Caribbean Beauty - I thought about Carol at QuiltedFiberArt at every port!

 



Yep, I kept looking around and thinking, Carol would LOVE this view......oh Carol would LOVE these rocks...….Carol would LOVE this water!

We had no problems with air travel this time.  For a change!  Got to Miami when they said we would on a 737 no less.  Not a Max 8 or 9 however.  Miami was gorgeous!

The weather all through the Caribbean was perfect, not too hot, not blazing heat like they have in the summer months.  This is the perfect time to go.  No large crowds, but things are totally open and available. 

We boarded the Norwegian Bliss, a brand new HUGE ship.  4400 capacity passengers and 1500 crew.   But either they had a lot less than capacity passengers or they have designed this ship to spread people out, because we never stood in lines or was crowded like in some other ships.

That is the Bliss on the left.  The ship on the right is the Carnival ship we have been on several times.  BIG difference!

beautifully designed with a race track for go carts, a 3 story water slide, a 3 story out over the water water slide, a bowling alley, an arcade gallery and laser tag on the 21st floor.  Frank got sick on the race cars......just sayin'

















We caught up with our cruising friends Allan and Diane.   Laughed and loved every minute together!











We saw two Broadway shows (Jersey Boys and Havana)and the Fab Four Show.  Did you know the Jersey Boys was about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons?  For some reason I didn't!

We kayaked in St Thomas, zip lined in Tortuga and segwayed in Blue Lagoon Nassau.  Well, Frank zip lined through 7 stations across the island, if I were meant to fly though the air I would have been born with wings.

Even the sunsets look like whales!

It is good to be home.  Tomorrow we get the dogs and all will be back to normal......except for a little sand in my suitcase!

Sailing day Southhampton England

FYI:  The vacation posts will have a lot of photos so I am going to make them smaller in the posts.  You can make them larger by clicking on them and just scrolling though the photos themselves.  Or individually.  Some of them are very well worth making larger!

The plan was to take a flight from Baton Rouge to Houston, then we had first class tickets from Houston to London directly.  But the Baton Rouge flight took off almost an hour late and we missed the connection in Houston by 5 minutes.

We always build a day into our travel in case of disasters and we needed nearly every second of this one.


We were put on the 4:30 pm direct Houston/Heathrow flight (didn't make it on), then on the 8:30 pm direct Houston/Heathrow flight (got cancelled), then on an 11:30 pm flight to Washington DC Dulles  to sleep overnight in the terminal waiting for the 7 am London flight the next day.

We had no idea we would be on the Washington Dulles flight, we wondered if our luggage knew it would need to be on that flight as well.  We wondered if we would ever see it again because we knew we would be in no place to be able to receive the luggage.

 Finally we made it to London after a 12 hour flight, Frank in the back of the plane sitting next to a very young woman with a 6 month old baby, both of whom cried the  entire light.  And me in the middle section of the plane watching 3 movies trying not to wake the people on either side of me.  Obviously not first class.

We had planned on touring around London a bit but that didn't happen!  Alas, Big Ben.

On Friday, as we rode the bus to the pier we passed at least 3 Ikeas!  The Costco stores I saw Norway and Iceland had 3 stories! Wow!

We were sailing on the Norwegian Jade, a ship we had been on several times before in various locations in Alaska and the Caribbean. 

As we left the Southhampton pier, we were reminded of another famous ship that had also sailed from that great city so many years ago, heading on nearly the same path as we were taking toward Iceland.....the Titanic.  Luckily the passengers on the Jade had a happier cruise.



 It was a clear day when we left port. If I owned a sailboat like this, I would greet the passengers on cruise ships too!  What a lovely way to spend a weekend outing.

As we were sipping our tea and eating crumpets on Deck 12, I don't think I had found those amazing brownies yet, when I realized a thick fog was rolling in.



We watched the cloud come over the ship as the foghorn sounded.  We went from clear day to heavy cloud overhead.  I have never seen a fog like this. 

As the Jade went deeper into the the fog you could see the layers from the ocean looking up to the clearer atmosphere.

I have a number of sunset photos if anyone is into that, let me know, I can share with you.  I play with screwing up the camera settings and taking a bunch of them. 

As we walked down Deck 7 Promenade it was unbelievable to see the fog thick enough to obscure the ship a quarter of the way down the deck.

We sailed like this throughout the night. This was not the only time we would run into this incredible fog on this  trip.

Next stop, Bergen Norway.

Dogs Are Home, and All My Wash Is Done

Everything is good, except McGee keeps coughing up a bunch of phlegm all over my rug, the sofa, the floor.  We are running around trying to stick towels under his face when he starts coughing, which  annoys the devil out of him and he manages to avoid the towel about 50% of the time.

Did 3 loads of clothes, washed/folded/hung.

Went to grocery and got milk, yogurt, celery.......can't live in South Louisiana and not have celery!

So here are a few photos from the trip and we can get back to quilting stuff.

 Greater New Orleans Bridge on the Mississippi River.  this is where the Cruise Ships dock.




Our Ship, there were 4200 passengers this cruise.  639 were with the band NiklBeer out of Lafayette.  Amazing.  Private parties every night, concerts mid-ship, just amazing.

 Once you leave New Orleans you head down river and out the mouth to the Gulf of Mexico.  Frank calls on all the plants so he was entertaining  group of people pointing out the various companies and what they make.  This one is the Domino Sugar facility and I have no idea what the other one is.  they all look alike to me!  But you can see the bend in the river.

This is the Naval Yard where they have filmed episodes of NCIS: New Orleans!  Remember how good Scott Bacula looked on the show Quantum Leap many moons ago?

Sunset on the river is so beautiful.  the whole cruise we had the most perfect weather.   As it got dark, the Norwegian Dawn (upon which we have also sailed) passed us just before we reached the mouth of the Mississippi.





Sailing right into Key West!

Ernest Hemingway cooked eggs on  that little stove there in the corner!

The garden are beautiful, and full of 54 kitties with 6 toesies!  These polydactyl cats all are descendants of Snowball.  A cat named Jake had 28 toes.



The polydactls were thought to be lucky so they were found on many sailing ships.  Mousers, they were.

Here is the Travel Basset having tea with one of the Mitten Kittens.







Key West is  full of loose chickens.

And here is the Basset hobnobbing with Papa himself.  The Statue Garden in the center of the port area is full of notable personages who loved coming to Key West.

 We kayaked through the mangroves in Freeport, Bahamas.

 And ended up on the most beautiful beach.  The photo with frank is at the point where the fresh water river down the center of the island meets the ocean.




So many animals on the beach!

The beach is truly beautiful!

 Nassau!  Oh My!  Segways!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Segways!

 This is a LOOP type facility just off the shore.  It takes the oil
tankers and brings their cargo to the holding tanks on land via underwater piping. Those tall yellow things are the pipes that extend to the ships.

 Condomize?  No Problem, Mon.

 Frank ordered fish and chips and got piranha.  When he opened the container, I jumped back about 10 feet.  Man that thing was ugly!

These are conch shells.  I did eat fried conch.  It was certainly prettier than Frank's meal!

4 Cruise ships in port!  It sure is a beautiful  place though.








 Here is the Travel Basset riding the segway with his Bahamian buds.

We left, heading home.

New  Orleans in the dawn is truly beautiful.

When you want to sail again, just let me know!  We are heading out to sail the Panama Canal next!