The Rest of January

Back home and finding “the groove” again. Not so easy. Of course we came home to all the Christmas decorations. Well, only the indoor ones. We had taken the outdoor ones down before we left. Wouldn’t be fair on the neighbors otherwise. But it took several days to get “back to normal”.
Sigh. I do love Christmas.

Oh yes, when your sleep gets interrupted at 3:30 in the morning you know that the fire alarms need to be replaced. 

There were some remnants to enjoy of the new amaryllis bought for Christmas. And this just was getting beautiful. Rescued last Easter after the services. It filled the kitchen with better aroma then my cooking. 

The days since we are back have been varied. It is winter so it should not be surprising when it is cold and ugly. But we tried whenever possible to go for walks. If we managed the 10k steps we were happy. When it was really bad James went to a gym. When my knee tells me I do go to our Pavillon gym to use the bike. Otherwise I only go on walks when I can wear my hiking sandals. If you keep moving the toes don’t get too cold. 

False hope of spring around the corner. 

A photo for a letter to William. A lonely flower on our “sweet William plant”

Something new for us to do: we are playing a game of Five Crowns almost every day, usually after lunch with our coffee. Fun! 

Saturday the 18th ... Richmond Forum. I had not heard about these three people and had no expectations. It turned out a very very interesting lecture. A brilliant evening.

Of course Nashville is not around the corner and we miss seeing Helen and William. But thanks to FaceTime etc. This photo I "stole" from FaceBook. Aahh.

Helen had a birthday last Friday. We were sorry we could not be with her. We decided to go to a German restaurant we had heard about. It is south past Peterburg and about a 40 minute drive. But we had a really nice lunch.

It's a small place next to a gas station on I 95. The owner is from Germany and we were surprised about a good number of guests on the other tables speaking German with each other. 

The map wanted to be pinned "where we had been". James added pins for where he had lived for 7 years and also where I had been born.

There was also a corner with German stuff to buy. A box of (promised to be fresh) what was called "top kisses". I can't say what it was used to be called when I was a child. it is not politically correct today. We bought a box and took them "over the river". Sarah had invited us to dinner and this was dessert. The kisses all disappeared. 

The kids are plagued with germs they most likely catch in school. All seemed o.k. on Sunday. They surprised us on Sunday when all 5 came to church service. We took the three boys home for lunch. I love this picture of them. They lost a little car under a huge piece of furniture. Caleb knew where the "hindering hand" was hanging in the garage. 

Almost time to flip the page on this one. Helen gives me a wall calendar for my birthday every year. Often it is a quilt one. I am enjoying the new photos every month. This calendar is from England. I saw it in Jane's kitchen year before and one from the artist was on my wishlist. Word got to Helen. Thank you!

Day 12 & 13 - At Sea / going home

Tuesday January 14

Deck 3 was heaven. Temperature was just perfect.

Kate and David had their lunch with the captain at noon. At 2 pm was a Show featuring the ship's crew members from the Philippines. It was actually very good.

Later we played cards on deck 9 with "very noisy" people playing dice on the next table and having fun. We teased each other and David  even got kissed by one of the ladies on the cheek. 

We probably participated in Team Trivia and went afterwards the the Crow's Nest for happy hour.

Oh yes, the piano guys after dinner. 

And the singer Colleen Williamson with a different selection at 9:30 pm didn't disappoint either.

We also had some packing to do. Kate was very surprised when we gave them the Five-Crowns game to take home. She was very pleased because she thinks her grandchildren will enjoy it.

Suitcases were supposed to be in front of the cabin doors before midnight. 

11,869 steps thanks to deck 3 rounds.

Wednesday January 15

Oh dear. How did the time go so fast? We were supposed to arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 7 am and I took this photo at 6:42am from our balcony.

Breakfast on deck 9. Suitcases gone of course. Only hand luggage with us. The crew has to prepare the cabins for the next guests.

We had filled out forms a few days earlier with our flight time and were "sorted" by color to leave the ship. When we were called we found our luggage easily.

Of course we had to go through immigration/customs which took Kate and David a little longer. James arranged for a larger Uber for the 4 of us and everything was very easy. As always there comes the waiting after we all were checked in and suitcase-less. 

Here is my attempt at a selfie again.

And then we had to part. What a great time we had together. That's not surprising though because we always do. 

Our flight left on-time at 2 pm from Fort Lauderdale.

Home in good time we could even go for a walk in the neighborhood. 

Surprising 11,522 steps today. But do I dare go on the scale tomorrow morning? 

THE END

Day 10 & 11 - Puerto Limón, Costa Rica / At Sea

Sunday January 12

When we woke up the wind was still going strong. The itinerary says that we should be in Puerto Limón from 7:30 am to 5 pm. This is where we wanted to do an excursion. We had booked it two days ago and then Kate and David had decided to do it too. We were to board a historic, recently restored open-air train, see the countryside and Tortuguero Canals. We have already been in Costa Rica's National Park (this blog and the next one) and were really looking forward to it.

View from our balcony at 8 am: the buses were lining up. Many more were coming. But all had to leave again. The captain announced that he just couldn't dock the ship. The wind/waves were moving the ship side to side and front to back and it was just too dangerous for passengers to walk off and on and the ship could also be damaged. He kept stressing that safety first was important as disappointing it was for all. So, we had an unscheduled "day at sea".

James and I were fine. We liked spending days at sea on deck 3 were the ship's movements were not so noticeable. Laying on one of the deck chairs was quite relaxing. We did worry about Kate and David though. They didn't feel so well and decided to stay in their cabin most of the day. Eating for them was out of the question. We only saw them once in a while.

Besides playing our card game or dice there was plenty of entertainment. At 2 pm there was an "Ask the Captain" session on the Mainstage. Very interesting.

Singer Colleen Williamson also performed and we really liked her. She was very good. She told us that she lived in Mount Juliet, Tennessee.

The towel art: is it an anteater or an elephant? No telling.

Monday January 13

This day and the next are the two scheduled "At Sea" to go back to Fort Lauderdale. The weather got steadily better.

We all enjoyed deck 3. I should explain probably that Kate, James and I could use the HollandAmerica Navigator on our phones which uses the ship's WiFi but only for this purpose. It has a chat feature which means we could tell each other where we were or what our plans were. It didn't ping though. You just needed to once in a while check. 

I took this photo to remind me ... we saw plenty of flying fish when we were walking our rounds on that deck. 

James and I had to eat lunch with the crew today. That's what I call it having heard Onslow say it on an episode of BBC's "Keeping up Appearances". Kate and David have an invitation for tomorrow's lunch.

James decided he didn't want any dinner since he had that lunch. Neither did David. I really didn't need food either but I fancied a bit of that lobster. With the Navigator on your phone you could also check that day's menu. Kate didn't have much food lately so wanted some dinner so the two of us decided to go by ourselves. Girls night out! We skipped the starter and I enjoyed the surf and turf.

I should have skipped the dessert too. The tiramisu wasn't worth the calories. Sorry.

I think we went to the trivia game, listened to the piano guys, had a nightcap in one of the bars.

It had ended up being a nice relaxing day. Our cabin steward forgot us that evening. No "When & Where" for the next day, no little chocolates, no towel art. Oh well ...

Step count: 

Sunday = 11,840

Monday = 11,176

Day 9 - The Panama Canal

Saturday January 11

This should be very interesting, even though James and I had the incredible trip to Panama Sept/Oct. 2018 (you can read about it HERE) going through a lock never gets old. 

The captain told us that they usually don't know when they are actually going to go through the lock. The ship is totally at the mercy of the Panama Authority. 

I think the first photo was taken at about 6 am. 

6:40 am

Our cabin was at a prime location for this. 6008 was just an arm length from a door which is normally locked. A perfect lookout to the front. Of course a lot of people came past our door but that didn't matter of course.

We decided to have our breakfast on our balcony.

Found Kate and David afterwards who were equally close to another door on their side at 6011. 

We only went through the Atlantic side locks into Gatun Lake and anchored. That's where tenders brought people to the shore who had booked excursions. These photos were taken by James.

James was walking around deck 3 and was trapped around 9:30 am as the tenders were taken back on board.. He wasn't sorry about being trapped because it gave him the opportunity to watch.

The Crow's Nest was a great place to watch going back through the lock to the town of Colon where we are going to pick up the people from their excursions.

See our new dice on the middle of the table? Oh yes, they come in handy.

Once docked in Colon we can get off the ship. James and I do that. We check briefly our emails (with the weak WiFi) and walk to the little shopping center. Just walking on solid ground feels good. There is a lot of construction and a lot still needs to be done to make it nice. The photo of this sign makes it look good.

When everybody was back on board we started sailing again. Off to Costa Rica. 

I have very nice photos of dinner food but I spare you that. The four of us had a table right over the engine and the wind had also picked up. It became a problem for people with sea sickness issues. Poor Kate left the table half-way through dinner. James and I feel so lucky that we never had an issue with it. In the night we felt rocked to sleep - except that the strong winds whistled through the door to the balcony all night - loudly!