Just Where Were We?

On our cruise trip we flew to San Juan, stayed a couple of days, and then boarded Serenade of the Seas. we set sail about 10 pm that Saturday night and each day woke up in a differnet place. Pretty cool! Here is a map where you can see the islands: Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados and back to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The shallower water of the Caribbean was about the colour of this map but as it got deeper a little darker. Very beautiful in all shades. I have done a collection of my favorite shots for this blog. Enjoy!

This was the trip of a lifetime in many ways and there were a few teary eyes as the crew did their final farewell on the final night.

St. Thomas, The Virgin Islands

We woke up Sunday morning to a steady ship and knew that we had docked at St. Thomas. All those shops were out there just waiting for us, with their free enticements to get us in the door. Ron and I left the ship midmorning and taxied to the delightful shopping district. Shops were brightly painted and looked well-to-do, a tribute to all those shoppers who had come before us.

We found this delightful alley and headed in.

Of course there were jewelry shops opening onto it as well.

Ron got a little tired and left me to shop while he found a sitdown place. Don't you just love his jaunty hat? Here is where I found him four hours later. No! I'm kidding! I wish I could afford to shop in all those gem stores for that long but it's not so much fun just looking.

Finally we found the back side of the shops and the bay around which we would wind back to the ship. A lovely first day!

All Aboard!

As our ship steamed out of San Juan harbour, this beautiful old Spanish style church was set against the Caribbean background.

In our inside stateroom, modestly priced, we were met by this lovely king-size bed, a comfortable loveseat facing the tv, a desk, plenty of cupboard space and a pristine bathroom--small but well designed with places to put all our things and more.

We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas, a beautifully appointed ship, for our first cruising adventure. We met our cruising mates--my sister's family--and headed for the 11th floor cafeteria style dining hall. This lovely array of carved watermelons met us at the entrance. Wonderful!

Of course cruises are mostly about eating so the next picture is my sister and my husband at the dinner table in the evening. We had full service there and every night's menu was an adventure with lots of choice. The fruit soups were spectacular.

Across the table Chris and Mark patiently posed for their aunt's camera. Great young men, they are!

Brian and I are the photographers so they put us together to get a picture of us. At the last moment he planted a big smooch on my surprised cheek. Fun, fun, fun.

We went to bed around 10:30 that first night and with no windows and no clock didn't wake up till 8 a.m. Amazing. Next post I'll talk about the island stops.

Waiting To Cruise

Our party of six, hubby and I, my sister and her spouse, their two teenage boys, spent two nights at a resort an hour away from San Juan waiting till our Saturday sailing date. A Hyatt timeshare vacation resort got our money and when we walked into the lobby we were well satisfied with the place. First sight of our room was not so good. The decor was tired and a musty smell of an air conditioner needing repair lowered our opinions of the place. Both of our rooms were in need of work. Never mind, the view of the water was great and we made the best of it.
Ron and I went for a walk around the grounds and here I am heading along a path through the greenery to the water.

Our hotel had its own little bit of beach, a small but quite pretty cove.

At the front of the hotel, beautiful gardens shaded by tall palms were well maintained.

From our balcony I took this picture on a windy morning.

On Friday afternoon Ron decided to take us all to the Bacardi distillery in nearby San Juan. We had some interesting driving, almost had heart failure when we came to a merging corner where we came in on the left and joined with a street on the right, all of us wanting to get onto the street perpendicular to us. Ron had to work his way across two lanes of traffic to turn right. The way to do that in Puerto Rico is to just put on your signal, edge ahead, and hope that people actually let you in. They did! We made our right turn onto a narrow street in old San Juan, looking for Bacardi. I lost all hope of finding it as our directions were anything but direct and we hadn't seen a sign for many minutes as we drove along the coastal street. Suddenly, from the back seat, Brian spoke. "There it is!" And he was right. Somehow we had stumbled into the right place.

Perhaps in relief or maybe it was the two free rum drinks they gave each of us but Ron succumbed. He is the one on the table. At least he wasn't under it! (In reality he was posing for the camera.)

We loved the couple of hours we spent at Bacardi and even sent video emails to each of our kids from a station set up there at the end of the tour. A fun afternoon. And the cruise was yet to come.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

We have been away cruising and stayed at the Hilton in San Juan before our flights home Sunday. I will be adding more pictures of the whole 11 days away but thought I'd start with some from our wonderful last day. These fat fish crowded near us in hopes of food. Looked to me like they had eaten enough, but they sure were pretty.

In the same pond garden, swans and geese lolled about, honking if we got too close.

Notice the white side wings lying on the sidewalk beside this beauty. Not sure I've seen that before.

Coming from our cold Canadian March I was transfixed by the vibrant flower colours.

I saw a lot of this one, really a leaf but so pretty.

Ron and I lunched near the beach and then headed for a water-side lounging spot under a bunch of palms. I sat down and felt my body fill with joy as I looked at the sight. To our far right was this old fort buffeted by frothy waves hitting the ancient rocks beneath. I could just imagine how hard it would have been to try to scale these walls.

To our left blue sky and bluer waves complimented each other. Just as I left my chair to get this picture these two men came and stood in my shot. I decided to click anyhow and like the relaxed pleasure they bring to the scene.

Here's another shot to the right, this one with more of the hotel walkways and green grass as contrast.

After spending a long time writing in my journal, trying to capture the view, I picked up my camera again and went after the coconuts in the palm tree to my left. Can you see them?

We got a little silly and Ron took this shot of me with all my splotches and warts. (Well, no warts!)

I reciprocated and got his crossed legs. Do we look white or what? And that's after ten days in the Caribbean.

I came to realize on this trip just how beautiful and to-be-desired black skin is, compared to white. My bruises always show and I never remember how I get them. We must look pretty puny to the lovely natives.

We weren't the only ones with camera in hand. Look closely at this shot of Ron lounging and you'll see a woman trying to capture the view.

And above us a little bird like a mourning dove came to visit for a bit. I took this for Mary, who always has such lovely nature shots.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw two sea-dos roar through the waves right towards the rocky shore. There must have been a sea path as they ended up on the beach over where the umbrellas are in the picture below.

I got up to try another picture of the space to my left sans people but just as I put camera to eye a young woman stepped up on the rock wall. And I am glad she did. I have several with her against the blues.

Compared to the shot below, I think she adds interest to the picture.

Later this young man sat just ahead of us and by then I was into capturing all who came near my lens. His colours were delicious against the blues.

We achieved a personal record for time relaxing in lounge chairs--three hours and fifteen minutes! Wow! Finally we got up and left the glorious space for someone else to discover and walked along the waterfront. This is another old fort on the other side of the hotel. So lovely.

In the roped-off beach play area kids of all ages tried climbing this water wall. It looked such fun I almost went in myself.

As we walked along we noticed that a movie was in process. We almost walked right into the filming before we noticed a blue-jacketed man calmly making small gestures with his hands in our direction. Oh! He means us!

Back in our room I took a few shots out our window. This plant looked silvery and strong just under our balcony.

We also did a few other things in San Juan before our cruise. Next time I'll tell about our trip to Bacardi. Oh, wait a minute. What happens at Bacardi stays at Bacardi!

Weekend Wonders

We had a productive, interesting and relaxing weekend, mixing work with play and just enjoying ourselves. I took another picture of our bedroom paint job, this one with the pictures up. My husband did that while I was in Victoria a couple of weeks ago. If you look closely (at the second photo below) you'll see a bit of a theme happening in our condo.

While the man in the house worked on our income taxes--ugh!!!--I touched up the edges and woodwork of this paint job from last weekend. The colour is called 'Queen' and I thought it was fitting as I feel like a queen in our new place. We had quite a time rigging scaffolding to be able to reach everywhere above the staircase which winds at the top, making the job extremely difficult. Imagine me reaching the crown molding atop a ladder which we set up on the scaffolding and which Ron held to make sure it didn't slip while I did my magic above. Whew! Glad that's done. Next time we hire that area, I think.

After a relaxing drive for an hour or so on Sunday afternoon, we rented Australia and spent almost three hours watching it. Such a good movie. The images of Australia and the little 'creamie' have a way of staying in your mind. Next we sipped soup at Tim Horton's on the way to my concert in Embro. Ron took some pictures but they are not as good as we'd like because of the dim light.

We have a ladies' choir and a young men's choir, which we combine to do some joint numbers. We are small but pretty good, I think. Everyone has a passion for the music and a love of performing something special. Our director, my sister, is in the front row above at the right. She has a music degree from UWO and has made music her life so the quality is excellent. Almost all of the choir members have taken private lessons and are performers in their own right. The young men's choir has four members who have grown up with the choirs, moving from the children's choir (no longer active) to the young men's choir. Their voices have grown up, too, and with the addition of the other two, the sound is smooth and sure. I love to listen to their vitality.

I had e-mailed several people I thought might be interested and was delighted to see so many of them in the audience. We all had a snack downstairs afterwards, a great way to revel in the excitement of having performed well. (At least they told us so.)

This picture was taken in practice; hence, Director Linda is not in the picture as she was back a few rows listening to the acoustics. BTW can you find me in these pictures? Oh, a game!

Run For Your Wife

Run For Your Wife is on at the Embro & West Zorra Community Centre until March 7th and it is a hoot. I am not ususally a fan of farce, particularly in the British style, but this one is very cleverly written and very funny. Kudos to author Ray Cooney.
And now to the real reason I'm writing this blog today--the total Embro package. This community works together. Ron and I are always struck by the way Embro and West Zorra seem to be able to just get on with it and create a vibrant, brightly coloured landscape. Oh, I don't just mean the green fields dotted with Holsteins and corn crops, beautiful though they are. I am talking about the way they embrace whatever is happening and just make it better. They have the famous July first Zorra Caledonian Games which is maybe the largest event of its kind in Canada. They have the Embro Fair, a glorious celebration of fall's bounty. They have a huge tractor pull, a relatively new event. They have numerous church and community suppers, dances, plays, ball games--the list goes on. And I'm sure someone who actually lives there could add many lesser known events to my list. In short they have a vibrant community.
And on Sunday we got to taste it once again. Speaking of taste, the brunch that preceded the afternoon play was really outstanding. We have all been to smorgasbord events and they have become pretty run-of-the-mill for me, but this one was different. Sausage, scrambled eggs, a potato casserole, really excellent salad selections, tiny tasty muffins, a wide variety of unusual but delicious breads, applesauce and much more all made the meal memorable. A pity I had to keep my helpings small and select. Next we made our way to the dessert table. It, too, held a wide selection of excellent home-cooked fare. I chose a bit of chocolate trifle, a chocolate brownie, some fruit pieces and a half piece of what I thought was mince pie. All were yummy good, except the pie which turned out to be raisin and which I passed to my husband who never met a dessert he didn't like.
We had to rush away once the play was over as we were having our own dinner party here last night, but we will be back next year for another go. If you love to laugh and eat you might try coming, too.

About the Stomachs

Last night we had a lovely supper with our son and daughter-in-law and their wee baby boy. Ben was pretty tiny when he was born before Christmas but I am pleased to report his growth has been excellent. He now has flesh under his skin and his cheeks are pleasingly rosy. He is quite beautiful, in fact. His grandfather and I take turns holding him, a joy for each of us. Ben opens his blue eyes wide when he is awake and takes in all around him, especially anything bright like the window or lights.

We took a Dairy Queen ice cream cake to celebrate our daughter-in-law's birthday and she was very happy. I bought the smallest one I could as all of us are watching our weight, but having a slice was a welcome treat. Leanne loves it so I hope she is able to be strong and not eat the rest of it in one sitting as she told us she would.

Our daughter-in-law is a great cook and had made a very good tuna casserole and a healthy salad for first course. I love when someone else cooks!



Today is my writing club and I leave in a few minutes. Imagine. A whole afternoon reading, listening and sharing writing with people who feel about it the way I do. It helps to spur me on with my novel revisions. I am hoping to have the thing revised and ready for the publishing world to fight over by April 1. Oh, better make that March 31 as I don't want to tempt fate by setting April Fool's day as my deadline.



I have begun to put out feelers for an agent. Also I need to do some research into online publishing as I have a website just waiting to be mounted, gifted to me by my computer guru son. Lots of exciting things out there.



Finally here is a card from Victoria's Tea Festival which I attended last week with Beth. Lots of fun, if a little heavy on the remarkable sweets offered at many of the booths. Try to take it in if you can next year.

Super Saturday

Yesterday my husband and I took the killer road (Highway 401) to Toronto for a great day of adventure. First we stopped at the International Centre off Airport Road for the Outdoor Adventure show put on by Tourism Ontario. A huge pool carried water demos of all kinds, from kayaking to bicycling on pontoons. This last I decided was more gimmicky than practical. Imagine biking up in the air over the water if the waves began to flow and the wind started to blow.
There were many vendors with kayaks and canoes and many more with outdoor clothing. One vendor had down-filled vests for $14. That was an awesome price and if I liked vests I would have bought one. I have, however, always found that my arms freeze when I wear something like that.
We got dozens of samples of fruit bars, fruit and nut bars, supplement pouches, coupons, and even one taste of fruit and cottage cheese that my doubtful husband liked. Then there were one or two things we tasted that we didn't like. Luckily there were lots of garbage pails placed strategically around the huge facility.
We spent two hours touring around the whole show and finally left when our sample bags were so packed we could hardly bear carrying them anymore. Most of that weight was because of the wide variety of tour books we got. Bicycling, rafting the heritage tour of the Ottawa river, walking/biking trails in various lake front counties all made for some great additions to our box of things to do weekends. This should be a great spring/summer/fall season coming up.
We lunched at Tony Romas and then made our way to the Exhibition grounds along Lake Ontario where we went to some kind of home decorating show that Ron had found on the web. It was good but we are not so much into that, having just bought our condo last year. Not too much renovating needed for a few years.
One good find was a picture for our front hall which piece we desperately wanted to provide a focal point in that area. Now we have ideas on how to paint and finish it off with a flourish.
We started for home about 4:30, had a wonderful Italian dinner at Il Fornello, a great restaurant in Oakville, just off the QEW, and made the final leg of the journey in snow and rain. We got to Woodstock, gassed up, and headed for the movie theatre where we saw Doubt. Leaving the theatre I said to my husband, "The movie was pretty interesting but I have some doubt about it. I think it's a renter." He chuckled and agreed.
So that was our Saturday, full of fun, food and excitement. Love those days!