Crows have an Empty Nest

Our son got married in May, now we have no kids at home. This has been an adjustment after 20 plus years of having to share space with other humans. So here are some of the things we’ve (mostly me) have done:

• Got a new dog. Yep, I was looking online and found this adorable pup at the SPCA and now he’s mine and I love him and I’m spoiling him. I’m pretty sure the kids aren’t real happy about it.
• Redecorate. I bought new sheets and towels to begin with, then it snowballed. Now we’re hanging cabinets in the laundry room and painting and buying new artwork…uh-oh! I’m even shopping for carpet…no more chocolate milk stains in my son’s old room.
• Travel/Go Camping. We are always headed somewhere. We bought the camper last year (see my blog Emma Jean) and if we don’t have a trip coming up, I’m researching our next destination.
• Read. I have, seriously, in 10 months of this year, read 27 books! We did cancel our big cable TV package so that has helped with this too.
• Declutter. I have never really been a hoarder, but I’m finding it easier and easier to part with junk…ahem, I mean, stuff. Just wait until Christmas and I go through the attic again…how many snowmen do I really need?
• Cycling. Yes, it’s true, we’ve been biking a lot for the last few years, but we’ve starting looking for new rides, in new places. We’re going to Dallas to ride the week before Thanksgiving! I also have a new bike coming…I am SO excited about this!
• Teach. I started teaching a spin class. Okay, I am having a ton of fun teaching this class. I have fun putting together the music and seeing how many hill climbs I can cram into 30 or 45 minutes!
• Volunteer. I took on a volunteer position for a fund raiser. I continue to work with the dog rescue. I am on the board of my alumnae sorority. Hubby says I can’t say no, that’s not true, but if I can, why not?
• Sew. I took up sewing a couple years ago when I decided to make my son a t-shirt quilt, but I’ve been looking for more things to make and I really want to make a nice pretty quilt.
• Take a class. I took a French language class. I’m terrible at it. We have a trip to France booked for our 25 anniversary next year and I’d like to be able to at least read some signs and order dinner. It’s fun to take them and challenging and, hopefully, this will keep the Alzheimers away a little longer (Fact: my memory is horrible!)
• Go out to eat. We’ve always gone out to eat here and there. But we’re finding this whole date night all alone to be a fun thing. Don’t get me wrong, we still enjoy going with friends, too. New restaurants, with gluten free menus, of course!
• Have cereal for dinner. I never did this when the kids were home. I always tried to feed them actual food. But, seriously, the first few weeks I didn’t want to even make a sandwich!

There are other things too, but you get the idea. We’re taking this freedom to heart and enjoying ourselves. It was a little sad at first and I felt like I was missing something all the time without my son there to worry about, but we are having so much fun and I’m becoming more relaxed. The son and his new wife are doing great, the daughter and SIL are doing well and, of course, my grandbaby Klayton is perfect, we’re very blessed and I thank God everyday for all we have been given.

Crows sizzle in London

Alex graduated (2016)  and we promised a big trip to London (July 2016.) So off we went! I had planned and planned this trip, what I didn’t plan was the weather. I looked at typical averages for London and we missed that…we went during the only week or two of full on summer for London. Needless to say, we were hoping to leave the Oklahoma heat and humidity at home…not so much!

This trip we went with a group of 8, our BFF’s the Woodards took grandson, Preston (another GREAT kid!) and Mike & Becky (Julie’s sister and fellow GF/celiac.) We started by flying to Chicago with a bit of a layover before boarding our British Airways flight to London Heathrow. Flight was typical, boring and uneventful. We landed in London, went through customs, it was here where we figured out how incredibly warm it was. We boarded the London tube/underground and headed to our hotel. This was also fairly uneventful. We did get a little lost finding our hotel and dragging our suitcases around South Kensington, but not bad.

We were staying at the Nadler South Kensington, very nice and modern, but with a pretty hefty price tag. This is the area of London where the French have taken over and the real estate prices are sky high. But it was a nice, safe area and Rick Steves highly recommended it so…

Nadler South Kensington with air conditioning!

Our first day, we dropped our bags and walked to Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. Then we went to the Victoria & Albert museum, but by then we were so exhausted we didn’t enjoy it at all! However, the park was BEAUTIFUL!

The next day, we took the Hop on Hop off iconic red bus around London for the grand overview. We got off at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard (SO many people!) and ate a quick lunch at a pub. We then got back on the bus and went to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Absolutely, fantastic! We climbed the stairs all the way to the top.

We went to dinner at this Italian place recommended by the hotel. Yeah, not good…overpriced, no gluten free to speak of, sold us bottled water we didn’t ask for…didn’t ask for a recommendation again.

The next day we took the underground to the Tower of London, then we took the cruise on the River Thames to Greenwich, and came back to the London Eye. LOVED the Tower of London! Of course, like St. Paul’s you are not allowed to take pictures of the Crown Jewels, so I have nothing to show you, but it was so interesting! Travel tip:  Get the LONDONPASS and get there when it opens. Go straight to the jewels and you’ll walk right in, an hour later and the line zigzagged through the ropes in the blazing heat. The river cruise was hot, but it was enjoyable to see the city from the water and Greenwich was so pretty. We went in the Painted Hall and it was gorgeous! AND we were allowed to take photos, woohoo! We toured the Cutty Sark (an old tea ship) and had a nice cold drink, quite relaxing. When we got back to the London Eye, we waited in a long line for tickets, then another, even longer, line to get on. I guess that made up for not waiting at the Tower of London! After that, we attempted to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, not realizing how incredibly busy they would be, we ended up at a burger place by the hotel, which actually turned out to be quite good!

The next day we got up and went to Windsor Castle. We took the underground to the train. It was exciting, we used all the travel tips and guidebooks I had studied to find the right way to do this and used our LONDONPASS to get the train ride free. Once we got there, our LONDONPASS got us past the HUGE line to get into Windsor Castle and right in the door. Score for doing research! Windsor Castle is absolutely fabulous, it was so interesting to see and the changing of the guards was very close, we could have touched them, but, we did not. We wandered through the different buildings and rooms and then we found a nice little pub to have lunch, just the three of us. It was one of the better places we ate and had a great gluten free menu, which surprisingly wasn’t that easy to find. (I found the food and access to gluten free MUCH better in Ireland.) We found the town of Windsor to be quaint and pretty, it was a nice break from the city.

The girls had a tea (gluten free for Becky & me) booked that evening, so we splurged and took a cab. We all wore cute dresses and had a feast! We really enjoyed it, even though it wasn’t quite as formal as we were expecting, it was relaxing. We took the bus to the underground and did a small amount of shopping around Piccadilly Circus afterward. I bought a pair of souvenir shorts…since I hadn’t brought any and I was roasting. We were tired and needed to swing by the Sainsbury (grocery store) on the way back, we were keeping small amounts of breakfast foods and snacks in our rooms since we had a mini fridge and kitchenette.

The next day we had a day excursion booked for Stonehenge, Bath and Salisbury. I called to confirm our reservation for 8. No, they said, we only have 6. Uh-oh, Becky & Mike volunteered to stay behind, I felt AWFUL! Oh my gosh, seriously? I only had this booked for months…I hate that they missed it. But I guess Becky hadn’t been feeling 100% and they wanted to go to Westminster Abbey, which we ran out of time for on day 2. I still feel so bad for that, I’m sure I screwed it up and I should’ve stayed back, especially since it was one of the best days of the whole trip. We didn’t leave until after noon, so we started the day with a traditional English breakfast at a pub and then went to Harrods to browse, Dave ended up buying an overpriced pair of shorts, but, hey, I couldn’t blame him, we were frying!

We began our tour with an air conditioned van (not a sweaty train)  and our tour guide was super and apologetic for the mix up on the van accommodations for our group, that only seated 6 not 8. Salisbury Cathedral was a little disappointing after being in St. Paul’s, which is huge and gorgeous, but we saw the Magna Carta which was in great condition and the oldest working clock in the world. AND we could take pictures! Let’s just say I’ll take their word for it that it was a clock, because I couldn’t tell time on that!

Next was Bath, England, what a picturesque town. Absolutely, breathtaking. They filmed part of Les Miserables here the river he dies in at the end is where we’re pictured. We made a quick walk through the Abbey on our way to eat. We were hungry so we started off with dinner at a pub, the BEST food we had the whole trip was here! It was the traditional set up, where you order and pay at the bar and they bring your food when it’s finished to your table. There was a nice breeze and it was just really good food. We left the pub and walked over to the baths from the Roman days. Nice little museum and walk through the baths. I would absolutely come back here, if I had the opportunity, and spend more time.

We didn’t realize when we booked this excursion, that we had booked an inner circle sunset tour of Stonehenge. I didn’t even realize what that was! Stonehenge tours only allow the public to enter along a pathway that is roped off about 50 feet from the stones. The “park” closes at 8:00, we got there at 8:15 with only a few other private tours. We got to hop over the ropes and go right up to the stones. We still weren’t allowed to touch them, but we could stand right up next to them. Also, it was sunset, and a full moon. This means there were a few weirdos hanging out in the farmers’ fields around the perimeter. I know it sounds crazy but you could really feel something different in the middle. Everyone seemed to talk in hushed tones and was fairly reverent. It was a really bizarre and awesome (overly used word, but real here) experience.

 

Our last day in London, we decided to go to the British Library and the British Museum. We were all fairly exhausted from a long week, so we were little more laid back and a lot less tolerant of crowds, heat, hassles, etc. We changed trains in the King’s Cross station, which is where the Harry Potter 9 3/4 platform is and a gift shop (of course!) so we HAD to see that. We walked over to the Library, which was thankfully air conditioned. We toured the museum portion and saw the Guttenberg Bible, another Magna Carta (not as a great a copy), original Beatles lyrics written on napkins and cards, and original music from Messiah, and manuscripts from Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc. It was so surreal looking at these items and knowing some of their historical significance. Huge collection and very worthwhile to visit. (No pictures allowed of these…bummer.)

We left there and got back on the train to go to the British Museum. We kind of got lost, but found ourselves close to the Dickens museum, so we decided to stop in. There was a great little cafe in the basement that served ICED TEA! First iced tea we had seen in London, most drinks were only slightly cool. We ordered enough she had to go buy more ice! And the lunch was pretty good.  We continued on to the British Museum and discovered quickly that it was not only not air conditioned but stuff full of people. There were a few things that I really wanted to see the Easter Island statue and the Rosetta Stone. We had all separated at the door and happen to meet up in one of the areas. We all decided right there that we would hit the high spots and get out, too hot, too crowded and too much to look at. We headed for those two or three things and went outside into the breeze and across the street to this nice little park to relax.

The park was Russell Square and the week after we got back home, a nut case stabbed seven people in this same little hippy-vibe, chillaxed park that had a great little gelato shop and huge pretty trees to hang out under. Just proof, people are crazy.

After this, we attempted to venture out to find gluten free fish and chips. I had made a reservation and planned the route, only to realize the street was not where I thought it was…uh oh! Well, we ended up in a taxi and finally made there. Even though it was a hassle, the trip was worth it. The fish & chips were pretty good, especially since I can’t get GF Fish & Chips just anywhere.

After a long day…we made it!

Almost forgot to take the picture…I was hungry!

Mike & Dave

These pretty churches were just everywhere in England!

We got back to the hotel and packed up all our stuff and got ready to set out first thing in the morning. It was a crowded ride to the airport and we stood for a lot of it with our luggage, but we got there and got home without incident.

Lessons learned on this trip: eight people is lot to travel with, make SURE your tour is booked for the right number of people, confirm addresses in two places, not just one, don’t go to London in July. All in all it was a great trip and I would like to go back again someday, but I’ve got a pretty long list of other places to go first.

The New Love of My Life

Have you ever loved something so much you didn’t think you could ever love something more? I thought I loved my husband, my kids, my Mom & Dad, but seriously, how do you even explain how much a teeny, tiny baby can completely steal your heart? Who knew that a heart could expand and love so much more than it already does? But that’s not my first reaction…

Last year, when my daughter said she was expecting, let’s just say I wasn’t that excited. Was I really ready to be a “grandma?” That sounds so old! Am I really old enough to be a “grandma?” Geez…heavy sigh. Also, I just really don’t like kids all that much…I pretty much run if they start looking for nursery volunteers at church and, no, I don’t want to hold, touch or look at your baby, sorry! I can’t imagine I’ll be a good “grandma” at all…Lord, please help me!

We’re going to be grandparents…yay?

 

After a few months, I slowly warmed up to the idea and I began little by little to get excited to meet him. I think I can do this! Ashley looks so cute pregnant and she’s such a good mom already. Okay, I can be a Mimi, mimis are cool aren’t they?

 

Waiting on Klayton

The day has come for him to arrive and I’m beyond excited, but I’m so nervous for Ashley, now I know what my mom went through…what torture to watch your child writhe in pain and not be able to do a thing about it. She was such a trouper, then the doc says, it’s just not going to happen, he’s sideways and stuck…off to the C-section. (Let me just say, the room was a whirling dervish when he made that call…I just tried to stay out of the way!) I was even more worried and upset when I couldn’t see her. Wow, what stress! I wasn’t leaving until I saw her, even though it was getting really late. I finally got to poke my head in and see that she was fine, then this happened…

Klayton meets Mimi

I know it’s not a great quality picture, but let me tell you, I was smitten immediately! There was no way I was ever going to not be glad to have him in my life. For the next few days, I saw him everyday. We started taking “Selfies with Mimi” and sometimes included Poppy! As I told my daughter just the other day, he gets more action on my Facebook page than I ever do!

He turns one year old today. We are having so much fun together. He has developed the sweetest personality. He smiles all the time. He eats almost anything he’s given and he loves dogs, outside, swimming, playing with cars…I can go on and on about how great this little boy is, as I’m sure every grandparent can.  I could bore you with stats on when he did what and how big he is etc. but I won’t, this was about how even the most non-kid person can absolutely fall head over heels for a teeny, tiny little baby.

Emma Jean

We had just returned from our big trip to London and we were relaxing in the living room both of us scrolling through Facebook, getting the updates on everyone’s lives, when Dave says, “Hey, this friend posted about a Camper and RV show…indoors.” I asked,
“Are we ready to buy one? Because I’m not going if we’re not, I will want to buy something.” So he says, “I guess so.” Plans were made and off we went the next afternoon.

Now, some friends of ours own a camper sales company and we went directly to their area of the show, never intending to buy anything from anyone else. I had even picked one out from their online inventory. They had the camper I had looked at online on the floor. I looked it over, asked our price and was ready to buy it. I wasn’t “in love” but I liked it well enough.

Just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything I said, “So is there anything we should see before we settle on this one?” The reply was, “Let me show you this new line we’re carrying.” So off we go. Of course, all they had on the floor was the top of the line big fifth wheel version with two fireplaces and a dishwasher, but we weren’t in the market for that, we wanted something light weight that could be pulled behind a regular pick up. I really liked the style and finish of the big one, so I asked if they had a light weight small version, and, of course, they do! I looked at the brochure and fell in LOVE! It was the right colors, style, layout, it was basically perfect.

I asked price, they weren’t sure since they didn’t have any of that specific style. Can we get it in time for a bike ride at the end of August? Not sure, let me check production. Would you like to visit with the rep? YES! I drug him over to the fancy one and said, “What is different?” Same furniture? Yes. Same countertops? Yes. Same sink? Yes. Same bed?  Yes. Same cabinets? Yes. Okay, get me a price and delivery date.

The next day I get a call with the price and delivery date. After very little discussion, we ordered her. We got her two weeks before our bike ride in Texas, so we took her to Enid, OK for a trial run, and, another bike ride, obviously. Pulls like a dream, easy set up, LOVE the inside, outside is great too…

Now, she needed a name. I was sitting inside staring out…IMAGINE…hmmm…Emma Jean! Yep, that’s how she got her name. Emma Jean, birthday 8/13/2016 (she’s listed as a 2017 model, this is the day we picked her up) and christened on 8/19/2016 with a maiden voyage to Enid, OK. We’ve had many adventures since, stay tuned for those stories and the many more yet to come.

Crows go South to Gulf Shores

Our BFFs, Chris & Julie, asked if we’d like to share a condo in Gulf Shores for a long weekend. We said sure (we rarely say no!)  We took Alex and they took their middle grandson, Jack. We decided to go the weekend before band and all the school stuff started so no one missed anything. Then we began to plan and prepare.

We were going just two weeks after our trip to Yellowstone, so it needed to be planned and ready before we left for Wyoming. So I made a trip to Sams Club one afternoon and they had these really nice beach chairs and umbrellas and big beach towels. I called and Julie said she’d love to have a set. I loaded up 4 beach chairs, two umbrellas, 3 new beach towels and our normal Sams Club run of coffee, dog food and random stuff we find. We have two full baskets. I swipe my card and begin to load the belt and the cashier is scanning all the big items, when this lady comes and swipes her card, thinking I was finished. Umm…okay. Well, the machine proceeded to put my order on her card. My order was over $500, yeah that was a lot. The cashier calls over the manager and the manager says, we’ll have to go to customer service and return everything and redo the order to put it on my card. Nice… Well, this lady says, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll just pay for it.” REALLY?? SERIOUSLY, Lady, this is too much, it would be different if it was a gallon of milk! But she insisted and so I headed to the car dragging my jaw on the ground. As I’m loading the stuff in the car, I see she’s parked just two cars over. I approach her and begged her to let me write her a check, she would hear nothing of it. “Merry Christmas,” she says…it’s June! Wow, just wow, I’m still speechless and this was almost two years ago!

Me and Alex chillaxing with our new beach gear

Well, we return from our fabulous trip to Yellowstone (See the related blog Sally goes to Yellowstone), we prepare for another long drive. We drove separately, convoy style, since neither of us have a vehicle that seats six and luggage comfortably, along with our gifted beach chairs and umbrellas! It’s a LONG drive and after the nice comfy ride in our RV it felt quite cramped and not that pleasant. We stopped at about 80% of the trip distance and got a nice sit down dinner and spent the night. We got up the next morning and finished off the trip, it was the traffic-y part of the trip that seemed to last forever.

We got to the condo, our first ever VRBO experience, and, man, was it nice! Although it was weird seeing other people’s stuff and pictures for the first day or so. I immediately went out to the balcony for some salt air. Yep, I was already relaxed! We emptied our cars and then headed to the store for groceries. We spent about $300 and thought we had it covered…ha! Teenage boys eat a lot! We ended up going back for more a couple days later and we even ate out a couple of times. But overall it was still a pretty inexpensive little getaway trip.

We took walks on the beach that evening and had a nice dinner. Julie is quite the early riser, so she took the breakfast shift, she makes great scrambled eggs! We hauled our chairs, umbrellas and a small cooler down to the beach and proceeded to fit in, not a hard thing to do, since it’s Alabama and we’re from Oklahoma. Julie was getting tired of being in the sun so she decided to go make lunch, tuna salad (you know we’re feeding a pescatarian and a gluten free, so you gotta up your game here!), then we headed up a bit later. She thought she made plenty, but it was very quickly and completely wiped out! Why does sitting in the sun, doing nothing, make you SO hungry?

We went back out for the afternoon, but found the heat to be really oppressive. We are somewhat accustomed since we live in Oklahoma, but the sand was so hot, it was like walking on coals. We decided we would go roam around town and go to this restaurant we had heard about, Tacky Jacks. The food was decent and the atmosphere was kind of beachy, we had fun. There was an art gallery near by so we walked over to look around, we’re cultured like that, ha! I found the most amazing piece of art! It was a painted flute. I play the flute, if I haven’t yet mentioned that, and this was painted with sea turtles, lips, eyes, flowers, it was perfect! Dave decided I (we) needed it, so we went back later and bought it as an early anniversary present to us.

The next day, we woke up and went out to the beach and, again, the heat became overwhelming, so we decided to go to the zoo. We had heard they had a neat zoo, so we went. It was smallish (compared to San Diego Zoo!) but it had sloths! I just think they’re so cool! We had a good time, I bought my vacation souvenir Christmas ornaments-it was a set- in the gift shop.

The next day we did more lounging on the beach and went shopping at this really nice outlet mall. Then we went to eat at the Mellow Mushroom, it’s a psychedelic pizza place the decor is hilarious and the food was good too, yummy GLUTEN FREE PIZZA!

We had one day left so we hung out on the beach and walked around the shops near the condo. It was a pretty fun place to be. The next morning we load up and head out. On our way out of town, we pass The Hangout, it’s a bar and grill that has all this outdoor seating and live bands. Well, they were blowing bubbles…one giant one popped on my car hood. Uh-oh! Let’s just say, a month or so later, I dropped a box on the fender from the attic and took that opportunity to have my Dad fix it (he does paint and body work) and repaint the hood from the nasty bubble. Crazy acid bubbles!

Anyway, long drive home and hit some pockets of yucky traffic. As relaxing as the beach is, I think the drive might negate some of the long term effects. I really wish it was closer, I’d go back, but not sure I will if that drive is involved! It was fun to spend the time with our BFFs and their grandson Jack was a very sweet, quiet and nice kid, I’d take him anywhere!

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Cruising Crows have Carnival Glory

It’s been almost three years since our last cruise in 2014. It was just four of us, quite a relaxing trip and our last with our friend David. We didn’t know that at the time, but we are sure glad we took that trip together, these memories will be treasured forever. We left out of Miami and our stops were Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI and Grand Turks, Turks & Caicos.  We opted once again for Carnival and aft balconies. I think we’re hooked on the aft balconies!

We started by flying into Miami and getting to our hotel room. We walked across the street to the outdoor mall, where the Hard Rock Cafe was, of course! It was Halloween so there were lots of little kids and some adults dressed up and trick or treating at the stores. We did a little shopping, grabbed some dinner and got to bed early. The next morning we got up and took a cab to breakfast on South Beach, beautiful! We walked on the beach for a while after we ate. It was a nice start to a pretty great week.

Sondra and I decided we wanted to book a cabana in Half Moon Cay and surprise the guys. That was absolutely one of the best decisions! I have great memories of that day. What a relaxing and peaceful day. We rented a cabana away from the crowds (see pic below) with our own chairs, snacks and drinks all brought to us. We pretty much stayed there all day, away from all the people, except for lunch. The water was gorgeous. Sondra and I read and relaxed on the beach, the guys hung out and walked the beach, snorkeled some and just enjoyed the day. One of the waiters came by and said we were the only ones on the beach reading so he asked what books we were reading. I remember this because he wrote down the name of the book I was reading (The Glass Castle) in his native language…not really sure what it was, but I thought that was cool!

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The next stop on the cruise was San Juan, Puerto Rico. We’ve been here a couple of times to board ships in the past, but we’ve only walked around Old San Juan and the old fort by the cruise dock. We decided we’d go ziplining this time. There was a new place that had just opened recently and was super nice and a little out of the city in the “rain-forest.” The guides were great and they picked us up at the pier. I had only been ziplining once before in Tulsa at Post Oak Lodge. It was okay, but the Oklahoma scenery was a little lacking! This was pretty, but from what I gather from the others, it wasn’t quite as pretty as the place they went in Puerto Vallarta. Well, I liked it and I had fun. We did get rained on quite a bit, the irony of being in the “rain-forest”, but we didn’t let that spoil our day.

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We went to get some food and look around before getting back on board. We were docked in San Juan for quite a while, so we got to go shopping and hang out afterward.

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Our next stop was Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI, again, we’d been here…well, all of us but Dave! This was the stop that he was quarantined on back in 2009 on the Adventure of the Seas. We took a cab to a beach we had been told was THE place to go. Sapphire Beach was nice, the bar tender was from Texas, of all things! We kept smelling the barbecue and saw they had a Tito’s Vodka bottle (a Texas made vodka) AND he didn’t have an island accent…so we asked. Nice guy, he had the mesquite shipped in from Texas with supplies to use in the smoker! It had been raining and was a little cloudy, but the pelicans were entertaining and the fish kept nibbling our toes, legs, hands, etc. while we were in the water. Again, a nice relaxing day…see the theme?

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Last stop was Turks & Caicos, Dave & I had this place built up in our minds from seeing it in magazines and on TV. It was stormy all week on this cruise, so the waters were churned and not the bright blue we were hoping to see. We took a cab to the beach and it was nice, but not as pretty as we were hoping. And because the waters were churned, we couldn’t really snorkel since the visibility was so poor. We had a great day, but not the day we had hoped for. About when it was time to leave it started to get pretty and sunny…I guess that means we’ll have to go back!

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This was a nice cruise, dinners took a while and our service was not that of Royal Caribbean, but I would do another Carnival cruise someday. It was relaxing, it was fun and it was full of great memories of a great guy that we all miss like crazy. I’m sad to think I can never go on vacation with him again and be annoyed by him and love him like a big ornery brother! We’ll miss you always, David…

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In Memory of David McEntire 1962-2016.

 

Cruising Crows make Carnival Magic

My husband and his buddies from school were all turning 50, so we planned a cruise…of course. There were about 26 of us on that trip. Most I had only met once or twice, but we invited our trusty friends, Chris & Julie and David & Sondra, so at least I didn’t feel like I didn’t know anyone. We even got our travel agent to go with us, because, well, we’re that much fun!

First we picked our itinerary, then the ship. We were trying to stay in a budget, so we went with Carnival, which is a little less expensive than Royal. We picked the Key West, Freeport and Nassau, Bahamas route. Second, Galveston or New Orleans? I really wanted to go out of NOL, I have never been there. But one of the couples’ daughter was getting married the weekend that itinerary sailed out of there, so we went to Galveston again. I was praying for no fog and great weather! We got just that, it was great weather. Also, this put us on the newest ship in the Carnival fleet, Carnival Magic, it wasn’t even a year old yet.

No problems boarding, it was very smooth and our luggage arrived quickly. The only difference I was seeing in Carnival vs. Royal was that we didn’t meet our room attendant for a while. But we had booked a nice aft balcony and it was a fantastic room.  Our friends booked on the same deck so we had the whole aft of that deck, we opened the doors between the balconies and could walk the width of the ship from room to room!

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Like my normal cruise with Royal, I went to the head waiter and discussed my gluten issues. They were very responsive. I really felt like they may have been better than Royal with this one! There was even gluten free bread on the buffet in different flavors every morning! One of our fellow cruisers also has a gluten issue AND dairy, poor guy, one is hard enough.

Our first stop was Key West, Fl, I loved it here. The vibe was a lot like Eureka Springs, AR, which is sort of laid-back-hippie-artist, if you haven’t been there. Weather was great and it was a nice place to walk. We started at Sloppy Joe’s bar, it was a hangout of Ernest Hemingway,  he was the theme for the day. We had a drink and some snacks and looked around. Then we walked to the Southernmost Point, which is not actually the southernmost point, if you didn’t know that. Hawaii actually has the southernmost point. But anyway, it was a fun and touristy thing to do. Afterward, we grabbed some lunch at a nice outdoor cafe, with roosters everywhere.  Then, we walked to the Hemingway house. It was not really what I expected, but I liked it.  The cats, polydactyls, were everywhere-NOTE: If you are allergic to cats DO NOT GO HERE!  The house itself was old, but nice and I loved the pool. After this we went to the sandal shop (Kino) and bought a pair for my daughter (they were her favorites, by the way) for, I think, $10 you get a handmade pair, quite a deal and they’re very well made.  Then we just meandered through town and back to the ship. While standing in line to get back on-board, I looked down at this woman’s toes…OMG! I have NEVER seen toe nails that long and well manicured…EW! Anyway, it scarred me, if you can’t tell (wish I’d gotten a picture.)

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Our next stop was Freeport, Bahamas. We had booked an excursion to swim with the dolphins. Well, some of us, Chris, Julie, Sondra, Sharon and me, the other guys went to hang out in the port area. This was one of those once in a lifetime things. I loved it! They were so sweet. Three old girls, retired movie stars that were about forty something. I don’t always like these type of things, since I feel like they treat the animals poorly, but this one seemed to be well ran and the dolphins did seem to enjoy what they were doing, especially at the end when they put on a show for us.

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There were also these really pretty birds that I got to hold and take pictures with. This place was nice, I really enjoyed this excursion.

Last stop, Nassau, Bahamas, we had a private snorkel guide booked for the day. Lynn and Dennis, David and Sondra, Chris and Julie, Ray and Sharon and Dave and I went on a small boat out to this beautiful little island. We started there so Dave could get some shore snorkeling in. Then we went out into the deeper water. Lynn got this great picture of me! You see, we already had one like this of Dave that David had taken, so we planned this, to have one just like it of me.  We have them on 16×20 canvas, hanging in our guest room, still enjoy them.

Funny story, when we first arrived in the port, we saw a boat get pulled over, it was our captain! He was great, we had a lot of fun. I would highly recommend Captain Carl with Bahama Boat Tours, our last trip to Nassau, booking Captain (Cranky Pants) Randy, was not as pleasant.

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This was a great trip. I didn’t hate Carnival, like some of the “Loyal to Royal” people do. It was fine, there were differences, but not significant enough to boycott them.

One of the guys that went with our group won the Karaoke contest and was Neil Diamond on the last night, it was a riot, there were actually old women flogging him!

Here are some random pictures from the ship. (I always enjoy the fruit soup!)

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Cruising Crows go Alaskan on Rhapsody of the Seas

***Warning…LONG post, so much to talk about!***

So I’m a beach girl, I’ve already said this, but this cruise opened my eyes to a whole new world. We started in Seattle, which my son loved, and went north to Junea, then Skagway, and, lastly, Victoria, BC, Canada. Let’s just say, I am in awe of all God’s creation. It was a very satisfying cruise, vacation, trip, experience, whatever you want to call it, it was FABULOUS!

We started by leaving a day earlier than we normally would for a cruise so we could spend a whole day wandering around Seattle. My in-laws went with us and our son and about 26 people total. We invited my in-laws, of course, Chris and Julie, and then as word started getting around about our trip, it snowballed and we ended up with a huge group, some of them, we didn’t even know.  It was great! We drove to OKC to fly to Seattle, it was about a $400 savings for 5 people, so we decided it was worth the extra effort. We parked and got to Seattle in the late afternoon. We took a limo/town car from the airport (for our group of five it cost the same) to our hotel. We checked in and went out to see the Spaceneedle.

We went up to the top and went through it, then we walked across the street to eat dinner at a sports bar. We had about 8 of our group together by then, we had met up with them at the Spaceneedle. We ordered dinner and, on TV, the basketball playoffs were on. Let’s just say, we’re big Thunder basketball fans. This was 2012 and the Thunder were doing very well in the playoffs. BUT we’re in Seattle, that’s where the team came from…and the people there aren’t happy about that. We watched the game in relative silence until our food came and we were ready to leave. We knew better…

We spent all the next day wandering around Seattle, mostly at Pike’s Place market. What a great place to spend a day. We saw beautiful flowers, fish tossers, I bought some great gluten free pasta! For lunch I had gluten free seafood soup, bread, etc. they had so much I could eat here, I was really in heaven. We went to the first ever Starbucks…tiny. Of course, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We met up with Julie’s cousin Beverly then, she’s a sweetheart! Later that afternoon, we took an “Underground Seattle” tour. Super cool, we had about 15-20 booked for the tour, so it was pretty much a private tour for our group. There’s a whole city down below what you see on the surface, and quite an interesting history to go with it. One of the guys in our group, not being very discerning, like us, wore a Thunder basketball shirt, needless to say he got a lecture from our tour guide! Really?

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That night almost our entire group went to dinner at Elliott’s Oyster House. That was so nice to have everyone together. Since the trip was technically Dave’s birthday trip, someone started a coaster around and everyone signed it for him. We still have it and it still makes me smile to see all the names. The dinner was absolutely outstanding, except for the guy in the Thunder shirt, he had such a spicy plate, he couldn’t eat it…again, really?

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The next day, we hired a shuttle, actually, two shuttles to get us all to the cruise port. We all boarded and got our rooms without much incident. Alex was sharing a room with two other teenage boys, we had about 7 or 8 rooms down one hall and then there were others scattered in balconies. We decided not to pay the extra for the balcony, because it was so cold we likely wouldn’t use it. Since we were sailing in early June the average temperature was around 40/40 degrees F, a little chillier than balcony weather.

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Our first stop was Juneau, Alaska. We had a afternoon excursion of whale watching and seeing the Mendenhall Glacier, so we started with a walk around town. It’s a pretty small town, especially being the capital. We ended up asking a police officer where the best place for lunch was, they know their stuff. It was a crab shack, appropriately name “Tracy’s Crab Shack.” It was soooo good! I had a crab bisque and it was quite delightful. Dave, being Dave, bought a t-shirt that says “Tracy gave me crabs.” Ummm, yeah, she thought it was hilarious when we told her my name was Tracy also. I just wonder how many women named Tracy have husbands that buy those t-shirts?

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After lunch, we got on board a bus to take us to the Mendenhall Glacier. It’s huge so impressive to see. Truly awe inspiring.

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We got back on the bus and head to the whale watching boat. When we got on there were about 30 or so people, including a couple of small kids. We went up to the outdoor deck to watch for “wildlife.” It was pretty chilly, but so crisp and the views were spectacular. There was a really heavy door that went out to the deck and a small child got her finger smashed in the door. Oh, it looked awful! So the boat turned around and headed back to shore to let them go to the ER. We lost a little time but we got back out and we saw bald eagles, whales and had a fabulous time. (We did see the girl later on the cruise and she was bandaged up. She actually lost part of that finger!)

We get back on the ship and have a great time bumping into all our friends. Since there were so many of us, we were always seeing someone and that was nice and made it feel more like being around home. Here are some pictures from the ship, with some of our friends.

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Our next stop was Skagway, Alaska. We had a very adventurous excursion planned here. We took a train halfway up the mountain, got off and hiked four miles up to the Loughton Glacier and four miles back down. We had lunch/snacks at the top. This was a very strenuous and fun excursion. It took all day and was absolutely one of the best days. My son still says it’s his favorite excursion/day of any vacation. We started off in jeans and t-shirts, but the closer we got to the glacier, the weather began to change and we ended up with coats on in the snow! The outhouse halfway up has an interesting story. They airlift the containment drum located inside, up and out with a helicopter when it’s full. The entire cover is hinged to allow the drum to be removed!

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When we got back into town our son began to feel ill so we didn’t get a chance to walk through town. Even so we had quite a full day and enjoyed it more than we ever imagined. The next day was our on ship port of Tracy’s Arm, meaning we didn’t get off the ship, but we weren’t really moving. The icebergs were too overwhelming for the ship to get into Tracy’s Arm, so we ended up seeing Dawes Glacier. The ship sat in the cove and did a 360 degree turn very slowly so everyone got a chance to see. There were many waterfalls and some sea lions. We went to cousin Beverly’s room, since she had a balcony, and we watched from there. Fabulous and eye-opening to all the wonders of the world. Again, this cruise was an awakening to the great big world outside of the beautiful beaches.

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Our last stop, before heading back to Seattle, was Victoria, BC, Canada. I really wasn’t all that enthused about this stop, but one of the pastors at our church told us to go to the Butchart Gardens, that they were really pretty. So, okay, we booked a gardens and mansion tour. Let’s just say the Gardens without the mansions would have been great.  It was the most gorgeous place! We loved it. The gardens are an old quarry that was ugly and looked horrible, so the owner’s wife wanted to plant some things to make it look better. I think she might have gotten carried away, but I’m, oh, so glad, that she did! We were very impressed with Victoria and thought it would be a lovely place to return.

After the gardens we went to the Craigdarroch Castle. It was okay, we have a museum in Tulsa in an old mansion that is much more impressive. So we were a little disappointed that we didn’t stay at the gardens longer and skip the “castle.”

We wandered around downtown Victoria for a while before we had to be back on board. The city is lovely and picturesque. There were some street artists that were very talented. I loved the illusion that was on the sidewalk, it felt like you were balancing and going to fall over when you stood on it looking down.

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I have to say, that if you like maple syrup this is your place to be. Every shop you entered sold it with a Canadian flag on it. Oh, and anything with a Canadian flag, yep, you name it. The people were all quite friendly and easy to talk to and very proud of their maple leaf.

Canada was our last stop and we were headed back to Seattle. We decided to book the hop on and hop off trolley tour in Seattle since our plane didn’t leave until late afternoon. My in-laws did the same. Our luggage was to be sent to the airport but you had to pick it up and check it back in through security. Well, we had split up with my in-laws when we decided to get off and see some things and they wanted to continue on. We told them to follow the instructions when they got to the airport. Needless to say, I had a bad feeling.

When we finally got to the airport, running late, the trolleys seemed to be a little overcrowded and hard to come by, we saw their luggage sitting there. Knowing them, I knew they were sitting up at the gate assuming their bags were already in queue to be loaded. Uh-oh! We tried our best to hurry to the gate, but the security line was endless. I’ve never seen one that long before or since. We rushed up there, explained it to them and they rushed downstairs to take care of it. They came back all flustered and confused, actual tears in my mother-in-laws eyes. They couldn’t find their luggage. They were boarding our plane, not good.

We went to the counter and explained to the nice Southwest Airlines ticket agent the situation. I have never been more impressed with a customer service person. What could have been a complete nightmare, was handled very politely and efficiently by the lady at the counter. She not only rebooked them, but booked them into Tulsa, since we would be driving our car from Oklahoma City and they wouldn’t have anyone there to pick them up. She also gave them vouchers! Really? WOW!  Southwest Airlines, I am now a very loyal customer, you did what almost no one does, took care of the customer.

Bottom line, Alaska was magnificent to see and I highly recommend the cruise. Seattle was fun. Canada was beautiful. And Southwest Airlines, you rock!

 

 

I’m not losing a daughter, but gaining a son…

I thought this story would be appropriate for Valentine’s month. My daughter, my first true love, got married! I had her when I was only 19 and her dad and I had been married just over a year. I was too young! I look back and look at her and think, “Wow, how did I ever get so lucky to have such a great daughter when I was just a kid myself?”

She’s always been very independent and strong willed and passionate, extremely passionate. She loves with her whole heart and, when she’s hurt, she’s hurts with her whole heart. Her beauty radiates from within, she’s truly a sweet spirit. She’s the best of me.

Being a very independent person, she moved out right after high school into her own apartment. I was sad, but it was good, for both of us, but it hurt! I felt as if my arm had been removed, she’d been with me so long and through so much. Her dad and I divorced after three short years, she was only two. She and I moved in with my parents until I remarried. Her stepdad adopted her years later, after her dad proved to be unreliable and irresponsible. This is a sad story in itself, he was really a great dad while we were married and not a bad guy, we just had no business together.

The bad part of her moving out was we didn’t really get to know our future son-in-law until she was living with him. That was not the way to introduce us, we weren’t crazy about the idea of them living together. We didn’t know what to expect. Like most parents of daughters, we were very skeptical that he was good enough for our daughter. He was young and cocky and just hard for us to wrap our heads around. They moved in together after he bought a house and they fixed it up together. We gradually warmed up to him, mostly because, if she was that into him, he must be worth it.

By the time we went on the cruise for my birthday, Russell had begun to grow on us. He is truly a very sweet guy and I love that he loves my daughter, we have that in common! He asked us to help him with popping the question in the Bahamas. We were happy to oblige. So, on my birthday cruise, my daughter got engaged. (See my blog…Cruising Crows get Majesty of the Seas) It was very sweet, he did a great job of planning and making it very memorable for her. He had an engagement ring made out of a diamond he inherited from his mother. It’s gorgeous!

The wedding planning was smooth and flawless. My daughter is an over-planner and very much “in control” so I really didn’t have to do a lot. I helped pick out the food and cake. Went with her to see her try on her dress, which she shopped for and picked out by herself! I went to venues with her. Helped her order flowers, a relative is a florist so that was easy. Basically, I gave her a budget then wrote some checks. She made her centerpieces for the reception, she ordered invites and picked out everything else.

The wedding day went without a hitch. It was flawless and beautiful and I felt satisfied that she made the right choice. They have now been married for over five years and I can honestly say, we love him like a son and we wouldn’t trade him for anyone else.   He’s been great for her and her for him, they can very much be described as soulmates.

On a sad note, the March after her wedding Ashley’s biological father passed away from pneumonia. It was very sad and a lot more emotional for me than I ever dreamed it would be. The whole story is likely a blog in itself, so I won’t get into too much detail. But after the wedding, we were disappointed that there weren’t more pictures of us together at her wedding and so many with her dad, who had done nothing for it, financially or otherwise. Hindsight/God-sight that was how it was supposed to be, we had no idea. Life, as the cliche goes, is short and you never know when it could be over.

A year and a half ago, Russell also lost his dad. They had been married four years and he never knew they were expecting his first grandchild when he passed. This has been very difficult for him. His mother died when he was only a few weeks old, from complications of childbirth. He is truly an “orphan” now, at only 28. He has a stepmom and stepbrother and stepsister, but it’s just not the same without his dad, he was really a great man. We miss him also, he was always such a pleasure to talk to and a joy to be around. We hope Russell thinks of us as not just his in-laws, but his surrogate parents, we truly feel that way about him.

I really didn’t mean to make this such a sad post! So here are the good things…we LOVE our daughter, we LOVE our son-in-law like our own and we adore with all our heart, the sweet baby they’ve brought into the world. We feel like they’re a great family and truly an example to our son, who is getting married in three months. Here are some great pictures of the wedding, which was a beautiful day, with a beautiful bride and a very sweet and handsome groom.

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The Girls go to Cabo

We took a girls only trip to Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos to get Sondra out of the house and let her get some sun, sea and healing. The one month anniversary of losing David was hard. We thought about him a lot on the trip. These were the kind of trips we all took together as couples. The sunrises and sunsets were his favorite and taking pictures of them was a passion of his. He would have enjoyed the landscaping and gardens, since that’s what he did. And he would have liked cooking at the outdoor grill, although it was gas and he preferred charcoal. We had a fabulous, albeit, emotional time away.

Sondra, Rhonda and Wendy left on Sunday and Julie and I flew out on Tuesday. We had a driver that picked us up and drove us to the house. We stayed at David’s cousin’s house. It was very nice, in a gated community with a hotel, condos and other villas. It was a 3 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, with a “casita” (separate living quarters), a pool, hot tub, outdoor grill and cabana. Yeah, it was really nice.

The view from the pool.

 We spent the first day lounging by the pool and Wendy cooked us dinner. We got in the hot tub for a bit and went to bed pretty early. The next day we were going whale watching.

We’ve gone whale watching here before (See Cruising Crows Chill on the Mariner of the Seas...) it was a bust, we didn’t see anything and felt a little scammed. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw several whales and the three hours spent on the catamaran watching them went by very quickly. We had a spectacular day. Wendy had never done a trip like this so she was the most excited. It was fun watching her! Sondra had a few sad moments you could see her thinking and get a little melancholy look. I certainly understood, thoughts kept coming about the last trip here and how David would have loved seeing the whales.

We went back to the house and lay by the pool for the rest of the day, then we made fajitas with the leftover steak and chicken. We ate very well on this trip! The next morning we got up and Sondra had been sick all night. Not good! She spent most of the day in bed. So Rhonda took her place for the massage we had booked. That evening we changed into our pjs and watched Pretty Woman and Notting Hill on Netflix, chick flicks!

Friday, our last full day, we watched the inauguration before heading into town for shopping and lunch.  What a patriotic moment, we had in Mexico!! We had a great time shopping and lunch was terrific, best fish tacos EVER!! We walked on the beach and then went back to the house and got in the pool.

Later that evening, we took one last trip down to the water to watch the sunset. What a beautiful sky God made! Reminds me to be thankful always for what I have and to know that at any moment life can change, but God will always give me another sunrise, followed by a new sunset.

We went back and watched another chick flick, In Her Shoes. Funny thing, every night about the same time, there were fireworks. Not sure where they were coming from but we would run outside and watch them! They would last for about 10-15 minutes and it was a pretty decent presentation, kind of like fireworks night at the baseball game!

We had a great time, laughter and tears, food and fun, relaxing and remembering. I will truly treasure these moments forever in my heart and I’m very grateful for a hubby that let me go it alone and David’s generous cousin for sharing his fabulous house. And for Sondra inviting us to go and sharing her time with us.

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