PASSOVER SEDER

This is the week before Easter and Passover and we were invited to attend a Passover Seder at the home of George and Helene Fuchs, friends of ours.
The Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It involves retelling of the story of liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. The story is in the Book of Exodus and is based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story.
Seder customs include drinking 4 cups of wine, eating matza, partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate and reclining in celebration.The Seder is performed in much the same way by Jews all oveer the world.
This was the first Seder Carol and I ever participated in and we found it to be very informative and a pleasant experience. We were joined by our friends Gus and Marilyn Lopes and Phyllis Lustgarden plus some friends of George and Helene.

Here is Marilyn Lopes, Carol and Phyllis Lustgarden at the table. The sheets on the table contan the ritual and story which was read in part by each of us in attendance.



Here is Phyliss, Helene and George and you can see the Passover Seder Plate  in the right center with foods on it.

The after dinner storytelling by Helene was really the highlight of the evening as she was able to keep us in stitches most of the evening.

 

 

 

ANOTHER CRUISE !!!

Yes, we just got back from another cruise!!  This was a 5 night cruise out of Tampa FL to Cozumel and Key West. We went with our friends and neighbors Gus and Marilyn Lopes. We were on a cruise with them this past December and had so much fun we decided to do it again!!
Of course you may think I had more fun than the others after I met this beauty in Cozumel. I think her name was Senorita Frog!

But Carol had a great deal of fun also. One evening they served Caribbean Lobster tail for dinner along with shrimp. All of us enjoyed the lobster so much we all got a second serving of the lobster tail. As you can see Carol really enjoyed her first serving.

In Key West, I met a group of young ladies dancing around and having some fun. But Carol would not let me join them!! At least she joined them but would not agree to wear the same outfits they had on (or off!!). She did let me take her picture with her dancing friends.

We had so much fun on the 5 nights of this cruise, drinking champagne, dancing and eating fine meals that I don't think we could have lasted any longer!! We now get to spend about a month at home before we go on our next adventure which is the reunion of the Hazelwood crew. Jim Served on the Hazelwood, a destroyer and they have a reunion every 2 years. This year it will be in the Newport RI area where Jim served his tour of duty.

NORFOLK VA TOUR

Last week Carol and I went to Norfolk, VA to attend a familiarization tour in anticipation of the possibility of having a Hazelwood reunion there. Jim served on the Hazelwood during his 3 years of active service.There were about 50 others attending the tour also. The purpose was to show all of us the sights and tour possibilities in the area.
We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and got right into the events with a reception and dinner at one of the hotels. On Wednesday and Thursday we started at 9 AM and did not end until about 8 PM. Each day we had breakfast, lunch and dinner at a different hotel. Between meals and hotel tours we visited the sightseeing spots around the city.

Here is Carol getting ready to have dinner at our first evening dinner. you can tell by the setting of the table it was a very fine event.

Some of the tour sites we visited included the General MacArthur memorial, the battleship Wisconsin (BB64) and a harbor tour of the Naval Base. Jim served his first midshipman cruise on the Wisconsin in 1954 and this is the second time he has been back on board.

 

 

This one of 5 super carriers that were in port in Norfolk that we saw while on the harbor tour. Sort of reminds me of battleship row at Pearl Harbor and makes me hope that no one hijacks several airlines and tries to hit them .... like Pearl Harbor.
In the 3 days, we visited 8 hotels and 8 tourist sites. We certainly had full days and got to see a lot of Norfolk. When we finished at Norfolk, we made the short drive to Virginia Beach to look at and stay at one hotel that was not included  in the Norfolk tour. We then started our 2 day drive home on Saturday morning and arrived home tired on Sunday.