Winter Vacation – The Trivia

While we, as a family, are more prone to doing trivia on the cruise than other families…..being with Kevin takes this to a new level.  Because that is ALL that he wants to do…..

But first, a close-up of one of the plates in the dining room.  I hadn’t noticed, but, Suzanne pointed out that they are kind of…..freaky…..with these Victorian-era people looking like ghosts on them……

 

This trivia was “TV Theme Songs”.  I did this with Kevin and we finished second….at one point I remembered what four we missed but I have no idea now what they were….

 

Classic Rock – we didn’t do as well here….I had to carry the bulk of the answers and there were multiple Black Sabbath – Ozzy Osbourne songs….who the heck would know that?

“

Kevin was not happy with me because I would not do all of the trivia that he wanted to do….I wanted to do things like enjoy the sail away from the ports and relax and stuff like that.  He did Musicals by himself and I’m not sure I could have helped him out too much here…..

Glee Covers – Kevin owned this category but we still finished second.  I was not much help at all…

 

#1 Songs – We got 39 out of 40…and finished second (again!).  I carried the mail here….only missed knowing that Breathe was by Faith Hill and the last six songs, because of technical difficulties, were only a few notes….I never heard the voice and finally puzzled out that it was Breathe but that was what caused us to lose.  Oh well.

 

Heading home.  A year ago I would have thought we never would visit that island to the left there but with the news this month I’m now wondering how long it will take for cruise ships to pull into Havana.  Because I would definitely want to do that!

The seas were really rough going through the Windward Passage…..the Captain said the next day they were 8 to 14 feet!  And the ship was really moving around……

Winter Vacation 2014 - Curacao

After the short night we were up early to get off the boat and get going to Curacao.  Easily my favorite port of the trip.

Gotta love the rainbows as you pull in.  Today was supposed to be the sketchiest of the port days weather-wise and there were scattered showers in the area.  We saw them, but, they did not rain on our parade so to speak….

Suzanne had arranged for us to rent a van (stick-shift, but, the other Dad was expert at that so he drove…I would have practiced a lot before the trip if I knew I was going to be doing that!) and head north to Playa Portomari.  We had to wait 5 minutes for the rental car counter to open but we were on our way pretty quickly and were at the beach well before a lot of other people showed up.

Those rocks on the left there turned out to be excellent for snorkeling.

 

It is a national beach, so, there was an entrance fee plus a fee if you wanted a chair and an umbrella.  We set up way back along the cliff under the trees and the umbrellas.  Spent almost four hours there…..really enjoyed this beach.  The highlight was about an hour before we left when some other people from the cruise ship showed up.  *They* had rented taxis; the paid almost 5x what we paid per person and were going to only get to be there about 1/4 of the time that we were there.

The Gopro pictures are ok; the gopro video is excellent.  I will need to edit some of that out and post some pictures here….

Snorkeling for me is making sure the boys don’t get into problems and making sure Suzanne is ok.  It has been a while since she had issues but Curacao was one of those days and it was while Suzanne and Cpher were heading back to the beach while I was going further out with Matthew.  Was not a happy time for either of them…..

 

Gopro Selfie #1

 

Gopro Selfie #2

 

Gopro Selfie #3

 

 

 

This is the big-ass church in Willibrordus; you can literally see it for miles.  We had to pass here on the way to and from the beach.

This soccer field gave Matthew and Zane a lot to be thankful for….not a blade of grass to be seen on that pitch!

 

First time we’ve ever seen flamingos in the wild…..

 

The Freedom; with part of Willemstad in the foreground

 

A view from the bridge….

 

One of the problems with being here on New Years was that everything was closed…..

Still very pretty though.

Mitch and I took the rental car for gas and to drop it off….Suzanne and the boys walked back on their own. 

Crossed the pontoon bridge that swings out of the way for cargo traffic…

The aforementioned bridge

The aforementioned pontoon bridge

A better picture of the bridge….

The surf down here near the ship was much stronger than up north near the beach….

Click the picture above for the time-lapse departure video…..

 

Heading back home……

A Perfect Analogy

Upon some reflection, I think Dad’s house and car seem to be perfectly analogous to Dad himself.  At first glance, from the outside, they don’t look to be so bad.  Take a closer look inside and that’s when it turns into a disaster…

Pretty much the entire fuel system, from fuel delivery nozzle to gas lines and tank have rusted away.  Almost $3K to fix…..mechanics say that engine and everything else looks reasonably good so…….we’ll see I guess.  Even at almost $3K in repair keeping the car seems to make more sense than trying to sell it….we will need the extra car over the next few years.

Winter Vacation 2014 - Aruba

We were looking forward to Aruba because the scheduled itinerary had us pulling out at 11:30 pm ship time; that would be 12:30 am local time on New Years and the thought of seeing all of the fireworks as we pulled away was pretty cool.

So, of course, the Captain comes on about noon….”We regret to inform you….”.  Port will close at 9 pm so we have to leave by then.  Bah!

The plan here was pretty simple; get off the boat, hail a cab, and get to Palm Beach. 

In hindsight, maybe a trip to less crowded Eagle Beach would have been more in tune with how we like to do things.  But….the boys got to go tubing, so that was fun, and it was nice to see the really ‘popular beach’ and hang out.  But it was crowded and in general I was not a fan of this beach.

This picture, while pretty, does not really convey just how many people were down here today.

 

Had dinner at Smokey Joe’s before heading back.  This drink, the Green Monster (Boston-named for the Boston-boy) was advertised as having 5 shots.  And he finished it…..and was a little giddy for the next hour or two.

These red things well, let me google and find a better explanation…

“Throughout the night and the rest of the weekend you could hear Fucu exploding everywhere.  Fucu is a string of very loud firecrackers, wrapped in red paper that burn very loudly and brightly on the ground leaving behind shredded paper everywhere.  Arubians believe Fucu sends away evil spirits and draws in good vibes so in no time the streets were covered in red.”

(Click on the picture above for the short video of one of those Fucu’s going off!)

Leaving Aruba….we sailed slowly away because well, we only have to get to the island to the right there.  Wish they could have just hung off shore of Aruba until after midnight…..

Will talk about New Years Eve on the boat in the next post…..

Winter Vacation 2014 – La Romana

The second port on the cruise turns out to be the stop I liked the least; the Dominican Republic definitely had that poor Caribbean vibe that, well, is the way it is, but, it was just overpowering here. 

Got off the boat and took a cab over to Bayahibe take a boat to Saona.  This is a powerboat ride about 40 minutes long that is very rough and very cramped.

Waiting to get on the boat.  Locals brought the ‘locals’ out for pictures….you get to hold but donation requested. 

The beach at Bayahibe

 

The beach at Saona.  It was nice but the whole trip suffered from being too much of what we don’t like; a lot of people in a small space. 

 

Christopher did find this guy offering to cook lobsters up on-the-spot for him.  So he choose this guy; I paid trienta dollars and this guy goes off with the guy and comes back like this.  Was pretty tasty!

The snorkeling attraction here was this demolished pier behind us; the pilings were covered with coral and fish.  Went out with Matthew; went out with Kevin, went out with Zane because he didn’t go when his family went.  So I didn’t get to sit and rest much at all here.

 

Was a pretty day here at Saona though…..

Didn’t accidentally delete the GoPro pictures here….even though the ones from the pilings aren’t all that great.  Water was a little too silty.

 

But it was pleasant enough…..the water temperature on the trip was always pretty decent.

 

After Saona, we motor-ed over to the waters offshore the National Park.  And here, where the boat sat on only two or three feet of water, there were just a ton of starfish.  And the GoPro got some great pictures and video as the boys picked them up and checked them out.

You can click on the above picture for the first GoPro video showing us with the starfish…

 

And this picture links to the second video…

You can click this picture for the sail away video; it is interesting for two reasons.  One, you get to see more vehicle traffic than normal as we get ready to leave and two, you can see the mansion on the left in this picture.  Helicopter pad, par 3 golf hole…..really really nice.  Must belong to a baseball player….

Tried to use the GoPro to catch a few sunsets…..not really a great option because the sun just blots out too much of the picture; the video actually gets better once the sun goes down.  Really should have tried to do one of the full-moon nights.  Oh well.  Click above for the video.

Where the boat is at the end of the day.  Heading south to Aruba