San Juan - Day 2

Bob woke up early this morning and hit the gym, good guy that he is. I showered and packed while he was gone. By the time he got back and showered, we were pretty late having breakfast.  We just went to the little cafe downstairs and ran into Jim and Kathy - imagine that!

Before we knew it, it was time to check out of the hotel and check in at the ship. Woohoo!! We had planned to go back into the city after checking our luggage but that just didn't happen. We did, however, pick up some wine for the room and some Orange Truffle Baileys (the only place you can get the stuff). Cari and Matt bought some on their cruise and said it was bubble wrapped and delivered to their cabin before packing up the following Friday. Sounded good to us. Once we got our photos taken for the ship's ID check-in, we headed up to deck 10 (the buffet) for a snack - which led to a beer. Which then led to the decision to hang on the ship since the captain announced we could get into our cabins.

Of course the first thing we did as soon as we opened our balconies was pop a bottle of champagne!

We met our cabin steward, German (pronounced Herman). As of now, 4pm, we still only have 2 out of 3 bags. Crossing our fingers since the last bag has all our snorkel gear in it. (The bag finally showed up around 5pm - thank goodness.) Bob and I tried to go to the sauna since we had some extra time but were told we couldn't get in until 5pm because they're still showing it to new passengers. Bummer! That doesn't work for us since we have 6pm reservations for Qsine tonight. Looking forward to that since the yewts enjoyed it so much!

The plan was to meet outside in the hallway at 5:50 and walk to Qsine together. We were all there ... except Jim and Kathy (we will don't have cruise names for them). We knocked on their door. Then knocked harder on their door. Waited a few more seconds and figured maybe they went on ahead. Well, I guess they did because when we got there they were still missing. They did show up a few minutes later saying they didn't get the memo about meeting in the hallway. Hmmmm, thought we were all out on our decks when we talked about that. Anywaaaaay ...

The restaurant is beautiful. Very classy. The service was impeccable, of course. Percy took excellent care of us tonight. You order on an iPad - how cool is that? There are 20 different categories to order from. Within each category there are from 2-8 different things to try. They say most people don't get past 8. We had a better chance since there are 8 of us. We started off with a shrimp dish that was amazing. Then there was the lava crab cake. Yummmm. M's Favorites is the category that contains the highlights of the menu. I think there were 12 things to taste from that one alone, all of which was superb. I believe the chicken and lamb was next followed by the filet minion (the best I've ever had). There was a kebab in there somewhere and I don't even remember what the last thing we had was, but it was delicious. (ETA: it was different Indian dishes - the shrimp curry and the chicken curry were both wonderful.) We made it through seven.

Stuffed to the gills we couldn't hold any more. So since we were all so full we couldn't force another bite down ... IT WAS TIME FOR DESSERT!!!! Oh. My. God. 

The first thing Percy brought out was a chocolate something. Seriously? It was paired with a frozen bullet filled with gelato. Then these little naked cupcakes appeared with toppings to choose from so you could put what you wanted on them. Little apple dumplings with different sauces to choose from was put in front of us, along with a type of cheesecake dessert with raspberries. And last but not least there was an apple pie/crisp type of dish. Jeez Louise people. For real? Here we go again. Even though we can't possible put another bite in our mouths our hands move independently of our brains and start putting dollops of this and that on our plates. Then those betraying little hands stick forks, or spoons, in said dollops and bring them to our mouths. Of course the mouth opens. Shaking my head I chew, roll my eyes in delight and wonder swallowing yet again. That process was repeated several more times. Cranes anyone?

I'm not sure anyone has ever considered a mandatory muster call saved by the bell before. Tonight we did. If we didn't get out of there when we did I'm not sure we'd have been able to move at all tomorrow. What a magical, wonderful experience!! Thanks to Cari and Matt for recommending this. We thoroughly enjoyed every miserable minute. Hahaha

The announcement was made and the bells were going off telling us to report directly to our muster station. Good little rule followers that we are, we did just that. Trust me, there's always a naughty list and we had a pretty long one of cabins that weren't accounted for. It's a necessary evil but wasn't too painful. Finally we got to head to the Lido deck to hang out and watch the ship leave. Or so we thought. It appeared we weren't the only ones with that bright idea and it was full! How dare they! So we went another deck up and lounged there for a while. The Adventures of the Seas, docked right behind us, was gearing up to leave and it was pretty cool watching them pull out of port. It's a beautiful ship all lit up at night. And that's the one we'll be on for our cruise next January!!

After a few more drinks, it was getting closer to 10:00 and we were thinking about going to see the show. Tonight was scheduled to be a comedian. The gang moseyed that way. We grabbed seats in the back just in case it was corny so we could leave without attracting too much attention. Thankfully, we didn't have too. But boy did it start out slow. There was a band. And they were ok. Did I mention they were ok? Next a couple of singers came out and serenaded us. Aaaannnd we're still rolling our eyes and wondering if we're in the right place or wrong night. Finally the comedian took the stage.

Jay Lamont loves music. He started out talking about different singers. And he can do some damn fine impressions! Whitney Houston, Barry White, James Brown, Kenny Rodgers, the Bee Gees and I don't remember who else. But he had us all in stitches. He has another show tomorrow night at 10:30 we're planning to catch. 

Walking through the Emporium on our way to the Lido deck again, we tasted some more liquor. (We're all full now and can't hold another anything ... Right?) Apparently not!!! Mmmmm, it was fine!!! We think we need some of that stuff. You know I don't remember what it was called. Will have to go back and take a picture of it. Gigi wanted to check out the Apple Store and damn if they hadn't just closed minutes ago. Bummer!!! She'll be there bright and early in the morning no doubt. 

Now hold on to your hat for this one. You are not gonna even believe this. Jim or Rick one wants some pizza. Whaaaaat? We just stuffed ourselves a couple of hours ago!! Smh again. Off we go to follow. The girls got waylaid fixing some tea. By the time we found the guys they were all eating pizza! ?? How can they be hungry? Ricky sniffed out some cookies so we were all nibbling on them before it was over. DE and Sarah apparently said good night and hauled butt back to their cabin. Guess they had their fill of us for the day (and night). LOL Then the guys disappear. Completely. We eventually find them back there on the Lido deck again ... Drinking!! Of course we joined them. I don't even know what time it is at this point. But it's getting late. Like midnight or something. 

We sat there and one conversation led to another one that led to yet another one. Long pregnancies were brought up and the question was how long an elephant is pregnant. You know none of us have a clue. But we all had an opinion!! LOL That reminded me of a skit I'd just recently seen with Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, Carole Burnett and Vicki Lawrence. Tim was telling this story about Siamese elephants as only he can. Of course he had them all on the floor by the end. How I wish we still had programs like that to look forward to. Hands down the best show ever. 

We finished the evening off with a discussion about the north and the south and how Virginia is not considered the south - at least according to Gigi. That conversation went south. Hahaha. But during that conversation, the pronunciations of different cities came up. Norfolk is always the first one. Some people say Nor-fuk, others say Nor-fork (Gigi), and still other locals say Naw-fuk (locals). And that just isn't kosher. Ok so what about Suffolk, and Portsmouth ... Oh that was a big one. Because people pronounce Portsmouth, Porchmuth, or Porchmuff - you should've seen Gigi trying to say that. We were crying. I'm not sure others around us were as entertained as we were with ourselves. But isn't that usually the way it is? We threw around all kinds of places that aren't pronounced by locals the way they're spelled (New Orleans, Staunton, Louisville, etc.) 

At 1am it was time to take these tired bones to bed. It's 2:15 and I'm just finishing this journaling. Sleeping late tomorrow. Breakfast at Blu. Something to dream about. :) So night night 😴😴😴

San Juan - Day 1

I don't know anyone who looks forward to a 3:15 alarm, but having to get up for a 6am flight for a cruise is a damn good reason in my book. We met the Riddles and the Comstocks at the airport (the Williams') were on an earlier flight. Both legs (connection through Dulles) were uneventful and smooth flights. We landed around 12:30, got our luggage and were at our hotel (Hilton) and checked in by about 1:45 (local time). We had originally thought we'd take a nap this afternoon, especially with such an early wake up call, but the consensus was that we were all way too thirsty to sleep. So we met at the bar downstairs (Kathy named it the Crystal Ball Bar - doesn't that sound so much better than the Eternal Lounge and Lobby?) in half and hour to take care of that little problem.

Let me just say that was a quick 2 hours. Rafael makes a really nice mojito (what Kathy and I were drinking) and Gigi had her arm twisted to enjoy a couple of Cosmos. 

The guys were quenching their thirst with beers. Before long other couples started filing in. A big group next to us is boarding the Adventures of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) tomorrow. It's always interesting to swap cruising stories with others. You learn so much! We ended up ordering some appetizers so Jim didn't have to have olives (from his dirty martini - oops, had forgotten about that) for lunch. There was plenty to go around and we didn't want to eat too much since our reservations at Casita Miramar were at 6pm. 

I touched base with Sarah when we got connected to wifi to make sure they made it ok. They were still waiting on their room (different hotel) and were doing the same thing we were doing - drinking at the bar. LOL. After coming back to our room and freshening up, we grabbed a taxi to the restaurant. We so loved this place last year, we couldn't wait to go back again. Their passion fruit sangria is soooo good!

We forgot to retake this after dinner when DE and Sarah were with us. Sorry guys!!

Oh and by the way, both taxi rides so far have been "normal" or at least much more so than what we had last year! Holy cow. That was some scary stuff!!

I love how their menus are written on chalk boards and they just prop them up in a chair and move them around from table to table (crummy pic though).

We're still working on names for Jim and Kathy and DE and Sarah. For the record, Gigi's name is morphing into .... well GW. She wears her sunglasses everywhere. Even inside. While sitting at the bar she kept them on. So I started calling her Gigi Wonder, which ended up being shortened to GW. Yup, that just may stick. Jim has started out with Padre but we aren't sure that's going to be what sticks for him either. This week will tell. But DE and Sarah? Ooooohhhhhh myyyyyyyy. Hang on, this is so good it needs its own paragraph. 

We got the divorce/remarried story tonight at dinner. But damn. I digress. Back this puppy up. We're at Casita Miramar. We've ordered a pitcher of sangria and they brought little tastes of soup and some thin fried pieces of fish that look like flat cornbread. It's really very good. The clock is a tic tocking and we still have two empty chairs at the table. ???? Different scenarios start flying around the table as to why they're late: a) they fell asleep; b) clocks didn't readjust [Puerto Rico is an hour later than our time at home]; c) I forget what c was. In the end, Jim was right. He's the one who came up with the wrong clock time. About 6:30 here they came through the door. Thank goodness everything was ok and it was just a clock issue! Our waiter (David) wasn't giving them an easy out though - LOL. As they were being seated he told them "Time waits for no one." LOL I'm sure that line is gonna be used a lot this week. And then, ... THEN Sarah whips out these enourmous beach bags she MADE for us (each couple) - with koozies no less!!!! OH. EM. GEE!!! Each one is different and personalized. I had just told Regina and Kathy earlier I forgot to pack koozies. How stinkin cool is that? Clock issues or not, she redeemed herself. These bags are amazing! Ok, so back to the other story ....

.... we've ordered our meals and are just visiting. I guess something was said about anniversaries and the door was opened for DE to tell us about their story. Bob knew some of it but not all of what he heard tonight. And there is no way I could remember all of it even if I wanted to put it down here. But the RDV (Readers Digest Version) is that they got married too young, had a kid too young, and the pressure was too much, so they got divorced. Years later they ended up back together and married again! And that was almost 20 years ago! Trust me, it was a much more in detail story than that. Regina had to throw in there that DE was like a blind dog in a meat market when he knew his fiancé at the time was up to no good but couldn't prove it. Yeah we lost it over that one too. And then Sarah may have gotten her cruise name from the wild stallion story ... Poor DE. Sarah broke him. He's no longer a wild stallion anymore. We need a nIce gelding name for the poor boy. Hahahaha. BUT! The rider of a famous stallion is Zorro! So Sarah may be Zorro for the trip. We'll see. 

Needless to say the laughter was rolling over our table. At times there may have even been table slapping because something was so funny. Gigi cried multiple times. After dinner David brought us these little shots - a mixture of rum and anise, with 3 coffee beans in it.

We had this last year. Stuff is good. I drank mine, leaving the beans in the cup. Kathy swallowed hers. Jim said, "you're gonna be up all night!" It went from bad to worse. Then DE had a suggestion for Jim when he didn't want to swallow or eat his. Said we could put them somewhere else, then his ass would be up all night. Told you it went from bad to worse. Then OMG it turned into Anal Glaucoma (a DEism) - My ass don't see that happening. I think that's going to be floating around this week too. That's all I can remember for now - until someone reminds me of something else that needs to be in here. 

All in all, it was a fabulous first day and we are so looking forward to the rest of the week!! I better get some sleep so I have energy to play again tomorrow!! Night! 😘

Glacier National Park - Heading Home

I didn't think I'd have much to write about today, but I've taken quite a few pics already and it's not even 11:30am. We still have an hour before our plane leaves. This morning dawned with heavy clouds and rain once again. Looks like they're in for a few days of this, which really sucks for those travelers here for the Labor Day weekend. We didn't have much to do this morning since most of our packing was done last night.

Breakfast for the last time at our favorite little dive, Two Medicine Grill. We both had their blueberry pancake and breakfast eggs special. And, of course, coffee for me. 

I said something to our server about how good the coffee is and he told us we would be passing by one of their stores on the way to the airport. I love supporting local Montana coffee and even more so when he said they support local Glacier charities. I was so tickled when we actually found the place inColumbia Falls and picked up a couple of bags. I'm gonna milk this stuff as long as I can. I love the smooth flavor.

The weather was pretty bad. Lots of low clouds and at times the rain was pretty heavy. Thankfully, the closer we go to the airport, the lighter both the sky and the rain were. We had turned in the car, checked in and we're through security by about 10am. The flight leaves at 12:30. I think we beat the rush. 

Both flights were uneventful. It's pretty amazing to be able to go from Northern Montana to Virginia Beach in 6-1/2 hours, which includes waiting time for changing planes. The only hiccup we had was getting our bags once we landed in Norfolk. It took over half an hour once we deboarded. Crazy. 

We grabbed some grub at Whiskey Kitchen on the way home. Sure is good to be home. Going on vacation and doing all those fun things is awesome. But there's nothing like home. 

Another trip bites the dust.

Glacier National Park - Day 7 (Friday)

Not much to share today. The rain from yesterday continued and this morning was pretty messy. Our Plan B was driving to Canada to check out Waterton Park since we're about 90 minutes from the border. We grabbed some cereal from the office and hit the road. It was just nasty. The further we drove, the nastier it got. There were large distances we couldn't even see 50' in front of the car. There were times when it was spitting rain and times when it was raining pretty hard. A few miles from the border we just decided to turn around. We couldn't see anything anyway. So after three hours of driving we found ourselves at the lodge warming up and filling our bellies with a sandwich and a beer.

Back at the room, we had some down time and caught up a bit on what had been happening all week while we were in our own little bubble in Montana. It's pretty chilly. Temp is 43 and it feels like 31. Our thermals got some use this vacation. And it's been sweltering at home. Not looking forward to sweating and humidity again.

Went back to Luna's for dinner tonight. Bob got chili and I fell for meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes - comfort food. I love talking to people when traveling. When in a place like this everyone knows everyone else is from somewhere else and we all want to know what each other did and how they liked it. There's something special about being able to share with strangers and hope you may have made a little difference in their trip like others did for ours. 

All packed up and ready to pull out early in the morning. It's been a wonderful trip but we're both ready to get home. Bob's already researching our next park trip, wherever that ends up being. 

Glacier National Park - Day 6 (Thursday)

It had been raining on and off all night. We knew the weather wasn't going to be great today so we sort of planned to lounge a little this morning. It was nice to have some leisure time. It started sprinkling  by the time we walked to Two Medicine Grill for breakfast. We both got their special with 2 eggs, sausage, hash browns and biscuit. I couldn't even finish mine. This place is a little hole in the wall diner. But the service and food are pretty good.

After some debate, we decided to drive "the road" again. It couldn't hurt and we weren't doing anything else anyway. Besides, you never know how different the weather will be inside the park. We swung by Two Medicine since it was on the way. I finally got my pic of cows on the road. For real, you have to go pretty dang slow and be very careful not to hit one. They don't care! It's as if they look right at you and dare you. Just call 'em honey badgers. See that red truck? That's a ranger honking his horn at them to make them move off the road. He has a big boy horn. We tried that the other day and our little Subaru horn sounded like a bicycle in comparison. It was pretty sad, which made us laugh. 

Doesn't it look like he's saying, "Whatchoo lookin' at Willis?" (I know, showing my age, right?) On to Two Medicine - it didn't look very different from the other day. 

The cloud formations over the mountains are so cool. Even though we've driven "the road" I don't even know how many times, we see something different every time. Of course I haven't gone back and compared the shots from each day either. Whether blue sky and white fluffy clouds or gray sky and storm clouds, it's all gorgeous.

The front was sweeping in before our eyes. We were hoping, once again, to do the Hidden Lake hike at Logan's Pass. It just wasn't meant to be. All of a sudden we were surrounded in clouds. 

Then the rain started. At this point we were half way through the park. (The temp was 41 at Logan's Pass.) We could either turn around and head back to East Glacier or forge ahead and take a chance that maybe Lake MacDonald on the western side had different weather. It's so fascinating how much the conditions change from one part of the park to another. The further west we drove, the clearer it got. And the temperature continued to climb. By the time we reached Lake MacDonald it was pretty clear and 60 degrees. A doe crossed the road right in front of us. Isn't she beautiful?

At least we got to see more of the lake than before. After we played around with different shots it was time to hit the road again. Decision time ... do we go out of the park and take the highway around the south back to the motel (which would've been significantly faster), or backtrack "the road" one last time and see if things had changed enough so we could do the Hidden Lake hike. Bob had his heart set on this hike and had been talking about it all week. He couldn't resist. The boy took a left and drove the 50 mile road back across the park again. Believe it or not, conditions HAD changed. Clouds had blown through and views that were white on the way were now much more visible. Hope was restored. We may be able to do that hike yet ... (You know there's a story coming when you see these three dots ...)

Before we left Lake MacDonald my stomach started cramping a bit. It's usually worse when traveling anyway so it wasn't much of a surprise. By the time we got to Logan's Pass I was sweating bullets. I jumped out of the car and ran to the bathroom. When I came out Bob was suiting up. Boots, gloves, beanie, etc. Imagine his disappointment when I told him I just couldn't go on a hike right then. My tummy needed time to calm down. I convinced him to go ahead without me. I would be fine waiting in the car. I could see the internal struggle he was having but the desire was too strong and it finally won. He left. 

I uploaded pics to my iPad and started journaling. About 30 minutes passed and the white, dense fog started rolling in again. I look around and cross my fingers he's actually able to see the lake. Another 15 minutes pass and it starts raining. He's only been gone 45 minutes. Not nearly enough time to hike nearly 2 miles there and back. The longer the clock ticks, the worse it gets. The steady rain becomes a downpour. Visibility is really bad. This was the view from the car ...

My heart sinks. There's no escaping that he's getting drenched. It's about 40 degrees by now. I know he is hauling butt back to the car. And I am thanking the gods that be for my upset stomach at that point. Holy cow am I glad I didn't go. He got back to the car, a drowned rat, about an hour and ten minutes after he left. About 25 minutes after the rain started. First words out of his mouth, "You made the right decision." What? Can you say that again? 

Bless his pea picking little heart. He said there was a grizzly up there he stopped to take a picture of. The damn lens didn't cooperate and he lost a few precious minutes fiddling with it. Finally he gave up and got to the overlook, pulled the camera out again, snapped one shot and the rain came. He barely saw the lake at all and booked all the way back down. If I had gone it would've taken us a lot longer, he wouldn't have seen the lake at all and we'd both have gotten even more drenched. So again, thankful I stayed in the car.

Once more, the closer we got to the exit the clearer it looked. It's just crazy how the park seems to make its own weather. The roads were dry, visibility was good even though it was still cloudy and the temperature warmed right up. Amazing. 

We'd read that Luna's got good reviews for dinner. We were starving since we had a big breakfast and snacked for lunch. The reviews were right. It's another hole in the wall place with good food. Bob enjoyed his salmon burger and I woofed down a piping hot bowl of chili. Of course their homemade huckleberry pie was a must for dessert. 

Back at the room a hot shower was first on the list. Uploading and editing pics and journaling rounded out the rest of the evening. The weather isn't supposed to be great tomorrow either. We'll see how it goes. I'm sure we'll find something to do.