Sharon in AZ

Good morning and Happy Sunday from Tucson where it is 98F expected to reach 107F with 7% humidity. I have been having problems with my iPhone loading and downloading so I haven’t been able to watch today’s sermon Graham @grapau27 but just did an update and things seem a bit better. Thank you for always posting it Graham. Might be time to get an updated phone. I was able to watch the Beatles video Tina @0106 thank you. I believe I’ve seen it before and it brought back memories. We just spent a week in a cabin and technically it’s not a log cabin but feels like one. I like catfish but haven’t had any good eating out since the old Po Boy’s closed in the 90’s. I loved their whole cornmeal crusted fried catfish. It’s hard to find here but our local butcher usually has it in their freezer. The salmon looks good, especially the second recipe Debbie @dfish — thank you for your recipes. Wow, all the lovely pictures of Mykonos make me want to book a Greek cruise. Thank you to everyone for sharing pictures. Terri @Cruzin Terri — your cruise sounds and looks wonderful. I’m enjoying all your pictures when you can post them. It’s nice you are repeating ports so you can visit different areas each time. Bruce @aliaschief — ouch on your ankle and fall. I hope you are not limping for long. Get better! Annie @marshhawk, oh my on Chuck’s diagnosis. Prayers for @catmando and his treatment plan. Terry @smitty34877 — prayers and thoughts for your DH’s surgery tomorrow. I’ve been impressed with how you both and your family are approaching this with grace, humor and patience. It sounds like it will be a long day tomorrow but try to check in so we know how he is doing. Do you know how long he will be hospitalized? And when the after surgery treatments start? Sorry if you have said already but I missed it if you did. I remember you saying his birthday is the 30th though. Prayers to all on the care list. Especially @luvteaching — prayers for DH’s comfort and you and your family as you navigate this difficult time. Joy @Seasick Sailor — thinking of Alan. Prayers for Ann @Vict0riann’s DH. Have a great day everyone!

Jake @Crazy For Cats — Happy Birthday to DH today. Please tell him to enjoy his special day!

Thank you Ann! Off to a great start for my new year!

Good evening from Tucson where it’s hot but beautiful. You have to remember it’s a dry heat, today’s high was 103F with 4% humidity. It’s supposed to get even warmer on Monday with highs 110 or so. The pool is still too cold for my taste at 84F but we both got in earlier about 6pm, I only lasted 15 minutes. It has been a while since we’ve been to a food truck, we both went more frequently when we were working. The company Craig worked for had an annual family day and several times they were at a sports park and brought in food trucks. Lots of fun. The company I worked for had a food truck every Friday at lunch time but I never could go because I was offsite working from home. I like orange chicken but won’t bother making it. Today Craig made me a favorite, Croque Madame. Today was busy. Craig went shopping and I straightened up the house because I was told that I was getting surprise visitors. Craig told me because he knew I would want to pick up a bit. So DS’s SO, our DGD Summer and our almost DGD Maya came over and brought me flowers and a tiny birthday cake and they ended up staying an hour. It was nice catching up on girl talk. Happy Birthday to your DD Sandi @StLouisCruisers she picked a great day to be born! Many thanks to everyone for all your Birthday wishes. Thank you @JazzyV@puppycanducruise@smitty34877@kazu@ottahand7@grapau27@rafinmd@marshhawk@dfish@StLouisCruisers@Seasick Sailor@Quartzsite Cruiser@Nickelpenny@cunnorl@Cruising-along@bennybear@ktbraun@ger_77@Cruisercl

Oh my, I hope he better tonight and your DH is responding to the meds. This has to be very stressful for you and your family.

What a great picture of Jose! Is he carrying flowers for you to take onboard? I hope today’s Anniversary of your wedding brings you happy memories.

Roy @rafinmd — Happy Birthday!! Enjoy your special day! 🎈🎈🎈

Good afternoon from the beautiful Santa Catalina Mountains where it’s breezy. Unfortunately a fire broke out during the night, probably due to lightning which we awoke to at about 2:00am and lasted for a while. It’s now called the Ventana fire, Ventana Canyon is a popular area and the fire is about 2 miles north of that area. We have quite the vantage point of viewing the helicopters filling up their water buckets in the lake and taking them to the fire. A new one comes about every 20-30 minutes. Many of the trails have been closed and also the lake but there hasn’t been an evacuation order yet. We love fried rice and make it often but usually with just bacon. We are having hotdogs today and some of us will put chili on theirs. Jacqui @kazu, I hope Ivan feels better soon. Blue has episodes of feeling under the weather but we think it’s because he eats something he shouldn’t. Maybe he was dehydrated from the walking he wasn’t used to. Bruce @aliaschief, your cruise looks amazing! Thank you for the pictures. Have a great day everyone!

Do you have a recipe that you can share? It seems easy enough, just two components with the custard and the meringue.

@Horizon chaser 1957 — I loved your picture of the Brazo de Mercedes. It was offered once on the Panama Canal segment of my last cruise, the first night, and I had never heard of it before. Your version sounds good too. This was HAL’s version.

Good morning and Happy Monday from the beautiful Santa Catalina Mountains. Yesterday Craig took DGD Summer to the ski lift where she dropped one of her flip flop slides. She FaceTimed me to tell me and I asked her if she had any other shoes and no she didn’t. But Papa came to the rescue and asked the lift operator if he could walk up to retrieve it. I don’t think she’ll forget bringing sneakers next time. Summer takes good sunset pictures. These are from last night. Yesterday we had chicken kabobs and today we are having carnitas burrito bowls, I just need to make the rice. Our friend who owns the cabin is coming in about 30 minutes to load water. He hauls it up from his home. It’s breezy today. Summer is working on her online school. Have a great day everyone!

Susan @durangoscots — Happy Birthday!! I hope you enjoyed your special day! 🎈🎈🎈

Good afternoon from the sunny Santa Catalina Mountains where it’s very breezy. We are enjoying watching the birds, chipmunks and squirrels. We are having steak and baked potatoes for lunch, although a bit late. Tonight I think it’s just leftovers. DGD has asked for cheese tortillas and beans. Later….. Have a great day everyone!

Recently on the Volendam there was an Orange Party about once a week. I was on three segments, a total of 32 days. As others mentioned there was no advance notice but it was posted on the Daily program. In the early evening tables were set up with displays of orange drinks and some decorations. The shops had orange items for sale. The parties had a good turnout and were a huge hit. Many enjoyed the line dancing. Sometimes it was hard to find a place to sit. The bars were hopping. I had my DH but an orange tie and I had an orange top and an orange feather hair clip. Lots of fun!

The senior community residence that my DM is in takes small pets. I see a few dogs every time I visit.

Good morning and Happy Thursday from the Santa Catalina Mountains where it’s chilly—at least for us it’s chilly. My nature picture was taken from the back deck of a bluebird, not sure what kind. Yesterday we had ribs that I had premade at home along with baked beans and potato salad. Sandwiches were for dinner. Today we are having pizza, I made the dough last week and froze it, it’s now on the counter getting warm and cozy. I hope it comes out good on the grill because this is the first time I’ve done pizza here. I pre make about 90% of our meals when we come to the cabin because there is only a grill and a tiny microwave/convection oven that blows hot air and I have to sit on a stool to use it and use a flashlight to see the dials. Craig will be going down the mountain tomorrow to pick up DGD Summer for the weekend and she might stay with us for the week depending upon internet connection. She is in online Summer School. I’ve brought extra food for her and we hope she can stay. Have a great day everyone!

Graham, yes the heat and humidity are a big consideration, however don’t let that stop you from going. There are many ways to avoid it, like just viewing from inside the ship especially the Crow’s Nest. I just went out for a bit once in a while and also went out on the shaded side of the ship on walk around deck which was great. There are many excursions in the hot and humid area that are only in buses like scenic drives. It’s a spectacular cruise! Your description of your Mother’s retirement community sounds exactly like my own DM’s. Hi Jane! Yes that’s exactly what I’m hoping about the pool. Wish we had solar. Thank you for the well wishes, yes I’m feeling much better. I’ve been on my meds full dose for 3 weeks now and yesterday was the first day that I wasn’t nauseous. Again, I’m sorry I had to bail out of our planned excursion to Butchart Gardens. I think some people in customer service feel the need to be pushy about “stuff”. It makes them feel powerful. Having worked in that area for my entire working years I always made sure that I treated others like I would want to be treated.

That or she’s jealous that you are navigating it so well.

Good morning and Happy Wednesday from beautiful Tucson. The high today will be 98F. But our pool is still too cool for us, it’s hovering at 78-80. We prefer it 85 or above and it doesn’t get there until we have a few days over 100. That is supposed to happen this weekend but we won’t be here to enjoy that. We are heading to Mt Lemmon for a week where it will be in the high 70’s. I am going to really need my nap today because I don’t have time to get my “second sleep” in, like Maxine @AncientWanderer calls it. We need to be on the road by 10:00 to get up the mountain. Thank goodness it really isn’t that far but I make Craig drive about 5 miles an hour under the speed limit, yikes I don’t like the twisty road, aka the Hitchcock Highway (not that Hitchcock though). If you are interested this is what Wikipedia has to say: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Lemmon Have a great day everyone!

Graham, actually this isn’t true, IMHO. I have never experienced bug problems during my two previous Panama Canal cruises, the most recent one was just last month and April. And trust me, bugs know how to find me. It’s possible that what you heard were people who went on land excursions and I think that those are only offered for partial transit cruises, I’m not sure though. After our transit one of the ports was Costa Rica and I went on a scenic bus tour. On the bus one lady told me she had doused herself with bug spray and had gotten some near her eyes and was rubbing them and had almost used up the entire bottle. I scratched my head over this one because I never saw more than a stray fly.

Good morning! As usual I’m awake in the predawn hours but might be able to get a couple more hours of sleep. Thank you Sandi @StLouisCruisers for posting the links to the previous threads for the port of the day. Makes it so much easier to post pictures. This is what I posted on June 26, 2021: We were in Key West January 10, 2015 on the Nieuw Amsterdam. We just walked around and visited a few places. It must have been a Saturday: We had to see the Hemingway House and the cats, although we didn't really get a good picture of the cat's toes: We went to eat at an outdoor cafe/bar and had friends join us: And had to get the obligatory key lime pie dipped in chocolate on a stick: Edited June 26, 2021 by Sharon in AZ travelingbums, smitty34877, sailingdutchy and 22 others 25

Happy Belated Birthday to Chuck @catmando! Congratulations on your decision to quit smoking— you can do it! I’ve never smoked but my DM did for years and quit during the shutdown because she couldn’t get anyone to buy her cigarettes and deliver them, her senior citizen community where she lives had strict guidelines on deliveries and visitations.

Really loving your reports and pictures. And no, you are not posting too many pictures! Absolutely beautiful!

Juneau: Mendenhall Glacier—Several different HAL excursions, some are short, some longer giving you time to do some hiking, and one that also includes a salmon bake lunch that’s really good. Skagway: The train! Best Alaska excursion I’ve been on. Several versions, one goes up and back—no getting off, and some go up on the train then getting off with a variety of different things to do and bus back down. We also enjoyed walking around the quaint small town. Ketchikan: We usually just walk around, making sure to walk past Dolly’s house and shop. Great shopping and I usually purchase my gifts and souvenirs here. We also eat lunch here. Just make your friends know that one cruise won’t be enough!

Is this your cruise? If so then it is the Rotterdam. The Koningsdam is in the Pacific, doing Hawaii, Mexico, Coastal, and Alaska. Enjoy! It looks like a great itinerary.