OMG - Jim turns 78

Well, Jim had a birthday recently and turned a ripe old 78. He may be old in body but the mind is still young. The body is not doing too badly because last week he was SCUBA diving in the Keys for lobster. He did catch 2 but one was a female with eggs and had to be left on the bottom. Carol and I  had the one for dinner when we got back and based on the total cost of our 3 night trip and the weight of the one tail, it cost about $2,000.00 per pound!!! Not economical but a lot of fun.

Carol and Jim had planned to go to the American Legion with Gus and Marilyn for Jim's birthday but when we got there Carol had arranged for many others help to celebrate his birthday. In total there were 7 couples plus the rest of the Legion membership who were also there for dinner and dancing as we were.

There were even balloons at the two tables we had for our group. That is the streamer holding the balloon in this picture.

 The reason we had planned to go to the legion was because pour favorite entertainer and dance music provider was planning there. We follow him around to the various places he plays.

Yeah, we have become senior citizen groupies.

Marilyn, our "cake maker extraordinaire" made a cake decorated with a bikini "babe". I don't know who she used a model but we all started calling it "the boob" cake.

Naturally you can guess which part I got served!

So another year has been chalked up and we are looking forward to the next one.

 

 

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.

ANNIVERSARY PHOTOS

When on our anniversary cruise, we always get at least one photo in our dressy outfits. This time we looked so good we bought two of the photos!!

By the way, the lowest cost way to get studio style photos is on a cruise. And  you get many  poses to look at before you select any to buy. Of course you are not obligated to buy any of them,

Flying Fish Sandwich

When I was talking to Richard Ernst about our cruise and told him we were going to be in Barbados, He said we had to try a flying fish sandwich!! Now when Richard and I served together on the Hazelwood many years ago we used to see these fish actually get  up on the deck of the ship. The were not large and I could never expected to hear of anyone making a sandwich out of the. However Richard said when he cruised in the Bahamas (in his own sail boat) he would never miss the opportunity to have a sandwich or dinner of them when in Barbados.
So here we are having our Flying Fish Sandwich in downtown Bridgetown, Barbados.

 The sandwich reminded me of a perch sandwich but the seasoning was excellent and had a Caribbean flavor to it. Thanks to Richard we now know how good they can be.

55th Anniversary Cruise



We have been going on a cruise each January to celebrate our anniversary and this year was no exception. We departed from Miami on January 27th, our anniversary for a 10 day cruise to the eastern Bahamas. St Thomas, St Lucia, Dominica, Barbados and St Maarten. While on the cruise Carol recognized the head manager of the hotel operations from a previous cruise we were on. While talking to him she mentioned it was our anniversary and he asked for our cabin number. Later in the week he called our cabin and arranged for us to dine as his guest in one of the specialty restaurants and have bottle of wine also.

We chose the steak house (a $25 per person fee) and of course even got a complimentary bottle of champagne!! Here we are enjoying the evening.

This was certainly a very nice gesture and we really enjoyed the meal. We both  had a small fillet which was super.They even brought an anniversary cake and sank "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" to us!! A truly special evening for us.

 

Here we are with Steven Jacobsen the officer who provided us with the pleasant evening.
Since we are now Gold Members in the Latitudes Club we get some nice perks such as  2 nice receptions with complimentary drinks and snacks. On completion of this cruise we will  move up to the Diamond level and hope the perks move u p nicely also!!
We have already booked our next anniversary cruise for next January. It will be a 7 day cruise departing from Tampa.