We were scheduled to visit Royal Caribbean’s private island. Unfortunately, winds were high and the water choppy. This is a stop where they have to shuttle us on small boats. The weather didn’t permit safe operation. Instead of 2 days at see, we will have 3. The stock of books on my Kindle is limited, and I can read only so much a day. I decided to pay an outrageous price for a day of Internet.

Fortunately, our cruise became much less weird. Many people stayed on the ship in Miami. Royal Caribbean tours are expensive. Some find the abundance of hawking, loud environment, and crowded port area overwhelming. Fortunately for me, I am married to Danita. She found a free trolly that would take us from the port to the Vizcaya Museum. Even though we already knew about the trolly, getting to it was not trivial. My phone with a pre-loaded Miami map and GPS capability helped us get through the tourist traps. We found the trolly stop, and met two port employees who was planning to take the trolly. All this wasn’t quite enough. They changed the trolly route. The sign for the old stop hadn’t been taken down. Even some trolly drivers were confused. We just missed a trolly that stopped at the old (incorrect) stop. We finally got everything figured out and found ourselves on the way to our destination.

The Vizcaya Museum is one of the houses built by the ultra rich during the guilded age just as WW I was starting in Europe. The owner was the principle of Harvester International, at the time the 4th largest company in the US. Following the practice of the day, he built a house where each room was decorated in a different period, frequently using genuine artifacts. One room was fashioned after an Italian villa built in the designated period. By this I mean the found a villa they liked and purchased a room. They took down all the wall coverings, moldings, doors, etc. They cut them up into pieces and shipped them to the US. The room stayed in storage until the house was built, with one room exactly matching the dimensions of the villa room. Then they reassembled everything in the new room. Another example is in the Renesassance room. They built an enclosure to hide the pipes of an organ, with two doors for access in case of maintenance. To decorate the doors, they bought a genuine Renessance painting, cut it in half, and used each half of the painting to cover one of the doors. All this for one of the owner’s 4 houses, which were each used 3 months a year. We had a delightful time.

The next (and last) stop was in Nassau. The tourist hawking is unbelievable. Fortunately, our experience in Miami helped us stay strong. The rule is, don’t make eye contact with anybody within a half mile of the port. Danita and I walked around a little bit, then went back to the ship for lunch. I went out in the afternoon to try my hand at snorkeling. This was my first experience snorkeling, so I chose one of the trips available through Royal Caribbean. I figured that an operator that allowed their insane guests to get injured wouldn’t be associated with Royal Caribbean very long. I was more right than I knew. We started with a ride on a catamaran. When we arrived at our reef, they asked if anybody had had heart problems, no matter how long ago. I was the only one. Before long I found myself below decks, answering questions and signing waivers.And I was informed that wearing a floatation vest was not an option.

I wasn’t the only person with no experience snorkeling. One gentleman went down the ladder, immediately came back up, and threw himself on the deck as if he had escaped death by the narrowest of options. A healthy young lady immediately swallowed some sea water and got sick. An athletic young man with his own gear quickly gave up because his mask leaked. It took me 3 tries to get going. The first time I slipped off the ladder before I was ready and had to pull myself back up. The second time one of my flippers came off after one kick. I was offered smaller flippers but decided to free swim (without flippers). Third time was the charm. I swam around looking at fish, coral, and underwater fins. The wind picked up, the water became choppy, and I took on a little sea water. I surfaced, looked around, and was amazed at how far I was from the ship. I decided I had done really well for my first snorkeling and headed back to the boat. I had to surface frequently and adjust my direction. I was out for 10 minutes or so out of a 1-hour swim. But I felt satisfied and successful.

We have 3 at-sea days to return to take a 2-day tip back to Baltimore. But their berth in Baltimore is for Saturday, so we won’t be home early. The crew has been great. It’s not possible to offer more food, and the options for offering more entertainment are limited, but they’re doing what they can to make our extra sea day pleasant.

I hope this finds everybody doing well. I’ll be checking Email tomorrow morning. We’ll be home Saturday.

Days 2 – Saturday – Charleston

The first day of our cruise was “at sea” and uneventful. The second day was in Charleston, SC and was the only port where we had specific plans. We had tickets for the 9:00 tour of Fort Sumter. We had taken Bud around the ship Friday. We needed an early breakfast Saturday. Bud decided to sleep in. So we gave Bud directions to breakfast and went to bed. Saturday, we got our early breakfast and headed out to the Fort Sumter visitor center. The combination of light rain, high tide, and a full moon flooded the Charleston waterfront. We had to go some blocks out of the way to bypass the floods. We made it to the shuttle boat in time. We took a very foggy boat ride out what “they” said is rhe fort. Unfortunately, while we were on the water, Bud slept in. All day. When we got back tp the ship and were ready for dinner, we woke Bud up. He had slept all of Friday night and all of Saturday.

As it turned out, while he was sleeping, we were missing our tour. The high tide had also flooded the the fort. We got a very foggy boat ride out, waited a half hour while the rangers confirmed the fort was flooded, called HQ, and got permission to send us back, and then got the boat ride back. Was it strange that it was so foggy we couldn’t confirm where the boat actually went? Did we see the outside Ft. Sumter, or was it  and all as fake as the moon landing and the round Earth? Bud recovered himself for dinner. We got this picture of a Coast Guard boat escorting us out of Charleston. I’m not sure what makes Charleston so threatening. Is possible this wasn’t just an escort? I noted that just as I took this pic, the “Coast Guard” ship stopped following us. My theory is that they saw me taking a picture and knew they were “burned”. Perhaps “they” drugged Bud. And maybe “they” will pick us up and arrest us at a future port. This may be my last message to the free world.

Port Canaveral

It’s Sunday. Royal Caribbean is not offering any Sunday services. Is it possible the cruise line is an evil entity trying to entrap us? Evidence is circumstantial, and I hesitate to mention the possibility … yet … I’ll tell the story and let you decide.

This time we got Bud to breakfast and got him comfortably seated in a public area of the ship. Then we walked off onto the dock. We wanted to go the Manatee Reserve. We walked all over, running into tall fences and locked gates. There is no way out of the Port Canaveral terminal, other than to purchase a $60 round trip (for two) transport. I’m not joking. We walked all the way to the terminal exit. The only way out is a long causeway that leads directly onto I-95. We were not planning to tell anybody about *them*. We only wanted to walk to the manatee reserve. It’s just like the old paranoid distopian TV show “Escape”.

I have photographic evidence … the flood and fog … the escort boat … I wish I could transfer the evidence from mt camera to the web.

What will happen when we go to Miami? Will we be permitted to send more messages? If we don’t return, find my camera. The evidence is rhere.

We had our first snow last Thursday. It was an inch or two of wet snow. The streets were completely clear by the end of the next day. This has been the rainiest day on record for Baltimore — and that’s with 6 more weeks to go.

We spent a lot of time this week planning trips, including most of Thursday. Our Italy trip ends at Morocco, the closest airport is in Niece. Getting flights from Baltimore to Rome, then Niece back to Baltimore wasn’t working well for us. We finally decided to fly out of JFK. We’ll drive to NY the day before, stay at a hotel near the airport, then park our car at the hotel. We were able to grab Economy Plus seats for crossing the Atlantic for a reasonable price. Both flights have a connection in Europe. Our connecting flights will be economy steerage, but their only an hour or two long. We also spent quite a bit of time planning hotels and such for our Texas Tour in March.

We had our neighborhood Thanksgiving party Saturday evening. We’re looking forward to a members only night at the aquarium tomorrow.

We will leave for our Thanksgiving cruise with Bud on Thursday (Thanksgiving day). In addition to the normal cruise activities, we’re looking forward to a tour of Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC. I’m going on a snorkeling trip when we get to the Caribbean. (Danita isn’t going because she can’t see without her glasses.)

The cheapest internet plan on this ship is $150, which I think is outrageous. So we aren’t getting it. We should be able to find free WiFi when we dock at some ports. But there are “at sea days” and a day at the company island where we won’t have internet access. We’ll have our cell phones, but they may not work at sea either. If there’s an emergency, you can contact us through Royal Caribbean’s emergency contact number. You will have to pay for the call with a credit card. The fee is $8/minute, with a maximum of 10 minutes. The number is 888-724-7447. Or you can send an Email and we’ll see it in a day or three.

I hope this finds everybody doing well,

The dishwasher is installed and it is wonderfully quiet. It even shines a light on the floor while it’s running so you don’t accidentally open it while it’s running. Bud’s suit will be ready tomorrow. Danita will pick it up and take it to Bud’s Wednesday. She’s hoping it will fit well, and  she won’t have to take Bud back to Jos. Banks to have more adjustments made. But what I’m really tickled about is our internet service. After our home phone number was ported to Ooma, I went on the internet and saw a deal for new customers — 100 MBPS for $45/month for 2 years (new customers only). I called Verizon and asked for the deal. The service rep was shocked that I asked, but she checked and decided she could give it to me. Our speed is twice as fast. We don’t notice that because we don’t need the additional speed. But I’m completely tickled by having the price for “triple play” cut almost in half. Simple minds are easily entertained, I guess.

So I’m saying we’re caught up. But it’s not really true. I usually wash the deck and porch in the fall, and I didn’t make it this year. I have no choice but to give up for the year. We had our first frost last night.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The trees started their fall colors about the time we got home. The peak of this year’s colors was Friday. It was warm, cloudy, and humid. The colors were vibrant, with may views of yellow against red and green. Friday night, a strong front came through with quite a squall. It spawned a small tornado that took down a 50-foot wall at an Amazon warehouse, and a second small tornado that pulled some roofs of in Carrol County. Needless to say, plenty of leaves also came down. But the colors still look pretty good today.

We were scheduled to attend a neighborhood party this weekend, but it was cancelled due to lack of interest. We volunteered at a Church dinner. It was pretty much a disaster. There weren’t enough dining room volunteers. We were running around trying to plug holes and put out fires. Attendance was higher than anticipated. They ran out of dinners. They ran out of salads. They ran out of deserts. They ran out of order pads. (We didn’t have paper to write the orders on.) They even ran out of trash bags. As soon as the last of the crowd was settled, Danita and I left and went to Jason’s Deli for our dinner. Needless to say, we didn’t make a dinner donation.

We’re getting closer to catching up from our vacation. Our Verizon contract for internet, phone, and TV expires 11/29. They want to raise our monthly fee from $92 to $125. That includes more bandwidth, but we don’t put any strain on our existing 50 mbps service. I plan to switch Verizon to internet only. I purchased an Ooma internet telephone device. It’s set up and working. I have started the process of porting our home phone number. I also purchased an antenna pre-amp because one of the UHF stations Danita likes to watch doesn’t come in very well without it. I did some tests with the pre-amp, and found it to be an excellent device at what I thought was a very reasonable price.

The car needs servicing. The dishwasher has to be installed. Bud ordered a suit which has to be tried on and picked up (for dinners on our upcoming cruise). The list is getting shorter.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.