02/14/10
Jan 5 (Tues): HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! Yes, I'm late. We had a full day for Christmas, then left for the airport the morning of the 26th at about 6:30, completely missing my Mom's birthday. Happy Belated Birthday Mom!!! Then we got back yesterday/Monday in the wee hours.
We flew to New Orleans for a 7-day Western Caribbean Cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL). The ship was the Spirit and was much bigger than our previous ships.
So, I'm going to briefly explain our trip issues first, then I'm going to talk about what a fantastic time it was and all the great stuff we saw & did, then I'll talk about Christmas. In fact, I may have to do this in installments.
Issues:
- Due to the terrorist's attempted plane bombing on Christmas Day, we had
our carry-ons thoroughly searched both at the security gate and
the boarding gate, plus we were patted down at the boarding gate.
On the flight we were not allowed to leave our seats - at all. Luckily, it
was only an hour long.
- Due to the time-consuming security checks, we missed our connection in Washington, DC
- but I had a voicemail on my cellphone saying we were automatically
re-booked. We thought, "Wow, what a great airline United is!!!",
printed our boarding passes at a kiosk, and had a lovely lunch in a pub.
- Got to New Orleans to find our luggage hadn't followed us.....but they
had over 4 hours to re-route it! Hmmmmm. Andy filled out a
lost luggage report and was told it would be at our hotel the next
morning. The Sheraton gave us a "lost luggage kit" - toothbrush,
toothpaste, deodorant, etc.
- Still no luggage the next morning. Andy called United Airlines.
Customer service rep indifferent. Andy starts to lose it. I take
the phone and send her to the shower. Customer service rep (in
India) still indifferent. Luggage will be sent to hotel......but
we are leaving on a ship in a few hours. United Airlines NOT so
great.
- As I sat on hold, realizing we would not get our luggage in time, I
started writing a shopping list.
- Called the cruise line and a very nice lady gave me the number for "TravelGuard"
(with whom we bought travel insurance), where I got a very helpful lady
who told us we had $750 delayed luggage coverage each - go shopping.
She would also try to get the luggage routed to us on the cruise.
- We kicked into high gear - told a taxi driver to take us to the nearest Walmart
Supercentre. Each took a cart. Spent 2 hours getting
toiletries, travel meds (Imodium, etc) and desperately trying on
clothes. No sandals, so got flip-flops, which hurt Andy's toes.
Managed to get aqua-socks for in the water, but no bathing suits, and
hard to find shorts. Also found a cable so we could download the
cameras to the laptop (all of which were in our carry-ons, thank gawd) &
charge other devices.
And of course, got new luggage.
- On board, we pulled a "McGyver" - used our brand new nail
clippers to remove tags from clothes and new nail file to puncture
sealed packaging on new containers, like Tylenol. Andy even
managed to "punch" a notch in her new belt with the nail file!
- I'd had a cold since the 23rd but it went bad - on Day 2 of cruise I went to the
ship's doctor and got antibiotics, which never really helped, but found
that my inhaler and the doctor's suggestion of Tylenol frequently mostly masked my symptoms - Phew!
- Many people on ship coughing croupy-style.
- A ship's rep took over dealing with our luggage woes. Tried to
get it forwarded to Belize, then to Cozumel, but it was still sitting at
the Sheraton where it was delivered late. She kept us updated
almost daily. We now HATE United Airlines!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Frigging useless morons.
- We were the people with the clothes that didn't fit quite right - and we
repeated the same things every couple days, but.....we found bathing
suits that fit us in the ship's gift shop!!!!! Phew. The
ship also gave us a "lost luggage kit" and sympathy gestures of
two free t-shirts to sleep in, one
free load of laundry and $100 credit to our onboard account.
We love NCL.
- Coming home first on Delta (operated by Northwest Airlines) and then
connecting in New York onto Air Canada also had delay issues for various
reasons. Too many details to ramble about, but it took us from
noon Sunday till 2:35 Monday morning to make the entire trip from
check-in in New Orleans to arriving home. Special thanks to Steven
for sticking it out and picking us up at the airport.
- Our replacement luggage didn't arrive. Andy's getting good at
filling out the missing luggage reports. The original luggage
arrived in Toronto at 1:41pm yesterday but haven't heard anything more.
The replacement luggage has been found by Air Canada and is to be
delivered tonight.
And now on to the good stuff!!!!
The ship, the Spirit, was fabulous - extremely well designed - and our room was excellent - and quiet!!!! I'll put in pictures of it at the end. On the last two cruises we took (Alaska and the Baltic Sea) we had rumble rooms. This time we were 5 decks higher so nothing rattled - plus it was our first time with a balcony. We will never go back down to the cheap seats.
The first full day was "at sea", crossing the Gulf of Mexico and part of the Caribbean Sea. We sat on deck reading and sunning, and did some exploring. After an afternoon nap, we took me to the ship's doctor. He and his nurse were very nice as well as thorough. The best advice he gave me was to use Tylenol for such an illness, not Advil.
The next day we were in Costa Maya, Mexico, where we had our first excursion. We went to the Kohunlich Mayan Ruins, which were absolutely fantastic and the pictures just don't do them justice.
The masks are a very rare, huge find.
Before we left, I stood for a while just feeling the sides of the ancient stone walls. These structures are amazing. Andy couldn't believe how we got to climb all over them. We did have a couple minor issues this day - first, we had to have our bus replaced half way to the ruins as the suspension was shot, which meant we drove slowly until the substitute bus caught up. We were also quite delayed because we had to queue up at an army checkpoint, where they searched all vehicles for guns and drugs. Luckily, tour coaches get a quick inspection only, but that was after the eight cars in front of us were searched stem to stern. I sat looking out my window at the soldier with the big rifle.
The next day, we were in Guatemala, where we went to Las Escobas Waterfalls. On the coach ride there, we got to see the poverty of the people and hear about their history. We saw how horses roam free to feed, but were told they always find their way home in the evening. Then we drove inland and had a hike through the rainforest to two beautiful sets of waterfalls with pools that we got to swim in.
Along the ride you could see coconuts trees...
and banana trees - it's hard to get a good picture from the bus, but see the green bananas on the right near the building?
Guatemala is the world's largest banana producer with farms run by Chiquita, Dole, and Del Monte. We were delivered back to the ship for lunch then we went to the handicraft market where Andy began honing her bartering skills. We got several souvenirs at quite decent prices.
The hottest part of the trip was walking the ~200 yards from the ship to the market and back in the direct afternoon sun! It must have been about 35o C. We thought we would melt. Later, as the ship pushed away from the dock, we watched from our balcony as our tour guides (in yellow) joined some dancers and musicians to give us a wonderful, festive send-off.
The next day, Dec 31st, we were in Belize, formerly "British Honduras", so initially the country didn't look quite so poor. In fact, several areas on the coast look quite affluent. Again our excursion took us inland through the poorer areas to the rainforest - and this day we were very excited to be rained on in the tropical rainforest. In fact, for a while it POURED, but we were moved under cover of a fern leaf roof (does that fall into the "thatched" category?), so we were dry aside from some dripping leaks - and our own sweat, of course. It didn't matter to us as it was quite warm (and humid). But it did mean that the cave-tubing half of the tour was cancelled - the caves were flooded. Still the Ziplining was absolutely fantastic!!!! (Keep an eye on the background of these pictures, at the size of the palms specifically.)
The only things missing were a few escalators!
We aren't sure if we did 7 or 8 lines. We were having so much fun that we lost track. Yes, I had a shoulder harness whereas Andy didn't - it's for bigger people. And these lines had no brakes like the ones in Whistler - in fact, the right glove of the set we were issued had a big, thick, added leather piece in the palm that you placed on the lower line to keep yourself from turning. Also, if you were given the signal by staff you used that to pull down on the lower cable to slow yourself. One time I just couldn't pull hard enough so I got my feet up with knees bent and hit the fat padding on the tree - no problem. But then the next time I overcompensated the slowing and had to pull myself in, but only about 3 pulls till the guy was able to grab my foot.
Heather Ziplining away
Andy Ziplining in
Andy holding camera while Ziplining across
We then had a very nice lunch at the on-site restaurant. The one thing all these tourism places seemed to have learned well is to have nice, clean washrooms, which it did, and here lunch came with the package, so we ate. Otherwise, we were very careful.
This was also where we met "the boys" for the first time: Walter from LA, Philippe from New York, and James from Baltimore. Later we met their friend Patrick (I say boys but they were all around 50). They went to university together 20-something years ago and all go on a trip about once per year. They were also acquainted with Hudson, who we had met one evening at the "Friends of Dorothy" gathering. When we first saw "Friends of Dorothy" listed every evening with a time and place in the daily booklet of ship's activities, we wondered if it was what we thought it was......then I noticed it had in brackets LGBT, which we know as Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, & Transgendered. Our first reaction was Noooooooo. But it was true. We couldn't believe it. A discrete little meeting for the gays! We finally went on about the 3rd night. Hudson, from Atlanta, was the only other person who showed, but we saw several lesbian and gay couples on board throughout the week.
Backing up a bit.....we met the boys because James actually missed a ziplining stop and hit a tree, knocking his helmet off and giving himself a good gash and whack on the head. How he did this, we have no clue. It would be pretty damn hard to do actually. As he was brought to the restaurant, we offered assistance and the boys shared our table. We then met up with them several times. James recovered quite quickly, we think mostly due to his icing the goose-egg for over 90 minutes, and the ship's doctor said the cut was just superficial.
The picture below was taken on the border of the savannah and rainforest as we rode back to the ship - the whitish area is a mine apparently, but looks more like some kind of quarry with the mountain-side being scraped off.
When we got back to the port, we did some more shopping. We started off just looking around, but you know where that leads. In any case, this is where Andy did her most stellar bartering. A Mayan plaque was offered to us for $130. We both balked at that absurdity & walked away. Offers of lesser prices kept following us. I left Andy and the young man alone. After a while, Andy came out to ask me if I had any money, even though she knew I didn't. We got the plaque for $30. Hah hah.
We then caught the "tender" back to the ship. This was the only port we had to be tendered as there is something like 180 kilometres of coral reef that they won't bring the bigger ships across. It was a 15 minute ride at a pretty high speed.
The New Years Eve party that night was the best we can ever remember. We were very tired, but toughed it out & joined the party on the decorated, main outer deck around the pool. They had a great live band playing song after song that we loved. We sat listening to them for about 2 1/2 hours. People were dressed up - some really dressed up! We were given party horns, the people on the upper level were given streamers, and all of us were given a glass of champagne (free) just before midnight. Andy & I decided a few sips wouldn't hurt us. Then just before midnight she spotted the boys and they invited us to join them. It was hilarious, great, fun chaos. At midnight, the ice sculpture of 2009 had the 9 pushed away, the second 0 slid to the right, and a 1 slotted into place to create 2010. One of the hot tubs was capped and topped with champagne bottles from which we received our glass.
The boys": James with his eyes shut, which is maybe how he sustained the ziplining schmuck, Philippe, Derek, & ringleader Walter.
After midnight, several people went in the pool fully clothed, which Andy had speculated about. We left the boys, danced 3 or 4 songs, then went to bed as we had to get up at 6:30 for our next excursion.
There were also some impressive fruit carvings for New Years Eve in the restaurant. Here's a small sampling:
To be continued.....
Jan 8 (Fri): Continuing on with pictures from the cruise and our boarding port of New Orleans. If you missed the first part, go to the top of this page.
New Years Day, which was Andy's 40th Birthday, we visited a slice of heaven, Cozumel. Our excursion was "Dolphin Push, Pull and Swim".
Our dolphin was Ariel. We got to pet her back and her tummy.
Ariel swims by
Petting Ariel
We both had a fantastic time. The "Push" part of our time was us on a boogie board, being pushed by Ariel with her snout in the arch of one foot. The "Pull" was Ariel swimming belly-up pulling us while we held on to her fins. I was afraid of hurting her, but she was far more sturdy than I expected.
Andy being pushed on the boogie board
Andy being pulled
Heather being pulled
Much to our surprise, there was a bonus - time with a Manatee. We got to pet and feed him. He was so friendly and docile - in fact he'd been trying to get our attention through the fence while we were playing with Ariel. All the dolphins and manatees seemed to get excited at the sight of their guests.
There were also lots of pretty fish hanging around.
After our time with the dolphins was over, we had some authentic nachos. We ran into Michael again this day and he hung out with us. He had been on the Mayan Ruins excursion with us. Very nice fellow from Georgia.
After we refortified (as those waffles topped with banana compote and whipped cream from breakfast had worn off), we headed down the beach. I loved it here and would gladly go back! It was beautiful!
We took turns going for a swim, using the waterproof camera to try to get some shots like this.
Unfortunately, it's hard to see where to shoot without your snorkeling gear, which of course was in the missing luggage. We also wandered through a bit of Chankanaab Park, where we spotted this iguana up in a tree and a lagoon with lots of pretty fish.
On the way back to the ship, Andy got herself in a spot of trouble.
After she was rejected and spat aside, we got back to our room and a surprise for Andy, thanks to Weiweik, our room steward.
10 o'clock that night brought the Chocolate Buffet.
Aside from all the carvings, there were platters upon platters of every kind of chocolate cake and square and tort and mousse imaginable, plus an ice cream bar, and a no sugar section. We loaded up our plates, took them back to our room, had a few nibbles and saved the rest for the next day.
Our final day was "at sea" again. We were pretty tired this day so were happy for the chance to rest, but in the afternoon, we went to meet one of the entertainers. Jo-el Sonnier is the King of Cajun music and he had a couple big hits back during my first few years at the country radio station. Tear-Stained Letter is the best known one. He and his wife were very nice.
After the cruise, we did one more excursion - a bus tour of New Orleans. I have 28 pictures from that to post, so I guess there is going to be a third installment.
As for pictures of the ship, there were a lot of those too, so I made a separate webpage for them. If you want to see them, click here.
Jan 10 (Sun): A couple notes before I get started with the third installment about our New Years trip. Firstly, I figured out how to have videos from YouTube now appear directly in these website pages, so no more being redirected to YouTube and then having to click "Back" when you are done. Secondly, starting now I'm changing the archive (past entry) pages so that they no longer go in reverse order. They now go chronologically and when you click on "Previous Blog Entries", you are taken to the most recent previous entry, not necessarily to the top of the page.
If you missed either of the first two installments about the cruise, just click on "Previous Blog Entries" (above right).
So, on to New Orleans...... We didn't get to see as much of the French Quarter initially as we had wanted thanks to missing our connection and having to take a later flight. We had flown in a day before the cruise as a buffer in case of winter storms or luggage issues (didn't help, did it?). We checked into the wonderful Sheraton New Orleans with a view of the Mississippi River (which our ship sailed down to the gulf), where they gave us a "Lost Luggage" kit and offered advice. This is where our luggage ended up staying for almost a week, from what we can gather.
After we checked in, we wandered the French Quarter in search of a restaurant for dinner, but were just not having any luck finding something both inexpensive & comfortable. We did, however, end up in a souvenir shop and got a really cool Mardi Gras mask. Soon we were getting desperate for food - hadn't realized it was already 9:30! So, we ended up back in the hotel bar, sitting by a lovely, huge fountain and this gazebo in the grand atrium. We inhaled two bowls of party mix while waiting for our dinner.
I was going to take pictures of the hotel the next day, but that never happened, so the above ones are lifted from the net. In fact, I don't think we even got a proper breakfast the next morning - Andy had a granola bar and I had a little packet of chocolate covered pretzels from our carry-ons - and come to think of it, lunch was only some McDonald's french fries, which were just to keep us from keeling over.
We spent a fair amount of time on the phone trying to get our luggage, then with the cruiseline looking for advice, then with TravelGuard, the travel insurance people. We then abandoned our cruiseline shuttle that was to pick us up and got a taxi to Walmart, where we spent 2 hours getting replacement gear. From there we went directly to the ship - where there was more than enough food!
When we arrived back in New Orleans the following Sunday, we were off the ship at 9 and onto a City Tour excursion we had booked. These bus tours are usually great for getting a good overview. Both our tour guide, Chris, and the driver, Tori, were survivors of Katrina. Chris told us his house ended up in 23 feet of water, that his neighbours drowned, and that he would have too if his kids had not come and forced him to leave with them. Tori's brother had also drowned, in a way we didn't hear about on the news. The rushing water in the sewers lifted manhole covers, but you couldn't see them missing under the foot or more of flood water you were walking through. Tori's brother stepped into a manhole and was instantly swept away, presumably out to sea. Of course, the bodies of of these poor soles were never found.
They showed us the French Quarter that had not been under water, the wonderful cast iron and wrought iron the city is known for, other interesting architecture, the devastation, one of the famous graveyards, the affluent part of town, their most famous park, and some of the spots we might recognize from the most famous news clips. In pointing out historical landmarks, Chris also called the "Civil War" the "War of Northern Aggression", which we all had a good laugh at.
A statue of Andrew Jackson within Jackson Square.
A statue of Joan of Arc called "The Maid of Orleans".
There were lots of these little houses called "Shotgun Houses".
Fats Domino's house and recording studio - it's been restored and he will be returning soon
One of the few newly built homes - they called these ones on the risers "Brad Pitt Homes".
We don't think they knew about Mike Holmes and his crew going down to help build one of the Brad Pitt homes, but Andy recognized the house instantly.
This is one of the levies that broke. It's rebuilt but only to the same height and specs as it had been before Katrina. Also in this spot, one of the freighters was pushed through the broken levy and ended up over in the housing area.
Back into more pleasant surroundings - painted pillars to brighten up the area beneath an overpass.
We had encountered several pelicans throughout the cruise, but not till we got to "City Park" did we get a picture.
Andy was impressed by the "Spanish Moss".
We couldn't believe how close these swans let us get - and how often do you see a black one?
Heading along the Mardi Gras parade route.
Look carefully to see the strings and necklaces of beads in the tree. The parade route is lines with "Bead Trees".
And now going back to Christmas Day. This year we headed up to Scot and Monica's for brunch at 11 and then opening presents. They had opened all their presents not to do with us before we got there, which saved us a lot of time. Since we had a couple hours to ourselves in the morning, Andy & I had some hot chocolate by the fire and Andy opened her present from her parents. It was a combo gift for Christmas and Birthday, therefore it had one kind of wrapping paper on one side and the other on the other.
It's a Wii Fit Plus and Andy was VERY happy, if you hadn't guessed. We continued opening after a fabulous brunch. We gave the kids snow scooters, a book each, and Andy had picked out a ladybug necklace for Grace, which Grace wasn't so sure about but we hope she'll grow into it, however Ben absolutely LOVED his big, fluffy puppy.
Ben also possibly was more excited about the "Wii Sports Resort" that we gave Dad than Dad was.
From Andy's parents I got Season 5 of "The L Word". Only one more season left to get!
From the kids, we got 2 "MotionPlus" add-ons for the Wii remotes, and from Mom & Dad I got pyjamas, movie passes and the new Star Trek movie on Blu Ray. Andy got Band Hero from Scot and Monica - well, from one of them, but nobody could remember who had pulled which name in the draw. We gave Monica a season pass to Canada's Wonderland.
After presents I went and had a nap in the basement. I came down with a cold the night of the 23rd, so wasn't feeling so great Christmas Day. Then about 3 we went to the Cooper Family Christmas Dinner. There were about 50 aunts, uncles, cousins, and kids of cousins - and way too much delicious food. We had a really good time, but had to leave fairly early to come home to finish packing and prepping to leave very early in the morning.
And that brings us back to the present.
This past Tuesday was Andy's cancer check-up and maintenance drugs, so our day at the hospital. She had an excellent check-up. The doctor is very happy, and this was the smoothest her drugs have ever gone - no reactions for the first time.
Wednesday, it was back to work and that was right about the time my bronchitis/cold/flu started escalating.
Jan 18 (Mon): We will we will ROCK YOU! We will we will ROCK YOU. Weeeeee are the champions my friends......well, we are champion birthday partiers. Had a surprise 40th yesterday for Andy. She knew the family was coming over, but she didn't know that it was a Guitar Hero party till I arrived to wake her up with a couple balloons.
She also didn't know I had invited some cousins, Uncle Lanny & Aunt Sharon, & Huguette. Unfortunately, they all ended up sick so couldn't make it. In the morning, Andy helped me decorate, which may seem odd....decorating for her own party, but I still have bronchitis, plus woke with a migraine. After Tylenol + Advil + 1/4 Gravol + a ThermaCare pack on my shoulders, I started to get some relief by about noon. For decorations, I had posters, 3D musical notes, balloons, hangings, & I printed out Guitar Hero and Band Hero art that I'd found on their website. Andy loved it.
What Andy also didn't know is that all attendees were to be rock or pop stars. When she started considering what to wear, I told her jeans and a t-shirt then handed her a bag with the rest of her attire. Meet the white reincarnation of Jimi Hendrix. And I went off and changed into Elton John, though I couldn't quite get the accent right. Andy guessed who I was instantly.
Soon the rest of the guests arrived: Bono, Axle Rose, Angus from AC/DC, Roy Orbison, Cyndi Lauper, and Gwen Stefani, with me and Jimi.
And then we jammed!!! Roy and Cyndi had brought their Wii remotes to add to ours so we were able to have drums, guitar, bass and mic all working together. Plus we added in our maraca & Caribbean tube drums.
We munched on tons of finger foods all afternoon, then Jimi opened her presents, "Wii Sports Resort" from Scot, Monica, Ben & Grace, and some art and a Tigger bookmark from Grace. She'd already got "Wii Fit Plus" from her parents (which has been hilarious so far - her 'Fit' age is 34), shared Band Hero with me from my parents, and the cruise was our birthday present to each other.
Overall, everyone seemed to have a really great time, and we all proved that we are the worst bunch of butchering singers around - though none of us really cared - and Ben & I had a blast belting out Paralyzer together.
Going back to a couple of things, as you can see in a couple of the pictures above, the entertainment centre is back together and functioning, but look at this mess of cabling that took me 3 hours to sort out.
It may not look like 3 hours worth, but I had to take my time, test each thing as I added it, label the unlabelled, and because the TV takes HDMI inputs, but the old stereo doesn't have that, I had to split all the feeds......so the PVR, Blu Ray, VCR, and Wii each have video cables going to the TV and audio cables to the stereo. It also means using another remote when switching devices, but we are starting to get used to it.
Also, I had previously reported that Andy'd had another hospital day, but I don't think I mentioned that they forgot to label the vials from her blood tests so more had to be drawn once we got to the Haematology ward.....but since they were going to have to insert her IV anyway, they inserted it, used it to take the blood, then left it in taped up till her meds were ready. The next day, she noticed this seemed to have an adverse effect. And a few days later, it was still spreading out.
It's all back to normal now, but wow!
Jan 24 (Sun): Before I truly get started, I should clear up the fact that we did get all of our cruise luggage back and no contents were missing. If I remember correctly, we arrived home about 2:30 am on the Monday. The replacement luggage then arrived around 10:45 pm on the Tuesday, and the original luggage arrived at 11:15pm on the Wednesday. Now we are in the process of filing the "delayed luggage" insurance claim.
'Twas rather a quiet weekend. There was a bit of relaxing, but the regular chores too. While Andy hung out in the back yard in the balmy +2o C making kindling on the splitter, I went to Future Shop to pick up something we spied in their flyer, and ended with 2 others as well.
In the evening, we were supposed to take Mom for a belated Birthday dinner, but she called to say she had the flu. Andy was psyched for the buffet so we went anyway.
It was really good, but I ate too much and paid for it with great pain & suffering. So much for trying to be good, eating all those vegetables and salad! In the evening, we watched the beginning of the Canucks game on the new TV - couldn't believe how awesome it was. For a few seconds we felt like we were back in GM Place.
This morning, Andy went off to buy paint for the bathroom ceiling and came home with this funky new colour sample bottle.
We particularly like it as it made it easy to decide that is NOT the colour we are looking for!
This afternoon, we went to the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto to see Cloud 9.
We liked it but agreed the first half was better. It had excellent acting, well developed characters, excellent costumes & dialogue, a simple but interesting set, and lots of humour. It also starred several actors we've seen before at Shaw Festival or other Toronto theatres, and Megan Follows, famous as Anne of Green Gables, and Anne-Marie McDonald who we've seen in "Better Than Chocolate", but who we know better for her two bestselling books: "Fall on Your Knees" and "The Way the Crow Flies". The only real thing against it was that at the end, we were unsure of whatever point the playwright was trying to make. We got the general gist but if there was a more poignant, specific intention, it didn't reach out and grab us.
One more picture for you. Andy snapped this yesterday.
Cheeky bugger! But then the birds aren't exactly starving since our small bit of snow has melted.
Jan 31 (Sun): Monday, Andy found out she was accepted to do something she has always wanted to do - go on a build with Habitat for Humanity International. As most of you know already, she is going to Pokhara, Nepal for two weeks in April as part of H4H's "Global Village" program. Here is the link to her participant web page - https://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/participant/participant.aspx?pid=93298257. While you're on that page, we'd appreciate any donations for the build (Thanks to those who have already donated!!!). Andy is paying for her flights herself, so any donations go directly to the build. This will be quite a different build for Andy. She's used to framed houses but this will be like a big woven basket which you then coat with mud both inside and out.
At least her scenery should be pretty good with the proximity to the Himalayas!
I wonder if she'll be able to see Mount Everest from her build site?
Otherwise, the week has muchly focused on paint. Building on the sample I showed last week, it was a great challenge picking the colour for the stair & hall ways. We went through countless sample cards from a couple different paint suppliers and several live samples. It's gotten quite patchy around here!
By Saturday morning we had settled on the light yellow, so (after a nice sleep-in) we zipped over to Benjamin Moore to get it on the second last day for the federal renovation tax credit. It'll now wait to be used till the bathroom and one guest room are done.
Speaking of the bathroom, when we got home Andy got to work prepping then painting it.
The mauve/lilac colour is not showing up very well yet in this picture, but we are really liking it! And that's how she spent most of her weekend. On the other hand, I went off on errands like washing both vehicles, picking up several things, then made Andy some of her full fat chili & meatloaf. I'm still trying to get more meat on her bones so only get the "lean" meats for me. Yesterday flew by so we weren't overly upset when Mom called to postpone going out for her birthday dinner again. This time Dad has a cold. We'll try again for next Saturday. Hopefully, we're 3rd try lucky!
Today, Andy continued painting and I continued doing chores and cooking. Then we went to a matinee of:
Andy gives it 9/10 and I give it a 7.
Friday night, we were very psyched to book a trip that we'd postponed for about 6 years now. Every time we thought about going, we'd end up choosing a more economical or higher priority option. But this time the cost was amazingly low, so in May we're going to Vegas. And from there we will do at least one day trip to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.
We took ages reviewing hotels paring it down to our final choice, The Mirage.
It has Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat!
And now I leave you with something that makes me smile whenever I see it. The neighbours two houses over have been having a great time on their home-made rink. There was quite the hockey game today. They were having a great time.
