town dressed in our Gortex saying to ourselves that a little rain wouldn’t stop us from visiting this city and enjoying the day together in town. Little did we realize that this was not only a rainstorm that got worse and worse as we closer to the city center but the wind was also blowing at about 30mph. Since this Mediterranean town doesn’t get this kind of weather very often, they were ill prepared to deal with this storm and had few awnings on the outside market or in front of the stores. We couldn’t trust our umbrella as we saw so many of them lying on the ground inside out. After about an hour of trying to walk and stay reasonably dry, we decided to walk down and bus and back to the ship. It was a good idea as the weather seemed to get worse and worse with the winds blowing the rain almost horizontally.
The wind continued to blow and the rain fell the rest of the day, making any trip ashore undesirable. The ship’s original itinerary called for an evening departure from Toulon and Wednesday was to be spent in Barcelona, but the strength of the wind made departure from the snug harbor at Toulon a safety issue. We were forced to spend all night in the harbor and the decision would be made the next day when to depart. This threw everyone’s schedule off.
Wednesday, Nov 9
We are still in Toulon harbor, stuck on the ship. The television news referred to the weather conditions as a "Medicane," a Mediterranean weather event with hurricane force winds. Plans call for a departure later in the day for Barcelona. We were contacted this morning and asked to fill in with an extra presentation, which, fortunately he have available. We gave our "Life and Times of Charles Darwin" lecture to an audience of between 150-200. It was quite successful.
Exiting the harbor of Toulon was a very interesting experience to watch, as the harbor has many twists and turns, an error on the part of the pilot could have proved disastrous.
It was announced later in the day that we would be skipping our stop in the Azores, due to the weather, but would be visiting Barcelona and Cartagena one day later than scheduled. Apparently, the ship has major supplies to take on in Barcelona.
This throws our presentation schedule off and we will now be lecturing for 8 straight days. We arrived in Barcelona later that afternoon and many people chose to go into the city for the nightlife, although we chose to stay onboard.
Thursday, Nov 10.
This is John’s mother, Edith’s 93^{rd birthday. We had hoped to call her, but the 9 hour time difference makes it impossible.}
Today the sun began to shine on one of the loveliest cities in the Med, Barcelona. It is one of our favorite cities in the world so we were glad that we have the whole day to visit and relive some of the places. The last time we were in Barcelona was 4 years ago when we spent four days right in the heart of the city.
We took the shuttle from the ship to the city and then started walking to Las Ramblas, the pedestrian friendly outdoor market filled with flower carts and artwork. It extends for many blocks and is always is the hub of the city. We re-visited the central market, one that definitely rates as one of our favorite markets in the world. We walked through the market which was filled with shoppers buying their fresh meat and produce for the day. This is one or favorite things to do in each port that we visit as we are able to enjoy not only items for sale but to also mingle with the locals and gain a little cultural exposure. It is definitely an overall sensory experience with the sights and the smells of the market. We bought a hard crusted loaf of bread and a diet coke and enjoyed this as our lunch as we strolled the streets of the city.
We walked to downtown and found the apartment that we had rented during our 4 days in Barcelona. We also bought our favorite Spanish drink, coffee con leche. This Spanish coffee spoils us as it far superior to similar drinks at Starbucks, etc. It is another delightful sensory experience, one we never miss when we visit Spain.
We walked for over 4 hours and then returned to our ship. Since the weather was unseasonably sunny and warm, we spent sometime sitting out by the pool for the first time this voyage.
The evening show was a hypnotist. I thought it a rather long drawn out affair but John enjoyed it more than I did.
Off to Cartegena tomorrow. It is our last stop as the captain has announced that we will not be have a port call in the Azores as previously planned. This is a little disappointing to us but we realize that one stop has to be eliminated due to unexpected storm referred to as a ‘medicane’ that we experienced during our longer than scheduled stay in Toulon, France.
Friday, Nov 11
Off to Cartegena today with a beautiful sunny Spanish morning.
We continue our lectures tomorrow with one everyday until we return to Florida. We have never presented 10 shows in a cruise this short so we will be busy each day until FL. The first two were well received by the guests and we hope that they enjoy the remainder of our programs.
This may be our last chance to Blog, since we have only one more stop in Spain on Friday and then our next landfall will be Ft. Lauderdale on the 20th.
J & D

Celebrating our Anniversary

Where are we now?
We are at home, on Anderson Island, celebrating our 43rd anniversary!
A big thanks to all of our friends who have been following us on this blog.

We are enjoying August on Anderson Island

Summer is a great time on the island. 
Saturday we went to a ham radio swapfest in Spanaway, picked up a needed ingredient for our winemaking, had lunch with John's mom, Edith, in Olympia.
In the afternoon, we went to the horse races at Emerald Downs.  I don't think we have been to the races in 30 years, but John just read Sea Biscuit and thought we should five it a try.
Here is a picture of the money we won!




Did you see it?  You won't .
Today we did Volunteer Island Patrol.  Three ferries were overloaded and they really appreciated our help.

Victoria, Eh?

July 7 - Victoria

We slept in this morning until 8:00, very late for us, as we were in no hurry to get to Victoria BC, a city we had visited many times before.  The sun was shining brightly, although we had a stiff breeze from the south across the Outer Harbor, causing us to wear our jackets for our trek to town.

Most ports have shuttles that carry passengers from the port areas to the city center. We decided not to pay for the shuttle as we knew that the walk to the city center was lovely along the waterfront and it would be a good opportunity to get some exercise. It only took about ½ hour and as we got into the center the sun was very warming.

We walked in the city for about 2 hours and bought a few things. Victoria was bursting with flowers and the colors were vibrant in the sunshine. This is always a lovely city and we enjoyed our walk downtown and then back to the ship for a late lunch.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and reading and enjoying the quiet of the ship as most of the guests were gone on shore excursions. In the evening we attended the final show and then packed our suitcases for tomorrow’s disembarkation in our own city of Seattle. We have no other cruise jobs scheduled for the near future. We will just wait to see what becomes available for our next cruising adventure.

Queen Charlotte Sound

July 6, 2011,  Wednesday

Today was a very unique day for us.  Normally, sea days like this are busy days for us, but today we had no lecture assigned and got to take the day at our own pace.

We arose early for breakfast with our other lecturer Aaron, the retired Mountie.  We had a nice conversation and promised him we would attend his lecture that afternoon, which we did.

Since we were no longer protected by the Inside Passage today, the rollers somewhat larger than average.  This bothered many of the guests who were not used to the ocean, but it was just the normal North Pacific to us.  Later in the afternoon the sun broke through and we were blessed with a following wind that made the outside decks quite pleasant, for the first time since we left Puget Sound.  We sighted the northern end of Vancouver Island late in the day and John decided to see if he could make a contact with our handheld ham radio.  He was able to connect with a repeater somewhere on the island and had a short chat.  Not bad for a walkie-talkie that runs only about 2 watts.

The evening’s entertainment featured the ship’s dancers including the headliners, a Czech couple of ballroom dancers who were absolutely amazing.  We also stayed up until midnight for the onboard comedian, whose jokes were mostly fresh and entertaining.

Victoria tomorrow.

Fjords, Glaciers and Icebergs

July 5

What a glorious morning we had cruising the Endicott Arm heading for Dawes Glacier, probably one the best glacial experiences that we have ever had. This was our first time in this arm and seeing Dawes and we found it to be spectacular. Most of the other ships don’t get the opportunity to even sail into this section of the glaciers but our captain got permission to enter this arm instead of the normal trip into Sawyer Glacier.

We went up to the Windjammer Buffet at 6am to just grab a cup of coffee and then watch the glacier. But instead we spent the next couple of hours narrating and answering questions from the hundreds of guests. Donna stayed in the Windjammer and walked around the restaurant helping the guests understand glaciers in general and this glacier in particular. John went outside to do the same on different decks.  It felt really good to be able to explain about glaciers and also to answer the many questions that the guests and waiters had for us. As Donna moved around the room to point out the baby seals and the information on glaciers, she lost her coffee cup and muffin three different times. The waiters were overly efficient this morning.

After this spectacular couple of hours watching the calving and the beautiful scenery our ship heading back down the arm toward the open ocean.

We decided to attend the lecture given by the other guest lecturer aboard. His name is Aaron Zelmer and he is a retired RCMP. He was decked out in his mounty uniform and looked splendid. We enjoyed listening to another lecturer and learned about some of the early history of the mounted police.

After listing to Aaron informative talk, we dressed in our lecturing clothes and soon gave our final lecture. We didn’t get a huge turnout due primarily to the time we were assigned to speak--lunch time. The guests who came were interested in our topic of the Great Pacific Northwest.

We ate a late lunch and then had time to relax, read and watch for wildlife. We also did our daily laps but since the weather was quite cold we walked inside circling the decks.

The evening show was one which saw on another ship but thoroughly enjoyed the second as much as the first. It is a group of middle aged guys performing a tribute show to the Temptations. Great entertainment this second time around.

This is our last work day on this cruise and tomorrow we plan on just relaxing and reading books with one eye on the lookout for wildlife. We have seen a little but hope for many more sightings.

The Klondike Trail on the Fourth of July

July 4^th-Happy Independence Day

We arrived in Skagway very early in the morning and we disembarked as soon as possible so we could get to town before the crowds from the four ships in port. We walked to the town center and it looked like a ghost town with no one on the streets except for the street crew who were blocking the parade route on Broadway. That was a different scene then we had experienced ever before in Skagway. Usually this small town is wall to wall tourists from the many ships combined with those who have driven in from the outside to shop. Little old Skagway is 7 blocks long, 1/3 mile and 42 jewelry stores crowded!

We picked up the rental car that we had reserved on email, with help from our travel agent daughter, Kari. We started on our journey away from the crowds and 4^th of July festivities planned for the holiday. We first drove out to see Dyea as we concentrate so much of our Gold Rush presentation on the Chilkoot Trail. This trail started in the town of Dyea, which quickly became the largest town in Alaska during the Klondike era. We took a hike to Main Street and found the only remnant of this town of 10,000 during the Gold Rush. We found the last surviving store front that the National Park has propped up to its original position. We were so surprised how this boom town has completely disappeared except for that one wall and how nature has re-claimed this area with a dense forest.

Next, we drove through customs to Canada, entered the Yukon Territory, stopped at a town called Carcross and walked around the White Pass and Yukon train station museum and then the original general store. We also took pictures of Bennett Lake, a prominent location for the stampeders during the Gold Rush. From there we continued our journey northward stopping to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. We decided that we wanted to see a little of the interior of the Yukon so we drove to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. This is a bustling city and we understood its importance to this part of Canada. It was definitely the shopping center for all of the small towns in this huge area. Not a real charming city but a necessary one we are sure for supplying for the people.

We returned to Skagway and visited the Goldrush Cemetery as we wanted to take some pictures of the graves of Soapy Smith and Frank Reid. These two men are legendary characters from the Goldrush influx and we enjoy telling their tale during our Klondike presentations.

It was a little odd that we spent our country’s Independence Day in Canada but it was a great way to escape the crowds. It was fun to finally drive on the Alaska Highway and experience a little of the Yukon together on our own time.

Day 3 - Juneau

July 3 - Juneau

This will be our first port of call in Alaska today, but since we didn’t arrive until 11:00, we were assigned a 9:30 am lecture time.  

Our topic for today was the Klondike gold rush, a lecture we really enjoy giving.  We were assigned to the Broadway Melodies

Theater, a large facility.  Due to the early time and the other activities for the day, our audience was rather small, perhaps about 60 people.  All went well and we heard many nice comments from our guests about the presentation.

We got off the ship shortly after lunch for our walk into Juneau, a distance of about one mile.  We were scheduled to meet our friend, Tara, at 2:00 pm, but she called at that time and postponed us to 3:30.   We had been to the city at least a dozen dimes before, but managed to find something to do for the next 1½ hours.  We met with Tara and met her two new foster children (very cute!) for about ten minutes and then headed back to the ship.  The weather was turning cool and rainy and we had no desire to get caught in the bad weather.

We decided not to eat in the dining room and went to the buffet.  We would have enjoyed the excellent food more if a large family near us hadn’t decided to let two of their young, bratty children to dine on their own.  Why some people can’t supervise their own kids is beyond us!  Perhaps it the teacher coming out in us.  The evening show, Piano Man, was excellent.  We enjoyed it all. 

Independence Day tomorrow and Skagway too!

Alaska Bound At Sea

July 2

Our first night we were in open waters and the ship was rocking and rolling all night and during the complete day. We noticed a lot of guests on board were not only having difficulty maneuvering around the ship but we heard many people saying that their family members were sea sick. Thank goodness for the patches that Donna always wears to avoid this malady as she would be feeling motion sickness also.

We explored the rest of this ship and found that it is nice to be on one of the older and smaller ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet. It is very easy to get around and also there are lots of public areas available for sitting, reading and wildlife spotting. We found a nice spot to do all three on the 6^th level and Donna spotted many pods of porpoises following along side the ship as we continued the sea day northbound.

Today began our first lecturing experience of this cruise. Even though we are on our 15^th journey to Alaska it is always exciting to present our shows for the guests.  For this cruise, we had prepared four lectures but when given our schedule for the week, we found that we have only three shows to present. It will be a rare treat to only have to work on three of seven days. On the last cruise, we had nine shows in thirteen days and that began to feel like “work”.

At 1:30, we presented our show which we call “Fire and Ice” explaining the forces that shape the earth with an emphasis on Alaska’s glaciers. Our venue was in the large show lounge, the Broadway Melodies Theater, and we presented to a surprisingly large crowd.  Usually our first show is a smaller group as many of the guests have not gotten the information on where and when to attend the shows and are still trying to find their way round the ship and understand the full daily schedule of events.

Since it was rather cold and rainy outside, we decided to do our daily exercise walking inside so we walked four of the decks on the inside completely around and it was good to be able to unwind and critique our successful presentation as we exercised.

In the early evening, we dressed in formal wear for the Captain’s welcome aboard cocktail party and it was nicely presented. We haven’t personally met the Captain as he was busy taking pictures with the guests and then introducing the senior crew. We hope to get the opportunity to introduce ourselves to him sometime during the seven days.

The large family that were our assigned as table mates were not present at tonight’s formal dinner so we were able to talk to the waiters and learn about their homes and families. After our lovely seafood dinner, we walked around a bit to burn off some of the calories and also to people watch the formally attired guests. We always like to see the other travelers all dressed up and especially enjoy seeing the little children all dolled up in their party clothes on formal nights.

Since we knew that we have to get up early and get ready for our next show right after breakfast, we decided against going dancing and retreated to our stateroom a little earlier than usual, opting to not attend the late stage production show. A day at sea is a busy one for us but one of the pleasurable experiences that we always enjoy since we get to present a show that we have spent so much time preparing.

Tomorrow will be another adventure with a morning lecture and then a day in Juneau. We look forward to seeing a friend in town and meeting the two children that she hopes to soon adopt.

Our Alaska Cruise Day 1

Friday, July 1, 2011

Alaska Bound

Today is the beginning of yet another Alaska cruise for us.  This cruise will leave from Seattle and make three stops in its one week.

Even though we have cruised to Alaska many times, we are always excited to do so.  We were up at 4:45 with a list of things we had to finish before leaving our home on Anderson Island. 

We are leaving Ocho, our black Persian cat, by himself on this trip.  A neighbor will be over to feed him once a day, but Ocho, being the ultimate chow-hound finished his entire day’s rations in less than ten minutes.  Oh well, he won’t starve.

Taking the 7:30 ferry off the island, we made a quick stop in Olympia to visit John’s mother and then headed north to Seattle. We had very little traffic and didn’t even slow down until we were in sight of downtown.  Exiting on the “Mercer mess,” we drove to our parking space behind the condo that Leslie, Donna’s sister-in-law, owns.  Seattle’s daily parking rates are terrible.  The cruise port wants $25 per day and this made the idea of free parking near Pier 91 much more attractive.

Today has been quite a nice day, an exception to the cold and dreary spring that Western Washington has been having.  Boarding was very efficiently done and soon we were aboard the Rhapsody of the Seas.  The ship is one of the older in Royal Caribbean’s line, but is still quite nice.  In the earlier tradition, there seems to be more open spaces and not as much effort spent on creating venues that would produce revenue as the newer ships.  We strolled around the upper decks and reminisced over the familiar hills of Seattle, as well as Elliott Bay, to our south.

The ship is full, with 2000 guests onboard, 400 of which are children.  This is quite unusual on an Alaska run.  So far, all of the children we have met were well behaved.  We were assigned an inside cabin on the 7^th deck, a slightly different configuration that what we had encountered in the past, but adequate. 

It was some time before we could meet with a member of the cruise staff, but we new have our schedule for the week.  We are doing three lectures this week.

We attended the “Welcome Aboard” show which was followed by an 8:30 dinner. We enjoyed our table by the window. The food was up to RCI’s usual high standards.  We had a nice view of the Olympic Mountains as we approached Port Angeles and then headed out the Juan de Fuca Straits toward the open ocean.

Connections and Impressions book

We have assembled our blog entries, photos and additional information into .pdf book format titled Connections and Impressions.  It is available for download for our friends.
Please let us know if you wish a copy.



Donna and John

Proposed Aircraft Travel Rule

Travel rule (suggested):  Just as there used to be a smoking section on long airplane flights, there should be a Screaming Baby section on long flights.  We had five of them on our ten hour flight from Poland.  They never did quiet down.

Reflections – Reasons to be Hopeful for Eastern Europe

• Young couples, happily pushing baby carriages while talking on cell phones
• The rebuilding of a bright new Warsaw and beautiful Budapest after the total destruction of the war.
• Two generations who have had no first-hand memories of World War II.
• New countries entering into the European Union
• Support for the performing arts
• New life in many established churches
• Numerous young people planting flats of flowers in the city parks of Warsaw
• The emergence of true democracy in many countries
• Scores of young people who have learned English as their second language
• Wonderfully fresh, colorful and tasty vegetables and other produce on display in local marketplaces.
• Tourism
• International companies opening new businesses in Warsaw and Budapest.
• Children on field trips enjoying their cities.
• Inquisitive, tech-savvy and optimistic people, eager for opportunity.
• A generation of young people with no memories of communist tyranny

 Picture:  Young Bulgarian artisan displays her wares

Reflection - Things that saddened or shocked us:

• The thousands of bullet holes and hundreds of bombed out homes and businesses from the 1990s in war-torn Vukovar, Croatia.
• The absence of old men in Odessa, Ukraine a legacy of the millions of deaths the Red Army suffered during World War II.
• Faceless, Stalinist-era, high-rise housing blocks in Bulgaria.
• Hovels backing onto modern units in Odessa.
• Abandoned factories in nearly every Eastern European country.
• Empty windows in villages, devoid of population as the young people flee to towns and cities.
• Ancient babushkas in traditional dress, just trying to scrape by.
• The absence of the once thriving Jewish population of Eastern Europe, a continued reminder of the grim reality of the Nazi death machine.
• A woman in the Odessa marketplace attempting to sell a handful of toothbrushes.
• Fertile land, lying untilled, in rural Bulgaria.
• The grossly oversized monument to King Victory Emmanuel, overshadowing the heart of ancient Rome, a monument to Mussolini’s ego.
• Tiny shops in Bulgaria, nearly absent of any merchandise to sell.
• The Palace of the Parliament building and surrounding area in Bucharest Romania, an attempt by Romania’s communist dictator to Nicolae Ceausescu to honor himself while nearly bankrupting the country.
• Men plowing the fields with horses in Romania, right next to a modern highway.
• The Palace of Culture in Warsaw.  Erected by Stalin to be the second tallest building in Europe, this 231 meter tall structure was seen as a phallic symbol of the power of Soviet rule.  It still dominates a free Warsaw’s skyline.
• Stories of the days of glory of each country, often as many as 1000 years in the past.
• The Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum.  Erected by the Roman emperor to commemorate his conquest of the land and people of Judea in the year 70 and the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.  Its relief images symbolize total destruction to this day.

photos:  
bullet-ridden abandoned synagogue in Vidin, Bulgaria

abandoned Hungarian village home
 

Reflection: Impressions of Our Ten Days on the Lower Danube

May 29, 2011

John and Donna Mollan

• Historic towns and cities
• Ancient churches of all shapes and sizes
• Fertile plains, green hills
• Empty synagogues, sad reminders of the Holocaust
• Bullet holes, bomb damage, destroyed tanks
• Market squares with colorful and flavorful produce
• Women wearing babushkas
•  A myriad of strange currencies
•  Horses plowing the fields, donkey carts
•  Odd makes of automobiles and trucks
• Roman Ruins
• Wonderful music
• Gigantic monuments to past despots
• Ugly gray concrete high-rises, legacies of 45 years of communism
• People just trying to get by
• Stories of centuries of conflict; glory, occupation, revolution and hope for a better future.
• The legacy of population decline
• Empty factories
• Paying more for water than for beer.
• A babel of languages
• Lonely fortresses, reminders of times gone by
• Forests reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm
• Empty villages with blank windows staring outward
• …and still the river flows. 

Cruising down the Danube

  

Reflection: Our most interesting cross-cultural experiences

          

Central and Eastern Europe

May-June 2011

1. Watching a samurai movie on Hungarian TV dubbed perfectly in German
2. Sitting on a park bench in Budapest eating a Hungarian salami and cheese sandwich while a pair of Hungarian men walk by with a McDonalds bag in their hand
3. Riding the Metro in Rome at rush hour.  It is the closest you will ever get to someone while still being clothed.
4. Trying to get haircuts in a Croatian town where neither of us understands the others’ language.
5. Listing to “Hit the Road, Jack” on the radio - in Russian!
6. Trying to purchase sandwiches (?) from a ancient Ukrainian babushka and actually attempting conversation.  We did get our sandwiches.
7. Purchasing beads from a young Bulgarian shop owner.  Her radiant and enthusiastic manner made it such a pleasure.
8. Spotting a Mexican restaurant in Odessa, Ukraine.  (Yes the sign was in Russian!)
9. We have discovered that wherever we are in the United States, people stop us and ask us for directions.  When we were walking in Odessa, Ukraine, the same thing happened, but it was a man who spoke only Russian. We were unable to help him.

 And the very best experiences…

10.           Trying to read signs in the Cyrillic alphabet in Serbia, Bulgaria and Ukraine as we walk down the street!

Home again, home again, jiggedy-jig…

June 5-Sunday

Home again, home again, jiggedy-jig…

Five weeks, two cruises, thirteen countries, three continents, 16,000+ miles, ten languages, and memories to numerous to count. This was definitely one of the most astonishing months that we have ever experienced, filled with loads of laughter, love, smiles, tears and our shear love of learning about people and places that we have only read about but never encountered in our lives.

Last night we returned to our country and cleared customs in Chicago after a 10 ½ hour flight from Warsaw aboard Lot Polish Airlines. We had hoped to sleep on this flight but the five crying babies seated in the two rows right behind us made that impossible. The next flight to Seattle was much quieter and we were both able to catch some needed of winks during this 4 ½ hour segment. Since it was late and we had missed the last ferry to our island, we had reservations for the last night in a hotel. This morning our good friends picked us up and drove us to the ferry dock and another friend met us on the island side to drive us home. The house looked so large after the small ship and hotel rooms that have served as our home for the last 36 nights.

Reflecting on this last months’ travels, we have come to realize just how lucky we are here in our beloved USA. We have seen countries that have been devastated numerous times in the past 20 or more years and many of these have not had the money to rebuild what this inhumanity toward them has destroyed. Very few of the countries we visited were able to rebuild part if not all due mostly to the tenacity of the people to go on with life but it has been difficult for most to do so yet or maybe ever.

We have learned so much about people in cultures that we previously knew so little of including Donna’s own ancestors. We feel so honored to be the first descendents to return to the ancestral homeland and walk on the same grounds that her grandparents walked but sadly we realize that the relatives that they left behind perished due to man’s inhumanity to man during the past 70 years.

We have been fortunate to be able to travel to many parts of the world in our job as professional cruise ship lecturers but this particular trip will live in our memories as a very special and touching five weeks of our lives.

We will have a few of our most memorable moments in a future posting so keep checking and thanks for following us on this adventure.

Our last night in Warsaw

June 4-Saturday

In transit for a long day toward home

Our last full day in Warsaw and Europe was a great ending to a wonderful five weeks away but home is looking really good now. We feel like the horses that see the barn in the distance and are ready for the final gallop back! Even though we have about 15 hours of flying and numerous hours in airports waiting, we are looking forward to a great day back to WA. and will return to the island by Sunday.

Yesterday, we were on our own in the lovely city of Warsaw and decided to venture back to the old city using the map in Polish as our guide. At least they use the Roman alphabet in this country even though the words are so full of consonants that it is difficult to read or pronounce. We walked under the streets using the underground shopping/metro center and bought Metro subway tickets and rode to the stop that we were able to decipher on the map as Old Town. We were correct on our few words of Polish and got off on the right stop. From there we walked for 20 minutes to the city gate. We were anxious to find the last of the gift items that we had wanted to bring home but to our dismay, lots of tourist goods but nothing like we wanted was available. We had passed up much nicer items in other countries but were afraid of overloading our bags for the flights so had decided to wait until the end to buy some of the gifts. Not a great idea as we realized that we should have bought them in other countries. Rule for the day: if you find something that you like, buy it then and don’t wait as you may never see it again or may not be able to find the shop that was selling it.

After spending many hours walking in the old city, we took our trusted old hand-held GPS and followed it back to the transit area where we got off and this time decided to board the street cars back to the hotel. No problems on transportation but we encountered another one of the many funny situations here. A girl was standing and holding on next to us while the bumpy street car moved along. With her arm around the metal pole, she was talking on one cell phone while texting on a second one! The younger generation in Eastern Europe likes their mobile phones even more than those in the US. as everyone has at least one in their hands at the same time.

We wanted to spend our final night in Europe doing something different and special so we dressed up and walked back to the center of town for a nice quick dinner in an outside café. We couldn’t find one with a menu posted in English and did not want to trust our very limited Polish to a chance encounter with something we didn’t want to eat so we chose to stop in a Turkish kebob place and ordered by the picture and each got a delicious gyro prepared by the owner who spoke some English and told us he was a native of Yemen. Another cultural experience: Turkish food prepared by a Yemenite speaking both Polish and English in the center of Warsaw!

After dinner, we walked further to the Warsaw Philharmonic Theater where we had bought concert tickets earlier in the day. We were surprised at how lovely this concert hall is,  knowing full well that it was destroyed during the bombing of Warsaw and rebuilt to its old elegance after WWII just like the rest of this gorgeous city. Our seats were wonderful with a huge amount of leg room and the concert was excellent. Of course Donna had to make the joke that wherever you sit in this concert hall you are always sitting “behind a Pole.” This is the largest symphonic orchestra that we have ever visited and enjoyed this very much. Europeans find it important to bring culture to the masses so the tickets were only about $10 each and we were only 24 rows back from the orchestra on stage. We enjoyed our final evening immensely as we marveled at all we had experienced and strolled hand-in-hand back to our hotel.

Warsaw, Day 2-3

June 2-3, 2011

Warsaw

Visiting Warsaw is a challenge to the emotions.  Words can not truly comprehend what the city and its inhabitants have experienced.  Throughout the ages, Warsaw has had its low moments, but none like the half century beginning in 1939.

Poland’s neighbor to the east was the Soviet Union, ruled by xenophobic Josef Stalin.  On Poland’s western boundary was the ultimate psychopath, Adolf Hitler   With no natural defensive borders, the Poles never had a chance.

It is easy to confuse advances in technology with advances in humankind.  Nazi Germany proved that disconnect.  Their use of technology to industrialize mass murder and destruction made such other historic figures such as Genghis Khan and Vlad the Impaler appear as rank amateurs.   The Nazis were efficient, systematic and brutal.  When they were finally forced out of Warsaw in 1944 by the advancing Red Army, they deliberately and systematically reduced the entire city to rubble.  The occupying Communists were no more generous

We witnessed the destruction and rebirth during our trip to Warsaw.  The Jewish community of over 350,000 was shipped off to the gas chambers, even as they resisted with crude weapons until the last man and woman was standing.

In the 45 years following the war, under the hand of communist dictatorship, Warsaw was rebuilt.  The Old Town that we see today has barely a brick from the original.  Similarly, the other parts of the city have been rebuilt.  Since its independence in 1989, Warsaw has been prospering, with only a few remnants of old-style communist mentality visible.  Poland is on the rise.

We were amazed by what we saw… the wonderful parks the City of Chopin has maintained, the resilience of the Polish people.  Again, we shed many tears at the many tragedies; the monument to the futile Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and Polish uprising of 1944 as well as the execution of the 22,000 Polish army officers in 1940.  Through all this, Poland triumphs in the long run.

On a lighter note, we are still perplexed by the Polish language.  It reminds of a Scrabble player who has way too many continents and can’t figure out how to use them.  It is only surpassed in its complexity by Hungarian.

We are anxious to get back to Anderson Island.  Our flight to Chicago on LOT airlines (flight #1) will take us seven time zones to the west, both over the Pole and over the Poles.  A short American flight to Sea-Tac should get us back late Saturday night.

We will give a complete wrap-up in our next few blog entries.

J & D

12 countries, 11 languages - 5 weeks

Photos

Monument to Ghetto Uprising

Donna & Polish Menu

Chopin statue

Old Town Warsaw