Even though I didn’t retire until August 31, 2018, we still managed to visit some favorite places and see a lot of new ones in 2018. But wait! 2019 is gearing up to be quite an adventurous year too, but I’ll save that for a later post.
The kids decided they didn’t want to do anything over Spring Break, or they couldn’t get off work, so Jeff and I skipped the Spring Break (kids running wild) cruise month of March and went on an April cruise (nearly adults only) instead. There were still a small number of children on board – think home schooled, younger than school age or irresponsible parents who pull their kids out of school to go on vacation. We flew to Florida and sailed out of Port Canaveral on Carnival. Our ports of call were Grand Turk, San Juan Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, and St. Maarten/St. Martin.
The good thing about doing a cruise in April was that I had to have the tax returns completed for the entire family before I can go … that’s called incentive and it is also the earliest I have ever had them completed. As far as this itinerary goes, we had been to Grand Turk before but the other three ports were new for us.
In Puerto Rico we went on a self guided walking tour meaning that we left the ship, headed left and kept walking until we came upon something interesting. We found a Catholic Church were Ponce de Leon is buried – that’s kind of interesting in a “I remember that name from History class” sort of way. We eventually ended up at the Castillo de San Cristobal fort which we explored thoroughly before we wound our way through the city streets back to the ship. Just outside the fort walls was a really old cemetery. We could only view it from the wall above and couldn’t figure out how to get into it (pic is below).
Since we tend to do most of our cruise excursions on the beach or in the water this one let us know how warm it gets in the Caribbean. It was HOT and it seemed like all the walking that we did was UP HILL, both directions! While in Puerto Rico what we saw was interesting but we really didn’t get to see very much besides the “old town”. I’m looking forward to getting back to Puerto Rico so we can see more of the city and maybe see what is available from a snorkeling perspective.
We snorkeled in St. Kitts and it was kind of a bust. Nothing too exciting to report. Now as far as excitement goes, St Maarten was another story. Here we were supposed to snorkel and then cruise around the island with a beach and lunch stop. The captain took us on a tour through the bay and past all the sunken boats from Hurricane Irma (the year before). I believe that we were one of the first cruise ships to go back to St Maarten/Martin. There was a tremendous amount of boat and building damage and destruction as well as the sounds of reconstruction.
The first snorkeling stop at St Maarten (Dutch side of the island) was pitifully uneventful. Very few fish and the same fish we’ve seen at every other Caribbean stop. The current was pretty strong and it kept the water churned up and not very clear plus it was cloudy, cool and threatening rain. We cut our snorkeling short and headed back to the boat. The captain took us on a leisurely boat ride around the north side of the island and the further we went the larger the waves got. We finally made our way into a secluded cove where we had a beach break. The captain couldn’t get very close to shore so we had to swim in from where we anchored. About half our group choose to stay on the boat rather than swim both directions. The only cool thing about this place was the sea shells – they were minuscule and not like any I had seen before. We gathered up a few and swam back to the boat.
Our next stop was for lunch, where we once again had to swim to shore because SOMEONE couldn’t get the boat close enough to shore. This is probably a good time to point out that by this time we have pegged our captain as a bungling sort of fellow that we don’t have a lot of confidence in his ability to … well … captain. This is also a good point to describe his first mate as a rather shapely 20 something year old female that had mastered the ability to fill out a bikini but wasn’t very well versed in tying the boat up or heaving a heavy anchor over the side (she required the captain’s assistance with both – no surprise there, but in her defense, she could pour the rum punch!).
After we ate we walked the beach and I discovered a treasure trove of sea glass. It took about four or five pieces before Jeff pointed out that the glass I was collecting was the color of Budweiser and Dos Equis beer bottles and had probably originated from the closed bar down the beach compliments of the hurricane. – Okay, I will give you that BUT it is still sea glass! I collected as much as I could carry – remember we had to SWIM back to the boat. While the excursioning part of our excursion was now over we still had to get back to the cruise pier and hopefully the captain could get us close enough to the pier so we wouldn’t have to swim …. again!
But wait … This trip isn’t over yet! While in our sheltered cove the wind had picked up considerably, the temperature had dropped and the clouds were threatening to open up. We were sitting in the back of the boat because it was NOT covered and had previously helped us dry out quicker but that didn’t help us now. The waves were huge and every time the boat slammed down the spray came over the back end of the boat keeping us soaking wet. I don’t think I have ever been as cold in the Caribbean as I was this afternoon. But it gets worse! We were now away from the shore and the captain told the first mate to watch his back to make sure we didn’t get swamped by a wave. He was was riding the troughs and trying to stay away from the wave crests which were way over our heads. When we were in the troughs all we could see was the water surrounding us and the sky. We were being jerked up and down and on top of that it started raining … a nice cold rain. Now, we had packed up our snorkeling gear much earlier but when the captain told the 20 something first mate to watch his back we decided to put on our emergency life vests. They are similar to what is provided on an airplane where you have to blow it up but at this point I was convinced we were going to end up in the water again. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a small boat where the waves were so high. While I was looking back at the pictures I realized this was on our anniversary! I’m happy to report that we managed to make it through unscathed but soaking wet!
When we got back to the pier I took this picture of the 2nd large yacht in the world – owned by some Russian guy. The three windows right above the water line on the bottom left of the boat toward the back are actually a garage …wait for it … for a boat! I know you can’t tell from the picture how big this is but it is tied up at a cruise ship pier!
In early May we drove to the casino at Thackerville and saw Dwight Yoakum in concert. I’ve always been a fan of Bakersfield country and Jeff was unsure who we were going to see, so I guess you could say he was along for the ride. I’m not sure when it happened but I was shocked when DY took the stage … he looked so … OLD. Anyway, good concert, decent seats and the first time I’ve been in this casino. Now, I’m not a fan of casinos. I like my money in my pocket, not someone else’s. This casino has more games than any other casino in the world but it is no different from any other casino I’ve been in. The people sitting at the slot machines all looked like zombies. I calculated how much money each spin cost and how many spins in an hour and I can’t believe that people have that kind of money to “throw away.” The casino on the other hand is raking in the money. Talk about totally mindless entertainment … and I think it’s a stretch to call it entertainment. We didn’t put any money in the machines and instead spent the remainder of the weekend shopping and eating in Dallas before returning home.
Our next vacation (it’s still vacation if you’re working, right?) was to South Padre Island for two weeks in June. We stayed at Solare Tower (which we loved) in a very modern 3 bedroom condo on the 8th floor. Sienna went with us and Mom flew down and joined us for part of the time. It was a wonderful time to spend together at a familiar location (SPI, not the condo) with ones we love and love to spend time with. The weather was perfect and it was a relaxing down time for me. One of our favorite things to do when we are at SPI is to go to the Gladys Porter zoo in Brownsville. Gladys was an heir to the founder of JC Penney. It is a small zoo tucked into the middle of Brownsville but it is one of the nicest zoos we have visited. If you get a chance and find yourself in this part of the country you should check it out. The venues are wonderful, it is compact zoo and they have a huge variety of animals.
I turned in my retirement notice in June with a retirement date of August 31st. Lots to wrap up at work in the next 90 days including moving the office into a new location and completing 4 sets of financial statements. The summer went by extremely fast and before I knew it, August 31st was here. There wasn’t much to move home from work because I had just moved with the office and now I was looking forward to our next cruise which I had booked before I turned in my retirement papers. Surprise! It was yet another Caribbean cruise.
This was a two week cruise in September, also out of Florida during the height of hurricane season – who books a cruise during hurricane season? Apparently I do! I honestly didn’t even think about it when I booked it. It didn’t dawn on me until the hurricanes started training in the Caribbean and we were packing up to leave. The good news for us is that the cruise lines don’t want their ships in the way of a hurricane anymore than we want to be there. We might miss some scheduled stops but I guess that’s the gamble. I did get an email two days before we left that they were keeping an eye on the situation and then again the day before we left where they notified us that we were a go!
When we got the airport I realized that I had left my wedding rings at home. Luckily we are TSA precheck and we got to the airport early enough that Trent had time to go home, get my rings and make it back to the airport. Whew!
We once again visited St. Martin and while there were still damaged boats in the harbor the sound of hammering could be heard all over this island. A couple of large famous resorts were boarded up and looked like they had no intention of reopening. Another couple of resorts looked like they had taken the buildings down to the steel girders and were rebuilding.
There were a couple of new stops for us on this cruise. We went to Grenada, Barbados and Dominica as well as some of our already visited places like St Martin, Curacao and Aruba.
The coolest excursion that we did was in Dominica where we did a “champagne snorkel”. The island of Dominica is volcanic and has a lot of thermal springs. One such thermal spring is offshore and when you snorkel you swim through the bubbles that are rising to the surface … that and the water was noticeably warmer. It was a very surreal experience. All pics are with my underwater camera so I’ll try and post after I get the uploaded.
On this trip we literally stayed one island ahead of developing tropical storms and heard the islands that we had left the previous day were getting over a foot of rain. We had absolutely beautiful weather with the exception of the occasional tropical 10 minute downpours in the afternoons which is typical for the Caribbean.
We had only been home for 3 days before we headed to Kansas City with my mom to visit relatives. While in Kansas City we went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (no entry fee by the way!) Very interesting museum and very well done. A lot of different types of artwork, not just paintings. They also had an outside sculpture garden but the weather prevented us from being outside. We did get to see the giant shuttlecock sculptures on the lawn. While here our main purpose was to take my mom to visit the graves of my cousin and his wife who passed away earlier in the year and then we met their kids and their children for dinner at a business that my cousin’s son started called Bier Station. It is a taproom offering craft beers and pub grub. If you are ever in Kansas City it is a really cool place that caters to everyone but draws a lot of young families with kids.
After Kansas City we made our way to Branson. I had only been to Branson once before in my life and the traffic was so horrible that we just kept driving and didn’t stop anywhere. This time we stayed for two nights and two shows – The Gaitlin Brothers (eh) and a reunion show with Mickey Gillie and Johnny Lee – billed as a Urban Cowboy reunion show. I was really looking forward to watching Mickey Gillie play the piano but he was unable to. Apparently he had been in a plane crash and survived but now can’t play the piano.
Before I quit working I was reviewing an email on last minute cruises and came across a cruise that intrigued me. It was pricey but my saved up unused vacation check from work would pay for the entire trip … so we booked it! My dream trip wouldn’t sail until November. In the meantime we both had a lot of doctor appointments and meetings with our attorney to set up trusts, wills and final directives (because that is what mature, retired people do!) AND I decided we needed to paint the outside of the house … well, the front of it was all we managed to get done before we left, the rest will have to wait for Spring. It was a lot to do in a short amount of time but we managed to get it all done. So where did we go? We cruised again … surprise, right? But it was on the smallest ship we’ve ever been on (Holland Cruise line) and we went to Brazil and then 930 miles up the Amazon River. It was an amazing trip that is detailed in another post.
So to sum up 2018, we visited the following countries (and made our first foray into the southern hemisphere): United States, Grand Turk, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, St Maarten, St. Martin, Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, Curacao, Aruba, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brazil .