Last week I saw an ad in the paper about a cruise from Miami that went all the way to Rome!! It is a 14 day cruise plus 4 days in Rome in a hotel and two tours of Rome. It also includes bus transportation from here to Miami, air fare back to Miami and bus back to here. The prices they were showing seemed quite good, so we made arrangements to go to the travel agency and talk to them about it today. It all came out as advertised and we have made the reservations. We got a Cabin on the 8th deck with a balcony and we are in the forward 1/4 of the ship. It is the Navigator of the Seas by Royal Caribbean.
We leave on April 10, cruise at sea for 7 days (I'll think I am back in the Navy!!) and then dock in Tenerife, Canary Islands on April 18 for the day. Two more days at sea before we arrive at Barcelona, Spain on April 21 (9AM - 5 PM). On the 22nd of April we spend 9 AM - 8 PM in Nice and get to see the Riviera and maybe Monaco. On the 23rd we arrive in Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy for the day (7 AM - 6 PM). We finally arrive in Rome (Civitaveccia) Italy on the 24th of April. It is about 35 miles from Rome.
We leave the ship there and are transported to the hotel getting 2 hour Rome Highlights Orientation tour en route. The next day we get "The Official Angels & Demons Path of Illumination 4 hour tour in Rome. I guess the Angels & Demons is the sequel to The Da Vinci Code. Now I am going to have to read it and or see the movie!!!
The next 2 days (April 26 & 27) we are on our own in Rome and I am sure we will arrange for a tour of some kind each day. We depart on the 28th and fly back to Miami to get the bus to here. Depending when the flight gets in we may decide to stay the night. Most flights arrive quite late at night. I am hoping it is not one of those that fly through the night!!
Sounds like the overall trip will be fun. Carol will be happy now that she has finally been to Italy
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Water bill resolution
Hooray, I got a letter from the Water Company on Thursday and they agreed to reduce out bill by $83.60 Which is nearly all of the sewer charge. That sure helps a lot. I hope I never have another leak like that.
Yesterday, we went on an all day outing to Cayo Costa State Park. It is an island park and only accessible by boat. We went to Punta Gorda and got got underway at 9 AM in the morning and headed down the Peace River. Along the way we were give a history of the area and they we got a couple of Dolphin shows put on by the local dolphins!!! At on time we had 4 dolphins on one side and three on the other. Thee were even several young one swimming and jumping along with us. I did not take a camera so there are no pictures to show.
We arrived at Cayo Costa at 11 AM ..... yep, a 2 hour boat ride!! There are no concessions on the island so we brought our own lunch and drinks. They say the shelling is superior on the island. I brought my snorkel gear and when I went in the water I found the visibility only about 5 or 6 feet. Most of the good shell were in water at least that deep so they were hard to see. Also I did not bring any weights as I had trouble diving down and staying down to get any of them. I need to wear about 8 pounds of weight to make my snorkel dives done more easily. I still found some good shells in the shallow waster and on the beach.
One of the interesting ones was a Purple Spined Urchin. I always see them alive in the water but we found several dead ones on shore. When they die and dry, the spines are easily brushed off and there remains a very fragile shell that looks like a hollow ball with one opening. I also found a near dead Lightning Whelk. It looks like a small conch shell.
Since it had the "animal" in it I tried one of methods I found which is freezing it overnight, thawing and pulling the animal out. I did not get it all out so I then boiled it for a while and now I think I have it all out .... If not It will stink to high heaven.
I found a great site to identify the shells and how to clean and preserve them. You can look at the site at seashells.org.
We got picked up at 2:30 PM and after another 2 plus hours on the boat we got home. We did have a small dolphin show on the way back. They had a drawing just before we landed and Carol won us another boat trip. They have a number of different ones so we will have to chose which one we go on the next time. Darn, I'll have to my own way!!!!
It was definitely a fun day but we were tired when we got home.
Yesterday, we went on an all day outing to Cayo Costa State Park. It is an island park and only accessible by boat. We went to Punta Gorda and got got underway at 9 AM in the morning and headed down the Peace River. Along the way we were give a history of the area and they we got a couple of Dolphin shows put on by the local dolphins!!! At on time we had 4 dolphins on one side and three on the other. Thee were even several young one swimming and jumping along with us. I did not take a camera so there are no pictures to show.
We arrived at Cayo Costa at 11 AM ..... yep, a 2 hour boat ride!! There are no concessions on the island so we brought our own lunch and drinks. They say the shelling is superior on the island. I brought my snorkel gear and when I went in the water I found the visibility only about 5 or 6 feet. Most of the good shell were in water at least that deep so they were hard to see. Also I did not bring any weights as I had trouble diving down and staying down to get any of them. I need to wear about 8 pounds of weight to make my snorkel dives done more easily. I still found some good shells in the shallow waster and on the beach.
One of the interesting ones was a Purple Spined Urchin. I always see them alive in the water but we found several dead ones on shore. When they die and dry, the spines are easily brushed off and there remains a very fragile shell that looks like a hollow ball with one opening. I also found a near dead Lightning Whelk. It looks like a small conch shell.
Since it had the "animal" in it I tried one of methods I found which is freezing it overnight, thawing and pulling the animal out. I did not get it all out so I then boiled it for a while and now I think I have it all out .... If not It will stink to high heaven.
I found a great site to identify the shells and how to clean and preserve them. You can look at the site at seashells.org.
We got picked up at 2:30 PM and after another 2 plus hours on the boat we got home. We did have a small dolphin show on the way back. They had a drawing just before we landed and Carol won us another boat trip. They have a number of different ones so we will have to chose which one we go on the next time. Darn, I'll have to my own way!!!!
It was definitely a fun day but we were tired when we got home.
Friday, September 18, 2009
A WOW of a water bill!!!
We got our water bill today and it was for a whopping 17,000 gallons of water and $216.00!!!!! The billing period was for most of the time we were out out town and had our water turned off at the entry to the house. A safety precaution we take when traveling.
After I had put the sink in several weeks ago, we found a leaking pressure relief valve near the shut off valve. This was on Tuesday after I had completed the sink job on Sunday evening. I shut off the water and got a new valve and replaced it. There was no evidence of any extended leaking as the ground was not a "swimming pool'" under the house. I expected some additional cost for the leak but not a plus 16,000 gallons. We normally use about 1 to 2 thousand gallons per month.
Just to give you an idea of the amount of water 16,000 gallons is. It is a small swimming pool .... 20 ft x 20 ft and slightly over 5 feet deep!!! That would fill our lanai 5 feet deep. I know we had a leak but I didn't think it was anywhere near that amount.
I did email the water company and explained all that I could and I am hoping that they make some adjustment. At least we should not have to pay for the sewerage charge which is $90.00. The leak did not go down the sewer!!!!
Stuff happens!!!!!
After I had put the sink in several weeks ago, we found a leaking pressure relief valve near the shut off valve. This was on Tuesday after I had completed the sink job on Sunday evening. I shut off the water and got a new valve and replaced it. There was no evidence of any extended leaking as the ground was not a "swimming pool'" under the house. I expected some additional cost for the leak but not a plus 16,000 gallons. We normally use about 1 to 2 thousand gallons per month.
Just to give you an idea of the amount of water 16,000 gallons is. It is a small swimming pool .... 20 ft x 20 ft and slightly over 5 feet deep!!! That would fill our lanai 5 feet deep. I know we had a leak but I didn't think it was anywhere near that amount.
I did email the water company and explained all that I could and I am hoping that they make some adjustment. At least we should not have to pay for the sewerage charge which is $90.00. The leak did not go down the sewer!!!!
Stuff happens!!!!!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Mini Trafford HS Reunion
Last week I called my Trafford buddy, John Serafin to let him know that I had joined the American Legion and he will get $5.00 from them since he recruited me. While talking to his wife, Mary Lou, we decided to go to the Venice Italian American Club for dinner on Friday, SEP 11.
They have great homemade sauce and they give us enough pasta for three meals all for $8.00 each!!! That includes 2 large meatballs or two pieces of sausage or one of each, plus salad and dessert.
I decided to surprise John at dinner by inviting another of our Trafford graduates. John had given me telephone number of Laverne Consoli (Lambert) about a year ago but I had never called her. She lives in Venice and is only about 8 miles from us. I also had found her listed in the Trafford directory that I got on CD about 6 months ago.
So I called her after not having spoken to her in over 50 years!!! Naturally she was quite surprised and was also very happy to join us for dinner. As it happened, John and Mary Lou got to the club just ahead of us and Laverne and her husband Gene arrived nearly at the same time as Carol and I. We had agreed that the first one there would call the other on the cell phone and when I called, I saw this gal walking toward me answer her cell phone. When she did I just said "You are looking at me!".
It was a great reunion and John was pleasantly surprised. Laverne and her husband have an RV Trailer and camp around the state some, so we are planning to get together for some camping together. She would also wants us to let her know when we are going to the Elks for dinner and dancing even though her husband does not dance (yet!!). Also during the winter some other Trafford Alum come to FL to visit with Laverne and we are going to try to make it an even larger mini reunion!!
All in all, it was a great experience to see old friends and talk about old times.
They have great homemade sauce and they give us enough pasta for three meals all for $8.00 each!!! That includes 2 large meatballs or two pieces of sausage or one of each, plus salad and dessert.
I decided to surprise John at dinner by inviting another of our Trafford graduates. John had given me telephone number of Laverne Consoli (Lambert) about a year ago but I had never called her. She lives in Venice and is only about 8 miles from us. I also had found her listed in the Trafford directory that I got on CD about 6 months ago.
So I called her after not having spoken to her in over 50 years!!! Naturally she was quite surprised and was also very happy to join us for dinner. As it happened, John and Mary Lou got to the club just ahead of us and Laverne and her husband Gene arrived nearly at the same time as Carol and I. We had agreed that the first one there would call the other on the cell phone and when I called, I saw this gal walking toward me answer her cell phone. When she did I just said "You are looking at me!".
It was a great reunion and John was pleasantly surprised. Laverne and her husband have an RV Trailer and camp around the state some, so we are planning to get together for some camping together. She would also wants us to let her know when we are going to the Elks for dinner and dancing even though her husband does not dance (yet!!). Also during the winter some other Trafford Alum come to FL to visit with Laverne and we are going to try to make it an even larger mini reunion!!
All in all, it was a great experience to see old friends and talk about old times.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
A week (Plus) of fun
Well, we got Gail off to the airport on Sunday 08/30. The traffic sure was light at 5:30 in the morning!!
I made a drawer under the sink so we would not lose stuff there. Carol is really happy with the job. Then on Tuesday, she was on the carport and heard water running under the house!!! I found a pressure relief valve had failed and was leaking. So I was Mr Plumber-Fixit again and had it repaired in an hour or so.
The rest of the week was our normal stuff of YMCA on M-W-F.
On Friday evening we did go to the American Legion with our friends and had a good time eating, talking and dancing to the music of Jay Smith. We saw a lot of the group that also goes to the Elks to dance to Jay. He is a popular guy.
Sunday we picked up Gail at 6 PM but before we went to the airport we visited a mall in the area that Carol likes to shop at. Gail had good flights and a good visit with her son and family. At the Mall, I found a pair of Jockey underwear that were exceptionally comfortable when I tried them on after we got home!
On Labor Day we went to the Elks and had an afternoon buffet and danced to Jay Smith again .... and saw a lot of the same couples we saw at the Legion. We are just a bunch of older groupies I guess. We had our friends over for Derby Pie and drinks after the dance. All in all, a fun Labor Day.
Those Jockey's were so comfortable that we searched for them online to see if we could find some closer to us. The best we could do was another Jockey store about 35 miles from here. So we rode there on the motorcycle and then went to the beach restaurant for our favorite fish sandwich.
Later......
I made a drawer under the sink so we would not lose stuff there. Carol is really happy with the job. Then on Tuesday, she was on the carport and heard water running under the house!!! I found a pressure relief valve had failed and was leaking. So I was Mr Plumber-Fixit again and had it repaired in an hour or so.
The rest of the week was our normal stuff of YMCA on M-W-F.
On Friday evening we did go to the American Legion with our friends and had a good time eating, talking and dancing to the music of Jay Smith. We saw a lot of the group that also goes to the Elks to dance to Jay. He is a popular guy.
Sunday we picked up Gail at 6 PM but before we went to the airport we visited a mall in the area that Carol likes to shop at. Gail had good flights and a good visit with her son and family. At the Mall, I found a pair of Jockey underwear that were exceptionally comfortable when I tried them on after we got home!
On Labor Day we went to the Elks and had an afternoon buffet and danced to Jay Smith again .... and saw a lot of the same couples we saw at the Legion. We are just a bunch of older groupies I guess. We had our friends over for Derby Pie and drinks after the dance. All in all, a fun Labor Day.
Those Jockey's were so comfortable that we searched for them online to see if we could find some closer to us. The best we could do was another Jockey store about 35 miles from here. So we rode there on the motorcycle and then went to the beach restaurant for our favorite fish sandwich.
Later......
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