Christmas Parade

Sanford has one of the oldest Christmas Parades in North Carolina. Last night was the 57th with over 120 floats, bands, classic autos and attractions. The parade started at 7 PM and lasted over an hour. Pretty impressive for such a small town. Weather was perfect – clear and cold. Just right for Christmas.

Of course, being small town, a lot of the attractions were local businesses which advertised on the side of their trucks while towing a trailer which were decorated and carrying people. At one point after a particularly well decorated vehicle went by which was completely covered in small white lights I turned to JN and said “You realize, we just applauded a cement mixer”.

It really was kind of pretty.

Cruise

The last 2 days on vacation were a day at sea and the final stop in Nassau. I had forgotten that I had been there before. We went to a small private island and just hung out in the nice weather and swam some. DB went snorkeling with the stingrays.

The only thing I missed while on the ship was sports. Ships get satellite TV signals but the various cruise lines subscribe to different feeds. Usually you’ll get the major broadcast networks and ESPN. I’ve also watched TBS and similar channels on board. However, RCCL had the oddest TV offerings. Instead of broadcasts, they showed tape delay and reruns with the occasional live feed. ESPN was the Caribbean version – futbol instead of football. Championship Football Saturday we were in Nassau anyway but once back on board I did get to watch some of the Oklahoma – Nebraska game and the Florida – LSU game. Since these were the raw feeds there were no commercials and I got to watch what went on in the booth or field during the TV timeouts.

After getting off the ship, JN and I went to Las Olas Riverfront to kill a couple of hours before going to the airport. We went to an open air bar on the second floor and read the newspaper and people watched.

Cold and rainy when we got back to Raleigh. I was really tired and fell asleep right away on the sofa - probably around 8 PM.

In fact, last night I again fell asleep on the sofa as soon as I got back from the parade. I think JN is worn out from the vacation as well. He’s usually up late but has gone to bed early both Sunday night and last night.

The cruise vacation was great but I’m also happy to be back at work and getting back into the regular routines.

Updates and Photos

I’ll be adding photos and possibly more details to the blog entries I made while on board ship. If you’re interested, you might want to check them out from time to time over the next week.