At Sea

Crown Princess Deck Log:
Throughout the day Crown Princess continued on her various courses towards Stockholm.
Sky: Clear Skies
Temperature: 52 F
Copenhagen to Stockholm: 719.3 Nautical Miles
Average Speed: 18.0 knots

We all went exploring to learn more about this huge ship. Jan and I went shopping and checked out the Casino. She has more luck than I do playing slots. I lost my money so fast you wouldn't believe it. Note to self: stay away from the Casino!
We had drinks again in the Atrium. We heard the string quartet, a pianist, a guitarist, and watched some acrobats. The ship has great entertainment!

Dick and I went to a lecture on St. Petersburg. It was a good, illustrated lecture, but the theater was too warm, and lots of people nodded off - including me. I did learn a lot about Peter the Great, and about the siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) druing WW II.

.St. Petersburg lecture in the beautiful Princess Theater.


On the ship, the Atrium is called the Piazza. We called it the Atrium anyway - force of habit. These pictures show the staircases, ceiling, elevators, and entertainment area. It's a shiny, polished, elegant atmosphere, as you can see!


It was formal night on the ship, so we all ate in the Buffet - not in the mood to dress up. Following dinner, we had drinks at Crooner's, followed by a great stage show at 8:15 p.m. in the Princess Theater. It was called "What a Swell Party" and it was a tribute to the music of Cole Porter. The singers and dancers were very talented and enjoyable.Here are Jan and I in the Theater waiting for the show to start. We all went in early to get the seats we wanted because by 8:15 there was standing room only.
What a Swell Party it was! We really enjoyed the show.

Copenhagen

Crown Princess Deck Log:
Noon position: Alongside in Copenhagen
Wind: Light Airs
Sky: Cloudy
Temperature: 59 F

We woke up in the SAS Royal Radisson Hotel in Copenhagen this morning. The room is small, but very nice - furnished in the sparse Danish style. Our room had what might have been the world's softest bed.

Last evening after dinner at the Cafe Royal, Dick and Bill went for a walk looking for a cache called "Rysensteen". They found it, but it was so high up that Bill had to give Dick a boost to reach it!

May 19 by basswoodbend (1762 found)
It was 31 hours since we had been to bed when we searched for this cache following a long cramped flight from the US. We are beginning a cruising vacation in the Baltic and hope to find a cache at each stop. This search would have been unsuccessful had it not been for a shouted alert from the cache owner. We signed the log and left our coin which we have named Denmark. Thanks for the help and thanks for the cache

We had the breakfast buffet at the Cafe Royal, too. We didn't really have a choice -nothing opens until 10 a.m.! The hotel has some great new coffee machines which dispense your coffee one cup at a time - you can select either regular or decaf. It was fun to watch people try to figure out how to use the machines.

The city of Copenhagen is loaded with bicycles! There are bicycles everywhere - at the train stations there must be thousands of bikes lined up six deep. There are big bike lanes on all the streets - and everybody rides. We were totally amazed.
We just had time to do a short bus tour of Copenhagen, with a stop at the Little Mermaid.

Then we caught the Princess bus to the ship. The boarding was the easiest yet, except for the gal who had trouble scanning our new passports, but that was very minor.

Our stateroom is nice - small, but with a balcony and a huge closet! We were surprised and pleased. We all had lunch at the buffet on the Lido deck, and drinks in the Piazza Atrium, listening to the string quartet play light pop! We met servers Anna and Biljana from Macedonia, the first of many Macedonian kids that we met.

The lifeboat drill was at 5:15 p.m. - and it was the easiest one yet, too! We didn't even have to go on deck - just learned where to go and how to don the life jacket, and that was it!

We had more drinks in the atrium before dinner - listened to the string quartet again. They are quite good. This time they played "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring". We did the Anytime Dining in the dining room - shared our table with a couple from near Quebec City. Dick and I went to bed early - Jan went to the Casino!

Bill, Jan and Dick in downtown Copenhagen:



Here we go on a sightseeing tour:
The Little Mermaid is a must-see:
We took this bike picture for Tom. It's in the Copenhagen Visitor Center.

Arrival in Copenhagen

We flew from Detroit to Chicago, Chicago to Heathrow on British Airways, then Heathrow to Copenhagan - a real red-eye adventure! But here we are in Copenhagen!
The Copenhagen Airport thinks of everything!


Off to the Royal Radisson Hotel

The view from our hotel room.
Copenhagen Street SceneThe SAS Royal Radisson Hotel
We learned that Tivoli means amusement park all over Scandinavia.

Several buildings in the big cities are covered with Logos. I don't know whether it's advertising, or it shows what businesses are in that building.

European cities seem to be big on statuary of all kinds. We saw many great statues.

Fly Away!

So much luggage, such a small taxi! Bill and Jan each had to carry a bag on their laps on the way to Metro Airport.

We're Off!

We're leaving this morning! All that's left to do is zip up the bags! We'll be at Sniders tonight and fly to Copenhagen tomorrow evening. Arriving in Copenhagen at 3:30 Monday afternoon, staying at the Radisson Monday night, boarding the Crown Princess cruise ship Tuesday afternoon! And then we'll be sailing away to Stockholm.

We're not taking our laptops - there are computers on board the ship that are rented by the minute (!) - so we will occasionally check email (quickly).

Bon Voyage!

I Supervised

Here is the perennial garden as it appeared in early May. Some work needed to be done, some assembly required. It's my garden, and I wanted it to be spruced up for the spring and summer - but not by me! So along came the guys from Traverse Outdoor, and they helped me out quite a bit!




Here is the perennial garden as it looks today. The Michaelmas daisies, which have been taking over the entire garden, have been dug out, it has been raked, weeded, and prepped with compost. Whew! That's a job well done. I supervised!

Early Memorial

Oakwood Cemetery

New urns, new geraniums with really huge blossoms, good soil with built-in fertilizer - Mom and Dad should be all set for summer.

Buddha's Eye

Matthew 25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Thousands of people on the other side of the world are hurting, homeless and hopeless today. The cyclone in Myanmar may have killed 100,000 people (One Hundred Thousand), and now the earthquake in China has killed thousands more. Even the survivors are in peril because there's a shortage of medical care, clean water and food. These are dreadful events each by itself. Combined, it's very hard to imagine the horrors that men, women and children are having to face. There's an old spiritual called "His Eye is on the Sparrow (and I know He watches me)". Is it possible that Buddha's eye is not on these people?

It would be horrible enough if these were the only treacherous places in the world today. "Horrible enough" is not an adequate phrase. There are other shocking events in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan - each an outrage in its own right. Aren't there supposed to be some gods keeping an eye on those places?

Support disaster victims in Myanmar & China: American Red Cross and/or Save the Children

Northern Michigan Antelope?

Back to the gym - everything was kind of low key there today - not too crowded. There's a new UBE machine - I used it right away - it's a lot like the old ones. All 3 technicians were there today - usually we just get one or two. I talked to Marge about our upcoming cruise and it turns out that she and her husband Bill had been in a lot of the places where we are headed. She said that they were in Helsinki in May, and there was still snow on the ground! I'm not sure how to pack for snow in May in Finland.


At the Omelette Shoppe we were catching up on our reading in the free handout papers. A lot of the conversation was about new restaurants in the area. One of the new places is called Radish - our waitress said that it is reminiscent of small restaurants in the San Diego area that just serve soups and salad. The paper said it would have a 60 item salad bar - sounds great, huh? It's just a little hole-in-the-wall place in Old Town - hope they do well.

Another new eating place which is a fun topic of conversation is El Dorado. They plan to serve free range wild boar and antelope. No kidding. How does a wild boar taco sound? How many of those do you want?! I don't understand how wild boar and antelope are really all that applicable to northern Michigan!

Returning books to the Library, we spotted some gorgeous geraniums at the new Depot City Market. Skegemog Nurseries has a great spot there at the depot with plants that are healthy, thriving and lush. We had purchased new urns for Mom and Dad's spot at the cemetery last week - got them all set up and ready for new plants. So today we planted these gorgeous geraniums in the new urns, and everything should look wonderful for Memorial Day - even though we won't be here.

Packing panic continues. I keep changing my mind about things...

Packing Panic

We bought two new carry-ons today. We're hoping that we'll be able to pack everything we'll need for two people for a 10 day cruise in one large suitcase, one garment bag, and the 2 new carry ons.

I spent the morning trying on clothes until I was more confused than ever. I had to take a break and call Sniders for a while. We had fun talking to Jan. She gave us the good advice to call the credit card company to let them know we're going to Europe so that they won't get suspicious and cancel our card. That happened to Bill and Jan out in California.

I really do get a little bit panicky - but I do have good lists, and everything usually does seem to turn out OK, but it's nerve-wracking.

Happy Mother's Day

What a nice day this was! Sharon is in town visiting Barb, and this morning they both came out for a really enjoyable visit. Everybody seems happy and in good health, which is a Very Good Thing. We had a chance to catch up on all of the kids' activities, and that's always the best! We sorted through some of the GenFest stuff so they wouldn't be buying duplicate things, and just generally enjoyed each other!

After they left, we went back-woodsing and set up a new Emma's Shrine cache - it's a bit bizarre, but very much fun. Then we went in search of cherry blossoms - not on the peninsula this time, but in the Elk Lake/Williamsburg area. The blossoms were very profuse, very white, and spread out as far as the eye could see. It was a beautiful sight.

A Rosy Day

This morning saw the arrival of roses from Tom for Mother's Day. They are very, very beautiful - a mix of white and yellow.

Today at the Visitor Center, Dick talked to visitors from Japan, England, Canada, The Netherlands, Muskegon, and even Wisconsin! There were 47 visitors in all on his shift. The Japanese didn't speak English that well, but Dick says that the lady from London spoke English quite well indeed!

When we watch people walking up and down Front Street, we can usually tell which ones are tourists - but we certainly can't always tell where they all come from. I really had no idea that visitors to this area were so diverse!

I had fun shopping for travel size items for our cruise - it's the most fun I've ever had in a drugstore. They make all kinds of things for air travel now which meet the requirements of the new regulations.

From 5 to 7 p.m. we all played Wow (the two of us, Tom, Jana, Laurie and Dylan). In honor of Mother's Day, Laurie and I got to choose the activity. It was great - I completed two quests and picked up 2 new ones. We had a great time!

Dick did fish and scallops on the grill - we are trying hard to stick to the low fat diet.

One week from today we'll be driving to Canton to stay with Bill and Jan and one week from tomorrow the 4 of us will fly to Copenhagen!!!!! The countdown has begun!

Highs and Lows

We didn't go to the gym today because Merry Maids came this morning. Bless Merry Maids. Bless all maids everywhere... even if they neglect to vacuum under the coffee table!

Dick doesn't groove on the Merry Maids, so he went geocaching on the west side of town - found 3 and did not find 2. It was rainy, damp and dreary but anything is better than Merry Maids!

After lunch we drove to the marina. The T.C. Fire Department was there launching a small fire department boat and for some reason three fire trucks, a police car, and a paramedical rescue truck had to be there to help launch the thing. Who knows what that was all about.

I went walking on the TART from the Open Space to the West End Beach. I used my ski sticks and it went well...a fast start and a slow finish.

Afterwards we had a lovely drive on this beautiful day which had turned from rain to sunshine and blue skies.

When we got home, Dick got started cleaning up the toy school house, and I uncovered the golf car for the first time this year. It's the best gift I ever got - I had a delightful time driving around the property.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world, in Myanmar, so many people are suffering and grieving, and are homeless and distraught after a cyclone last Friday. The first reports said 250 dead, which is awful enough. Now they are saying 24,000 dead, 40,000 missing, and one million homeless! It's unimaginable. I wish each survivor could have 10% of the comfort and security which I am enjoying right this minute - they would be in heaven. I'm puzzled once again about the inequities from one side of the globe to the other. We are counting our blessings and feel so privileged to be living our lives in beautiful, safe northern Michigan.

Grassy Grass Grass

The grass is green and looking very lush.

Dick has been busy busy fertilizing, scarifying, bagging the debris, sowing hardy grass seed, more fertilizing, rolling the lawn with the lawn roller....and probably more that I don't even know about!

Our grass looks great (OK, we do have some dandelions) and is bound to look even better soon.

Webfetti

Bloomers

Our yard is in bloom!
The purple-leaf plum trees along the driveway - the camera doesn't really do them justice......so I tried getting closer......and closer! I hope you can tell how beautiful these trees are!

This is the forsythia which has been lighting us up for a week now. In actuality, it's much more bright and yellow in person!
Here is Dick's new flag pole in all its glory; new paint, new yardarm, new flag. It wasn't easy - we really needed 3 men and a boy to help - but he did it all by himself, assisted for 15 minutes by me with the tractor. It looks great!

I haven't used the camera since Christmas in Palm City - here are a couple of pictures that have been hiding in the camera for 5 months: Uncle Tom and Dylan in a deep philosophical discussion (well, maybe not).

Relaxed and happy in the Florida sunshine!

Christmas morning cup of coffee

Typical Christmas joyful chaos - it even looks like fun today in May!

TGIF

In school in Ann Arbor, and later living in Wayne County for 35 years, I listened to the Bud Guest show on WJR on a daily basis for as long as it was on the air. Every Friday afternoon the band played and sang:

Thank Goodness It's Friday,
Man oh man am I beat.
I worked all week like a dog, you see,
And I'm as tired as a guy can be,
But on Friday I holler TGIF -
Thank Goodness It's Friday now!

So I like to sing that little song to Dylan every once in a while on a Friday. I didn't get a chance to talk to him today, but I was thinking of him. We taught him TGIF way, way, way back when he was in Kindergarten!

Dr. Burke called this morning - he said I just had one small gallstone and there no indications of problems so we're good to go to SCANDINAVIA!!!

More errands today - it's always something! Dick cleaned out his closet, so we went back to Goodwill with clothes and light fixtures. Then we were off to the mall where I went walking while Dick shopped for travel clothes. After lunch we did the Subaru cruise of downtown, and picked up the Euros at the bank. They are different sizes according to the denomination!