Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Our cabin on the cruise
During the cruise, we had a very cool cabin. Since this was a Girl Scout trip, we had to have a separate bedroom for the girls and the adults. We got an "Obstructed View Family Suite" cabin. This gave us a cabin with two rooms: a living room/bedroom combination and then a 2nd bedroom. Each bedroom had a bathroom. Having two bathrooms was essential with 3 teenage girls!
The picture below was taken from the main room. The door straight ahead is the exit to the hallway. You would enter the room from this door and be in a small hall. The door that you can see to the left side of the photo is the entrance to the 2nd bedroom.
Some of these pictures, taken with the camera on my phone, are pretty fuzzy. Sorry about the quality issues. However, these make the cabin easier to explain.
The picture below is turned around from the one above. My back is to the door out to the hallway. On the right, you can see part of the 2nd bedroom. Straight ahead, you can see the couch in the main room. On the far wall straight ahead, you can see part of the curtain. Our room had windows looking out the starboard side of the ship.
Here is a picture from inside the 2nd bedroom. You can see the window. It was enough to let light in, but the view was very obstructed by the lifeboat hanging right outside of our window. When I took this picture, the closet for this room was directly behind me and the bathroom was to my right (out of view of the picture).
Here is the main room. As I said before, it served as a combination bedroom and living room. This picture is taken from the bed. The doorway across the room to the right leads to the short hallway entrance to the room. The couch seen in the prior photo is straight ahead in this picture.
This picture is taken from the doorway into the main room. It is looking back at the bed that was the origin point of the picture above. In this picture, you can see the large window on the left (there were two in the main room). What is not seen is the bathroom door on the left side of the bed from this point of view.
Here is a view of the window by the couch. In the main room, the lower part of the window was covered by the lifeboats. However, we had a decent view above the lifeboats.
Here is the view from our main room window at sunrise on our first morning on the ship. We are approaching Maui when these pictures were taken. I have included a photo looking left out the window, looking straight out the window, and looking right out the window.
The picture below was taken from the main room. The door straight ahead is the exit to the hallway. You would enter the room from this door and be in a small hall. The door that you can see to the left side of the photo is the entrance to the 2nd bedroom.
Some of these pictures, taken with the camera on my phone, are pretty fuzzy. Sorry about the quality issues. However, these make the cabin easier to explain.
The picture below is turned around from the one above. My back is to the door out to the hallway. On the right, you can see part of the 2nd bedroom. Straight ahead, you can see the couch in the main room. On the far wall straight ahead, you can see part of the curtain. Our room had windows looking out the starboard side of the ship.
Here is a picture from inside the 2nd bedroom. You can see the window. It was enough to let light in, but the view was very obstructed by the lifeboat hanging right outside of our window. When I took this picture, the closet for this room was directly behind me and the bathroom was to my right (out of view of the picture).
Here is the main room. As I said before, it served as a combination bedroom and living room. This picture is taken from the bed. The doorway across the room to the right leads to the short hallway entrance to the room. The couch seen in the prior photo is straight ahead in this picture.
This picture is taken from the doorway into the main room. It is looking back at the bed that was the origin point of the picture above. In this picture, you can see the large window on the left (there were two in the main room). What is not seen is the bathroom door on the left side of the bed from this point of view.
Here is a view of the window by the couch. In the main room, the lower part of the window was covered by the lifeboats. However, we had a decent view above the lifeboats.
Here is the view from our main room window at sunrise on our first morning on the ship. We are approaching Maui when these pictures were taken. I have included a photo looking left out the window, looking straight out the window, and looking right out the window.
Labels: Family, Scouts, Vacation
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Zip Lining in Kauai
One of the highlights of the Hawaii trip was when Bethany, Udara, and I went zip lining. They have tall stands of pine trees brought in by Captain Cook long ago. These continue to grow tall and strong. Very tall!
After an earlier post, Shoo asked if I weighed myself before and after the cruise. I definitely weighed myself before the cruise. The zip line company has an upper weight limit and, at my heaviest, I have been above that. I started the cruise at 250lbs looking at a weight limit of 265lbs. The zip line excursion was scheduled for Thursday (nearly the end of the cruise). That gave me an incentive to watch the good intake! On zip line morning, I weighed in at 251.4. I was happy.
The course went in a roughly circular pattern so that we did not have to do much walking. There were some bridge crossings, but no hiking from one line to another.
Here are some photos.
... and one video. Unfortunately, I ended up backwards on this landing. I came in facing forward for the rest, but this is the one video of me on a full zip line run. This was towards the end of the 7 zip lines that we did. They tried to get us to do a trick. I was going for a 360 degree spin. The 180 that I got was pretty weak!
After an earlier post, Shoo asked if I weighed myself before and after the cruise. I definitely weighed myself before the cruise. The zip line company has an upper weight limit and, at my heaviest, I have been above that. I started the cruise at 250lbs looking at a weight limit of 265lbs. The zip line excursion was scheduled for Thursday (nearly the end of the cruise). That gave me an incentive to watch the good intake! On zip line morning, I weighed in at 251.4. I was happy.
The course went in a roughly circular pattern so that we did not have to do much walking. There were some bridge crossings, but no hiking from one line to another.
Here are some photos.
... and one video. Unfortunately, I ended up backwards on this landing. I came in facing forward for the rest, but this is the one video of me on a full zip line run. This was towards the end of the 7 zip lines that we did. They tried to get us to do a trick. I was going for a 360 degree spin. The 180 that I got was pretty weak!
Labels: Bethany, Family, Vacation
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
One of my customers...
One of my customers (very funny guy) is trying to get home to Sweden, but can't due to the Iceland volcano-related airport closures in Europe. He has moved around a few "tropical islands" off the Pacific coast of Southeast Asia while he waits.
I particularly enjoyed this photo.
Good luck getting home, Rauiri!
Sending out an SOS...... Stranded on a remote Indonesian island. Your help is appreciated!
P.S. More Hawaii info/pictures in my next post.
I particularly enjoyed this photo.
Good luck getting home, Rauiri!
Sending out an SOS...... Stranded on a remote Indonesian island. Your help is appreciated!
P.S. More Hawaii info/pictures in my next post.
Labels: Work
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sea Scouts
Taking a break from vacation blogging, more to come in later entries on that...
We are officially a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) family again!
After Andrew earned his Eagle Scout rank and aged out of the boy portion of the program, Celeste and I turned our attention to Girl Scouts. As a result, our BSA membership lapsed. We have still been involved in helping out, but not as members.
On Saturday, Hayley signed up for BSA Sea Scouts. She got interested a couple of years ago during a Girl Scout sailing trip at Newport Sea Base. She has been attending as a guest off-and-on since then. Now that she is 14 years old, she is eligible to be a member.
Last weekend was the membership kick-off for the year. Hayley went to both work it and show kids and parents around as well as to finally officially sign up. I got her paperwork done and paid her dues. My paperwork is in process.
I am already an official Girl Scout. Soon I will be an official Boy Scout again too. I will be so confused!
Anyway, it is nice to see Hayley excited about something that is an area of expertise separate from her older brother and sister. Go Hayley!
We are officially a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) family again!
After Andrew earned his Eagle Scout rank and aged out of the boy portion of the program, Celeste and I turned our attention to Girl Scouts. As a result, our BSA membership lapsed. We have still been involved in helping out, but not as members.
On Saturday, Hayley signed up for BSA Sea Scouts. She got interested a couple of years ago during a Girl Scout sailing trip at Newport Sea Base. She has been attending as a guest off-and-on since then. Now that she is 14 years old, she is eligible to be a member.
Last weekend was the membership kick-off for the year. Hayley went to both work it and show kids and parents around as well as to finally officially sign up. I got her paperwork done and paid her dues. My paperwork is in process.
I am already an official Girl Scout. Soon I will be an official Boy Scout again too. I will be so confused!
Anyway, it is nice to see Hayley excited about something that is an area of expertise separate from her older brother and sister. Go Hayley!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Cruise Photos - purchased from ship
The cruise industry is doing a lot to try to increase the revenue per person once they get you on the ship. Don't get me wrong - you can have a great time without spending on any of the extras. The price includes a room, food, and entertainment. A "service fee" is automatically taken at the end of the week to cover the standard tips for the restaurants and the room steward. You have opportunities for extra tipping, but it is for anyone special that you want to recognize or for some of the "extras" on the ship.
One extra that we partook of was the ship's photography department. We didn't purchase all of the pictures that they took and we bypassed some of the photo opportunities. However, we did buy a few photos and a scrapbook. Our arrival photo purchase included a photo of the ship and the scrapbook included another photo of the ship.
Here are copies of the photos that we bought.
Here is our ship: the Pride of America. This is the photo that came with our arrival photo.
This is when we arrived to the ship on Saturday, April 3. We had flow in from LAX, taken a shuttle to the ship, and we were about to check in and get on the ship. This photo was taken in the arrival area with a few hundred of our soon-to-be-ship-mates around us. They had entertainment and some reading to get ready for the first day, so overall it was a decent check-in experience.
P.S. They claimed that it was an important tradition to set me on fire upon arrival (see my hand in the photo above).
The ship's photography department had opportunities for formal portraits. We didn't do that. However, we did have some fun with some green screen photos. Below is the only one that Celeste and I liked. The girls were busy with the teen club and didn't join us.
At each port, there was a photo opportunity as you left the ship. We skipped the photo opp in Maui and Hilo. However, we got a nice family shot when we got off the ship on Wedneday, April 7 in Kona on the big island. We were on our way to kayaking and snorkeling (I have already posted a few of those photos).
On Thursday morning (April 8) we arrived in Kauai. Bethany, Udara, and I left the ship for another one of our shore excursions. More about that in a future blog entry.
On our final full day of the cruise (Friday, April 9) we left port early enough to sail along the Na Pali Coast of Kauai. As you can see from this photo, the scenery is very dramatic. This part of the island is off-limits to any development.
The next day, we got off the ship at around 9:15am (after one last buffet breakfast). Little did we know that we had more adventures ahead. But that is a story for another blog entry.
One extra that we partook of was the ship's photography department. We didn't purchase all of the pictures that they took and we bypassed some of the photo opportunities. However, we did buy a few photos and a scrapbook. Our arrival photo purchase included a photo of the ship and the scrapbook included another photo of the ship.
Here are copies of the photos that we bought.
Here is our ship: the Pride of America. This is the photo that came with our arrival photo.
This is when we arrived to the ship on Saturday, April 3. We had flow in from LAX, taken a shuttle to the ship, and we were about to check in and get on the ship. This photo was taken in the arrival area with a few hundred of our soon-to-be-ship-mates around us. They had entertainment and some reading to get ready for the first day, so overall it was a decent check-in experience.
P.S. They claimed that it was an important tradition to set me on fire upon arrival (see my hand in the photo above).
The ship's photography department had opportunities for formal portraits. We didn't do that. However, we did have some fun with some green screen photos. Below is the only one that Celeste and I liked. The girls were busy with the teen club and didn't join us.
At each port, there was a photo opportunity as you left the ship. We skipped the photo opp in Maui and Hilo. However, we got a nice family shot when we got off the ship on Wedneday, April 7 in Kona on the big island. We were on our way to kayaking and snorkeling (I have already posted a few of those photos).
On Thursday morning (April 8) we arrived in Kauai. Bethany, Udara, and I left the ship for another one of our shore excursions. More about that in a future blog entry.
On our final full day of the cruise (Friday, April 9) we left port early enough to sail along the Na Pali Coast of Kauai. As you can see from this photo, the scenery is very dramatic. This part of the island is off-limits to any development.
The next day, we got off the ship at around 9:15am (after one last buffet breakfast). Little did we know that we had more adventures ahead. But that is a story for another blog entry.
Labels: Bethany, Family, Hayley, Rob, Scouts, Vacation
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Lots of pictures and videos...
On our trip to Hawaii, we made use of 6 different digital cameras. The quality of the cameras ranged from a very nice one that Bethany purchased last year to my cell phone camera at the low end. Hayley also had her first chance to try out a camera that she bought last year too. She was happy with the results.
Anyway, my laptop was the repository for the pictures all week. Yesterday, I sent an external hard drive full of pictures and videos home with Udara to back up. Then Bethany wanted copies of the photos. All we had left was a couple of 2GB SD cards and a 256MB SD card. Between those three cards, it took around 8 passes to get all of the files transferred.
We took a lot of photos and videos!
Of course, we followed the digital camera rule of taking lots of pictures to get a few good ones. A lot of the shots are marginal at best, but that strategy allowed us to get some pictures we might not have otherwise gotten.
Anyway, I will continue to post some of the interesting items as my schedule permits.
Anyway, my laptop was the repository for the pictures all week. Yesterday, I sent an external hard drive full of pictures and videos home with Udara to back up. Then Bethany wanted copies of the photos. All we had left was a couple of 2GB SD cards and a 256MB SD card. Between those three cards, it took around 8 passes to get all of the files transferred.
We took a lot of photos and videos!
Of course, we followed the digital camera rule of taking lots of pictures to get a few good ones. A lot of the shots are marginal at best, but that strategy allowed us to get some pictures we might not have otherwise gotten.
Anyway, I will continue to post some of the interesting items as my schedule permits.
Labels: Bethany, Family, Hayley, Vacation
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Waterproof camera photos from Hawaii
Again, he pleaded that he had a lack of time to blog properly. In an attempt to at least post something, he picked a few random photos to post. These were taken with the Fuji waterproof digital camera that he borrowed from his brother, Ronny.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Hawaii Pictures # 1
Rather than not posting due to lack of time, here are some initial pictures from our Hawaii trip.
Here we are at LAX before leaving for the flight. This was officially a Girl Scout trip - the girls saved up their money for many years for this. However, we only ended up with one non-family Girl Scout on the trip (Udara). Udara is one of Bethaany's best friends and like a daughter to our family. Udara's dad drove us to the airport.
Here is a starter picture taken by each of the girls on Easter Sunday on Maui.
A photo taken by Hayley:
A photo taken by Bethany:
A photo taken by Udara:
Here we are at LAX before leaving for the flight. This was officially a Girl Scout trip - the girls saved up their money for many years for this. However, we only ended up with one non-family Girl Scout on the trip (Udara). Udara is one of Bethaany's best friends and like a daughter to our family. Udara's dad drove us to the airport.
Here is a starter picture taken by each of the girls on Easter Sunday on Maui.
A photo taken by Hayley:
A photo taken by Bethany:
A photo taken by Udara:
Labels: Bethany, Family, Hayley, Scouts, Vacation
Monday, April 12, 2010
A lot to write about, but finding time is difficult...
Not that I am complaining. Work continues to be busy. I was out all last week on vacation in Hawaii. Got home late Sunday (technically early Monday) and now it is Monday night and I am back in Montreal.
I have a lot of topics and some fun pictures to post. Hopefully I can find some time for that this week.
Anyway, it is midnight here and I should get some sleep. More later...
I have a lot of topics and some fun pictures to post. Hopefully I can find some time for that this week.
Anyway, it is midnight here and I should get some sleep. More later...
Labels: Travel, Vacation, Work
