Cruise Wrap-up----FINALLY!!

So our last day of cruising was a Sea Day and a most uncomfortable Sea Day for me. Remember I was getting sunburned before we stopped in Costa Maya. I wore capris and one of Papa's oversized t-shirts---oh so glad I did.....because from the bottom of my capris to the top of my feet was a fire engine red when I woke up. Yes, I had on sun screen but my legs were also in the water alot of the time and so I'm guessing the sunscreen was just eventually washed off.

I had to get up in the middle of the night and I was in horrible pain. Not only were my legs on fire but they had swollen to about 3 times their size. BRIGHT RED ELEPHANT LEGS. Once I got up and walked a little, it wasn't so painful but still hurting.

Friday we spent the day just saying bye to our ship. We had breakfast in the dining room and went to the debarkation lecture with our cruise director. I definitely did not want to be in the sun whatsoever, so just kind of wandered around because like I said above, my legs were more tolerable when I was walking.

After lunch, Papa and I were watching tv in the room and starting to gather our stuff for packing and he mentioned my legs were sooo red that they looked blue and he wondered if maybe I was getting blood poison. So we decided to make our way to the doctor's area and have them take a look.

Our room was on Level 7 about mid-ship and the doctor's area was Level 0 at the front of the ship, so off we went, very slowly.

When we arrived, we found all sorts of information hanging on the wall just outside the offices and one sheet dealt with swollen legs/ankles----too much sun, alcohol, salty foods, soda, just about everything I had done. Their advice was elevate or walk (hum, kind of a contradiction but I had been doing both). We also read that for a consultation the doc charged $120. Well, it was Friday afternoon and we were leaving the ship first thing Saturday, so decided to save our money and if I were the same or worse on Saturday, we would just hit an urgent care on shore. For now I'd try walking and elevating the rest of the afternoon. Which I did.

That night at dinner it was time to say goodbye to Lim, Marco, and Klaudio.


Lim, the best waiter evah!



Marco, of the cokes and wine!!
Klaudio, our maitre d'.

We were sure going to miss them every night when we sat down to dinner. I thought, I would really miss sitting down to dinner with my family as well....



DD got quite attached to our "beverage boy", Marco.....



And we all adored Lim, our primary server.



There was more singing and dancing the last night and then before we knew it, it was all over. Some of our group went for last night partying. Papa and I went back to the room and finished packing up. We had to sit our bags in the hall before we went to sleep.



Where they would disappear during the night to be found the next morning on the luggage racks after we debarked.

The next morning debarkation was painless, another fabulous process by Carnival. We breezed through customs, claimed all our luggage and was back at the van loaded and ready to go by 8:00 a.m.



I was still in alot of pain from my sunburned, swollen legs, but decided I just wanted to get home and then I would deal with it.

The ride home was a bit uncomfortable...we had agreed to bring some of Cracker and the Weatherman's luggage back with us so they could avoid more extra luggage fees on their plane home so we were a wee bit more crowded and I really needed to elevate my legs but was unable to most of the time and everything hurt that touched my legs....I spent the trip home quite crabby and vocal but my co-travelers were pretty patient with me.

About midnight after driving all day long we were nearing our exit on the highway when we FINALLY got pulled over for speeding---I had wondered throughout the day if that would happen. SIL was in quite the hurry to get home. We were so exhausted from our day that we didn't put up much of an argument. We took our ticket and went that last mile to home sweet home.

All in all if that's the worst that happened to us on this trip---broken camera, sunburned legs, and a speeding ticket, I count this vacation as quite successful.

Thank you Dream for a wonderful time.



Grammy

Cruise-Costa Maya

No, I haven't been cruising out there for the last two months. Just a litte blogcation. So much going on. Fodder for future reports.

Back to our cruise----and boy, I desparately need another one right now.

I left off just after our tour of Belize. Just read this week that a Carnival cruiser, 14 year old girl, was killed on an excursion in St. Thomas (I believe?). Caught in the middle of a gang war shootout. Wow. We believed we were so safe in all our ports of call but after discussing this yesterday with a co-worker, I could so imagine our school bus getting stopped in the middle of the Belize jungle and being hijacked by criminals of some sort. With just Mah-lisa and our busdriver to protect us. We were just a busload of naive tourists and quite lucky tourists at that. Never take your surroundings for granted.

So the day after our Belize experience, we floated on up to Mexico and stopped at what they call Costa Maya. I don't believe this is actually a town. More like a pier with quite alot of stores.



Notice in this first picture, the green by the shore and away from the shore is all gray destruction. Hurricane Dean hit this shore dead on several years ago. It was descimated. The gray are all the dead trees that still remain. You'll see this alot in the following pictures.










And I apologize for the quality of some these pictures from Costa Maya. I bought an underwater camera (to prepare ahead for the sinking of my kayak) and the quality of the film was very poor but it was all I had on this island.

So as I mentioned above, we were going a Clear Kayak excursion at this port. The night before I started getting a little anxious about it all and was sharing my fears at dinner. We were doing our floating in the ocean. I had never kayaked before and was concerned about the boats being closed top kayaks and I might turn over and not be able to exit from it successfully. I shouldn't have worried so much ABOUT THAT part. They were open kayaks, more like canoes.

So at the end of the pier we hooked up with our excursion leader who was glad to see us BUT explained the weather was kind of treacherous today with high waves, etc. and were we sure we wanted to do this? What kind of question was that? I was getting more terrified by the minute. I looked at Papa who threw it back to me and after asking "were we gonna die out there", our leader assured us we were going to be just fine but here sign an additional waiver that says "I informed you about the weather and ocean conditions releasing the tour from responsibility in the event of.......... "

Regardless of this gloomy outlook, we had quite a few people in our excursion group and so we all headed to our safari bus that would transport us to the fishing village of Mahahual.







See what I mean about the hurricane aftermath. So very sad. This was the one place that I really felt like my tourism dollars might do some good. That's all they seem to have.

After about a 20 minute bus road, we arrived at the village which is basically a long strip of stores, restaurants, bars and sections of the beach that have been cordoned off as "private beach areas". The rest of our cruise group had optioned for a private beach day at this port and so they found themselves in this area as well.




Anyway, we gathered at our "excursion bar" to lock up our valuables and went to the beach where we received our 5 minute kayak tuitorial, loaded up and started paddling.

More setting of the stage. I was getting a bit sunburned by this time in our vacation and so I opted to wear some capris and one of Papa's shirts versus a swimsuit trying to avoid an all out sun-scalding. SO VERY GLAD I DID.

So off we paddled:




and who did we pass by. The Weatherman and Cracker on their "private beach". When they spotted us paddling by, they started yelling and flailing about, amazed that I had gone through with it (after discussions from the night before at dinner when I admitted I was terrified of doing this). That's the Weatherman, front and to the right...Cracker is a little behind waving her arms.



So out to the open ocean we went. It was pretty wild. We were going out so far to a reef but as we would get closer, the water breaking over the reef was quite abit over our heads. One kayak got swamped and started sinking but it wasn't our's.....I should tell you now that there was a leader of our group who we were following and following all of us was a speedboat with our rescuers aboard. We were told that if anyone just wanted to quit, get their attention and they would pick you up or if anyone had a problem, again just get their attention and they would be rescued. By the end of our time, they had picked up 2 boats worth of folks but again wasn't US.

Now if you've been reading this blog long at all, you will realize that Papa and I sometimes see things differently and butt heads from time to time. Paddling a canoe, I found out, was something we should have done with different partners. Papa kept telling me I was paddling on the wrong side than him and not paddling fast enough, and just basically not doing it right. THIS WAS MY FIRST TIME. I was in the front, how do I know what side he is paddling? And I should be doing opposite? And this was not a race, I wanted to enjoy our little ocean voyage not come in first. And we were on the open ocean....a very wild, wavy ocean and the whole thing was just a tad bit FRIGHTENING to me. I barely had time to snap a photo here and there and no time whatsoever to apply EXTRA SUNSCREEN TO MY EXPOSED CALVES. I'm sure you can see where this heading.

So needless to say, the Bickerson's paddled along yelling at each other. It was so hard for me to refrain from knocking him out of the boat with my paddle to shut him up (only because I knew I needed him to help me get back to shore!) We ended up battling the ocean and wind and the waves and each other for about an hour but viewed no ocean life through our kayak bottoms. Our leader finally gathered us around and said we were heading back to shore, the conditions were a little bit dangerous. WHEW....and so we paddled back to shore. I was partly relieved and partly proud that I wasn't one of those in the rescue boat. I HAD DONE IT and SURVIVED.

We ended up receiving alot of free drink tickets from the bar since our excursion was cut short and were set loose on the beach, to eat, drink, or shop. Which is what we did.

We stopped by and visited Cracker and the Weatherman for a few minutes and received a serenade.



Then it was time to meet up with our group once again for the bus ride back to the the Costa Maya pier.


Those that didn't have a safari bus ride, had to use a taxi to get back to the pier. Quite the little traffic jam to get all the cruise boat (more than one at this port) passengers back to their ships on time. DD and SIL had a smashing time but it seemed to be exhausting for them as well.





That's SIL in the big straw hat toward the left.


That night was our final formal night for dinner. The winds and high waves on the ocean were a precusor to a bad storm at sea that evening, so after showering and getting dressed up, I slapped on my sea bands and took a Dramine and off we went to dinner.

Cracker and the Weatherman enjoyed their port time immensely...so much so, they called it an early night and went to bed, passing on dinner. Papa almost made it to the dining room but when he passed by the sushi bar, the seasickness had it's way with him and back to the room he went. I continued on, lurching down the boat until I made it to the dining room and met DD and SIL. DD was hunched over stating she was just going to eat some bread for dinner but we convinced her to pack it in and go back to the room if she felt so awful. So SIL and I had dinner together that night and participated in some more singing and dancing with Lim, our waiter.



Then I called it a night.

Next report will be our cruise wrapup.

For now....Grammy

Belize - PART 2

So I left our story of Belize in the Altun Ha ruins. Very interesting, very hot, very bug infested...your typical jungle rain forest setting...felt very Lost-like there.

After viewing all there was to view, we boarded our bus for the trip farther inland to the "resort". Said loosely. At the Black Orchid resort, we ate, bought a souvenir or two and boarded our boat for our Rio Wallace tour. Again, Mah-lisa was our tour guide (below in the bright yellow shirt) and now we were in the blazing sun on the river instead of in a hot, shady jungle.


Leaving the Black Orchid "resort".




On our river jungle ride we saw Howler Monkeys (look closely in the tree branches).


Crocodiles of all sizes.



and Orange Iguanas.



And then we headed back out to the open sea,,,the Caribbean Sea that is



We were dropped off back at the tourist area in Belize City (again behind the gates away from the criminals) where we did a bit of shopping.



Then it was back to the ship for our usual night of dinner, shows, and bed. Papa seemed to enjoy his birthday day in Central America.

I aim to please.....Grammy.

CRUISE---Belize, CA (that's Central America)--PART 1

So after our disappointment at Roatan, we sailed on to Belize for our next stop. But first since the next day was Papa's birthday, I had arranged a surprise celebration the night before at dinner.






It was a surprise, even to me--I thought they were bringing the cake to our room that night---but Papa enjoyed it. We had made arrangements for a special dinner the next night on his birthday at the Steakhouse restaurant on the ship.

So back to our story....We were quite apprehensive about this port of Belize. We had been scared about the crime. The CD (Cruise Director), John, said if you don't have an excursion planned, through Carnival,,,,,just don't get off the boat. There is a tourist area at the pier but once you walk through the back "gate", crime is rampant....supposedly.

Papa and I, however, enjoyed Belize to the fullest. We had signed up for the Altun Ha Mayan Ruins excursion and then a ride down the Rio (that's River in their "language"....aw, English, oh well) Wallace. We were to be gone ALL DAY and we were ready. DD and SIL were going cave tubing (DD asks "Wonder if there are 'things' in the water?"). Cracker and the Weatherman didn't really have plans but we were not to worry.

But first we had to get there. Belize has the second largest coral reef in the world around the island so we had to drop anchor about 5 miles out and were tendered in from the cruise ship. Again, Carnival has this process down pat. We had specific orders to meet at various places on the ship according to the plans you made. Deboarded with our excursion group, and then we went from the tender boat straight to our excursion bus....the criminals weren't even able to access us whatsoever. We were kept safe.

Here we are tendering to Belize City.













Where the criminals reside....just outside the tourist area.....although they weren't showing their faces to us!!





Our tour guide was Mah-lisa and since Belize used to be known as British Honduras, she spoke with (as well as all the country) a very pleasant English accent. And informative. For the next seven hours, she told us about the country, the people, families, school systems, the political system, roads, economy, animals, Mayans, ruins, rivers, the ocean, coral reef, even the children's love of Fruit Loops cereal. That girl knew some stuff and I'm sure she doesn't get paid at all what she is worth as a tour guide.

Here are some pictures of the Mayan ruins part of the tour.









and did I mention I'm a faller? I was completely terrified up here and notice this absolutely horrifying staircase. The Mayans were very small people but they have a huge step. It's a wonder I didn't experience a Belize hospital during this day!










AND you'll notice Belize is going to be in Parts---it was a long day....so I'll finish with the rest of tour a little later......

Kind of a tired Grammy....

Cruise Interlude--Part Two CON'T---The Gas Company

So, as I was still struggling with this allergy crap, I had to wait one Friday afternoon for the gas company to come out and put a new meter in at the city house.....sometime between 12 and 6 p.m. So the guy shows up at 3:30, puts the new meter in and then informs me that he is detecting a gas leak somewhere....possibly in the ceiling in the basement....doesn't have time to look for it, because he is off at 4, shuts my gas off and tells me when I get it fixed to call and they'll come back and turn the gas on.....THIS IS ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON....I can't possibly get anyone to fix this over the weekend.

OH and he told me the connector for the gas stove was also not up to code.....I informed him that THEY (the gas company) put that on 5 years ago when we had the gas turned on....."well, that's what they used to use but not any more".....AGAIN, I CAN GO to Home Depot and get such and such a connector and have that reconnected when the guy turns the gas back on. This Gas guy was something. He went from "gotta tear out the entire basement ceiling" to "maybe gotta tear out the front yard to see if that's where the leak is"......GRRRRRRRR. I never smelled anything and he explained that the leak is so small, I probably wouldn't smell it, nevertheless it is a hazard and must be fixed.

Anyway, when Papa got home, he called the Toxic Avenger (Polly's husband ), who knows heating and cooling and plumbing and carpentry and all sorts of wonderful things and THANK GOD, he is certified in such things as gas work, who knew?! They talked things over and made plans to meet the next day.

So we went on down to the country house and then Saturday morning Papa drove back up to meet the Avenger. He didn't think we had a leak, but thought maybe the guy was in a hurry and didn't do this or that (sparing you all the details) and that caused gas to register. Avenger didn't have some sort of chemical required to check for leaks that day, his tank was empty and couldn't get filled until Monday....So Monday he was coming back out to see if he can figure out what was going on.....

So we were once again communting from the country house to work, 62 miles one way. Was up at 4 a.m. Monday morning to drive up and drop Snoopy off in the yard at the city house and hopefully the problem would be resolved that day.

HA, but ROUTINE laughs in my face.....so Avenger arrived on Monday with his special tank and did indeed find a minute leak in the basement ceiling in the laundry area that doesn't have the ceiling tiles and he easily repaired it without having to tear anything apart. He also procured a new stove connector to install but that ended up being the wrong size, so we agreed that he would exchange that on Tuesday and finish up and we would commute for another day.

Tuesday afternoon all was completed and I called the gas company to see if I could get an APPOINTMENT (HA) for after 4 that day when Papa would be home from work, to turn on the gas. They tell me I have to go on the emergency board for a "turn on" and it will be 20 minutes to 2 hours for an installer to show up and why don't I call them as soon as I get home and it would be taken care of.

Papa got home, verified that everything was done and calls to say he's coming to pick me up from work (we've been car pooling while commuting from the country) and to go ahead and call the gas company and we would be home before 20 minutes passed. Done.

WE WAIT....FOR THREE HOURS and at 8:00 p.m. I call them to find out what's up and "they've been busy, we are on the emergency board and the first available person will be there" I asked when that would be, she put me on hold and then returned to tell me ABOUT TWO HOURS--10:00 p.m. I was just speechless. Papa and I talked, we had to go back to country that night...his car was there....all our meds were there, my make-up bag, and all the groceries for the city house were still down there, so it wasn't like we could wing it one night and go down the next night, we needed too much stuff. Not to mention no gas, it was getting cold in the house, no hot water for showers and we couldn't cook anything.

So he calls them back about 15 minutes later to tell them forget it for that night, we would reschedule for the next day as we needed to leave as it was getting late. They tell him that someone was dispatched already and is on the way (15 minutes earlier they were telling me 2 hours!) but the guy won't be there for another 45 minutes. He told them OK, but if he's not here by 9:00, we're leaving.

So, of course, 3 minutes to 9 he arrives. Comes in put some sort of register on the meter, looks at the gas heater that is in the family room part of the basement (doesn't like the valve although Papa said it was checked and it's fine, no leaks).

Looks at Avenger's work, takes his sniffer thing around, no leaks....checks the stove and that's ok. Lights all the burners, lights the top and bottom ovens, all's well. Takes the next 20 minutes trying to light the pilot for the hot water heater. Turns the furnace on. Another round with his sniffer thing. Back to the basement heater...thinks it's leaking but can't get it to register that it's leaking (DUH, IT'S NOT LEAKING.....) Still doesn't like that turn on valve for it.

Papa has been standing by the cabinet where the meter is and it is ticking like an alarm clock. He asks if that's normal. No.....goes to the meter, starts taking pieces and parts off it if to make it stop ticking. Then announces we need a new meter--this one was just installed on Friday and hadn't been turned on before then!! We just gave each other horrified looks, like it was going to have to be another scheduled job.

THANK GOD, the man had one in his truck. He goes out and gets the new meter. Comes in, disconnects the stove, the hot water heater, and the furnance and the heater downstairs, switches out the meter and hooks up everything again but turns the gas valve off on the downstairs heater, because he's still convinced it's leaking although not registering......wrote that up and left at 10:30.......now we have to, I guess, get the valve on the heater replaced in case we ever have a fire, might be an insurance issue, but Papa can still turn the valve on and use the heater whenever he would like to.

We jumped in the car and headed to the country. In bed by 12, back up at 4:30 because I had to be at work at 7 for breakfast meeting....and just as I'm about to walk out the door....can't find my glasses. TORE THE HOUSE APART and finally found them under the corner of the bed,,,,who knows, my country home ghosts playing tricks I guess. BUT THE GAS CRISIS SEEMS TO BE OVER FOR NOW.

Then a funny......the next day,,,,a news alert came out "A three-alarm blaze at the Laclede Gas building in downtown St. Louis broke out about 8 a.m.".....I WAS TOTALLY INNOCENT.

Grinning Grammy

Cruise Interlude - Part Two -- The Fall

Yep, I'm a faller. I think we've established that, haven't we. And I think I've mentioned that this Spring my allergies have been on overdrive and I was sick for almost three solid weeks with them. Head, chest, ears, everything but that has finally settled down and I finally threw in the towel and started getting allergy shots about two weeks ago, which will continue for about the next year or so...once a week........

So in the middle of the allergy attack, we had an issue with our Gas Company (next blog!) and then I fell!

I'm painting on a Saturday night in the bathroom in the country. The front room of our two room bathroom which is easy enough. I just have solid walls, one window and then the wall with the light fixtures, mirrors, and vanity. I'm about 3/4's done and went and got a chair to do the tops and above the mirror and one minute was standing on the chair and the next minute, I swear, the chair just disinegrated under me into about 10 pieces and I hit the floor before I knew I was falling and landed on my back NATURALLY.

The same back where I cracked my pelvis last August and am still going to see the chiropractor regularly for adjustments, taking pain pills and muscle relaxers for, and Dr. Magic is going to start giving me nerve blocks for. He thinks 9 months of pain is entirely too much and he has these magic shots......

Papa comes running in when he heard me scream and proceeds to yell at me out about destroying the chair----from his mom and dad's kitchen set-----he's sentimental like that.....I couldn't move, he is screaming at me, I'm in tears, IN PAIN, and covered in paint as well. I was holding a roller and a brush when I fell.....I cleaned up the paint when I could stand again; he removed the chair pieces.

I took a hot shower, took the max of pain pills and muscle relaxers and couldn't find an ice bag, so laid with a bag of tator tots on my back and pretty much passed out by 8 p.m.

Before I passed out, Papa did ask if I needed to go to the ER....between gritted teeth, my response was "DON"T TALK TO ME" and then........(here's where you all can laugh).....he brings in the big, full size ladder from the garage "so I can finish painting when I feel better".....I turned off the light in his mid-sentence. The ladder disappeared from the bedroom the next day

The next morning, I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to get out of bed, but was surprised when I did and was just pretty sore, but not in pain like the last fall. I was sore for a couple of days and then went to my regular chiro appointment and told him this sorry tale of woe. He checked me out and determined I just did some soft tissue bruising and he didn't think I even needed an x-ray. Explained that because of our constant work, we might have saved me from alot of damage because I'm more flexible.

Whatever...I escaped the bullet it seems. A couple of days later, Papa and I were getting ready for work in the half-painted bathroom and I just mentioned "you know you are finishing this room, don't you?" Without a second of hesitation, he answered, "Yep, I'll take care of it this weekend." And he did.

Signing off for now,
Bendy, Flexible Grammy