Hello It's Me

I'm still here.

Dropping in to say hi.  I'll check in again later.

"Water, water, every where..."

Went to Inner Space Cavern in Georgetown, Texas today with the family and came away with this nugget of advice from our tour guide:

"The water in this 3-foot hole is filtered through the limestone above and is 98% pure which is cleaner than the water you drink at home but don't drink this water because a raccoon gets down here and messes in it."

Universal Orlando 2017 - Halloween Horror Nights, Day 2

Universal is split up into two theme parks, a water park, and a shopping/dining district.  The theme parks are Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  The Hogwarts Express links the parks if you have a park-to-park ticket allowing you to visit both parks on the same day.

On this day Jackie, our friend from Florida, met us at Islands of Adventure at 9am.  Whenever we visit the area she's always gracious enough to spend a day at the parks with us, and we always have a great time hanging out with her.  This day was no exception, and she even got soaked with us on the river raft ride: Popeye & Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges.

I'll spare you the play-by-play description and just share some highlights.

The start of a fun day

Universal Orlando 2017 - Halloween Horror Nights, Day 1

Hello again!  Hope you're doing well.

We had decided after our last trip to Universal Orlando in 2016 that we would go back in 2017 to experience Halloween Horror Nights, and we're really glad we did.

Hurricane Irma was a concern heading into this trip since it stormed through the area just days before our scheduled arrival, but it ended up not impacting our travel.  Hurricane Hermine blew through while we were at Universal the year before, so I guess this was just par for the course.

We landed in Orlando at 4:30, checked in at the Universal desk at the airport, then 5 minutes later we were on the shuttle van to our on-site hotel.  Our shuttle driver was great (didn't get his name), and the check in clerk Nadine-Marie at the hotel was terrific; a great experience overall.

Always have to take a cloud pic

Arriving at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort - one of the on-site hotels available at Universal

Pea Soup

I'm not a big fan of peas.  They're fine in small doses like in fried rice or Mexican rice, or occasionally a spoonful of really fresh peas is ok, but that's about it.  So I surprised myself a couple of weeks ago when I bought a can of Campbell's Green Pea soup.  Let's just say I was (insert The Exorcist pea soup reference here) temporarily possessed in the Kroger soup aisle.

So here's how it went today:

Oh god, is it supposed to be solid?

I looked online and apparently this is "normal" and will dissolve once the water's added and it's stirred and heated, but I mean, come on...

Ok, so it did eventually turn into soup.  Unfortunately it turned into pea soup which I now know is disgusting.  To say it tasted as good as it looked would be a kind assessment.  After two spoonfuls I chucked the lot down the drain and started lunch over with baked tilapia.

Grand Canyon 2017 - Day 5

It's a pre-Christmas miracle - I'm back at my blog after a 3-month hiatus for no reason other than I couldn't get motivated to write/caption/post.  Now to pick up where we left off at the Grand Canyon...

For the 5th day of our Grand Canyon road trip, Todd and I decided to hike down Bright Angel Trail.  We caught the shuttle into the park and once there took another shuttle, the blue line, to the trailhead. We started the hike around 9am, which in hindsight was way too late, but we did it anyway.

Our original destination was "1 1/2 Mile Resthouse" which is exactly that - a rest house 1 1/2 miles down the canyon.  Beyond that, the next point on the trail is the 3 Mile Resthouse.  Todd really wanted to do the 3 mile one, which means 3 miles down, then a 3-mile continuous climb back up for a total of 6 miles.  I thought this would be way too much, but we did it anyway.

The physical exertion and heat was extremely rough even though we had food and plenty of water.  Looking back, the one note I made while on the trail was "Dying."

Looking back up the trail while just starting out on the way down.  Think of this and worse, in the sun, for 3 miles.

A very good place to start

Pardon The Interruption

Just got back from a trip to Universal Orlando for Halloween Horror Nights.  Really fun and creepy!

I'll finish up the Grand Canyon posts after I recover.  See you then.

Soon

Grand Canyon 2017 - Day 4

A road trip within our road trip today.  We breakfasted at the hotel at 7:00am then at 8:30 left for Sedona.  It's about a 2 hour drive from Tusayan and instead of going all the way down to I40 then over to Flagstaff, we split off at the Flintstones place and took 180 to Flagstaff.  I'm glad we did, as that drive was much more interesting.

180 took us through peaks, ski areas and forest (not right here obviously)

Red Mountain.  That's its name.  There were a lot of hiking and exploring options along this corridor, including a mile long lava tube.  We'll have to spend more time when we come back.

Approaching Sedona.  The drive down 89A from Flagstaff offers some great views once you get closer.  I was reminded several times of Custer State Park in South Dakota.

Grand Canyon 2017 - Day 3, Part 2: The Plane

After our hike we got back to the hotel at 2:45pm and had just enough time to catch our breath before meeting up with everyone at 3:00pm.  We then drove 1/2 mile over to the Grand Canyon Airport for a flight over and around the Grand Canyon in a Cessna Caravan single engine plane.  This was another idea of Mom's, and it was a great one - definitely a highlight of the trip!  She made the arrangements that morning before we split off for our hike.

We arrived at the airport, checked in for our flight with Grand Canyon Airlines, paid, and had a short wait before our pilot came to walk us out onto the tarmac.  We put on our headphones, had a quick safety lecture, then we were off.  Music and narration was piped in over the headphones, and the pilot periodically cut in with his own observations.

Shirley and Walt in the airport terminal

All aboard

Grand Canyon 2017 - Day 3, Part 1: The Hike

I'm breaking this one up into 2 posts, a.m. and p.m., because I'm terrible at self-editing and have included a lot of photos.

Like this panorama I took later in the day

Grand Canyon 2017 - Day 2

Taken on the road at 75mph (I love my iPhone 7+)

Day 2 started with breakfast at our hotel at 7am, then we hit the road at 8:30.  On the way we gained another hour and reached Flagstaff at 12:30 local time.  We turned North off of I40 at Williams and drove 50 miles to our hotel (Holiday Inn Express again) in Tusuyan, AZ.

Grand Canyon 2017 - Day 1

Hello again!

Todd and I just returned from a road trip to the Grand Canyon with my mom, aunt Shirley, and my aunt's beau Walt.  We had such a great time - seeing the Grand Canyon in photos or on tv doesn't compare with seeing it in person.

The first day we were on the road at 7:30am and drove from Dallas to Albuquerque, NM  We took 2 cars and stopped in Bowie, TX to meet up with the other vehicle.  Mom transferred from Shirley's car to ours and we were on our way.  We stopped around 1:00 for lunch in Amarillo at Red Robin and were back on the road at 2pm.

Windmills near Electra, TX

Maybe don't let your kids play in the playsnakeground at this rest stop near Quanah, TX

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 10: Home

7/15/17

Well, all good things must come to an end and whatnot.  We checked out early, caught our ride to the airport and flew home to Dallas.

Goodbye Mt. Rainier

Goodbye cloud and green hills and valley with winding river

Goodbye mountaintop lakes

Hello DFW Airport

Hello heat :(

AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys

Actually there's quite a lot of attractions in this area

And that wraps up our Alaskan cruise.  I'll sum up with these thoughts:  We had a great time with John and Norma and are so glad we got to go with them.  The experience of cruising up the inland passage to Alaska was great - relaxing, amazing sights, great weather, terrific excursions.  The experience the cruise line offered while on the ship was fine; it was about what I expected except for the constant pushing of merchandise.  They really went the full QVC while we were trapped on board.

Seattle was already on my list of places to go, but now that we've had a taste it's been bumped up to a higher priority.  We've agreed that we want to explore the city more, spend time outside the city enjoying nature, and road-tripping from there to Vancouver.  We'll have to make that happen soon.

I would definitely like to spend more time in Alaska as well, mainly hiking and exploring.  There's so much natural beauty there that it's hard to imagine how we would choose where to go and what to do.  When we go back we most likely will fly in instead of cruising again, giving us more time to explore on our own.  The same goes for Victoria, British Columbia.  That looked like a fun town to spend some time exploring, and we've got to spend more time at the amazing Butchart Gardens.

Wow, the destination list just keeps growing.  We'll have to balance new discoveries with revisiting favorites.

Thanks for sticking around.  Next up will be our first trip to the Grand Canyon, so I'll see you then!

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 9: Seattle

July 14, 2017, our last morning on board the ship.  We stayed in Seattle for the day and left for home the next morning.

4am:  Edmonds, WA

5:15am:  Seattle

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 8: Victoria, British Columbia

7/13/17

A lot of pictures for this post, so I'll cut down on the minutia.

On this morning we docked in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.  John would stay onboard while Norma, Todd and I had an excursion to Butchart Gardens and Craigdarroch Castle.  We met Norma at her room at 8:45 then headed down our designated excursion post in the Palace Theater on deck 5.  They grouped by excursion type, then when the time came we left the ship in groups to board the buses.

Our guide and driver took us through Victoria first, then on to our first stop.  We arrived at Butchart Gardens at 10am, and it was incredible.  We had 1 1/2 hours to tour the gardens, but in hindsight we should have spent all day there, it was that amazingly beautiful.

After the gardens the bus took us back to Victoria at 12:30 where we toured Craigdarroch Castle which is not really a castle, but a storied old house/mansion.  It was interesting, but paled compared to the previous stop.  We spent an hour at Craigdarroch then drove back through Victoria to the port.

Sunrise view

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 7

7/12/17 - A day at sea.

There was no scheduled port of call for this day as we sailed toward Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

5:09am

20 minutes later

Another shot

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 6: Endicott Arm Fjord & Dawes Glacier

7/11/17

A new sight outside our window this morning as we head up (down?) the Endicott Arm Fjord on the way to Dawes Glacier:

Is that...?

...it is.  Ice.
(Lots of ice pics coming up - nyuk, nyuk, nyuk)

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 5: Skagway

7/10/17

On this morning we made our 2nd port of call:  Skagway, Alaska.

The view from our balcony at 5am this morning

I believe that small town on the water's edge is Haines, Alaska

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 4: Juneau, Part 2

Continued from the previous post.

That's the Mount Roberts Tramway.  You can just make out the tram near the top in the photo.  Riders board a gondola at at the docks and ride to the top where there are scenic views, hiking opportunities, a nature center, shop, restaurant and more.

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 4: Juneau, Part 1

July 9th - Port of call:  Juneau, Alaska

On this morning we were still under power with a noon arrival in Juneau.  We crossed time zones and gained an hour so I was up earlier than usual.  It was about 55 degrees and the sky was overcast with a light rain - perfect weather for traveling north in my opinion.

I put on my shorts, t-shirt and hoodie to go walking and left Todd sleeping.  Since it was raining too much to walk on the track on deck 11 I went down to deck 4 - the outside area there (where the lifeboats are) encircles the entire ship and is almost completely covered.  I don't think I've already posted it, so I've included a cutaway of the ship's layout below.

This morning's view from our stateroom.  Love it.

Deck 4 with the lifeboats hanging above

I've drawn this handy diagram to show...
Just kidding.  Picture from royalcaribbean.co.uk

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 3

July 8th - Our first full day at sea.

This morning's view from our balcony

A couple of hours later and the surface of the water is ridged/rippled

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 2

July 7, 2017

Morning broke in Seattle and put on my walking shoes for a 4 mile walk around the area.  I didn't have an agenda in mind when I left the room, but by the time I hit the street I had decided to head to the Space Needle (about a mile and a half from the hotel).

The early morning empty lobby of the W

Made it.  I took a couple of photos then continued on my way.

Alaskan Cruise 2017 - Day 1: North To Alaska!

Earlier this month we returned from an Alaskan cruise with my in-laws John and Norma.  Neither Todd nor his parents had ever been on a cruise before.  I had been on a cruise to the Bahamas in high school, but that was so long ago that this was like a first cruise for all of us.  Alaska turned out to be the perfect destination since it was much needed break from the Texas heat.

We sailed with Royal Caribbean on the Explorer of the Seas.  The cruise departed from and returned to Seattle, Washington, so to ease travel fatigue and stress we bookended the trip with an overnight stay there at each end of the trip.  We'll definitely be going back for a dedicated Seattle vacation in the future - what a fun place!

We flew out on July 6th, so John and Norma drove up to spend the night with us on the 5th.  We got up the morning of the 6th and they went to breakfast while Todd and I took the cats to be boarded - so hard to leave them!  All of us met back at the house then made our way to the airport.

We made it through security and down to the gate with plenty of time to spare so we grabbed a bite at Einstein Bros. Bagels.  I had a turkey sausage, egg and cheese bagel.  As we were finishing we received alerts that our gate had changed to another terminal.  Pressed for time now, we made our way to the Skyline train that connects the terminals and had just boarded when...it broke down.  Luckily, it was up and running again within 10 minutes and we made it to our new terminal and gate with just enough time to stop at the restroom before boarding.  Whew.

The flight was uneventful.  We received a meal on this flight so I had a veggie enchilada, corn salad, romaine lettuce, wheat roll and glass of red mystery wine.  Dessert was a really good lemon coconut cake and a cup of coffee.

Love taking photos of clouds from above

Disneyland Trip 2017 - Day 5

Well, we had a really good time and this trip totally satisfied the "got to get away" urge.

We checked out and waited out in front of the hotel for about 40 minutes for our Disney bus to come to take us to LAX.  The ride back was uneventful and we still had time to kill so we hung out in the new international terminal for a bit.  Then it was back to home and hearth, rested and relaxed!

I'm ready to go...where's that damn bus?

We saw this ginormous British Airways double decker plane getting prepped for takeoff

This thing was just massive

Getting close to home.  From up here civilization just looks like a bioluminescent splotch on the Earth.

That's it for this report.  Thanks for sticking around and waiting for the finish!

Now, let me tell you about Alaska...