Category — Travel

Well,  it has been ages since the last post; actually it’s been over 4 months and lots has gone on. Some good and unfortunately some not so good.

September arrived and it was back to Bus Driving; except for the Teachers Strike, which delayed my return to work but gave Brenda and I a chance to take a short notice trip to Vancouver and spend a couple of days in Yaletown. We rented a Condo, lived the “lifestyle”, cooked some delicious dinners and dined out at a couple of trendy Yaletown hot spots. Weather was perfect and we got in lots of walking.

October was a very tough month. It started out great with both families from Princeton and Kelowna arriving for Thanksgiving. But then tragedy hit the family when we found out that Chris Van Meer (our brother George’s son) was tragically killed in a traffic accident near Texas Creek, which is located between Lytton and Lillooet.

Chris was such a great young man and it was such a tragedy to hear of his passing. Chris was a quiet person, but so “full of Life” and adventure. Chris loved all his family, friends and extended family. Their is a very large hole in our family. We truly miss Chris 🙁

In November as a family we also lost Arnold Desrocher, Lynda’s husband. Arnold passed away very quickly after a short stay in the hospital. We’ll miss Arnold for his quiet nature, his wealth of knowledge on world events and his amazing recollection of little known or unknown facts in  “Trivial Pursuit”.

November was also the date selected for a Memorial Celebration of Life for Chris Van Meer. It was held in Langley at Sirocco Farms. There were lots of tears, few smiles and a few laughs. At the end of the memorial balloons were released by the family and friends as each person came up to take a pair of scissors and snip the ribbon to let them fly away……… it was very emotional for everyone.

December arrived and so did Christmas. Oh and also both families complete with 2 dogs and 1 cat. It was hectic, it was busy and we loved every single minute of Christmas.  Kevin and Brenda went out and picked up GGPa and GGMa for Christmas dinner; so we had a table full. Food was delicious and lots of laughs, smiles and family times. We were so lucky and truly blessed to have had everyone here for the holiday season.

January started with us moving GGPa and GGMa from their home of almost 45 years. Dean and Judy drove down from Prince George and in one full week of work we cleared the house and got GGMa and GGPa set up on the north shore at The Shores Residence’s. Immediately following this we got the house listed and on the market. Whew!!!

 

This past weekend was our annual reunion with our friends……… this is year number 36 that we have been getting together.

Dean & Judy were the organizers this year and they chose a place near Sooke B.C. which is not too far from Victoria. The house we stayed in was a VRBO Rental http://www.vrbo.com/568841 , it had 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, a beautiful deck over looking Sooke Basin and it had everything that we needed for the weekend.

We all arrived Thursday afternoon, headed into Sooke on Friday morning and visited Victoria most of Saturday. As usual we did lots of reminiscing, visiting, eating and making new reunion stories and tales. Most can be told………. many can’t 😉

On Sunday Rick & Gayle headed off to visit some relatives on the island and Betty-Anne and Ross headed off to their cabin at Horne Lake. They were all meeting up a couple days later for a visit at Horne Lake…… and why not, the weather was spectacular and we are all retired 🙂

Dean and Judy and Brenda and I stayed at the Sooke house for the remainder of the week and had a great visit and did some exploring and sightseeing of this area of the Province.

Yes, it has definitely been way too long since we have a done a post about what’s happening. Well, as we promised you when we started blogging a few years ago; there was never going to be a dull moment in our lives 🙂

So, let’s recap the last couple of months.

April……. who the hell stole April? Where did it go? What happened? Well actually, near the end of April we headed down to Spokane to attend a concert; more on that later. On the way to Spokane we stopped overnight in Princeton for a grand-kid fix. Plus we had a great walk to the tunnels of the old Kettle Valley Railroad and a good visit with Kevin and Tamara. .

You will notice that the only pictures attached are of grand-kids……… Parents are boring 🙂

From Princeton we headed to Spokane for a Jake Shimabukro Concert. Jake is the world’s best ukulele player. The concert was held at the Bing Crosby Theatre which is 98 years old/young and it is quite a unique venue. The nice thing for us was that it is fairly small and tiered so you are really close to the stage and the performance; it was the perfect venue for this type of perfromance. Jake’s show was amazing and his mastery of the instruement is like no other 🙂 He truely is a virtuoso of the ukulele. In addition he is very humble and honored to be performing for all the patrons and at the end of the show he comes out and has a meet and greet and signs absolutley every autograph and takes time to talk to you and thank you for attending his show.

On the way back home we spent a night in Kelowna for another grand-kid fix:) Oh! Ya and we visited with Jeff and Lindsay as well.

Once back home I had a day to sort out my stuff, pack another suitcase and I was headed off on a 10 day golf junket with a group of 44 other rabid golfers. We golfed in Idaho, Oregon and Washington State…… the golf courses were amazing, I won some money at the casinos  and my golf games were abysmal…… enough about that.

When I finally got home for a few days we had time to make a decision on having the outside of our house renovated including siding, facia, soffits, eavestrough, decking and railings. Here is a picture of the front of the hosue before the project got started…………….. more pictures later and you’ll not believe the transformation:)

Somewhere in the middle of renovations we headed back to Kelowna to look after Zach and Oliver.  Jeff and Lindsay were off to Las Vegas for a few days away with their friends Jill and Mark from Calgary. The boys were great, but they did miss their Mom and Dad.

Since we’ve been back home it’s been, yardwork, exercise and golf. Speaking of golf, there is a migration of bluebirds that pass through the area around Eagle Point Golf Course and one of the members builds bluebird houses. All together there are about 10 houses scattered around the golf course and about half of them have nesting birds; all in different stages of growth. He constructed them so you can open the front and take a look inside and as long as you don’t touch the nest or the birds there isn’t a problem taking a peek. So, Brenda and I headed up one afternoon to take pictures and see how this years bluebirds were doing:) 

Finally a couple pictures of the front of our house finished with a newly painted front door……… sure smartens the place up doesn’t it:)

More pictures to come once the deck and railing at the back of the house are complete…….. that change is as amazing as the front.

We arrived into San Diego very early on Sunday, it is home to the USA Navy’s 3rd Fleet, which is part of the Pacific Fleet.

Once we disembarked we caught a cab over to the hotel and got settled in for a couple days. After a while we headed to the Gaslamp Quarter of the city which is an older area that has been refurbished and now has lots of shops, stores, restaurants, etc.

From here we headed towards the marina and then we were out to dinner.  On Monday we caught the Hotel Shuttle over to the San Diego Zoo. Lots to see and do here as there is over 125 acres to cover. We started by catching the Aerial Tram to the top of the Zoo and then we worked our way down the hill.

The Zoo of course has every imaginable animal and species, etc. It is divided into different Countries and regions.

After a lunch stop we caught a 4D Movie that was included in our ticket price. On the way into the movie there were these 2 Macaws which were very similar to the 2 that we saw in Costa Rica. By the way, these are real!

A 4D movie includes the 3D glasses and then the 4D part is wind, water, chair vibrations, etc. that you feel as part of the experience

After the Zoo it was back to the hotel a dinner out and time to get ready to head home on Tuesday morning.

Saturday was our final day at sea prior to arriving in San Diego.
Since it was our last day on the ship we chose to have breakfast delivered to our stateroom; this is truly one of the nice perks of cruising. However, we were about 30 miles offshore and it was a little cool to sit out on the verandah.
After breakfast we dressed warm and headed down to the lower promenade deck for a walk – 8 laps equals 2 miles.
Then we each headed our own way to take in the many activities on-board. Below are pictures of the hand sanitizing stations set up at the entrance to the Lido Pool Deck and Lido Restaurant.

Dress this evening was casual and the entertainment in the show lounge was “Dancing with the Stars” at Sea Finale.

Tonight’s animal towel art was a monkey.

It’s been a great cruise 🙂

This morning the ship arrived very early into Cabo San Lucas. We got up at around 6:15 a.m. and they had already dropped anchor and were preparing the tenders for transferring guests.
People started going ashore at 7:00 a.m. so they could get to their pre-booked shore excursions. The four of us had nothing definite planned except to find a beach and go for a swim.
Once ashore we walked past the usual parade of tour sellers, trinket sellers, etc. etc. Cabo San Lucas is a very busy seaside port with lots of sailing tours, fishing tours, whale watching, etc. It is also certainly more developed and built up than Zihuatanejo. The marina is huge, lots of expensive yachts, high-rise apartments, fancy hotels, shopping malls, etc. etc. Also, there are lots of small fishing boats with pelicans sitting on the engines, waiting for the odd fish, soaking up the sun and making a mess 🙂 We finally made our way around the marina, through the side streets until we came to a really nice sandy beach. It was still fairly early in the day, but we got our beach towels down and all went for a swim and then soaked up some sunshine.

After a bit Brenda and I headed back to the ship while Dean and Judy stayed at the beach for a little longer. The last tender was at 1:30 p.m. so it was a short port day.

Once we lifted anchor and started out of the bay we passed near a Cabo San Lucas landmark called Lovers Beach and the Arch.

Tonight dress was formal and the show was our Soprano and Tenor of the Veendam entertainers. From here we have a day and a half sailing to make it to San Diego for Sunday morning disembarking and the end of our cruise.

Today was another full day at sea on our way to Cabo San Lucas.
We are trying to keep it low key today, but there is so much to do and enjoy onboard.

Here is a couple pictures of the exercise spa area and someone doing “planks” 😉
After breakfast we all signed up for “Walk for a Cause” which starts at 9:30 a.m. which is a 5 km walk for cancer and includes 10 laps around the lower promenade which is on deck 6.
The remainder of the day we just hung out or walked around the ship taking in some of the events and sights.
Dinner was a casual evening and then it was off to the evening show. Tonight there were three performers: A Comedian, Lazslo & Claudia and Cecil Welch.

More animal towel art 🙂

We arrived into the small fishing village of Zihuatanejo early this morning and anchored in the bay. The crew then started to deploy the lifeboats that were to be our “Tenders” for getting everyone ashore.Since many guests had pre-booked shore excursions they were the first ones off the ship and it wasn’t until about 10:00 a.m. that we got on shore. Zihuatanejo is a really nice little fishing village. It feels very safe and the people are very friendly. Yes, there is the traditional street sellers trying to get you to buy their wares, but one “No Gracias” is all that is required and they leave you alone.We took the beach walk along Playa (Beach) Municipal, then to Playa Madera and finally took a hike up and over a hill to Playa Ropa. Dean and Judy headed off to enjoy a day in the sun.

Brenda and I sat for while and then headed back to the Market to do some shopping. After purchasing a few things we found a little restaurant to have a couple of Cervezas and use their Internet connection so we could download e-mail.  After that we caught the tender back to the ship.

Tonight was casual dress in the dining room.

More animal towel art 🙂

On Tuesday we were at sea all day, so it was another busy day onboard. Brenda and I did our 2 mile walk around the deck early on and then we went our separate ways to take in other ship board activities.
In the early afternoon we went to “Dancing with the Stars” hoping to learn the Tango. However, they were teaching the Argentinian Tango and we wanted to learn the Traditional Tango; so right after the introduction video we snuck out of the theatre.
Prior to dinner this evening and most nights we made a point of getting together with Dean & Judy for a “Happy Hour” drink and reconnect from the days activities. This evening was Formal attire and there were lots of long dresses and tuxedos.

The entertainment after dinner this evening was a couple named Lazslo and Claudia who played violin, they were fantastic.
Another great day aboard the Veendam.

Some more animal towel art 🙂

We arrived into Puerto Quetzal at about 8:00 a.m. this morning. Once we disembarked we hopped on a tour bus to travel to the city of Antigua.
The bus ride was about an hour and a half. The road for the first part was a 2 lane freeway and was fairly busy, especially where it came to exits and or turnarounds for sugar fields and the processing factory. Once we left the freeway we started to climb up towards the backside of Volcano Agua where the town of Antiqua is located.
Antiqua is located at around 1400 meters so the road got quite steep in spots.

As we got closer Antiqua we had to pass through a small village and the roads were quite narrow, it is obvious that they were never designed for larger tour buses to pass through.
As we entered Antiqua the road system narrowed up even more and in order to enter the town we had to go up a one way street the wrong way with the help of a local police official.

After this we arrived at the tour bus stop which is located at the jade factory and museum.
Once in Antigua we were on our own for about three hours to explore the city. The streets were all cobblestones and rocks placed there from the time of the Spanish, so it was very rough to drive on and difficult to walk on. The sidewalks were narrow and for the most part quite uneven; the tour brochure said this was not a place to visit if you had mobility issues and they were right about that.
We visited the local tourism office and went to the second floor to get a good view of the city, then toured through a few churches, wandered around the street checking out the Spanish architecture. We then visited El Mercado which is the local shopping market; El Mercado was an explosion of colour which included many local and imported handicrafts from the region.
In addition to El Mercado there was lots and lots of street vendors selling blankets, serapes, flutes, jewellery and many other handmade local handicrafts. Some of the sellers were very persistent and the average response of “No Gracias” did not stop their attempt to sell you their wares.
Finally around 2:30 p.m. we boarded the bus for the ride back to the ship.
Evening dinner was casual dress and then we attended the evening show which was a re-visit to the “Rat Pack days of Las Vegas”.