This 'n that 'n Elvis...

I haven’t written in this for a while and I need to practice doing so in order to be disciplined enough on the cruise to post at least every few days.

Ray and Paula's blog about cruising has a great list of what to do and how to act. I’d say it was the Ten Commandments of Cruising but there are 30 of them! And  number 30 is especially appropriate.

I have been spending a LOT of time on the cruise critic website, especially on the Sun World Cruise Roll Call which seems to be getting more active. I’m also involved on Facebook where there are now a confusing TWO World Cruise Facebook Groups (World Cruise and Princess Cruise 2012). I find I can’t keep the two groups separate so I am just going to choose one, World Cruise, and ignore the other, Princess Cruise 2012. They seem to, by and large, have the same members and do the same thing.

It has been great fun to “meet” all the people going on “our” cruise! Should make it so much fun to start the cruise already having some friends.

Some of our cruise excursions are getting firmed up. A CC member named Narelle has been organizing some and so have I so we’re kind of set for Mumbai, Aqaba, and Petra and thinking about Salalah and Dubai. Gets exciting when we’re already planning the excursions!

The only traveling we have done lately is to go to Phoenix to visit Colorado friends and then on to Las Vegas for my daughter and son-in-law’s wedding by Elvis. Ken (son-in-law) has always, always wanted to be married by Elvis so when they planned a trip to the National Finals Rodeo they also planned, along with their friends Sharon & Bill, to be married by Elvis. Well, what a kick that was! They did the whole nine yards: limo, video, photographer, and Elvis singing “Love Me Tender”—among other songs—to them! And we got to share in the fun without having to pay for it! Icing on the cake! (My daughter is really, really tired of hearing that we didn’t have to pay for it. But I’m not!)

Kathy, Ken, 'n Elvis

Sharon, Bill, Kathy, Ken, 'n Elvis

Elvis is saying, Do you promise to always be as smokin' hot as you are today?

They always wanted their names in lights!

Do we have a beautiful daughter, or what!

I think Ken just got the bill.

Quirky—OK, OK, weird—travel stuff

Most travel items fall in the category of need or gee, that looks like it’s useful. Boring things like adapters and converters for international travel and alarm clocks and travel purses/wallets. Or packing aids like compression bags and packing cubes. But there is another whole category I am discovering: weird things that sound useful but just a bit whacky.

For instance, I’ve discovered a quirky website, the place to buy a Buff. What is a Buff? It’s a odd scarf/beanie/face covering/whatever-you-want for your head. Check it out here, it’s a hoot. I might even get one.

Then there is Scottevest (pronounced Scott-y-vest), the company whose ad Delta Airlines refused to run. If jacket meets carry-on bag is your thing, this is the company to go to! And there is shirt meets bug spray, the Bugsaway Halo shirt, sold by www.magellans.com or www.amazon.com. Also at Magellan's is the luggage scale meets flashlight. I read on one blog that it was appointment only for cruisers who were worried about overweight luggage to use their scale on the last full day of the cruise. Oh, shopping travel is so much fun!

I’m discovering all these interesting places by reading the Independent Traveler, which has tons—probably literally, were I to print out all the fascinating content!—of travel-related information. Like "35 Travel Tips Revealed: Top Secrets of Travel Writers." One of those tips is to bring a travel scarf that doubles as a purse. Seems like a great idea, but there isn’t a store closer than Albuquerque and there is no online way to buy. Too bad!

Speaking of purses, Epiphanie is a wonderful site for camera bags for women. I am getting very tired of plain old black bags to carry my camera equipment in (Note to my old English teacher: I KNOW I shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition but it just seems so awkward to say "...in which to carry..."). Some of these bags seem so lovely and I am sorely tempted to get lyric or lola or maybe stella. There are other places for beautiful—if not quirky—camera bags. For example: here and here and here.

And, of course, the ever popular Rum Runner, or how to smuggle any liquid on board your cruise ship because the cocktails on board cost more than dinner out back home.

I can’t believe I am now starting to think about our vacation in 2013, a river cruise in Europe. Might even take the kids (don’t listen, Kathy, Ken, Greg, Yolanda; we haven’t really decided yet) if the stock market doesn’t completely tank. I’d like to do a 30 day river cruise (I think such a thing exists) from somewhere in eastern Europe to Amsterdam with options for shorter segments for our kids who are still working. I need to spend more time looking at which companies are best for our purposes and then which boats. Are they boats? Or are they ships? Our old and—sadly—deceased friend, Captain Paul, said a boat could be carried on a ship but not vice-versa. So, by that standard, they are river “boats.”

Mumbai, here we come!

Booked our first tour so now I feel like we really, really are going on this cruise!

Thanks to a previous cruiser I discovered Mumbai Magic Tours and have booked them for Sunday, June 3, 2012. Gosh that seems a long way away! Through Cruise Critic Roll Call for the Sun Princess World Cruise 2012 (you’ll have to join Cruise Critic to read the messages) I’ve enlisted six other people to join us in the Mumbai Magic Tour. Should be a great tour! I’m working on some others, even further away in both time and distance, in Le Havre for a Honfleur and the beaches of WWII fame. It’s hard to say how much to do how soon.

Princess has updated the schedule for the cruise and we now know we are leaving Sydney on May 16^th from the  Barangaroo Wharf 5, Hickson Rd, Barangaroo, Sydney, Australia. Try to find THAT on a map. I’ll save you the trouble, it’s here but it’s not the wharf by Circular Quay, it’s over by Darling Harbour. On the google map there is a ship docked there with sort of a greenish top. It means we will sail out under the Harbour Bridge. Cross your fingers for good weather for us! But when we come back on August 29^th, we will dock at Circular Quay. Greg has said he would be on the Harbour Bridge as we sailed out so we’re going to get a really big US flag to hang on our balcony for him to see as we sail out.

I’ve lost my flags!

I have a flag counter here and I wanted to make it a bit different. Well, I sure did that! And in the process lost all the count of how many different people from what country had looked at my blog. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the count that gaznjo has: 12,259 from Oz, 2,330 from the US, through 63 from Bahrain, down to 22 from France, but I had quite a few and I’m desolate that the list has vanished. That will teach me to tinker with my blog! 

Although time seems to be moving at a glacial pace, our trip IS getting closer. Everytime I watch the videos from this year’s World Cruise I get alternately energized and depressed. Watching gaznjos blog and vimeo posts I am energized by the wonderful videos of the ports they went to—and, for the most part, we will also be going to next year. I think he does the videos and she picks the music; they each do a fabulous job! At the same time I get depressed because I don’t think I can ever do as well.

But I tell myself that I don’t have to do as well, I’m just doing this blog for my family and friends and they will be very happy (won’t you?) just to see and read about what we’re doing. So I’ll try some videos to add a bit of interest to my blog.

However, taking videos of Kathy’s horse show made me realize just how difficult it is to do GOOD videos! Anybody can point a camera at a thing and take a picture of it; not just anybody can make that picture or video into an interesting one. If it were easy all of us would be making movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade all the time. I mention that movie because we will be going to the area where at least part of it was filmed, Petra in Jordan. Naturally, we’re going to have to watch it again!

I’m going to google the ports we’re going to and see what movies—if any—were filmed at those ports. For example, Athens was the setting for, among others, For the Love of Benji and The Day the Fish Came Out (I never heard of that one either) and several dozen others filmed in Greece, mostly in Santorini rather than Athens, but how far wrong can I go watching a movie set in Greece? For movies shot in Mykonos, I hit a double: The Kings of Mykonos, an Australian movie shot in Mykonos. Really it’s a hat trick as it’s a comedy, too.

OK, I really HAVE to get cracking on some tours. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s still—let me look at the cute little counter on my blog—179 (5 months and 3 weeks) days until the cruise leaves. But it’s only 2 weeks until our second payment is due. Ouch. Then there is the third payment due about 6 weeks after that. Then we’ll REALLY know we’re going!

Anyway, I’ve put a request on the Cruise Critic Roll Call for the Sun Princess about a tour of Mumbai by a company (used by others on Cruise Critic) called Mumbai Magic. I wish I had discovered Cruise Critic long ago, before our first cruise! They have everything you could possibly want to know about cruising. And I expect we’ll have a much better time on our cruise because of the connections I’ve made on the Roll Call.

Packing? I don’t need no stinking packing!

At least not yet. But I’m thinking about it. Boy am I thinking about it!

There is a great website, the http://www.independenttraveler.com/, that has all kinds of packing advice. Which I would take except that Randy, my husband, is a fabulous packer. My favorite story about how great a packer he is: We took our (then teen-aged) children on an airplane trip to Hong Kong (in the summer there) and Australia  and New Zealand (winter) with a stop in Honolulu. Hong Kong was great, it was warm, we didn’t need a lot of clothes but we did buy a few things. Did I mention we only had carry-on bags? One carry-on each and my daughter and I had a purse each. But we also had makeup and “stuff” that teen-aged girls (and their mothers) have to have.

When we got to New Zealand my daughter fell in love with some fleece lined, knee-high, leather boots. I said no initially because I could not believe that they would fit in her suitcase. Did I mention it was a carry-on?

Well, Randy managed to fit those two boots in. As he said, “Piece of cake!”

So I have my very own packer. 

But I still read the packing advice and, as someone who has always before this trip only had carry-on sized bags—in fact, we don’t even own a bigger bag than that. We don’t even own more than two carry-ons—I am seriously thinking about how we are going to pack for 104 days. Maybe more like 124 days as we are now considering staying in Australia a few more weeks to go on a trip with Outback Spirit, the Cape York Wilderness Adventure. 

Our transportation, a 4WD Mercedes Benz

After dinner in the campground

Before getting the tents up...

...and after getting the tents up!

We went with them once before, a somewhat adventurous tour in 2008, 19 days of camping (12 nights) and hotels (7 nights) from Darwin to Alice via Kimberly, Broome, the Bungle Bungles, and the Tanami Desert. This year’s  tour is a bit longer as it goes to the Mitchell Plateau in addition, but is otherwise the same one we did in ‘08.

We tried to show the Aussies how to make 'SMores

Our home

So we know the tour company well, we just have to decide if we want to tack on another  12 days to our 104 days (plus the week before the cruise). We did spend some time in Daintree a few years back right after one of the biggest Wets in a while. But we have always wanted to see the Cape York area. It seems to be the right time of year for it, I just have to convince Randy that two more weeks would be worth it!

Less than 200 days to go!

It’s hard to believe that we will be on our great adventure in just over six months! I am calling it our great adventure, but really it’s not the first we’ve had. 

Our first great adventure, in 2002, was a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to San Francisco followed by driving our RV to Alaska for two months. We put 17,000 miles on the motorhome plus 7,000 miles on the Trailblazer SUV we pulled behind the RV. That was my first experience in trying to keep an online journal. In those days that meant writing it on my computer and trying to find a modem connection to email the journal to our children and a few friends. Many times that meant cajoling the RV Park owners into letting me use their only phone line. I had to promise not to take more than a few minutes, so I sent very few pictures!

Our second great adventure was actually two back-to-back cruises in 2006 on the Holland America Prinsendam from Ft. Lauderdale to South America and back and from Ft. Lauderdale to Amsterdam (60 days total) followed by an RV trip to Canada. At the time, that seemed like a really long cruise—but we haven’t yet found a cruise that was too long. We were the only two who went back-to-back so we had a really great time time with the staff on the second half of that cruise. They seemed to enjoy knowing at least two passengers and we enjoyed being the “old hands.” I had better luck at sending my deathless prose, but still couldn’t send many photos as it took too many of the precious “internet minutes” we had paid dearly for.

Our third great adventure, in 2008, was an almost three-month trip around Australia. Well, it was mostly Western Australia as we had already spent a lot of time in the eastern half of the country. One trip was for almost 2 months (in 1997) of flying to many of the biggest cities—Hobart, Adelaide, Melbourne, Alice, and Darwin and then using a campervan as our home base. Several other trips were for a couple of weeks at a time. Can you tell we love Australia? Too bad it takes so darn long to get there! By this trip I had sort-of mastered the ability to upload my electronic journal. If you’re interested it’s on another page on my blog (http://worldcruise12.blogspot.com/ or http://pamryan.blogspot.com).

So I guess this cruise will be GA4. We are SO looking forward to it and to the approximately 27 of the 41 ports we’ve never been to! Half the fun is figuring out what we want to do in each port.

A hike and some questions

Columbus was a traveler so I think it’s appropriate that I add a bit to my blog on Columbus Day. Nevermind that it was celebrated the day before yesterday, Oct 12 is, to me, Columbus Day.

Randy and I went on a four mile hike today, up Marshall Gulch Trail (on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, where we have a small cabin) and back on the Aspen Trail. This was the site of the origination of the Aspen Fire of 2003 that burned 84,750 acres (343 km2) and destroyed 340 homes and businesses in Summerhaven, the town at the top of Mt. Lemmon.

I don't know what these are, but I love them, they flower at my cabin every year, all summer long.

The forest is recovering, and it is encouraging to see all the new growth. Some of the pine tree seedlings are four feet tall, which is pretty good for eight years! New oak trees, new aspen trees, and several species of pine and fir (I get my coniferous trees mixed up).

And I couldn't resist this group of mushrooms (probably not edible by humans) being devoured by some unknown insect.

So what does this have to do with our cruise, you may well ask. Randy and I talk a lot when we hike; the longer the hike, the more we converse! So we were talking about the cruise, which is coming up in only 216 days, one hour and 43 minutes (as I write this). We’re stopping in a lot of places (41), by far the majority(27) are places we’ve never been before. So we’re hoping for help! Do you have any ideas for what we absolutely can’t miss in any of the following cities? The ones with asterisks are places we have been before, but that doesn’t mean we know the absolute most wonderful things to see and do in those cities.

Sydney*

Darwin*

Singapore*

Kuala Lumpur* (but it’s been 45 years since I’ve been here)

Penang

Mumbai

Dubai

Salalah (Oman)

Luxor/Karnak (Safaga)

Aqaba (Jordan)

Suez Canal

Alexandria

Mykonos

Istanbul

Anzac Cove

Athens

Venice (2 nights)

Dubrovnik (Croatia)

Naples

Rome

Livorno

Cannes

Barcelona

Lisbon*

Paris*

London*

Bergen*

Shetland Island

Reykjavik

Halifax

NY (2 nights)* (we’ll at least go see a play here)

St Thomas*

Aruba*

Panama Canal*

Puntarenas

Los Angeles*

Honolulu*

Papeete

Pago Pago

Auckland*

Bay of Islands*

So please think about it, and email me (if you don’t know my email, use pamelamryan@yahoo.com) with ideas or add a comment on this blog. We’d love to hear any and all ideas, remarks, comments, observations, thoughts, opinions, views, feelings, sentiments, prospects, or viewpoints on any and/or all of the cities above.

And so the checklists begin!

I have been obsessing about our cruise and am starting on a checklist. This is a compilation of many checklists suggested by several people on Cruise Critic. I know this will change, be added to, subtracted from ad nauseum!

Please add any thoughts you have to my current ideas!

Notes for our cruise

Important thought #1: IF YOU DON'T USE IT AT HOME ON ANY AVERAGE WEEK OF YOUR LIFE - DON'T BRING IT!

Important thought #2:Ten Essentials for Traveling Well:
•    Smiles
•    An open mind
•    Tolerance
•    Laughter
•    Flexibility
•    Mindfulness
•    Curiosity
•    Manners
•    Gratitude
•    Serendipity

Now the less important stuff:

CLOTHING, ETC.
•    Clothing and Shoes – formal, casual, gym
•    Lightweight rain ponchos
•    Sweater and/ or jacket
•    Umbrella
•    Poncho
•    Visor/hat

TOILETRIES
•    ShampooDisinfectant wipes
•    Purell or other waterless hand cleaner
•    Fabreeze air freshener
•    A small shower organizer to keep the soap and shampoo, razor, etc

PERSONAL ITEMS
•    Stain remover pen
•    Glasses – sunglasses, reading, and prescription
•    Extra pair of prescription glasses
•    Eyeglass repair kit
•    Bottle/can opener
•    Sewing kit
•    Cheap waterproof watch
•    Downy wrinkle release spray
•    Tool kit
•    Camelback

DRUGS, MEDICINES, ETC.
Medications
•    Prescriptions with doctor's letter + non-prescription
•    Prescription medications (4 month supply +)
•    Broad spectrum antibiotics
•    Diarrhoea (Pepto Bismol tablets, etc)
•    Vomiting
•    Cold and flu
•    Pain killers (aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, etc.)
•    Anti-histamines
•    Bonine or Dramamine
•    Anti-inflammatories
•    Benedryl
Ointments
•    Neosporin
•    Calamine lotion
•    Antiseptic ointment
•    Sunscreen
•    Lip balm
•    Sunburn cream
Miscellaneous
•    Moleskin
•    Band Aids
•    Insect repellent
•    Dental floss
•    First aid kit
•    Tweezers
•    Nail clippers
•    Emery board
•    Clear nail polish (nylon runs)
•    Rubber bands

ELECTRONIC ITEMS
USB copy of all paperwork – leave a spare USB with all details with Kathy
•    Itinerary
•    Airline tickets
•    Cruise tickets
•    Passports
•    Visas
•    Visa waivers
•    Insurance documents (health and travel)
•    Bookings for independent tours
•    Confirmations for rental cars
•    Labels pre-addressed for postcards to be sent
•    Copies of passport, credit card & important numbers incase you lose it
Wallet cards –
•    Credit and debit cards
•    Health fund
•    Medicare
•    Senior cards
Other
•    Kindle loaded with books
•    Binoculars
•    Waterproof bag for camera, money, etc when at the beach
•    Power strip
•    Extension cord
•    Walkie Talkies
•    Think about Skype while on the cruise
•    Mobile iphone with world clock and alarm clock, and walking tour apps loaded, phone card or International travel sim
•    GPS on cruise
•    iPod and charger
Camera –
•    Disposable underwater camera
•    Rechargable batteries for your digital camera
•    Battery charger (s)
•    Cell phone charger
•    Extra memory cards for your digital camera
Laptop computer
•    External hard drive to download photos and for email
•    Charger
•    Mouse

MISCELLANEOUS
•    Souvenirs from Tucson (postcards, key chains, pens,
•    Neck lanyard (2) for key card
•    International calling cards on sale for gifts to stewards
•    Glowsticks at dollar store
•    Guidebooks for your cruise desitnations
•    Swiss Army knife
•    Shamwow
•    Bring  my saguaro glasses? Where are they?

FOR THE ROOM
•    Chair Clips
•    Suction hooks (for balcony door), magnets
•    Clothes line and pegs
•    Banner and/or flag?
•    Luggage labels and boarding passes
•    Flashlight and spare AA/AAA (other?) batteries
•    Highlighter
•    Pens
•    Post it notes
•    Blu tack
•    Duct tape
•    World map with magnets to put up on wall
•    Other maps and guide books for ports of call
•    Large metal paper clips for hanging up wet bathing suits
•    Single $$ for tips and misc. Spending
•    Addresses of all those that you want to write postcards and letters to while on your cruise.
•    Ziplock bags (asst sizes)
•    A small pair of scissors
•    A bungie cord to hold open the sliding door to the balcony and/or hold the drapes open
•    Thermal coffee mug? Buy on board? Accordian file?
•    Thank you cards to leave for waiters and stewards. (They really appreciate them!) IDEAS
•    Ask for egg crate bed topping (very few usually available)
•    Don’t pack tshirts, you’ll buy them
•    I took the dollar bills, the candy bar and did a little Print Shop magic and created a label (shipping label size...6 t a page) thank you with a ship and my DH's name and my name too. (the quote says, "thank you for helping to make our cruise a memorable experience") Put all of this in a cello bag and stapled them shut. I made 18 of them.
•    Small knapsack for Randy to carry (otherwise it goes in my purse!)
•    Business cards with my email address for the new friends I will meet on the cruise
•    Indoor/outdoor thermometer?

LOOK UP
•    Anzac Cove and Gallipoli

FOR OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
•    A backpack or fanny pack (my Australian dil says not to say “fanny pack” but “bum bag”) for carrying things on shore excursions
Take with you on excursions
•    Your passports
•    Ship Cards
•    Credit Card
•    Cash
•    Tour Vouchers & Payment for Tours with tips
•    Waterproof Camera
•    Rain Ponchos
•    Thermal Bag with drinks & ice Bug spray
•    Sunscreen
•    Waterproof (water resistant) shoes
•    Sunglasses

TRIP IDEAS
•    Backpack for tours / Gifts (I take small clip on koalas/Aussie keychains  to give to children and guides we meet in ports)
•    Different nights on board, like Country/Western; White Night: plan clothes accordingly
•    Funny hats?
•    Weekly statement of onboard account
•    Many recommendations to do tours on our own
•    Kim’s, Bannisters, what else?
•    Walk in Rome, no tour
•    Auckland: penguin encounter at Kelly Tarlton’s www.kellytarlton.co.nz, there is a free shuttle bus to the site which leaves from across the road from the ferry terminal ... only a five to ten minute walk from the ship - it leaves every hour - on the hour and returns at 10 minutes to each hour. The entrance cost is $34NZ for adults, cheaper for over 65’s, with 10% discount if you book online beforehand. There is also a free shuttle which takes you round downtown Auckland.
•    Tahiti: Take the ferry to Moorea in the morning and do the Tahiti tour in the afternoon. The other way around often doesn’t work because of time constraints with the ship’s departure.

SHOPPING
•    Empty tote bag for carrying what you buy on shopping trips

Still months and months away

But planning is more than half the fun!

I should put in some of the details here: We are departing Sydney (SYD) on 16 May 2012 on the Sun Princess but we will leave the US before that First Class (!) on United Airlines to SYD.

Among other things, our 50th anniversary is right before we get on the ship so I want to find something to do on the 12, 13, 14 of May. Something spectacular and really romantic. Not to mention wanting to give Randy something to commemorate our spending 50 years together! Guys are NOT easy to buy for, however, so I will have to think about this for the next few months.

I also have to think about getting our reservations back home from SYD!

It may even be time to start some of our checklists. The one thing I'm sort of worried about is visas. We need visas for many, many countries. So I have to look into how to do that in a timely manner.

Not everything is about planning for the cruise next year

Not everything is about planning for the cruise next year. Although it sometimes seems that that is all I can think about—even though it is over eight months away.

Randy and I have spent the last week in Santa Fe. We’ve done this for at least 12 years and for the past few years we have made a point of coming during Indian Market. Yes, “Indian” not Native American. This year, the 90^th Indian Market, there were over 1050 vendors, all and only Indians. This was the first year that the First Nation members (Canadian) were allowed to participate. It is a juried show and there are some truly spectacular pieces. The piece voted Best in Show was sold (price unknown) to someone who camped out in front of the seller’s booth from 11pm the night before—even though there was about an inch of rain overnight!

We took two days to wander around all the booths, finally buying a beautiful bola (not bolo!) tie of sterling silver and lapis and azurite and a couple of other stones.

The rest of the week we tried to find places we had not been to before. Pretty difficult! We did find Fort Union, a ruined military fort about 25 miles north of Las Vegas. The original Las Vegas, that is, in New Mexico. Although it was pretty warm and there wasn’t a lick of shade, it was fun walking around the adobe ruins and reading about life in Fort Union in the 1800s. 

Three forts were built, the first from wood that didn’t have the bark stripped before building so it started rotting within a year. The next fort was built from adobe bricks, but by the soldiers with no real experience in building, so that, too, has almost disappeared. The third and final fort was also built of adobe but with the engineering, design, and building done by professionals. That fort was abandoned in 1891 and although it has largely disintegrated, there still remains enough of the building to be able to see, for instance, the rooms in the officers’ quarters and the quartermaster’s buildings (none of the roofs have survived) and storage rooms.

It was warm, as I said, but otherwise the day was beautiful with a slight breeze and puffy clouds—and some far away thunderheads. 

Life outside the Fort was not so comfy!

The remains of the officers' quarters.

The commanding officer had the largest chimney.

The remaining walls of the supply building.

The parade grounds.

They had the science to get the elevation to three decimal points! 6885.428 above sea level (tidewater).

The brig survived so well because it was inside another wall, you can see the remains of the surrounding wall on the right of the brig..

Other days were not so beautiful. Yesterday (8/24) we drove to the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque to hike. We parked and walked to a lookout just steps from our car, came back to change into our hiking boots and it started to rain. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally we decided that hiking Sandia Crest was not in the offing! The thunder and lightning and our being on the tallest mountain around made our decision even easier.

Driving down and back to I25 we stopped and hiked—well, we strolled—to Sandia Man cave, a small cave high on the side of the hill about three quarters of a mile from the parking lot. It is high enough of the cliff wall that a two-storey circular stair has been installed. Unfortunately for me, it hangs out over space a couple of hundred feet above the valley floor and the treads are open. I could not climb up it. I could only get up about eight steps and had to back down. Bummer.

Today, our last day, was rainy for most of the morning so we just veged out in the timeshare apartment until after lunch when we made a short foray to an outdoor art gallery that we always like to visit. Saw several things we liked, but decided that with the cruise coming up, we’d better save our nickels.

So now I’m back to thinking about the cruise. Checklists. That’s the most important thing! We didn’t use our checklists on this trip to Santa Fe and forgot so many things! Like raingear. And vests or jackets. Can you believe we didn’t bring raingear?

Where we will spend 104 days next year

Our itinerary is at the top of the page, so you can see all the ports we will go to. At least we HOPE we will get to all those ports! This year's cruise missed one or two as did the cruise the year before. We hope that next year at this time we will be at sea, about to dock in Tahiti.

This is a view of the rear of the cruise ship, the Sun Princess and our cabin is on the left (I believe I should say the PORT) side of the ship, four openings up from the bottom. If you're REALLY curious you can go to www.princess.com and find C746, our home for 104 days.

And I love this photo of the Sun Princess leaving Sydney on an absolutely gorgeous day. Soon (273 days!) that will be us!

Time to start planning!

I know our cruise is not until next May, but it's never to early to start getting excited about it. Among other things, I'll need to learn more about blogging!