An Italian Welcome

On the first night we were in Florence, way back in September when we were taking Caitie to drop her off at school, the three of us had dinner at a neighborhood trattoria called Brincello. Although many of the guests at the ten or so tables were foreigners, the staff was obviously Italian. They called out to each other loudly over the heads of the guests charming all of us that could not understand what they were saying about us. Caitie ate there with us a few times on our first visits to Florence and Mike and I ate there a few times on our own. Tonight we returned and were greeted like long lost family. How wonderful to have the waiters recognize us and wonder where we have been, hug us and give us the double cheek kisses. It was wonderful.

We leave on the 7:52 AM train tomorrow morning for Rome, to catch our flight to Barcelona at noon. We have enjoyed seeing Caitie, having a chance to visit with her and her friends, and will move on sadly but with the expectation that reunion is only two weeks away.

Tomorrow night I will write again from Spain.

Ciao,
Deanne

Contentment is wandering the streets of Florence with your daughter

We have spent yesterday and today enjoying our reunion with Caitie and with the city of Florence. When we arrived on Saturday evening after planes, trains and automobiles from Barcelona we were greeted at the hotel like family returning home. This is our third visit to this hotel, and each time we have stayed for a week or two so we know the staff and feel comfortable here. If any of you visit Florence we recommend the City Hotel, a reasonably priced hotel a few short blocks walking distance from the train station in one direction and the famous Duomo in the other. In exchange for the reasonable price and central location we put up with street noise and rules about not bringing food or drink into our room.

Caitie has moved in with us for a few days so that we can all see as much of each other as possible. We have a cozy room on the first floor (which of course means up a flight of stairs from the lobby which is on the ground floor) with both a queen and twin bed so that we can all stretch out. The bathroom looks like an afterthought. It is so narrow that you can literally stand in the center of the room and touch each of the side walls with your bent elbows. As you walk into this narrow room you first encounter the sink which is immediately followed by the toilet then the bidet and the back wall. The shower head is high up on the wall above the bidet. You stand beside the bidet to shower, pulling the shower curtain closed to keep the water from spraying the rest of the room. There is no shower floor, nor anything to mark the area as a shower except the shower head and the curtain the divides the room into two halves: that half that you stand in to shower and the other half that stays dry when the curtain is closed.

Caitie left us this morning at 8:30 to attend a class after staying up until 3:00 AM working on a paper due on Tuesday. She walked the two miles back into town from campus, returning at 12:30 so that we could all have lunch together. After lunch we set off to walk around the city on what was the most beautiful day we have ever been in Florence. We walked around downtown, across the Arno river and up into the hills where the wealthy live and where the homes of luminaries such as Michelangelo and DaVinci are located. There is a beautiful church up above the Piazza Michelangelo where we took photos looking across the city to her campus on the other side. The weather was spectacular and I will remember forever the beauty of that sight. It was great to have time to catch up with Caitie and hear all about her year away.

Mike and I served as editors and coaches as she worked on an essay due tomorrow. It was fun to be called into service to give her advice about the wording on this paper that describes one aspect of her experience while here in Florence. Not only were we impressed once again with the quality of her writing and her insights, but we had deja vu moments of when the three of us worked on reviewing her papers in high school.

Dinner tonight was in a smaller neighborhood trattoria. Many of the restaurants have fixed price menus in which you get a first course of soup or pasta, a second course of meat and a desert, complete with a bottle of water and a glass of wine. We had set off to eat at a familiar restaurant that offered such a dinner and ended up trying one around the corner from the hotel with that same type menu. Caitie and I had wonderful minestrone soup while Mike had spaghetti, then all three of us had grilled chicken breasts and a crème caramel that looked better than it tasted. We had a great time.

We are sitting on our respective beds now, Mike reading a novel, Caitie and I yping away at our computers. I think we are all very content and happy to be together. We are looking forward to our summer together in Seattle in just a few weeks.

Tomorrow Caitie heads back up to campus in the morning for class while Mike and I head over to the neighborhood Laventeria (Laundromat) for an overdue appointment. We are taking a bus up to campus to meet Caitie and four friends for lunch. It seems hard to believe that we will be leaving her to return to Spain on Wednesday morning.

Do you like the new photos?

So long,
Deanne

Ever finished a 14 day cruise with a bill for $216?

We paid for our cruise and our shore excursions in advance of the cruise. Once we were on board we started charging things like our daily bottle of wine with dinner, and occasional glass of wine at a nighttime show, the cover charge for the specialty Italian restaurant (once) and Johnny Rockets (Five times). We charged our internet time at the whopping rate of 55 cents per minute and our gratuities which came to over $200. While we were busy charging Royal Caribbean was busy giving us money back. We got our shore excursions money returned for the ports we missed, plus $100 consolation for each port to use for wine money to drown our sorrows or keep us from getting antsy. They returned $70 each for an oil surcharge that was returned. Apparently the cost of the cruise included port charges which were returned because we missed so many ports. All totaled, we walked off the ship with a charge of $216 against our credit card. It is like winning the at the slot machine.

We arrived into Barcelona last night at about 10:00 PM and they had arranged free shuttles to operate all night to take us into downtown. Mike and I had not been sleeping well so we passed on the entertainment (why start partying now off the boat after two weeks of lock down?) and went to bed early (no sleep for me AGAIN). Getting off the ship in Barcelona was the most efficient ever. The bags were orderly and organized and everything was very efficient. We were at the airport by 9:00 AM for our 2:00PM flight to Rome.

After sitting around the airport waiting for flights then finally flying to Rome we caught a train to Florence and met Caitie at our hotel at 8:00 PM for dinner at a neighborhood outdoor cafe. After a couple of Greek salads and a pizza we were still talking like crazy to catch up. We have four days to catch up and we don't want to miss any of it.

Tomorrow we are going Tuscany site seeing together for the day, then back to Florence for dinner with one of Caitie's roommates. Mike and I are having fun.

Free internet again.... life is good.
I will check in again tomorrow.
Deanne

Life Aboard the Misery of the Seas

I have decided that being retired gives you perspective. In the scheme of things, two weeks doesn’t make much of a difference. This trip has not been THAT bad. Sure, we didn’t get to get off the boat for 12 days, and we missed the opportunity to see those beautiful spots in Spain that we were so looking forward to, but on the other hand, it isn’t like they starved us or made us do dishes. You should hear the complaints flying around here. Apparently after the announcement last night that we were taking off at approximately 1:00 AM for Barcelona with no stops until we arrived set lots of people off. There was some sort of protest rally down on the promenade deck main street which is another reason why the large ships with those crowded areas are a bad idea.

Royal Caribbean has provided us with $100 per cabin credit for each of the two stops we have missed. Most of the charges on our account are for wine, so that $200 of credit has provided us with the wonderful benefit of free wine in exchange for lost stops. Maybe those people complaining only have two weeks of vacation and they feel ripped off that they had to spend the entire two weeks on board the ship, even if it was not very expensive and the wine was free! Although Mike and I aren’t bent out of shape, there are plenty of people that are, and when they get together the mass of people starts to growl.

After all those years of management consulting I learned a thing or two about customer service and I have to compliment our weary captain and the cruiseline for their handling of these problems. He has very professionally taken arrows for the problems and has fielded a complaint session in the largest theater. He has negotiated with headquarters and earned us a discount against a future cruise equal to 20% of the purchase price of this cruise (admittedly, that isn’t a big number given the price we paid).

The onboard staff is equally disappointed not to being making the stops but they are working hard to make sure we enjoy ourselves. They have rallied to design a ton of entertainment and games to keep us occupied when we would be walking around Saville and Malaga.

As the days at sea have progressed we have been setting the clock forward one hour every day to account for the time difference between EST and the time in Barcelona. For some odd reason, the time change occurs at 11:30 AM when we jump to 12:30 AM. This means that lunch comes immediately after breakfast unless you get up real early to eat. We have been skipping breakfast and eating lunch when we wake up. To save money on this cruise Mike and I took our usual inside cabin, so we sleep in a pitch black and very quiet room. This morning we slept in so late that we almost missed lunch. Take heart though, we didn’t miss it.

Royal #@$%^&* Caribbean

While I am in whining mode I may as well tell you all the things wrong with our bargain cruise. Keep in mind, we are on a 14 day cruise that we originally paid $899 each for, then found a cheaper price and got a $300 refund each, plus a $100 on-board credit each (Following the math means we ended up paying less than $500 each or $36 per day each for hotel, food and entertainment). As bargain shopping world travelers, this was an ideal deal. Our itinerary included a visit to Bermuda for an overnight and day, the Azores, Lisbon, Cadiz, Malaga and finally, Barcelona. We heard prior to departure that the stop in the Azores was cancelled without explanation. So, why the whine?

First of all- let me tell you about the Navigator of the Seas, one of the largest ships on the water. Part of Royal Caribbean’s new Independence class ships it holds 3500 passengers plus crew. It has a skating rink, a huge climbing wall and a promenade deck that looks like a street of shops and pubs. When it is empty I bet there are few ships to rival it for beauty and diversity in venues. But, when it is full of fellow bargain hunters it is like Wal-Mart on the day a going-out-of-business sale is announced. You have to wait for elevators then ride them fully packed, line up fifteen minutes before the doors open thirty-minutes prior to show-times to get seats for the ice shows, and walk hunched over your plate in the buffet line so that the crowd doesn’t knock it out of your hands or cough all over it. Our New Zealand cruise was aboard Rhapsody of the Seas, a smaller ship in the fleet and we thought it was wonderful. So, we have decided not to take the large ships again.

Second whine- On the trans-Atlantic cruises you spend quite a long time at sea. In our case, over half our 14 days involved no stops at all. Many people really enjoy this time, taking full advantage of the day time activities (climbing, skating, trivia, bingo, etc) and the evening activities (gambling, dancing, game shows). We don’t participate in any of these. We spend our time in more private pursuits like reading, walking, watching politics on the news (Mike is SOOO into this political season) . We treasure the shore days as breaks in the routine and a chance to see these exotic ports of call. Unfortunately yesterday as the ship was set to depart Lisbon the captain announced that we had broken a stabilizer (or if you are speaking in his Norwegian accent…stab a li zer.) The Portuguese authorities to whom this had been reported were not granting us to permission until it is fixed, so the captain was busy trying to figure out how to get a crew in to fix it. Every few hours we have had updates. First news… today’s stop in Cadiz/Seville was cancelled. Next news….we had to leave the Lisbon dock because another boat had it reserved so we were going out to float in the river and would apply for permission to anchor. After idling for a day in the river, next word was that we were granted to travel two hours away into the ocean where we were out of risk of the tides and could anchor. Then we had to wait for a barge and equipment to arrive so that the divers could make quick repairs to last until Barcelona. Oh, and the Malaga stop was cancelled. Next announcement…we will be traveling directly to Barcelona whenever we can go, and hopefully we will make it in time for connecting flights. This is our second cruise to involve damage to the ship. Our New Zealand cruise has a broken rudder which caused a skipped port made up by a $100 credit. No word on what the cruise lines will do to make up for the missed ports this time. Free cruise, anyone? With 3500 Wal-Mart shoppers.

Assuming we make it off the ship in Barcelona in time to reach the airport for our 2:00 flight to Rome, we will be on track for our reunion with Caitie in Florence on Saturday night. Keep your fingers crossed.

Now that I am in the swing of things again I will write tomorrow and let you know what happens to the marooned traveling gypsies floating around outside Lisbon.

Love, Deanne

American Airlines #@$%^&

Our post-Palm Springs itinerary started with a flight from Ontario airport to Fort Lauderdale right in the middle of the week in which American Airlines cancelled all of their MD-80 flights. They cancelled our flight to Dallas and it’s connecting flight to Fort Lauderdale, both conveniently scheduled for the Friday prior to our Saturday boarding. Reaching AA by phone was impossible, but they left us a voicemail telling us that they had rebooked us on an other flight which would get us to Fort Lauderdale only two hours after our ship leaves the port.

Trusting the statement on the American website which promised to refund the ticket prices for people that chose to abandon their cancelled flights, we booked ourselves on Southwest airlines and had an uneventful flight (truly the best kind) to thunderstorm ridden Nashville, then on to Fort Lauderdale. We are still waiting to hear whether the refund of our American tickets will come through. We already have heard that American will not reimburse us for the cost of the full fare Southwest tickets we were forced to buy at double the cost of our advance-fare, but cancelled American tickets. After a year of traveling (all of the air booked on American) this was the only time we had any problems with American (well, there was that time with the suspected terrorist on the plane that caused us a multi-hour delay at a NY airport). Let’s hope they come through with that refund.

Warm, Glorious Sun

Palm Springs was great. Every day was warm and sunny. The first week was in the 80’s, and the rest of the time it was in the 70’s. Imagine having a big home and swimming pool available to you in Palm Springs when the weather at home was still cold and snowy. We felt privileged. Our only firm commitment was to walk the dog. Lily, my mother’s little poodle/terrier mix was going through her own transition. Just a day before we arrived she and my mother moved from the family home into the Palm Springs house. The dog lost her yard, lost her owner when Mom left on her cruise and gained two vagabond retirees as her caretakers.

We developed a wonderful relationship with Lily. She slept with us, appreciated the walks we took her on and sat fetchingly at our feet whenever she needed to remind us of our responsibilities (feeding or walking her). She jumped to her feet every time I moved around the house on the hope that it was time for a walk, or if not that good, at least time to water the plants and bark at the hose. After a few days of handling her lunchtime walk Mike returned to the house and said that he had nicknamed this tiny little black dog with a more manly name. So, on and off for the rest of the stay we referred to her as “Spike”. When Mom checked in on our charge we sent a photo of Spike with her new collar, a tiny pink collar studded with spikes. A photo to follow.

So, what did we do during our stay? We tried to help with domestic chores to make Mom’s return to her new home go more smoothly. Her garage was stacked floor to rafters with big boxes that took about half the floor space. We had cabinets installed to hold the boxes, which required moving the boxes from the crowded side of the garage to the car side of the garage and back twice in order to measure the garage and order the cabinets then return the car (after having it tagged for parking outside our garage), then to install the cabinets. Somewhere in those moves I hurt my back, but just in time to put the boxes away in the newly installed cabinets my wonderful niece, Emily showed up for a visit. She recruited a strong friend to move the boxes and saved Mike’s aching shoulders and my hurt back. We installed software on Mom’s new computer and set up Outlook. We paid the bills and opened mail. We organized cupboards and bought and organized filing cabinets. The plants on the patio had expired so we bought and planted new ones.

Lest you think we spent all of our time working, let me tell you the flip side. We didn’t sleep in (the dog started her head-butting wake up calls at 7:30 if we were not already up and moving towards her first walk of the day) but we did have an afternoon nap most days. In order to keep the kitchen pristine we ate our meals out (good excuse, huh?). We became regulars at the wonderful neighborhood deli, Sherman’s. They started making Mike’s studio sandwich (turkey on rye with cole slaw and Russian dressing) and my oasis salad (huge salad with vegetables, chicken chunks, cut up dates and cornbread croutons) when they saw the three of us show up (yes, walking the the deli was a favorite for Spike, too, who was fond of the big basket of dog biscuits at the entrance to the outdoor patio). With a strong hint from great friend, Wendy C, we discovered Tyler’s sliders, these small, White Castle sized burgers. Served with grilled onions and catsup, these slid down just right. Then, of course, all former Californians have to visit In-N-Out when they return for a visit. It wasn’t gourmet but it sure tasted good.

One of the highlights of the stay was the Spring break visits of each of our student/hard-working sons and the loves in their life. Jonny and Megan arrived first. They visited a day then borrowed our car and headed out to Las Vegas for a few days. They returned just as Matt and Kassi arrived, so they had two days overlap with us before Jonny had to return to school. He received the news that his place of employment for the past two years, a fifties burger joint had burned to the ground while he was gone. His boss told him he is eligible for unemployment payments, so he left to figure out how all that was going to work. Matt and Kassi left when Jonny did in order to see Las Vegas. Finally Michael and Dana arrived. Unlike their younger brothers, they preferred the relaxed Palm Springs life to Las Vegas, so they stayed and visited with us. We are so proud of these three guys and enjoyed every minute we had to spend with them.

When it was time to leave Palm Springs we were sad to say goodbye to Spike. Next year we have a repeat engagement as dog sitters so Spike will see us again. In-N-Out….we will be baaack!

Blog Blahs

I apologize. In fact, I beg forgiveness from those of you who have been so complementary of our blog. Can you see me groveling? I have been overtaken with a bad case of the blog blahs. In fact, even the pleading message from my good friend Samm begging to know whether we were alive and well wasn’t enough to get me onto the keyboard. Please forgive me. I wake up in the morning thinking it is about time I got caught up, then it hits me that this is like a job and I lose motivation. The delayed gratification of your compliments just wasn’t enough to get me moving. But I am in gear again…so here goes.

In order to make it readable, I am breaking up the review of the past month into pieces. I hope you enjoy.
Deanne

Greetings from on-board the navigator of the seas

We are alive and well for those of you wondering about us. The incredibly expensive computer time has deterred us from writing, but we will go for it anyway. I have a few minutes of free time to let you know we are alive, but will write again soon. Love, Deanne

Good Bye Palm Springs

We're out of here!!! Friday April 11th we hit the air, oceans and roads once again. Our stay at Palm Springs was great with outstanding weather, fantastic deli's ( Sherman's and Manhattan) famous In and Out Burgers and a new favorite Tylers for Sliders. For those of you in Upstate New York they are akin but will never be as good as Jack's in Albia burgers. Sliders are 1.5 once little burgers served with grilled onions on a diner roll. They are excellent. Recommend with onions and ketchup only. We spent a lot of time taking care of Lily the wonder-dog a combination Schnauzer-poodle who at first was very leary of the out of towners. She was kind of prissy and afrais of other dogs so we bought here a spike collar and re-named her Spike, of course!! Now when we take her to the dog playground other little dogs cower in fear:) She gets four walks a day and we were hitting upwards of 5 miles per day sometimes so Spike was pretty tired at times. But she is in great shape and helped us walk off the huge deli sandwiches and burgers. No ice cream exceot for one enormous apple pie ala mode when our son Mike and his wife camt to visit. We also had Matt and his wonderful new girlfriend Kassi and Jonny and his fabulous girlfriend Megan. Last but certainly not least was Deanne's niece Emily and
her friends from college. They were all very welcome and brought that great youthful energy to the house and demo'd the beer and liquor closet:) We have a lot of errands to run this week in preparation for our transatlantic cruise. Our first stop is Bermuda and Deanne will be getting back to her photos and blogging. Our great tenants at our houseboat have had a change in career responsibilities and will not be staying in Seattle. If you know of anyone who is interested in renting a fabulous houseboat at the end of the dock with astounding views of downtown Seattle, Queen Anne and the channel let me know. It is for a year beginning in September. We have to assign it to a realtor when we return so the person who rents thru us will get a great deal!! It is time to take Spike for her mid day walk, also the hottest,
and then off to lens crafters. We will be writing from Bermuda soon. Life is short enjoy every moment!!

Ciao
Mike