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,