Getting Ready to go

First of all, I am a bit disappointed; I did not get the Mexico Blog finished. I still have the last day to do. But it will have to wait until I get back.

Tomorrow I leave for my vacation. I am feeling pretty good about things. I am going into the office in the morning, and then I fly out of GR just after 4:00 pm. I decided to wait until tomorrow to actually put everything in my suitcase, but I have everything set out in the guest.

Here it all is – remember I will be gone for 19 days. Can’t forget my dresses.
Here is my itinerary…

Pre-Cruise travel
Oct 8 – Leave GRR
Oct 9 – Arrive London 1
Oct 10 – Leave London and go to Venice
Oct 11 – Leave Venice and go to Rome
Oct 12 - Rome
Cruise portion of trip-
Oct 13 - Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
Oct 14 - Capri/Naples, Italy
Oct 15 - at sea
Oct 16 - Athens (Piraeus), Greece
Oct 17 - Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey
Oct 18 - Istanbul, Turkey
Oct 19 - Mykonos, Greece
Oct 20 - at sea
Oct 21 - Port said, Egypt
Oct 22 - Cairo/Giza(Alexandria), Egypt
Oct 23 - at sea
Oct 24 - at sea
Oct 25 - Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
Post Cruise
Oct 26 – Leave Rome and arrive in Grand Rapids 11:30 pm

I am not expected to be able to blog at all – but I guess there is always a chance – but more likely I will just be able to update on Facebook.

See you all when I get home!!

The Photo Shoot

There is a story, it is a long complicated story that I am not going to get into, but at some point while we were up at Skywalkers we decided to do a photo shoot of me around the ship. It was probably sometime between 1:00 – 2:00 am when we started.

Here I am with the skywalkers sign.

By the pool. Karen decided to take a cookie break. On the stairs. Both of us on the stairs. We used the self timer feature on these. Except for one, some random person walking by took it. At the bar. On the bar. These are only a few of the many, many pictures we took. It was a riot!! We finally had taken enough and headed to bed.

Thursday Afternoon and Evening

We got back to the ship just prior to the 1:00 pm sail away and there were both whales and dolphins swimming all around.

That is the tail of a whale. Another one. Look at the cute dolphins Showing off for their audience. After we sailed away there was a crew vs. passengers water volleyball game. I have never seen so many people crammed into one pool. I am not sure the ball could even hit the water between all the people.

The exciting game Lots of people in the pool SCORE!! In the end the passengers won.

This was the second of the formal nights so Karen and I got all ready and then went to dinner pretty early – there was a lot going on that night.

After dinner we went to the show Piano Man – it was really good, featured the music of Billy Joel and Elton John. After the show we went over to the marriage game. The funniest thing happened with the game. One of the couples got called up there and the wife was in the bathroom. They waited and waited and finally she came. Then they played the game – basically like the newlywed game. One of the questions that was asked if something happened to the wife who would the husband marry. This couple answered the wife’s best friend. During the game they did okay and no one thought anything of it. But later we found out that when the game started the wife was still in the bathroom and it was her friend – the one they had chosen as the replacement wife – who pretended to be her to play the game. We thought it was very funny.

After the marriage game we went to the final heat of the princess pop star. Since it was formal night we decided to take some pictures in the art gallery.

This is me
By some Disney prints in honor of Shannon Karen and I by the Statue of Liberty picture in honor of the end of the bike tour.Making silly faces. That night was the Champagne waterfall at 11:30. Here are all the glasses stacked. Confetti on the floor.

After the Champagne waterfall we went up to Skywalkers and I had a great time dancing.

Thursday February 5, 2009 – Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas was our 3 day in a row of a day in Port. It was a short visit, only there from 7:00 am – 1:00 pm. We did not plan any excursions for Cabo, just to wonder around.

Karen and Nancy got up early to get some pictures- I “borrowed” some.

The beautiful sun rise Cabo in the rising sun. Some pictures from around the ship. Lands End Arch- from the ship. To get to Cabo we had to take a tender. This was the first time I had ever had to take a tender, I was not sure how the whole thing worked. You had to wait in a line to get on the boat and we ran into Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick. We had a fun time joking around with Rich in line.

Here are some Tenders. Getting on the tender was no problem at all. Easy as can be.
Here is Karen on the tender. Here I am. Ally and Rich. Rick. The ship from the tender. Here is cabo from the tender. Lands end from the tender. We finally got to Cabo.
As we got off there were all these people lined up asking if you wanted to get your picture taken with an iguana, for a dollar. Nancy decided to get a picture. These are some of the buildings built into the hills.

We didn’t have any plans for Cabo, just to wander around, buy some souvenirs and I found an internet café were I paid $1 for 15 minutes. I was able to send a quick message home.

I found Hemingway’s We went to Cabo Wabo’s a bar owned by Sammy Hagar. This sign was at Cabo Wabo’s - I think it is pretty funny. After we wandered around town for a while we headed back to the pier to catch the tender.
Some birds on the boats. Some buildings across the way. More scenic shots. People on the tender. On the way back to the ship. Lands End from the tender.
The buildings from the tender. The seas where pretty rough on the tender. Here is a picture of the Holland American ship from the tender. We were rocking. We arrived back on the ship in time for a fun afternoon at sea.