Cruisin' Part II

View of San Juan from Fort San Felipe del Morro.
Border between the Dutch St. Marten and French St. Martin. People move back and forth freely without problems to either country.
Sitting on the beach at Phillipsburg, St. Marten. Yes, I got a perm a few weeks ago, thus the curly locks.
I read two books on this trip. Arne thought it cute to take a picture of me reading in bed. You can see I let him know what I thought of his photo shoot.

Arne's garden did well while we were gone. Our neighbor picked two tomatoes. More are coming and the green peppers are ready for picking.

Cruisin' on the Caribbean

I’m sitting in our stateroom with the balcony door open, listening to the sound of the ocean. I feel like we’ve been in a house on the beach for the past week. I’ll definitely prefer a verandah on any future cruise!

Arne and I drove to Ft. Lauderdale, Saturday, May 15, little over a four hour drive. Along the way, we encountered lovebugs. I was reading and thought it had started to rain. Our windshield was splattered by dozens of bugs in a short distance. When we pulled off the turnpike, into a service island, I was amazed to see the fronts of all the cars with black marks all over the front and white marks on the windshields. Arne bought some bug wash and tried to get most of them off as they can really damage the paint. We’ll probably run into them again. They appear in May and September.

Saturday night, college friend and fraternity brother, Ron Pearson and Ellen, picked us up at our motel and took us to a lovely restaurant for dinner. They then took us to their lovely home for coffee and more visiting.

Sunday afternoon, Arne and I boarded the Celebrity Solstice for seven nights. Tuesday, we had a brief stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Arne and I walked to the remains of a couple forts which were used for 500 years. They are both now National Parks. Fortunately, I had my Eagle Pass and we got in for free. Sometimes, It just pays to be “old.”

Wednesday, the ship spent the day in St. Thomas. Arne and I decided to take the ferry to St. John, which is supposed to be the “Emerald of the Caribbean.” We took a tour of the island and I didn’t notice much difference between it and St. Thomas.

Thursday’s port was St. Marten. They built a new pier especially for Oasis of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship which holds 6000 passengers and 3000 crew. This 37 square mile island belongs to two countries, Netherlands and France. People travel freely across the two borders. Our guide, Green...I swear, that’s what he said we should call him...was very funny. We shared his van with two other couples. One of the men, John, sat in front by Green. We were taken to a nude beach. Green couldn’t wait to show us this particular beach. He continually talked about prostitution and making jokes to John. As in the Netherlands, prostitution is legal on St. Marten, as is gambling and cock fighting.

Friday and Saturday were sea days as we head back to Ft. Lauderdale. I’m not looking forward to the end of this cruise. I will miss the sound of the ocean, as well as not cooking or cleaning. I have gone to the Fitness Center every day but probably not long enough to burn calories for all the desserts I’ve been eating. :-(

(I will try to upload more pictures tomorrow night as I'm having trouble with my connection tonight.)

Mother's Day Week-end

Mother's Day began for me on Thursday when I received a package from ProFlowers. I assumed it was from Erik as he's sent me flowers for years. I was very surprised to see that it was from Lisa. The box contained tulips, vase and small box of chocolates. She included a very nice message which brought tears to my eyes. Thank you, Lisa.
On Friday, I was about to head out for a manicure and pedicure when the UPS truck pulled up with another ProFlowers box. Thank you, Erik. I was beginning to feel like it was my funeral and very happy that indeed it was not.
Saturday's mail brought a beautiful card from Erik which brought tears to my eyes.

Sunday, Arne took me to Red Lobster as he thought the kids would like him to take me out for dinner. I thought it was good idea and had a delicious dinner of stuffed flounder and peppercorn steak. That evening, Aaron called and we chatted for quite a while. I'm very lucky to have such loving and thoughtful children. It was a great Mother's Day!!

Cinco de Mayo

Hope everyone had a happy Cinco de Mayo. I played 9 holes of golf (par 3's) and then we drove home in rain. After a thunderstorm with lots of rain and lightning passed over, Arne and I went up to the town square and met a couple from Illinois. We first met them at a Super Bowl party. Hal worked for the same company as bro-in-law, Carl. According to Hal, Carl was a "rock star" inside Colonial Hospital Supply, the company for which they worked. After sipping a margarita and listening to the entertainment for about 90 minutes, we headed to a restaurant, TGI Fridays, for a bite to eat. They were serving free enchiladas and tacos. So, another margarita, small salad and free entrees. :-)

This morning, I worked with three Hispanic ladies to improve their English. In the afternoon, a neighbor and I went to our line dance class. We were taught a cha-cha line dance with which I was having great difficulty. I finally realized I was doing a step touch when I should have been doing two steps. Made a world of difference once I figured that out. Our teacher goes to the town square every Monday evening to lead beginners in line dancing. I hope to go next Monday.

Derby Week

Arne and I took a road trip last Wednesday. Granddaughter Kadin had asked me to take Flat Stanley to the beach. Rather than going to one of the popular beaches near Tampa, we chose to take Stanley to a fishing village on an island in the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 miles from The Villages. While Cedar Key is not a place we'd ever go again, we're glad we checked it out. We did get pictures of Stanley on a "beach" and I cleaned up the "beach" in Photoshop. I also added a "pirate ship" as Arne came up with a tale of Stanley getting captured by pirates, tied to a tree and then getting away to hide behind a bench. We hope it made it a little more interesting for Kadin's third grade class.

Friday while playing golf, I spotted this turtle on the cart path. It was trying to get back to the pond from which it had wandered.

Saturday afternoon we went to the Miona Shores Derby party. The temperature hit 90 degrees and everyone was seeking shade. Super Saver was one of my horses but unfortunately Jeff, who was taking the bets, talked me into a Quinella. (What's that again?) You have to pick two horses for a Quinella so I put Super Saver and Lookin at Lucky. Big mistake! If I'd bet on them individually I would have won some money. Oh well, live and learn. I've never been very good at gambling.


Since the party started at 3 and the real Derby wasn't until 6:15, we could bet on the Miona Shores Derby. These were wooden cutouts of horses which advance one or two spaces depending upon what's drawn, like Bingo. I didn't place any bets on these races. There was also a hat contest for best man and lady's hat as well as most unique. There were some very pretty ladies' hats. I just made a bow for one of my golf hats. I asked Arne to take a picture of my hat and below is what he took. Doesn't show my nice bow! Arne walked into the kitchen Friday, when I was trying to make a bow with Bowdabra from Joanne's,and he asked if I was doing something domestic. Doesn't happen very often for this jock. :-)

Sunday, after church, I practiced basketball and volleyball. I'm slowly getting better in both sports. In the evenig, we had Roger and Nancy for dinner. They are neighbors who will be going to their Michigan home for the summer. Roger brought over his new iPad. It looks like a giant iTouch. I'll bet Arne will be getting one of them soon. It's pretty neat and not much smaller than my laptop screen.