The Daily for Sunday September 19, 2021

[kazu]

@rafinmdit sounds like you had a wonderful reunion 🙂 Safe travels home.

 

@mamaofamibeautiful roses. 

 

Glad to hear that @atexsixis out of the hospital and hoping for a speedy recovery for him.

[kplady]

@mamaofamiHappy 62nd anniversary , so glad you will be able to celebrate together. Good health and healing for Sam so he can return home soon!!

Laura

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

HAPPY 62nd ANNIVERSARY

CAROL AND SAM

🥂 💖 🌹

[sassy~one]

Ahoy Maties! Thank you for all the info. I very much enjoy this post.🥰

[StLouisCruisers]

Arriving at the dock in Longyearbyen at 8:30 am on July 5, 2013.  

 

The people there to attend to the ropes were women.  Equal opportunities for all in Norway!

 

Off we went along the road lined with bits of coal, towards the town of Longyearbyen.  It was even more grey there that morning than it is here in Georgia today.

 

The first thing we saw was the offices of a coal mining company.  

 

An art sculpture along the way

 

Our first glimpse of the "city".

 

This was a school/university.

 

 

Looking inside we see lots of shoes.  Hopefully you can wear a different pair in there so you don't have to attend classes in your socks!

 

Walking further into town we saw a statue of a coal miner.

 

And a daycare.  Love the little guy peering out the window at all the strange people in town.

 

The busiest place in town was this supermarket.

 

Inside the doors in the "foyer" of the supermarket was this beautiful picture of a polar bear.  We had been advised you were not allowed to venture outside the city limits without an armed escort due to polar bears.  Made you wonder if the bears knew about that walk we made from the ship to the downtown area?

 

It was nice inside, just like any grocery store.  There were signs in the liquor and wine department telling everyone only local residents were allowed to buy alcohol, due to limited supplies.  Who could afford Norwegian prices anyway?  

 

From there we went to a couple of shops in town with unique souvenirs.

 

 

A monument along the road on our walk back to the ship (watching for polar bears!).

 

An overview of the town.

 

Coal, and more coal

 

Back on the ship in the early evening

 

 

When we sailed from Longyearbyen that evening, the weather began clearing right away.

 

 

 

All in all, a very interesting day spent 800 miles from the North Pole!

[Lady Hudson]

Thanks for all who post — especially Rich and Roy.  Update on BIL — Jim is in rehab for at least the next few weeks — he has to learn to be more independent before coming home.  Bad news is rehab facility has a case of Covid so no visitors while they are on lockdown again.  Love the pending meal idea — would love to see more of that.  Katherine 

[tjcox9]

I love the port of the day suggestions as it makes me go and look at places we've visited. We've been to Longyearben twice. Once was  on the little Ocean Princess in 2015 and most recently on the Rotterdam in 2019.

 

Here are a few photos from the Rotterdam visit.

 

The first is an old cemetery. No one is allowed to be buried here now and must be transported to the mainland.

 

Next, from a brewery near the port. It was quite busy as they had free wi-fi! And then an overlook of the town.

 

The next two need no explanation. And the last is the Global Seed Bank that houses seeds from around the world in case of disaster.

 

I'll post some from the previous trip later as there are more  wildlife pictures  and the eider ducks were nesting at that time.

 

 

 

[St. Louis Sal]

Good morning all!

 

I will pass on the days and the drink and the dish (my DDs would like it though, being vegetarians, they frequently cook with tofu). The wine sounds good (although the fermenting in concrete was new to me).

 

Didn’t realize there was more to that famous quote.

 

Haven’t been to our destination, waiting for the pics.

 

I am off to the St Louis Repertory Theater this afternoon with my youngest DD. They are requiring a vaccination card or a negative Covid test, and masks are required in the theater. I can handle that. My daughter will be pushing me in my travel wheelchair; that seems to work best. This is my first time back to this theater since my mobility has changed, it will be interesting to see how this theater works. Our play today is Dreaming Zenzile which is the story of Miriam Makeba.

 

Yesterday was our annual Forest Park Balloon Race. I was hoping the winds would carry them south by us, but they went west instead. The hare balloon (it was a hare and hounds race) dropped his “X” in someone’s backyard. And he clipped a tree landing in another backyard! I am always amazed at the balloons navigating and landing in the congestion in the city. One year I saw a balloon land in the side yard of a house!  Of course one year they went directly east and one pilot ended up in the Mississippi!  It was a beautiful day this year and everyone landed safely.

 

Prayers for the many on our care and concern list 🙏. And I will grab a glass of wine this afternoon in honor of all the many things worth celebrating 🍷.

 

Take care everyone,

 

St Louis Sal
 

 

[rafinmd]

On the way 

 

Roy

 

[travelnap]

AARRRHH! For some crazy reason I feel like dancing a jig while eating a bowl of butterscotch pudding, while watching the first mate walk the plank.  Happy Sunday all.

[jimgev]

48 minutes ago, mamaofami said:

So happy to be celebrating 62 years of marriage today after a rough 3 months

Happy Anniversary!

[kazu]

11 minutes ago, Lady Hudson said:

Update on BIL — Jim is in rehab for at least the next few weeks — he has to learn to be more independent before coming home.  Bad news is rehab facility has a case of Covid so no visitors while they are on lockdown again.  

 

Hope that the rehab does it trick and help Jim become more independent 🙏  Sorry to hear about covid case 😞 What a shame.

 

3 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

On the way 

 

Roy

 

 

Safe travels, Roy.

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

Good morning from central Texas.  It looks like our cooler weather will be interrupted tomorrow with one day of 100F.  It may cool down beginning Wednesday, but who knows.

 

I'll pass on the days and wait until we're on a BHB to dance with DH.

 

I've heard the last part of the quote, but it makes more sense when you read the entire quote.

 

Will pass on the drink and the meal, but our vegetarians might like the recipe.  The wine sounds good.

 

@kazu  I like the sounds of the wine.  Pending coffee and paying it forward are good iteaa.

@rafinmd  Roy, glad you enjoyed your reunion.  Have a safe and uneventful trip home.

@tjcox9 Thank yuu for the picture of the seed bank.  We saw it sailing in but did not get a picture.

@Lady Hudson  Thank you for the update on your BIL.  Sorry they have a covid case and are in lockdown.

 

We were in Longyearbyen in 2016 on the Prinsendam..  It is a rather bleak looking area without much vegetation, but we enjoyed our day there.  

 

It was cold and windy that day, but clear.  We alked into town since the wind was at our backs.  ?After exploring the thown, e stopped at the hotel to use the wifi. They called a taxi to take us back to the ship as waling into the wind was brutal.

 

 

Longyearbyen as the ship approached the pier.  There were t-dhirts and souvenirs for sale inthe white tent.

 

The airport

 

The power plant

 

Our walk around town

 

An  interesting museum

 

The hotel which had a comfortable lobby and displays of verious local animals

 

Lenda

 

Edited September 19, 2021 by Quartzsite Cruiser

[jimgev]

Good Morning. Thanks for the daily and the lists.

Not a fan of tofu so I will pass on that.

Famous quote from my favorite pirate: "My name is Igingo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die"

Butterscotch pudding brings back some great memories. My Dad worked for a food company. One of their products was pudding. He would bring home boxes of "samples" We ate a lot of pudding. The butterscotch pudding was particularly good.

Stay safe everyone.

[kazu]

3 minutes ago, jimgev said:

Famous quote from my favorite pirate: "My name is Igingo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die"

 

 

The Princess Bride - a great movie 🙂 

[travelingbums]

Thank you everyone for sharing and caring😀.

 

 

Have a great day.

[grapau27]

24 minutes ago, rafinmd said:

On the way 

 

Roy

 

Take care and stay safe Roy.

Graham.

[Heartgrove]

Good Morning everyone! Thank you Rich for the Daily Report, and thank you Roy for the Cares and Celebrations Report. And thank you everyone for caring and sharing!

[StLouisCruisers]

This map shows you Svalbard, where Longyearbyen is located.  You can see how far off the mainland of Norway it is and how close to the North Pole.  The Arctic ice cap is not that far off.

 

 

[tjcox9]

Here are some photos from our 2015 trip to Longyearbyen.

 

Here we have an Arctic reindeer, eider duck eggs, male eiders, a group of eiders and nesting female.

 

Next is an overlook of a large Husky kennel, a snow grouse and large satellite dishes and Huskies preparing for to pull sleds.

 

I found it a fascinating place both times.

Edited September 19, 2021 by tjcox9

[cunnorl]

Good Morning Everyone from a warm and sunny day at the beach

       Never heard the first part of todays quote, interesting. My Dad used to say " you cant finish, unless you start".   

    Have not been to todays port or anywhere in Norway. We had a cancelled trip but not that far north. We really like to go there ! ( or anywhere at this point).

   @mamaofami A very Happy Anniversary to you . Hope things stat to improve for you both.

     The Spacex rocket arrived back last evening to a very loud Boom.  Very glad they are back safely. 

      Played golf yesterday with DS. Even though it was very warm, there was a decent breeze.

Pool today.  Stay safe and enjoy today

 

 

 

 

[StLouisCruisers]

24 minutes ago, tjcox9 said:

Here are some photos from our 2015 trip to Longyearbyen.

 

Here we have an Arctic reindeer, eider duck eggs, male eiders, a group of eiders and nesting female.

 

Next is an overlook of a large Husky kennel, a snow grouse and large satellite dishes and Huskies preparing for to pull sleds.

 

I found it a fascinating place both times.

 

Was this on a tour on the Ocean Princess?  It's wonderful you were able to get out and see all this wildlife!

[smitty34877]

Good morning everyone. Butterscotch pudding  is a favorite  here as DD makes it often from scratch.The recipe looks good and would make half of the group quite happy.The quote is a good one as well.

 

Thanks to all for their kind thoughts yesterday.  Tana and I had run into a situation  in a store that was just awful on Friday.We were standing together to pay for our coffee and a scary person began giving us both a hard time about wearing  masks. Tana uses portable  oxygen and was already slightly  short of breath and I could see she was really angry. I tried to just ignore the idiot but she didn't. Oh my. I had to pull a chair over for her and try to calm the situation. 

The other day @kazu said her tolerance  for stupid people is low.I understand  and concur.I am tired and sad to see people behave like this.

Anyway, I know we have a great deal to be grateful for and I want to believe that most people are kind. It is another day,the sun is out and there are good people on the Daily.

 

Terry

 

[tjcox9]

5 minutes ago, StLouisCruisers said:

 

Was this on a tour on the Ocean Princess?  It's wonderful you were able to get out and see all this wildlife!

No, it was with a  company by the name of Maxi Taxi. They did a really good job. Last time we  were there, they were booked and we used a different company whose name I don't recall. It was a bit different tour and the eider ducks were gone by then. And they didn't go as far up to the satellite dishes as we had the first time.

[cat shepard]

1 hour ago, mamaofami said:

Happy 62nd Anniversary, Carol & Sam! 🥂 here’s to many more!