Vegetable garden addition

Today, Saturday, we started on our new vegetable garden. We really need more room so we are digging up part of our back yard for more space for growing veggies. The grass is all dried up there but the ground is pretty hard. We borrowed our neighbor's (Stacey) rototiller. We found it worked better when dug it first with a shovel to kind of break it up. Then Mike went over it with the rototiller about four times and tilled it really good. If this works out good maybe we'll set up a produce stand on the front yard!click the arrow to see the video.

Post Vacation

We have just about recuperated from our Hawaii cruise vacation. Felt like we were still on Hawaii time which is three hours behind. Here are two pictures taken by the ship photographers. They are always taking pictures hoping guests will buy them. We got one free courtesy of AAA. The photo to the right was taken on formal night, the other on Master Chef's dinner night when we were served baked Alaska for dessert.

Arrival in San Diego!

Sunday about 6 am we arrived home in San Diego. It was still dark but beautiful to see. We had our final breakfast on the ship (our favorite breakfasts are oatmeal and cream of wheat with some fruit (lots of pineapple). Today we also had waffles. We left the ship at 9 am and took a taxi home. There's really no place like home!

Ensenada

We are now in the port of Encenada. We are here only for 4 hours and will leave at midnight, then arrive in good old San Diego at about 7 am. We did not get off the ship here because there is not much to do. Today while at sea we saw some cooking demonstrations and a show. Mike used the thermal room in the spa which has a hot tub with mineral infused water and heated lounges and steam rooms hot enough to steam veggies. There is a beautiful view out the front of the ship while sailing through the Pacific ocean.
We saw the workers scrubbing down the swimming pool for the next cruise.

March 21 Close to home

Tomorrow, Saturday we will arrive in Ensenada. Today we had the Chef's farewell dinner. We had a delicious mushroom, spinach dish rolled in phylo dough. For dessert was the traditional Holland America Baked Alaska. Our room porter made us a monkey towel. Mona had to play with it.

3 rd Day at Sea

We have one more day at sea to go. We will reach the last port tomorrow in Ensenada at 8 pm and arrive in San Diego at about 7 am on Sunday. Yesterday we watched an ice carving demonstration had dinner in the dining room; it was formal night. Then we watched a live musical show and topped the night off with in the Crow’s Nest with a few slow dances. It is hard to dance when the floor is moving beneath you!

Hawaii Cruise Highlights

Saturday, March 15, I took a picture of a surfer and later found it was a pic of not only a surfer on a board, but there was also a surfer in the wave. Look closely to the left of the surfer to see his friend.

March 15 2009 we went to the Maui Tropical Plantation. They grow sugar cane, macadamia nuts, orchids, pineapple and more. They are expanding so they will grow coffee in the near future. The vine with the blue-green flowers is called a Jade Plant. We also saw a Taro farm. That is the picture with the square fields between the mountains. The tree with what looks like many roots coming down to the ground is the Banyon tree.

Monday, March 16^th we went to Mt Kilauea again but this time we went a different route. It was an 8 hour trip. We drove 100 miles one way and another 100 back up to 4000 feet elevation. We saw Mt Kilauea from the rim. We ate lunch at a very nice buffet along the rim of the volcano. On the drive to the volcano we stopped at a store to use the restrooms and buy snacks. It had a very nice view. On the way back we stopped at a bakery that is the farthest south then any other bakery in the US. After we boarded to set sale for the night the captain announced there were 4 hammerhead sharks off the port side of the ship. By the time I got my camera they were gone. I went to the other side of the ship and saw the fins of two of them. A few minutes later I saw several dolphins jumping in the water. I could not get a picture of them because I could not synchronize my snapping of the picture to their jumps.

Mona is having fun too.

Looking back

About 100 miles off the shore of San Diego a fire alarm went off on the ship. The emergency 7 blasts of the horn was heard. I opened our cabin door and saw a gray haze about 10 doors down from our room. The firemen showed up quickly. They pulled out the fire hoses and the fires extinguishers, but did not use them. It turned out a rubber belt in the computer room were they train new employees was burning. No real fire broke out. But Mona panicked and put on the life vest right a way.

Luau

We went to an outdoor Luau at Paradise Cove in Honolulu, Hawaii this evening. We saw many demonstrations such a coconut husking, climbing a coconut tree and how to throw a fishing net to name a few. We ate a traditional Luau feast then watched the show. The show was great, but towards the end it began to rain. They handed out plastic ponchos to keep everyone dry. Our bus driver and tour guide on the bus were the best we ever had. The tour guide told stories, sang songs and the best part was when he told us to get the flash on our cameras ready and when our bus passed another bus the bus driver turned off the lights inside the bus and we all snapped our cameras at the bus we were passing with our flash.

Honolulu

Today we visited Pearl Harbor and went to the USS Arizona. It is amazing how much oil is still being released into the water after 61 years. Then we went on a tour of Honolulu on the Island of Oahu. Tonight we are going to a luau. It's a big buffet with barbecued pig! There should be lots of fruit and veggies to eat. The bus driver on our tour said the most popular food in hawaii is Spam! More on the luau in the next blog. ALOHA!

Day 1 in Hawaii

We spent our first day in Hilo on the "Big Island". It was nice to get on land after 4 days at sea. We took a tour of Mt. Kilalea volcano, a 5 mile hike. We walked over lava fields and through a forest. As soon as we got back to the van it started raining. Lucky us. Hilo gets the most rain in the U.S.

Our ship is now leaving for Honolulu. Aloha!

Almost to Hawaii

We have been relaxing the last four days on the ship at sea on the way to Hawaii. Yesterday we celebrated our 30^th wedding anniversary in the formal dining room. There is a lot of activities on board. We took dancing lessons (not to successful) and took in a lot of lectures and entertainment. Last night we saw a comedian juggler. There are a lot of nooks and crannies to sit and read while looking at the ocean.

Tomorrow we arrive at 8am in Hawaii at Hilo. We will be busy taking tours for the next four days.

The captain just announced we are traveling at 23 mph. That’s why it takes four days to get to Hawaii.

Hawaii

We just left the cruise port of San Diego! We'll be in Hawaii in 4 days.

Front Yard Progress

Today we finished another stage of our curb appeal project. All the palm trees are planted with tree sprinklers for each tree. The next stage is to put the path in. Our goal is to have a winding path going through the trees with some kind of ground cover. We might use concrete pavers (which are installed on a bed of tamped sand) or just colored gravel or bark. Eventually we want to remove the existing concrete path going up to the front door and make the path all the same material whether it be pavers, gravel or bark.