vacation – From My Corner of the Universe

Cozumel

November 8, 2022

Our last stop on the cruise was Cozumel. We sat by the beach, was served lunch, and relaxed. It was a nice end to our cruise. The water wasn’t as clear as we had expected, but we were still able to go in and swim.

This is the view of the ship docking. The lamps were still on because it was still pretty early in the morning. I wanted to see the sunrise and watch the docking, so while husband was still sleeping, I got up and made my way to the top floor. I realized I could only either watch the sunrise or the docking because the sunrise was on one side and the docking was on the other. I decided to watch the docking.

Once we got off the ship, we took a short bus ride to the beach resort and found a nice spot right by the water. In the photo, husband and I were in the water taking a photo of where we sat. I believe the third or fourth umbrella in the front there (right to left) was ours.

Here’s the view directly in front of where we sat. That’s an inflatable water slide. I believe you have to get on a jet ski to get over to it. We didn’t bother with that. It was nice relaxing by the water and that’s all we really wanted.

We had a great time on this cruise. The cruise members were super friendly and the food was pretty good. The best part, of course, was just getting away from the every day and relaxing.

One thing I always enjoy about cruising is how beautiful the cruise ships are. When we arrived at the Cozumel port, two Carnival ships also arrived. Husband and I were having breakfast when we saw the two ships.

We ate quickly and went to the top floor because I knew they were going to have to “spin” and I wanted to capture it. The first boat pulled in bow first but the second one spun around.

This was probably the most exciting part of our vacation for me…lol.

We’d love to go on another cruise next year. We don’t have anything set in stone yet but we’d really love to go again.

Costa Maya

October 25, 2022

Our second day on the cruise, we arrived in Costa Maya. We took the tour to see the Mayan Ruins. It was a one hour bus ride to the location and then about an hour walking around the ruins and listening to our tour guide.

We had a pretty large group of people on our tour but there were other tour groups there as well. The people in the photo were all from our group. Behind me was another tour group waiting for their turn.

Our tour guide said areas like this with overgrown trees on top of rocks were Mayan pyramids that have not been excavated but will be.

It was extremely humid on the tour. We were told that it was rain season and that it had just rained and that it was going to rain again. The roads were dry so it was hard to tell but there were moments when rain misted.

I learned so much about the Mayan people on this tour. Our tour guide was Mayan and it was interesting when he spoke Mayan to us. It sounded like he was speaking Chinese. He said the Mayans migrated from China and that’s why their language was very similar.

Costa Maya was enjoyable, aside from the humidity.

Port of Galveston

October 21, 2022

The cruise we took in late July was out of Port of Galveston in Galveston, TX. We stayed at the Harbor House Hotel which was walking distance to the cruise check-in building. We were at the hotel for one night and had time to eat at two restaurants, watch an oil tanker come through the waterway, and watch the sunset with the cutest tugboat in the view.

View from our hotel room. We ate lunch at the restaurant in the building behind the bus.

The view during dinner at a restaurant that was walking distance from the hotel.

Watched an oil tanker as it came through and docked.

Sunset. This little tug boat looked much bigger in person.

Embarking the Royal Caribbean Grandeur of the Seas.

At our muster station. We were required to simply go to our station before the ship left the dock. Someone was there to scan our card and then we were done. We watched the rest of the drill information on our phones. It was very simple and quick compared to pre-COVID (on a different cruise line).

Main pool area with the movie screen in view. During cruising out at sea, they played “Dune” and “King Richard.”

Going toward Costa Maya, Mexico. We were out at sea for one full day before arrival. You can see all the oil tankers waiting to come into port. We counted over 20 tankers. Most of them were not in view.

More photos to come…

July’s 2022 Playlist

August 1, 2022

The last couple of weeks in July, husband and I took a cruise vacation to Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico. It was a really nice and relaxing vacation. When we returned, we took a road trip to Silverton, CO, which is 6 hours from where we live. I’ll be sharing photos soon. Right now, let’s check out my playlist.

I’ve been editing a novel for Camp NaNoWriMo for July and am happy to say, I completed it! I was worried I wouldn’t be able to hit my word count because of the vacation and all but I did it. During the editing, I listened to the playlist I made for the novel but I also had Pandora.com on and listened to a lot of Enigma and Sarah Brightman. One song in particular came on and brought back memories of a dance I taught a few students at Catechism some fifteen or twenty years ago. This was the song:

The dance was only about 2 minutes long so the song was cropped just enough to fit. For some reason, I don’t now where that cropped version is. I wouldn’t be able to share it but I wanted to listen to it.

Often I’ll listen to epic compilations as background music and the one below (over an hour and a half long) was really nice. I was editing the sci-fi cyborg novel so the music really didn’t fit but for some reason just having the music low as “white noise” really got me going. I was able to edit over 60K words. My goal was 50K.

If you’re a writer, do you like having music in the background or do you write without any music/noise?

Steamboat Springs Weekend Trip

November 18, 2021

Last weekend, our oldest daughter was celebrating her two-year anniversary with her boyfriend in Steamboat Springs and we needed to get some Christmas photos for the year so we decided to join them up there. They had gone up before we did and stayed in a B&B. We stayed at a La Quinta about five minutes from them.

The drive to Steamboat was about four hours. There was a bit of snow as we approached the Eisenhower Tunnel.

Down the other side of the tunnel is steep and curvy. I’ve been down this road many times but each time, I’m always so nervous.

When we got closer to Steamboat, it snowed.

A few minutes before reaching Steamboat, the snow stopped and disappeared.

Where we stayed.

The view from the back window of our hotel room.

We didn’t have time to do too many things. Our one full day there, we had breakfast with our daughter and her boyfriend, and took photos. Then, they went their way, and we went ours. Husband, our youngest daughter, and I went to a hot springs which husband and I loved, but daughter didn’t so much. The sulfur was too strong for her. The sulfur started to burn my eyes eventually so we left. We had lunch and then went to watch Eternals at a really small theater (it’s really small compared to the AMC near our home, but not nearly as small as the one in Craig when I went with our daughters some years ago). Daughter and I liked Eternals. Husband thought it was too long.

It was a nice little getaway to a small ski town. Everyone was friendly and the view was beautiful and peaceful.

Chasing the Northern Lights

November 9, 2021

The day before Halloween, husband, our youngest, and I went on a road trip to Wyoming to see if we could get a good view of the Northern Lights. From what we learned, the massive solar flare would glow far enough to reach parts of Colorado. We thought we’d go further north for a better chance at seeing it.

It was a four hour drive, which wasn’t bad. The main road was straight and flat, which made the trip easy. A few years ago, it took us at least five hours to get to Ouray, Colorado, but we went through twisty roads and mountains which made the ride longer. Husband and I have been to Wyoming before. We went to Jackson Hole in Teton National Park to see Dr. Wayne Dyer at a speaking event. That was so long ago, and we didn’t stay very long either. It was also on the west side of Wyoming. This time we went straight north.

We stayed at a Holiday Inn in Casper where our daughter did homework while husband and I watched some T.V., and stepped out a few times to see if we could see the northern lights.

Unfortunately, we were not able to see the Northern Lights. We checked between 8pm and 10:30pm with no luck. It was just way too cloudy.

The next morning, we headed home. The car was slightly iced over. It was pretty cold. The roads were wet but not icy, although smaller roads might have been icy. It snowed part way while we were on the road.

The view above was in front of the hotel. There was nothing in Casper. I’m not sure if it’s all farm land, but there was a lot of empty land for miles and miles.

Even though we didn’t get to see the Northern Lights, this short road trip was well-needed. For some reason, I felt as though I could breathe better in Wyoming. I was also extremely relaxed. We stopped in Cheyenne on our way home for lunch and I fell in love with that city. I’d visit it again and stay a little longer. It’s not quite a small town. It’s a city, but a tiny cute one.

Unboxing Video: Travel Kit

July 9, 2021

I uploaded the Travel Kit by Ali Edwards on my Youtube a couple of days ago. I had planned to share some layouts using the kit with the video, but I just don’t have the time at the moment. I’ll probably work on the layouts in the next few weeks. Here is the unboxing video if you’re into scrapbooking kits.

Vacation Photos Continued: Hotel and Japanese Tea Garden

July 8, 2021

Above is a view of the coast when we drove down to Big Sur. We pretty much ended up in the town/camping grounds of Big Sur and didn’t get much of the rocky coast so we returned to San Fran.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency. It was an excellent hotel. The kids loved everything about it.

View out the window of our room. We could see the Bay Bridge, which was a nice surprise.

Same view during the night.

View out the window of our floor’s hallway.

We also saw the Mozilla Firefox building as we drove to one of our destinations. I thought it was way cool because I use Firefox as my browser.

On the day we returned home, we had some time in the morning so we went to check out the Japanese Tea Garden. It was beautiful! We ate at the deli inside the garden. The Matcha cheesecake and Jasmine tea were delicious! It was the perfect ending to our trip.

Golden Gate Bridge and Beach Photos

July 7, 2021

The family weekend vacation to San Francisco was a lot of fun. We only went for the weekend, but it was enough. We ate at a pho restaurant, hot pot place, a pizza place, and In-and-Out Burger. We drove down the coast to Big Sur and spent a few minutes at Montara Beach just soaking our feet in the Pacific Ocean water. The kids (teenagers now, of course) got a little soaked when the waves came in a little further than expected. There was another beach along the way where we heard, later that evening on the news, a surfer was bitten by a baby shark. We almost considered going to that beach but it was closed when we passed it (due to the incident as we learned later) on our way to Montara. The weather during our stay was cloudy, but the sun did show up for a few hours.

Road Trip: Grand Canyon National Park, Etc.

August 7, 2019

The family took a one week road trip last week to Grand Canyon National Park. We drove south to New Mexico then headed west to Williams, AZ where we stayed for a couple of nights. We drove an hour out to the Grand Canyons then took the buses along the canyons for the breathtaking scenes.

On the morning of our third day, we headed to Page, Utah where we had hoped to tour Antelope Canyon but they were all booked so we decided to drive across Glen Canyon Dam and check out Lake Powell. We met a friendly French family who were on vacation. We stayed one night in Page then headed out the next morning. Our goal was to go straight to Grand Junction, CO but decided to take a detour to the four corners (where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado meet). The idea came from our youngest. She was napping when we took the detour. We wanted to surprise her but she heard us talking and woke up to help us with directions because husband’s Google Maps was acting up.

At the Four Corners, one of the Navajo’s selling memorabilia explained that the sellers in the New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah corners were all Navajoes while the sellers in the Colorado corner were Utes. I wanted more history from him but I felt guilty because I didn’t buy anything from him. I did thank him for the bit of information.

Grand Junction was our resting place before the drive home. Husband and I wanted to surprise our oldest by going to an alpaca farm. She had no idea and loved it. We also wanted to pick peaches but it was still too early in the year for the public picking. We ended up buying their stock peaches. We did pick cherries though. Husband picked them because all the cherries were at the very top and he needed a ladder to get up there.