Coralc

Well, I would Prefer: San Francisco 28 Kansas City 24 LOL. 😃

I'm an only child too. For all parents, it would be greatly appreciated if we didn't inherit a house FULL of stuff. It is going on six years, and we are still trying to clean out my mom's house. I have no idea how my mom accumulated so much stuff. 20 quilted Christmas placemats with matching napkins? At least 50 non holiday placemats and napkins? She lived pretty much alone, and her table seats 4, maybe 6 with the leaf in. And then there are the spare appliances and fixtures in the basement. And the full closets. She has a jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom, and an extra pink one in the basement. 🙄 She had an idea that she would build a live in unit in the basement. That was after we told her we didn't want a pool table down there. I pleaded with her to get rid of some of it while she was alive. She laughed, and said, "You will probably want to kill me over all the stuff, if I wasn't already dead." And she's right. I have been very annoyed sometimes in this long process. We don't have any kids and will probably leave most everything to Bill's two younger brothers. We are paring down and getting rid of a lot of stuff. We will get rid of even more, if/when we move again. We don't need so much stuff. 😊

We would like to know why they are looking in the bushes. 😛

We are staying in CA for now. We have another house in the Sierra foothills. We have to live there for at least 2 years. (capital gains) Hopefully, we will use that time to check out other states. Maybe the southeast, but not Florida. 😊

It probably cuts down on graffiti. They are gorgeous murals. HOA's are unlikely. And @harryfat1 is a fan of big butts. (on ships) <snicker>. He probably enjoys the statues. ☺️ The murals on the homes and buildings in Curacao are beautiful. There is a graphic artist down the hill from us, that has muraled the front of his house. I will have to take a photo.

Interesting thing. We are packing to move. Oh My Gosh! Packing is awful 🙄 with all of these years of accumulated stuff. We are doing the standard, discard, donate, sell, cleanout. We were going through stuff in the garage from my childhood bedroom. There was a "Yellow Submarine" type plastic trinket box. See. I am tying it into the Beatles/60's connection. Although this was from the early 70's. My vote was to toss it. Bill said wait. Let me look it up. He sells on eBay. And within minutes of posting it, he already had offers. Absolutely amazing. 😄 It is some rare thing from the Ridiculous Box Company and there are collectors. Who knew? Anyway, it sold for $150.00. (for a plastic box? ☺️) Major kudos to Bill, who can apparently spot a thing, among my now vintage items. 😄

LOL. We were on Grandeur a few years ago. They installed a new wall phone. We pointed out to our room steward, that the cabinet door wouldn't open where the phone was installed. The installer came back the next day and moved it to the vanity countertop. ☺️

Sorry to interrupt...the flow. Why is there a box of wood/rocks in this lovely courtyard?

"Normal" As in not as high quality. 🙄 That seems a little deceptive. No wonder management and executives seem to think everything is hunky dory on their ships, food quality wise. 😄☺️

Cats? ☺️

Gorgeous! Jim, did your new neighbors ever finish their house? I (for one) would love to see photos and see how it came together.

That's Cute! I think we used Zazzle, when we (as a group) had T-Shirts made for a cruise: https://www.zazzle.com

Awesome! I read The Magicians (Trilogy), books by Lev Grossman. They were very good, but I didn't know they had made a series from them. I'll bet it was enjoyable! I thought that when we retired, we would watch TV all the time. In actuality, we never watch it. Happy upcoming Chinese New Year! ☺️

Please keep letting us know what is going on! And a photo or two will be much appreciated! Thanks. And enjoy your very long and interesting cruise! ☺️

Oh, I see. They are diggers (like ground squirrels). I didn't know that about iguanas. Burrowing animals can cause a lot of expensive damage. The ground squirrel burrowing can cause the flood control channel banks to collapse. Which backs up the channel, which causes nearby flooding. They also burrow into the sea walls and rip rap with the same result. Thanks! Interesting to learn about pests in other states. 😊

Today was supposed to be tail end of the storms in the SF Bay Area. Light rain/scattered showers. Noooo. Wrong. We had steady downpours and deluge for about 5 hours including hail and a power outage. 🙄 And I found the photo of CD Ricky I was looking for: And oddly, I believe the servers that power Cruise Critic are in the South Bay, so they might have had power issues.

Oh! Margaritaville Falmouth closed? Bummer. We enjoyed drinking there and listen to the music. I did not know that. I remember when they were first building it. It doesn't seem that long ago. Probably another pandemic casualty.

Since I have no idea and have never lived with them.... What sort of expensive damage do iguanas cause? I am very curious. 😊

I just mean I notice what else is in the photo, waves, beverages, table rigging. Not so much your feet. ☺️

I'm so sorry @RumAndCoconuts but this thread was for the 2023 sailing. There are several other threads about the 2025 sailing. Or perhaps yours.

It is pretty much always windy in Cabo. But usually warm! And they use large shore-based tenders.

As much as OB likes to post his feet...I don't really notice them. 😁

We were on Serenade for 2 weeks in March. It wasn't bad, just kind of mediocre. Room Steward was great and fun. Long time employee. Pool deck bar service was bad the first day but improved over time. As always, had fun and met nice people. It was by no means a bad cruise, but I'm just not sure we are willing to pay high prices for a so-so experience.

A few years ago, we were on a cruise. I think it was also in February. And we came home to this: And we said, "Oh. It must have been windy while we were gone!" It is all fixed now. ☺️And the creeping fig has grown back nicely, and almost covers the wall, again. It was actually much better to be home for this one and be able to keep an eye on things.

@FromSea2ShiningSea @harryfat1 and myself are all in the SF Bay Area. The articles say almost a million in CA lost power during the height of the storm. Some are still without. The wind was just horrendous, with 70 mph gusts up where we are. There are lots of trees down. Harry lost an awning. But fortunately, like Helen, we didn't have any damage or outages. Just a mess of pine needles and branches that will need to be cleaned up when it dries out. ☺️ All the debris is from our neighbor's trees. My 3 trees are deciduous, so they hold up well in windstorms. It is mostly the eucalyptus and pine trees that come down in the storms.