2017 Revisit to Hawaii

We got back from our Granddaughter's wedding in the middle of May and spent the summer at home. Bob was finishing installing the siding on the house

Before the start of this trip, my husband Bob fell off the porch roof of the house. He had finished installing the new siding

He had the hose up there to wash the roof. The ER said that he did not break anything, but I considered canceling the trip. I decided that instead I would call him every night at 7 pm his time and if he did not answer, I'd call someone to go check on him.

A week before the trip, I shipped my mobility scooter to the hotel in San Pedro (by UPS), and the day after that FedEx picked up my large suitcase from the house to take directly to the ship. I thought this would make it easier to get to the ship

October 21, 2017 The St. Mary's County Oyster Festival.

It was so nice to see everyone at the Oyster Festival. I really enjoyed that. Barb's friend Davey competed in the Amateur division

Amateur shuckers - first heat

Barb, Rob and Barb's friend Davey

He would have been at least second place but he did not know that one of the oysters he picked was dead and he was docked a number of points for that.

Seth took a photo of all of us - three of my children (Rob, Barb and Deb) Barb's husband Jim, Deb's husband Dave and two of Deb's sons - Mike drove down from Vermont and Matthew brought his friend Matthew.

Barb, Rob, Mike, me DEB, Dave, Matthew, Matthew and Jim

October 22, 2017

I woke up early and got packed. Polly (my friend of 40 years who was going with me) called and said she was going to a soccer game at 2:30 and would be here about 3:30.

Bob mowed the lawn. I did the last minute things on the computer.

I went downstairs - my little overnight bag was all packed about 3. She did not arrive until 6 pm (after several phone calls). She said she went back to her house 5 times. I started using the phone GPS when we got up to Bowie. We stopped at Boston Market to get some food, and got up there about 8. They've upgraded us to a suite which means there is a separate sitting room with a desk. Not the kind of suite we had before with an actual dining room. Breakfast starts at 6. I have a wake-up call set for 6 and we will get the 6:50 shuttle to the airport. Our flight is 8:35

Polly has rearranged her packing and is going down to re park the car in the appropriate place and bring back cookies for dessert. We kept the luggage cart.

Wake-up call at the hotel in Linthicum 6 am. Downstairs at 6:25. Hot breakfast.

part of the breakfast area

After we straightened out the parking information with the hotel (they allow a week free but we are going to be gone more than a week), Polly parked in a handicapped space next to the entrance.

Got the shuttle to the airport at 6:50. Got the luggage to the luggage person and I got a wheelchair - so did Polly. The wheelchair guy pushed both wheelchairs through security. I stayed in my wheelchair and just put the stuff in the trays. Polly walked through the magnetic doorway. She had to take off her shoes as they have upped that age where you can keep your shoes to 75.

Got to the gate as they were boarding 8:05 I knew Polly wanted the window (which I also like) so I took an aisle seat. That meant I didn't get many photos from the plane. Actually only one.

Trying to take a selfie in the airplane bathroom

The lady in the middle seat was from Solomons and had not flown before and had never been to California She was going to California for work. The flight attendants were men in the front and they took good care of us.

Southwest cabin crew

I got a wheel chair right away, and Polly took one too but there was no one to push so she pushed it with her stuff on the seat. They took that wheelchair away from her as they said she could not transport luggage in a wheelchair. Because of construction at the airport, the wheelchair journey was quite long to get to the luggage claim. We actually had to go outside to get there. There the lady that had been pushing us turned us over to a lady named Nemah. She was most insistent that we know her name.

Nemah

Polly got the three bags off the carousel and Nemah and Polly pushed the bags to the Super Shuttle stop.

It was very hot. Nemah wanted to take the wheelchair but I said I could not stand and couldn't sit on my cane for 15 minutes so the Super shuttle lady let me sit in her chair. The shuttle picked up pax along the way - a man from Australia who was flying home, two women who were coming home to LA, and Polly and me. It cost about $35

We got to the hotel about 2;30 and they said our room was not ready yet. So we got a free shuttle to a restaurant as their restaurant was not open for lunch. All there was was a vending machine type place.

Pete's Bodega - available food for lunch

The first restaurant we went to was closed Monday. So we went to Rex's Cafe which was closing in 5 minutes. But they stayed open for us. I had a chicken salad wrap and some fruit. ($9.25) I ate the fruit and took half the salad wrap back to the room for later. The heat took some of my appetite

my lunch

We had left the luggage behind the desk for them to take to our room and they called me on my phone and said that they couldn't find the scooter - that it had not come. I said it got there Friday. Then I happened to think - they weren't looking for a suitcase - they were looking for a scooter. So I called them back and they had figured it out.

hall of the hotel

The hall to the elevator was very dark at our end and the hall was not A/C

hotel room

We went to our room and unpacked the scooter. Polly was disappointed in our room because we were looking at the parking lot instead of the marina,

marina from hotel

So we went out after a bit. Polly found the exercise room.

Polly exercising

exercise room in the hotel

and we found the pools

small pool with lift

But we couldn't figure out how to get down to where the marina was. One of the hotel employees showed us the accessible way

The marina is huge - on Google maps it looks like it is several marinas and yacht clubs. I thought we might be able to eat dinner at one, but they didn't appear to have restaurants attached.

We saw the signs about the free trolley, but apparently it only runs on weekends or during the summer

BY that time it was time for happy hour

sign about happy hour

and Polly had a glass of wine $4.00 and we shared a cheese quesadilla $4.00 and I had a sundae (which was huge-and good).

Sundae at the bar

Originally I thought the cruise was going to leave from San Diego which would have been great as I have never been there.

I've never been to San Pedro either, but it isn't as much of a tourist destination. So I researched. I found that there was a trolley that stopped at the hotel which would go down to the waterfront, which I thought would be one thing I could do. I also like to take photos of lighthouses, and there were at least two that I thought I could see in San Pedro. One, the Point Fermin Lighthouse was fairly close to the hotel, and the Angels Gate Lighthouse in Los Angeles harbor. The Angels Gate Lighthouse would probably be best viewed from a boat, so when I called the hotel (to ask about shipping my scooter), I asked about harbor tours and they gave me three names (and also gave me the bad news about the trolley). I looked up all of the names she gave me. There was only one that we could take during the week. I also thought I might visit the Maritime Museum.

My goals for the day:
Point Fermin Lighthouse
Harbor Tour
Lunch
Cabrillo Marine Museum

Since yesterday was such a long day, I slept until I felt like waking up this morning. I left my watch on Eastern time, so it was about 10:00 Eastern time when I got up. Not really so late as it would only be 7:00 in California.

I went to take a shower and it took me at least 15 minutes to figure out how to get the hand held shower to work and I never did really figure out how to adjust the temperature. Polly left me some stuff to put on my skin and my hair (Polly owns a hair salon and she has been cutting and styling my hair since 1974) and I got them mixed up and put the skin stuff on my hair. But I was wearing a hat so I guess it wasn't really important.

In the meantime, Polly went to breakfast - you could either have a continental breakfast for $10 or a full breakfast for $16.00. She got the continental breakfast, and she brought me back a banana and some cranberry juice. I really don't like paying for breakfast at a hotel when so many of the cheaper hotels have it for free. I had expected to have to pay for the internet here, but I didn't unless I wanted premium service.

When I got down to the lobby, Polly was talking to a man with a cowboy hat and a white goatee who turned out to be a Teamsters rep who was there for contract negotiations - the meetings were being held in the hotel. I saw a guy in the hotel uniform with a headpiece like the order taker in a drive through and I went over to ask him about going to the Point Fermin lighthouse and taking a harbor tour. He turned out to be the shuttle driver. So he put the scooter in the van and we set off.

shuttle van driver - polly's phone

First we drove toward the lighthouse. The van driver took us on a tour of some of the parts of San Pedro on the way to it.

We saw the statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. He is now remembered as the first European to travel the California coast,

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo Statue

.. and many parks, schools, buildings and streets in California bear his name. Noteably in San Pedro, there is Cabrillo Beach and the Cabrillo Marine Museum.

And then we saw the statue of Stephen M. White. As a U. S. Senator, White led the campaign in Congress to make San Pedro a major harbor. A deep-water harbor was constructed in San Pedro with federal funds as a result of White’s determined efforts. The figure is described as follows:

Stephen M. White statue at the entrance to Cabrillo Beach off Stephen M. White Drive

The subject is a stubby man, comfortably overweight, in the fashion of his time, with a Ulysses S. Grant beard. He wears an ill-cut suit with a frock coat and trousers that hang low at his heel and break twice at the ankle.
“His coat is open to show an unkempt six–button vest. His bow tie is askew against a wing collar. The whole impression is that of a man who has slept on a bus.

“His left thumb is stuck in a pocket. His right arm is raised and extended in what is probably meant to be a visionary gesture.

The original statue designed by a deaf and mute artist, Douglas Tilden was originally in Los Angeles, but was moved to San Pedro in Feb 23, 1989

Sign in the park

The lighthouse turned out to be in the trees

Point Fermin Lighthouse from the parking lot

so I couldn't see it clearly but Polly got out and went running off with her phone to take photos of it. She got some good photos, but they are all movies and my computer didn't recognize her phone. As you can see, I eventually figured it out.

Park around San Fermin lighthouse

Point Fermin Lighthouse

Point Fermin Lighthouse

Polly's view of the van when returning from Port Fermin Lighthouse

After she emerged from the park, he drove us down to Ports of Call which seems to be a whole conglomeration of restaurants with at least three places where you can get a boat tour. I had decided against going to Catalina, and Spirit Tours only runs on the weekend, but I couldn't remember the name of the other harbor tour company. We got to Spirit Tours first, but the van guy drove a little farther and then I saw that it was a place with the memorable name of L.A. Waterfront Sportfishing & Cruises. We heard a girl on the loudspeaker saying that the tour left in 45 minutes. I tipped the van driver $10.00

Tour boat from the ticket office

We found the boat and were told to go back to the green building to get a ticket. After we identified the green building,

Green building

we went in and they said that they needed 5 people to go out and do the harbor tour but that so far we were the only two. I asked if I could pay the senior rate ($10.00) for the other three people if there were not enough to go.

Tour prices

Squid hats for sale in the office

Polly paid for our tickets and we waited to see if I needed to buy three more. The captain (T.J.) came in and we discussed what we could see if we were the only two people. He said he had changed from sports fishing to tours because his daughter was tired of him being out all night. Before the time to leave, four other people showed up and so I didn't have to pay extra.

There were ramps to get onto the boat which I thought the scooter could do, so I gave the captain the tickets and he followed me down - I guess to see that I made it and didn't fall off the dock. At the bottom of the ramp down to the dock he said there was a dip to the left (which I saw) and I should lean right which I was already doing. Then the ramp up to the boat he pushed a little, but it was no strain.

Inside of the harbor tour boat

It was very hot (I heard 105 F) and the benches that had been in the sun were too hot to sit on. I left the scooter and went up on the deck.

top of the hill

Original Port building

Aid to Navigation

fuel sign in the harbor

cranes

harbor jetties

It was a nice tour and very informative. I got some photos of the Angels Gate Los Angeles Lighthouse

Angels Gate Lighthouse

and the sea lions on the green buoy.

Most of the rest of my photos weren't that good because I was too close to things and too low to the water, but getting to know the harbor layout gave me the information I needed to take photos from the cruise ship the next afternoon.

Tugboat

Los Angeles Maritime Museum

Fireboat house

Prison tower

Exercise yard - Minimum security prison

Coast Guard commanders house

Buoys waiting to be deployed by the buoy tender

I went inside as my back was hurting and tried to lie down but the benches were too narrow. But it was cooler out of the sun

We got off the boat and went to look for a place to eat since the hotel restaurant is not open for lunch. We walked all around the docks, and saw some people trying to rescue this mouse. But I think he was beyond help.

dying mouse

Most of the restaurants were open air which of course meant no A/C.

Crazy Crab restaurant

Eventually I asked a security guard and he said the Fish Market would be air conditioned (World Famous San Pedro Fish Market & Restaurant). (This restaurant may have closed)

World Famous San Pedro Fish Market and Restaurant - from the land side

It was inside and cooler but their A/C was not really working. But it was cool enough. I had a salad with about 8 large shrimp on top (with cocktail sauce).

Shrimp salad

Polly wanted to know if we should try to go to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum (which we saw from the water), but I felt I had really done enough and could skip that.

After we ate we called for the guy to pick us up and were told it would be a wait. Polly asked if he could call us and we would stay seated inside, but eventually I decided to go out and we found a place to sit in the shade.

children's rides where we waited for the shuttle

He came not long after that but he had a flat tire. We told him he could go to the gas station and get the tire blown up before he need to take us to the hotel. (The van had A/C.) So he drove to a Sinclair station. Apparently this is one of the few remaining Sinclair stations in the world, but we didn't know that, so we didn't take a photo.

We got back to the hotel and cranked up the A/C (which is done with a remote). I did email and stuff on the computer for awhile and also plugged the scooter in - Polly plugged in the scooter end, but forgot to plug in the other end. She went down for a swim but she said there were too many kids in the pool.

We were to meet George (the travel agent who arranged the group cruise) at 5, so we went down to the lobby. We met George (I had never met him - only on the internet, and I used a different travel agent for cruises until last year when the travel agent I had been using died) and got our group T-shirts and lanyards and talked to people.

Polly wanted to use the ATM to get money because she did not realize that she would not really need a lot of money on the ship.

Polly on her phone

So she did that and then the group decided to take a hotel van over to the 22nd Street Landing restaurant that we tried to go to on Monday for lunch. Since it was now Tuesday, it would be open. It takes a long time to get that many people organized and it was two van loads. The van driver told us that we should get the lobster bisque, and the one of the seafood dishes that was special to the restaurant (I don't remember what it was).

The restaurant was hot - the A/C wasn't on or wasn't working well - the doors to the deck were open.

It took a long time to get drinks and then a long time to get orders taken and get food. We didn't leave the restaurant until after nine. I did get a cup of lobster bisque ($5)

Lobster Bisque

and the Chef's Special which was grilled salmon over saffron risotto with asparagus ($23)

Salmon

The lady sitting next to me was having a hard time with the heat and the waitress came and got Polly to help her. (the other lady at the table other than George's wife Becca was also using a scooter). Polly came back and collected her purse and phone.

We got back here to the hotel, and I just went to bed.

We don't have to check out of the hotel until noon. I got up and wrote up the previous day (because I expected - correctly - that the internet on the ship would be crappy) and showered and finished packing. I decided that I did not want to check the scooter bag without the scooter in it, as I was afraid it would be crushed by heavier luggage. I did not want to check the scooter and use a wheelchair because then I would be without a way to get around the ship until the baggage was delivered. So I put all the carry-on items into the scooter bag - my computer bag went in there and all the other miscellaneous things. I went down to the lobby with the scooter bag and Polly ferried the other bags down. We spent some time in the lobby talking to the people who had come down from Vancouver on our ship on the previous cruise.

We were scheduled to go on the 12:30 shuttle, but we went early. The baggage guy at the curb tried to make us check the scooter bag, but we (mostly Polly) resisted. We went to check in - the people at the door said we would have to check the scooter bag because it was too big to go thorough the scanner. But we did not. We kept the bag. First they gave us our cards (blue for Polly as a first time on Princess and gold for me with one previous Princess cruise). There was a lady there in a wheelchair and from overheard conversation it seems as if she did not have a passport even though her travel agent to her to get one. Since the only foreign port we are visiting is in Mexico, she may still be OK to travel.

Next they send us through security. Polly and I got separated here because she had the scooter bag and as I was on the scooter I had to go be patted down separately. Polly got the scooter bag through security - it was not too big. Then we went to another desk to have our photos taken. After that we could get on. The large brown bag that I shipped FedEx through Princess was outside the door of the room. We unpacked the scooter bag and I stored it under my bed and we hung up my dresses that were in the brown bag.

Our room is set up a little differently than most. Instead of a hall with the closets on one side and the bathroom on the other, there is a side hall with the closets and bathroom off of it.

From the door-side hall to bathroom on the left - shows the TV, and under it the cabinet with a refrigerator, and also the chair and table.

The bathroom is quite small. I can sit on the toilet and get my toothbrush and brush my teeth while sitting there.

bathroom from the toilet - shower reflected in the mirror

But the are are lots of nice shelves and plenty of space to put things on the counter.

Toilet and shower

The shower is on the other side of the toilet and is just big enough to stand in. I was supposed to have a stool to sit on, but the shower head is not detachable and there would be no room for a chair there. The closets are big and have plenty of hangers. This picture was taken when we were still partly unpacked.

The room steward came to see us. Polly had gotten a drink of water out of the water bottle where you have to pay for it in spite of the fact that I warned her not to. I asked the steward to take away a chair and the little table. He took the table, but put the chair in the closet. Polly insisted on keeping the blue chair which made it very very difficult to turn the scooter around.

Dresser with the TV reflected

This also shows the phone and the hairdryer, and the scooter charger is on the desk.

Beds and night tables. The night tables had lamps and drawers

We have an obstructed view cabin - we can see what is outside past the lifeboats that are hanging outside our window.

View past the lifeboats

We tried to eat lunch in the Amalfi dining room but we were too late because it took us too long to get the elevator down to it, so we went up to the Lido. Here someone came to help me and I lost Polly (temporarily). I got a croque monseiur, a meatball, a piece of roast beef and a blintz with blueberry jam.

We had to go to the safety drill at 3:30 which lasted quite a long time. I called Bob after the drill. I heard a lot of static.

We went up with George's group for the sail away (all of us wearing our blue group shirts)

Group at Sail-away in our group shirts

I took a lot of photos of the harbor

bridge

Welcome tower

Original harbor building

Cranes and jetty

tug and cargo ship

pilot boat

And pictures of the boat we took the tour on yesterday.

Harbor tour boat

Including a police boat which was doing wifferdills behind the ship

Police boat

and I got a better picture of the lighthouse

Angels Gate Lighthouse

Angels Gate Lighthouse

I also got some better photos of things like the Iowa,

USS Iowa

and the Coast Guard cutters

Coast guard cutter

CG buoy tender

I even got a photo of Point Fermin

Point Fermin

Then we went to dinner - we were late. They assigned us to Amalfi dining room. This is a terrible dining room for anyone with a wheelchair or scooter. The dining room is in the stern and only two elevators go down to it. If you can walk down the stairs it isn't a problem but if you can't, it is.

I had pina colada soup (which came in a glass) and Polly had the red snapper

Pineapple pina colada soup

Red snapper mojito cerviche

and roast pork. I couldn't eat all the pork but it was good.

Hawaiian Luau Pork

I had chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. This was chocolate ice cream with chips in it. Polly had the Pineapple brulee which was on the Anytime menu and it must have been good because she had it again the next night

pineapple creme brulee

When I returned to our room on the 25th, the rest of the suitcases had been delivered, but we did not have the Princess Patter yet. This is the plan of the day for the next day. So I called Guest Services about it and also because there was a message on the phone with a flashing light and I could not figure out how to turn the flashing light off (just listening to it did not work) They said it was 9#9 to erase the message light and they also told me that the Princess Patter would be delivered between 9 and 10 each evening.

I looked at the TV before I went to bed, but they had not updated the ship time -- it said it was 11:00 even at 5 in the morning and the ship on the display never left the harbor.

We were too tired to finish unpacking so we just went to bed.

October 26
I saw that breakfast was 7-9 in the Portafino Dining room. So Polly and I got up and went. I asked the matre-d there if we couldn't switch to dining in the Portafino Dining Room because of the problems getting to the Amalfi dining room with a scooter. And said he would see to it and we would get a note in our room about what table.

Breakfast Oct 26 - scrambled eggs with asparagus and creamed potatoes

They did give me cranberry juice even though it was not on the menu. A tiny glass.

After breakfast we had a meeting with George at 10:30 in the Amalfi Dining room

which meant that I missed the Cruise Critics meeting at 11:00. He collected our biography/menu pages that he had us make and explained something about how the travel agents worked. Then we had a group photo taken - on deck 7 and I had a real problem getting an elevator, but I did get there. I lost Polly, but she got there too.

I'm on the far left, Lori with the pink hair is next to me. Becca, George's wife is on the far right - white shorts and yellow lei. George is in the back center in the blue lei, and Polly is in front of him on the right-you can just see her face

Then we went to lunch. Lunch has an option for Brunch with some breakfast items including James Beard's French Toast which I had on the previous Princess cruise and is very good but I did not get that this time.

There was also an Anytime burger menu.

I had the mozzarella and tomato starter (which I would have called "Caprese salad"

Carbonaro style rigatoni with Italian bacon

and a second appetizer sized rigatoni. Getting it appetizer sized means that it is a smaller amount. Then I had blueberry frozen yogurt for dessert.

We did get a notice that we were now early dining in Portafino dining room. Polly went the naturalist's lecture,

and then to a thing at the spa and was there all afternoon. I finished unpacking, and found the chock for the door. I have not figured out how to turn the scooter around. So I put it into free wheeling and turn it around manually. But with the chock, I can get in and out by myself. Part of George's package was magnetic door signs so I can tell when I get to the room and he also gave us a lanyard and punched a hole in the room key card so it could be attached to the lanyard. Polly was not back by 4:45 and I was ready to leave, so I left a note in the door. She had the note that said what table we were to be at, but I remembered the number.

She got to dinner about 5:30 - the rest of us had already finished our appetizer. The others at the table were Stan and Mary and Jerry and Terri. The other two seats were vacant and the others said that the couple that was there decided that they wanted anytime dining.

I had the shrimp cocktail for an appetizer (available every day) and then we had an "intermezzo" of a strawberry sorbet.

Strawberry sorbet

Seared diver scallops and red potatoes

Then Polly had scallops and I had fried chicken. Then I had the

Sugar free coconut cake

and Polly had the pineapple brulee which she had yesterday, so she must like it.

Polly wanted to go to the show, so she left from dinner to do that. I tried to call Bob, but the system dropped the call three times so I decided not to call again until I get to Hawaii. I tried to log on with my phone but I couldn't use the internet to call. I could have sent a text message, but of course Bob doesn't do text messages.

When I got back to the room there was a message to turn our clocks back an hour and I turned the alarm clock back but my phone doesn't have a time zone for the middle of the Pacific. Polly has cleared her bed off but her clothes are not at all organized.

October 27

We woke up and went to breakfast. I had a bowl of oatmeal and

two poached eggs on an English muffin (Eggs Benedict) without the ham/Canadian bacon - I ate one egg before I took the photo

Then i went up to the Excursions desk because they said they had to see me by today. They agreed that I could use the scooter for the two Princess excursions I have (so nice of them). Polly had something she wanted to go to, so she left me there. I went on to the port talk, which was very interesting and I have now figured out how to get it on the TV.

Princess TV is terribly disorganized. The menu has things by category and not in order by channel. But I put the port talk on the TV and took a nap. I went and took some photos of the ship, and then went back to the room. I decided to make my own list of the channels and while I was doing that, Polly came back briefly. She went to the naturalist talk and enjoyed it. On the next to last day of the cruise I discovered a slip of paper in front of the TV (above my head) which had the numerical list of channels.

I got up about 11:30 and went out to lunch without Polly. There was a couple from Orange County (CA) who wanted to get to something at 1:00 so they had already ordered and a family - mother, father and grown daughter from Grand Isle Nebraska. I had gazpacho which was very acidic

Cold Spanish gazpacho - lunch

Meat tortellini as an appetizer

The two other ladies had that too, but they didn't like it, so they got something else. For dessert I had

Blueberry Roulade

After lunch, Polly had a wine tasting at 2. She likes a sweeter wine and decided that she did not like red wines.

I took some photos of the atrium area and the stores on deck 6

Racks outside a store

Dress racks outside the ship store

Inch of Gold display

Musicians in the atrium

Atrium

Atrium stairs

Atrium

Top of the atrium

Selfie in a ceiling mirror

Including

Passenger Services desk

Casino

ship store

There was a bear in the store

Every morning the Cruise Director had a show (taped the afternoon before) where he said what was happening the next day - it was played on the TV the following morning. He had one of the assistants (Kevin who was from Canada) with him, and they had a stuffed bear similar to this one sitting between them.

There is a reception for returning Princess passengers at 4 and then it is formal night.

Theater

Polly and I went to the Captain's reception for returning cruisers together. They gave away elite status for the stateroom for one person, and two bottles of champagne (I didn't win) and then they gave everyone a voucher for a free drink. I gave mine to Polly. We went back to the room and dressed for dinner. Polly went to have her photo taken - she was all dressed up in purple dress and looked good.

Polly getting ready for formal night - full length mirror beside the door

Stan and Mary were at the steak restaurant for dinner, but Jerry and Terri were there and we were joined by another couple - Jim was originally from Cuba and looked a little like Humphery Bogart, and Anna was originally from Honduras. Jim and Jerry bonded over the fact that they both had concealed carry permits - one from Florida and one from Kentucky. The photographer came around to take our photos and I took some too

Jerry

Photographer

Jim

At dinner I had Waldorf salad. It was one of the more bizarre Waldorf salads that I have had This turned out to be a small pile of shredded apple, a couple of walnuts, a bunch of watercress and a big lump of grey Stilton cheese. There was too much cheese for the apple part, so I put the cheese on my roll to eat it. The rolls are good but they are all hard rolls which are very crumbly.

Waldorf salad with Stilton mousse

Jerry decided to make the dinner turf and surf by ordering both the tiger shrimp and the medallions of beef. I thought that was a good idea. So I ate the shrimp, and one of the broccoli heads which came with it (it was very garlicy) and a little of the rice.

Shrimp Daniele (tiger shrimp)

Then I had the two steak medallions, two potato fingers and a piece of the squash that came with the steak.

beef medallions

For dessert I had something that was billed as raspberry brulee, but it wasn't. It was chocolate cake with a raspberry on top and white chocolate triangles surrounding it.

Raspberry Brulee?

October 28

Polly woke me up at 7 and I went and took a very short shower. I bought a TSA sized bottle of Listerine and I have finally gotten the top off of it. Then we dressed fo breakfast and went to the restaurant. There was an Oriental couple there and when I ordered cranberry juice, she ordered it too - we had three orange juice and three cranberry juice at our table. I had the Mexican omelet which wasn't very good. But the other featured breakfast was a Northeastern Breakfast Treat which included an energizing cereal of Rolled Oats, apple juice, vanilla yogurt, toasted almonds, raisins and sliced bananas. That just did not appeal to me.

After breakfast Polly was going to a talk on arthritis, so I decided to go down to deck 5 and talk to the computer person so I got in an atrium elevator which was going down (from 6) but I was too far from the control panel to push the button for five, so it went up to 8 before it went down to 5. When the atrium elevator is on the floors of the atrium (5, 6, 7) it has a window that looks out into the atrium. For other floors there is a kind of water bubble graphic.

Since it wasn't time for the computer person to be there quite yet, I explored deck 5 - Capri dining room,

the International Cafe with the specialty coffee, and sandwiches and pastries,

and the art gallery with hundreds of horrible paintings.

I talked to the internet person because when I go on the internet from my phone, I couldn't get back to the place to sign off and so I had a bunch of excess minutes. He restored the minutes. He confirmed that I could not call from the internet unless I could use Skype or similar.

Then I went to the lecture on Hawaiian plants. It was interesting but disorganized. He started talking about the garbage area in the middle of the Pacific, and then he talked at length about coffee. He touched briefly on elephant ear plants (3,300 species in Hawaii) and the silver sword endemic plant (although he did not explain what endemic meant), and he mentioned an invasive plant (but I don't remember what it was), talked about vanilla and said we could buy vanilla in Mexico on a bottle that would last the rest of your life.

I saw people leaving and looked at the time and decided I would go to Trivia. I saw Lori from George's group (she has a bright pink scooter so she's easy to pick out)

and I followed her to two other people from the group - Paul

and Owen. We formed a team. I correctly supplied what NATO stood for, the letter in Roman numerals that was for 500 (D), and the highest string on a guitar (G). I had to argue my case for both of those as they did not believe me. We did not know where Petra or Troy were and we answered the last true false question wrong. We had 18 out of 22 possible and the winning team had 21.

I went back to the room and recharged the scooter and watched some of the Notre Dame football game. Then I went to lunch. I was sitting with a couple from Indiana, one from Arizona and an oriental couple from Orange Co, California. I had the leek and potato cream soup which was OK and Brunswick chicken stew with kernel corn

which was more like succotash soup - not nearly as good as the Brunswick stew at the Sea Jay Cafe on Jekyll Island. The muffin was supposed to be a corn muffin but it was in the soup and was soggy.

Chocolate bread and butter pudding

For some reason Polly did not get the concept that you ate with whoever you get to the dining room at the same time as - she came when we were finishing and sat down with us in the extra seat. I sat with her while she ate. The other couples left. We were not the last people in the dining room.

She went to have something at the spa (she went to the gym in morning in addition to her lecture).

For dinner on the 28th I had the asparagus starter

Steamed asparagus starter - Oct 28

and the veal scallopini (which I ate only half of although I ate the broccoli and cauliflower)

veal scallopini

For dessert I had the pink grapefruit tart which was good-it had pieces of grapefruit on top of it.

Sugar free pink grapefruit tart

Sunday the 29th, Polly was up before me- I did not get up early enough to have breakfast in the dining room so we went up to the Horizon Court (the buffet) for the first time since we boarded. We went past the big TV over the pool

Football game on the large TV

which had the LA Chargers game on it. Someone helped me get some food -I got grits, eggs, bacon and raisin bread. And grapefruit juice. We talked so long to a couple at the same table that I completely missed going to trivia.

I went back to the room and saw the end of the Redskins game and also took some photos of the lifeboats outside our window. There are men working out there periodically. Then I went to the last port lecture (on the fourth port Laihana-I was particularly interested in that port because it was a tender port). I thought I could go down to deck 6

Shooters

and go to the Theater for the talk and then go to lunch without having to take the elevator again, but I found that Deck 6 has no ramp access to the theater - you have to go up steps.

Princess Theatre entrance

I did the steps as I did not want to fight to get an elevator again. I took some photos of the slides he showed

Haleakala

Laihana

After the end of the port talk I did not know where Polly was so I went to lunch. She wandered in when we were mostly finished and there were 6 of us at the table so no spare seat this time. She went and ate at a different table. I had the waldorf salad again and this time the shredded apples came with some slices of an Italian preserved meat which they called Coppa.

Then I had

Matzo ball soup - VERY good

and

Potato pancakes

Portafino Dining room

I had honey vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Polly and I went and found where all the ship photos of her were and she was deciding whether to buy them. I got an invitation for a drink or something at Etsy for my birthday and since I didn't want it, she took it. She said they didn't pay any attention to her there once they figured out that she was just looking and she didn't get the promised drink. I was going swimming, but instead I went back to the room and took a nap and watched the first half of the Pittsburgh game.

For dinner, I had a salad

Seasonal field greens

Polly's Chicken Pupa

and then beef stroganoff which was supposed to have sour cream but just had maybe a teaspoon full.

I had one of the make your own sundaes for dessert. Polly had

Chocolate Journeys

Then Jerry, Terri, Stan and Mary and I went to "Where do you think you are?" Trivia. We got 29 points and the winning group got 33 (out of 40). I came back to the room - we have to set our clocks back another hour (to Honolulu time) - and I got a shower and got prepared for tomorrow's excursion in Hilo.