UpstateJan

Bill, sounds like a fantastic trip you have planned.  We were in Peru in 2016, loved it!   If you are looking for something to do in Lima, you can check out   freewalkingtoursperu.com , they offer a variety of tours.  They do both Lima and Miraflores as well.  Cusco is such a great walkable city, we rambled around the old Inca walls of which our hotel was built into.  Chocolate shop was cool, just missed the cooking class offered. 

Another thing, in case you haven't seen enough critters is to go see Ccochahuasi Animal Sanctuary.  It's just outside of Cusco, you can get a ride from town to the Sanctuary either thru a schedule bus, or a private cab which will wait for you.  It's not badly priced, and a really cool little place.  Basically, they take in injured indigenous animals, or rescued from the pet trade, rehab them and release when they can.   Also, they focus on breeding of the Andean Condors, which are HUGE!!!!   When we were there, they were getting ready to release an Andean Fox, and had just brought in a Specticled bear cub (it was feeding time, and Fernando was cranky).   It's not a petting zoo, but some of the animals are pretty friendly, like the kissy llama.  They operate off donations, and also had a gift shop and a display in weaving/dying of fibers.   The whole trip from town & guided thru the sanctuary & back to town took about two hours, and it was well worth it for us.  Pictures were priceless, and the people were truly caring folks.

You certainly have an envy-worthy retirement gift to look forward to!

Jan

Les, I can see if they will let me in room 738 when we're on the Wind at the end of March.  BTW, thank you for reminding me about getting to visit other SS ships while in port, I'm going to try to visit the Spirit while we're both in Antigua.  Starting to pack now, gives us something to focus on besides taxes and snow 

Happy New Year to all!

Misty, love love love the pic you posted of Phoenix Botanical, I was there a few years ago and between the plants and artwork, it sure is a stunner.   Have to say, my all time favorite is still Jardin du Botanique Montreal.  Singapore was pretty special as well.  It has been disappointing weatherwise, afraid we may have gotten all our snow in November and the remaining of the season will be nothing more than sleet & freezing rain, bleah.   Not good for snowshoeing.....

JP & Chris, sorry it was a challenging weekend, vacation is just around the corner for you!   Actually, we'd love to fire up the smoker for you sometime if you want to travel "over the river and thru the woods to Janny's house" .   

Today, at work already, trying to get those last minute transactions and transfers posted before the day is out.  We will be celebrating the ushering in of the new year as always, dinner at home, snuggled in warm, safe, and without crowds.  If I can find a nice red snapper, I will do that for dinner tonight, if not, it will be homemade pizza with halloumi, spinach, sausage, and portabella mushrooms.   Either way, win win!!!

Back to work.....

Jan

JP, thanks for the travel site link!   From their site, I'm at 50 with 3 more coming in 2019.   I've been using MostTraveledPeople (mtp.travel  or mosttraveledpeople.com), on there, I look like I've hardly left the county    My count is 92 sites out of 891, and 37 of 193 UN Countries.   Not too bad considering I only started travelling in 2007.  Jeremy has me beat, he travels for work, and lived abroad BJ  (before Jan!).

Running heards of reports this morning, will get a bunch of things ready to go for Monday (year end!!!!).   This weekend we are hosting a neighborhood open house, great way to get to know the neighbors that you only see in the car. Almost embarassed to admit, I know more of the neighborhood dogs than I do the humans.  It's a fun event, we get the usual suspects showing up, and a dozen or so newbies that walk up to introduce themselves.  They follow the bbq smoke!

Hope everyone has a good weekend & holiday!   

Jan

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays fellow Coolers!   Hope everyone is having a fun and peaceful day, and looking forward to a fresh start for 2019.

Busy day, we were up at 3:30am to help fill in for Mr. & Mrs. Claus, you know they are getting older and a bit forgetful, so my neighbors asked us to fill in, just in case.  We have twin 4 year olds next door, needless to say, yes, yes we would be happy to help out the Claus couple.   We ran across the yard with two wagons of presents to display in unusual places all over the porch and yard.   This year, no snow to deal with (last year we had to cover our tracks, LITERALLY, and I even figured out to leave some "reindeer" tracks).   We were back in our nice warm house by 4:30am, and snuggled back in until we got the hilarious 7:30am call "Wanna come over, Santa showed up?".  We went over for a little bit, I brought over breakfast empanadas, it was loud and crazy, but a good time.  

Next, I drove 5 miles over to my brother's house to deliver Smudge's present from Santa Paws.  Instead of buying more toys for him to rip apart, I spent the last 3 weekends resurrecting some well loved stuffed animals.  My favorite was Mr. Possum, I had to reconstruct a snout and nose, opted to not put legs back on him since those are too easy to rip off.  He looked pretty good, for a 'possum.   There were 3 little stuffed animals ready to rough house with an overly energetic 9 year old English Setter.   

Back home, just pulled the leftovers from yesterday and had lunch - bbq brisket, corn bread, roasted carrots, rajas de poblanos, and a nice crisp green salad.  Enough left for either tonight or dinner tomorrow night.  We're thinking about going for a nice long walk while it is so gorgeously sunny.   Tomorrow is back to work, ready for the rush for month-end/year end.  Fighting the impulse to get a little done to make my short week less hectic....

Jan

We did one formal night on our last cruise, ate at the Grill on the other.  This upcoming one has a Formal night (Dress optional), so neither Jeremy or I will wear a dress    We will do the best we can utilizing carry-on only.  It's a 7 day Caribbean cruise, with a pre-night in San Juan, so it should be easier than our 2 week Asia last April.  Yes, I did get a bit creative for formal, black dress always looks formal, and a shawl or wrap can dress things up (and hide a whole lot more!).   We're toying with the idea of trying La Dame one night with our extra obc, but I may just send Jeremy to the spa instead.  He may need that after our planned hiking in Dominica.

We both admire you & Myster (as well as all the other World cruisers).  I can't even get my head around packing for that.  Can't wait to hear the highlights.  We'd love to do that, perhaps once we retire.....  Only a little time before adventure!

Mysty, love the funny, and no it is not wrong!   BTW, love those gowns, um my family never looked that put together for Christmas.  Where's the flannel and snowshoes?

12 hours ago, Lois R said:

Thank you JP and Mysty.  I am glad we are off for the next 4 days. We are closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so I won't be going to back to work till Wednesday.  Oh, the new one will probably start mid to late January.

Lois, for what it's worth, take the job.  It's better to have one, especially the way the economy is going.  Also, you have the option of looking for another if this just isn't the position you want, as you know it's easier to find a good job you want while you are currently employed than to try to find one when you have no job.   Plus, as you get to a "certain age", it's much harder to start over at another company, different culture, etc ... not to mention, they can hire someone much younger, much less experienced for less money. 

There's a LinkedIn article that hit yesterday that said the prime age group for Start-ups is 55-65, with a far higher survival rate than the younger groups, mainly due to experience, tenacity, and being prepared for the costs (mental as well as material). Since you have a finance background, keep your eyes open for these type opportunities.   I've freelanced on top of my day job for the better part of 30 years, be it tax season, bookkeeping for small businesses when they are starting up, or someone is "on leave".  Right now, I'm helping a friend with her software company she started last year, it really took off this spring and well, I may have found my retirement gig (in about 5 years).  My job title is Financial Wizard for Good   

Hang in there, I know it's upsetting, but it's not the worst case scenario.

Ah, they are a bit behind the times, the politically correct 2018 phrasing of housewife is "Domestic Goddess".   Happily, my profession is listed, but HoneyBunny's profession is not - there is no "Geek" "Nerd" "Does Computer Stuff", guess he'll have to default to "Engineer".  Wonder if they use the professions to cater to preferences (menu in the form of spreadsheets and green bar ledger paper for Accountants?)   

Ony, it is on the top deck, Observation Lounge.  We wandered in a few times, there are machines, cups, nice tea selection.  One of the mornings we went up "foraging", and there were a couple staff members whipping up special coffees, very nice treat.   

MBP, thank you for posting this.  We had a couple of wines on our Asian cruise that were positively excellent, but then of course forgot what they were.   This will give me an idea (or cheat sheet) so we can mark ones we like "for later".   Need to start thinking about what we want stocked in our room as well.

Jan

Oh, thanks for the suggestion about early coffee.  We'll be on the Wind in 105 days (not counting or anything), and that helps with planning.  We found the secret station on the Shadow right near the end of our trip this April.  Hubby is the coffee fiend, I do tea.  We also took advantage of morning room service, and they were excellent at having it to our room around 6:15am.

Jan

Strange issues everyone is seeing, I've been using Chrome, and not seeing any issues.  Then again, I "toss my cookies" pretty regular.  

Mysty, love your Canadian measurements.  Since we are a bi-border family here, I tease Jeremy regularly about those things.  I will offer up your currency - we always said Canadian money was monopoly money (back before the US went to slightly color enhanced bills).  Then Canada added to the joke by going to cartoon money - "looneys" and "twooneys".   

Just finished making clam chowder in the Instant Pot - smoked the clams in the smoker yesterday, so it's very aromatic in the house today.  It's absolutely a chowder day, cold, grey, damp, but no snow.  113 days until the Silver Wind takes us away to warmer climates.

Happy Hannukah to our observing folks!

Jan

Cookies?  It's probably an oatmeal raisin issue.......

lol... thanks MBP - I thought the green skinned female was referencing a mermaid, but alas, now I get it.  I was on the sub in St. Thomas a lifetime ago (in the mid 1980s), and it was close quarters for sure.  My partner in crime has never been in one before, then again, he's never been in an MRI either .....guess I should duct tape him, put a bag over his head, and toss him in the closet for 15 minutes and see how he does?  Hopefully St. Barts is hike-worthy, since  neither of us are shoppers.   St. Kitts is a toss up, I want to see Nevis, he doesn't want to venture "that far".  I wish we had the long day in Dominica instead of St. Barts.....

Jan

Besberry, thank you for the suggestions!

UKJeff, oh my goodness, chili crabish mussels, that looks really good

Mysty, nice funny, it's appropriate after our long weekend, it feels like I've been time travelling all week.  Looking forward to your updates from far-flung travels, give my regards to the cute little Orangutans in Sandakan ("Borneo, where everything is small and adorable, especially the people" quote from Tan, our guide).  

Jan (multitasking - checking cruisecritic whilst running reports for the upcoming board meeting)

Greetings Cooler-folks, I am in dire need for some guidance - port related.   We have a cruise coming up in less than 120 days (YAY), and we registered for the shore excursions this weekend.  For the most part, we were in sync for what we wanted to do.  So, there are two ports we are stewing over:

1. St. Kitts  - anyone been there, and if so what did you enjoy? 

2. St. Barts, not a lot offered, and we're in port for a long time. 

Just looking for suggestions.  Thanks!

Jan

Here's to hoping she has a good, uneventful rest and will be energized for the new year!

Jan

Thank you Pashmina, looking forward to our March cruise on the Wind.  We're hitting the Eastern Caribbean, 5 of the 6 were badly hit in last year's hurricane season.   Do you like the Wind better than the Shadow (we were on together for the Borneo trip this April)?  This will be our second SilverSea cruise, and we really love the small ship style.

Jan

We just did a similar-ish trip this April  Hong Kong to Singapore.  We were able to get a non-stop flight EWR (Newark) to HKG on United, and Tokyo to EWR nonstop.  We flew from Singapore to Tokyo on a 6am flight, and had a couple hours at the Tokyo airport, which is pretty cool, not quite as entertaining as Singapore however.   You could also look at connecting thru SFO, there were a lot of direct flights to/from Asia.   129 days until my next vacation.....

Jan

Yes, all welcome, unless you are sporting a budgie smuggler, banana hammock, or any of the other poolside fashion atrocities. They even let us on, one with a slight southern-inland midwestern drawl, and a funky Canadian accent.   When I say funky, it's unusual enough that other Canadians have asked SweetiePie "No, really, where are you from".    I suspect it's become a bit more strange living with me for the past 20ish years 

Down to 131 days before my next vacation .......

Jan

Oh.... do go to the Botanical Garden, in particular the Orchid Garden (UNESCO World heritage site, and drop dead gorgeous).  We were fortunate enough to do the Orchid Garden and Gardens by the Bay, along with Jurong Bird Park, walk the Kampong Glam and Little India, Chili Crab at an amazing Chinese restaurant, as well as a few other sites in April.  It was our end port (in port over night), and needless to say, the airport itself is pretty amazing.    We opted for a private tour guide on the first day, so we could see as much as we could, and Jon was probably the best guide we've had (have his contact info if anyone is interested).  Honestly, if time is short, Jon is the way to go, he has a car, is a great guide, and one of the sweetest people I've had the luxury of spending a day with.  Singapore is a really beautiful place, and we hope to get back there someday.

Welcome back all from "CruiseCritic Vacation".  Just logged in to lurk while inhaling tamales for lunch.....

You are correct Terry, Ecuadorian law is pretty strict. The Xpedition ship was 100% Ecuadorian staff except the captain, who was Phillipino, or was he the second in command? Anyways, really funny man - he gave the bridge tour, and one of the other guys ran over and said "he's my brother from a different mother". The food was mostly if not all local, since they were not hitting ports that they could "load up", however the liquor supply was something to behold. Oh, the fresh juices in the morning were amazing, and yes we had "jungle fruits" juice, and the peels and "squeezings" were packed off the ship at the one stop that had a town - there were several older ladies waiting to take them home - compost probably since it was pretty rocky soil. One night we had a "flying fish experience" - they were everywhere, and some were landing on the deck, so people started tossing them back over the rails. One of the naturalists joked "tomorrow's fish of the day".

Jan

Jimmyke, thank you so much for posting these videos! We were on the cruise with you, and met you several times, very nice family. Such a nice cruise with fantastic ports. Hopefully we will cross paths again.

Jan