Another Day at Sea (Day 6)

 

After three full days in three ports we were ready for a day at sea.  AKA a day of rest!  And rest is exactly what we did.  When we finally made it to breakfast the World Fresh Marketplace (AKA the buffet) was quite crowded.  We ended up sharing a table with a group from Santa Clarita, California.  Practically neighbors.

 

 

The man next to me at breakfast was bemoaning the fact that they hadn't seen any whales on their excursion in Sitka.  Just seconds after those words came out of his mouth, he pointed out the window.  At first we thought he was joking, but we kept an eye out and pretty soon we saw not one, but two whales! 

 

We attended another North to Alaska presentation by our naturalist.  This time it was about glaciers and polar bears.  Other than that, it was a super mellow day with at least one nap!

Because we had eaten such a late breakfast, we skipped lunch.  Around 3:00 we decided we were hungry and ordered some room service.  The Princess Medallion App is great for that.  You can see what is available, what is complimentary and what has a small charge.  Once your order is placed, you can see when it is on its way.  This works for delivery anywhere on the ship.

Another cool feature on the app is "Shipmates."  You can connect with your traveling companions and then find them anywhere on the ship.  Lori found the pastry shop!

 

One thing we noticed on our cruise in February was the quality of the food.  I felt like most of the food we ate was very, very bland.  The food on this cruise was much better!  We had never cruised with Princess before this year, so I don't know if some of that was influenced by the long shutdown due to COVID. With cruise lines trying to get back up and running after an 15 month shutdown, I hope this is a sign that things are getting closer to normal.  The number of people on the ship certainly felt like the old days of cruising.

The one area that I feel Princess really needs to work on is their desserts.  Especially their cakes.  It seemed like every cake had some sort of mousse.  When I want cake, I just want cake and frosting.  The proportion of cake to mousse and/or frosting was way out of balance.  We had carrot cake one night.  The menu said "with cream cheese frosting."  What we got was three flat layers with more of a whip cream/mousse frosting.  It was so disappointing!  Doug, Lori and I all ordered it and none of us ate more than two bites.  This was a chocolate pistachio dome that Les ordered.  The only one worthy of a picture!

We definitely enjoyed the gelato shop.  My only "complaint" is that it was only open from 2-9 p.m. each day!

Yosemite National Park ~ Day 2, Recovering and Wandering

 

After our strenuous hike on Sunday we woke up pretty sore on Monday.  We took our time with breakfast and spent some time just stretching our aching, aging bodies.  We headed back into the park with the plan to just explore the valley by foot.

 

 

Driving in to Yosemite is always an awe-inspiring experience to me.  It is almost 750,000 acres, nearly the size of Rhode Island!

Can you find Les in this picture?

We wandered through the Ahwanee Hotel for a little bit.

I thought this tree was quite unusual...

 

Until I realized it was actually two trees!

More beauty...

So happy to see the waterfalls flowing.

My guy!

It was a fun day with absolutely no agenda!  We were in full on vacation mode and several times said, "What day is it?"  It was only Monday!

A Day of Bliss

I was up super early Saturday morning and headed to Tantalus. This 10 mile loop never gets easier, but I am getting faster!  I actually had a personal best on the 4.4 mile climb and my third best on the entire route.  It was completely dry with very little wind.

 

While I was running, Les was pedaling his way to the North Shore.  I got cleaned up and drove over to meet him.  We had a wonderful lunch at Cholo’s Mexican restaurant and followed that up with Chocolate Mint gelato from Il Gelato that tasted just like a Thin Mint Girl Scout cookie.

We then headed to Kaiaka Bay Beach park.  The last time we had been there was November 9, 2019!  Definitely way too long!  There were quite a few families there, but we found our own spot and spent about three hours relaxing.  One of us relaxed more than the other…

I enjoyed watching a father with his little girl.  She was probably 5 or 6 and she had his full attention.  They played in the water and in the sand.  He had her on a boogie board and she was having a blast.  As they were leaving I told him how much I enjoyed watching them.  He said, “Thank you, she’s my world.”

We had one more stop on our itinerary - Tropical Farms Of Hawaii.  They are the only place where you can buy Pineapple Snow - white chocolate covered macadamia nuts with pineapple flavoring.  We also picked up some Hawaiian coffee and flavored macadamia nuts.

Even the drive back to the condo felt blissful!  It was the perfect Saturday!

R & R & R South Carolina Style

As I mentioned last week, we took a trip to South Carolina.  Our original plan had Les traveling a week before me for his annual Georgia cycling trip with Lance.  About a month ago there was a flash flood in Georgia and the road to Lance's cabin was washed out.  The road would not be reopened in time for their trip, so that part of the trip got canceled.  I was originally going to fly into Atlanta, meet up with Les, then we would drive to Hilton Head Island.  Thanks to Southwest Airlines, we were able to easily change our flights and we both flew in to Charleston instead.

 

We arrived in Charleston on Sunday evening and checked into the Barksdale House Inn.  This was a home built in 1778!  The staff was very welcoming and we enjoyed our brief visit.  We reserved a rental car but didn't pick it up until Monday afternoon, so after a wonderful breakfast on Monday morning we left our luggage with the office and headed out to explore Charleston for a few hours.

A day in Charleston does not disappoint!  The old homes and churches are beautiful.  

 

"Almighty God has been worshiped on this site since 1680"

There is SO much history.  This is a time capsule for Fort Sumter, the location of the first shot fired that started the American Civil War.

 

We have been to Charleston before and I will happily go back, but our destination for the week was Hilton Head Island, about a two hour drive from Charleston.  I searched VRBO for a condo and I am very happy with the one we chose!  I am learning that many larger condos are often a similar price to something smaller.  The choice between a studio with a "kitchenette" (microwave, mini fridge) vs. a two bedroom, two bath with full kitchen and laundry is kind of a no brainer to me when the price is similar.  We wanted to be able to eat most of our meals in the condo so we wouldn't have to deal with wearing a mask.

 

 I loved the colors of the kitchen, and it had everything we needed.

My driver is looking a little tired.  Or is this the face of contentment?

Our first stop after the condo was The Mixx on Main.  I'll share all our great eats in a special Friday Foodie tomorrow, but let me just say that the food on Hilton Head was outstanding!  We only ate out three times, but each one was excellent.  After filling our tummies, we headed to Harris Teeter to pick up groceries.  The rest of our stay consisted R & R & R = rest and relaxation and recreation.  In other words, sleeping in, walking on the beach, and riding our rental bikes.  

Hilton Head has approximately 60 miles of multi-use trails so we knew we wanted to rent bikes.  With almost 30 bike shops on the island, you would think renting a bike would be simple.  And it would be if all you wanted was a beach cruiser.  From experience, I know that riding a beach cruiser is only good for short rides and we wanted more than that.  I spent quite a bit of time before our trip checking websites and finally found Atlantic Bike Rentals.  They had 21 speed hybrid bikes with disc brakes - definitely more our speed!  They were delivered directly to our condo on Tuesday and we rode Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for a total of 50 miles! I didn't take any pictures while we were out riding, but here is Les checking them out.

The beach in front of our condo was so cool!  At high tide it looked like this:

But when the tide was out, there was a large sandbar.  We took our chairs out and enjoyed the beautiful weather and almost completely empty beach. 

Check out at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday arrived much too quickly, then it was a day of travel.  We drove from Hilton Head to Charleston, then flew from Charleston to Nashville to Los Angeles.  We had a wonderful trip and came home completely refreshed!