Day 6: Last day at Sea with an English Pub Lunch for my Birthday & Day 7 Disembarkation

Day 6:  Last day at Sea with an English Pub Lunch for my Birthday

We began our last day at sea looking out over the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, headed north toward the Port of Houston where we dock tomorrow (Saturday) AM.  I got up much earlier that MA, checked email and quickly logged off of our Wi-Fi because we only had 9 minutes left on our “frequent cruiser” free plan.  I wanted to be sure MA had some time to get on line so she can check her email, Word games with her son, her nephew, and Dorothy from our Bible Study class, and let us not forget, “Candy Crush Saga.”   

We had our usual two egg breakfast, mine with toast and coffee and hers with grits and coffee. Our breakfast companions were a couple we had dinner with last night.  We call John “the mayor” because he could be a twin of Rudy Guiliani! Then we decided to try our knowledge skills with other passengers in the morning trivia pairing up with a dentist and his wife.  I knew we were in trouble from the first question which was: “What was Juliet’s last name in the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet?”  The dentist’s wife knew the answer (Capulet). We got 13 out of 20 right, about par for the course for us. This game was tougher than others with questions like what are the names of the four members of U2?  Bono was one, but as to the other three, I don’t think anyone had a clue.  Ok, here’s another question I should have known the answer to. “What is the only house that the Queen of England is prohibited from entering?” (House of Commons)  We did skip the seminar on “dinner napkin folding” however!

After trivia we went shopping and found a birthday present for our grandson Jason who turns 11 in February.  I’ll not mention what it is because he may read this blog.  On most cruises Princess offers a typical “British Pub lunch”.  We like the fish and chips but today we had the shrimp and chips.  Fried shrimp is one of my very favorite foods and it’s my birthday so I get to have whatever I want, right?  J  We had lunch with a couple from Idaho.  He was a retired mining engineer who had spent a lot of time in Argentina, right up MA’s alley from her Pan Am days. They compared notes about Buenos Aires and how great a place it is to visit.  We four really hit it off and in fact he gave us his card and they invited us to come visiting anytime. 

This afternoon was “pack it up for home” time.  All bags are color coded according to the time one is scheduled to disembark.  We leave them outside the door tonight and we’ll will see them again in the baggage claim area of the port tomorrow morning (one hopes!).  Never had a problem though, at least with Princess. 

Like I said yesterday, may not sound all that exciting but we love it, especially because of all the cool folks we meet from all over the USA and places beyond our borders.  Next cruise is a Transatlantic from Ft. Lauderdale to London in April.  We’re going to Florida a day early too have dinner with friends we met on last year’s Transatlantic, Bill and Sam!  That’s the thing about cruising, you can end up with friends all over the place, friends who share one’s love of travel, dining, and new adventures.  So until then, here’s hoping the Port of Houston is not fogged in tomorrow!  Bon voyage!

Disembarkation and home....reunion with Tanner

I woke up this morning after I noticed that the ship stopped moving. I looked outside outside and saw the Hartman Bridge to Baytown and knew we were home.  We got dressed and packed our walk-off bags and then went to breakfast.  We met a couple from Winnipeg, Canada and they shared their table with us.  I had my usual two eggs on toast breakfast with black coffee.  It was 8:40 and we were scheduled to leave at 9am. We went back to the room on the 9th floor, made sure we got everything and walked off.  We found our bags in the Light Blue section, cleared customs and we were in the car by 9:25.  I took MA home first, unloaded the car and went to Susan's to get Tanner.  I can only tell you he was as happy to see me and I was to see him.  I think he will miss his big brother and sister Irish Wolfhounds but he loves our walks.  We are home and I thank the Lord for a safe and wonderful trip.

Day 5: Cozumel and a photo op with a Shark

MA gets swallowed by a Great White!

We got going a little later than usual today, heading for breakfast around 9:30: (no lines)!  We then collected our stuff and walked off the ship about an hour later. We weren’t the only game in town; Carnival Triumph was anchored nearby as was NCL.  We walked into the pier shopping area and through the gauntlet of tour salesmen, taxi drivers, scooter rentals, and souvenir hawkers.  I just smile and say “no thank you.”  We were going to walk to a part of Cozumel we went to last year but realized we had taken a taxi there and since neither one of us were anxious to walk a couple of miles to basically window shop, we turned around and decided to check out a new mall area across from the pier.  We quickly found a coffee shop with Wi-Fi where we spent about an hour with MA on her IPhone playing WORD and Candy Crush and sending texts.  Go figure! 

I wandered around and found a great photo op which was a great white shark.  See photo.  We turned and made our way back to the pier and stopped and had some chips, salsa and soft drinks at Senior Frogs at the end of the pier.  We boarded the Caribbean Princess and went down to the 5^th floor and had a light lunch.  After relaxing for a while we went to our first afternoon tea. It was special.  Tea, scones, tea sandwiches, sweets, just like Buckingham Palace I’m guessing.  Well maybe that’s a bit of a stretch!  We met a lady there from San Diego who was on her 85^th cruise!  She didn’t care about going to shore, just as long as she was on the ship. From there it was Trivial Pursuit (13 out of 20 right). It all doesn’t sound so thrilling reading this back, but it was a beautiful day in Cozumel with the famous aqua blue water all around.  What’s not to love!

We both get swallowed by a Great White!

Tonight is another formal night so we are getting ready to meet the Captain, have some hors d’oeuvres and then its lobster night. Funny how the food gets better and better as the cruise progresses.  Guess that’s so our last memories are of “great dinners”!!  Later:  Had some great dinner companions, a former college basketball coach and his wife whose son played for Vanderbilt about 6 years before MA’s Jimmy made the team; then there was a gentlemen who had to be Rudy Guiliani’s twin and his wife of 51 years (They are California Republicans!) and a couple who we recognized as they did us – from last year’s Caribbean cruise.  Dinner was fun. Tomorrow’s a “sea day” again, hoping that on Saturday AM we do not run into fog delays going in to the pier. See ya later.  

Belize: Wednesday, Day 4 of Our Cruise

Belize: Wednesday, Day 4 of Our Cruise

Today began with NO Coffee being delivered to our room.  This was not Princess’ fault! I had forgotten to check coffee on the room service request. So I just put on some “go-get-coffee” clothes, made my way to the 15^th floor, got two cups and some fruit and did our own “room service”.  This would hold us until we got to breakfast. We decided to go into Belize on the tender boats.  Belize does not have a dock for cruise ships and requires passengers to use the “approved” contracted local catamarans which hold at least 60-75 folks.  We took our time before leaving, went to breakfast and then took the elevator to the 5^th floor for our “tender tickets”. We did not have to wait long for the next boat and we were off.

The weather this morning was cloudy and mild.  It started to rain a little later in the day.  We arrived to the port amid the loud music of cafes, a vendor offer free rum punch samples (at 10am???) and tour operators’ shouting about their (very expensive) local tours.  We walked around a while and found a store that sells “bamboo” sheets.  That’s right, bamboo.  Bamboo produces some of the softest material I’ve ever seen. With that contribution to the local economy, we made our way back to the tender and found two seats that would keep us dry on the way back to the ship.  I met a couple of birders from Houston on the return ride. They were relatively new to Houston and asked about where to go birding. I gave them some of my favorite places including Kleb Woods and the Katy Prairie. I invited them to come with me on one of Kleb Woods famous Wednesday “bird walks.”

We're talking birds.

Back aboard the Caribbean Princess we went down to the 5^th floor Coffee Shop and had our usual cappuccinos after lunch.  Later at the cabin, I found time to read myself to sleep for a nice nap, one of my favorite afternoon events.  We went to trivial pursuit at 4:30pm teaming up with four other folks we hadn’t met before.  Of the 21 questions at least we got more of them right than wrong, specifically 12.  The one I missed and shouldn’t have, being an outdoorsman and all, was “What is the name of the habitat of beavers?”  Answer: Lodge! I said “pod”. Seemed logical! MA got “mal de mer” right (seasickness).  She’d better after all those French lessons! Dinner tonight is at 7:00pm and then we’re going to check out the comedy show. See ya via cyberspace tomorrow. WW

I passed on the Wet Lizard!

Two Days at Sea and One in Roatan, Honduras

Two Days at Sea and One in Roatan, Honduras

Sunday and Monday were “sea days” on the Caribbean Princess.  This means you can eat a lot, play a lot, loaf a lot, read a lot, and in other words do whatever you want!  MA found a Bible study on Sunday afternoon, about 30 folks were there.  There was no study leader, folks just shared their favorite verses and what they meant to them, some short testimonies, and a closing prayer.

Ron Jones puts these Veterans Get-togethers on many of the cruises we've been on.

 I was busy with a Veterans Get-Together which we find on most of our cruises.  We played Trivial Pursuit, just the two of us, not with other teams, we got 13 of 15 correct!  We docked early in Roatan Tuesday morning and I got my binoculars and went ashore, didn’t see too many birds though.  We’ve been here twice before so we opted out of the ship shore excursions.  We didn’t opt out of the hot tub this afternoon.  I even got MA some ice cream so she could enjoy that in the hot tub.  Tonight we’re going to a magic show on the Princess Theater stage, after of course we “dine”.  We chose “anytime dining” which means we eat when we want to and have different table companions at all meals.  We’ve met some pretty cool folks that way. The only downside has been the ship is still plagued with the Norovirus.  They sanitized it professionally before we left, but the virus lingers. We’ve escaped so far, washing our hands a whole lot and not touching anything like elevator buttons (use our knuckles), stair rails, etc.  MA’s not even drinking ship water or eating anything that hasn’t been cooked.  Got some pictures here to share! Enjoy!

Great Frigate bird

Cruising for a Birthday.....mine!

Cruising for a Birthday…..mine!

Mary Alice and I usually try and get away in January which goes back to her working as a CPA. She wanted a vacation before tax season. (She also wanted a vacation after tax season.) So we decided on a Princess cruise in the Caribbean from the Port of Houston.  This is our 17^th cruise and 15^th on Princess. With so many cruises the perks begin even before the ship leaves the dock. We were upgraded to a mini suite which we really like. It has a separate sitting area with its own TV and I can go there when I get up early and watch Fox News. Yes, Princess has Fox New, channel 40.  It also has ESPN with all the football and baseball games, satellite reception permitting.

This is a seven day cruise so packing was no problem.  

Our dog Tanner senses when we are getting ready to leave. Susan, Tanner’s rescue Mom, has taken him in on our travels. He seems to love going to her house because he has so many playmates, five Irish wolf-hounds, a poodle and a West Highland terrier. I got his crate and food in the car and said let’s go. He jumped right in and we were off for his vacation. My last sight of him was getting acquainted with his Irish wolf-hound buddy.

I got back home and put the suitcases in the car, got dressed, and ready to head to the ship around 11am.  That’s when Mary Alice got an email from Princess delaying our boarding until 2PM due to the Noro Virus on the previous cruise and very late docking of the ship due to dense fog. Then the crew has to scrub down the entire ship after all the incoming passengers departed. Soon we got another email saying there was a further 4 hour delay. That put us back to 5:30.  Finally we left home at 4:15 and got to the port around 5:30PM and met with a huge traffic snarl with about a thousand cars trying to get into the parking lot. It took over an hour to get the car parked, go inside, pass security and get our boarding pass.

Us boarding the Caribbean Princess

Our dinner companions for last evening were four elderly ladies from Texas. When the first course was served, the lady to my left (Judith, an amazing 85 year old) asked if she could say the “blessing”.  Right away we knew we were at the right table. Back to the cabin after to unpack and settle in. This morning, never one to miss a meal (even on a diet), we joined some new folks for breakfast.  Mary Alice had a fascinating conversation with a young man who by profession was a hang gliding instructor.  He told her if she had ever had a dream where she is flying through the air (without an airplane and she has), then she was a great candidate for hang gliding lessons.  Fortunately he and his wife live in Seattle and I’m guessing we’re not going there anytime soon.  I think Mary Alice wants to leave these kind of self-flight events to George Bush Senior!

We are at sea for two days.  MA’s going to join the book club and they are doing “The First Call from Heaven”.  I’m watching football all afternoon, either pool side or here in our cabin looking out over the deep blue seas!

One more thing.  This Noro Virus thing is highly contagious and therefore Princess has taken extreme measures to be sure no one gets it or passes it on.  For example, there is no butter or bread basket on the tables, no salt and pepper shakers, no sugar and cream, no flowers.  At the buffet you cannot serve yourself, even for something as simple as an apple. Everything there is handed to you.  If you’re in a dining room, the waiters bring salt and pepper in paper packets, hand you the sugar packets, pour your cream, and serve the bread and butter with tongs.  But then, Mary Alice bought something in the boutique and they handed her the community pen to sign the receipt. Go figure. That’s what hand sanitizers are for.

Stay tuned!  Wayne

Paris to Washington, almost home

Paris, taken two years ago

We're sitting in the United Club in Washington Dulles International Airport so I thought I would write a final quick chapter of our 2013 trip to France. We were up at 6:00 AM Paris time this morning, that's midnight at home. We got checked out of the Novotel and walked over to the shuttle train that serves Charles de Gaulle Airport. Our first challenge of the day was getting on the shuttle train in the wrong direction. But we just stayed put knowing it would soon reverse and go the opposite direction and get us to Terminal 1. 

We got checked into our United flight to Washington DC where we connect to another flight to Houston.  Air France is the only airline that flies to Paris nonstop from Houston these days. The United agent in Paris even gave us the the purple "Access No. 1" cards that enabled us to bypass all the lines! This I could go for!

From there we went to the  Alliance Club which was very crowded. We had a light breakfast and waited there for our flight. There would also be a second security screening before getting to the boarding area. 

Our flight was full but we had some good seats and got settled in for the 8+ hour "ride" to Washington.  The lunch meal was salmon appetizer,  roast lamb, cheeses, fruits and chocolate sundaes.

As usual for me, I watched several movies including Zero Dark Thirty, Dr. Strangelove and Driver.  MA played her "Candy Crush" game (she's stuck on level 147) and took a nap.

Things went along smoothly but just before beginning the descent the pilot announced a delay because the Dulles Air Traffic Control tower had a fire going on. I'm guessing it wasn't major because after about 30 minutes of circling around in the air, we descended and all was well.  We walked what seemed like a half mile to Passport Control, then baggage claim, then through customs.  We love France but we're glad to be home.  The TV's here even speak English! Whew! So until next time, thanks for reading the blog.  We really love doing these!

Paris by Subway, and I don't mean sandwich.

Paris Metro Map

Paris by Subway, and I don't mean sandwiches.

This was to be our final day in Paris for this year.  It was one of the reasons we left Vence early, to spend a couple days here. As I said yesterday, we are staying at the Novotel Hotel at the Charles de Gaulle Airport.  This morning we bought round trip train tickets to the Eiffel Tower (20 Euros/$27 US each). We easily located the RER-Blue line and got on the next train to the city, rode it to the Saint Michel station (Notre Dame) then transferred to the RER-Yellow to the Eiffel Tower. 

The lower level trains are at least 100 feet below.

Just missed this one!

Our train to Saint Michel

We came up from the subway and the top of the Eiffel was right there. After the obligatory photos we found a sidewalk cafe and had coffee and a croissant for breakfast. 

Our walk took us to the Tower and around the south side. There were long lines waiting to board the elevator to the top and even longer to pay to walk up the stairs just to the first level.  We passed on both.

We headed toward the French military school and came upon a parking lot full of 2CV's.  A 2CV is a 60's era Citroen that is a classic today.  It has only 2 cylinders. They built these cars that way because the French government used to tax cars based on the number of cylinders or horsepower. Two cylinders got you low, low taxes.  

From there we wanted to go on to Notre Dame but it was too far to walk. I spotted a Metro station and we bought our subway (Metro) tickets. We checked the map, figured out how to get there and where to get off, Saint Michel again.

Coming out of the station the first thing we saw is the large statue of Saint Michael, the Archangel that dominates the intersection. 

From there we headed toward the "Latin Quarter" where there are a bunch of ethnic restaurants to choose from. Let me see if I remember them all: French, Italian, Greek, Turkey, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, Spanish, Provence, and even Mexican. There were no American places, well except for McDonalds and "no", we didn't eat there! :-) 

We spotted a nice French restaurant instead.  The prices were not exorbitant and the food looked pretty good.  MA had pesto pasta and I had Beef Bourguignon. Both were excellent as was the service.

Notre Dame

After lunch we walked around some more until our feet told us it was time to head back to the hotel.  We found the RER-Blue Metro to Charles De Gaulle Airport and thought we were returning to the airport hotel. 

After two stops MA realized that we were on the wrong RER-Blue line. You see this train has two routes that split about five stops before the airport, one going to the right and the other left and that's the one we should have been on...but weren't. 

You have to be careful about boarding Metros and trains. It's always best to look at the map, figure the trains final destination, see if your stop is on the way, then board it. Another tip was if you're going to the airport, look for other folks with suitcases! Anyhow we quickly got off at the next stop and waited for the right RER-Blue line that we should have been on.  About thirty minutes later we were at our hotel door step.  That was our day in Paris. We really had a lot of fun.

Here are some other photos from today:

French restaurant in the Latin Quarter

Gargoyle

Pedestrian street in the Latin Qarter

Le Marathon French Specialty Grill

St Michel

Interior of St Severin

We were confident about this train going to the airport, people with luggage.

Nice to Paris: A Trying Day

Nice to Paris, A Trying Day

We left our small apartment in Vence on Friday morning around 7:50 am.  Our flight to Paris from Nice did not leave until 1:00 pm so the plan was to gas up the rental car, drive to the local McDonald's and have a long breakfast and enjoy the free WiFi - only to discover they wouldn't open for another hour.  So we headed toward Nice and the GPS found us another one.  Now don't laugh! We know we're in France and who goes to McDonald's with all those wonderful sidewalk cafes!  It's the free and reliable WiFi!!  Anyhow, we were also next to a Carrefour grocery store.  Tons of people streamed in when they opened the door so I just had to go do a little exploring there!  

This is the largest grocery store I have ever seen in France and it serves as the entrance to a very big mall. It's in some way like our malls with Carrefour being the anchor.  Carrefour is the equivalent Super Walmart. I walked around the mall and found a store called "Texas", although looking through the window I didn't see anything related to Texas. Folks we've met on our travels, especially foreigners, respond positively when we say we're from Texas. It's gotten to the point when they ask what country we're from we say Texas! Always gets a smile.

Texas store with French clothing

Video gaming is big with the French also

as well as your local Nike shop

We finished breakfast and traveled the four miles to the airport.  The Nice Airport has two terminals, one domestic and one international.  We "assumed" that we would leave from Terminal 1 just like always. I dropped MA off there and I drove to Terminal 2 to return the rental car. I hopped on the shuttle bus and found MA right back where I had left her. We gathered our suitcases and went inside to check in and relax before our 1:00 pm flight.  One problem, Air France was not in Terminal 1.  Domestic flights such as Paris and Euro zone counties apparently leave from Terminal 2.  So we moved our bags back to the shuttle bus and got over to Terminal 2.

One look at what was waiting for us quickly reminded me of an old Air Force management saying about the five P's of performance. They are "prior planning prevents poor performance." The check-in procedure we went through surely needed some prior planning!

This is because it was here that the "try-one's-patience" part of the journey began.  We looked at where we were to check in and found a line of nearly 200 folks ahead of us.  Air France (or the airport staff) only had 3-5 agents on duty, for all of us and this depended on who was going on break or lunch.   We waited in line for about 2 hours. I was very glad we had arrived there so early.  When it was finally our turn, the agent was still smiling.  Amazing! We cleared security fairly easily, went to the gate, had a snack, and they called our flight for boarding.

I took this photo of the 3 stations handling all those people as we left to go through security.

We were in the first group to board because our seats were in the last row on the left.  The flight was nice, European flight attendants are great! We landed in Paris around 2:45 pm and made our way to the baggage claim area.   MA's red suitcase arrived right away.  Mine never made it.  MA's French lessons kicked in right on cue for this situation.  She got us some directions to the Lost/Delayed Baggage office and took control of the situation, beginning a long conversation in French with the Air France employee.  I was impressed.  All those French lessons! 

The agent was very cordial, very professional, checked our baggage claim and right away he told us: "Your suitcase is still in Nice." He assured us that he would have the bag sent on the next  flight and would see to it that it was delivered to our hotel.

Well there was nothing I could do about it.  I was upset at first but that didn't do any good.  I'll remember to pack a second change of clothes in my carry-on from now one.  Our hotel, the Novotel, is right at the airport, making our departure tomorrow really much easier. We caught the shuttle train to terminal 3 and walked straight into the lobby. 

Realizing we were pretty tired, we stayed "in", having a nice meal at the hotel restaurant.  Oh! My suitcase did arrive at 9:45 pm and all is well. It's now Sunday morning and we're are getting ready to take the train into Paris. Final blog for this trip to be written on board United Airline tomorrow!  Thanks for tuning in.

Tourrettes sur Loup with Nola and Randy

Tourrettes sur Loup with Nola and Randy

One of our favorite villages in the south of France is Tourrettes sur Loup, partly because Nola (MA’s sister) lived here for many years working at the Burger Bistro, an American owned restaurant that years ago was very popular with the famous and the not so famous.  Tourrettes is about 20 minutes north of Vence. As you will see from the pictures, one can quickly be transported back several hundred years imagining what life was like when the stone houses and cobble stone streets were built. 

We have a favorite restaurant we always go to with Nola and Randy.  We each ordered something different, well except for Nola and me: “Croque Monsieur” each, (grilled ham and cheese).  MA had “une salade avec gambas” (shrimp salad) and Randy had the “plat du jour” which was pork with fresh green beans.  After lunch we strolled around, got some ice cream, I took some pictures and we headed back to Vence.

Randy & Nola

Nola & Mary Alice

Table water is served in blue bottles in Provence

Our favorite hangout in Vence is Henry’s, THE most popular spot in town.  Nola and Randy know the owners and our favorite waiter Yves who greeted MA today with kisses on both cheeks, very French! We had coffees and called the day a huge success.  Tomorrow we meet them again at Henry’s, but in the morning.  It’s open air market day in Vence, always a big and may I add fun event.  MA usually buys something to wear that she ends up not wearing after all. It probably looks OK in France, but Texas?  Who knows! We’ll have lunch at a local restaurant where the chef is a long-time friend of Nola and Randy’s. 

Then we’ll have to bid “adieu” until the next time.  MA and I have to put the apartment back the way we found it and pack our bags for two days in Paris. Then it’s home sweet home on Monday, arriving at midnight!  I’ll be up early Tuesday morning to get Tanner!!

A pictoral tour of Tourrettes sur Loup