Rhodes

We got up very, very early this morning in order to get breakfast before our tour (yesterdays buffet was a mob scene before our tour). It worked very well but we are exhausted. We are just back from our tour of Lindos on the island of Rhodes in Greece. It was about an hour’s bus ride from the port and we tried desperately to stay awake. Our guide was great but she had a very slow monotone voice that had the entire bus asleep in just a few minutes. Once in Lindos we hiked down a very long hill only to hike back up and even higher hill to the Acropolis (the Lindos Acropolis, not THE Acropolis). With guides giving talks on the way up it was very slow going. Adrienne made it all the way to the top, but coming down was much harder on her knee than going up. We had some great views from the top and some fun shopping on the way back down. All of the sidewalks and steps heading up (and down) to the Acropolis were lined with little shops selling everything from $1 bars of olive oil soap to $1000 (probably fake) coach bags. We waited a long time at the bottom of the Acropolis for a shuttle bus back up the other hill but we made it back to our bus just before the arranged meeting time.

After the tour of Lindos we stopped at a local pottery shop and watched a potter throwing a pot. It was fun to watch, but we didn’t buy anything. Luckily many of those with us took up the slack and the economy of Rhodes will survive.

It was raining when we got back to the boat so we did not head into the Old Town of Rhodes. I knew I shouldn’t talk about how great the weather was yesterday.

More pictures here.

Rebecca asked me to talk about the food, but I am afraid we are not very adventurous in that regard. Also, like a lot of things on this cruise, the food is not as good as on previous cruises. I have been especially disappointed with the desserts. I suppose it is a good thing that I am not even tempted by the desserts so far, but I am hoping for an amazing chocolate mousse someday soon. I will bring my camera to dinner from now on and if there is an interesting dish or, better yet, dessert on the table I will share a picture.

Connection Woes

Just in case our connection kicks out again we are fine and having a great time. I have been typing posts in word but haven't had a chance to uploade anything since Sunday afternoon. I will be adding them with the date and time that they were written. E

Turkey

We arrived in Kusadasi Turkey this morning at around 7am. We did not even notice that we had stopped moving. After a quick breakfast we headed out on our “Towns and Villages” tour. This was the alternative to the Ephesus archaeological site tour; we figured we would be seeing plenty of ruins over the course of this vacation. Heck we already saw plenty just in Rome. Anyway it was a great tour. We headed from Kusadasi to Sirince a little village about a half hour from the port. It was a very cute village with an old “ruined” church to see along with many, many little tables of trinkets and such.

After Sirince we drove to Tire to see “Market Day.” What an experience! Tire is the big city in these parts and people from all of the surrounding towns and villages come in on Tuesdays to buy their groceries at Market Day. There must be a lot of towns and villages in the area because there were A LOT of people in the streets for Market Day. In this picture you can see how the entire bus guided themselves through the throng. Look for the tiny patch of lime green; that is Adrienne. Our guide was terrific but short. Adrienne is terrific and tall. At least five people told us later that they were looking for her shirt to know which way to go. I took that picture when I fell behind myself and was relying on her shirt to find my way. During this stop we also went to a traditional felt making shop where we were given a demonstration of how they make the felt and the patterns. It was very cool and only a hint of the hard sell to come. Check them out at www.conkece.com.

After we made our way out of the market we drove to a small “Mill” restaurant for lunch. The problem came when there was more than one restaurant named “The Mill.” We were beckoned in to one such restaurant only to find out (after we all got out of the bus) that they were in fact waiting for a different bus and our restaurant was a little bit down the street. Our meal was pretty tame. I loved the cheese appetizers, but no one else at our table ate much of them. The “meatballs” advertised were actually little hamburgers so Adrienne ate those and, of course, you can go wrong with French fries (Word automatically capitalized that) but they only gave you four. The restaurant was also, of course, a potty break and Adrienne had her first experience with a non-western toilet stall. She politely waited until the others in the bathroom had left and then came out not having given it a shot. Luckily I informed her that the one I used was “western” style and she was very relieved. We informed all of the women from our group that they had that option and I am sure they all waited politely for that stall to open. It is nice to have options.

Before heading back to the boat we were sidelined to a Turkish Carpet weaving school. Apparently every bus is taken to one of these stores, fortunately and unfortunately for us our tour was of the school instead of a store in town. It was great because we got to see the silk being harvested (right from the silk worm pods) and the carpets actually being made. Then there was a very dramatic, very well choreographed presentation of the carpets available; different sizes, different colors, different quality. All gorgeous and all out of our price range. They started their hard sell with “you don’t have to buy anything; which one did you like best!” We were quickly able to convince them that we had absolutely no intention of buying even the least expensive carpets ($500 for a scrap). Others were not so lucky. Actually a few of them were really interested so the rest of us were held hostage since we were at the school and not in the town within walking distance to the boat. They bargained the owner down from $13,000 to $9,000 but were still not willing to seal the deal in such a tight timeframe.

More pictures here.

We had a lovely dinner back on the boat exchanging stories with our table-mates who each did an Ephesus trip. The kids did great on their tour and the little boy learned a new word at dinner when the waitress offered him a cookie. He liked that word very much.

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Random Thoughts

Other People Suck
That’s right, they suck. We went down for our, now habitual, evening soak in the hot tub and there were other people in them. Both of them. (The outside ones were too cold). We were forced to go to bed without having been dipped into warm water and we slept great anyway. But other people still suck.

Food
I haven’t said much about the food yet. Our first night here we were pretty upset and our perception of the food was tainted. Sunday night it was great. Monday we ate our dinner out in Mykonos but I did have an incredible pasta with gorgonzola sauce here on the boat for lunch. Yum! We had lunch today as part of our cultural tour of Turkey and it was OK (you can see a picture of it here). We have high hopes for the rest of the cruise.

WeatherThe weather has been amazing. Just like with the Scandinavian trip last year we have really lucked out with weather. Yesterday in Mykonos it was a little cool in the morning, but just the right temperature for walking a few miles. Whenever we felt overheated by the sun we would just pause and let the breeze cool us off. Today the weather was stunning. Our tour guide told us that it rained here (Turkey) all day yesterday, but today the high was 71 and the sun was shining. We hope this keeps up.

Mykonos -- Evening

Since I last wrote, we had our lunch, jumped in the hot tub, and then tried to update to this site only to find out that the WiFi does not work while in port. Damn! We are here until 11pm and we have a very early tour in the morning so that is why these posts have been delayed.

After our naps we went back into the town and the shuttle bus ride had Adrienne cringing in her seat. They are very narrow windy roads and the cars, vespas, and buses go very, very fast. At one curve of this crazy road on the way to dinner there was a car parked. Yes, parked. We didn’t think we would ever get by. We went to one of the many sidewalk cafes for dinner. We did not eat this, I promise you, but sundried octopus seemed to be on every menu. We did have some yummy chicken (yes, we are chickens) with fries and bread while we watched the sunset and people-watched.

We are back on the boat and the sun has set, it may just be time to hang out on the balcony until bed.

Mykonos -- Morning

Well our day got changed around a little bit today. We were supposed to be docking at Mykonos right about now, but due to a medical emergency they decided to speed up a little bit and we docked at around 10am. Luckily we had gotten up at around 7:30, I got a workout in, and we had breakfast, so Adrienne and I got off the boat at around 10:30 and wandered the island. And wander is the right word. Our little maps were useless and we just literally wandered through the streets. At one point I think we went through someone’s house, but I am sure it was OK.

This is the only port where we will be here over dinner and there seem to be many, many good restaurants in town. So we came back to the boat for lunch (and our afternoon soak in the hot tub) and we will head back out for dinner and to see the town at night. Judging by the “shot” menu at a local bar I think we will skip the club scene.

More pictures here.

Other People Rock!

Well, at least the other people we had dinner with tonight.

What a difference a day (and a shower and some clean clothes and a good night’s sleep) can make. We had a fabulous day and no one tried to make it any different. We went in the hot tub, we blogged, we had lunch, and then I laid down for a nap (Adrienne was determined not to nap). Then we both woke up just in time to get ready for dinner. Boy did that feel good.

We joined our new table full of other people and it was great. The first couple was from Vancouver and we were trading laughs very quickly. We love a good sense of humor in our other people. Coming in a little late was our second couple with their two very well-behaved children (one girl 10 and one boy 7). They are from The Netherlands and the adults spoke English but the kids, not so much. Lucky the kids did not have much to say to us anyway. They did come up and introduce themselves to each of us in turn and it was adorable. I will never remember their beautiful Dutch names, let alone be able to spell them so from here on out they will be kids.

Balcony

Finally a new day! That last one was very long. This one should be very relaxed. We just got done walking a mile on the track upstairs and eating our breakfast.

I intend to take pictures off of our balcony every so often and naming them with the date and time. Right now we are going through a passage with Mecina on the right and, um, whatever is across the Mediterranean from Mecina on the left. It is stunning.

I will keep all of the balcony shots in a set here and will post them when they seem appropriate.

Tomorrow, Mykonos!

At Sea

Well, try as they might (and they are trying) Royal Caribbean can’t force us to have a bad time on this cruise. We did not get our luggage until 5 minutes before dinner, our shower head was broken, and then our table reservations were screwed up for dinner. We ended up at a two-top table (instead of the 6-top with our friends) and it was right next to the waiter prep station so they were loading and unloading trays right next to our heads the whole time. When we complained about the table assignment we were told to talk to our group to work out a solution. Those of you that know Adrienne know just how she took that one. You screwed up, you fix it. In the end though we decided not to bother our friends with it since they were all happy at their tables and we just asked them to move us to another table.

Once we both calmed down (it has been a long, long couple of days) we laughed throughout the meal and we fully intend to have a great time. We find ourselves often stopping to say “mom would have loved this" and/or "mom would have hated this.” She would have loved the Rome tour today, but should would have hated the point where we got out of bus at St. Peter’s Square because the sidewalks were all brick and very uneven and they would not let anyone stay on the bus. She would have been upset that we were not totally happy with our accommodations. But, if she had been here our table would not have been screwed up or we would have been perfectly happy to be at a private table for three.

10:30am – Update: We found out that the pools (2) and hot tubs (4) are open 24/7. BONUS. We just got back from a dip in the hot tub and we are ready to melt into bed. Tomorrow we are at sea all day so I am hoping to get a bunch of posts up at once.

Rome

OMG Flight #2/#3 is done and we are more tired and stinkier than we have ever been before. We landed in Rome right on time at about 9am after a very uneventful flight. We were too early to get on the ship so the cruise line offered us a bus trip excursion to see the sights of Rome.
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We signed right up as did most of our group. It was a great tour but we were exhausted and we hadn’t eaten a decent meal in a long, long time. We went through some parts of the city that look like any other city in the world and then suddenly passing into the old section and it is all ruins and spectacular. You can see the rest of our pictures here.

After the tour, the bus brought us right to the boat. And were we ever ready to be on the boat. It was already around 3pm and they had been boarding since around noon. We were hoping that would mean that we would have our luggage, but alas it is now nearly 5pm (we just got back from mustering) and we still have no luggage. Which means that we both still stink, Bad!

Our room is nice. The balcony is great, I am sure we will spend lots of time out there. The rest is not as big as we expected it to be but the view is worth it.

OK, now I don’t stink as bad as Adrienne, but I am dressed in some pajamas that I stuck in my overnight bag. The ship is rumbling so I am sure we will be sailing soon.

Frankfort

4/26/08 6:30am
OK, we are done with flight #1. Well, #1 for me, #2 for Adrienne (sorry that sounds more scatological than I intended). We are currently in the Frankfort airport waiting for our connecting flight to Rome.

Our flight here was relatively fine. There was not much sleeping and Adrienne engaged in a constant battle with the guy in front of her to save her knees. He was determined to push his seat back, but she was more determined he would not. She won.

We did have individual TV screens at our seats and we had the opportunity to watch this movie. Now I have been known to Time Warp and throw toilet paper (GREAT SCOTT!) in my day but I am not sure I would want to watch this entire movie sitting on a plane with headphones on. Adrienne and I watched Enchanted and tried to keep it synced with pauses for dinner and potty breaks (we are easily amused).

There were also many, many children on our flight. You would think it was world children’s day in Germany, but I think that was last June. For our viewing and listening pleasure there were two cuties two rows in front of us (the bulkhead seating). The baby on the right was about four months old and reminded a lot of this child , the baby on the left was about 4 weeks and reminded me of a devil child. That baby was having some serious issues with being up in a plane and she was determined to let everyone know it. She cried for about 80% of the flight.

And Away We Go....................

I landed in Detroit at 5am local time. Erika picked me up and we met Gretchen and Gordon for a Coney Island Breakfast (not Leo's quality, but Coney nonetheless). Our flight leaves at 3:50pm which means Erika and I will be at the airport before 1pm. I don't think DTW has wifi, so the next you hear from us will be on the ship Saturday afternoon/evening ish.

Knee Update

SO the official diagnosis is Rhuematoid Arthirits in the Left knee. There we fun x-rays, and a bunch of probing and prodding with the hands of many Doctors used in making that diagnosis. Many options were bantered around including ultimately knee replacement. WHile that is further down the road, I was more interested in an immediate solution because in case you haven't heard, I leave tonight for a huge trip with my sister. So this past Monday I received a steroid injection (shh don't tell the MLB) into the left side of my left knee. Liquid lead is the description I heard from most people when I mentioned this was going to happen. Others just nodded and sighed. Needless to say I was scared shitless by the time it was going to happen. Even the Doctor did his best:
DR: ALong with the Steroid we are injecting Ladicain as an anesthetic to numb your knee. Because of that you should be pain free immediately following the shot as your knee will be numbish.
ME: Cool
DR: However, I must tell you there will be a window of time where the anesthesia will wear off and the Steroid might not have kicked in yet. At that point you will be in pain until the steroid kicks in.
ME: I have to pick my sister up at the airport at 2pm, whould I be ok til then?
DR: Yes, that will be fine. The anesthesia usually lasts about 8-10 hours.
ME: ok, I've been in pain this long a little more won't kill me. How big a window?
DR: No saying, it is different for everyone.
ME: ok, how much pain?
DR: Enough that in a normal circumstance you will want to go to the Emergency Room. But you can't.
ME: WTF?!

Now I was more scared, but I knew it had to be done. I got my shot (yes, I cried a little, I do hate needles so very much), I left and went home and worried about when the pain would come. I had figured around 5pm the hurtin' would begin, so I did everything I needed to do and settled in for a early night.

I have to tell you, I was not in pain for one single minute! From the moment he pulled that needle out of my knee, I have had no pain in my knee at all. I even went down a flight of stairs yesterday like a normal person. (down stairs have been such a problem) I do now notice the pain in my other knee and my hip more since I am no longer focused on that one spot, but heh, I can deal with those.

Plan of Action

24-Apr Erika leaves Indiana in the morning and Adrienne leaves California at night
25-Apr Adrienne arrives in Detroit at 5am and then we fly to Europe at 3pm that same day.
26-Apr Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
27-Apr Cruising
28-Apr Mykonos, Greece - On our own
29-Apr Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey - Turkish Towns and Villages
30-Apr Rhodes, Greece - Journey to Lindos
01-May Limassol, Cyprus - Kourian Beach for Swimming
02-May Cruising
03-May Alexandria, Egypt - The Pyramids and the River Nile
04-May Cruising
05-May Piraeus (Athens), Greece - Ancient Athens and Plaka
06-May Cruising
07-May Naples, Capri, Italy - Tastes of Sorrento and Pompeii (we get to make mozzerella)
08-May Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy fly back to Detroit
09-May Little bit of sleep then Erika drives back to Indiana and Adrienne flies back to California.


Watch here for daily updates. It will be a nice two week break from all the poiltical blogs and time for some refreshing fun travel ones.

Are you excited? I am

Quantity -vs- Quality

In the fifties it was der riguer for the wife to stay home and take care of the home and kids, spending, if you will, quantity time with her children. In the eighties the need for single parents to work, and for middle class wanting to stay above the poverty line, to have both parents work, the rally became to spend quality time with the children. It no longer was about the amount of time but what you did with that time.

Now that phrase has new meaning in the aught eight election. This Democratic Primary is definitively going to the convention, I have no doubt. It will be decided by the Super Delegates (something I am sorta unclear about and wary of), and the question they will have to base their decision on is: Quantity -vs- Quality. Obama has "won" more states (quantity), Clinton has "won" bigger states (quality). Is winning California worth the same weight as winning Vermont? Is a popular vote logical to use in a Primary when it is not used in a General?

Obviously my opinion on it doesn't count. I voted for Edwards!

What's your opinion?

Since you Brought it Up

Uncle Marcel brought up the subject of Bush's masturbation stimulation Stimulus package. All it is, is a stroking of his...........well his ego at the very least. Again another way to throw way more money out the window because we are not yet in to debt enough before he leaves. Really, tell me, for you personally, what will $300, $600, or if you have a busload of kids $1200, do to make your financial situation better? If you risk investing it, good luck to you, unless of course you invest in oil, I hear they are making a shitload of money right now heh. Will you put it in the bank? Splurge on something you have been wanting but couldn't afford? ANd really if you do this, you bought it but you still can't really afford it. Will you pay off debts you have accrued during this recession we're not in (hello, who's out of touch now?)?

Bust-A-Cop

Yep that's what I did this morning. C'mon we've all seen 'em do things wrong and blow it off, because, well because they are cops and they hold a certain amount of immunity in our world. But today this guy went too far and just irritated the heck out of me.

As I am driving South on Central and am in the left turn lane, the officer is driving North and in the right lane, he proceds to turn right onto Doran - with no indicator - ok fine, no big deal (although I do feel very strongly about indicators), then as he made another right turn onto Orange - again with no indicator - there was an older woman crossing the street coming towards him. He continued to inch into the intersection to where he was close enough to her to get her to move a little faster and to look at him with a WTF look. For the uninitiated in So Cal, Glendale is the leader in Pedestrian injuries and deaths, there is much controversy as to when you can pull into an intersection when a pedestrian is crossing, there are weekly stings around the city and it is just a hot-bed issue, so to see this officer violationg this really irked me more. Moving on he decides to go to McDonalds and makes another non -indicated right turn into McD's, I am right behind him as this was my intended destination as well. My thinking now, is that he is probably a busy beat cop trying to get a quick breakfast and I forgave all his wrongdoings. As I see what comes out of the window to him is 4 drinks (Glendale PD rides alone!) I realize he is just on a coffee run and is not in fact working the beat, that makes me a little irked again, why is a patrol car being used for a coffee run? I make notice of the car number on the back of the car, 68, easy to remember that was a great year for the birth of fascinating babies - heh. Anyhoo, as he pulls away from the window and to the edge of the driveway, he sits, waiting. I am at the window thinking what is he waiting for, you can only go right (BIG ASS SIGN SAYS SO). I get my food and pull up behind him. Again with no indicator idiot cop makes a left turn. I couldn't hold it in, I yell out my window "Are you kidding me?". He turns back slightly but continues on. That did it, I immediately called the non-emergency number for Glendael PD (yes I know that number, we used to have some party harty neighbors when the kids were little) and reported him. The officer I spoke to listened to my ranting and said "I assure you I will take this up with that officer". Whether he does or not, I suppose I will never know, but I feel better.
Now, I know that their are rouge cops that do way worse things, but they all have to start somewhere.

Kick 'em while their down

Earlier this month John McCain proposed a gas tax suspension for the summer. (you can read the Yahoo News article here) The gas tax is approximately 18 cents on regular, now commonly referring to unleaded, but regular was leaded when I was a kid, but I digress, and approximately 25 cents per gallon for deisel. Yes this will make a difference for a few weeks for some summer travellers, but it will only be a band-aid. And a band-aid without neosporin at that! According to the Yahoo news article suspending the tax from Memorial Day to Labor day will result in the government losing approximately $10 Billion. Correct me if I'm wrong but are we not already in debts above our ears and over our heads somewhere in the catrillionzillion area? So maybe losing another $10 Billion would be just a drop in the bucket. The taxes from gas are earmarked to go directly into the highway safety fund and are to be used solely for refurbishing and upgrading our national highway system. Hmmmmmm, didn't a big ass bridge in Minnesota collapse last year? Can we really afford to take $10 Billion away from that fund?

How about a long-term solution? How about kicking some oil owning ass? How about looking into price gouging and the fact that a barrel of oil costs $115, I spend about $100 month on gas (I drive an itty bitty Ford Focus)am I getting a barrels worth of gas each month? How big is a damn barrel? How much of the $3.89 gallon of gas that I bought yesterday goes where? Why are the profits of the oil refineries allowed to skyrocket when our country is IN a recession? When we have an earthquake here in So Cal, merchants are not allowed to take advantage of the consumer by ratcheting up the prices of the bare necessities. Should all Big Business be held to some sort of regulatory action for taking advantage of consumers?

Some of the spin doctors are calling the tax suspension a great relief, that it will help drive back down the price of consumer goods because everything has a trickle down effect. But how long will that last? Any kid who has been on summer vacation knows that time flies by quickly. And then do the prices go right back up? And what is to stop the oil companies from raising the prices during that time period? If the "barrel" goes up, they're going to raise the price anyways. So why shouldn't they go ahead and raise it the full 18 cents we are supposedly saving. And then when the tax suspension is over we get raised another 18 cents.

No Mr. Mc Cain, I don't see this as a good idea in any possible way, except maybe for your friends the oil lobbyists.

The Antidote to Anecdotes

I have talented family members. Some very eloquent writers and speakers. Me howeer, not so much.

I can rip off a fierce complaint letter, or a stern memo or write up. But quirky, funny anecdotes, not so much.

Boring

I have joined an online community called Twitter. It is just a bunch of people posting random thoughts without any expectation of comments or response. But in following people, and reading their bogs, I have come to realize just how boring I am. Good grief, this cruise better come quick, I need to get a job and get a life.

I before E but never like A

Pronunciation is one of my biggest pet peeves. Words that are spelled with an I but mispronounced as if they had an A. My two fingernail on chalkboard words have always been family and immediately. Listen to yourself when you read that did you think/say famaly and ahmmediately? It bothers me that people are lackadaisical about it. Being a reality show addict my latest bothersome word is Immunity. Why can't Jeff PRobst on a National (and very popular) television show correctly pronounce this simple word? It is a word that he uses more than once on each show and has even spawned some of the lesser intelligent watchers to misspell it on their blogs. It is not Ammunity. There is no such word.





*as you can plainly see it is only mispronounciation that bothers me not misspelling. Or is it mispelling?

Sorry

I know this seems like the Bush bashing blog lately, but really I couldn't pass up this next one. I will try to be more respectful of my President, but I wouldn't hold your breath or anything.

Leader of the free world

This is funny. Probably not so much to my more conservative relatives, lol (that's Laughing out Loud).


Bush

Gas

When Mr. Oil took office the average price of gas was $1.42. I just filled up at $3.59. The esxtimated cost by next January is well over $4.00.