Thu 28 May 2009

A little note from Lis

Posted by Lis under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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We chose to have no breakfast the majority of our days here at Binners, but we thought it would be nice to have their breakfast our first morning. It is 8:42 am and breakfast is at 9:00. I can smell it and it smells delicious. Mainly I’m writing this morning to correct a few things in the blog post that was written while I was snoring.

I pointed out to Mary that we are eligible for early bird specials right now, but she believes that early bird specials are for senior citizens – I think she’s getting confused from the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is visiting his parents in Florida and they keep having early bird specials. If anyone wants to comment and point out that I am right (or wrong) please feel free.

Also, sweetly, she was more disappointed than I was that Green Cuisine didn’t have the fruit crumble. I was perfectly happy with my meal. Ah well, who cares. This is how I drive my girlfriend crazy by constantly correcting her.

Binners B & B is absolutely lovely. It is very luxurious. Jetted tub and heated floors in the bathroom – Elemis bath products including a tooth cleaning kit! A gas burning fireplace, a flat screen tv with a dvd player built in, lovely soft towels and sheets. And the carpet feels really great on my bare feet. I wish we could have this carpet in our house, but because it is a berber our beloved, annoying cats would destroy it immediately.

There are some very cool birds here – they are constantly singing outside our window, and I actually remembered to bring my binoculars along. I have attached them to the side of my fanny pack, which also has a space for a water bottle. You can believe that I look like a total geek. But it has been so fun looking at all the birds. I am contemplating paying $19.99 for the IBirdPlus Iphone application which is a bird identification application. I have not yet paid for a single IPhone app, but this one is very cool. I downloaded the free one and the functionality is very cool, but it only had 15 birds, most of which I already know how to identify (crow, mallard, seagull)

We also learned from Binners yesterday that the two cruise ships that were docked here yesterday are going to be coming here all summer and that they have been rerouted from Mexico, due to the swine flu. I feel very sorry for the people in Mexico who depend on the money that comes in from cruise ship passengers, and I feel very sorry for the people who wanted a sunny Mexican vacation and are here instead. Victoria is FANTASTIC, but it is so different from Mexico.

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Wed 27 May 2009

Arriving in Victoria

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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Had breakfast at the B&B this morning – it was really good for me, but they didn’t handle Lis’ special diet as well. This was partly on them and partly on us, I’d say. The breakfast served to the non-special dieters was a bowl of granola and yoghurt with strawberries on top, followed by a scone, followed by an egg/crepe thingy – all of which was quite yummy. The Lis no-dairy version was the strawberries minus the yoghurt and granola, and scrambled eggs with ham. The part that is on us is that we only told them that Lis couldn’t have dairy – we didn’t mention the part about how she can’t have sugar, primarily because we don’t usually run across sugar for breakfast. However, the strawberries were in a syrup, which of course is mostly sugar, so Lis couldn’t really eat them – just had a couple of the least sugary ones. The part that is on them is that they should have been able to replace the scone with something, rather than just take it away. And the part that is on us is that Lis is really picky about eggs (it’s very easy for her to be grossed out by them if they’re not cooked just right) and doesn’t really like ham. So the upshot was that I walked away from the table full and Lis walked away hungry. We tried to run her by McDonald’s on the way to Port Angeles, but we missed the end of breakfast by about 15 minutes. So she had a cereal bar and cashews in the car.

We got to Port Angeles in plenty of time for the ferry, but not so early that we had to sit around for eons waiting to board. Once on the ship, we went up to the forward observation room where we had a good view of the crossing. The weather was much improved today but still a little chilly and morning-cloudy. But, by the final third of the trip the sun had come out and the temperature had warmed, and so we went out on the forward deck. Looking ahead we could see Victoria and the hills of Vancouver Island, looking back we could see Washington state and the Olympic Mountains in all their glory, and the sun was warm and the wind was down – it was truly lovely. There are few things as transcendently awesome as being out on the deck of a ship in glorious scenery and beautiful weather, even a plain ol’ no-nonsense gal like the MV Coho.

There were two cruise ships in port (Carnival Splendor and Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas) so the Inner Harbour area was pretty crowded and a bit of a pain to navigate through. However, as we have seen before, once we were about 5 blocks away from the Empress Hotel, things cleared up significantly. By the time we got to Market Square, only about 10 blocks from the Empress, everything was pretty quiet. We had lunch at Green Cuisine, but they didn’t have the regular Fruit Crumble dessert that they ALWAYS have and is the main reason we go there, so we were pretty disappointed (especially Lis – she was having a rough food day).

We had a couple hours to kill until we could check in at the B&B we will be staying at in Victoria (we have never stayed a week at a B&B – we are a bit apprehensive, as we like B&B’s but also grow tired of having to socialize with people. However, we are only having the breakfast part of the B&B on the first morning (tomorrow), so we’re expecting it might be more like staying in a boutique hotel.) so we drove around the island a bit and ended up driving along Beach Drive/Dallas Road on the east side of the island, which is way scenic. We got out and walked around for a while on this cool point with some wonderful tide pools and rock formations – that turned out to be about 5-10 blocks from the B&B. We hope to walk there a lot more during our stay.

The place we are staying is called Binners Bed & Breakfast. “Binners” is actually the name of our proprietress. She let us in and sat us down at the dining room table and we just chatted and compared travel notes and told stories and laughed for the next 2 hours or so. Her husband Edward came home about halfway through this time and joined us – we had a really great time and enjoyed them both very much – so much so that we completely lost track of time and pretty soon it was 7pm or so and time to try to find something to eat. First, though, Binners and Edward showed us to our room – they offered us an upgrade to the 2-room Cascadia Suite, but we found that we liked the light and feel of the smaller Harmony Room that we originally booked. They showed us all around the room, showing us where everything was and how everything worked – we appreciated the attention and the thoroughness.

The place itself is very different from the James House – a regular modern house in a regular modern neighborhood, as opposed to a grand old Victorian mansion. From the outside it doesn’t look very imposing at all, but the room is very comfortable and the amenities are much better – there is a little kitchenette-type area in the room with fridge, microwave, sink, coffee maker, kettle and toaster – at James House there was no way to have a cup of coffee or tea after hours. As we’ve often noted before, you do frequently have to sacrifice amenities in some of the grander older settings.

We headed out for dinner at about 7:30-7:45pm – very hipster cosmopolitan for a couple of dinner-at-5:30 gals like us (we can’t wait until we’re old enough for those Early Bird Specials we’ve heard tell of). There is a little neighborhood village area a few blocks from the B&B with some nice looking eateries, but they were crowded and loud and we almost punted and ate at Subway, but then we saw that the Pizzeria wasn’t too bad and had a table open, and so we ate there. The waiter was a touch attitudinal (I think I offended him by asking what beer he had on tap and then not wanting to order any – they had an ale and a pilsner, whereas I’m more of a porter/hefeweizen/stout girl) but the food was good and everybody else there was very nice. We had a hard cider instead of beer or wine and it was really good – very much hit the spot.

Then back to the inn, where we unpacked and hit the hay – Lis is snoring away as I type, and I hope to be snoring away myself as soon as I’m done here.

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Tue 26 May 2009

Pit Stop in Port Townsend

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2009 Victoria, Vacation
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Rather than trying to get to Port Angeles in time for the 2pm ferry to Victoria, which we have done before but not without a fair amount of stress, as we are not girls who can easily get organized and out of the house at an early hour, we decided to drive to Port Townsend today and stay overnight, and then go on to Port Angeles in the morning. Good thing, too, as it turns out the 2pm ferry to Victoria is now the 12:45pm ferry to Victoria.

We had a pleasant morning, got out in decent time (for us), and had a pleasant, uneventful drive, alternately Learning Spanish Like Crazy and listening to This American Life and Fresh Air (brainwashed liberals that we are). We arrived at the B&B about 3pm and were able to check in right away. I had thought that we might then spend the afternoon and evening kicking around Port Townsend, but the weather today was a bit windy and cool and trying to rain, so we went to our room for a bit to unwind and then walked down to an Asian Noodle restaurant for dinner. We did walk around a little bit, but the weather wasn’t very conducive and most things were closed, so there wasn’t much to do. We did pop into a cute little herb store where Lis got some tea and a tincture for a tired throat, and Lis went and looked around a candle store (I had to wait outside as the scents in those kinds of places make my sinuses explode). The restaurant was cute and the food was good. Afterwards we headed back to our room at the B&B.

The B&B is called The James House. The literature in the room (which I liked a lot because it talked about the history of the area starting with the local Native populations and working through to the present day) says that the house was originally a mansion built in 1889 by Francis Wilcox James for his wife Mary. Mr. James apparently “made his fortune by making shrewd investments in the late 1800’s,” which I took as code for “gouged and ripped off the local citizenry like mad.” I did a quick Google search to test my theory, but didn’t come up with anything about the original Mr. James. However, I did find this cool photo of the inn.

Regardless of how he amassed his fortune, I will say that Mr. James had very nice taste – the inn is very lovely. Most of it seems to be original, and is in very good condition. There is lots of beautiful woodwork throughout the house – fir, redwood, oak, walnut, cherry – including the staircase, described in the literature as “the finest in Port Townsend [with] newel posts, spindles and banisters of wild cherry brought from the Virginias, around Cape Horn, as raw logs with the carving done here on the property.” It really is a spectacular staircase, but not overly ornate. The whole house is done very well – clearly a restored Victorian but not of the overly frilly variety that one often meets with on the bed and breakfast scene.

After dinner we retired to our room and did what we often do on vacation – surfed the web. Though now, with the addition of our new IPhone, our surfing bounced between the lap top and the IPhone. What was really cool is that when I attached the IPhone to the laptop via the phone’s USB cable, the laptop treated it as a camera and I was able to transfer the photos I had taken on it just like any other digital camera. Here are some of the pictures we took – pretty good for a camera phone, I’d say (needless to say, we LOVE our new IPhone).

Well, better hit the hay and get ready for the final leg of the trip tomorrow – looking forward to our breakfast:)

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Fri 2 Jan 2009

My Favorite Movies of 2008

Posted by Lis under Everything
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Basically, this is what I do when I’m not in the mood to work. Why not do a movie list since I just did a book list? By the way, neither of these lists are of books or movies that came out in 2008. It’s just what I saw or read in 2008.

First, I saw 26 moviesin the theater last year (not bad, but I think 52 would be a better number.) These were my six favorites. Notice that two on the list just came out a week or so ago. What that means is that if I were to write this a year from now, they might not be on this list, due to that brain-addled, only remember what I most recently saw feature of my intellect. However, I really did think both were excellent movies.

There Will be Blood – We saw this last year in preparation for the Oscars. Violent as it was, I really loved this movie, as I also loved Eastern Promises in late 2007. I found Daniel Day Lewis and the whole story riveting. And I loved the milkshake scene at the end. (also really enjoyed Saturday Night Live’s parody of it.)

Young At Heart – I wasn’t dying to see this movie but it was playing at the Academy Theater where there are 2 for 1 movies on Tuesday night. Both Mary and I loved it. It was so uplifting, but not in a schmaltzy way. Sadly, I think that even when I am 80 years old, no one will want me in their choir.

Tell No One – I read great reviews of this and rushed out to see it months ago before it would be gone. Of course because of that it’s still around, while other movies I wanted to see are gone. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. It’s a good thriller, and I didn’t guess the ending. Also it’s in French, which somehow makes it more interesting. Also Kristin Scott Thomas is in it, playing a lesbian, and we all know what a babe she is.

Ghost Town – Mary and I went to see this during our Staycation in September when we practically saw a movie a day. We’d seen the previews for this and it looked funny. And it was funny, especially Kristen Wiig as Ricky Gervais’s surgeon. This movie came and went but it’s definitely worth a rental.

Marley and Me – This is what we saw when we were finally able to get out from under the snow. It was to make up for not being able to see a movie on Christmas Day. We actually wanted to see a possible Oscar flick, but this had the best timing. Ironically, earlier this year, when we were at a theater to see a different movie, I allowed myself to get roped in to watching some previews on a little machine and giving my feedback. The preview was for Marley and Me and it looked really stupid and annoying, which I told the guy interviewing me. Later when the previews showed up in the theaters, I was sure that they had incorporated some of my feedback because it looked all right. In fact, I think it was a well-made movie, a good movie about a marriage and a HUGE tear-jerker. Mary said the worst part about this movie was the little kids in front of us who turned around to stare at the middle-aged sobbing ladies in the back row. I agree. Stupid kids. Plus, I already had a stomach ache from trying NOT to cry. I was holding it in!

Frost/Nixon. – This was riveting and interesting. Frank Langella is amazing as Nixon. He made me actually like the man a little bit. The movie made both Mary and I want to see the real Frost-Nixon interviews.

And as for the worst movie I saw in 2008? Hands down it was Happy Go Lucky. The main character was incredibly irritating, and, I felt, extremely rude and inconsiderate in her “relentess optimism.” I can’t even stand to see her face! Fortunately I’m not entirely alone in my hating of this movie as my sweetheart suffered through it with me. We both squirmed in our seats, and I checked the time more than once. Afterwards we were in complete agreement about what a huge waste of time and possibly even an assault that movie was. I think it was free popcorn night at Regal Cinemas so maybe that made up for it a little bit.

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Fri 2 Jan 2009

My Favorite Books of 2008

Posted by Lis under Everything
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The Multnomah Public Libarary (which I love very much) has an online feature which will automatically save to a list everything you have checked out. This is optional, to prevent the government from spying on us, and you can also remove books from your list if you’d like. I love lists so I chose to have my history saved to a list, and I can see that I checked out 38 books from the library last year. Some are computer books and travel books so they don’t really count as “reading”, and some I didn’t’ like and didn’t finish reading them. In all, I read 24 library books last year. I thought I’d put together a list of my 10 favorite, but I find that there are plenty that I liked okay, but only a few that I REALLY loved. And here they are. I am handicapped by the fact that as soon as I read one book, I mostly forget the last one I read, so it’s obvious from my descriptions that no one’s going to hire me as a book reviewer. Anyway, here are my 6 most favorite of 2008. They’re not in any sort of order except for The Ridiculous Race which was my most very favorite.

  1. The Ridiculous Race – Steve Hely and Vali Chandrasekaran – Non-fiction – These two guys decided to race each other around the world, using no airplanes. This is what first drew me to this book – I was just interested to see how they would get around the world. I love this book because it is very interesting – I learned a lot – but it is also very, very funny. I was laughing out loud almost every page.
  2. Rome 1960 – The Olympics that Changed the World – David Maraniss – Non-fiction – I read this during the Summer Olympics which led to a little confusion in my addled brain as I kept thinking that the Olympics I was watching on tv were in Rome and the ones I was reading about were in Beijing. It’s a fascinating book, full of interesting information about what was going on during the Olympics and in the world during 1960.
  3. When Will There Be Good News – Kate Atkinson – Fiction – Kate Atkinson is Scottish and writes literary mysteries. They’re good mysteries and even better characterization. She is one of my favorite writers (though I checked out her short stories from the library last year and found them too “clever”. I got through one and a half of them before returning the book.)
  4. The Genius – Jesse Kellerman – Fiction – This is characterized as a thriller by Publisher’s Weekly. I’d call it a mystery. It concerns an art dealer in New York and a 40-year-old unsolved murder. There is definitely a mystery here, but this was to me a book about family, and a very good one.
  5. The Reluctant Communist : My Desertion,Court-Martial and 40-year Imprisonment in North Korea – Charles Robert Jenkins with Jim Frederick – non-fiction. The subtitle says what the book is about, and I found it to be really interesting.
  6. The Old Silent – Martha Grimes – Fiction – Martha Grimes is an American mystery writer who writes novels set in England. Martha Grimes is my easy pleasure reading, and most excellent airplane reading. I bought two Martha Grimes novels for our recent Caribbean cruise – one for the flight to Florida and one for the flight back. (Very sadly, I packed the one for the flight back in my suitcase and then checked the suitcase.) My plan was to donate the first book to the ship’s library or something after I finished it, but I found I liked this one so much that I had to hold on to it (unfortunate since it’s a fat book.) All of Grimes’s novels involve some sort of precocious child and all are very humorous in places. This one had all that, but went deeper. It moved me, so I couldn’t just get rid of the book. Fair warning: I also found it fairly disturbing.

     

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Wed 17 Dec 2008

Day 9 – St Thomas

Posted by Mary under Dec 2008 Cunard Queen Mary 2, Everything, Export, Virtual Cruise
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[This is a sample blog post for a trip we took on the Queen Mary II in December 2008.  The rest of the blog for this trip is collected in a Kindle ebook called Travel With Us on the Queen Mary II.  See our Travel With Us page for more information.]

Our dear, dear friend Marla, who has been reading along with our blog (thus demonstrating her discerning taste and overall intelligence), mentioned in an email today that “you guys seem like you’re going to be glad when the cruise is done.” Which was basically true when I got up this morning; the fun but ultimately unsatisfying tour in St Lucia, followed by the unsatisfying outing to the beach in St Kitts, had left me feeling sort of demoralized and just wanting the cruise to be over. This morning, as we got ready for our snorkeling excursion (one of the ship’s offerings), I didn’t even really feel like going – just wanted to get it over with so I could pack up my snorkel gear.

But then we ended up having a seriously excellent tour, which completely restored my equilibrium and enjoyment of the cruise. I was sad to rinse out my snorkel gear for the last time, and, while I look forward to going home, I don’t have that same white-knuckle-through-the-last-two-days feeling I had before. Funny how that works.

Our tour was called “Sea Turtle Snorkel” – they loaded us up on a catamaran and took us out to a place called Turtle Bay. We were on the morning excursion, which left at 8:30am. As we came off the ship it started raining, and then it started pouring. By the time they walked us over to the catamaran, it had mostly stopped, though the sky didn’t really look like it was done. However, there were 41 people on the tour, and they all squished themselves under the covered part of the catamaran, and we decided that we couldn’t bear to squish in with them and would risk the rain – we went and sat by ourselves in the uncovered forward part of the boat (one other intrepid couple sat on the other side). About halfway to our snorkel location it poured rain again, but it was a warm rain, and felt kind of good pelting on my legs (my head and upper body were covered by a hat and towel – Lis’ too). It was actually a pretty fun ride, and nice to have the whole forward area of the boat to ourselves. Just as we were pulling up to the snorkel location, the sun came out for good, and we had a lovely sunny morning for our snorkel. The water was nice and warm, too.

At Turtle Bay they gave us a lecture on safety, etc, and stressed that we needed to be respectful of the turtles. The guide said that about every 10 to 15 minutes the turtles need to come up for air, and that when they do we need to be completely still so as not to spook them – they feel most vulnerable when they come up for air, he said.

Lis and I were among the first in the water because we were willing to jump off the side, rather than wait for the ladder at the front. Because of this, we were able to spend about 10, 15 minutes viewing turtles in peace. Then, just as a turtle we were watching started to come up for air, a huge mass of people came surging in to watch, swimming around to get in position and definitely not following the “dead man’s float” instructions. We were bummed about this, but both decided we’d rather miss the turtles than deal with the tour participants en masse. We swam off in a different direction, and at first didn’t see anything, but then found a little reef with lots and lots of fish, many of them quite colorful – plus the ubiquitous school of sergeant majors swimming right along with you (I LOVE the sergeant majors). We were able to enjoy the reef pretty much by ourselves for another 15 minutes, and then it was discovered by the crowd. But, we established a pattern that worked (for the most part) for the rest of our snorkel time – when the crowd was looking at turtles, we’d snorkel the reef, and when the crowd was snorkeling the reef, we’d look at the turtles.

The only really frustrating part was that there was always somebody breaking the “respect the turtles” rule. This one time, Lis and I and one other guy were floating above a turtle, watching him feed on turtle grass and waiting to watch him surface. The guide had said that if you are really still, sometimes they swim right up to you as they surface. The turtle started to come up, and headed straight for the guy, who had waited with his camera in position and was now perfectly still and about to have the turtle swim within two feet of him. And just then this asshole guy came swimming in and actually started chasing the turtle, trying to touch it. The turtle swam off and the guys on the boat screamed at Asshole Guy to stop touching the turtles, and I had to turn away, I was hating Asshole Guy so much. But imagine how Well Behaved Guy must have felt, being so close to such a great shot. I hope he got at least one good photo before Asshole Guy barged in. Note from Lis: Asshole Guy, who had a big hairy belly, seemed to be following Mary and me around. We’d swim away from the crowd as fast as we could and be somewhere enjoying fish, and then suddenly instead of looking at fish, I’d be looking at this big hairy belly through my mask… oh I hated him.

But, even though the other people, as usual, were difficult at times, it was a really great snorkel, and we got to stay there for about 1 ½ hours, which we’ve discovered is about how much we want at a time – 1 ½ to 2 hours. On the catamaran trip back, they drove fairly slowly and served rum punch (Painkillers) and chips and salsa, and played “party music.” Usually we don’t like these “booze and cruise” type deals, but it was actually very fun – we stayed at the front, so the people were behind us, so we didn’t have to really see anybody – it just sounded festive. Plus the sun was out, and the Painkillers were good – all was right with the world on the way back. It was really one of the most pleasant 45 minute boat rides I’ve ever done (I will say here that I think I’ve seen enough old men in Speedos to last a lifetime, though). Note from Lis: The Painkillers were really good and I hated everyone much less after 1.5 Painkillers, and also really enjoyed the music on the ride back to the port. With my very low tolerance for alcohol, I was also quite tipsy, and I stumbled back to the ship and then fell asleep on the bed until Mary said we must go to lunch.

Back on the ship we had lunch, and then had our tie-breaker darts game in the pub (Lis won), and then went back out to the cruise terminal to check in with our housesitter and make arrangements for our kitties in case the entire city of Portland continues to be snowed in on Thursday and Friday. (With T-Mobile, the calls in St. Thomas were free as long as we were off the ship). While we were on the phone we noticed some kind of lizard sunning itself on the rocks of the harborside, and then another, and then another, so we walked over to see – there were about 7-10 lizards (iguanas, maybe?) on the rocks. Then someone from a local shop brought out lettuce for them, and they ate it, and a bunch of us took their pictures – it was really fun.

Back on the ship, Lis stayed in the room and read, and I went up on deck to watch our final sail away – it was a beautiful afternoon, and I got some nice pictures of the harbor. Then on to our formal night dinner, which was good but not great. After a great initial job, they’ve been struggling with Lis’ diet over the last couple days, mostly just taking things away, so her meals have been getting more and more basic – plus we’re usually bored with cruise food by the end of a cruise anyway. After dinner we had an invitation to a cocktail party where the booze was free, so we put in an appearance, got some champagne, and then went to the ballroom to watch the ballroom dancers – mostly gentlemen hosts and their partners from among the passengers. This is always a somewhat dangerous activity, as the gentlemen hosts will sometimes see two “single” ladies and come over and ask us to dance. At one point this particularly smarmy looking gentlemen (not sure if he was an official gentleman host or not) got up and started toward our side of the ballroom with this weird on-the-make expression, and Lis’ eyes widened and she said “I’m scared – let’s get out of here” – but we were not his target. Still, the damage was done – I couldn’t get her to stay in the ballroom any longer. We headed back to the room and went to bed.

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Sun 9 Nov 2008

Trying out the Queen Mary 2

Posted by Mary under Dec 2008 Cunard Queen Mary 2, Everything, Export, Virtual Cruise
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[This is the introductory blog post for a trip we took on the Queen Mary II in December 2008.  The rest of the blog for this trip is collected in a Kindle ebook called Travel With Us on the Queen Mary II.  See our Travel With Us page for more information.]

What a great week – on Tuesday Obama wins the election, and on Wednesday we “win” a free cruise to the Caribbean on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2!! Needless to say, we had a bit of trouble focusing for the rest of the week – Mary had to obsessively read all the election post-mortem, and Lis had to obsessively plan airfare and shore excursions.

So, how did this come about? Some time ago, Lis took Cunard’s Commodore Training Course, which included a free Graduation Cruise for her and a companion upon completion of the program. But, whenever graduation cruises were offered, they were always 1) in about 2-3 weeks and 2) snapped up before we could decide whether to do it.

On Wednesday, however, what with all the Post-Election excitement (and the after-effects of the Election Night champagne), our normal check-and-double-check-before-making-a-decision instincts were blunted. Lis got an email about some Graduation cruises and called out “Do you want to go to the Caribbean on the Queen Mary on December 9?” Mary responded, “Sure,” Lis called Cunard, and it was done.

Afterward, our instincts kicked in and we thought maybe we shouldn’t have done it – Lis was actually saying “maybe we should cancel” when her dad happened to call. She told him about it, and her reservations. He said, “OK, let me get this straight. It’s 10 nights, you only have to pay for airfare, all the food is free, and you’re thinking of not doing it?” Well, when you put it that way…

So, we’re very excited, pouring over travel books and Cruise Critic posts, trying to determine what we’re going to do in each port. Later we’ll post our itinerary and ideas for excursions.

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Tue 17 Jun 2008

“World’s Worst Cultural Mistakes”

Posted by Mary under Everything
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This was the headline of a story in a recent online issue of Travel and Leisure magazine. Well, who can resist such an intro? I followed the link and ended up at a very interesting photo essay describing 11 cultural faux pas and how to avoid them. You can view the photo essay here.

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Thu 12 Jun 2008

Well, we’re off…

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2008 RSSC Mariner, Virtual Cruise
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5-26-08

Not on the ship yet, but we’ve made it to Vancouver. We got up bright and early today, and were packed and ready for the cab in plenty of time (the cats recognized the suitcases and were sulking, though our Sweet Orange Boy did come and curl up on Lis’ chest while we sat waiting for the cab). The cab took us to Portland’s Union Station, where we were to catch the Amtrak Cascade to Seattle, and then change to a motor coach for the remainder of the journey to Vancouver. Union Station is a lovely little station – it dates to around 1910 or so, and has been preserved in pretty much its original form. I loved starting my journey there.

The train ride between Portland and Seattle is very pretty. From Portland to Olympia there aren’t that many sweeping views, but you’re surrounded by lush green foliage and pastoral scenes. Then, somewhere past Olympia, the view opens up on Puget Sound, and you travel along on the edge of the Sound all the way to Tacoma – very beautiful. From Tacoma to Seattle it was inland, and there were a few bleak, broken down urban scenes as we got closer to Seattle, but I was listening to Gillian Welch through this part, so it worked pretty well.

Seattle’s King Street Station looks like it was once also a lovely station, but it suffered some “urban renewal” in the 60’s, and is much the worse for it – drab dropped ceiling obscuring a beautifully worked ceiling, dull walling obscuring marble walls, etc. It’s hard to believe that anyone could have thought that was a good idea. They’re trying to restore it, but it’s slow going – it doesn’t look any different than it did when we were there a year or two ago.

Once we transferred from the train to the motor coach, things deteriorated rapidly. There was a very loud woman on the bus, who first had a serious of loud cell phone conversations, and then a loud, sustained conversation with her seat mates. And in addition to volume, she had few boundaries. Here’s what we know about her:

  • Her father has a restraining order against him (“don’t contact her – you need to keep yourself safe”)
  • She recently ended a nine year relationship (“I raised his children”)
  • She’s returning from a trip that included a business conference and a 3-day wedding (“I met the most amazing people at the wedding”)
  • She’s traveling to Greece soon
  • She’s a psychologist

At a certain point, I just put on my headphones and kept them there until the bus stopped. (On a side note, who inflicts a 3-day wedding on friends and loved ones…?)

We decided, since we’re just going to be in town overnight, and we’d be arriving around 6pm, we didn’t want to spend much on a room, and booked a room at the Holiday Inn Express on East Hastings. We had stayed here once before, and found it an adequate place to stay for one-night-before-a-cruise purposes. Its biggest draw is that it’s got a free shuttle that was going to pick us up at the train station today, and take us to the cruiseport tomorrow. However, when we arrived, we found that the shuttle is out of action. The hotel itself is much louder than we remembered. We’ll definitely stay somewhere else next time.

So it’s getting close to bedtime. Tomorrow we board the ship – can’t wait!!

Lis adds: Thank goodness I have earplugs. Also Mary neglected to mention the practically inedible meal we had across the street from the hotel at the “Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese” restaurant. I should have followed my rule to never eat in a restaurant that claims to provide food from three different countries, but I was hungry and hopeful. I will say that the Jr. Whopper I bought across the street at Burger King after dinner felt positively gourmet in comparison. I’m REALLY looking forward to the Mariner.

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Thu 12 Jun 2008

Day One – Vancouver

Posted by Mary under Everything, Export, May 2008 RSSC Mariner, Virtual Cruise
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Links to Vancouver photos and videos from the cruise

5-27-08

We got to the cruise port a little before noon, and were among the first in line to board the ship. As always, the embarkation process was quick and painless, and within no time I was in possession of my Bon Voyage glass of champagne. Lis had accidentally left some of our hotel documentation with the singer who checked us in (more on this in a minute), so she went back out to get it (she didn’t have champagne yet) and I sat and waited at a table just inside the gangway, sipping champagne and people watching, which was quite pleasant. I was right across from the coffee bar (it’s got some official name, but I forget) – a very handsome room. The whole ship is really pretty and very spruced up. When we were on the Navigator in 05, she was very pretty but worn in places – not the Mariner. I’m always surprised by how much prettier ships are in person than the pictures you see on line.

All of the people doing the check in where singers or dancers from the Production Staff, with two or three people from a different dept (guest services?) moving from person to person answering questions and helping with the computer. Our singer, Alicia (an alto, I read later), said that this was their first time doing the check in. I asked if this was a one time thing, or if they were going to be doing this from now on. She said “We’re probably going to being it from now on” and while she was perfectly appropriate and non-whiney, I got the distinct impression that this was a new and not-appreciated development. I longed to ask her more questions about it, but didn’t want to put her on the spot. I wonder if they’re squeezing more work out of the staff to try to make up for rising fuel costs or something…

Anyway, lunch was great, and then we went up to the Observation Lounge (forward on Deck 12) to pass the time until we could get in to our room. We watched seagulls and ships in Burrard Inlet and practiced our Spanish (which we are attempting to learn in preparation for a trip to Mexico that we hope to take soon).

Around 2:30 we were able to go to our room – it’s very lovely, as usual, and the weather had cleared by then to a gorgeous afternoon, so after putting our clothes away we were able to sit on our balcony and read all our cruise documentation (Passages, room service menu, etc) until dinner. At one point I looked up and there was a seal just hanging in the water, watching the tug boats and barges service the ship. I called Lis (she was still putting her stuff away) and we watched him for a bit until he dove down out of sight. We forgot to bring binocs (unforgivable on an Alaska cruise – I blame hormones), so we’re hoping maybe we can pick some up soon.

We dined in the main dining room, and dinner was very good. I loved our waiter so much that I’m going to try to be seated at his table for the rest of the cruise anytime we eat in Compass Rose. Prior to dinner, we talked to the Maitre’d about Lis’ diet – she’s lactose intolerant and hypoglycemic, so can’t have dairy or sugar. He spent all sorts of time with us, getting everything squared away. Regent handles Lis’ diet better than any other line we’ve been on. Every other line tells her what she can’t have, but Regent gives her menus the night before and says “Circle what you want and we’ll make it for you.” Very nice.

After dinner Lis went to the room and got ready for bed (we are 9-o’clock-bedtime girls in general), and I went up on deck to take some pictures of the harbor in twilight. And now it’s time to get ready for bed and read all about VictoriaJ

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