Take the time and make the plans to see your faraway friends. It’s worth it.
It was so good to talk in person and give hugs and laugh and drink and eat together.
That said, 36 hours was NOT enough time to spend with this amazing person, but something is better than nothing.
Great weather (after the horrible heat and humidity wave we had), a nice breeze, SEATS IN THE SHADE, friends (Anna and Kelly!), good music, peanut M&Ms, a cold beverage, and a library book!
And makeup that would stay on if I dared to go swimming — I did go in up to my neck as a starter!
We haven’t seen each other in person in about eight years, so when she was going to be in Chicago for a work convention, she just added on a few extra days to come stay here!
Unfortunately our planning failed a bit and she couldn’t get an Uber out of the city so at 4:30 we had to drive and pick her up in downtown Chicago!
We drove straight back to our favorite restaurant, Primo, for dinner with Anna and David. We had a great time…and we introduced Kelly to the deer.
Then it was back to our house for drinks and conversation! And a new friendship was forged tonight—now we just need to get Kelly to move here.
P.S. I think we look pretty good — it was a hot and crappy day and our makeup still looks spot on!
Hug those you love. Tell them you love them. Take photos. Take videos so you have their voice.
Our dear friend Nancy passed away unexpectedly today. She was an absolutely amazing person and we are SHOOK and our hearts are breaking—but even more so for her fiancé David (they just got engaged this fall).
She was legit THE nicest person you could ever meet. Every minute with her was enjoyable. Tom loved her so much after meeting her that he declared she would be wife #2 if anything ever happened to me and it was the running joke for many years (until she met David)!
She will be missed by many, far and wide. Our world will never be the same without her.
Yet Another Friend Dinner! TiVo friends, local friends, worlds colliding!
Y’ALL, IT’S TIME TO PARTY!
We’ve all been cooped up with Covid and missed ALLLLLLLLLL the excuses to party…and you know we like to throw a house party…so we’re doing them all at once!
Saturday morning and the Jello shots are here and ready thanks to Angela (she took the assignment when I ran out of time). But look at how well they fit in our garage fridge? It’s like it was meant to be.
About an hour before the party and I wasn’t even dressed yet. You think “Oh there’s only a little bit to do” but all the little things add up! Angela came over to help with a bunch of it and I’m eternally grateful. (Anna was picking up my kids from a class and getting the cupcakes.) It takes a village to throw a big party!!
Getting closer—getting the mixed drink dispensers ready! Peach Bellini, Rum Punch (empty), Vodka and lemonade, Beergarita, Bahama Mama.
David making his famous Trinidad rum punch! Yes that’s two full bottles of rum going in.
I forgot to take a pic of the food table but the dessert table was insane so I did takes a pic of that! We wouldn’t have needed to buy cupcakes at all! We had a few different kinds of cookies, two smoked cheesecakes, a German chocolate cake, a white cake, mini cupcakes, and Sam’s Club cupcakes!
Local-ish TiVo peeps!
We had to do at least one LipSense selfie!
The ribs were a hit. The pulled pork was amazing. And we have a ton of leftovers!
The only pics I snapped outside during the party!
The slide was a huge hit as expected. A few adults did go down towards the end of the night—butb it was actually cold by then so it didn’t last long.
David ended up making drinks for people at the bar…
And as we were saying goodbye to people, I discovered someone left a fern in our empty pot! (I had wanted to get succulents planted in it but never got to it with all the house stuff.) Turns out it was Ava, one of my gardener friends!
We just have great friends—from everyone who offered to help to the ones who loaned us things to the ones that jumped in to help before, during (putting away leftovers and doing the first round of kitchen clean up, and after (cleaning up the yard and house)… Thank you. We had a great time and I think everyone else did, too! Now to clean up some more and relax…
You can leave at the drop of a hat for dinner out with old friends and new friends an hour away to celebrate National Tequila Day! We drove to Aurora to meet at El Jefe.
Anna and Jami were meeting for the first time but they said it was like they already knew each other! (They met just by posting in my Facebook business group and then friended each other.)
The Al Pastor tacos (me) and octopus (Tom) were both delicious. We also loved the guac trio, the oysters, the flaming cheese, and the margaritas!
The only bad thing was that the music was SO STINKING LOUD that we couldn’t even hear anyone at the ttable—so we really only got to talk to the people directly next to us.
A TiVo member was going to be passing through on a road trip so we all gathered for dinner! It was so great seeing them after almost a year and a half!
Dinner at The Turf Room was amazing, too!
SMOKED FAROE ISLANDS SALMON, GRILLED SCALLION GOAT CHEESE MOUSSE,
PICKLED MUSTARD “CAVIAR”, GRILLED PRETZEL BAGUETTE, MICRO GREEN
FOREST HAM, BACON, PEPPER, ONION, PEPPER JACK, SWISS, CHEDDAR, SAMBAL SOUR CREAM
PAN SEARED SEA SCALLOP, SWEET PEA, BACON, SHALLOT, PORTABELLA MUSHROOM, LINGUINI, SMOKED WHITE WINE PARMESAN EGG YOLK CREAM
8OZ IMPERIAL NEBRASKA AMERICAN WAGYU FILET, GRILLED ASPARAGUS, ROMESCO SAUCE, LEMON OIL
NUTMEG, CINNAMON, VANILLA BEAN, BACON SYRUP, VANILLA BEAN ICE CREAM
I decided this past Sunday afternoon to run a huge new party for my business.
It’s a specific party that someone came up with and has tested the format many times over—to help get new business—so I’ve had to bust my butt to get new people in to my group and then try to get them active and keep them.
Honestly I was in a bad spot mentally since this is the first month in maybe EVER that I literally have zero sales as of the 15th. Zero. Not one. Nothing. Even after my $6000 sale month last year I made sales the next month. And my seneversary month was good…. so who knows what’s going on. And I hoped this party would pull it out for me. So I was following every. single. step. And today’s work was creating a collage of suggested products for each person that joined or posted a selfie. Here are some of the ones I did!
Masks, made with love, from a dear friend. We love them!
I innocently started a Facebook group to continue the drunk face thing…and we had a mini explosion. Over 100 people joined and a fair amount of them have posted!
Most are my friends (from all times and areas of my life—going back to high school classmates and my first internet friends from 1997 to family members and of course Tivo peeps) but others are inviting people, too!
It really isn’t a drunken fest—it’s more a show me what you’re drinking but I just thought the original sounded funnier.
Long story short I saw this Pyrex before Christmas but decided I didn’t NEED it. Fast forward and I decided I wanted a deep lasagna pan and scoured Amazon to no avail… forgetting about the one I saw at Target. Then a friend posted on Facebook that she found it (with a lid!) at a local chain (we don’t have one in our town but there’s one about 15 minutes away but I never go there). Well, another friend happened to be there and she knew I was looking for one so just as I was texting her to see if she could grab one for me, she told me it was in her cart already. I love my friends. And now I can’t wait to make lasagna!!
You aren’t supposed to burn your Christmas tree in the fireplace. Whoopsie.
I posted this pic and caption on Facebook:
When it’s time to take the tree down but you don’t want a trail of needles through the house and you love a good fire. 🎄🔥
Two friends immediately posted that was NOT A GOOD THING, but I didn’t see it because I was offline watching a movie with the fam. Then a friend called me to tell me about it. We were being careful, but we did stop burning it.
I honestly feel guilty being this close to Chicago and not doing stuff…but I hate all the traffic, I hate the congestion, I hate all the pedestrians who think the world revolves around them, I hate paying through the nose to park, I hate paying for an Uber so we don’t have to park somewhere else…shall I go on? 🤦🏻♀️
Yet once in a blue moon we make plans to alleviate the guilt…so today was hanging out with out-of-town friends. But first we had to deal with this. The last mile took 20 minutes.
Waiting for our friends to arrive.
Now it’s getting worth it—peeps, drinks, and brunch at The Publican. I look frightened purely because it was difficult taking the photo. I have a margarita so I’m good.
Since Ballast Point was practically right next door, Tom had to stop (it’s one of his favorite breweries out of San Diego). So we’re all here. No margaritas, though, so I’m sitting this one out.
Then it was a quick Uber to the Wendella docks for a Lake & River Architecture Tour (with drinks!). Honestly I was hesitant about this because we’d already done the Architecture Tour when we went last year, but if you recall it was so hot that we stayed in the A/C and drank and only saw the bottom half of the buildings. The weather today was much better so we figured we’d get to see all the buildings…
We were at the very front of the line so scoped out what seats we wanted—and there were six right in front that were perfect. And we got them! And drinks, of course. 🙂
Doing a thing I’ve never done before—we’re in a lock!! (Plus something I do all the time–there’s a margarita just out of frame.)
Then we went out into Lake Michigan—something or last tour didn’t do so that was cool. We might also have gotten splashed just a bit—the water was rough and we were at the front of the boat.
Then it was dinner and drinks at Beacon Tavern (right off the docks). Sooooo much good food and amazing company…
So a day in Chicago is DEFINITELY not something we want to do all the time but sometimes it’s DEFINITELY worth it.
Doug was in town from North Dakota and Scott lives just down the road, so… BBQ and alcohol by the fire!!
You’d never guess how anxious I was two hours before this happy family photo.
You see I hate traffic, I hate congestion, I hate hoardes of people, and I don’t do well with the unknown…yet we were on our way to downtown Chicago with the kids to meet an out-of-town friend for dinner. I wasn’t even driving, but just simply being a passenger is enough to raise my anxiety levels (I can literally feel the anxiety rising up in my chest). Now, it’s not debilitating by any means and I can always power through, but it’s why I tend to be a homebody. The good part is that Tom’s presence makes me feel better and the kids get to see me handle something not fun…and everything usually ends up just fine.
We had delicious 🍕 pizza at Genos East Pizza, delicious 🍨dessert at Shake Shack, we drooled over everything at Dylan’s Candy Bar, and then went a little 🛁 bath bomb crazy at Lush Cosmetics (I’m not sure if I should thank or curse my friend Sara who introduced me to them). And I survived to tell the tale. 🥰
The kids loved it and we had a good time so I guess my anxiety was worth it…but I was glad to get back to our little burg.
Our family selfie!
And since we did have someone to take our photo…
I love me a rainbow…
I am so glad I remembered that Lush was on Michigan Avenue, and as luck would have it it was directly on our way back to the car!!
Our good friends and amazing chefs invited us for dinner. They don’t do seafood with their regular dinner group so were excited when I said we’d be ALL IN for as seafood extravaganza. And what an extravaganza it was…
Pre-dinner drinks! Jami tried to give me a margarita replacement. It was okay but I really missed the sugar!!
Salmon Rilletes and Gingered Crab Potato Nests
David’s homemade soppressata and cheese.
Lobster Cheesecake
Seared Scallop on Truffled Parsnip Purée
Lobster Bisque w/Anchovy Butter toasts
Lobster Stuffed Chateaubriand with Bernaise Sauce, asparagus, and failed duck fat potatoes.
Raspberry Soufflé
One additional special thing that happened… Tom and I finally opened a bottle of wine we bought after our first cruise in 2006. We had done a wine tasting on board and liked that so bought it once we got home. Then we didn’t remember what we needed to drink it with and never looked it up and just moved out around with us. So tonight it was time. And it was okay but not my style at all.
All in all an amazing night of friendship and food.
Tom started his day (as he’s started most all other days) with a run up at the gym while I stay behind and watch the ocean pass by as I write notes about our days.
Today was our last full day on the ship so it was time to do a few things we’d not gotten to all week—mainly, the Ultimate Abyss, a huge 10-story dry slide. (You can watch someone else’s video of it here.)
I am really glad we didn’t have to wait in line for it, because while it was fun, it wasn’t worth any more than maybe a 10-minute wait. Strangely, even though there wasn’t a line, for some weird reason it felt very awkward to stop and look around and take any pics. I regret that now, because it really was a cool sight (after the fact I realized the floor was see-through—I totally missed that!). I did snap this one looking out of the very top.
Here’s the only pic we got of it (from the first day when we attempted to go down, but were stopped because we had a backpack).
Today was also the day to hit the casino! We each had a free $5 credit to use, and we went through it pretty quickly, though playing the penny slots made it last a little longer. I did win some bigger amount of pennies at one point which was VERY exciting, even though I had NO idea what was going on on the machine (turns out it was a touch screen and I had to pick some squares to see what I won—and even then I’m not sure exactly what I won). All I know is at one point I was back up to 530 pennies after being down to like 200 pennies. 🙂
And then I took this pic for my mom. I didn’t play because I was out of credits.
And then off for a glass of Moscato, since I’d avoided it all week (I’m learning that wine gives me a headache). Ti was shocked—SHOCKED I TELL YOU—when I ordered this. 🙂
Oh, also? I bought a tiara. I’d looked at it at the beginning of the trip and said “I don’t need a tiara” but when it was still there this late in the week, I said WHY NOT? I can wear it for the ball…or just around for the hell of it. I LOVE IT.
Back at our bar before dinner…
This was our dining room.
And tonight we joined our other friends’ table again since we were tablemateless AGAIN. They all LOVED the tiara. 🙂
Taking some time after dinner to pack…all the liquor we bought. 🙂 Yes we did have to buy another suitcase on board (souvenir!!) so realistically we probably didn’t save THAT much money, but it’s always fun to buy alcohol on board so as we drink it at home we can relive the memories.
The last thing we wanted to do was have a drink in the Rising Tide bar—it’s a bar that rises up and down in the middle of the ship (starting on 5, the Promenade, and going to to 8, Central Park). We’d wanted to do it all week but it always had a line (there’s only like 20-25 seats). So as we were walking by, we noticed it was getting ready to load and there was no one in line yet so we snagged a place! Unfortunately, no one else in our group made it on with us…and we thought a round trip up and down would be like 30 minutes, but it was more like an hour—it only took like 7 minutes to rise up three stories and then stopped at the top for SOOOO long that we eventually just got off. It wasn’t very exciting. We did get a cool view of our regular bar, though.
In trying to finish all the things, we went back to Zoltar YET AGAIN and once more it still wasn’t working. That made about our fifth time trying it. Here’s what I think of you, Zoltar.
Leslie grabbed Ti to take a pic of our group on the stairs. Not our whole group, of course, but whoever was right there. It’s not the best pic but such good memories.
Good morning from our balcony!
The morning started a little later than I’d have preferred (we didn’t dock until 9:30)—we had a full day of excitement (half mile zip line) and relaxation (private cabanas over the water) planned and I wanted to GET TO IT!! Royal Caribbean has their own private section of the island (a secluded spot on the north coast of Haiti) and they have Nellie’s cabanas, which is a set of 10 private cabanas overlooking the bay. Our group had rented seven of them…which meant about 40 of our group members were going to be there!
While waiting to get off the ship with our group, we realized Keens were the shoe of the day! 🙂
Just gorgeous views walking down the pier…
After walking across the island to get to the cabanas to drop our stuff off (and taking a few quick pics)…
…Six of us thrill-seekers pretty much had to leave right away to head to the Dragon’s Breath zip line, which is the longest over-the-water zipline in the world.
Here we are after getting suited up and getting some brief instructions. We then had to walk across the street for a short practice run. You may laugh, but one person in our group decided it wasn’t for her after her 10-second trip. (I have video of our practice run but it’s not terribly exciting!)
It was fun, but we all felt the process could have been streamlined a bit as it took us about two hours! Thankfully, one of the “beach monitors” took us under his wing toward the start and got us out of there as quickly as he could—he somehow managed to get us to the front of the line so we didn’t then have to wait for 25 people to zip line ahead of us. He also volunteered to take photos and videos of us (with our cameras) so we had him do that. Of course I am not used to that kind of thing and realized a bit too late that he was obviously angling for a tip…so we thankfully ran into him again and were able to tip him. It was hard to see the screen in the bright sun so I was just crossing my fingers he actually took some pics and we didn’t just waste our money…but I was able to look later and he did get some so that’s cool. The ride was really fun and was over waaay too soon—it only takes like 45 seconds to travel the half mile but it felt like 20 seconds. The only bad thing is that you can’t really take pictures on the way down (which I had been hoping to do) so I set it to video and the resulting video isn’t terribly exciting…
To get our entire group up to the top at the same time, Tom and I rode in the cab with the driver!!
Walking out the catwalk to get to the drop zone!
Here’s what it looked like:
I’m next!
I didn’t have a GoPro and couldn’t hold my camera in my hand, so I just wrapped it tightly on my wrist and tried to angle it enough to see something. This might make you seasick. 🙂
I don’t know how they knew to assign this pic to our onboard photo account, but I like the magic! (Usually they had people asking for room numbers, but this pic just appeared in our account! We searched and found mine, but long story short we had two logins and we saved it under the wrong one, and when I went to pick pics to buy, it wasn’t saved in my account and I forgot about it.)
Awesome group shot! The good thing about going with other people is being able to share the group photos without having to buy each one separately!
Then it was back to the cabanas to hang out with the group where we spent the rest of our day floating in the water and enjoying tropical drinks. We all had floating mats and pretty much just floated around in a big group (or a few smaller groups) the entire time. I could have stayed at the cabanas another few hours (or days) and been totally content…
All too soon it was time to head back to the ship. This is when I decided this should have been a super long port day—docking at 6:30a and leaving at 8p. On the way back, we realized we hadn’t gotten a drink in a pineapple!! The guy was just closing up but got us one…aaaaand we should have skipped it. It was waaaay too strong, plus it started leaking almost immediately (we tossed it before we even got back to the ship). And it was $14! And not included in our alcohol package! But we got the photo op so I guess it was worth it? 🙂
And why not stop by a bar on the way to our room? We’d only had a few drinks all day…
Then it was time to get showered and dressed for dinner.
We actually ate with eight other friends at a different table because all of our regular tablemates were off eating elsewhere so Tom and I would have been eating alone (not the worst thing ever—we did it one other night and had a blast!). They happened to have two open seats so it was perfect. It was also nice because we hadn’t actually gotten to visit too much with them. Of course we also then got to hear some stories about other people which was fun.
After dinner I sat at the bar for awhile with two girlfriends and then Tom came down and we all went shopping! (Towards the end of the cruise they really bring out the souvenirs and have deals on alcohol.) I bought a neat dress clutch and bow ties for Owen…and Tom and I bought a few bottles of cheap liquor. Then he went back up to the room and us girls walked around for a bit. I might have shopped more.
Unfortunately, the one bad thing about the day is that we missed a show that was supposed to be super hilarious and we’d been looking forward to…but it didn’t start until 11:15 and honestly that’s just too late for us (we’ve been in bed by 11 every night). We thought about trying to stay up and make it but I started feeling really yucky about 9:30 and just needed to go to bed. I hadn’t had that much to drink—there were days I’d had more and never felt bad—so I think it was just a combination of drinks (mixing alcohols) and being in the sun all day (it was HOT and we were all sunburned). I felt fine when I rolled over in the middle of the night (thankfully).
My day started out with me tweaking my back pretty much just walking across the room after my shower. SERIOUSLY?! I hadn’t brought any great pain drugs so I sent out a text to see if anyone had anything that would be worthwhile for me. A friend did have something I’ve taken in the past so tried that. I was really afraid that I’d have to cancel our zipline adventure the next day so wanted to do my best to make sure that didn’t happen.
The plan for today was walking around San Juan with our good friend Eddy as our fearless leader. He grew up in Puerto Rico but has obviously been gone for a long time. As we were getting off the ship it started pouring so we were all pretty much soaked by the time we got off the pier. Ugh. Fortunately the rain stopped pretty quickly and we dried out as we walked around town.
The sights were cool, too. Just look at the colorful buildings and blue cobblestones! (Do you know about the cobblestones?
The blue cobblestones that originally paved the streets of all of Old San Juan are now being replaced with new ones. The original cobblestones (adoquines in Spanish) were cast from iron slag, which is the waste from iron smelting. They were brought as ballast in the bottoms of European merchant ships in the 1800s.
Our first stop was a coffee house (none for me, thanks—but I did share in the small desserts we got)…
And then a chocolate restaurant to get churros…and more coffee.
Unfortunately I didn’t pay attention to how hot my hot chocolate was and burned my throat (I swallowed out of habit instead of spitting it out). So my throat hurt the rest of the day. My back was doing okay and I could walk but it certainly didn’t feel 100%.
By now the sun was coming out and it was getting hot and humid. Our group walked around one of the local forts (bonus score—free admission for military!) and then through town and some of the shops.
We thought it was hilarious that there was a Skittles van at the fort. Skittles is the nickname of our good friend who was basically in charge of setting up the whole cruise for our group. He wasn’t with us, but we had to take a picture!
Historical things aren’t really my cup of tea, but some of the things were neat and the views were gorgeous.
Another area we walked through is one that was ravaged by the recent hurricanes. I liked the sign: temporally. 🙂
You can see the scaffolding along the wall.
It was terribly crowded and crazy once we got back to the downtown area—one of the things I don’t like about visiting ports with 5000 of our fellow shipmates. You can get a small idea from this pic of the Umbrella Sky Project.
Both ships in port, which is why it was SOOOO crazy in town!
Our group split up at this point and we all did something different for lunch. We ended up with Eddy and Susan at a local diner for some quick Cuban sandwiches and then we made our way back to the ship where we relaxed on our balcony while waiting to set sail again!
Then Tom napped and I went to the bar to cool my throat with my yummy drinks. This was my view pretty much every time I was at The Schooner.
I visited with some friends who were also at the bar and eventually went up to the room to start getting ready for formal night in the dining room. Tom wore his dress blues again and we tried to recreate our formal night pic from 10 years ago but I know we didn’t accomplish it (for starters, my hair was curly, I didn’t have a red dress, and I had sunburn on my chest).
We also stopped by the bar (yet again!) to waste some time before dinner.
Ti, our favoritest bartender, said he wanted a picture of Tom without me since he was in uniform and I said that was fine because I wanted a picture of him without Tom. 🙂
Pics taken at dinner…one from a friend and one the professional ship photographer. 🙂
And then a few pics of Tom with our tablemates—we’ve known them forever and lived by Josiah and Leslie in DC for years, but they’d never seen Tom in dress blues in person so they wanted pics!
After dinner we took another professional photo with friends…and it turned out really good!!
Then went and changed clothes and went to our bar (Schooner!) and ended up paying Uno with a small group for an hour or so. It sounds ridiculous but it was really quite fun! We called it a night about 9:45 and we’re in bed with lights out by 10:30. It’s exhausting being on vacation!!
This morning we woke up about 6:30 as we were pulling into port.
Most of our crew was on Deck 11, so those people you see on their balcony? We know them.
Interestingly enough, the ship was pulling in and then did a 180 and backed into its slip (this was a bit disheartening as I was hoping to be able to sit on our balcony and people watch but as it was we were facing an unused pier).
Watching where we are on the TV.
We got off the ship and actually stopped for a photo. It turned out pretty well so we bought it! I might need to Photoshop the lurker out of it. 🙂
During the hour and a half we were on Saint Maarten, it was sunny, it rained, it was hot as hell, and we saw goats. Yes, goats. They looked like little dots on the side of the mountain. This pic is zoomed in a bunch:
We didn’t plan to do much here (no excursions), but we did walk through a few jewelry stores and contemplatively looked at some Hearts on Fire jewelry to match my wedding ring (I’ve been thinking about it ever since our last cruise 10 years ago). It was severely tempting to buy a necklace… Tom said I could, but as the person who actually pays the bills and keeps our finances in order…I just couldn’t bring myself to spend $1800 (even as an early 20th anniversary present). Sometimes it sucks being an adult. But I told him we’ll just have to come back again. 🙂 That said, I did dream about a $10k tennis bracelet…
We were going to buy the kids their gifts (matching tropical wear) but unfortunately we had forgotten all of our cash and a lot of the places at the pier only took cash. But of course the chocolate shop (that a friend recommended) took credit cards so we bought chocolate. Darn.
We saw George Clooney!
And I love the warnings on cigarettes…
Heading back to the ship. It’s just HUGE.
We opted against traveling around Saint Maarten and doing anything as we really just kind of wanted to chill on the ship without anybody on it. And, indeed, there was really nobody on the ship. That said, most of the bars and restaurants were also closed so there wasn’t much open for us to do.
We ended up hitting one of our regular bars…
Grabbing some random food at different places—look, a salad (it was really really good!) and more chili cheese fries!
Taste-testing tequila… I wanted to see which I liked better—silver or gold. They aren’t supposed to make you more than one drink at a time, but she knew us from before, knew we were just going to sit there, and knew I was doing a taste test… (That last drink is what I showed up with.) Result? Silver wins.
Hanging out on our balcony…
Tom and I have both decided that we like the ship when we are in port and the majority of the people are off the ship. We do not like a lot of people. That said, one of the things that I do indeed find most interesting is that even though there are almost 7,000 guests on the ship, it is not nearly as busy (anywhere) as you would think it would be. We have 68 people in our group and we can go a majority of the day without running into any one of them! (Of course, that said, we can also walk around the ship one time and run into the same person three times.)
And meeting Johnny from Sweden at the Solarium bar who we spent most of the afternoon with.
And remember what I said about the bartenders? Today, the Solarium Bar staff is learning that all we want are Toasted Almonds. If SHE is making them, they’re frozen; if HE is making them, they’re on the rocks. Both are delicious. Since we’ve also been ordering them for hours, they give us a little leeway when charging them to our room cards. Normally you can only get one drink per person per room card but since they know they’re for the three of us they will let us get three drinks at a time. The bartenders are awesome.
(As I write this, Johnny and Tom are now in the hot tub while I sit in the shade on the pool deck and drink my drink.)
Then it was back to the room for me to relax on the balcony again and wait for Tom to come home!
4:27 Enjoying the balcony!
4:41 Dressed and ready for dinner! (Yes I have clothes on! It’s a dress with thinner shoulder straps and a V neck!)
Some of the boards today:
We had no tablemates tonight at dinner so we had a blast with just the two of us!
More drinks at the robot bar:
Tonight’s towel animal.
It was an early night, as Tom wasn’t feeling too well. Turns out Johnny had been buying Jack Daniels drinks for them… And Tom isn’t a Jack Daniels guy but drank them anyway. Let’s just say he learned his lesson!
Technically Tom starts his day at the gym while I sleep in…
But I say our day starts after that with Bloody Marys. This morning we were surprised by a Bloody Mary bar at our usual morning pub! Yes, please!
Isn’t it gorgeous? 🙂 I never did get used to the lime, though, and always forgot to tell them no thanks.
Then it was off for a sushi-making class! A huge group of ours did it yesterday but we weren’t able to get the same class. It was really fun but I didn’t get to take any pictures during because we all had gloves on and were (obviously) touching everything. So here’s before…
And after…good enough to eat!!
Yes, we all had to wear the silly paper hats.
And then we had drinks at our favorite bar with our favorite bartenders… I can’t remember exactly how we started drinking the Snow White (I think it was vodka, cream, and Bailey’s) but it was really good… And then it morphed into a Toasted Almond with the addition of Amaretto…which I then morphed into an Almond Joy (adding a chocolate drizzle) because what coconut almond drink wouldn’t be better with chocolate?! And sometimes they’d blend them for us so we had adult milkshakes!
I always laughed at people who went on cruises and talked about their awesome bartenders. I always thought it was strange when people said that they “made friends” with their bartender or that their bartender knew them and remembered them. But after being on the ship for four days and going to the same bars over and over, I can totally understand that—James and Ti at The Schooner know what drink to start making when they see me. Sometimes they’d see us coming and start making the same drinks. And they had fun creating our new drinks. And we got to know them over the week. (You’ll see more pics later.)
And then dinner was with a group of 12 at Wonderland. Imaginative cuisine, as the sign says. 🙂
You had to paint the portrait in order to view the menu.
Since we had such a large group, they pretty much just brought out everything—we didn’t have to decide. (Looking back at the menu now, I see a few things we missed.) Most everything was expectedly delicious, but my favorite bite of the night (and actually the entire cruise) was the Shrimp Kataifi (under the FIRE section—and actually the very first photo below). The Liquid Lobster and Tomato Water were also favorites. It was a hell of a lot of food and by the time we got to dessert we could barely eat anything.
I’m sure we went to our bar for a nightcap or met peeps somewhere, but [writing this two weeks later] my mind is a bit hazy plus I have no more pics of the day so who knows. 🙂
That said, this was the art above our bed. Seriously, a lady bug? What are the odds? 🙂
Of course we started the day with Bloody Marys. 🙂 The Boot & Bonnet was the only place open to get them first thing in the morning, so we’d often just sit in the nice leather chairs and people watch on the promenade.
Then it was lunch—Tom grabbed one of the amazing roast beef sandwiches from Deck 8 (one of the buffets in Central Park) and then we went up to Deck 15 for the chili cheese fries! With drinks, of course.
And there was wandering and people-watching and catching up with friends as we ran into them throughout the ship…and then it was time for the welcome party! Friends of ours are BIG cruisers and are like platinum level, so they have a suite…and they had a party for everyone! It was amazing to see how “the other half” lives on a cruise! Their bathroom was about the size of HALF of our entire room (plus it had a full-size tub and a bidet!).
Catching up with a good friend out on the HUGE balcony (the balcony was bigger than the size of our room!).
Then we visited the robot bar—it was actually called the Bionic Bar but everyone called it the robot bar because ROBOTS made the drinks. 🙂 You would input the drink you wanted on the tablets on the tables (scan your room key or your wrist band) and then watch the stages of your order on the screens.
My margarita in production:
Our group had ordered just a few drinks here…
Our first formal night…
With friends Geoff and Michele…
And our first towel animal… (we only got two the entire week). 🙁
We are old and had been drinking all day…so we called it early again. 🙂
I am really amazed at how simple and easy embarkation is, even when the cruise line is dealing with 6,000 people getting off the ship and 6,000 people getting on the ship. The lines weren’t long, nothing was terribly crowded, and it was all very efficient. We could not take pics inside the building, so this is all you get—us waiting for our group to be called to board:
Of course, the shout outs to buy things starts before you even get on the ship, with your first pictures being snapped on the way to the gangway, and you have to stroll past a mini shop with lanyards and a random assortment of last-minute items. It was originally just me and Tom, and then more peeps strolled by and we pulled them in…and then a few more…and a few more. We eventually just had to take the pic and be done with it, otherwise we would have been there for a half hour gathering more people.
My first goal upon entering the ship was to see just how quickly I could get my first margarita. And as it turns out there was a bar not 10 steps from where the gangway spit us out! WOOT!
Drink 2, immediately following drink 1.
Drink 3, immediately following drinks 1 and 2! We were determined to get our money’s worth out of our unlimited alcohol package! 🙂
While we were in there, random peeps strolled in and that was fun. We picked up our smart bands—I hate the nickel and diming aspect of it (they’re $5 each!) so I said I didn’t want one so Tom went and got his and I immediately succumbed once I saw how cool it was to order a drink with your wrist (it also unlocks your room). Then we just wandered the ship for awhile until we had our lunch reservation.
We may have stopped for a tiny bite of chili cheese fries because I LOVE CHILI CHEESE FRIES. Tom gave me crap about them until he tried them…and he went and got his own small plate.
More drinks! There are bars ALL OVER and there were really never any lines so it took less than five minutes to get drinks.
Signs on the elevator floors are a good way to know what day it is.
It started raining when we were heading to lunch on the Central Park level—it’s an actual open air park, so if it’s raining outside, it’s raining on the ship—and as we were lamenting the fact of having to walk in the rain, we noticed a box of umbrellas in the vestibule! Of course! They think of everything!
Lunch was at Jamie’s Italian (Jamie Oliver’s place).
We thought we were going to be eating by ourselves because we hadn’t been able to get a reservation with our group…but as soon as we walked in and asked if we could eat early (the place was almost empty), our group waved us over and we joined them! I think there were probably 25 or so of us in there! And add another drink to my tally—a peach bellini!
Then it was finally time to get in our room…so we have the obligatory picture of us on our balcony! And our view of the port!
And then Tom decided he needed a nap. I wandered the ship…
Then it was time for the sailaway—except we hadn’t planned too well for it and we didn’t have a big group together…but we all met up shortly afterward for our big group photo!!
Then there was a lot of wandering the ship and exploring… I was geeked to find Zoltar (if you don’t remember, it’s from the movie Big with Tom Hanks). I thought the kids would get a kick out of it, but it wasn’t working when we were there.
And then it was time for dinner.
Most of our group had some type of whiteboard on their doors so we could leave messages about where we were or what plans were…and people would leave you notes.
The rest of the night was spent hanging out at bars with friends…and then we called it a night pretty early since we’d been up since 4am!
When you have 50+ people heading to the port from the hotel, the hotel needs more than a minivan with a luggage trailer. Motor coach for the win!
And there’s our HUGE ship in the distance…
Since our group was so huge, we broke up into smaller groups. This was The Portly Pig gastropub…really yummy.
We’ve had a lot of tomatoes this season and we just can’t eat them fast enough (the kids don’t like them). I’ve been parboiling them to peel them and then cooking them down. It’s a bit of a pain but I do it. And then a friend posted her tray of UNpeeled tomatoes and onions and it was a lightbulb moment.
I roasted them for a few hours and they. are. amazing. Woohoo!! Now I can’t wait for more tomatoes!!
Jami and I picked a restaurant at a random restaurant that had good reviews—Roka Akor—and it did NOT disappoint!
Everything on the menu looked divine and I hated to pick one thing, so we all agreed to do the Chefs tasting menu (the decadent version, of course, because it was only like $25 more per person). Holy cow, what a dinner: 6 courses and (I think) 12 or 13 plates. Maybe 14. We took pics of everything, of course, but at the end realized we missed some! We had a few types of sashimi, beef carpaccio, scallops, crab, lobster tempura, mushroom risotto with truffles, and my first ever wagyu beef (two ways, including with bone marrow). We pretty much ate divine food non-stop for two hours.
Overall it was excellent food, excellent company, and an excellent birthday celebration!
From Jami:
So… back in February (cough cough), we had a dinner to welcome the Hudsons to IL. I finally got around to downloading my memory card this weekend. Oops.
Owen was the photographer on the group shot!
