Vacation 2011 - Florida

Best vacation to date. We flew out of Fargo directly to Orlando. Picked up our car and drove to Fort Lauderdale. After a few days of lounging around, we borded the Ruby Princess, and headed out to sea.

This was our first cruise. The staff were excellent, and the ship a wonder. We ate too much, and had lots of fun. There was a performing troup onboard and they gave some great shows. Also were a couple of comedians performing. We had a couple of dancing lessons and saw a couple of movies under the stars. We had signed up for assigned dinner seating, so we ate at 5:30 every night with the same two couples and the same wait team.

Both the other couples were great people around our age and we had fun meeting with them and discussing our day's adventures. Jimmy, our waiter, is Phillipino, and has been working there for 21 years. This was to be his last cruise. He was attentive and friendly and at one point seemed almost hurt at the refusal of the famed White (desert) Menu. Just a great fellow. His assitant waiter, Vladimir, was from the Ukraine, and a sweet young man. He was lots of fun and both of them served us well and made us feel at home.

We had fun exploring the ship, and even took the galley tour. The biggest kitchen I have ever seen! There is a place in the middle of the ship called the Piazza. It opens through thre decks and has continual shows of music and such. We watched the Checkerboard Guy perform his juggling and comedy. Very fun. We had a balcony and loved to stand or sit out and enjoy the night air and warm temps.

Four stops. Princess Cays. This is a beach area on the southern end of Eleuthera, Bahamas. It is owned by Princess. We went kayaking in the surf and walked the tide pools and swan amoung tiny fish.

St. Martin or Sint Maarten is a Dutch island. We went helmet diving and had a great time. Had fish eat out of our hands and held a sea-urchin and sea-spider.

St. Thomas is an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, so our cell phones worked for a while. We went on a pirate schooner (Bones) to Turtle Cove for snorkling. Had a fun time there. The rocks around the port were covered with iguanas. We got rained on. a short strong storm, we just walked around while others ran for covered. We'd been in minus degree blizzards before, a nearly windless 85 degree rainstorm was refreshing.

Last stop was at Grand Turk. The main island of the Turks and Caicos islands. We just sat on the beach and swam in the surf. Very relaxing.

We had a wonderful time there. When we got back to Florida, we went to the Ft. Lauderdale beach and walked it. Then we drove to Orlando.

We spent one day at Disney World. It was disappointing compared to Disneyland. It didn't seem as well run, but it was okay.

The next three days we spent at Universal Studios and had a great time. This guy hates roller coasters. Well, I did. Awesome! we rode every one they had except for this one that just drops you straight down over and over. Saw lots of cool things and got really, really wet.

Well, that's about it, had a great time but missed everybody. It's good to be home.

Tripped to Texas

Laurie and I took a little vacation to Texas this week. Yesterday was the third anniversary of Jeremiah's passing so we went to Fort Hood to where the memorial for the 4th Infantry Division is. We were supposed to meet Laurie's Mom and Dad there, but the weather in Dallas was so bad that Mom's plane from Calif was cancelled. We drove down and the weather was cleared by the time we reached Texas. We passed through Oklahoma City and stopped at Abuelo's in Bricktown. We really like that place and had a great meal. We spent the night in Norman outside OKC and in the morning we drove on down. The temp had been chilly all the way since we left home, but we hit Texas and it stayed 90 - 99 until we left there.



We stopped next in Killeen, TX which is outside Ft. Hood. We met up with James and Gina, a married couple we know there. James is in the Army and served with Jeremiah in Iraq. It was nice to be able to spend time with them and to get to know them. They helped us get around on base and we visited the Fisher House, which is a house on base for families of any soldier that might be in the hospital there. We went down there a couple of years ago when they dedicated a plaque to all the 4th ID soldiers lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is posted in the Fisher House. We then visited the memorial and spent some time there. We went out to dinner with James and his wife and then spent to night in a hotel there in Killeen.



The next day we drove down to San Antonio. We saw the Alamo and walked around the downtown area. The Riverwalk is really nice. The San Antonio River is diverted to loop around a large part of downtown and is actually a lot lower than the rest of the city. We ate at Del Rio an historic restaurant there and then tookthe boat tour which circles the riverwalk and gives an explanation of the area and a lot of the history of the buildings there. That night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in San Antonio. Part one was over and we started to look for a place to spend the night. All the hotels in San Antonio were too spendy so we thought we'd drive up to Austin and stay. Unfortunately, there was a bike rally in Austin so there were no rooms. We ended up driving up to Killeen and stayed there again.



That next day we spent with James and Gina again and revisited the memorial. As we drove north, we wanted to stop in Waco and see the Dr. Pepper museum. Traffic was so bad, that we didn't get there in time but got a couple of photos outside. We pushed on to Dallas.



We thought there was a Hard Rock in Dallas, so we thought to stop there. It doesn't open until next week. We parked outside TGI Fridays, downtown and walked around. There was a street concret and we listened for a little while and then walked around some more. This kid was painting these futuristic city scenes with spray paint while sitting on his knees. He painted very fast. Kinda cool. We wandered around and came across the House of Blues. Inside it was cool. A restaurant and a bar and a concert room too. Dallas was nice. Drove home and stopped and slept in the car at one point. Passed through OKC late at night and there were thunder storms brewing.



The next day we stopped in Kansas City and ate at a different Abuelo's. Then is was time to get home. Felt like it took forever. A lot of road construction all through Iowa and South Dakota. We pulled into Fargo around 11:00pm and stopped for a snack at Fridays before driving on. A final stop in Grand Forks to say hello to Alex and then home.



A good trip. We spent most of today sleeping and being lazy.