Spring Soccer – Game 1

We played a new team on Saturday; Eaton Rapids didn’t field a team in the fall.  So, we loaded up the bus and headed southwest to the game….first time we’ve been to Eaton Rapids since the cousins lived there!

Took some doing to find the field…..many of the parents also had troubles and we only had a full team right as the game started.  I’d like to blame the late arrivals, but, man, I just really don’t know why the team came out flat.  But they did, and we were down 3-0 in less than 6 minutes.  I’ll give the boys full credit though, they got their act together and played a whole lot better after that….scored two goals in about a minute to make it 3-2 and were down 4-3 going into the half.  Took the lead 5-4 in the 2nd half but gave up a late goal to walk away 5-5. 

Don’t think my boys played particularly well at all; Christopher is definitely showing signs of not having played in months….spends too much time standing and waiting for the ball or play to come to him.  This improved all during the ER game, but, will really have to work on this. 

This is all one sequence….I think it’s mostly Christopher who cuts the guy off and takes the ball and drives forward with the ball (maybe Matthew does it and Christopher comes around the other side…I’m not sure).  He does a great job here beating two players……

More of Christopher on defense….

 

Since I play this 2-2-1 now, you only find Christopher on defense and forward….so, he ends up in front of the goal fairly often.  He needs to be a little quicker on converting; that’s not a problem here, I think he did a good job to do anything at all with two guys all over him and the goalie so close.

I can’t even begin to figure out what went on with Matthew.  He came late, from a birthday party, and complained of being tired even before the game began.  He had a few good moments, especially pulling balls out of the air at midfield, but, offensively he was a complete bust…..couldn’t get by anyone and couldn’t/wouldn’t pass…..

 

The Matthew I know…with all this open space in front of him, would have created something here.  Didn’t really happen today

 

He did a nice job on defense though….always in a good position.  He gets no blame for any goals in my book….

And, as the game went on, like the team, he got better and better.

Ugh.  Back at it next Saturday.  All of these April showers are playing havoc with practice, and I really need some time with the boys to talk through some of the things that have happened in the last few games.

Weekend Update

Ah, we’re back in the spring sports swing of things.  I still need to post an update on Matthew (it’s half-written over in the draft folder) and we’ll get that done soon. 

Saturday:  The U10 soccer team with Christopher and Matthew starts the season with a 3-game tournament (invitational might be a better word).   A glance at the schedule shows that we’ll probably be ok in the first game but chance are we’re going to get hammered in games 2 and 3.

Game 1:  We beat a team from Marshall 2-1.  The weather is borderline horrible…some rain, but, the 2nd half wasn’t so bad and we actually see the sun for a few seconds.  We didn’t score much (a theme with this group…we’ve never scored more than three goals in a game yet), but, pretty much dominated the play…the one Marshall goal was on a ball misplayed by our goalie (went right through his hands and legs)…

Game 2:  I don’t mind playing against teams that are parent-coached.  I do mind when we end up against teams where the parents are paying for the professional coaching…like this game.  We lost 10-1 and it wasn’t that close.  We were one player short in game one, in game two we were also missing Matthew who was off at one of his TNT friends birthday party.  Having Matthew would have helped, but, wouldn’t have changed much.  They were just way better than us.

Game 3:  Same story as above, except now we’re missing three kids (another one of my better players is gone).  It’s now a pouring rain and you can tell the kids just want this to be over……We lost 9-1.

I told the kids, and parents, beforehand that I knew Games 2 and 3 would be ugly, but, that they would help to figure out what we needed to work on and remind everyone that simple mistakes can turn into bad things.  We hadn’t played as a team since November and that wasn’t going to help either.  I’m glad we came out and dominated the team we were about even with and we’ll have a full list of things to work on in practice this week.Sunday: 

Vacation: The Videos

I finally have them done.  I could link to each one, but, think that it might be best if I just send you to the main video page. 

If you got the link above you’ll find the following (you can’t click on the pictures below and get video…..Shutterfly never came up with video embedding so I’m going to upload one of the files to One True Media tonight and see if they’ve gone to HD-quality playback yet….might switch back there).

A video of the highlights from the day at the beach on the inflatables.  Matthew climbs twice and slides twice, some more bounding, and then the boys best “wipeout’ type attempts.  The highlight for me is the time Christopher jumps on the one ‘balloon’ to get Matthew to bounce off….

Some video of the boys parasailing….I tried to zoom out enough so that you could see the horizon to get a feel for how high those turkeys were.  They said they could see the Yucatan Peninsula off in the distance….

Takeoffs, landings, and some good video of the beautiful waters off of Belize.  Pay attention to the gravel-type runway on the first take-off; and the fly or swim part at the end…

Snorkeling @ Belize.  In hindsight, I should have taken more video.  In hindsight, I’d love to know why I have that dark spot on my camera lens and need to get this camera cleaned!   The best views of the nurse sharks are found in this video….

Costa Maya snorkeling.  More video, but less to see here…..

The Reviews Are In

Suzanne and I have had a good time reading the reviews of the cruise posted to *the* cruise message board forum.  I figured it would be good to grab some of those comments because it would help me remember what I/we thought about the cruise.

Wfpse wrote (in part, and was not happy…I’ve included comments on their comments below):

Go Carnival Dream if...

1. You want to see people carry around iced down tubs of beer, drink to excess and then pass out...decks, shows, family events (never saw this…..never saw anything close to it….)

2. You want to experience a boat load of unattended children running around at all hours (did see this.  It’s Carnival, what do you expect.  With Fric and Frac, it would take a lot of boorish children for me to really pay attention….I only really remember getting on the elevator with three kids who had already pressed all the buttons below 7 (and I was going to 1) and going “Really?” and having them laugh…I just got off at 7 with them and took the stairs…)

3. You want to experience drunk and stoned teens being served alcohol by cruise staff  (again, didn’t see or experience any of this)

4. You want to watch flaming gay men and women prance around as cruise directors while making eyes at each other...and then getting mad when their lover checks out someone else...CAN ANYONE SAY BUTCH! (this is a common complaint….I’ve seen it other places as well.  Don’t agree with it)

5. You want mediocre food (it is what it is…you went on a ship with 4,200 other people, what do you expect)

6. You want really bad entertainment...oh my god, i have seen grade school productions that were better (must be really advanced grade school productions then.  Most of the entertainment was just fine…there is one exception to that that I’ll handle in another review commentary)

8. You want to get up at 6am to get a lounge chair on the lido deck...or any other for that matter. (still don’t agree with this….yes, it’s hard, and I waited, patiently, for 20+ minutes to find a table one afternoon for the family to have lunch at.  But, it can be done….and there are many other option on other decks to eat and sit)

9. You want to see staff ignore the scrolling sign that says no reserving of lounge chairs (another common, and true, complaint.  If the policy is 30 minutes and they are going to remove stuff, they should do it.  Get the security guys with good English skills and go for it….after an hour)

10. You want to waive at Roatan as the Captain is unable to dock this technological marvel in 25K winds...oh yeah...the sister ship made it in just minutes before (said enough about this already)

Mavrington says (he mostly had a good time):

In a few words the Dream was a good experience overall with good food, lots to do, and nice staff, but I wouldn’t book it again because it is way too crowded.

On board: The first thing you will notice is THE ANNOYING PHOTOGRAPHERS! They never stop. Please make them stop. All day on board, on the way to dinner, arriving at ports, leaving ports, they NEVER stop. (amen.  I do think we as a family should have stopped for more photos, but, man, just all the time everywhere.  As bad as the natives in Costa Maya)

Entertainment: There is a lot to do if you are looking for entertainment. They have dance lessons and a lot of trivia on Sea Days. In the evening you have dinner, dancing, live singers, comedy, and shows. They have a good variety of shows that change nightly. Dancing in the Streets was cool, and they had a good juggler/magician one night. We saw one ok comedian and one great comedian in the Adult comedy show. The great guy was Will Marfori, who has cerebral palsy. (this is the guy Suzanne liked and I just couldn’t get into…)

The Asian singer in the atrium deserves her own paragraph because she sings all day long and totally butchers every song she sings. It’s “Like a Virgin” and “Holiday” as you’ve never heard them before. Madonna must be rolling over in her grave.  (oh, she was horrible.  I only heard her as I walked by a couple of times and I could only think that this was what it must have sounded like in Saigon back in the early seventies.  Truly horrid…)

Pool areas and hot tubs: There are two small pools teeming with children. Hot tubs are constantly overrun with splashing teenagers. The waterslides close at 6pm, which is too early since that’s when the line finally dies down a little when early dinner starts. Expect a 30+ minute wait for the big slides. (I never waited more than 10 minutes when we did it)

Random notes:

? The ship does not stop rocking . . . EVER. I’ve been home for 4 days and I still feel it. (Suzanne thinks I made too big a deal about this, but seriously, it moved…a lot)

? I had no issues with smoke (I’m a non-smoker) even on the Lanai where smoking is allowed. The wind takes care of it. (some commenter's really harp on this….Suzanne and I didn’t think it was overly bad, even on Deck 5 where people complain the most.  It was annoying that the balcony had people right next door who smoked, and it would be cool if Carnival could limit that to one side of the ship, but, again, it wasn’t a deal breaker…)

Vacation Day Fifteen – Northward Bound

The Dream, back in Port Canaveral

We had googled the best way home and were a bit surprised to see that the computers (and it turns out, Dora the GPS explorer) thought the best way was to stay east of I-75.  Since this way home was a little different for us, we decided to go for it.

 

Dis-embarkation began at 6:30…I think we were off the ship by 6:40 and at the car by 6:50.  No problem in customs, and we were probably on I-95 by 7 am….

Let’s take this state by state:

Florida:  It wasn’t bad at first…..it’s early in the morning and there’s no traffic.  The family is out, asleep, every single one of them.  Stop for breakfast at Chick-fil-A and McDonalds near Daytona Beach and keep heading north.  Never saw downtown Jacksonville, both Google and Dora said to go around.

 

Georgia:  The traffic really picked up here and this state really really sucked.  We were stopped/slowed for about 20 minutes just north of Brunswick as one of the many going-80-now-going-60 left lane slow downs finally resulted in a rear-end collision.

South Carolina:  The I-95 part sucked just as bad as Georgia.  We ended up hopping off on US 21 (you can’t see the label on the map I’ve clipped out, but, it’s where the I95 shield is on the path and it ends up catching I-26 in Orangeburg).  This was a good, but not great, shortcut, I don’t think we gained any time but it was better doing 70 with nobody around instead of 80, then 60, then 80, then 60.   Finally broke through the heavy interstate traffic when we turned north at Columbia onto I-77.  Had lunch in Rock Hill at Jack-in-the-Box.  The family was under the Dad edict of must-make-time-and-miles-go-by and we ate in the car again.

North Carolina and Virginia:  It was neat going through/by Charlotte…I think Suzanne and I both didn’t realize how big the city is.  Should mention that we though the north suburbs (Rock Hill, etc.) were very nice.  Of course, no road trip would be complete without this type of map

This isn’t quite accurate…you need to picture yellow and red where the beige is….because that’s really how it looked.

As the signs for exits towards Melanie’s old stomping grounds show up, two things happen.  One, the topography gets *better*….lots of hills, lots of curves, it’s really a pretty drive.  Two, the weather goes completely south.  We’re driving through the Fancy Gap in the Appalachians and I’m in a cloud, we can’t see more than one hundred feet in front of us, and lightning and heavy rain are all around us.  It’s all good fun!

West Virginia:  The rain ends as we head through a few tunnels.  West Virginia, at least the part south of Charleston, is all hills and holler’s, big curves as you go back and forth in between these huge hills….finally made it to Charleston around 7:30 pm.  We priceline’d some nice rooms and Fric and Frac headed off to swim while pizza was procured for dinner.

Vacation Day Fourteen – At Sea

The last full day on the Dream started off with a split….Fric and Frac were still fast asleep after their late night shenanigans.

Kevin and I did our last ‘shore excursion’…the only one we paid for through Carnival (a note:  shore excursions through Carnival are guaranteed…the boat won’t leave without you, etc…but, are about 2x-3x more expensive.  For every stop this trip, we had went ‘off the grid’ and purchased outside of Carnival.  Especially in Belize, we ran the risk of an airplane malfunction making us miss the boat.  But, for example, the cost per person in Belize was $115 for the flights and the 2+ hours out at the reef….just to walk around the ship here was $85).

Kevin and I did a behind-the-scenes tour of the ship.  No pictures allowed (and the one picture of Kevin and I with the Captain will have to wait for me to scan in when I get back home).  The tour was almost four hours long (too long…) and we went to the following places:

The Galley:  the only escalators on the ship help the wait staff bring food from the kitchens on three to the dining rooms on four.  The kitchens were industrial in scale and an interesting stop

The Storerooms:  On Deck 0; I probably enjoyed this stop more than most because I enjoyed the discussion of waste minimization but could see how others might have been plenty bored. 

The Engine Control Room:  Can’t go to the engine room for security reasons, and we had security with us even here.  Enjoyed this stop, especially the big flat screen control displays.  The verbal part of the tour here went on too long…Kevin said he was really bored at the end of it….

The Laundry Room:  Enjoyed this as well….they only dry towels and bathrobes…all the other linens are dried as they go through automatic folding devices

The Training Room:  The tour was run by the training director, so, we ended up here.  And it was interesting to a point hearing about how they integrate the different nationalities and train the staff (why no Americans?  you can make more working minimum wage at McDonalds for the most part)…..but this ran on to long for me….

Deck 4:  We went out to the front of the ship where we had seen hot tubs before and wondered how to get there….turn out those hot tubs and that area are reserved for the crew.

Backstage:  Met the dance captain and went through the dressing rooms.  Described as “muti-million dollar productions” which I almost laughed out loud at…..I did find interesting the discussion of how some productions change when the ship is in heavy seas….

The Bridge:  Best part of the tour…..met the Captain, he answered questions (someone, not me, asked him about missing Roatan…I was going to ask but had decided it wouldn’t be polite…..he said they’ve missed that stop three times in three months.  50% is not good).  Wish we had been here later in the day when we were closer to Miami and the ship traffic picked up….

Dream at the end of the day Friday

The last night of the cruise was another dining room dinner…..I don’t recall what I had now (I know I finished a lot of Matthew’s ribs and Kevin’s fried chicken….what I had wasn’t very filling, but I’m just spacing on it now).  I think by the end the boys were getting the hang of this formal dinner business; it was definitely trying at times with them though…..

We went to the final show (the best of the best karaoke…it was OK, some were a lot better than others), wandered through the casino, and headed upstairs to the windy Lido deck before calling it an evening.

Vacation Day Thirteen – Costa Maya

We had never planned on doing anything big in Costa Maya; our big plans were for Belize and Roatan so we had always decided today would most likely be a quiet beach day.

With Suzanne feeling under the weather, and the boys kind of tired as well, we just stuck with those plans.  Ship docked at 7 am; we didn’t get off until almost 9:30 am.  Hopped on a bus and headed over to the ‘downtown’ section (about 3 km away from the port) and walked out and found a table with shade to act as the base for the day.

We swam, did some snorkeling close to the beach and didn’t see much, and eventually Matthew and I ‘hired’ a local to take us out on a small boat for an hour of snorkeling near the reef…..

The club (Pez Quadro?  I forget…) from out in the water.  We went out in that boat on the left.  I liked the beach here more than Cozumel…..Cozumel had more rocks and wasn’t someplace you could play with the boys (football or frisbee).  Here, you could (even though we didn’t….)

My snorkeling buddy.  My oldest snorkeling buddy completely bailed at this stop and did not endear himself to his parents by being a total lump today.

 

The beginning of the snorkeling pictures.  Where Belize was just grass and then huge sections of reef, Costa Maya was a lot of sand, some grass, and isolated sections of reef.  We were closer to where the waves were breaking this time, so, there were more air bubbles and sediment in the water which clouded up the view sometimes but it was still pretty neat

 

 

 

 

This fish was one of the highlights of the the trip…there were two of them here, just hovering with their fins moving kind of like a hummingbird.  They were really cool!  I still have no idea what they are called though

Matthew really did a great job (here, and at Belize) of snorkeling…he was always diving down to check things out more and never really seemed to have any issues in keeping up.  Here, again, I thought the guy would just drive us, park, and let us swim around where he parked, but, instead he grabbed a life preserver and swam out (a lot farther than I would have thought).  Definitely more of a trip than what the $20/person was buying….had Matthew run off as soon as we docked to get him more tip money….

 

I never got a really REALLY good picture of this fish, but, by far, it was the prettiest of the fish that I saw on this trip.  Pretty decently sized and this really nice aquamarine color with some yellow and red markings…

My best picture of a big school of fish heading away from us

A sailboat that sunk when Hurricane Dean (a Category 5 hurricane) did its best to wipe Costa Maya off the map a few years back.  There’s still a lot of rebuilding going on and you can see hurricane damage (trees, etc) everywhere

 

The Dream, off in the distance at the Port. 

Headed back to the port about an hour after we returned from the trip….the one problem with Costa Maya compared to Cozumel is the constant barrage of people coming by offering you massages, Cuban cigars, necklaces (they were successful here…the boys each picked up a shark tooth necklace) etc.

Got in the taxi, headed back….and the disaster of the trip occurred.  I had asked Suzanne to pull out her wallet for money for the cab, she didn’t put the black coach ‘purselet’ back in her bag, and the black purselet didn’t stand out enough on the black upholstery of the taxi…..and got left behind.  I could kick myself…I saw it there and almost told Suzanne to put it back in her backpack…..I should have looked twice, but was so focused on the bag that Kevin had left behind three times earlier in this trip (the snorkeling bag) that I was avidly watching him as he stepped out of the cab. 

Well, one Mexican certainly had a nice April present…..cancelled the credit card that was in there before we left dock….Suzanne also lost her drivers license.  And the dinero….which could have been a lot worse but today was a day of cash, not credit, purchases…..

 

The boys on the stairs as we waited to go to dinner

The problem with me waiting to blog the last few days is that my memory has faded on what exactly happened.  I know we went to the dining room for dinner Thursday night but can’t provide the details of each dinner (I think I had the Cornish Game Hen).  The boys did attend the late night party (from 10 pm to 3:30 am)……we encouraged the boys to take naps in preparation for this.  Christopher did not have a problem catching a 90 minute power nap in the darkness that is the inside cabin….Matthew had a tougher time of it.  Both boys made it all the way through to 3:30 and were delivered back to their rooms at that point. 

Each night there’s a different towel animal in your room….

This was the night we did the comedy show with the boys….it was ok, I think Matthew found it funnier than Cpher.  We went back for the adult show that I didn’t find very amusing at all, but Suzanne enjoyed.  I think we went to the casino…not a lot of luck finding its way to me this trip….

The Dream, heading northeast at the end of the day