Tag Archives: cruise

FEBRUARY 2. 12 YEARS LATER. (and a month late)

February 2nd. Jonathan’s new birthday, Groundhog Day, Gary Snyder’s birthday (RIP)……and twelve years (and one month) ago, my brand, spanking new adventure started! Goodness, how things change over the years!!! And this past year of my life was phenomenally changed!

First, MY ADORABLE GRANDSON WAS BORN!!! Barrett Jonathan “Bear” Plsek was born May 29th. I fell in love with him the first moment I saw him! He is a precious gift from God! My condo in Florida has been put to good use. I spent a couple of months there—and plan on many more months next winter and maybe some in between. And a sweet family that are dear friends used it when, after moving to St. Pete three weeks prior, they were ordered to evacuate due to a hurricane. And my niece and her family used it to go to the parks. No regrets buying it!

Another big, new development in my life is, 5 1/2 years after Kenn died, I have met someone special. His name is Chris. When we met, he had been a widower for 3 1/2 years. And while each of us had met other people, we are each other’s first relationship since becoming widowed. He is a great guy and lives on a farm about 20 minutes away from my home in Murfreesboro. I’ve gotten to hold a baby piglet and a four day old lamb since meeting him! Eeeeek….right up my alley!!!! However, he has warned me, that occasionally they have to send some of the animals to freezer camp. I won’t be visiting on those days. 😳. Anyway, we are enjoying each other’s company and taking it one day at a time.

My big, 35 day cruise was a blast! But I got some surprises, too. Everyone who knows me well, knows that I am—and have always been—an extrovert. I will talk to a wall if I think it will listen. All of my table mates at dinner were solo travelers as well. It was a very interesting group from all over the USA and two were from other countries. I enjoyed visiting with them a lot. However, I felt so awkward doing things around the ship alone. One day, I called Chris, and asked him a simple question. If it’s allowed and possible, will you fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina and meet our ship to sail on the last half of the cruise. He said yes, and I asked, and they said yes, and he did it! His cabin was on the opposite end of the ship and three floors above me so needless to say, he got his steps in every day! But we both had so much fun! We saw one colony of penguins (from a distance, thankfully) that the captain said was over 250,000 penguins! And boy howdy, could we smell them! We did get up close and personal with some smaller colonies in the Falkland Islands. They were so interesting and cute! And very human tolerant! It truly was a trip of a lifetime!

Overall, my year was good. I had some heartbreaking moments but all in all, God has been very good to me. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next year brings!

A BIG ADVENTURE

Do you have a bucket list?  I do!  Some of the things I want to do are actually written down, and other things are just in my head.  I’ve marked off several things—places I wanted to visit, like Switzerland, Holland, Bora Bora, and Italy.  And a little closer to home—Kenn took me to see where my first love, Andy Griffith, grew up!  Mount Airy, North Carolina!  I also got to whale watch and was a temporary ‘one hit wonder’.  (You would have read a previous blog post to hear about the last two!)

But most of my friends know I love to cruise.  As a matter of fact, I’ve just recently completed my 45th one!  One of my bucket list items is to go on a long cruise—like twenty days or more.  The longest one I’ve done was 15 days, when Kenn and I did a full transit of the Panama Canal.  We also did two back to back cruises, each being 14 days.  After I finished this last one, which lasted a week, I started looking for long ones.  I mostly sail on Royal Caribbean and, since I get a lot of perks for being ‘loyal’, I started there. The longest one I could find that sounded interesting was 21 days.  However, the timing wasn’t good.  I would miss a dear friend’s wedding.  So I looked elsewhere.

And I found it!!!  Thirty five days.  Leaves from Fort Lauderdale.  Goes to St. Kitts.  Then, on to South America, including Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina. And THEN…….ANTARCTICA!!!!!  I am stoked!  Actually, it just does several days of scenic cruising of Antarctica, which is fine with me.  I’ve already reserved some excursions—one, where I get to hang out with penguins and another one, where I hang out with seals and sea lions!  Another one is a dinner and show, watching professional dancers do the Tango.  I’ve also reserved several city tours.  It ends back in Buenos Aires, so I will fly back to the USA from there.

I’m guessing I will be amongst ‘like aged’ people.  I mean, how many young people can go away for 35 days?!  And if they could, would they head to Antarctica…..or Hawaii???  I also hope there are a few solo travelers like me.  But if not, it’s ok!

Packing will be a challenge.  I’m leaving in November, which will be the start of summer weather in the southern hemisphere.  But, as we get further and further away from the equator, it will be really cold.  So I will need to pack for both extremes. 

I am having a lot of fun planning!  It will certainly be one of the biggest adventures I’ve ever experienced!

New Adventures

This past week has been another new adventure, for both Jonathan and me. For as long as I can remember, Jonathan has dreamed of working for Disney. Once when he was young, while on vacation at Disney World, we paid for him to have a day of ‘behind the scenes’ learning. He LOVED it! Over the past several years, he has been trying to figure out a way to work in a ‘Disney ish’ atmosphere…..zoos, aquariums, etc……since obviously working at Disney was surely a ‘pie in the sky’ dream. You may not be aware of the fact, but it is extremely difficult to get a job as a graphic designer/artist at Disney. Even with great talent, it is hard to become an Imagineer, as that elusive dream job is titled. This past fall, Jonathan quit his job and began a master’s degree program in Themed Entertainment Design at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), with the hopes of getting a job in a field more to his liking. Three other students and he joined up and entered a competition sponsored by Disney called ImagiNations, where students design a project worthy of Disney consideration. His team was chosen as one of the six finalists from across the country and they were all treated to an all expenses paid trip to Glendale, California to present their project. While they didn’t win the competition, they were still able to interview for internships and jobs. It was truly a dream come true for Jonathan. Within a few short months, he went from designing brochures for an A/C parts distributor to being one of only two people specifically requested for an interview by the head of all of Disney’s creative departments. I couldn’t be more proud of and happy for him!

My new adventure was going on my first trip with Kenn. We flew to Puerto Rico for a couple of days and then went on a seven day cruise of the southern Caribbean. The first night, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant to try to soak up some San Juan cuisine. We walked and searched and there it was….the main eatery……Outback Steakhouse. Hmm, not exactly what I had in mind, but since steak in Kenn’s absolute favorite meal, Outback it was. Turned out there was another place to eat called La Placita. But Kenn kept calling it La Placenta and if that’s not an appetite killer, I don’t know what is. So on the second night, back to Outback we went.

When you travel with people for the first time, it’s interesting to see how they pack. Once on the ship, my luggage arrived first so I got totally unpacked before Kenn’s suitcase arrived. I sat back and watched as he started unloading his stuff. First out? A flashlight. I asked him what that was for, and he said so we could see if we had a power failure. Ok. Next? He had tweezers. Now I carry tweezers to keep my eyebrows in shape, but since he doesn’t do that (thankfully), I asked what his were for. In case he got a splinter, he replied. Hmm. Next came the binoculars. All things that, in 26 cruises, I have never brought nor needed. Well, we ended up using the binoculars a couple of times, and wouldn’t you know, he got a splinter! Thank the Good Lord we didn’t need the flashlight!

The highlight of our trip was going on a snorkeling excursion in Barbados. One stop was snorkeling with sea turtles and another one was over a reef where we saw beautifully colored fish. We had mandatory life vests and, although Kenn and I are both decent swimmers, we didn’t mind wearing them so we could concentrate on looking for turtles/fish. Now I wore sunscreen, but Kenn refused. The rest of the cruise, when we would go to the pool, his back looked like an advertisement for the Red Cross due to the waist strap and vertical strap on the life vest.

It was a fun, safe, and healthy cruise. We are ready to do it again!