Ron & Kelly

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year & Some Other Stuff Too!

2012-01-02T00:08:00.000-05:00

Well, we're back in California and are enjoying our favorite California things. In N Out Burger, Wahoo's, the beach, Disneyland, friends, family, the traffic, the smog, the lights... We've been enjoying home a lot.

Only a few days after arriving, we were honored to be a part of our friend Steve "Barney" Graves' proposal to my oldest friend Meredith Bowdish. (Mer and I met on the slide in Kindergarten and have been close ever since) Barney and I had been working together so he could create a dream proposal for Meredith and after many phone calls, texts, and e-mails, the big day finally came. He had us pick up Meredith's 16-year-old daughter, Rianna, and take her to Downtown Disney where we set up flowers and candles on one of the patios at the Grand Californian. He told Meredith that he wanted to get pictures of them in front of the Christmas tree and on the balcony and then surprised her with a proposal on bended knee. if you look closely at this picture, you will see that he's holding the ring box upside down - we was just so nervous!

Of course she said "yes" and they went to celebrate at The Napa Rose while Ron and I took Rianna (or Ri-Bo as we affectionately nicknamed her) to The Rain Forest Cafe for dinner. Rianna loves Barney and is both excited and nervous about the impending marriage. It was such an honor to be a part of such a special day in our friends' lives and we wish them boundless blessings and happiness as they form their new family.

Last week we had plans to join Barney and Meredith for a day at Disneyland. We were so excited to go (Well, Ron was a little apprehensive since he hasn't been to Disneyland as a guest in about 15 years and was afraid he would miss working there too much.) and practically ran from the car to the tram that would drop us off at the gates. Sadly, the park was so crowded that they were turning people away and wouldn't be able to let more guests in until after 6pm that evening. We'll be able to go next week when the crowds die down after the holiday vacation rush but we were still sad to miss out on the park that day. See how sad?

We settled on heading down to Newport Beach to enjoy the sunny weather and clear skies. We walked out on the pier and took some pictures.

I had fun jumping off of benches to get some airborn shots that Ron said are for teenager. But I think they're fun!

After attending church service at Mariner's Church, we spent Christmas Eve at the Fancher house where my mom and I made dinner together. We made Beef Wellington from scratch (sauces and all), green beans almondine, salad with my homemade dressing, and mashed potatoes. Everything was delicious and we managed to not kill each other in the process of sharing a kitchen... but we came close...

Just kidding! It was really fun!

The next day we opened gifts in the morning. We were amused at the lopsided amount of gifts given to my brother and I and thought it deserved pictures and a little collage. No, this was not staged. That's what it looked like. It's a good thing I don't find fulfillment in gifts right?

Mom and Dad did give me my two favorite gifts of the year - a Magic Bullet so we can blend smoothies on the ship next contract and a gift card to A Snail's Pace for new, custom fit running shoes! I went down and got fitted right away and I love them! What a difference the correct shoes makes!

Later that day we went to Oxnard to visit Ron's grandmother, sister, mom and her husband. We had a very nice dinner and visit but we were remiss in that we brought the camera and then forgot to take pictures! We'll be heading back up there tomorrow to celebrate Grandma's 97th birthday (wow!) and will be sure to take some then. The next day we drove to Claremont to visit Ron's dad and his wife. It was nice to spread Christmas out over three days. It made the fun last so much longer!

For New Year's Eve we were invited to do so many different things with a ton of different people but with all of the socializing and busy-ness the last few weeks, I have been feeling burned out and asked if we could just stay in for the evening. As it turned out my former roommate Chrissy and her friend Karl were looking for something mellow to do as well and were happy to just come over for snacks and games. We did end up venturing out to The Bench in Fullerton to ring in the New Year with Meredith and Barney. It was fun (and I always love time with Mer & B) but if I had it to do over again, I'd probably stay in and play games til midnight. We're getting old!

Happy New Year everyone! May 2012 be filled with an abundance of blessings, laughter, joy and the richness of life. Much love to you all.

Bye Zui

2011-12-20T15:54:00.000-05:00

Well, our time on the Zuiderdam has come to an end. We were really sad to leave the ship. This has been such a different experience than the Eurodam and we loved just about every minute of it. We LOVE the cast, the stage crew, the Event Managers and Cruise Directors we worked with. We made friends with all kinds of people from different places in the world and from various departments on board and we can safely say that we truly enjoyed every last person we met on the ship. We’re going to miss everyone a ton. Thank you to the cast, crew and officers of the Zuiderdam for making our second contract such an outstanding experience!

During our last cruise, we went to the Black & White crew party, made a sand angel for Ben Goodner on Half Moon Cay, visited Wind & Surf Beach on Bonaire, and spent time with our Dam friends before leaving. Below are a few pictures from our last week or two. (Yes, we're tan, we know. We live in the Caribbean. it happens.)

Black & White Crew Party

Bonaire

Half Moon Cay

Sand Angel in the making

For Ben Goodner

Last Friday we flew from Miami to California where we will be spending Christmas with our families. We have 7 weeks off between contracts and will spend at least the first few weeks in California. We applied to use our free cruise (we get one a year – great perk!) in January and are hoping to hear that we will spend about 2 of our 7 weeks on the Oosterdam sailing to Hawaii. Fingers crossed! We have kinda given up making plans for life because no matter what we think we’re going to do, God has other ideas for us. So we’re taking it day by day.

Merry Christmas everyone. May the Lord richly bless you this season. Thank you for keeping up with us as we traipse around the world. Your support and encouragement keeps us steady in an unsteady life.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

The Last Few Weeks @ Sea

2011-12-05T08:54:00.001-05:00

Ok, I know I haven’t updated the blog in weeks and I’m very sorry! We’ve been really busy on the ship and feel like we haven’t had a chance to email or call anyone in a long time. So here’s what’s been happening.

A few cruises back marked the dreaded “cast changeover” for Ron. That means that the production show (“Vegas-style” *ahem* entertainment shows that permanently live onboard the ship) cast that was here ended their contract and the new cast came on the ship. This change involved 11 days and 11 nights of rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal. I barely saw my husband and he barely saw sleep. It has meant a ton of time in the theater for him, but Ron is a hard worker and is energized by being a part of this process. He is really loving his job. It is so nice to see my husband feeling confident and enjoying work again! The new cast consists of some of the nicest people we have met on ships so far. Both of us really like them a lot.

While Ron was busy working in the theater, I helped out the Shore Excursions team by going on two tours and writing up a little report. The first one was visiting the Embara Indian Village in Panama. This was not just a bunch of people hired to pretend to be Indians in a makeshift village one day. This was the real deal. We took a two hour bus ride to the far side of Gatun Lake, then a short hike to the shore where some of the Embara Tribe helped us into long canoes that had been made from hollowed out trees. We traveled about 15 minutes to their village where they welcomed us with their native music. They told us about their culture and how it has changed over the years. Then they served us lunch which consisted of red snapper from the lake and plantains followed by pineapple and guava. We had some free time to wander around the village and see their houses and school. Then the Indians performed some tribal dances for us. Then saw us back into our canoes and wished us farewell. It was a really cool experience!

The next day I finally got to understand why so many people rave about Costa Rica! I was able to go on a white water rafting trip and I can now say that I am a subscriber to the Pura Vida motto. WOW. Once you get off the roads in Costa Rica, everything changes. I need to get a waterproof camera so I can show you all how breathtaking this place is. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful and how much fun this trip was. The rapids were only class 2 and 3 so nothing too crazy, but just bumpy and challenging enough to be more fun than relaxing.

We haven’t been doing much of anything exciting on the ABC islands – otherwise known as Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. Mostly we just hop off the ship and stroll around town. Last week in Bonaire we came across a gelato shop called Gio’s that was unbelievably delicious. Gelato Paradiso of Newport Beach, CA should hang its head in shame. Just wow. We can’t wait to go back there. And the next day we got to hold a tiny monkey in Panama. SO cute! But seriously, that has been the highlight of our adventures the past couple weeks. You’d think we’d lead more exciting lives wouldn’t you?

Curcao

Bonaire

Panama

Ok, well I guess we do some fun things. This past week in Costa Rica we were able to join a crew tour to go zip lining! We have been wanting to do this for months! We jumped from perch to perch, sailing through the rain forest canopy, over lush vegetation, rivers and trails. It was a thrill! Our group of crew members cheered each other on as one by one we got the hang of the zip lines and we ended the day with plantain chips and Coke out of glass bottles. Such a fun day!

Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful aboard the Zuiderdam. It was a day like any other except that they served turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing for dinner. Ron and I talked a little about being thankful for the opportunity to work and travel with HAL, for our families and friends, and most of all for each other.

This second to last cruise has been uneventful so far. We had two sea days, then Puerto Limon where we battled some serious rain to just wander the cruise terminal for an hour and then came back on the ship and played in the pool all day. Then Panama Canal which we now find stunningly boring after seeing it so many times. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the gates open, we go in, we go up, the next gates open, we go in, we go up… ok. ok, we got it. Don’t roll your eyes at me. How many times a week do you pass a beautiful beach, the Hollywood sign, or Disneyland on your way to work and you don’t even notice? It’s all relative. And we’re back at sea today. The next few days we hope will be more exciting so we have something to blog about before we come home!

Panama

Half Moon Cay

And in the category of great news, we have another contract already! We will only have 7 weeks off before we head back to Fort Lauderdale to join the crew of the Noordam. We will revisit some of our favorite destinations from the Eurodam such as Grand Turk and Puerto Rico and we will add new ones to our growing list of Caribbean locales such as Martinique and St. Lucia. Then we will sail across the Atlantic, stopping at the Azores and ending at our new home port in Barcelona, Spain. From there we will spend a few months sailing around Europe! We couldn’t be more thrilled or feel more blessed.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we will be praying for you as we enter the Christmas season. We look forward to seeing you all very soon! Less than two more cruises left until we get off the ship and head to California! From there, we still haven’t confirmed plans for our 7 week vacation but we will certainly keep you posted.

The Beginning of the Caribbean Season

2011-10-23T19:58:00.000-04:00

If you’ve been following our blog, then you have seen pictures of Half Moon Cay already, so you have an idea of where we were a few days ago. For those of you who have not read that part of the blog, we’ll be sure to post some pictures in the weeks to come. We enjoyed a short day on our private island in the Bahamas. We relaxed in the sun and played in the water with our favorite ship friends (Ben from England, Angie from New Zealand, and Aislen from Ireland – we are an earful of accents when we’re all together) and jut enjoyed being somewhere familiar.

The next day we arrived in Fort Lauderdale and were most excited to have cell phone reception, check e-mails, and go grocery shopping. Living on a ship is awesome but you do miss the little every day things like running to the store on a whim.

Then we were back out at sea again for two days before arriving in Costa Rica. This time we had a chance to get out and explore a little bit. We were able to see the city (which is very much like every other Central American city – very poor and crowded) and then took a boat out on the canal to see if we could spot some wildlife. While it was too hot for the monkeys to come out, we did view a handful of other creatures.

Banana Tree

See that little vertical row of blotches? they're bats!

Shipwrecked boats

It's hard to see but that is a crocodile head popping out of the water right at the bank.

This is called a Jesus Christ Lizard because he runs so quickly that it looks like he's walking on the water.

Ron on the canal

A two Toed Sloth - So cute!

The next day we set off to the Panama Canal. Ron had a busy day in the theater and I escorted a tour out to Gatun Lake and the Gatun Locks. This time we didn’t see much wildlife but it was neat to see Panama.

We did get to hear two really funny comments that day though. One was from a commentator who was narrating our trip through the canal. She very solemnly noted that “without water, there would be no Panama Canal.” Umm… without water, I’m pretty sure the Panama Canal would be the very least of our concerns but I guess she is fundamentally correct.

The next occurred when I was on the eco-cruise and our tour guide pointed out an animal in a tall tree on an island in Gatun Lake. A guest excitedly asked “Is that a mountain lion?” A mountain lion? In a tree? In a rain forest? Really? I’m here to tell you that he was absolutely serious. We can’t make this stuff up folks.

Gatun Lake

Gatun Locks

An Old Mule - The machine, not me.

Another day at sea was followed by a very long day in Curacao. The crew gets really excited when we know we will be docked for over six hours and on Curacao day we were docked for 14 hours! Everyone had been making plans for time off for a week before we arrived. We had planned to go Ostrich riding (yeah, you read that correctly) but some of our friends’ work schedules got messed up and we had to cancel our reservations. But we plan to try again in a few weeks and we will video that endeavor for you. I’m certain it will be both terrifying and hilarious. Since we didn’t want to blow our ostrich riding budget on anything else, we just decided to wander the town. We crossed the pontoon bridge and strolled along the shop lined streets that reminded us a little of St. Thomas. Then we had lunch at this incredible Indian restaurant called Indi’s Spice Café where we split Chicken Tikka Masala and refreshed ourselves with some local beer. Amstel Bright is really good! We browsed a little while longer then headed back to the ship to cool off and grab dinner. Later we met up with some friends at the Soprano’s Piano Bar, then went back to the ship and played Bannanagrams (of course) until after midnight. We decided that we like Curacao overall but it is really expensive. We are glad this was our only long port there because it wouldn’t take much effort to blow the bank on that little island – yikes!

The picture on the label is of the background.

The Zuidy docked in Curacao

Our ship docks near Rif Fort which has been converted into a shopping center - of course.

Yesterday we were in Aruba. Sadly, we didn’t even get off the ship. I had raft drill which went long since we’re preparing for a Coast Guard Inspection and Ron had a high-maintenance guest entertainer who required a 2.5 hour sound check (which if you know anything about what a sound check should entail, you know that is just ridiculous). We were only docked for a short time so we didn’t even have a shot at just running into town to check it out. C’est la vie.

And off we sail away to Half Moon Cay again! We’re really enjoying our island this year. Ron has really great supervisors this contract and it makes our time off so much nicer than last time. We really get to enjoy the spectacular blue water, bright white sand and hours in the sunshine. Such a joy!

And that brings us to the end of this cruise!

Guatemala, Panama Canal, and Colombia

2011-10-11T18:57:00.000-04:00

First – The Shout Outs since there haven’t been any for far too long!

1 – Staci Piszyck is getting married! I’m so excited for you Stace and it makes me glad to see you so happy with Matt. Love you friend!

2 – Christy Searcy for being part Colombian and introducing us to that crazy Colombian licorice drink thing. Yikes.

3 – Kelly White for just being Kelly White. I love you and miss you intensely friend. I think I need to hug you soon.

Since we last updated you on our travels, we have experienced a few new places. This year we visited the other side of Guatemala. If you have read our previous blogs, you know we really enjoyed Guatemala last year. This time we stayed close to port and just spent a few hours wandering around a dockside market, lounging in a hammock strung up between palm trees, and sipping coconut water straight from the coconut. (Guatemala coconut water is so much better than Puerto Rico coconut water. Just in case you were wondering.)

At the market in Guatemala

We rode this very cool vintage bus through jungle to get to the market.

Life is just so hard.

Next was the Panama Canal. I think Ron and I had much higher hopes for the Canal and personally, I was a little disappointed. I thought it would be longer and that we’d be closer to the land where we could view wildlife and tropical forests. Not so. The Canal is probably fascinating to anyone who is rapt with engineering (I’m told that is was huge feat in the time it was built) and sure, it is interesting and I have an appreciation for its significance in our world but shoot, if I’m going to pay for a cruise I want to see pretty things! Perhaps my view was a little bit spoiled by the fact that I (along with many other crew and guests) got food poisoning (Seriously, all I have been eating is salad. Who gets poisoned by lettuce!?!) and I have been sick squared for a few days and spent most of the day in bed after struggling through viewing the locks after breakfast. Not to worry, we will cruise the Panama Canal several more times before the end of the contract.

Bridge of the Americas

The lock opening

Panama City

Yesterday was a stop in Cartagena, Colombia (say it with me: Car-teh-hay-nuh Co-low-m-bee-ah). We didn’t get much time off the ship due to meetings and bellyaches but from the little time we spent in port, we can’t wait to get back there! What a gorgeous place! We browsed through shops, sampled local beer (not wise on my part), picked up a bottle of some crazy licorice flavored liquor in honor of Christy Searcy, and got up close and personal with a handful of wild birds. These brightly colored parrots, toucans, and flamingos (Kristen, don’t tell Flemmingstone. I don’t want him to be jealous.) were everywhere! Back on the ship, we enjoyed dinner while the sun set over the city.

Colombian Beer - Meh.

Another Colombian Beer - Even more meh.

Cartegena Sunset

Now we have two days at sea and then we will be back in Half-Moon-Cay just like last contract. We are really excited to get a feeling of familiarity and routine between now and the end of the contract. While Ron is feeling underwhelmed at the prospect of yet another day at our private island, I am really excited to relax in the sand and stare out at all that beautiful blue Caribbean Sea. Life is good.

Ohhhh Mexico, Sounds So Simple, I Just Have To Go...

2011-10-06T00:29:00.000-04:00

Here are some things you need to know about the Zuiderdam.

1 – This ship totally rocks.

2 – It is pronounced Zigh-der-dam. Like “sigh.” Not Zwee-derdam or Zoo-derdam.

3 – The ships nicknames include: The Brokendam, The Black Pearl and The Zuidy.

4 – If you wear your bitchin new Sarah Palin “You Betcha We Can” shirt in the elevators when you run up to get a cup of tea before bed, you WILL be harassed for it. Especially by the crew. Especially by the Entertainment Crew.

5 – The giant statues of Polar Bears do not, in fact, get removed when Alaska season is over.

6 – Girls who need a lot attention enjoy displaying themselves on the faux sofa that is inexplicably part of the Aft Pool décor.

I would like to tell you what day we were where, but I actually have no idea what day it is. We refer to days in conjunction with the ports we are at. For example, today we were in Guatemala, so it is “ Guatemala Day.”

That being said, a few days ago we were in Cabo San Lucas. The tenders were painfully slow so crew wasn’t able to disembark until about three hours before All Aboard and we were delayed an hour due of Ron’s schedule so we really only had time to run off, grab a couple tacos, buy noisy toys for the Dice kids with the explicit purpose of tormenting their parents (if we ever have children, we are so in for it because I’m pretty sure Ben & Kristen will buy them a drum set at this point), and then ran back to the ship. We had our tacos at Captain Tony’s and (we’re aware that this is sad) we decided that Wahoo’s is better. Also, El Torito has better guacamole. Sorry Captain Tony but the Cal-exicans totally have you beat. We did have fun though!

After that was Puerto Vallarta day. We had a crew boat drill in the morning and then Ron had a lame work schedule (his supervisor is on board) and we only had a few hours then too. We went out, got lost, got really, really hot (its 95 degrees in October. Holy smokes Mexico!), got frustrated and got back on the ship and played Bannanagrams in the Air-Conditioned Lido. Ron was a little disappointed but I was indifferent. Jaded already? Maybe. I’m just ready for some blue water beaches and less walking around in heat and humidity!

Our only picture of PV

Then we had a sea day which I’ve decided I like this time around because I now use my sea-day free time to exercise compulsively and read my snazzy new study bible. This contract also allows Ron more free time on sea days also so we enjoy spending our afternoons together.

Oh and Ron will kill me if I forget to mention that I have seen a whale (in Alaska) and three schools of dolphins since we’ve been on the ship! I wish I had pictures but every time I have seen them I’ve been out for a run and didn’t have my camera. But oh my goodness, they were so fun! The dolphins like to play in the wake of the ship. Just the cutest darn thing you can imagine!

Yesterday we were in Hualtuco where Ron had In Port Manning (IPM). I was able to join a crew tour and go river rafting with some of our crew. We drove in an open air off road truck a la Disney’s Indiana Jones attraction to the Copalita River where we jumped in a raft with a guide and set sail down some class 1 and 2 rapids. We had so much fun jumping in the river, pushing each other overboard (I was fully clothed right down to my hiking shoes), and splashing the occupants of the other rafts with our paddles. This is probably the most fun I’ve had on excursion in all of our time on ships.

After the rafting adventure, we all headed over to a beach front restaurant for snacks and drinks. There is something to be said for having nachos, salsa and a to-die-for margarita on a Mexican beach. Totally worth every calorie.

Today we were in Puerto Chiapas. We were really excited to see Mayan ruins (if you’ve been following our blog, then you know that I have been absolutely dying to climb up a Mayan pyramid for years and years) but discovered that the ruins near our port consisted of a hole in the ground and not much more. Disappointed we intended to take a shuttle into town with some other crew members only to discover that the shuttles were sold out and the three cabs on duty were booked solid all day. So we sat by the beach and ate more nachos (not quite as worth the calories the second time around) and then browsed in the local shops. We did find some interesting chocolate made from only cacao, sugar, and cinnamon. So delicious. I’m trying to save some to share with you when we come home (PA? CA? Who knows!) but I’m not sure it’s going to last.

Later in the evening we met up with our Cruise Director, Shane (who is a fantastic CD!) for nachos and idle chatter. It started raining and we got bit up by the mosquitoes. I have over 20 bites on just one leg!

And that concludes our time in Mexico. I think my favorite of all the ports was Huatulco. The water is such a beautiful color of bright sandy blue and the hills are lush with vegetation. The locals were very nice and the whole area has a wonderful relaxed feeling that is clean and comfortable. I would definitely visit for a vacation.

That’s all for now. Adios Mexico!

Never A Dull Moment

2011-09-28T16:27:00.000-04:00

We haven’t been keeping up on our blog lately and it isn’t because we have any shortage of things to write about but rather that there has been so much change in our lives that we would have had to update every five minutes to keep you in the loop! I truly do not know how to shorten the details of the last few months of our lives and quite frankly, I’d rather forget they ever happened anyhow, so lets skip to the good stuff shall we?

For those of you who are confused about how we ended up back on a ship and will insit on asking a zillion questions (bu bu bu but what about all the moral depravity of ship life? An an an an and didn’t you guys want to move back to Pennsylvania? Oh, and didn’t Kelly have a job at a seminary for like a second? Uh don’t you think you should settle down? Are are are aren’t you going to have kids?), this is for you: God’s plans got in the way of our plans and well, here we are. Enough said.

Sailing on the ms Zuiderdam has been a remarkably different experience from the Eurodam. We won’t get into the details about why exactly, but just know that we are both very happy with this new contract. It’s awesome! We feel totally blessed to be here.

Ron left for the ship two weeks ahead of me and I embarked for the last run of the Alaska season. We sailed out of Vancouver, BC, a day at sea, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay scenic cruising, Ketchikan, day at sea, and back to Vancouver. This was the last week in the Alaska season so it was cold and we had high seas any time we were not sheltered by land on both sides. Much of the crew was sea sick so you might imagine that the guests were in bad shape.

In Juneau, we took a shuttle around town, past the Governor’s Mansion and other local iconic sights to the Alaskan Brewing Company which brews the very popular Alaskan Amber as well as other micro-brew varieties. We enjoyed free samples and a tour of the facilities and while we enjoyed the beer, we agreed that we haven’t found anything as yummy as The Breuery. We might be ruined for life!

The next day found us in Skagway which we liked better than Juneau. Skagway is a very cute and tiny town with plenty of charm. We had lunch and wandered in an out of the shops until we got too cold.

Here are a few pictures of our scenic cruising and our ports of call.

Ron and his "Duck Fart" shot at The Red Door Saloon.

Alaska is cold and I packed for Panama heat. Good thing Dam sweatshirts were on sale!

That is a snow plow on the front of that train. Can you imagine? That pink box Ron is holding contains cupcakes from Sugar Mama's - the crew's favorite Alaska treat.

The following day was scenic cruising which is a sea day with the added bonus of stuff to see from the decks. We cruised through Glacier Bay National Park where we got to view glaciers from a short distance. Marjorie Glacier is the largest of the three we saw and truly the most spectacular. It really is as blue as it looks in the pictures below. That's because the red part of white light is absorbed by ice and the blue light is transmitted and scattered. The Longer the path light travels in ice, the more blue it becomes.

We were even lucky enough to see it calving twice as we watched from the deck. Calving is the term used for a chunk of ice falling off of the glacier. If you look closely at the picture below you might be able to see that I captured a chunk of ice falling off into the water.

Ketchikan was our last stop in Alaska. It rains over 300 days every year. We were lucky to happen upon a relatively nice day in Ketchikan as it sprinkled off and on and the sun hesitantly peeked out from behind the clouds for a few minutes. We took a Trolley Ride around town which included a stop to see these totems.

Such a cute little town!

We ended up at Creek Street which is a darling little village with a seedy history of being a red light district.

From there we wandered around town and stopped to goof around a little before heading back to the ship.

We agree that while we’re glad to have had the opportunity to see Alaska, we wouldn’t want to spend an entire 16-week contract there. It’s very cold and gloomy and we much prefer sunshine over rain.

After another evening of “high seas,” we arrived back in Vancouver, BC on Saturday. We had the opportunity to wander around the Gaslight District which is beautiful and full of fun shops and restaurants.

The Gaslight District in Vancouver

Chinatown in Vancouver

We really enjoyed seeing the Gastown Steam Clock. The clock covers a grate in the sidewalk and uses the steam coming up through it to power the clock. Every fifteen minutes it whistles a steam powered tune.

The following day we were scheduled to dock in Astoria,Oregon which we were looking forward to because some of the film The Goonies was filmed there and really, who doesn’t just totally love that movie? But the wind conditions prevented us from sailing in and instead we have enjoyed (read: endured) three days at sea. Thankfully the sun has been out and the decks have finally dried out from the months of endless Alaskan rain so I have been able to run every day and Ron and I get to enjoy our after dinner ritual of watching the sun set with our respective cups of coffee and tea in hand.

Today we are in San Diego which we think is really weird because we’re so close to home. We're enjoying a beautiful sunny Southern California day today and are excited to sail off to Mexico tonight! See you all in Cabo!

Camp Across America - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania

2011-06-16T19:48:00.001-04:00

The next leg of our "Camp Across America" Road Trip brought us from Minnesota through Wisconsin to Illinois. We found some of the BEST stuff in Minnesota and we were surprised at how beautiful it is there!

About half-way through the state, in Blue Earth, Minnesota, we came cross a 55 foot tall statue of the Green Giant!

If you thought a giant, giant was cool, you are in for a treat with the Spam Museum in Austin, MN! It may surprise you to know that neither of us have every actually tried SPAM and even after visiting the museum, we're not sure we will be brave enough to pull the trigger on that one. We did love the museum though!

Spammy!

Ron was able to try his hand at the SPAM assembly line. He filled and labeled a fake can of SPAM while wearing the assembly worker's uniform.

A few hours later, we arrived in Wisconsin. We are sad to report that we did not take the opportunity to sample any Wisconsin cheese. I don't know what we were thinking!

We did however stop to get gas right near this awesome pink elephant.

That night we camped at the Adeline Jay Geo Karis Illinois Beach. Our campsite was just a short walk away from the shore. It was pretty deserted and pretty chilly so we didn't take the opportunity to jump in the water but Kelly skipped rocks at sunset and we both enjoyed burying our toes in the smooth pebbled sand.

The next day we detoured a little bit back to Pleasant Prairie, WI to check out the Jelly Belly Factory. We were told not to take pictures during the tour and we were disappointed to miss photo-ops with giant beans and pictures made of tons and tons of Jelly Bellies. As you can see below, the entire tour was conducted on a little train!

As we traveled through Chicago, Kelly fell asleep in the car for the first time during the whole trip. She wasn't too disappointed when she woke up because she was born not far from Chicago and has visited the Windy City before. We discovered later that night that she had a fever, and when we both started sneezing, we were glad we only had one more day left on our trip. But stuff heads didn't keep us from enjoying this Chicago gem!

Superdawg!

This Chicago legend did not disappoint! Ron had a Superdawg with fries and Kelly had a Supercheesie with fries. Both came with delicious hot peppers and a pickled green tomato that was to die for!

We did have to miss out on White Castle for this experience and Kelly still isn't convinced that we shouldn't have spend an extra day in the mid-west just to stop for those little steamed burgers, but we guess that will just give us a reason to head back soon!

Another highlight of this day was driving through Chesterton, Indiana and the house where Kelly spent the first 2 years of her life. Chesterton is a cute little town with big yards and lots of trees. Much of Kelly's family is still there but having lived in California for the vast majority of her life, she doesn't know her family well and we weren't able to stop in.

That night found us camped out in a funny little campground in Ohio. I wish we were feeling well enough to take pictures of this place! We stayed at the Leafy Oaks campground where the owners were kind enough to upgrade our tent site to a nice spot by the lake. We were the only tent campers in a large land of mobile homes and permanent RV campers. Lets just say that Flemming Goh felt right at home here.

The morning came and we headed out in a hurry after showers that may have made us dirtier than we were before and that evening we arrived at the Dice house in Strasburg, Pennsylvania!

Home Sweet Home

...Sort of...

Camp Across America - South Dakota & Minnesota

2011-05-30T22:27:00.000-04:00

The last two days were absolutely awful in regards to the weather. So much for camping - we had to stay at a KOA Kabin the last two nights due to RAIN, RAIN, RAIN. And on top of all the rain, it was also very cold! We were not sure what to make of all this cold and gloom seeing as it is Memorial Day weekend!

Sunday we ventured out of the campsite to try and see Mount Rushmore. It was so dense with fog that we decided to skip it and see the Crazy Horse Memorial instead. Ron was fairly interested in it although he said that he would have more interest if it was anywhere near complete after 63 years. Yes, that's right. it has been in progress for 63 years and only the face has been completed. While some might say that this is because the "artist" and his family have not accepted government funding for the project, we learned that many famous memorial and monuments were completed in less time on mostly or entirely private funding, not withstanding Mount Rushmore itself. That being said, Kelly could not have been less impressed by the Crazy Horse Memorial.

This is what the memorial is supposed to look like.

This is what it actually looks like.

Another reason Kelly may have been so disinterested in the memorial could have been the cold. She was not amused by the mounds of snow she found lying about.

Today we found a very brief break in the crappy weather and hustled up to Mount Rushmore to see if we could get a glimpse of the great faces before the fog consumed them again. We were in luck! We got this great shot from the main observation deck.

Kelly is always happy to visit places honoring our forefathers....and Teddy Roosevelt.... who she's sure was also a very good president.... we guess....

And then we were on our way. Our first point of interest on today's journey was Wall Drug which was a stop recommended by Kelly's brother who had been by it before. We were entertained for miles before reaching the destination with many, many, many, many, many signs and billboards along the highway. We were so not disappointed with all the hype!

There were so many interesting statues that we were compelled to jump in and pose with a few.

Plenty of oddities to see as well...

One of Wall Drug's claims to fame is their "Free Ice Water" advertised never subtly on signs and billboards galore! Kelly, being an avid water drinker (can you be avid at water drinking?) filled up.

Another fun moment was watching this T-Rex come to life and scare the crap out of any small children nearby. It was hard to to laugh at their terrified shrieks.

We also tried our hands at the shooting range. Kelly's dad would be proud of her gunslinging skills!

Down the road some more in Mitchell, South Dakota was the Corn Palace!

Here is Ron with "Cornelius."

The Corn Palace changes the outside of the building by making murals out of corn. You can see the many different looks the building has had over the years by clicking the link above. Currently it portrays an "American Pride" theme.

The Corn Palace is a little underwhelming inside unless you have a very keen interest in Corn and/or the history of roadside attractions in Mitchell, SD. The best part of the detour was scoring free corn balls by checking in on Foursquare!

We finally arrived in Minnesota just a few hours ago. It is extremely windy here and we're expecting thunderstorms.... which means we're in a KOA Kabin again tonight. We're very nervous about the upcoming weather as we head into Illinois, so please keep us in your prayers as we travel over the next few days.

Camp Across America - Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota

2011-05-29T12:39:00.002-04:00

Departing from Bryce Canyon our route took us through Colorado and swept through the bottom of Utah, the top of Arizona, and a corner of New Mexico. This was one of the most beautiful and scenic drives we have taken and Kelly had to restrain herself from jumping out of the car every few miles to snap pictures of the gorgeous views.

In Southern Utah we ran across the Thunderbird Restaurant which is the "Home of Ho-Made Pies." We were amused.

Southern Utah had some beautiful rock formations.

After much driving we came to the Four Corners Monument which we learned is in Navajo Territory. To get in you have to pay $3 a person which made us grumpy because all you can do is take a picture and say "yup, there it is." Also the whole area is surrounded in Navajo vendors which made it feel like a swap meet so that made the $3 seem even sillier. Yes we know it's only $3, Kelly says "It's not the money, it's the principle!"

We then arrived at what is currently our favorite campsite of our trip so far. Mesa Verde National Park has been highlight in so many ways.

Here are some pictures of our campsite. We love making smore's and roasting hot dogs (Ok, they were really chicken and apple sausages, but the concept is the same) over the campfire!

The following day was full of education and activity. Mesa Verde is known for the Cliff Dwellings of the Anasazi people also known as Ancestral Puebloans. It was really neat to see this snap shot of history. The National Park Service gave us a tour and an overview of the cliff dwellings and the people who lived there. We learned that ever since local cowboys first reported the cliff dwellings in the 1880s, archeologists have sought to understand these people’s lives. But despite decades of excavation, analysis, classification, and comparison, scientific knowledge remains sketchy. The Anasazi people left no written records for us to learn from. What we do know is that the people were adept at building, artistic in their crafts such as basket making, and skillful traders and tool makers. Shown below is the Cliff Palace, which you may have seen in your history books. Look familiar?

On our tour we were able to climb ladders out of the cliff dwellings just like the Anasazi did.

Once our tour was done we went on a hike to see some petroglyphs. Both of us have always enjoyed hiking, but Kelly really fell in love with this hike in particular. It wound us through so many unique rock formations and led us to beautiful views. Below is one of the narrow passages between rocks that we had to navigate to complete the hike.

She couldn't help herself!

One of the big payoffs of the hike was the section of Petroglyphs.

Our hike ended with some beautiful views.

Since Kelly was not much of a camper prior to the last few years, she has not experienced much wildlife. She was so excited to see the deer that would come right into the campsites to graze. They were abundant and seemed unaffected by the campers with which they shared their homes.

After two nights in Mesa Verde we continued on to our next stop of Colorado Springs, CO. We stayed at the Colorado Springs KOA which has been our least favorite campsite... ever. The campsite itself was very nice and the facilities included a large store and offered many activities such as cornholing and an ice cream social . The problems we encountered were as follows:

1)We were given a campsite right next to the restroom facilities as was stated in our reservation. This is generally a good thing. However, the reservation did not specify that they would be open and available for use, and they were not. They were in fact, under construction. Which meant a short drive was in order if we needed to use the restroom during the night.

2) The location we were given was also right next to some train tracks and the trains run ALL NIGHT LONG. It was not just the gentle chugging of a train in a distance, oh no. It was the roar of a nearby train and along with it, the VERY LOUD blaring of a train whistle approximately once an hour.

3) Despite there being many, many more campsites available, they placed us directly across from a family of six who, at 4:30 AM, decided to get up, laugh, sing, and talk for about an hour before going back to sleep. (Kelly wakes up early and around 6:30AM, decided it was payback time in the form of pan clanging and car door slamming. Don't mess with her sleep. Kelly will shank you.)

4)The very unfriendly ladies in the camp store passive aggressively and loudly talked about how they were trying to close when we walked in about 40 minutes before the store's posted closing hours. Then they told us that we should not go to our current KOA in South Dakota because it was flooded (it is not) and they were sending people from here to there (3 states and over 6 hours away). We checked with the SD KOA and they were perplexed as to why anyone would say such a thing. Your plan was foiled you mean Colorado Springs KOA Lady! We got here and we like it better!

Below is our noisy campsite.

The following day was much better. We started off by visiting Golden, Colorado. Kelly fell in love with the town and said it might be the only place in all of Colorado she would consider living. It has shops and restaurants and all kinds of local color.

It also has the Coors Brewing Company, where we took the time to take an awesome, free tour.

At the end of the tour, they allowed us three free samples of Coors Beer. We really enjoyed the Batch 19 ale which is a 91-year-old, authentic pre-Prohibition recipe. Starting this May, Batch 19 Pre-Prohibition Style Lager will be available on draft in limited quantities and in select locations in Chicago, San Francisco, San Jose, Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee.

Then we visited the gift shop and tried on some fun beer gear!

We put our next destination in South Dakota in our GPS and it quoted us about 4 hours. About 3 hours later we arrived in Wyoming and re-entered our destination and the GPS quoted us 2 more hours, so off we went.

And we went, and we went, and we went. And somewhere along the way we reentered our destination in our GPS and it quoted us another two hours....

Two hours later we arrived in South Dakota.

We entered our destination in our GPS again and it quoted us another tow hours.... we were pretty sure we entered the Twilight Zone but it took us a little less than two hours before we finally reached our home for two days: Custer, South Dakota!

Camp Across America - Utah

2011-05-25T00:39:00.007-04:00

And thus another road trip adventure begins.

Our first stop for the night would be at Snow Canyon State Park in Utah but of course we are road trip experts and so we found many fun spots along the way.

Anyone who has driven from Southern California to Las Vegas has at least seen, if not stopped at, the World's Largest Thermometer.

At this time the thermometer is sadly in need of some electrical repair as most of the numbers weren't lighting up. In the "news to us" department: the thermometer is now part of a Bob's Big Boy.

Across from the thermometer is the Mad Greek which Kelly had been to but Ron had not. We had to stop and split a gyro. Delicious!

Shortly after Baker we arrived in Nevada!

Kelly has been to Vegas about a million times (in her 20's) and yet had never seen the Las Vegas sign. Why had she not seen it? The world may never know.

Taking the I-15 for most of the trip meant a short time in Nevada and an even shorter time in Arizona which meant we were soon in Utah!

As was mentioned before, we stayed at the beautiful Snow Canyon State Park. Here is a view from our campsite.

Ron prepping for dinner (ok Kelly cooked but Ron made the fire!)

Our tent and the official Morrissette Camping Flamingo!

Now it should be said that Kelly has camped on two separate occasions and one time it rained. Our first night of camp across America, however, easily put that previous rain night to shame. It rained, and was windy, and rained, and was even more windy, and thundered, and lightninged (is that a word?), and everything rainy nastiness you could imagine. Kelly was fearful the tent would blow away and carry the Morrissettes straight back to California. She was, in all honesty, a real trooper and Ron is very proud.

Day two started with a somber stop at the Mountain Meadows Massacre site. This site is off of highway 18 and was difficult to find.

Very briefly: Some of Kelly's (who's maiden name is Fancher) ancestors were in a wagon train from Arkansas to California lead by Capt. Alexander Fancher. When they reached Utah a group of Mormon's slaughtered members of the wagon train, at point blank range, including many women and children. To get more of the full story you can check out these links:

Mountain Meadows Massacre Wikipedia Site

1857 Massacre Site

Youtube Video (also posted on the 1857 site)

You can also see the movie September Dawn, starring Jon Voight

The LDS version of the story

Our next stop was Bryce Canyon National Park.

Enroute to the Park

This photo is just for Donna (Kelly's Mom)

Currently we're crashed out in a KOA Kabin hiding from the elements. More to come...

Good-Bye California, Hello Road Trip #3

2011-05-21T14:10:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard by now, we have made some decisions about what is next for us. We are pretty sure that we will not be returning to cruise ship life (a value discrepancy not being the least of our reasons) and after plenty of prayer and careful consideration, we have decided to return to Pennsylvania. We're hoping to plant roots and finally stay put for a while.

Since our car is here in California, we will need to drive back across the country...again. At first neither of us were excited at the prospect of another long road trip, but as we tossed ideas around about how to circumvent the long drive, Kelly thought of camping across the US to make it a little more interesting... yes, Kelly thought of that idea. Those of you who have known her a while, know that camping, roughing it, dirt, public facilities and such are about as far from ideal as she can get. But because she had so much fun camping with the Dice Family the last two summers, she thinks she can handle a 10 day progressive camping trip. We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, the last couple weeks have been pretty uneventful here in California. We've spent a lot of time getting ready for our upcoming trip and enjoying all that California has to offer such as In N Out, Mexican Food, Del Taco, beautiful weather for walks around Eastlake Village, and of course spending time with our California friends...

Including Meeka. We love this silly dog!

Last Saturday we attended a Dog Graduation at Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) in Oceanside. CCI provides highly-trained assistance dogs for children and adults with disabilities, free of charge. Mike & Donna have been involved in the organization for a few years now.

You may already know that they have raised one dog, Harbor, for the program but unfortunately, Harbor developed an anxiety disorder and was released back to Mike & Donna. Currently, the Fancher's puppy-sit for puppy raisers while they are on vacations or out of town.

Donna and Kelly showing off their CCI tattoos.

A brand new CCI puppy in training!

A working dog.

And a working dog, working!

Beer tasting is a hobby that we picked up while working on the Eurodam. We especially love local and micro-brews and when we ran across The Bruery when we were in Old Town Orange, we had to stop in and see what it was all about. We had a beer flight of 5 different beers for only $3! We enjoyed the experience so much, we decided to check out the original store in Placentia. Seriously Californians, if you have not been to this place yet, you need to check it out. Not only is the beer super delicious, the atmosphere is really cool. They basically just set up a few tables and chairs in the warehouse and serve beer from 4pm to closing. Food trucks come by and park just outside the door in case you need a snack. They also sell growlers and large bottles of beer to bring home. Oh, and they have a "Brue it Forward" program where you can buy a beer for a friend who isn't there with you and the next time they come in, their name will be on a chalkboard and they get their beer! Feel free to stop in and "Brue it Forward" for us next time we come out to visit!

That's all for now folks! Make sure to keep up on the blog in the coming weeks to see our Camp Across America adventure! We're taking a new route and there is plenty of fun in store! That is of course, if we're not raptured tonight at 6pm....

New Design - May 2011

2011-05-10T20:27:00.002-04:00

We're trying something new as far as our blog design goes. What do you think?

Waiting It Out On The West Coast

2011-05-03T17:28:00.013-04:00

While we are waiting to see what will happen next in our lives, we are spending a few weeks in California. Mostly, we have been planning out what our next move will be and laying low in Yorba Linda.

One night we met Meredith, Rianna, and Barney at Mikey's Pizza where we enjoyed time catching up.

Meredith showing off her new additions to her shot glass collection

Rianna liked the iguana pencil we brought back from St. Thomas

Breaking in Mer's new shot glasses!

Catching up with friends is the best!

One things we really love when visiting California is the chance to go to service at Mariner's Church. Church is the one thing we really miss in Pennsylvania (and on the ship for that matter!). We just haven't been able to find a speaking pastor to whom we connect like we do with Kenton.

One Sunday after church we met Steve, Nalaina and Zaida at the Orange County Great Park for an afternoon of sunshine and strolling through the Farmer's Market. We really enjoyed seeing the park and will look forward to visiting it as it grows over the years.

Zaida says that this is the GIRLS Castle and there are no boys allowed!

You can't beat California fruits and veggies!

Someone was getting ready for an afternoon nap.

We love spending time with the Harper Family. Kelly met Steve when she worked at Mariner's several years ago and when Zaida was born she spent a lot of time baby-sitting for her favorite "Peanut." It has been nice growing our friendship with Steve & Nalaina and we wish we could live closer.

If you know the Fancher Family, then you know that Donna especially loves dogs. Ever since they got their first Golden Retriever puppy in 1984, Donna has celebrated Dog Birthdays with all the fun and merriment of People Birthdays. Since Meeka and Harbor were both born in late April, we celebrated them with treats from the Dog Bakery (no, I'm not kidding) and presents that they get to open themselves. They seem to enjoy the treats and toys even if they have no idea why they're getting them.

Happy Birthday Puppies!

Before we moved to Pennsylvania, Ron had regularly MC'ed at the Etc. Stage for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Once we moved, he passed the baton to Curtis Andersn (a friend that Kelly knew as a child and Ron met before meeting Kelly at Disney). This year Curtis was going to be out of town for the Festival which just happened to be occurring during our visit to California, and so Ron was able to fill in for him.

Ron introducing the first group of the weekend.

2011 Festival of Books

Kelly, being an avid reader, loves the Festival of Books and enjoys these weekends tremendously. This year, she found the reading room in the Doheny Memorial Library on USC's campus and curled up in a chair near a window overlooking the bustle of the festival and read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn which she has never read before and is thinking might end up being a new all time favorite.

Ron's Dad came down on Saturday and got to spend just a little time catching up. Since we're in the great limbo of "where are we going next and how long are we here?" we haven't been able to travel around to visit Ron's family yet. Ron's Dad got to enjoy an adventure courtesy of the Los Angeles Metro system which decided to close routes and make things a little more hectic than usual.

Kelly also spent time with Megan Galligan and her boyfriend Richard Lorenz on Sunday when the two UCLA students made their way to the enemy territory of USC just to visit us. They spent some time wandering the book fair and then we all went to El Cholo for some yummy Mexican food.

The previous day, Kelly's friend Jen Wade came to visit her at the festival and they were both really excited to see Jillian Michaels speak. Jen watches The Biggest Loser and while Kelly hasn't seen much of that show, she enjoys Jillian's workout videos and the show Losing It that Jillian hosted a few years back.

Jen with Jillian in the background

The interviewer, Jillian's mom who was answering a therapy based question (she's a clinician), and Jillian

Also on Saturday, a flash mob appeared in the USC courtyard near Ron's stage. It wasn't a very good one and we were a little disappointed with the boring choreography and small group that joined in... c'mon people! This is LA. If you're going to flash mob, you have to go big!

The boring flash mob

One of the highlights of our time in LA was a stop at Phillippe's for French Dips (double dipped please) with hot mustard (at least for Kelly), coleslaw, and custard. So good! You just can't beat this iconic Los Angeles establishment... even if it is overcrowded now since all the television publicity it has received.

YUM!!!

Now, we are waiting on a few more details to fall into place and we'll be off to our next destination. We'll keep you posted on what's next!

A Week In Pennsylvania

2011-04-19T11:52:00.002-04:00

On April 2nd, we left the ship in the morning and went to our respective airports since Holland America flew us separately. Kelly had a HORRIBLE flight full of turbulence and was terrified to fly again, especially since the news was peppered with stories of faulty Southwest planes. She was relieved when she landed and was picked up by the Dice Family and even more-so when Ron's flight landed and we were all piled in a van together.

After a quick dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery at King of Prussia Mall, we headed to the Dice's house to settle in. We were met with the best welcome home ever! The kids had made a really cute sign for us, complete with drawings and hand-prints.

Most of our time was spent visiting with the Dice Family. Kristen and Kelly were happy to be reunited in the kitchen. They love to cook together and and try out new recipes and creative ideas. One night we decided to bring Puerto Rico to Strasburg and the girls tried to recreate our favorite Tuesday night dinner - Mofongo! It was pretty successful but we forgot to take pictures of our cultural confection! Maybe next time. During the week we also made stuffed steak, a couple of Kelly's super yummy salads with homemade salad dressing, and enchiladas.

We also enjoyed playing with the kids. Kelly nicknamed Emma, "Eminem" a few years ago, and while Emma thinks she's named after one of her favorite chocolate candies, Kelly occasionally teases her and calls her "Slim Shady." Below is Emma's reaction to that. What a ham!

This has been Hannah's first year in school and we enjoyed meeting her at the bus stop and hearing her chatter on about her day. We are especially amused that despite the constant chatter, if you ask her directly what she learned at school today, she'll get quiet and say "nothing." Classic kid behavior.

We celebrated our anniversary on April 5th. We started a tradition on year one that we would eat a cheeseburger every year on our anniversary partially because we are always on a budget and partially so we could take the pressure off of celebrating on the "day of." This year we chose the brand new Lancaster Red Robin which had opened only the day before. The Dice's joined us for burgers, root beer floats (one of which ended up mostly ON Ron and Emma instead of IN them), fries, balloons and a visit from a very attentive "Red."

The girls really enjoyed their balloons!

In regards to the picture below, Kelly is appalled that the only one they have of one of us with Grayson is one with Ron holding him. Kelly and Grayson enjoy each other a lot. He loves to smile and giggle at her. Cute, cute baby!

One day toward the end of our visit, Kristen took us to Dude with the Food - a food truck on a corner down the road. She LOVES the Beer Can Chicken and since she had been raving about it since last year, Ron and I split an order of it too. It was delicious and though we both ate until we were ready to pop, there was a lot left over. It was a nice day, so we were able to eat outside... but having just come from six months in the Caribbean, we were still pretty darn cold in 72 degree weather!

After lunch, we shuffled right next door to Java Junction where Ron got a chocolate banana cupcake with peanut butter frosting that was amazing, and Emma got a Red Velvet cupcake. The kid loves anything Red Velvet! She gave it a thumbs up.

Also during our visit we got together with a group of people from Sight & Sound for a lunch at Olive Garden. It was last minute and about 20 people still showed up to say hello. It was so nice for us to see so many of our favorite people who we have missed over the last six months. It struck us that even at the last minute, so many of our PA friends came out to see us while in contrast, we had to cancel an event in California that we had been planning for a month because nobody could make time to come and visit due to their busy schedules. This served to remind us how much we value our PA friends and the kind of relationships we developed during our two years in Amish Country. All of which has served as a catalyst for a desire to return to our Lancaster home.

We also got to see Joseph at Sight & Sound (Shout out to Zach Cameron) with Hannah & Emma. Afterwards Ron was able to visit with some of the people who weren't able to make it to lunch a few days before. We wish we could have seen everyone we wanted to see and spend time with in PA and appreciated the endless stream of invites and requests for time together and we look forward to returning soon to see you all!

Finally it was time to head off to California, and we reluctantly headed to the airport. Thankfully we were able to change our tickets and fly together this time. Kelly is still not a fan of flying (which we think is strange because she has always enjoyed air travel in the past) and she wasn't too happy about the amount of turbulence out of Denver. But in the end, we made it to Orange County safely.

We're sure there will be plenty to blog about in the upcoming weeks. Meanwhile, keep us in your prayers as we wait to find out what our next adventure will be!

The Home Stretch

2011-04-05T08:24:00.001-04:00

After Mike and Donna left, we had about a month left of our contract which seemed like both a very long time and a very short time. We made the most out of the time we had left by going on a few excursions, trying new things, and enjoying simple pleasures like watching the sun set after dinner most night on the deck chairs outside with a cup of coffee or tea in hand.

One of our favorite activities in the last few weeks was hiking in El Yunque rain forest in Puerto Rico. El Yunque is about an hour drive from the ship. We were dropped off at the beginning of a trail and after a two hour hike through lush trees and waterfalls, we were picked up on the other end. We would like to note that it does in fact, rain in the rain forest. This is something that people regularly complain that they didn’t know about after going on this excursion. Really? Kelly thinks that’s as hilarious as when she hosted the gangway and people would ask her “Do I need a towel today?” Her response was to shoot them a quizzical look and ask, “Well, are you going to get wet?” Use your noggins folks. Anyhow, here’s a few pictures of this beautiful hike.

Pretty huh? One interesting fact about El Yunque is that it is up for nomination as one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World." It is a pretty amazing place!

One day we decided to check out bikes from the crew office and ride around Grand Turk. We enjoyed a several mile ride to town where we sampled Goombay Punch, and poked around in some of the shops. We also stopped at Her Majesty’s Prison in hopes of a tour but it was closed that day.

Most of our days involved tying up loose ends, enjoying our favorite foods and activities from the last six months, making plans for our time off, packing and saying good-bye.

It has been a really interesting experience living and working on a cruise ship. We’re glad we did it and are looking forward to another contract or two at most. It has given us a chance to see some of the world we would not have otherwise seen either by choice or by inaccessibility and we look forward to seeing more of it in our next ports of call.

And while we wait to hear more on what’s next, we are really enjoying our time on land. Right now we’re in Pennsylvania visiting our friends. We have both been surprised by how much PA feels like home. Having this time away seems to have encouraged our hearts to grow fonder of our first home away from home and we’re hoping that we’ll be able to move back here once our time at sea comes to a close.

Later this week, we’re flying off to California to visit our West Coast friends and family. We’ll keep you posted on all of our visits and time off adventures.

The Fanchers Do The Carribean

2011-03-29T15:48:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago Kelly’s parents, Mike and Donna, joined us for a week on the Eurodam.

We started the week by enjoying a full day in the sun at Margaritavlle on Grand Turk where we lounged around, played in the pool, and made good use of the swim-up bar.

The next day, we were excited to show off Puerto Rico since it is our favorite stop on the itinerary. Our first stop was Don Q distillery where we sampled Puerto Rican Rum.

We now have a new favorite brand of rum since Don Q is both smooth and inexpensive. Mike and Donna even bought a bottle to bring home with them since we’re not sure if it can be found on the mainland.

Mike Enjoying an itty-bitty Pina Cola

Later, Kelly enjoyed showing her parents around Forts San Cristobal and El Morro

San Cristobal with the Eurodam in the background

El Morro

Of course we took them to our favorite local dinner location – El Jibarito – where we always have great service, awesome food (the garlic sauce is seriously legendary), and a serenade from the roaming guitar player. Donna had been wanting a Mojito so we took them to Punto de Vista where the mojito’s are 2-for-1. Punto De Vista has become another favorite of ours because the owner, Michael, is very nice and cracks us up because he wanders the streets in a jester hat announcing the dollar Heineken and 2-for-1 mojito specials as the cruise ships disembark.

St. Thomas the following day was typically mundane as there is little to do there besides shopping. We wandered the streets for a while, Donna investigated cameras and clothing, and Mike checked out the new Rolex’s (of course the one he liked best is exactly like the one he already owns. No matter how much he argues that fact, it’s true). Once the short shopping expedition had ended we went to lunch at Cuzzin’s because it had local food, was off the beaten path and came highly recommended. Not only was it really expensive for lunch, but the service was bad and the food was appallingly uninspired. I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be going back there again. The best place to eat in tourist-town Charlotte Amalie is Al’s Café – the little hole in the wall we went to a few months back.

Once we took a cab back towards the ship, we decided to extend the day a little more by walking over to Tickles – a nice open air bar and restaurant that overlooks the yacht harbor. We all enjoyed two drinks apiece and while we can’t speak for Mike and Donna, Kelly had a headache and needed a nap directly after. Ron only had beer so he got off easy. Tickles is serious about its mixology.

The next day at sea was relaxing and fun. Mike and Donna lied out during the morning and then went on the VIP ship tour in the afternoon. They were able to see the stage, the laundry room, the engine room, the galley, the store room, and the bridge.

Mike was most excited to see the bridge and talk to the Captain. Even though we teased him about telling so many stories about his “navy days”, it was nice to see him reliving memories and having fun learning about the ship. Donna was surprised at how interesting the tour was for her. She had imagined a lot of mundane details but was pleased to learn that there were plenty of sights and subjects which she found significant as well.

Half Moon Cay had beautiful weather despite the rockiness of the ship on the way in. Ron escorted Mike and Donna to what we refer to as the “Pirate Bar” (a large three story wooden ship where drinks are served and the band plays), while Kelly took off on a short hike. Later Mike tried out Ron’s snorkel gear in the beautiful blue island waters.

Saturday came quickly and we were sad to escort the parents off the ship. Since their flight didn’t leave for several hours, we all took the Sun Trolley to the Galleria mall where Donna picked up a little gift that Kelly had been wanting for a long time – Jo Malone Orange Blossom Cologne. Kelly thinks it is easily one of the top ten things she has ever smelled in her life. Then we ate lunch and put Mike and Donna in a cab heading to the airport. It was sad to see them go but we decided that they visited at the perfect time because since we only have a month left until we head back to California (perhaps after a stop in Pennsylvania), we know we’ll see them again soon.

Our Blog Has Been on Island Time

2011-02-22T17:31:00.000-05:00

We know it's been a few weeks and we're very sorry for the lapse in entries. I guess with all the sun and salty sea air, our heads have been on island time. So here's what's been happening.

Last week was pretty dull. There is absolutely nothing to report. We did nothing new and kinda kept to ourselves on the ship.

The week before we were excited to have Jess and Steve Atherholt as well as Benjy and Julie Krothe (siblings, not a married couple), Steve's Dad and step-mom, and The Krothe's and Jess' grandparents on board with us. Quite the crowd! We had a great time visiting with all of them and showing them around some of our favorite port spots. We'll add some pictures later since we are currently at Margaritaville on grand Turk and we managed to leave the camera with sim card in our cabin.

I’m not sure that we took a single picture the week prior to our visitors. We don’t have much interesting news to report on our regular weeks I’m afraid. So by way of anecdotes, we’ll give you a little inside peek at life on a cruise ship.(Sad how even the greatest of adventures in the most beautiful of places can become mundane after a while huh? We're grateful for the experience and still enjoy the fantastic places we get to go, but it has truly become, just part of life. Funny.)

For those of you who went to college and experienced life in dorms, you have an idea of what life is like on board. Or as what people here call “ship life” (read all the nonsense and gossip that can and does occur with regularity). Being in our thirties, we were under the impression that our college rebel rousing days were well behind us, but were informed otherwise by many people in our crew. So the last few weeks we strayed from our regular schedule of staying in, watching Fox News, playing Boggle and doing laundry, in our spare time to experience “ship life.” Three weeks later we both have gained a few pounds from drinking Wang-Wangs (don’t ask), have acquired constant headaches, and are exhausted. We have come to the conclusion that despite everyone’s declarations that we can, in fact, relive our 20’s, we’d prefer not to.

One of our favorite things to do together is to head outside in the late evening and look at the stars. You have not seen a night sky until you have seen it from the middle of the ocean. Everything is so clear and it’s hard to avoid seeing shooting stars fly across the sky. Combined with the rocking of the ship, it’s the perfect sense of calm and peace.

One of our peeves on the ship is the eating arrangement. We eat in the Lido with the guests and we have little to complain about as far as food quality or variety goes. The food is served gourmet buffet-style so it’s not the best food you’ll ever eat but certainly is not the worst. However, if you dear reader, are ever a passenger on a cruise ship, please, please, please do not stop the line before you get into it so that you can look at all of the food. It will still be there when you get to that spot in line. No need to inconvenience everyone else to satisfy your own curiosity. Also, if you would kindly avoid standing in a group in the walkway next to the food and chatting for an extended period of time, the rest of the world trying to get by you would be most appreciative. And last, but most importantly DO NOT TOUCH the food before it has been served to you!!! Do not reach under the sneeze guard and touch everything while asking “what is that?” The food is labeled. Read the labels please. And if you simply cannot help yourself and absolutely must touch something, put it on your damn plate. It is now yours. For those of you not planning on cruising any time soon, the same rules apply to any public eating establishment. If you would like to behave like a cretin, please do so in your own home.

A few weeks ago was the Legendary Blues Cruise wherein the Eurodam was chartered by a group of Blues music fans and performers. In itself, the Blues Cruise is an event but the happenings of the week made it a story to tell.

Saturday started out busy for Ron as the entertainment for the week was commandeered by the Blues Cruise. He spent the day organizing and orchestrating musicians, performers, equipment, schedules, instruments, electronics, and people. At the end of the day he was wiped out. But all of the busyness puts Ron directly in his element. He handles chaos with grace and confidence. Kelly is always very proud of his professionalism and calm control. So entertainment-wise, the rest of the week went very smoothly and required little emergency intervention by Ron.

The people on the cruise this week are as happy and content as you could hope passengers would be. Generally, the whole group is friendly, fun and just excited to be on vacation. They are also quite a bit younger than our usual clientele and consume significantly more alcohol in a week than an average cruise. That being said, within the first four days of our seven day cruise, we had two deaths, a lost finger, a fired employee, threats of quitting, and two people who missed the ship as it left a port. Busy.

We sailed with this flag waving all week!


Yeah it does!

Joan Osborn was aboard and performed her most famous song, "What if God was One of Us"

Our ports this week were a diversion from our usual stops. We had two days at sea and then celebrated the Eurodam’s first ever visit to Antigua.

Captain Jeroen Von Donsellar was presented with a plaque marking our visit.

There is not much to say about Antigua. We wandered around the city…

We were glad to have happened up on this sign, because otherwise we never would have known that this was inappropriate behavior. Phew.

ate lunch at The Commissioner’s Grill

tried to visit St. John’s Cathedral which was closed for refurbishment…

and then met with some friends and hung out until it was time to leave. Others who went to the beaches said they were beautiful but we see beautiful beaches every week so we saved ourselves the cab fare and stayed near the ship.

The next day we visited St. John USVI which is a short boat ride from our usual port of St. Thomas. We were surprised at what a different feel the two islands have. St. Thomas is very tourism focused and has an exorbitant amount of shopping available while St. John has more restaurants and bars and boutique stores.

We first stopped to get Ron a stamp in his National Park Passport Book.

We stopped and had lunch at Shela’s Pot which was more of a shack held up by a tree and the grace of God than a restaurant.

Shela herself does all the cooking (over hot rocks) and serving. We split one meal between the two of us and had enough left over to feed a very hungry third person. Not to mention that every bite of the food was outstanding. We’re going to miss Caribbean fare come April.

We wandered around the town for a little bit since our plan to go snorkeling at Trunk Bay was foiled by a strong tide and closed beaches. We ended up visiting Woody's Seafood and Saloon which is known to be Kenny Chesney’s favorite hang out. We sampled local beer here as well (clearly this has become a favorite activity of ours). Ron had a mild summer ale and Kelly had what she considers to be one the best beers she has ever tasted – a mango ale.

Though it was early to head back, we decided to board the tender and call it a day since we realized we’d forgotten our sunscreen and we’d like to avoid basal cell melanoma if at all possible.

The next day in port was Half Moon Cay. We have begun making this port our adventure activity port. Last week we went snorkeling with snorkel gear provided as a Christmas gift from Kelly’s parents.

The week prior we hiked and found a beautiful view. We didn’t have our camera so we will have to return to the scenic spot to snap a picture for you. The Blues Cruise week, we took a long walk to the end of the island where we met this little guy.

That was a lot to get through but we hope you enjoyed the catch up. Next week Kelly's parents sail with us and we're sure there will be plenty of fun stories to tell from that week!

Here's a Few Pictures of the Week Till we Have Time to Write - Enjoy!

2011-01-22T11:27:00.000-05:00

Just Another January...

2011-01-17T12:05:00.001-05:00

So I guess we’ve been pretty busy since we last wrote. Still, we don’t have much to report. Funny how that works sometimes.

Two weeks ago we visited Jamaica. The cruise port is in Ocho Rios which is very dependant on tourist money, so we were smack in the middle of your run of the mill tourist traps such as Margaritaville (of course we stopped by just to check it out), shops, local craft (junk) markets, resorts, and beaches. We asked around and were told to try out The Jerk Center for traditional jerk chicken and pork. We did just that and were not disappointed. I think we will both crave jerk pork and Festival (a fried knot of dough that was soaked in vanilla and cinnamon) anytime we think about Jamaica.

Ron is really not a drunk but we do get the local beer when we're in a new port.

Get out of here you idle drug users!

Then we wandered into a local casino that needed a special card just to get in the double doors with two bouncers. I think they let us in because we were tourists and they thought we’d dump a bunch of money in there. We were the only non-locals in the place. As it was, we sampled a bottle of Red Stripe beer and spent $5 each on penny slots, chatted with some of the regulars and then left in search of somewhere to hang out for a bit.

Kelly on Main Street in Ocho Rios

We ended up at a small restaurant on a pier where we got sodas and watched a man in cut off shorts try to peddle seashell necklaces to diners while he was standing knee deep in the tides. He wasn’t the funniest though. The piece de resistance was the guy who had swam out to the dock alongside the ship and was begging for people to throw money to him as they boarded. We wonder how many coins are at the bottom of the ocean in that spot now.

Grand Cayman was another place we stopped the week before last; however it was not new to us. We were there on our honeymoon a few years ago and enjoyed seeing it again from a different perspective. It all seemed so much more exotic when we were there before. Now that we’ve been living the cruise ship way of life for a few months, it seemed like every other cruise port in the Caribbean. That’s not to say everywhere is exactly the same – just the cruise port area is very similar to any other and since we aren’t on vacation, we aren’t able to venture out too far in many ports or we’d never be able to pay our bills. So in Grand Cayman we ran into one of Ron’s techs and had lunch at a little beachfront restaurant where we sampled turtle burger. Ron says turtle tastes like meatloaf but Kelly thought it had a very distinct and spicy flavor. Then we walked around for a little bit and tossed around the idea of visiting Hell or 7 Mile Beach but ultimately opted to take a free tour of a local rum company, chat with a few co-workers on the street to the sound of peddlers blowing low notes on conch shells in the background, and then we headed back to the ship.

Caybrew

Even Pirates need Jesus

Local Rum-maker

Last week we started our regular route (Grand Turk, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and Half Moon Cay). It may seem a little mundane to continually visit the same vacation spots over and over and over again, but it gives us a semblance of normalcy and stability. Kelly was especially grateful to be back to “normal” since she thrives on familiarity and having and idea of what’s next. (the girl loves a plan) In Grand Turk we enjoyed hanging out at Jack’s Shack and saying hello to Topher (the dog) while sipping sodas and catching up on FaceBook.

In San Juan we ran some errands and then had dinner at El Jibarito which is a little hole in the wall a few blocks off the beaten path. We asked our server to suggest the best items on the menu and we ended up with an outstanding meal. Kelly had shrimp in garlic butter with a trifongo made of mashed plantain, yucca, and something else that we can't recall. Ron had pork in a pocket of something yellow and mashed and a mofongo that was probably the best we’ve had to date. The meals were just the right size and priced accordingly which is always nice for us since we tend not to be huge eaters and can’t take leftovers home with us. So that nice sized dinner and Madella Light in little plastic cups was perfect for our one dinner out this week. As usual we strolled the blue brick streets on our way back to the ship and sailed away for the night.

We stayed on the ship in St. Thomas this week. St Thomas is so populated by tourist traffic that we can get tired of it pretty easily. If you’ve never been there, the gazillion shops downtown are fun and novel but once you’ve seen it and if you have no need for shopping, downtown is just crowded and a lot of the same. There are a few things we plan to explore in the next few months though. In fact this upcoming week we plan to ride our bikes to Magen’s Bay which has been voted one of the top 10 beaches in the world. Being Southern Californian’s and Kelly beign a water baby, we consider ourselves pretty well versed in beaches, so we’ll let you know what we think. That night was very windy so the promenade deck where Kelly walks laps most days was closed.

The next day we could not drop anchor at Half Moon Cay so we had an extra sea day and went straight back to Fort Lauderdale where we spent the day using public transportation (we learned about the trials and tribulations of managing a halfway house and about one man’s belief that all adults should be allowed to beat other people’s children if the situation warrants it) to get to Old Navy and the book store.

That night we dined at the Eurodam’s version of a 5-star restaurant – The Pinnacle Grille. While the ambiance and service was outstanding, neither of us was that impressed with food (filet mingnon for Kelly and surf & turf for Ron). We might try it one more time (we get the officer’s perk of dining at one of the two additional charge restaurants on the ship for free once per month) for the lobster macaroni and cheese and if we’re still not impressed we’ll stick to Tamarind for Asian fare. We’ll never complain about decent sushi.

And that’s about all we have to report for now. We’ll try to live slightly more interesting lives this week so we can entertain you with a better blog next time! Upcoming for us is the Blues Cruise which is going to keep Ron very very busy. He does, however, get to be Stage Manager for Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Joan Osborne to name a few.

Well, At Least We're Not In A Mexican Jail...

2011-01-03T16:06:00.000-05:00

I think the title pretty much sums up our week. Not our favorite so far.

We started our week with a day at sea and then our first stop was in Belize City, Belize. Kelly was really excited for our Central American ports of call because of the rich Mayan history that she finds so intriguing. She had hoped to stop at one of the Mayan ruins in Belize but work schedule did not allow for it, so she was resigned to see them in one of the other ports. We did have time for a quick trolley tour through the city. Belize is very poor and we were grateful for the company of a local to keep us in the right spots.

One of the highlights of the day was drinking Coke with real sugar out of a glass bottle. There’s something nice about experiencing something the way it was originally intended.

Kelly disagrees when it comes to Coke products. She likes her Diet Coke out of a soda fountain with plenty of Phenylalanine thankyouverymuch. In a pinch she’ll settle for a can or bottle of the stuff.

The next day we were in Guatemala. We hired a local cab driver to show us around for the day. He took us to a series of waterfalls in the rainforest where a woman had set up a shack and wanted to charge us ten bucks apiece to look at the falls. We thought that was crazy and decided to close our eyes and save ourselves a twenty. We asked the driver if he would show us around the city instead.

We were intrigued by the many, many street vendors and handmade homes on the sides of hills and the children pulling burros and selling wood logs off of the animals’ backs. Ron and I don’t have a lot of “stuff” and haven’t celebrated Christmas with gifts to each other in a few years now, but seeing places like these the week after Christmas with Americans who have given and received so much excess just days prior is a really sobering experience. It wasn’t sad though. For as little as many of these people have, they seem happy and whole and quite a refreshing change from some of the whining we heard from kids around the ship who didn’t get exactly what they wanted from Santa this year. And that’s not to say that one way of life is better than the other. It’s just very interesting to see another side of the human experience.

After the drive through the city, we were starving and asked our driver to take us to a place to get local food. At Los Delfines, we ate lunch right on the water. We enjoyed shrimp and garlic bread and Gallo – the local beer.

Between the ship and the city we were able to stop into a market set up for cruise guests. Tons of local crafts and merchandise was sold there and all of it was really cheap. Kelly reluctantly splurged a whopping ten dollars on a burlap messenger bag which has possibly become her favorite purchase of the last ten years. It really is an awesome bag. We’re sure you will see pictures of it next week since she rarely goes anywhere without it.

As the ship pulled away from the pier, the locals came out to see us off. Dancers performed native dances, drummers provided sail away music, taxi drivers pulled up with flashing lights and blaring horns, the police came out and waved their rifles (um yeah, dudes with large guns where everywhere in this place. We were not about to start any trouble here), the workers in the adjacent shipping yard honked the horns on their forklifts and everyone generally hollered and made a bunch of noise. It was really cool and I’d say it was probably the best part of the whole week.

On Thursday we were in Roatan, Honduras. We were given the suggestion to head outside of the cruise terminal to pick up a tour from an independent tour company because the cost was a fraction of the price from them as opposed to anything within the terminal. We are always happy to save some money, so we gladly headed on out. We were pleased to find another couple wanting to take the same tour and share the cost with us, plus they gave us a crew discount – score! Not long into the tour (which we found out later was supposed to have a tour guide narrating, not just a van driver who zoomed by all the sights without a word and found great pleasure in nearly nicking every cyclist on the road) after stopping at an iguana farm (read: gated off area full of creepy, giant, greenish lizards that they wanted to charge $8 pp to see – no thanks) and a dilapidated market (read: some huts with people hocking magnets made in China and overpriced bottled water), the van broke down. There was much smoking, hissing, chugging and squirting of questionable looking fluids in 90 degree heat and 98% humidity before the driver decided to call for someone to pick us up. He failed to mention that he called a taxi service who expected to get paid when he dropped us off. After fighting with the Independent Tours people (yes, there was actually yelling involved, not to mention much waving of arms and threats aimed in our direction), we got our money back (thrown in Ron’s face) and had to run back into the terminal with the taxi driver chasing us demanding that we pay him for the ride and “show some gratuity” since he didn’t leave us on the side of the road (Um…Ok).

I believe we went directly to this bar...

…and had three beers each (Salva Vida – pretty good!) before we stopped grumbling about the crappy tour.

Then we took the Magical Flying Beach Chair (ski lift over water and sand instead of snow) down to the beach and walked around soaking up the sun for a bit.

On Friday (New Year’s Eve) we were in Cozumel, Mexico. Kelly had been looking forward to Mexico since before she came on board the Eurodam. If you know Kelly, then you know her love of salsa and tacos. Almost nothing makes her happier than Mexican food made by Mexicans – bonus for it actually being in Mexico! Plus, since she didn’t get to see her Mayan ruins in Belize (or Guatemala or Honduras), she had hoped to see them in Mexico. Both of us worked in the morning but Kelly was sure to be done and ready in time to catch the tour of the ruins. Ron however got stuck a little later than we had originally anticipated. We missed the tour we planned on taking (no money lost there thank goodness!) so we thought that we would have fun renting a scooter and driving over. Why we thought this was a good idea, we will never know. Neither of us have any business on any recreational vehicle that requires one iota of balance or coordination. We would not be surprised if we toppled an ATV going 3 miles an hour. Anyhow, we were swept up in the idea of zipping around the city on our own accord and when the salesman (con-artist) showed us a brand new blue scooter (old, rickety, rusty heap of worn out metal) and offered us a pretty decent price for the day, we decided to give it a go. We strapped on our helmets (one of which didn’t actually strap – just sat atop my head and left me to hope I wouldn’t be in need of its services) and tried to roll off on our new toy. Ok, we didn’t get 10 feet before losing our balance. Try again. Not a few feet more and we fell to the side. Kelly jumped off and backed away having decided that she wanted to live through the day more than she wanted to see Mayan ruins. Ron conceded shortly after and tried to return the bike to the “salesman” who was standing by the side of the road smirking at our feeble attempts. After a half an hour of raised voices, hands waving in the air, and numerous other unpleasantries, Ron finally got half of our money back from the guy. This was shortly followed by Kelly chasing the guy down the street yelling “Scam Artist” and him saying that we were gonna get beat up by his guys “In front of Senior Frogs? Oh please. I’m shaking.” Sigh. We finally gave up and decided to take our money to an establishment we can support… Margaritaville. As touristy as it is, Margaritaville always gets two fins up from us.

Ron had to return to the ship early as he was the King of New Year’s Eve (read: was in charge of running everything without actually getting to enjoy it). That morning he and most of the Entertainment staff got up early and blew up thousands of balloons.

Kelly would like to note that she thought the process of it was the dumbest ever as the staff was told to blow up all of the balloons and then try to get them all from the stage to the net which ended up being, sadly, most efficiently by picking them up by hand. Kelly had to leave the premises, having lost a few brain cells witnessing the process.

Ron would like to note that although the balloon process wasn’t the smoothest he was told that this New Year’s Eve’s events went the smoothest that many people had seen in years.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves… That evening had two cast production shows followed by the New Year’s show. Kelly got all dressed up in what she refers to as her “pretty pink party dress” and came to the second show. It should be noted, for those that don’t know Kelly that well, that she is what is 100% a “morning person.” She goes to bed early and gets up early. So this was great attempt by Kelly to try and party it up into 2011. The second show finished at 10:30 PM and by 11 and Kelly was falling asleep in her seat. She gave up and went to bed. Ron coordinated the transformation of the Mainstage into the NYE 2011 party zone. Being that we’re on Holland America the ship had Rene Froger sing as a special guest. For those of you saying “Who the heck is Rene Froger?” he is a famous singer from Holland. It can also be noted that everyone on the ship who is not from Holland, ie: 99% of the people, didn’t know who he was either. He did, however, sing well and the crowd seemed to like him. The Captain rang in the New Year on the ship’s bell, balloons dropped, and the crowd sang Auld Lang Syne. The ship’s party band was ready to play into the wee hours but being that the average age of cruisers is well above 55, Ron had to call the festivities around 1AM since the crowd went from 1500 to about 15.

The next day was at sea and was pretty smooth to much appreciation of those who were able to stay awake and celebrate the New Year in the traditional drunken style. Back to Fort Lauderdale yesterday and that about sums up our week. Since our friends Ben and Kristen Brewer are aboard this upcoming week, we expect it to be much more fun than last. See ya when we return from Grand Cayman and Jamaica!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T13:04:00.000-05:00

Here are this round’s answers to Where on the Eurodam?

This is the carpet in the guest hallways.

There is a small section of the Promenade deck that needs to be clear during Panama Canal cruises. This sign lets you know to get out!

** Apparently Blogger is having some technical issues and won't upload our photos but we'll add them in later when the bug is fixed.**

These benches can be found all over the ship. They contain extra life vests.

Shout out this week goes to Katy Lucas for being almost right on the carpet. She guessed that it was the carpet in the theater. Close! And she gets bonus points for using her g-mail account and leaving her answers on the blog itself.

Also a shout out to Jess Atherholt who almost always leaves us some comment love.

There is no new "Where on the Eurodam?" This week due to lack of participation. If you want to see it come back, just leave us a comment to let us know. We'll re-instate it if there is enough interest.

Christmas week on The Eurodam was busy and fun.

We started the week with Christmas Caroling and a Tree Lighting in the Atrium.

Our first port was slated to be Half Moon Cay but the seas were choppy and we weren’t able to go ashore. This happens more frequently than we would have imagined prior to living aboard the cruise ship. The next port was St. Thomas but both of us were sick (Kelly is still not back to 100% yet and Ron got strep throat – thankfully he got on antibiotics before too many symptoms appeared) so we stayed aboard that day.

But once we got to St. Maarten, we were both feeling well enough to explore a little.

We took a cab ride to Maho Beach which backs up to the Princess Juliana Airport which has been named by the Travel Channel as the #2 most extreme airport in the world. The planes flew right over our heads as we enjoyed lunch on the deck of The Sunset Bar & Grill (which was apparently in a sitcom called Three Sheets to the Wind - we've never seen it.)

We stopped in to see That Yoda Guy who was an artist for the original Star Wars movies. He was so nice and enthusiastic about his work. (Ben Dice, you’ve got a little something special coming your way.)

We also had a chance to stroll the downtown area. There is a ton of shopping and plenty to see.

We swung by the courthouse with a pineapple on top of the cupola. It was built in 1793 and is a very popular landmark.

We also stopped by the Belgian Chocolate Box to sample of a few amazing pieces of handmade chocolate.

Our next stop was Puerto Rico again. We only spent a few hours off the ship due to the timing of our departure. It was weird to leave Puerto Rico so early. But we were glad to be there during the day this time to see some of the things that are not usually open when we are there.

The best part of the day was giving two bucks to this guy with a machete to hack open a coconut for us. We drank the water and then handed it back to him so he could crack it open and pull out the actual coconut. Granted, we could buy a coconut from the market for half the cost, but it’s hard to get the produce guy to wield a machete in the store aisle.

Christmas Eve was BUSY! We were at sea, so it was a formal night. We enjoyed getting dressed up for the special occasion. In the evening we attended a cocktail hour and then dinner hosted by the Captain and the Hotel Manager. We were please that lobster was on the menu that night. Dinner was followed by a show and then crew choirs singing Christmas Songs. Then at midnight we attended Christmas Service in the Queen’s Lounge… and then we passed out.

Christmas morning began bright and early. Santa Clause came to the theater and handed out gifts to kids and posed for pictures. Some of his elves were there too.

Our Christmas Day was spend in the Bahamas.

Once we were docked in Nassau, we joined some of the cast - Cassie, Will, Eric, and Kellie - for a water taxi ride to spend the day at the Atlantis Resort. We had a great time seeing a fraction of the expansive grounds and wandering through the aquarium. You could spend a week there and never see it all. What an amazing place!

In the evening we enjoyed spending Christmas dinner with James & Isabelle at Tamarind aboard the ship.

And today we’re back in Fort Lauderdale where we have experience our first “cold” weather of the season. Kelly needed to take a light sweater to run to Walgreen’s since it was 68 degrees!

This upcoming week is full of all new ports so we’re very excited to fill you in on our new adventures. Merry Christmas to all of you and have a very happy and safe New Year!

T'were the Weeks Before Christmas

2010-12-17T15:16:00.000-05:00

Here are this round two’s answers to Where on the Eurodam?

This phone is located in the "P.O." as we call it or the Petty Officer's Mess Room / Bar. The PO is located on A Deck and is 50's themed. Ron likes to visit the PO because they have a cappuccino machine in there.

These coins are from the Eurodam's coin ceremony. The coin ceremony of a cruise ship takes place just before the floating out of the ship. The coins are located all the way up on Deck 12 forward. The ceremony dates back to the ancient Romans who believed that attaching coins to a ship provided divine protection.

The porthole seen above is the view of our cabin from the outside. We're the second porthole from the front on the starboard side of the ship. You can see the picture frame that the Dice family gave us peeking out. Ron's position allots us our own room with a double bed and a porthole. Most of the crew have inside cabins and have to share rooms with up to 3 other people.

And here is next week’s challenge.

On December 6^th in Grand Turk, we ventured down the beach to Jack’s Shack. This little patio bar and grill is where some of the crew hangs out. We ran into some of the ship performers and our cruise director, Jason that day. And we also ran into Topher, the Jack’s Shack resident dog.

We really enjoyed Turk’s Head Island Draught. The light beer was much better than the dark which was heavy and had a pretty high alcohol volume for beer, causing Ron to be a little fuzzy in the head after finishing his own bottle and half of Kelly’s light beer.

The next day when we visited San Juan, Puerto Rico, we took a trip to the Bacardi Distillery. Our adventure began with a ferry ride to Catana.

This guy entertained us with Christmas songs on his guitar. He was so bad that it was good, so we tossed a few quarters into his hat when he was through. We love all the character in Puerto Rico.

Once at the Bacardi Distillery, we perused the gift shop and enjoyed the free rum drinks provided on the free tour. Then we boarded a tram that took us around the facility and to a walking tour with a movie and Bacardi related historical artifacts. We learned, amongst other things, that the Bacardi Bat was chosen as a logo based on the fruit bats living in the rafters of the first Bacardi distillery located in Cuba.

This is Ron at the lighting board in the Mainstage Theater. You won’t normally find him here but a new Assistant Stage Manager came on board and the Lighting Technician was helping train him for the Crew Show so Ron jumped in and ran the lights. Usually Ron is off running around making sure his shows and programs are all running as they should be.

In St. Thomas last week there were 6 ships in port which caused the crowds on the streets to be epic. We ran a quick errand and then grabbed a quick lunch at The Green House where we split Conch Creole. Conch is one of our new favorite treats and we try to find it wherever we are in the islands.

Here is Ron with one of the performers, Cassie. Often the Cast pick up side jobs on the ship such as dressing up as various characters at different ports.

Kelly took this photo as we departed St. Thomas. Whenever we sail away from a port the crew is allowed on the bow of the ship to enjoy the view.

We know we’re settling into ship life when we don’t even bother getting off the ship on Half Moon Cay days. The view is just as pretty from the Lido Deck as it is from the island, so we took our books (Ron is reading Super Freakonomics and Kelly is reading Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground) out to the pool deck and lounged in the sun for a few hours. Life is really hard.

Saturday we took the crew shuttle to Starbucks, then met James & Isabelle Cielen (the ship’s magician and his wife) and their two kids for a bus ride to the galleria mall. We browsed at Borders for a few hours, grabbed lunch, and headed back to the ship. While that may not seem like an exciting day, it feels good to do something normal like going to a mall when your days are always so full of the unfamiliar.

This past week has been one of the less fun weeks for us, and really for many people aboard the Eurodam. We joke that when one person sneezes on the ship, 2,999 others get sick. Last week’s guests seemed to Kelly to be especially unhygienic and she grumbled about people reaching under the sneeze guards in the Lido to point to (or even touch – eww!) food on the other side, and she complained that she was coughed upon twice by guests passing by. And of course, Kelly was sick two days later along with quite a few guests and crew.

We made through one day at sea and half of Grand Turk before she really took a bad turn. We decided to chance the impending rain and take a short cab ride to Cockburn Town (sounds like “Co Burn” Town) and as soon as we exited the cab, the skies opened up and the rain came down. We managed to snap a few pictures and pick up an addition to our collection of goodies for the Dice Kids on our half mile stroll before we gave up and flagged down a cab.

Tourist shops

Episcopalian Church

View from the doorway of the church

The next day Kelly had a fever and a cough which caused her to stay in bed for 3 days missing both work and crew drills. Friday morning she finally started feeling a little bit better. She’s just happy that the cold caught up with her the week before Christmas instead of the week of.

In St. Thomas the Allure of the Seas parked right next to us. Having launched on December 1st, it is the brand new sister ship of the Oasis of the Seas. They are the two largest cruise ships in the world.

We’re very excited for the next two weeks because we will be stopping at different ports of call than usual. Plus, it’s Christmas and the Eurodam will be decked and decorated and full of Christmas music and activities. So, until next week, have a blessed and beautiful Christmas.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

Ron's Birthday Week on the Seas

2010-12-04T10:13:00.001-05:00

This week, we'll begin with:

"Where on the Eurodam?"

That was the "M" in Mainstage which is where Ron does a lot of his work. The theater holds about 900 audience members and a different show is presented every night of the week. He also manages many other locations around the ship that you will see in the upcoming weeks. Shout out to Diane Althoff for getting that one right!

Shout out to Janette Morrissette for getting this one correct - it's a Foosball table located in the Crew Mess on A Deck. The Crew Mess also contains Wii and Xbox stations, vending machines, weekly karaoke and English lessons amongst other fun and activities geared towards the Filipino and Indonesian Crew Members.

Erika Hoover gets the Shout Out for getting this one right. Of course she's at an advantage because she has worked on these Dam Ships before! Every other week or so we gather here at this assembly station in our snazzy yellow life vests for crew drills. This is not Kelly's favorite part of the week.

And here are your pictures for this week's game. Those of you who are posting your answers on FB instead of the blog, get yourselves a G-mail account and post your answers on here. We'll give you bonus points.

Finally, this week we were able to dock in Grand Turk! We first walked on the beach and Kelly picked up sea glass - which may be the only hippie-esque thing she has ever done in her life. Then we explored Margaritaville. We LOVE Jimmy Buffett and take any opportunity possible to visit his concerts, restaurants, bars, stores, and resorts. Fins up!

Of course Kelly found the giant flip-flop!

Life is rough...

This is a very common way to find Ron. He has a HAL issued phone that is used whenever anyone needs to get a hold of him. Someone always needs to get a hold of him...

Tuesday, we explored a little more of San Juan, Puerto Rico. We started the day at Fort San Cristobal. Below is Ron on a pile of cannonballs.

The views from the fort are beautiful.

Kelly just thought the bench and the wall were pretty.

We love the narrow streets lined with row-type homes that are full of character and color. And the blue cobblestone streets add unique, antiquated charm. They bricks were made in Spain and brought over as the ballasts of ships in the 1800's.

After a quick work-break, we went back out for dinner. We decided to try Raice's and were not disappointed. It is a small hole in the wall type place (always our favorite) that served water in tin cups and employs bi-lingual servers who dress in traditional attire. We tried the local beer - Medella Light - which we thought was just OK and we split a Mofongo - Mofongo is generally made from fried green plantains which is mashed together with broth, garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings. Ours was filled with skirt steak. It was really good - especially since we are pretty tired of ship food.

We then strolled in and out of the shops in San Juan and down to the square which is all lit up for Christmas right now. I think This was our favorite day of this week.

Ron celebrated his 33rd birthday yesterday. We were at Half Moon Cay which is not super exciting since it is a small island owned and operated by HAL. This did not leave us the opportunity to celebrate with a fun activity so we're in the process of planning a small celebration next week.

**Note from Kelly**
December 3rd is my favorite day with the exception of April 5th. I am grateful for Diane Althoff and Ron Morrissette Sr. for bringing my husband into this world and for raising him to be the wonderful, loving, supportive, hard-working, loyal, and Godly man that he is. Happy Birthday Ron - I love you more than the moon... and then some.

"Where on the Eurodam?" ... the beginning

2010-11-27T19:54:00.000-05:00

This week has not felt like the beginning of Christmas season one bit. Last year we were freezing our butts off and fretting over the impending snow and this year we’re working on our tans and floating around the Caribbean. It’s a little surreal.

Last week in Fort Lauderdale we picked up a world map at Barnes & Nobel with the intention of placing dots on all of the places we have been. Well, we have the lower half of the US covered pretty well but aside from that and a few random islands and France, we have a long way to go. We’re excited to cover more of the world during this time in our lives

Here's some pics of the room for those who haven't seen them yet.

We know many of you are really interested in seeing the ways of shipboard life, so we’ve devised a little game for you all. Each week, we’ll post a few close-up pictures of items or places aboard the Eurodam in a section entitled “Where on the Eurodam.” Your job is to leave a comment guessing where or what the picture is of. The following week, we will post wider shots showing you more of the item or place in question and we’ll post stories or anecdotes relating. Winner gets a very coveted shout out. This will be especially fun for those of you who have been on the Eurodam already or will be joining us in the future.

“Where on the Eurodam?”

So, more about the details of ship life next week! Meanwhile, we’ll fill you in on the week. Tuesday, Kelly again did not get to see Grand Turk because the winds had kicked up so badly that we couldn’t dock. She was really bummed because she has been itching to visit the Turks and Caicos Islands for several years now. That and she’s not a huge fan of days at sea. Wednesday Ron had In Port Manning (IPM) in Puerto Rico and Kelly didn’t have much desire to explore on her own, so we were on the ship for several days. Thursday we finally got off the ship to visit St. Thomas. We had intended to go on a catamaran excursion since most excursions are free for us as long as they are not sold out. Unfortunately Thanksgiving week caused an influx of passengers and we will have to wait until next week. So our day in St. Thomas was spent mostly browsing through the zillion little shops in the downtown area, including Tiffany & Co. where Kelly tried to convince Ron that she was in need of a $20,000 diamond tennis bracelet. That did not end well for her.

We also happened upon a little hole-in-the-wall café just outside of the tourist area. We went in and asked the owner to serve us whatever he liked best. We ended up with jerk chicken (amazing), saltfish, rice, veggies and a bottle of hot sauce that we were told was “made in some dude’s backyard.” We love finding out of the way, local places to eat and we’re rarely disappointed. Next week, we’re planning to hunt down some conch fritters.

Thursday night we celebrated Thanksgiving with a barely passable turkey dinner. There was turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing – none of which was very good – and that was as far as the similarities to Thanksgiving dinner went. Sides included shrimp, asparagus, polenta, and ravioli. But when you live aboard a Dutch born and operated ship, you can’t have too high of expectations in regards to American celebrations. (Thanksgiving dinner pictures coming soon!)

Friday, Kelly started a workout program called P90X with a few girls onboard. She has been working out faithfully for the past couple months and was convinced to step it up a notch by Isabelle, the magician’s wife and a silks performer/former ice skater/insane workout queen. This morning Kelly could barely move after her first day of training and feels that if she endures this much agony, then she should automatically be a size 6 and fully toned.

Thus completes another week aboard the Eurodam. Make sure to play along with our Where on the Eurodam? game and we’ll see ya all next Saturday!