Closing out the year

Time to close out the year. No better way than with a group of friends enjoying food and just a little something to drink. Looking forward to another Happy New Year!

Ductwork

Now that we've opened the Weird Room to the rest of the house, we need to be sure it can be cooled before hot weather gets here. We called in the guy who replaced our A/C, Vincent. Here's something I almost never see - Randy watching someone else do the work! Even when friends help, Randy doesn't stand around and watch.

And he couldn't this time, either. Soon he was right in there, helping prepare the ductwork. 

Now we have a big silver insulated tube in the living room. Next step: cover that thing up.

Holidays at Epcot

Finally - the sun came out! It's been overcast for days. We celebrated by going to Epcot. We were hungry when we arrived so the first thing we did was walk to France, to the Boulangerie Patisserie for a cheese plate and fresh loaf of bread. It's always good and just enough to split. Then we just walked through the various lands. A fiddler was celebrating Hanukkah, 

while over at the America Center the singers were dressed as Victorian Christmas carolers. Everyone in this group can really sing. They do the multi-part harmonies perfectly. 

In the German area we discovered a magnificent woodland clock. Love to have this, and the house it would need to set it off. 

It was here that we realized that a little dessert wouldn't be out of line, so we got some sweets - little squares made with layers of cream, jelly, and graham, surrounded by chocolate. 

Another store has a ton of crystal figures. I love the Boba Fett helmet - accurate down to the scuff marks and bullet hole, and it still costs $8,550. 

We wanted to get some information for Randy's upcoming Disney Dive so we went to The Seas and spoke with a diver. Then we wandered through the aquariums. There are so many wonderful things to see here. 

And someone had added a Santa hat to the not-very-hidden Mickey in the tank. 

On the way out we stopped to listen to "Joyful". This group (they are actually the D'Vine Singers) are powerful, fun singers who aren't afraid to praise the Lord!

Disney does Gingerbread

On our last day of Disney access this year, we went to see more Christmas displays. At the Grand Floridian they put up a ridiculously tall and beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the atrium.

But pride of place goes to their life-size gingerbread house. The design is just about the same as last year,  which is fine because once you get it right, you don't need to change it.

One change they did make was to leave a section of the roof off, so you can see inside from the surrounding balconies. 

From here we to the Contemporary Resort to check out their gingerbread castle. This is an entirely different take on gingerbread construction - they created a 2-dimensional castle, following the simplistic style of "It's a Small World". Not nearly as impressive as the Grand Floridian's, but still a good effort.

The sign says there are 18 "hidden Mickeys" in this. I could only find one, but Randy walked over, glanced at it, and found the rest of them. They are teeny tiny golden Mickey shapes, stamped onto some of the gingerbread blocks. I would have never found these!

We took a quick ride on Soarin, split a sandwich for lunch, then walked over to the American Center to see their gingerbread creation. Although it includes the Capital, the Lincoln Memorial, and Washington's Monument, it's the smallest of the gingerbread displays. But it's much more detailed than the castle. I'm not sure how much "to scale" it is, but they did take a few liberties; the Freedom statue on the Capital has been replaced by Mickey Mouse, and the Monument is capped with a Mickey hat!

By then the forecasted rain was threatening to come in, so we power-walked through some light sprinkles to the car and headed home.

Hollywood at Christmas

Sometimes it seems like a long time between Disney visits. Today we were glad to be back at Hollywood Studios.  

The first thing we did was use our Fast Pass for Toy Story Mania. I used to be beat Randy's score on this, but we've been often enough that his practice has paid off, and now he regularly tromps me!
No matter, I still love this ride/game. The new Toy Story area is cute - the imagineers really paid attention to the details, so while children are excited by the rides and characters, adults keep saying "I remember that game!"

The next order of business was to walk over to Epcot and head for the Beach Club Resort for a look at their holiday extravaganza. They have created a life-size spinning carousel with 4 ponies, made of chocolate, fondant and gingerbread. They used 36 pounds of honey, 96 pounds of bread flour, 100 pints of eggs, 10 pounds of spices, 10 quarts of simple syrup, 150 pounds of icing, 50 pounds of dark chocolate, 50 pounds of modeling chocolate, with 200 gum paste flowers. They ended up with 2,109 pieces of gingerbread! There are supposed to be 19 "hidden Mickeys" in this creation, but I didn't bother looking for them. I was busy admiring that famous "attention to detail" that Disney does so well. 

Afterwards we walked back to Hollywood Studios, where we were in time for the March of the First Order. We strolled through the rest of the park but decided we didn't really want to stand in lines, so we finished the day by going to Guest Relations, where we bundled our 3 Disney gift cards onto one card (again). Hopefully this one won't get stolen!

Just Desserts

Our Life Group got together to celebrate the holidays with, as usual, food! At our last meeting we all decided that for this event, everyone would bring desserts. We had every kind of dessert and it was all delicious. We had a great evening with friends and everyone agreed that we'd never do "just desserts" again!

Our own entry was a bit . . . different. Randy had a snowman pan he wanted to use so he made a delicious cake and we decorated it with colored frosting. It was the first time I'd tried to decorate an upright cake, and that makes a difference. Our snowman ended up looking like a wistful little snowbird with a bright orange beak instead of a carrot nose. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were blessed to have family and friends join us for an amazing Thanksgiving event! We have a new table - it's huge - and we still had to use a second table. Wonderful!

Randy cooked for 2 days, making turkey breast, pork loin, dressing, oyster dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, brown gravy, cranberry relish, hot rolls, cooked apples, peanut clusters, chocolate chip nut cookies and pumpkin bread. 

Erin and Gary brought green bean casserole, Marla brought mac and cheese and chocolate chess pie, Donna brought pecan pie, and Billy brought pumpkin pie.

Liam, who is 6 years old, spent most of the time playing with Shorty. Shorty thinks we need to have Liam over every day!

Our thanks to Lance, Marla, her mom Gail, Jordan, Liam, Pete, Donna, Gary, Erin, Billy and Aaron for joining us - you made this holiday wonderful!

Lovely Nassau

When we got off the ship in Nassau, we were accosted by a man named Robbie who followed us a short distance, offering to drive us to Atlantis. We weren't interested until he said that if we went now we could see the huge aquarium for free, but if we waited until 9 (about 20 minutes later) we would have to pay to get in. He offered to take us for $5 each and we decided to go for it. Along the way he said that for an additional $30 each he would take us on a personal tour of the island. We liked him and we didn't have a better idea so we agreed.

As he drove along, Robbie kept calling out "Ya paw paw" to other drivers. When Gary asked what that meant, he said it was a general way to say "hello" or "what's up" or something generic like that. He also said they like to abbreviate words, like saying "G" for gangster . He dropped us off at the Atlantis hotel and said he'd be back in 30 minutes. 

Atlantis is amazing! We heard that the rooms in the arch cost $25,000 a night. 

Inside it was all stately grandeur, meant to impress with size and decor. 

But what we wanted to see was the huge indoor aquarium. There are a zillion fish in here!

And one or two huge sting rays that block out the light when they pass. 

The aquarium is set up like an underwater ruin of an ancient civilization, which makes it much more visually interesting.

The main section was a series of connected vignettes in the round. From there a cool, dark tunnel led to other, smaller but wonderful sections. The lobsters were fascinating to me. There were latticed structures for them to climb, and when they wanted to come down, they simple drop, head first. They look like huge spiders descending on invisible silken threads. Very, very freaky!

The jellyfish looked bio luminescent as they bobbed around, much more like underwater balloons than like animals.

One section was filled with jars, which were filled with large green Moray eels. They swayed to the current in their favorite jar, occasionally moving to check out a different one. 

All this and much, much more. When we'd seen all we could, we went outside. A canal of crystal clear water ran along the walkway, filled with fish, turtles, and smaller rays. We learned that many of these are here to be healed from various problems. When they are OK and get big enough, they are returned to the sea. 

The attention to detail here is wonderful. Everything is spotless and every view is so lovely.

By then we were out of time. While we were waiting for Robbie to show up, Aaron and Randy went window shopping for a nice little boat...

Robbie picked us up right on time and started driving us around the island. In Nassau they drive on the left side of the road, with the driver's wheel on the right side of the car. Many of the roads are very narrow; I didn't see how drivers could pass each other on some of them, but they did. Along the way Robbie gave us some information about Nassau. Since it's an island, everything is imported which raises prices; milk costs $10 for a gallon and cars cost twice as much here as elsewhere. Local food is stuff like fried fish, conch fritters, and mac and cheese. The main religion on the island is Baptist. The Bahama flag has blue for the sky, yellow for sand, blue for the sea, and black for strength. There are 700 islands and cays in the Bahamas, of which 32 are inhabited with around 300,000 people. Nassau is the capital and has embassies for US, China, Cuba and Haiti. He wanted to show us various types of neighborhoods and housing, which looked quite similar (in quality and amenities) to those in the US. He drove by some of the most expensive houses but couldn't get very close to them - most were across the bay from where we were. Then he drove through what he called upper middle class. The houses here cost between $500,000 and $1,000,000 and were very nice. Next he took us through middle class and lower middle class, with some houses under $300,000 and no property tax. Finally he took us through one of the poor neighborhoods. He said some of the poor houses don't have running water so they use a neighborhood tap to fill water jugs. Several school yard fences were topped with barbed wire rolls to keep out the drug gangs. The minimum weekly wage is $210 so most people need to work 2 jobs. Public hospital care is free until age 18, and then it only costs $10 to see a doctor. But according to Robbie, nearby Cuba has some of the best medical care in the world as well as the most affordable. He goes to Cuba for $450 airfare and pays $2,000 for a full body scan.

Robbie thought we might like to sample some rum cake. Robbie was right! He took us to The Rum Cake Factory, which sounds a lot fancier than it is. 

Inside the small store was one older man at the register and two women doing everything else. They were friendly and efficient, and after we after the wonderful samples, we had to buy several! That, of course was the plan, and a mighty good plan it was. 

Next Robbie took us to see Fort Fincastle, which was built by the Royal Governor Lord Dunmore in 1793. Dunmore built several forts and this one was sort of designed to look like a ship but only if seen from above, which doesn't make sense to me. Nearby there were makeshift shops set up to sell things but Robbie suggested we wait until we got to the straw market, where there were better bargains. 

There wasn't much to see of the fort so we walked around it to the water tower.

A man at the open doorway led us upstairs and onto a small platform. There was a great view from there that I wanted to enjoy but the guide kept loudly calling my attention back, saying "Look at me!" every time I looked at the scenery. He had to tell me several times because I was really liking the view, which included an old canon pointed directly at the cruise ships.

But our host had cause to want us to listen to him; this was his job and he was paid by tips, so he wanted to be sure we got our money's worth. According to him the fort was built to protect from pirates although pirates never attacked. And there was a jailhouse underneath the tower. After he finished his speech, he directed us to the nearby Queen's Staircase.

The Queen's Staircase is a deep descent cut into solid rock, which local slave owners felt they needed as an escape route in case of disaster. It was hand-cut by 600 slaves over 16 years. Whatever it might have been called during those terrible years, it was renamed "Queen's Staircase" in honor of Queen Victoria when she freed Nassau's slaves. The handrail is new, of course, and the last two stairs are under the new concrete walkway at the bottom. It's incredible.

At the base of the stairs a youngster was playing bongos with, for some reason, a child's feathered headdress as a tip basket. His music added so much to the atmosphere that I was more than glad to tip him. He had a great smile but for the camera he put on his somber face. 

Robbie took us to one last stop. After hearing Erin and I talk about how much we wished we'd been able to visit the Cuban cemetery, Robbie drove us all to what he called the western cemetery. We had a few minutes here to get out and investigate. This is a wonderful cemetery, full of old and unusual monuments, and we respectfully appreciated it all.

At the end of our tour Robbie dropped us off at the straw market. A few years ago it was made up of lots of tiny individual shops. But that burnt down and the town built one large, crowded building to serve as the market in its place. It isn't as charming as an old fashioned market but we found some goodies, like a hat and conch shell. 

Next we walked along the main shopping district, looking for some sales that we'd heard about on the ship. We found some beautiful reversible necklaces at Kay's, and then we found Diamonds International, where they give away free Bahama Mamas while you shop. This works out very well for them. Erin and Gary found some amazing beauties here to bring home. I went for a much more modest but lovely tanzanite and white sapphire bracelet.  

Somewhere along the line Aaron and Randy said they were headed out to have lunch. I didn't hear them but when I noticed they were gone, I assumed that's where they were headed. So I left Erin and Gary to their purchases and went looking for the guys at the restaurant. But somehow I missed them. So I kept looking - along the beach, back to the stores, and anywhere I though they might be. Eventually I went back to the ship but did find them there, either. So I took one more trip around the shops, restaurant and beach before going back to the ship, where everyone else was worried about me. 

For our last dinner on board, escargot was not on the menu. We had been ordering double appetizers every night with one always being escargot, so our waiter Lilibeth noted we hadn't ordered it tonight. When we said it wasn't on the menu, she disappeared and returned with four plates of it! Tonight's Randy's other appetizer was salmon tartar with caviar bits on top. Then we had tacos, spaghetti and lamb. Randy ordered his lamb rare and when Lilibeth served it, she leaned over his shoulder and whispered "Baa! Baa!". Then she noticed Aaron opening his shrimp with his fingers. She was confounded - what was he doing? When he explained, she grinned, went back into the kitchen, and came out with two more shrimp plates. Then she proceeded to show him how to neatly hold the shrimp with a knife while scooping it out with the fork. She must have thought he was a slow learner because she did both plates! 

Aaron and Randy managed to eat all that extra shrimp in addition to their regular meals, and still had room for dessert - creme brûlée for Randy and chocolate ice cream for me. 

After dinner I was pretty tired - I had done a lot of walking that day. But there was another comedy show that night that everyone wanted to see so I joined them. It was really good but I still enjoyed one last night of excellent sleep as much as anything else!

Day at sea

Today was supposed to be a sunny, fun day at sea. However, the slight rain and cool temperatures kind of put the kabash on that. Oh well. We started with a trip to the waffle bar, while Randy enjoyed lots of salmon.

Later the guys bought some more Blantons. Then we all went to the shopping show, to learn what we must not miss in Nassau. 

Eventually the weather cleared up enough for the belly-flop contest. At least one guy took it very seriously, flopping hard enough to make red marks on his chest. But I suspect he was over-medicated with enough alcohol to feel much pain.

Sometimes it's lovely to get dressed up for a great meal. 

We lined up for dinner a bit before it was served. While we were standing there, the crew was performing on the stage next to us. They announced which country they were from, waived their flags, and sang or dance a bit. 

Then it was time for dinner. Tonight they had escargot appetizer again, and dinner included Covina fish and swordfish, which was superb.

In our cabin was a towel-bunny, lounging near the liquor that seems to be accumulating in our cabin. I enjoyed another night of perfect sleep. Something about the rocking boat seems to work like a sleep-drug for me.