Belize. No port – the water is not deep enough – so the ship anchors off of Belize City – about 2 miles.
We went directly from the ship to a private small island beach. The island boat picked up about 40 of us and it turns out we were the only ones who had scheduled that shore activity for the day.
The 20 acre beach / island can easily accommodate 300 or 400 people so it was practically deserted and we had the whole place to ourselves.
Again – just laid around, drank a bunch of ‘mudslides’, swam some, listened to music (via ipod) and talked.
Out of the small group on the island were some Ship's crew members and staff. Dave spent his time chatting up an Australian girl (real cute) who works in the Ship's spa.
What a great way to spend the day.
The one great thing about having my laptop - even with slow modem speed access - is that I can listen to RadioParadise. I can only tolerate so much of the Top 40 stuff that is typically played on ships. Music for the masses. I love good music and it's nice to be able to get RP while on board.
Our port on Tuesday was Cozumel. The entire island is a tourist economy. I don’t think there is any manufacturing or industry that isn’t tourist related.
Went to Chankanaab National Park. Pretty much just sat under the palms, read, had a drink and just chilled out.
Steve went on the dolphin encounter and was the time of his life. I’ve done that in the past and it’s pretty awesome. However, I have some problems with keeping dolphins penned up and trained to entertain tourists.
While it was an amazing thing to swim with the dolphins, I don’t think I’ll ever do that again.
Dinner was scallops over risotto, salad, garlic shrimp and asparagus, and tiramisu.
The gang spends evenings hanging out in Dave's room. He's an early to bed, early to rise guy - so it works out to visit a while and then Dave goes to bed. Afterwards, everybody else heads out to the nightclubs / bars and such.
I wanted to stay up and see the comedy show at 11 but I just couldn’t do it. Fell asleep by 10.
Our port yesterday was Key West. I’d never been there. We just walked around looking at the shops and houses. Only place we went in was a small restaurant where we sat on the porch overlooking the street and watched people go by.
I haven’t done a darn thing on board except go to dinner and read. I’m already almost finished with the first of 3 books I checked out.
Dinner last night was chilled peach soup, eggplant and cherries jubilee.
We’re headed in to Cozumel today and again nothing planned. Might get a taxi and head to a beach or Chakanaab National Park.
Everybody’s having a great time, as always people do on a cruise ship. Nuke and Steve are both night owls so they’ve been closing down the bars and casino each night so far.
Last night I stayed up till 10:30.
Parrrrty!
Odds and Ends
Nuke and my cabin has 2 beds and a small sofa.
Each bed has 2 pillows. The sofa has 2 small bolster pillows arranged at each end (total =4). Plus, there are 2 huge oversize pillows that sort of drift around where needed. By oversize, each is the size of those huge pillows you can use to sit on the floor. Plus there are 2 of those 'back' pillows that you can slip behind your back while sitting on the sofa or in bed reading. Total? 12 pillows in this small little room.
Very cozy and comfy.
Wake Up Call
I use breakfast room service as my wake up call.
Each night I fill out the door tag for coffee, juice and a fruit plate with a 0700 delivery time.
They call about 10 minutes before they deliver so that serves as a great wake up call.
(Although I still wake up naturally before the call.)
RCCL does it right. Instead of a tiny caraf for 2 - they send up a full size caraf. I'm on my second cup as I write this entry. Decaf - even in the morning. Otherwise - with this much coffee, I'd be buzzing all day.
Nuke likes it because I turn down the phone ringer so it doesn't wake him. But when he does wake up - he's got coffee right there waiting for him.
On vacation with a group of friends – cruise ship to the western Caribbean.
The ship's modem connection is unbelievably slow. As in 45 kbs. So, these entries will be short. I’ll add more plus photos later so check back next week.
Flight down was right on time and uneventful.
I used to fret about getting to the airport on time and connections and things. Which - with the super efficient, valuable and worthwhile TSA - can be a good thing to have extra time. But as I get older, I just really don't care as much. Missed plane? There'll be another one.
I really thought I had allotted plenty of time to get to the airport and go through the longer Thanksgiving weekend insecurity lines. Still - when we got to the gate I asked when they would begin boarding.
"Going to Ft. Lauderdale?"
"Yep"
"Get On The Plane!"
"OK"
Annnnnd - we're off!
(In all fairness - TSA at RDU really was efficient. The long lines moved quickly. Ineffective - but efficient. Your tax dollars at work.)
Usual first day on board. Everybody is excited. For Chip and Erica – their very first cruise vacation.
Watermelon soup, salad, prime rib and cream filled pastry for dessert.
The shop keeper has several birds for sale, all in the thousands of dollars range.
Except for one which is only $25.
The guy inquires about the el-cheapo bird.
Shopkeeper:
“This one has some behavior problems and has a pretty bad attitude and vocabulary.”
The guy figures that for only $25 he can afford to try and re-train the bird and put up with a dirty word now and then.
Well, the bird has a really bad attitude and even worse vocabulary.
Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.
The guy tired and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to try and ‘clean up’ the bird’s vocabulary.
Nothing worked.
Finally one day - the guy got fed up and yelled at the parrot.
The parrot yelled back.
The guy shook the parrot which only made the parrot angrier and even ruder.
In a fit of anger, the guy put the parrot in the freezer just to get it to shut up.
For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed and swore like a drunken sailor.
Suddenly – there was total silence.
Not a peep was heard for over a minute.
The guy, fearing he had harmed the bird quickly opened the door to the freezer.
The parrot calmly stepped out onto the guy’s arm and said:
“Sir; I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I am sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.”
The guy was stunned at the sudden change in the parrot’s attitude. Before he could ask the bird what had caused such a dramatic change, the parrot said:
“And sir, may I also inquire – What exactly did the Turkey do?”
Spent the past week working at East Carolina University. Most of my time was spent at the Medical School.
Rather typical week but I did get to see some neat stuff at the West Campus. West Campus is the old Voice of America site. The VOA used to broadcast radio to Eastern Europe from here during the Cold War. The facility is about 600 acres out in the middle of nowhere with an operations / studio / broadcast building and an antenna farm plus a couple of small warehouses. At one time there were 100+ antennas out there. Most of them have been dismantled and used elsewhere. About 20 or so remain.
The facility was turned over to the State and ECU after VOA ceased operations at the site. We now use the site for agricultural medical research and it’s also the location for the Queen Anne’s Revenge archeology project.
Here’s an interesting room inside the VOA building. It’s made of copper and is a radio wave suppression room. I’m not exactly sure what it was used for but I have my guesses. I noticed a bunch of Cracker Jacks secret decoder rings that were left behind.
Blackbeard
The Queen Anne’s Revenge artifact research and salvage / restoration takes up the storage / garage area of the building and a separate storage warehouse.
Everybody likes the cannons since they are large and cool to look at.
In the past month a couple of really neat items were brought up. This is the rudder of the ship. It still has the depth markings on it in roman numerals. Quite a find and in remarkable condition.
And here’s something that is really spiffy. Back in the day, the captain of a ship might have a small brass cannon. Not really useful in warfare, they’re more like the small replica cannons that people have today and shoot off at football games and such. Think of it as an executive toy.
This little number was mounted on a pivot that fit into a hole in the ship’s railing. This was probably Edward Teach’s personal little play toy.
The old safe room in the VOA building is now used as an x-ray room. Here, a plate has been x-rayed before clean up.
Check out the detail.
Pretty neat, huh?
Football
Nuke and I went to the State at Wake Forest game yesterday. The Pack lost 38 to 18. It wasn’t quite as bad as the score indicates but WF did beat us pretty soundly.
The Pack helped beat itself with 3 interceptions, one of which was run back for a touch down. Another interception was in the end zone negating a sure touchdown drive for State.
Also, we recovered a fumble at the WF 30 yard line and came away with zero points. Add to that 90 yards in self inflicted penalties – well – that’s the way put yourself in a hole. If our offense hadn’t kept shooting itself in the foot, we would have very well won the game.
Still, this loss not withstanding, you can see this team can move the football and play some awesome defense. Tom O’Brien has taken a team that was 3 and 9 last year and started out 1 and 5 this year and is turning the program around. Without a single recruit of his own.
I honestly felt that except for Wake Forest’s quarterback, Riley Skinner (phenomenal!), State had the better overall team on the field.
Wake Forest should win out over Tulane next weekend and finish 8 – 4. Last year’s Wake's ACC Championship was no fluke.
It was a nice way to spend a football afternoon and evening. The drive to the game took about 3 hours including parking and traffic. While a long day overall - about 9 hours total – it was not that tiring. With the game breaking up the driving – it didn’t seem that long. I’d guess it’s a lot like when Dave drives up from Wilmington for games.
State fans easily made up ¼ of the crowd. Even with their football success the past couple of years, WF doesn’t sell out their stadium. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jim Grobe isn’t lured away to Nebraska or Arkansas or somewhere that’s more of a traditional football school.
Thanksgiving Week
Short week at work coming up. Then Thanksgiving at Kure beach with the sister family unit. State’s final football season game is next Saturday. Then, exactly a week from today – I’ll be on the deck of a cruise ship having a pina colada. Yaaaay.
Watching Quest For Fire with closed captioning on. Gems such as “man yelling [in prehistoric language]”, “aw, aw, aw” and “uh, uh, uh”. I kid you not. LOL
Breakfast at Fearrington Village. Omelet with spinach and onions for me, Nuke had the pancakes. As always, too much food so we got a raccoon bag. The critters are going to feast tonight.
Stopped and got some tulip and daffodil bulbs and some rock chips. I’m going to plant the bulbs in the pots on the deck and cover them with the rock chips to keep the squirrels and raccoons from digging up the bulbs (I hope).
I’m tired of planting stuff every spring. Or rather, killing stuff as Nuke accuses. Hopefully the bulbs will grow in the spring, propagate and keep on going. So I won’t have to mess with new stuff each year.
And it’ll be purdy.
I have to work this week out of town at ECU. It will be a busy week. Then Thanksgiving the next week and vacation to the western Caribbean the next – yaaaay!
Still ‘high’ after State’s win over Carolina yesterday.
Evening Addendum
Just watched The Lives Of Others. Put it on your Netflix rent list. One of the best movies you'll see all year.
We tailgated with some (gasp!) Carolina fans before the game.
The stats will tell you that State beat the dickens out of Carolina.
The score – not so much.
We threw 2 interceptions – both returned for very long touchdowns. The one in the first half was for 95 yards. The one in the second half for 70+ yards. Both ending certain scoring drives for State and resulted in 14 points for Carolina.
It’s almost impossible to win a game where you throw 2 interceptions for touchdowns. But the Pack did not give up.
We should have won by a lot – but Carolina took their only lead late in 4th quarter on their second interception and run back for a touchdown. UNC by 3 points.
State promptly took the ball down the field and scored the winning touchdown to go up by 4 with 2 minutes left.
Carolina put together a drive to first and goal on the 7 yard line. The Pack stopped them on 4 downs and won the game with 2 seconds left.
What a great game.
Here’s some video I took of the final drive and defensive stop.
Thanks to Jason, Dave and Fritz for going to the game with me.
[Special thanks to fmr SGT Jason and LTC Fritz on this Veteran's Day weekend.]
Thanks to Geoff and his Carolina friends for inviting us to their tailgate.
Finally, after the last 2 dismal years – NC State football gives the chance to talk some *%&# (poo) to our Powder Blue brethren.
Since I have but 1 friend who has the poor judgement to be a Carolina fan (he claims to have gone to school there) – here goes – This is for you Chip:
Yessiree Chippie – Come 4 PM Saturday, both the Tar Holes and the Flaccid Irish will have notched yet another loss (Chip also pulls for Notre Dame). Let’s see, Notre Dame was preseason ranked where?
Can it get any worse?
Why yes, as a matter of fact, it can!
Dook gets to finally end it's losing streak when they play, er, beat Notre Dame on 11/17!
And Then . . . . Dook closes out it's season with yet another win. Against UNC on 11/24!
Oh well, there’s always basketball. Should be a cakewalk for UNC. But wait – hmmm – what is that stirring I hear over in West Raleigh? The ol Wolfpack may just have a surprise waiting out there for Tyler Hanscrybaby.
Well, that's enough. Getting too close to an unsportsmanlike penalty.
Actually State and Carolina are playing pretty darn well considering the shape their previous coaches left the programs. Both schools have excellent new coaches. Both schools have the opportunity to become places where some pretty serious football is played. It’s very possible that in a few short years, we’ll have UNC and NCSU regularly highly ranked and coming together to play late in the seasons with all sorts of ACC Championships and post season play on the line.
It’s gonna be great.
This week’s game and atmosphere is just the start of things to come.
Nuke'em is abandoning the Lord! [Street Apartments]
And moving back to Moncure.
I took the truck and trailer and made a one day trip down to Southport and back. Left home at 1000 and got back just as it was getting dark.
Jason is staying in St. James Plantation with his folks to tie up some loose ends and will be up next week.
He's got a job offer with an Oil exploration company. It's seismic exploration and rather high tech. The job will keep him in the field for 6 weeks and then off for 3 weeks. The postings are mostly overseas and the company will fly him to and from the States for his off weeks. His first assignment looks to be Algeria.
He's pretty excited. This sort of job appeals to him. Since he's spent his career up to now in the Army, it's nothing to him to pack up and head for some far off place. I think the sense of adventure and seeing exotic places appeals a lot to him. Plus, they are going to pay him some pretty decent $.
Since he'll be on assignment 2/3 of the time - it makes sense to quit the Southport apartment. So - he's moving back to base out of his apartment over the garage.
Even though it was 6+ hours driving today, it was broken up into 2 segments with loading and lunch in between. That made it seem more like 2 moderate drives. I'm a bit tired but not overly so.
Raccoons
As soon as I got home - mama raccoon showed up at the back door and demanded food. She now opens the screen door and lets it slam shut to call me out to fill up the food plate.
Getting ready to sit down and watch some college football.
Wolfpack
Listened to the first half of the State at Miami game on the way down. Listened to the 4th quarter and overtime on the drive back.
Exciting game.
State won 19 - 16 in overtime.
That makes 3 games in a row that we were supposed to lose but won.
Next Saturday (Sunday 11/4 Addendum)
UNC comes to Carter-Finley next Saturday - noon kickoff.
Both UNC and State are 'down' this year with losing conference and overall records. We both have brand new highly touted coached. Both fired alumni coaches last year.
Both teams won yesterday.
Both teams are starting to show some signs of life and the potential of better things to come. State should be favored - the first time this year (except for the Division II Wofford game).
Even though the game means nothing in the conference this year - or anywhere else for that matter - with the way both teams are suddenly starting to play a lot better - the anticipation and excitement is building.
I took a look at the on line ticket resale sites. Ticket prices for a game between teams with losing records are ridiculous. In the hundreds.
Carter-Finley will be rocking and intense.
Plans are to hook up with some friends for tailgating around 1000.
