Friday Freebie - on vacation

"Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else." — Lawrence Block

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." -- Mark Twain

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang

(vintage travel postcards--right click to save to you computer)

Enjoy your summer travels, wherever they may take you. Soon enough we will be back to school, back to work, and back to the rhythms of the year. I can't wait!

La Bufadora

The mossy area right below the blow hole

I promise this is the last day of cruise photos. We got some nice shots of an area in Ensenada known as La Bufadora. It translates as "Snorting buffalo." It is a naturally occuring blow hole in the rocks. The amount of water that it sprayed varied and surprised quite a few onlookers. There is a similar blow hole on Kauai that we are fond of called spouting horn. It does not spray as high as La Bufadroa. I enjoy these natural phenomenons and encourage you to check them out if you are ever near one.


La Bufadora as it spouts off

The swirling eddies below the blow hole

San Diego Public Art

When we disembarked our cruise in the San Diego Area, there were some amazing things right outside the ship. We were able to dock right next to the boardwalk area of San Diego. There are many decommissioned Navy ships nearby which were amazing to see but there was also an unexpected public art display. All along the boardwalk there were various large sculptures. Each one was completely different and there were no signs or explanation on the art or nearby. They also made a nice distraction from all of the hobos sleeping nearby. So, here are the photos without any accompanying information.

Towel Art

One evening on our cruise, we found our stateroom attendant in our room turning down our bed. We thought it would be amusing to tease him a bit and we came in behind him and started joking about him sneaking in our room. Well, we apparently surprised him quite a bit but he knew were joking around in good fun. That evening when we returned to our room, we found a surpirse waiting for us on our bed.


A towel elephant with Mike's sunglasses on


The next evening we came to our room to find ......







A towel dog with my sunglasses on.




But the next night was the best, we walked into our room to find and amazing towel animal and to find our stateroom attendant hiding outside our door to get us back with a surprise when we walked into our room. It was great fun to have all of these little touches and to have a playful relationship with the staff.

Oh, you want to see the grand finale of towel creatures, okay........

A towel monkey hanging from the ceiling. Now remember cruise rooms are quite small, so he was right there in your face when you opened the door.

Ahoy Mateys!

Our Ship, The Monarch of the Seas ,as seen from Catalina Island

Well, Mike and I are back from our exciting cruise. We went from Los Angeles, to San Diego to Catalina and then to Ensenada, Mexico. We had a great time even though we had been to all of the ports before. We went on Royal Caribbean cruise lines which are absolutely huge. The boat held 2600 passengers and had two full dining rooms. There was a casino, several stores, a gym, two full bars, a night club, a buffet restaurant, pizza place, teen night club, kid's area, two swimming pools, a rock climbing wall and basketball court. PHEW! I hope I didn't leave anything out.

Mike and I enjoyed relaxing and walking around the various ports. We ate far more than we should have, with dessert being served after every meal. I'll fill in more this week on other aspects of our trip but here are some pictures to start you off.

Porting in San Diego

Scenes at the swimming pool

Perspective

(The Aquamaids on Parade are from a vintage postcard. They performed four shows daily at Cypress Gardens in Florida. Feel free to save the image to your computer for personal use.)

on regaining perspective...
I have been doing too much complaining. It's hot. I have to wait for people. Some of the people I encounter seem to be, well for lack of a better word, stupid. (not an intelligent word, I know, maybe I should say unintelligent, dim, or slow )

I realize, I have been doing entirely too much complaining. Especially when I take the time to look around at others.

My 40-something, diabetic neighbor went in to the hospital to have surgery on a foot infection and had his leg amputated from the knee down. What makes it even more horrible, is his insurance was cancelled last month.

Our blog friends Kari and Kijsa are dealing with loss. Their father died unexpectedly and suddenly. They are dealing with the sadness and good-byes that shock a family when there is a sudden death.

I guess, I need to be more thankful. My life is full, my children and my husband are healthy. I am happy. I have always considered myself an optimistic person. I need to live that, complain less and be more grateful for what is good in my life.

I hope your life is full, too. Take the time to enjoy it.

Dog Blog 4

Hi, it's me, Blue,

I am back at the Hanson's for the week. This time I brought one of my girls along with me. It has been so much fun hanging out with three girls for the week. They really like me. They like me so much, I wanted to do something to pay back their kindness. I can't go shopping, because I am a dog. I couldn't bring flowers. Rachel would be mad if I dug up her garden. I tried catching the squirrels, but they are too fast. I did have one up a tree for a really, really long time, once. That was fun.

I thought long and hard about what kind of gift to bring. Then I smelled it. I am not sure what it was, but I smelled it in the garden. So I sniffed. I sniffed and sniffed until I found it's exact location. I love detective work! They would be so excited when I bring them their gift. I wondered what it was that I smelled. Then, it moved! It hopped, really. So, I grabbed it! I was very gentle. I didn't want to hurt it. I gently picked it up and took it to the edge of the porch. I stood guard over it and barked until Rachel came out. She took one look and said, "Oh gross!" I guess she doesn't like toads. She just let it hop away. Too bad, I had named him Fred. He was my friend.

The rest of the time was pretty fun, too. I brought my favorite blue stuffed animal with me. I managed to remove both squeakers, one ear, and half the fluff. I still have work to do.

It's hot here. Something about the dog days, whatever that it. I heard Rachel say it would be 102. That must be something.

So, the week is nearly over. I guess I will be glad to go home. Maybe Fred will come too.

woof, woof-

-Blue (the dog)