ottahand7

We went to Puerto Limon on January 7 this year. I remember how very hot it was while waiting for our Monster bus tour. We had a great time seeing the countryside but only a sloth to see wild animal wise. The only photos I took with my good camera were botanicals so this is all I have on my laptop. I will see what I can find on my phone.

Good Easter Sunday morning. It seems strange to have the Masters on so early. We have a lot of yard work to get caught up on but we have 8 days of warmth and sun predicted. I think we will clean sand out of our gutters and a few other things. We are so far behind because of the late spring. Thanks for all of the Daily Reports that start our days. Sandi, I hope you got a little more shut eye this morning and Vanessa I hope your power came on. We are having shrimp for dinner, very out of the ordinary but we are both dieting. The wine looks good if it could be found but I will pass on the sweet cocktail. Debbie the shrimp recipes give me some ideas for tonight's dinner. Prayers for all on our care list and the people of Ukraine. Last night while looking at the Google news feed I get on my phone there was an article about HA's Legendary Voyages so I clicked on it and it brought me to the offerings. I had been looking for a long cruise in winter 2025 and I found one RT from SD to Hawaii and French Polynesia. It isn't quite long enough but we could add on a Mexican Riviera prior. Or even better yet find FL Panama Canal transit to SD and when we return another SD to FL Panama Canal transit. That way we could still drive to Fort Lauderdale for our Pacific cruise. Plus the "threw the book at us" with Gratuities, Premium internet, Elite Beverage package, 3 shore excursions each and a specialty dinner. @aliaschief Happy Birthday @erewhon @ger_77, @luvteachingand @erewhon

Thanks everyone for making the Daily what it is. The vino looks wonderful but will pass on the high carb noodles and fruity cocktail. That being said I am having lasagna for dinner in my project of spring cleaning. Today it will be getting my December birthday lasagna out of the freezer. A little piece with a lot of salad. Prayers for all on our care list and for the people of Ukraine. We have been to Amber Cove several times but don't do shore excursions, at least not yet. It has some of the best non stress shopping in the Caribbean. I left with rum the last time. Somehow my files from our 2021 N Statendam must have been dragged into another folder so that is about the limit of what we can find. I think this was December 2019 on the Zuiderdam. Have a lovely day!

@Overhead Fred

Good Saturday morning! @StLouisCruisers

Good Friday morning and this is also Good Friday. We have beautiful sunny weather but had a frost again last night. I hope that will be the end of the cold nights and days in the 70s coming next week. We are both on diets so we will not be having an Easter celebration dinner as we usually do. My diet is less strict so I will meet my DS for happy hour later this afternoon. Thanks for all of the reports that this wonderful group pulls together each day. We don't drink beer in this house. Beavers have their place in their native waters. While touring the National Park in Ushuaia the damage from the beavers imported over a hundred years ago is very evident. They are native at our cabin in Michigan but we had a population explosion of them and one climbed way up our hill from the lake and crewed down 2" diameter spruces and hauled them away. They got so bad that they flooded two neighbors access roads. They hired a trapper and he legally removed 12 of them. I love caramel popcorn but haven' t had it in years. Todays swordfish and vino look like winners but I will pass on the Manhattan. @grapau27 Thank you for the Easter video and thanks to everyone for all the memes and funnies to start my days with a smile. Prayers for all on our care list, the lost in Nashville and the people of Ukraine. Nancy

@Cruising-along I hope you and DH get over the Covid illness soon.

@TiogaCruiser Thank you for the gorgeous poppy photos. I forgot to thank you earlier this morning. @kochleffel Happy Passover celebration and observance to you and to anyone else in our group of the Jewish faith. @kazu and @RedneckBob even though we don't hear from you every day we think about you and miss you. We look forward to when things get better for you both. @grapau27 Thank you for some great looking food porn! @marshhawkI am glad you scan is over and I hope that they uncover something simple that can easily be remedied. I had a busy day, two hours plus at the dealership, blood work and a EKG for preop for a minor procedure that is a repeat of one I had 5 years ago and filling the birdfeeders. Waiting for my tax preparer to pick up my taxes. Have a nice afternoon! Nancy

We were on the Volendam for 81 days leaving the ship March 18. The ship is older but we were pleased with the upkeep of the ship and the public spaces and the cabins. We had a Vista Suite for the majority of the cruise but we had a Dolphin Deck ocean view for a week and that cabin was very comfortable too. I agree with @Mary229 that the cabins seem slightly larger and the deck in the VS was better that the Konigsdam. The food was excellent but that depends on the Food and Beverage Manager and the Executive chef how it shakes out on each cruise.

Good morning. I am sitting at the Chevy dealership getting needed preventative service on my truck. Sandi thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports each morning. Vanessa thanks for our Celebrations and Care lists. Prayers for everyone needing them and the people of, Ukraine. Today's meal photos from Debbie look very familiar like a lot of the offerings we had in the Lido. The drink looks too a little too sweet and the Calera Pinot too pricy. Thanks for researching these for us each day. We missed Grand Cayman on our GSA and had Jamaica as a last minute substitute. 😥 We had a beautiful sunset and moonrise last evening. Have a great day! Nancy

Good morning from very stormy SW Michigan. It is raining so hard that we have no TV signal. I have a garden club meeting at a local garden center so I can do double duty and pick up Milorganite and the Tithonia seeds I couldn't find at my local stores. Thank you for the Daily and Fleet Reports Sandi, we truly appreciate the work that you and Rich do for us each day. The Bahama Mama cocktail looks like a good one for once on a cruise and today's sine looks good too. We had Banh Mi on the Volendam but I cannot remember what was in it. I am sure it wasn't tofu. Speaking of the Volendam, John was able to get in touch with one of our favorite waiters, Aframe on Facebook and we should be able to get hold of Lucky because he posted on Aframe's page too. They really made our times dining very special. They are already back home in Indonesia. Prayers for all on our care list, the shooting victim's families in Nashville and the tornado damaged areas. Prayers for the people of Ukraine. We will probably have tornado watch for most of the morning. We could not make our tour in Barbados. Our first pick was cancelled before we even boarded the Volendam which was a rum distillery and St. Nicholas Abbey. Late in the cruise we booked Barbados Natural Sights or something like that but it was at 12:30. Meanwhile we signed up for the Chef's dinner at 6:00. No problem we figured but when it got to be 12:30 our tour bus wasn't there so we asked for a refund because of it being delayed, it took some work to get them to honor their commitment but they did. We will be back next year in February. I have wonderful memories of the smell of molasses in the port area probably from some nearby distillery. Have a

@aliaschief Great news!

I forgot to attach the photo of us, totally soaked and our handiwork, I am on the right.

Good morning! We have already been to the grocery so that I can be home for a wine shipment due later this morning. I got so much accomplished yesterday, small things but it is good they are off my plate. My taxes are all ready to be picked up by my tax preparer, oil change appointment made and an email to our HA advisor about 2025 January long cruises. In addition I went downtown to work with the ladies in my garden club to plant the 3 large and 2 small planters at the bank. First we had to pull out all the winter decor and then planted a Hellebore, chartreuse mini grass and primroses in the large ones. We also sunk yellow twig dogwood in the middle of each of the planters for height. It had just started to rain when we started and we were totally soaked and grimy when we were done. It started to pour just when I got to my truck. We have severe weather forecast for tonight into tomorrow but then we may get at least 4 days of sunshine through Easter. Thanks Sandi and Rich for starting us off each morning. Sandi thanks for sharing Ren's goal and the celebration. Never have been to today's port and look forward to the photos. Today's "walk around something" hit home for me. I put a bag f the store plastic bags right by the garage door to go to the grocery this morning and I got my jacket out of the closet and walked around those bags on my way out the door. Today's dish looks tasty though I agree with @kochleffel I would cook the eggs to medium before adding them to the sauce. I'll pass on the cocktail and today's wine. Prayers for all on our care list, the tornado victims, Nashville families and the people of Ukraine. Have a wonderful day. Nancy

For Find a rainbow day one from Denali, Alaska 9/12/16.

Good Monday morning! Sorry I missed yesterday, we got an early start to day of activities and it was time to fix dinner by the time we returned. Thanks for all of the reports and comestibles each day and you all are early birds to get all these posted! Prayers for the tornado victims, everyone on our Care list, @smitty34877 with all of your caregiver issues with Tana and of course for her, and the people of Ukraine. I have been to Boston many times as it was the portal to get to Maine when my sisters both lived there. Many happy memories with the photos you shared Sandi. In the 80s very few photos were taken but I appreciate the photos to bring back happy memories. Today I have to head downtown Kalamazoo to work on a brief garden club project planting the planters in front of a bank. They reached out to our garden council to decorate them every quarter and we get a nice payment for our time that goes to our general fund. Thankfully it will be a decent day. We just finished turning on the outdoor faucets so I can get my powerwasher out to do the rear deck tomorrow. @Overhead Fred Bon Voyage!

Wonderful story from you afternoon yesterday. So wonderful you could help the refugees out. Thank you for your generosity and welcoming them to Canada.

@GTVCRUISER Bon Voyage!!

Good morning from rainy Michigan. We had strong storms and wind last night but didn't cause us to lose power. Sandi thanks for starting us off with the Daily and Fleet Reports each day and thank you for the gorgeous photos from Hammerfest. We have never been to Norway. @dfish thanks for the taco recipes I will pass on the avocado but they look wonderful. @summer slope the bourbon cocktail look s good too with a few changes, sugar free syrup and no bitters, @cat shepardyou should get an award for locating those obscure wines. @JazzyV Thank you for keeping us up to date on Celebrations and the Care list. Prayers for the people of Ukraine, the people hurt by those spring tornadoes and our care list. I am working on a spring cleaning project weeding out a lot of the stuff I didn't weed out when I moved here from Maryland, it is time for it to go. Today is the anniversary of the day in 2015 when I took my critically ill husband to the ER. He had been covering up the seriousness of his symptoms when I asked about them until he showed signs of severe confusion. Probably 2 days earlier when I asked if it was the worst HA in his life or did he have a stiff neck he would have had a shot to recover. I hope no April Fool's tricks are played on me today. I will probably have enough playing the horses watching the wonderful slate of races at Gulfstream Park today. Have a wonderful weekend! Nancy

Crayons are today's day. In Boca da Valaria I had brought about 40 boxes of crayons for the children. Here I am distributing them to the kiddos. I think I am handing out an Effy necklace here.

Good morning from stormy SW Michigan. We began with such hard rain the Direct TV pixelated and went out for a while. Off an on sever weather all day today and then we return to snow flurries tomorrow. Sandi thanks for starting us off again with our Daily and Fleet Reports! Vanessa thank your for our Care and Celebration list. Today's wine is another obscure one, the drink too sweet but the clams will probably be great. @Seasick Sailor I am sorry that you are not feeling well and sorry that your luggage was damaged. Ours made it back fine and the only thing that came out of that is the UPS guy asking me when he delivered wine a few days later "where did you go" after delivering all of our 6 bags. @seagarsmoker Thanks for sharing the views of your PS on the NS. Very nice but I would have been driven to distraction by room service delivering so many cookies and milk the way you didn't want it. We feel really fortunate that we had good food throughout our time on the Volendam. The only thing that we were missing for a few weeks were the cookies made from pre-made dough, somehow a pallet got stolen. @StLouisCruisers I read your comments about the food on the Zuiderdam being off too. Yesterday on CC a man was asking for help to repatriate his dear GF from Angola. I took a look at Bill & Mary Ann's blog on their WC and they also brought up some of the food problems they are having. One major port like South Africa that fails there is little to catch up with in West Africa. Today's Day is Crayons, I will try to send a crayon picture from my phone from our last cruise. Today's port is Robinson Crusoe and we made it to the dock but did not go ashore. There was a glitch in the scheduling of the tenders and they allowed everyone to go ashore at once at 10am. There was a 40 minute wait in the hall to get on our tender. Then we had to wait 20 minutes for our tender to go to the dock. It had started raining and we saw the line to reboard the tender and many of us decided to keep our seats in the tender and head back to the Volendam. There were so many experiences we didn't or couldn't do on GSA we would repeat that itinerary again anytime they offer it in January to give us a winter getaway.

We are recently off the Volendam after 81 days aboard. I would call the food we had across the board better than any other HA ship we have been on (100 days on HA prior to this cruise). We were worried about variety on such a long cruise but I didn't notice too much repetition.. Food quality in the MDR was beautifully presented and almost always hot, a couple of cold starters because of probably the first order out of the kitchen when we dined early. It was promptly replaced. Lido food was often tied to the ports we were in but the large primal cuts of meat at lunch were top notch, such as a whole roasted leg of pork. Specialty restaurants were also well staffed and excellent quality. Only fails were an hour wait for PG lunch entree and an hour wait in the Canaletto for our main course because they booked a large Seattle based tour group at 5:30 and couldn't prepare the food fast enough. We got a refund. We ate lunch in the Lido for breakfast and lunch because the service in the MDR for breakfast was so slow and the coffee cold we opted for a little clatter but excellent food.

Good morning. It is 19 degrees out right now but the sun is bright. Good day to wait at home for wine deliveries from Fedex and UPS. All ordered on the Volendam than goodness the internet didn't fail or the orders come in when we were in the Antarctic. Sandi, thanks again for starting us off each day! @richwmn sorry you will miss your port in Senegal but thankfully you can get your supplies. Hopefully a few more hours in the Canary Islands. Another obscure Kiwi wine today but the cocktail and the ham recipes look wonderful. Prayers for all on our care list and the people of Ukraine. Have a wonderful Thursday! Nancy @USN59-79Happy Anniversary! Happy Birthday to @Suslor and @Cruzin Single !

I agree with smitty, it is a really engaging series with personal stories into the fantastic surfing. @Cruznsingle, @Vict0riannand @sailingdutchy Bon Voyage! Third doctor's appointment in three days. Not much time to get caught up. My late husband's business in Baltimore was a Mom & Pop janitor supply business that grew into a large family business. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Report Sandi. The cocktail is a pass but the ham recipes look lovely. @cat shepard you sure at put through your paces finding those obscure wines for us! Prayers for all on our care list and for the people of Ukraine. Have a wonderful day! Nancy

Terry @smitty34877, I am so sorry you lost Tana's aide. It takes so much time to get one used to the procedures and it has to be upsetting to Tana too. Thanks for the Daily and Fleet Reports Sandi. All the comestibles look like something I would like, thanks for doing these each day. Prayers for all on our care list, the families of those who perished in the Nashville shooting, the storm damaged families in the south and the people of Ukraine. A beautiful sunrise but it is 28 degrees. The poor Robins are digging through the leaves to find some morsel to eat. Snow expected tomorrow and again on Friday but not measurable. This would really be getting old if we hadn't missed most of the winter. We are heading to Battle Creek for my rheumatologist appointment. We will probably stop for lunch somewhere on the way home. Have a nice day! Nancy