Our Anniversary Cruise

For the last several years we have also been going on cruise the last week in January to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This year my college classmate and fraternity brother, Jim Stroke and his wife Nancy went with us. It made it quite interesting since this was their very first cruise.
Jim was quite worried about getting seasick and no matter how much we tried to reassure him. Then of all things, the Italian ship runs aground just several days before we were to depart. I think they nearly cancelled but we did get on board!!
Here they are just before boarding in Tampa on the Norwegian ship Star.

Carol and I cruised on the Star in October when we went from Los Angeles to Tampa through the Panama Canal. This gave us the opportunity to get to know the ship quite well and were able to make Jim and Nancy feel more comfortable on board. We even had cabins next to each other and we each had our own balcony.
We cruised the Western Caribbean with stops in Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel. it was a 7 day cruise and we had good weather in all ports except for some rain in Cozumel.

Carol and Nancy had plenty of time to do the normal gal thing of shipping on board and ashore. Nancy was very lucky as she won two drawings at 2 different Diamonds International stores for a necklace. Both necklaces were identical and she gave one to Carol.
I got to do a SCUBA dive in Roatan and it was a good dive but not any better than those I have done in St Thomas.

We celebrated our 54th Wedding anniversary on board and here were are with the Melodic Trio, the group we enjoyed greatly during our Panama Canal cruise.
We spent several evenings with a very fine couple listening to the Melodic Trio in the atrium. We always seem to meet such nice people on cruises. They enjoyed dancing as we do and we used the Atrium Lobby for a for a dance floor Here is a picture of Keith and Marge as we we were listening to the music.

We returned home on January 22 and have been busy every day since!! May have to go on another cruise to get some rest!!!!

Tampa RV Show

Fr the last several years we have been going to the Tampa RV show and camping with friends. This year was not any different. Our group consisted of 6 motor homes and we camped at Lazy Days Campground before going to the Florida Fairgrounds for the show. Lazy Days recently opened a new restaurant and made it in the style of a motor home. Here is most of our group in from of it.

When our group camps together we arrange for one coach to host dinner each night. In that way we have a lot of enjoyment getting new recipes and enjoying each other's company. Yes it possible to have dinner in a motor home for 10 of 12 people!!

Of course on warmer evenings we have an outside cook out.

After all the fun at Lazy Days we went to the fairgrounds and the RV show. No one bought a new motorhome but we all did a lot of shopping for many accessories.
It was a fun week with our friends and already we are looking forward to next year already.

New Year's Eve Party ... or was it 2 parties!!!!

We had some difficulty finding a reasonably priced New Years Eve party to attend this year. Most were costing $50.00 per person and some even higher.
It seems the primary reason for the high costs is the live entertainment. Jay Smith, our preferred entertainer, charges $3000.00 for performing on New Years Eve. If 100 individuals attend such a party that is $30.00 a person for entertainment alone. Most parties have a dinner and midnight Champagne, so you can see  how the cost can skyrocket.
We finally found a party at the Holiday Travel Park in Englewood that was only charging $20.00 per person with live entertainment and a buffet. Jay Smith spoke highly of the entertainer so Gus and Marilyn and we decided to get tickets to it.
The friends who arranged for our tickets were to be there early since they said the parking was quite limited. The buffet was scheduled for 8 PM and we arrived at 7:30 PM and were surprised that our friends were not there yet. So we waited  ... and waited ...! It did not look as though they were even going to have a buffet as advertised.
Finally Marilyn went up to the ticket takers at the entrance and showed them our ticket stubs. Of course they had taken the one portion when we came in. The fellow who looked at our tickets said we were at the wrong party!!!
The person who took our tickets must have been senile since our tickets were buff in color and the tickets everyone else had were purple in color!!  So we found out we were at Holiday Park Estates which is next door to the Holiday Travel Park!! We hustled our stuff together and followed the directions of a helpful guy and arrived at our proper party just in time to get in line for the buffet. Naturally we found our friends there and they were wondering where we had been. They got quite a laugh about our mistake.
So we did have a good time with a very good entertainer, decent food, a nice facility and a good crowd. We brought the New Year in with some of our own Champagne and then headed on home. Folks our age don't spend much time out after midnight!!!!

A Faux New Years Eve Party

While we and most of our closer friends do not act as many OLD folks do, there is a contingent in our community that does!!

For the last several years our community has been having a new years eve party that started about 5 PM. Since entertainment on that night is very expensive, no entertainment was arranged except for records being played.
They also set the clocks ahead three hours at the start of the party!!
Then at 9 PM, (midnight on the clock) they celebrated the coming in of the new year!!! And of course then everyone went home by 9:30 PM. Carol and our friends Gus and Marilyn went to some other party because we  wanted to really bring in the new year.
This year they wanted to have live entertainment but that would have cost $3000.00! That is not a typo .... yes $3000.00. So they arranged for live entertainment on December 30 for only about $300.00.
Rather than having a catered or prepared meal, each couple brought their own steak or whatever and grilled grilled it themselves. A baked potato and other meal accessories were supplied for a small fee which included the cost of the entertainer.
Since the entertainer was Kim Jenkins, one of our more favored ones, we and the Lopes went to the party.

Here is our group. Marilyn's mother Mazie, Carol, Sonya Nolin and Gus and Marilyn Lopes.
And Carol and I were home before 10 PM but of course we are still going out to bring in the new year on New Years eve!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR

SCUBA at St Thomas 2011

My dive buddy Hank from Lake George, NY made his trip to St Thomas to coincide with ours again this year. I really appreciate diving with Hank because he is a Rescue Diver at the Lake George Fire Department. He watches over me while we dive so I feel very safe diving with him. We normally do all of our dives with the Coki Beach Dive Club but their boat was being repaired. We can do beach dives at Coki Beach and we did 3 there, but we wanted to go to some other sites that were more interesting.

We scheduled some dives with Blue Island Divers and got to dive on two different wrecks. The first day we dove on a reef off Bluebeard's Beach Club plus a second dive on sunken Navy barges. We saw a small (2 1/2 ft) nurse shark but I missed any pictures of it as my camera battery did not last long enough.

I got disgusted with my camera so I bought a new one and on following dives I got some decent pictures. The second wreck we dove on was a 300 foot long barge that sat upright in 100 feet of water. The main deck was at only 50 feet and when our boat anchored it's anchor was on the deck attached to a fitting.

Here, I am following the Dive Master along the edge of the deck at 50 feet. We then dropped down to the keel level and 100 feet.

Here you can see the other divers following behind me at the 100 foot depth and you can see the side of the barge. We went to the stern of the barge and then entered it and swam up to the main deck going through compartments that were actually open due to the explosions to sink the barge. I chickened out and did not go up through all of the compartments but went up on the outside and met them up near the main deck (50 ft).

Here I am in what is left of one of the compartments at about 60 feet. We all then swam around the main deck inspecting the various parts of the ship and going in other compartments that were somewhat open. While we were there a turtle came out of one of the compartments and I got several good pictures of it with Hank in the background.

The turtle finally headed for deeper waters but Hank and I did not follow him.

On Thursday of the second week Hank and I did one last dive from the beach at Coki Beach. It was just Hank and I (no dive master with us) and it gave us an opportunity to do a little practice in safety procedures like, removing your mask and putting it back on and clearing the water from it and sharing air from the others tank. We also got to see some of the novices out for their first Discovery Dive. An instructor takes a few first time divers out to introduce them to diving after giving them sufficient instruction, of course.

Back From St Thomas

Carol and I got back yesterday from our annual 2 week stay in St Thomas. It was great time and we got to see some friends we have not seen for several years. However, in the past 8 weeks we have been away for 6 of the weeks! We both are glad to be home so we can get back into the routine here in Riverwalk.

Naturally we had some pool time, Carol got some shopping time and I got enough SCUBA as you will see in another post.  One of fun places we eat at is the Room With a View since they have $5.00 wine and appetizers at the bar from 5 - 7 PM.

 

The appetizers are large enough that one is like having dinner for Carol or I. If it isn't large enough you can always order an additional one!!

During the second week, we got to visit with friends that have not seen for several years at St Thomas. It was a good reunion and we all went out to dinner at Iggies at Bolongo Bay.

Here are Steve and Shelly Berman with us at Iggies. We sat at a table right next to the entertainer for the evening and when he started playing it hampered the conversation considerably.
On Thursday, while I was SCUBA diving, Carol was taking another walk downtown and tripped over a speed bump in a parking lot and fell. She skinned her left knee quite a bit and also put lesser scrapes and bruises on her right knee and elbows. Thank goodness she did not break any bones or do any more serious damage.
When I finished my dive I called her, as usual, and found out about her accident. Rather than walking back to the condo she stayed at a shopping area and I picked her up on my way back.
On Saturday we caught our early flight to Miami and arrived early, about 11 AM, picked up our car, got gas and headed back home. On the way home we stopped for about 2 hours and visited my college classmate in Naples. It made a  nice break for the drive. Jim and Nancy are going on a cruise with us in January so we had some time to talk about that. It will be their first cruise and they are looking forward to the experience.
It sure was nice getting in bed and sleeping with my own pillow. We both slept very well!

OUCH and #*%#@##+?

When we got home I got some boards to work into signs for the gal that paints and sells them. Even though I got the material on Sunday I did not start working on them until Tuesday morning because Carol and I were so tired.
In all of my many years doing woodworking I have never cut myself but that ended on Tuesday. Somehow I bumped my finger into the table saw blade and cut my left small finger at the outside base of it. I  had leather gloves on and that may have helped prevent more damage or the gloves may have pulled my finger into the blade. Either way, I am sure everyone within a block or two heard my cussing at myself for my stupidity.
We got to a local emergency room and we confirmed what I felt I already knew. I had not damaged any tendons and the nerves seemed full intact. The flesh wound did take 10 stitches to close though.

Here is what it looks like after 5 days of  healing. The redness seems to be bruising and not an infection. There is Neosporen on it for infection control and I have been taking an antibiotic.