Lucerne, Switzerland

We just had a fabulous long weekend in Lucerne, Switzerland.  We originally planned this trip two years ago.  Exactly 2 years ago we went to Legoland.  We had a blast but Carter came down with a fever.  We had plans to continue on to Switzerland (including Lucerne) but ended up cancelling the rest of the trip.  Two years later, we finally were able to make it a reality.

We stayed right in the heart of the Old Town.  It's mainly a pedestrian only area with lots of restaurants and shops.   The famous Chapel Bridge was just a two minute walk.  The first night in town, we ate at a touristy fondue restaurant.  We thought Carter would love it.  Turns out he wasn't a huge fan of the cheese fondue (wasn't cheddar cheese or cream cheese...the only two that matter). But no surprise, he devoured the chocolate fondue and bananas.  Of course, Carter was bouncing off the walls the rest of the evening.



On Saturday morning there was a beautiful Farmer's Market along the river.  I could have spent all morning there wandering the stalls and seeing all the fresh food and flowers. 



Carter was not the least bit interested in the Farmer's Market but was rather OBSESSED with the swans.  There were easily 30 swans on the river right at the bridge and Carter could not get enough of them.  Especially exciting were the "kid" swans.  There were two light gray colored swans that were clearly still young-uns.



On Sunday, we visited Mount Pilatus.  We did the Golden Round Trip which involves taking a boat from Lucerne across Lake Lucerne to Alpnachstad, going up on the cogwheel railway, coming down on the aerial cableways and panorama gondolas, and taking a bus back to Lucerne (this is all depicted on the graphic below but it's really hard to read).  This was an all day excursion.

The views were absolutely amazing. Mt. Pilatus has it's highest peak at about 7000 feet. There were clouds below the peak. What amazed me is how quickly the clouds came in and then disappeared just as quickly. Since I am somewhat afraid of heights, there were several uncomfortable moments for me. The gondola ride was especially bad for me because it was also extremely crowded. There were probably 40 people crammed in (standing room only style) onto a gondola the size of a small bus. Not only do I have a fear of heights, I'm somewhat claustrophobic...especially when it comes to proximity of people. Fortunately, it was a super fast leg of the trip, lasting only about 5 minutes. Good thing, too, because I'm not sure I breathed during that whole leg of the trip.



Half way down the mountain, we stopped at the sommer-rodelbahn (summer toboggan run).  Think of luge with a sled on wheels and a metal, half-pipe run.  This particular one is 1.4 km long and was soooo much fun.  Carter had a blast and absolutely loved it. We could have spent all day doing it if it was his choice.  Of course we finished with some ice cream.

Travel Planning

So I counted, and we have roughly 12 weeks left here in Germany.  At this point we don't know our exact move home date so I'm just estimating.  That time is just going to fly by.  So hard to believe that it's coming to an end.  Sure it's something we've talked about a lot but for it to be actually happening...

Because of our limited time left, we've been busy planning our final trips.  We've got Hamburg coming up at the end of the month.  We'll be visiting Lucerne, Switzerland the first weekend of October.  We are hoping to take a long weekend in mid-October for Munich (and squeeze in a final trip to Legoland).  First weekend in November will be Budapest, Hungary. And then Thanksgiving weekend (while you are all eating Turkey and watching parades on TV), we'll be in Vienna, Austria. 

As much travel as we have done in the last 2 1/2 years (and will do in the next 3 months), there is still so much more that I want to see. 

Israel

Last weekend we took a short trip to Israel. Since we flew out of Frankfurt into Tel Aviv, we had to first take the ICE train to Frankfurt. This is the second time that we have taken the train between Cologne and Frankfurt. It only takes about an hour and it's top speed is282 km/hr (~175 mph). Yes, that's really super fast. The train stops right at the airport. I love it...so convenient.

The Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is possibly one of the nicest, cleanest airports I have ever visited. To be completely honest, I expected tons of Israeli military wandering about in their fatigues and carrying machine guns. I did not see a single person with a gun. Check out this cool water feature in the middle of the airport. Please note, this is not my picture (I found it on a Google Image search) but I was so impressed with the airport, I wanted to share it with you.

Tel Aviv is right on the Mediterranean Coast and that was our first stop after checking into the hotel and meeting up with the rest of Ben's family. Our plan was just to walk along the beach and then search for a suitable place for dinner. But even the best laid plans are easily derailed by a young child. We walked down to the water and Carter had so much fun playing in the waves. In no time his clothes were totally soaked and so we stripped him down and let him run around naked for a little while.

A side note about the sand. This was the softest, finest sand I have ever experienced. With each step your foot would sink right in . There was no moisture in this sand and so it didn't pack down under your weight. It was also ridiculously hot. I think I actually burned my feet.

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Jerusalem. The old city was amazing. What is amazing is that this is still a living, breathing, functioning part of town. And it's the center of 3 of the largest religions in the world. It's not just a museum or a historical hot spot (like much of Rome). Nearly all the streets are merely narrow alley ways, often covered. These alleys are like a labyrinth through the city and with all the vendors it's like a giant flea market. It was very crowded and very hot.

We did manage to find our way to the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. I had wanted to walk the Stations of the Cross (yes, the actual stations, not just pretty stained glass windows like in many churches) but the heat got to me. After several hours of wandering the alleyways, I was feeling lightheaded and weak. I think I was getting close to heat stroke and so I can only imagine how poor Carter felt.

On Monday morning, Mel took Carter to the beach again. Rebecca took Ben and me to the Carmel Market. This was was amazing...and overwhelming. I am still kicking myself for not bringing my camera because words cannot describe this place. It was like the best farmer's market and flea market in one. I spanned several blocks. You could buy absolutely anything there. One of the most amazing things were the spices. I was a little weirded out by the fact that they are just sitting in huge buckets, open to anyones hand and/or germs. But the colors and the smells were incredible. Thanks to Urban_Hipster at Flickr for allowing her photos to be used.

I am so glad I went to Israel. So many people who have never been think of it as an unsafe place. Though there are many places in Israel that I wouldn't visit (Gaza Strip), Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are safe and enjoyable. Besides, would thousands of Jewish mothers allow their high schoolers to go with Temple Youth Groups every summer if it wasn't safe?

I would like to go back sometime during the spring, when the desert is in bloom and the air is cooler and fresher. I would like to spend a lot more time in Jerusalem, perhaps even get a guided tour so that I could get more details and history.

Sometimes I Really Hate Flying

Why do the fat people have to sit next to me on the plane?

I'm not a skinny person. In fact, I am far, far from it. BUT, I fit into my airplane seat without infringing on anyone else's space. Unfortunately for me, I can't say that about the lady who sat next to me on the plane yesterday. For four hours, I had her leg fat oozing under the arm rest and touching my leg. I didn't realize it at first, but then I noticed that my leg was really warm. When I looked, it was because our legs were touching.

To make matters worse, she hogged our shared armrest. Not only did she not ever give me the opportunity to use it, but her arm was significantly wider than the arm rest and much of it spilled over into my space. Poor Carter, I was leaning over into his space the entire time so as to minimize the amount of me touching the stranger sitting next to me.

Now, I've got nothing against fat people (many people would even put me into that category) and I'm sure they are extremely uncomfortable flying in the teeny tiny seats on airplanes. But I cannot stand being in physical contact with a stranger. Especially constant contact for 4 hours.

I definitely have some degree of claustrophobia. It's not so much induced by lack of space but rather lack of PERSONAL space. In college, I would zip myself into my suitcase just to show that I could do it (OK, so I'm strange...this should not be new news to you) and this confined space did not bother me because it was only me. BUT, put me in a crowd or have someone stand behind me really closely and I start to lose it. I find myself having to consciously think about my breathing, taking big, slow breaths and thinking calm thoughts.

I'm sure you all have travel horror stories. Send them to me...I would love to hear (read) them. Maybe if enough people submit stories, I will pick a "winner." Of course, since this is not a sponsored blog, you will win nothing more than my deepest sympathy (empathy?).

See if you can top this one: I once flew from Vegas to Detroit where I had to sit next to a huge sweaty man. This man smelled as if he had been up all night at a casino drinking and smoking. He was sweating profusely and was so fat he needed a seat belt extender. AND, get this!, he was "reading" a dirty magazine. So gross.

Now top that.

Berlin

Since Carter's school is closed for three weeks for their summer holiday and we didn't have a babysitter available for a couple of days, we decided to visit Berlin. Yes, we have lived in Germany for two years and only now just traveled to Berlin. What a cool city. So much history, so much of it quite recent (hmmm...recent history, if that's not an oxymoron...). The current Berlin mayor has described the city as "poor but sexy." And it's true. Berlin is a hip and happening city, but it's hugely in debt (somewhere along the lines of €60 billion in debt).

It should be no surprise to you that our first stop in Berlin was the Legoland Discovery Center. OK, granted it was raining and cold and so a good indoor activity was needed. This was no where near the size of the Legoland park that we have visited in southern Germany in the past. This was much smaller...maybe a Chuckie Cheese sized place. Actually, you can reserve rooms for birthday parties. Too bad Berlin is so far from us, both Carter and Ben would love to have their birthday celebrated there. I'm not sure who would like it more. Of special interest to Carter at the Discovery Center was the new Bob the Builder 3D movie. He absolutely loved it and the second it was over he asked if he could watch it again. Of course, we dropped many, many Euros at the Lego store on the way out. In fact, our purchase was so significant that the cashier said to us, "So you really liked it here, huh?"

Speaking of shopping, I fell in love with everything in the Ampelmännchen store. You may be asking what the heck is an Ampelmännchen...well it literally means "little traffic light man" and he is quite famous in the former East Germany. He's possibly the only hold over from the former GDR and communist Germany. After the German re-unification, there were attempts to standardize the traffic signals throughout the country; however, the (former) East Germans protested and rallied to keep their beloved Ampelmännchen. There is now an almost cult-like following, four stores (at least) selling Ampelmännchen paraphernalia, and even an Ampelmännchen restaurant in Berlin. We made a few purchases...mugs, key ring, t-shirts, etc...and did our part to help support the Berlin economy. Come on, don't you think he's cute?

On day 2 in Berlin, we were penniless from all of our shopping of the day before. Fortunately we had scheduled a city bike tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours. We did a bike tour last summer in Paris and it worked out great with Carter so we decided to repeat that in Berlin. Berlin is roughly 8 times the size of Paris (physical size, not population) and so there was no way were were going to be able to cover the whole city on foot, especially with a small child.

This "all-in-one city bike tour" lasted 5 hours, covered over 6 miles, and it included a stop at a beer garden for some lunch and refreshments. It would be nearly impossible for me to summarize what we saw and learned here on this blog so I'll just list the big sites we covered: Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Marienkirche, Rathaus, Mark & Engels Platz, Hitler's Bunker, Potsdamer Platz, Gendarmenmarkt, Checkpoint Charlie, Humboldt University, Babelplatz, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the Reichstag. I've tried to capture most of these in the slide show below.

On our third day in Berlin, we took another bike tour but this one was focused on the The Wall and the Cold War. This was really a fabulous tour. Our tour guide explained how post WWII Berlin was divided up between Russia, France, England, and the US. He explained how and why the wall went up. A temporary wall literally went up over night. Families were separated. A story was told of one guy who went home with an East German girl after a night of partying for a one-night stand and was then trapped in East Germany for the next 28 years...simply because the wall went up while he was shagging some Fraulein. There were numerous anecdotes of escape attempts and techniques. There were shoot-to-kill orders for anyone caught in the "deathstrip," the dirt area between the two walls. We visited the East Side Gallery which is a kilometer long stretch of still-standing wall that is famous for it's graffiti.

And finally, on day four, with no energy left for a bike tour, nor enough time...we went to the DDR museum. This is a hands on museum that is dedicated to every day life in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (East Germany or GDR to us). There was a Trabant, aka Trabi, on display. What is a Trabant? It's an East German car that was made between 1957-1991 and remained mostly unchanged during the 34 years of production. It was a terrible automobile but was one of the few vehicles available for purchase in East Germany. If you wanted to buy one, you were required to apply for permission and the waiting list was up to 14 years. Another especially interesting exhibit was about early childhood education and school. A picture from a day care center shows children lined up on a “potty bench,” where “everyone remained seated until the last one was done.” This was more than toilet training: “It also was the first step to social education.”

I would like to leave you with a quote from a NY Times article (the full text can be found here) that I think sums it all up pretty well:

It was as if some immense laboratory experiment had gone on for half a century according to rigorous principles: Take a single defeated society, weary with guilt, wounds and hatred, and divide it in two. Split apart families and friends; workplaces and factories; resources and opportunities. And see what kinds of worlds develop under very different visions of social and political order. The Wall was an attempt to enforce the experiment’s continuation; instead, its confession of the need for force anticipated the experiment’s conclusion.

OK, so maybe it's a little deep but it's something to think about as we come up on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall this November.

Yet Another Trip

Just back from yet another trip. Can you believe it? We are traveling fools. The following is what I typed up during our flight last night.

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This was a quick trip to the US for a couple of weddings. OK, I'm sure some of you are saying "what the heck, you didn't tell us you were coming to the US. How come you didn't visit us while you were here?" Because we were only in town for 10 days and we had to attend 2 weddings, go to work a couple of days, find a school/daycare for Carter for when we repatriate, and go to a bunch of doctor's appointments. Phew!

We arrived back in the US the afternoon of Friday, July 3. We were thrilled that my brother Kevin and his two kids (Declan and Maddie) drove in from Chicago so they could spend some time with us while we were in Michigan. My poor parents…they go from a quiet, peaceful existence to having 5 adults, 3 young kids in their condo. (I know they are secretly relieved when we all go home). Carter just thinks that his cousins are the greatest…especially Declan. They all had so much fun swimming at the pool near Nana and Grandpa's house. I'm very impressed at all of their swimming abilities.

On Saturday night, Ben and I attended Cheryl Machovec & Dave Dehn's wedding. Actually, we skipped the ceremony so that we could spend time with my brother, niece, and nephew. Sorry Cheryl and Dave! But we did go to the reception and had a ton of fun…until 10pm when we hit the wall (the jet lag wall – it was 4am to us). It was so great to see old friends again. Wonderful to catch up with everyone and all in one place. It was such a good reminder that we have wonderful friends with whom we can rekindle friendships upon moving back to the US.

Between the jet lag and a couple glasses of wine and the general mood of a wedding, I was feeling especially schmoopy and emotional. I was really moved by the toasts made by Cheryl's dad and Lara, matron of honor. I did a lot of reminiscing back to our own wedding. I think for the first time in the nearly 6 years that we've been married, I was a little sad that we don't have any video from the rehearsal dinner toasts or from the reception.

On the drive home from the wedding, we passed a spot where someone was setting off some amazing fireworks. Ben parked the car and we got out and watched for nearly 30 minutes. Though we were standing on a highway overpass, dressed in formal attire, it was really romantic. It was like our own private fireworks show. I gotta say, there's something great about being back in the good ol' USA for the 4th of July.

Sunday through Wednesday, we kept ourselves busy visiting with friends and family, going to work and doctors appointments. I'm not going to bore you with all the details (not to imply that family and friends are boring! We loved every minute of it).

On Wednesday afternoon, Ben went into the office and Mom, Carter and I headed out to Twelve Oaks (the mall) to run some errands. While I am driving us to the mall, my mother casually mentions that she might have splashed bleach in her eye in the minutes before we left the house. Oh, great! She couldn't tell me this BEFORE we left the house? Regardless, she tells me to continue on as her eye doesn't feel "that bad." To make a long story just a little bit shorter, in the end I take her to her ophthalmologist who flushes her eye with sterile water for a good 15 minutes which makes her more uncomfortable than she was to start with.

I tell you all of this because she's going to use it as her defense and I want you to be prepared for it. Defense of what you may ask? The following day my mother tried to pay for a new purse at a store with her Blue Cross Insurance card. Either she has incredible medical benefits that support "retail therapy" or she's starting to lose it. Now my mother will probably try to tell you her vision was compromised which is why she made the mistake. I think that it's jut the second sign in as many days that she should not be unsupervised!

(Sorry Mom! I just wanted to make sure Aunt Connie got the full, true story)

Over the weekend, Carter went to stay with Grandpa Mel and Ben went to a friend's wedding in Savannah, GA. Since my mother clearly can't be left alone, I dragged her around with me looking at schools for Carter (for when we repatriate) and looking at homes. I feel like we saw every house for sale in the city and township of Northville. There's a ton of boring out there. And there are countless homes not being maintained. It's rather depressing.

We did find the cutest house in downtown Northville, close enough to walk into town. It's a brand new house but styled to look like a 1920's Craftsman home. It has the charm of a one-of-a-kind, older home, but all the amenities of a new home. On a whim, we decided to call the builder for a tour. It was incredible. I would say this was as close to being my dream house as I've ever seen. It's a fabulous house for entertaining. I was already envisioning how our furniture would fit and thinking of the great dinner parties we could have. After the end of the showing, I scheduled an appointment for Monday morning when Ben can see it with me. I called Ben and told him that I've found our next house, that it's our "Dream House." We get excited and talk about actually buying a house before moving home and all the crazy logistics that go with it.

But alas, on Monday morning the builder/seller called to tell us that he got an offer and has a signed purchase agreement. So quickly the dreams are crushed. But phew...what a relief to know that we are not buying a house from overseas. We can only hope this deal doesn't go through and the house is on the market when we return home in December or that a similar house becomes available.

Our trip to the US is over and we have boarded the plane. As we are sitting in our seats we are watching the other passengers try to find their seats. One of the passengers is a Muslim woman wearing a back burqa. All that you can see of this woman are her eyes. Carter sees her and his own eyes go wide. He leans over to Ben and says, "Daddy, I just saw Darth Vader." Ben and I both nearly died then and there trying to suppress our laughter (and relief that no one else heard it). Ben explained that it wasn't Darth Vader but that it was a woman who likes to cover her head and face. Carter just couldn't grasp why someone would choose to do that and kept asking why. Hey, I'm with you buddy…it doesn't make sense to me either.

And so this brings you up to date, to this very moment that I'm typing. Kids and babies are screaming and keeping me (among many other passengers) awake. And I am saying my little thanks to whoever listens to the thoughts in my head that my perfect little angel is sleeping soundly.

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So believe it or not, that's the cliff notes version of our trip to the US. Though we were sad to leave the US, we are happy to be back in our own home, sleeping in our own beds. There's something about knowing our time here in Germany is nearing the end that really makes us pine for home.

Now if only we can find that dream house we can call "Home."

Bodensee & Neuschwanstein

We are just back from our third vacation in 6 weeks. There are so many German holidays in May and June...it's wonderful. This trip was to the Bodensee and Schwangau. You may not be familiar with these places…the Bodensee is also known as Lake Contstance and Schwangau is home to Neuschwanstein (or Cinderella's castle).

During the drive to the Bodensee, we drove through some fantastic farm land. Apple orchards, cherry trees, asparagus, strawberries, and a mystery crop. This was a vine like thing that had a really intricate support structure for it to grow on. After finally asking, we learned that these were hop plants and, upon further research, I have discovered that southern Germany is the leading producer of hops in the world (the Pacific Northwest is the 2nd, in case you were wondering). This picture below is just a small patch. Imagine acres and acres of this -- it's really amazing to see.

In Lindau, a city/island on the Bodensee, they were preparing for their annual yacht race. We had so much fun just watching the boats arrive by trailer and then get assembled on the spot. A crane had obviously been contracted to move the sailboats around. It was so amazing to see these 40-50 ft yachts dangling from the crane and then lifted into the water. We spent most of Thursday just watching the activities and the preparation. There was an "Oompa" (or polka) band playing and Carter insisted on stopping to watch for about 30 minutes. This gave Ben a chance to sample some of the beer.

On Friday, we took Carter to Ravensburger Spieleland. For those of you not familiar with it, Ravensburger is a brand of toys (most famous for their jigsaw puzzles) and this was it's theme park (like a Legoland, but not as cool). We all had a great time with all the rides and games. A special attraction (which was Carter's favorite) was a huge water slide. Ben took Carter and they had an absolute blast. Then Ben decided it would be fun to offer to Carter to have his mommy take him….knowing full well that I'm afraid of heights and drop offs. You can find all of the pictures from Ravensburger Spieleland by clicking here.

Next to Ravensburger Spieleland was another "tourist attraction" called Minimundus. This is a nicely landscaped park with miniature sized replicas of some of the world's most impressive buildings. They claim you can see the whole world in one day! We originally thought this would be more interesting for me and Ben and not so much for Carter but it turned out that Carter loved this place. I think it was that he was bigger than everything. There were over 80 different replicas. You can find all of the pictures from Minimundus by clicking here.

On Saturday morning we drove about 2 hours from the Bodensee area to Schwangau, which calls itself the town of King's castles. This is on the edge of the Alps and absolutely beautiful. The first of the two castles was Hohenschwangau. This was King Ludwig's childhood home. The view from the castle was so breathtaking. It looked out over the Alpensee and had the Alps in the background. King Ludwig decided to build a castle across the way, a place he called Neuschwanstein. The king was borrowed ridiculous sums of money to build 5 different castles. Not surprisingly, he was declared crazy and unfit to rule. King Ludwig died under mysterious circumstances before the castle was finished, however, the rooms that were finished were extraordinarily ornate. I was so disappointed because we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside of either of the castles.

Hohenschwangau Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle

Following the castle tours and a nice hike through the woods back down to the valley, we went to the Tegelbergbahn which is a huge cable car that takes you to the top of the Tegelberg peak. Unfortunately the line for tickets moved so slowly that we missed the last cable car. BUT!! the summer luge run was still open. The picture below is of Ben and Carter crossing the "finish line." This was by far the highlight of the weekend for Carter.

We have to admit that we have been so lucky with the weather for each of our vacations. We certainly can't complain if the weather is a little gray and rainy in Cologne this summer because we've had incredible weather when it counted. We have just over two weeks (hopefully quiet and restful) at home in Leverkusen before our trip home to the States the first week of July.

Scandanavian Cruise Part 1 - The Boat

Our cruise was awesome. So much fun, perfect weather, beautiful cities, great people, and too much food. I kept a travel diary during the trip and thought about submitting a post for each day. After thinking about it for a minute or two, I realized that it would be way too much work and would likely put you to sleep. In my attempt to summarize our trip, I have broken it down into two postings: the first (this one) is all about the boat, people, etc, and the second one (you'll see tomorrow) is all about the ports of call.

The State Room -- We ended up with the perfect room for us. It was right at the very back of the ship with a balcony that looked out over the ship's wake. We spent a lot of time out there...looking for other boats, watching seagulls (or eagles as Carter calls them), or being impressed at the captain's "parking job."

We had a sliding door that separated the stateroom into two parts. Perfect for when Carter went to bed every night as it meant we could still have a light on in our half of the room. In Carter's half of the room, he had a choice between a pull out couch or a bunk bed that folds down from the wall. Of course he chose the bunk bed and totally loved it. Here's a picture of Carter in his bed with his magnetic Bob the Builder toys hanging from the railing.

The Food -- So much food. It was unbelievable. This was the only reason I was happy the cruise has ended. I had no self control and just needed to be away from it all before I ballooned up. Breakfast options were french toast, waffles, pancakes, eggs made to order, omelets, hash browns, pastries, bagels & cream cheese, cereal. Though we consider ourselves fairly bagel deprived in Cologne, we opted more often for french toast or waffles instead of bagels. We didn't eat lunch often on the ship...only when we were at sea all day. When we did partake, nachos was probably our favorite choice, though pizza, made to order pasta, hot dogs, hamburgers, and various salads were also options.

Tea time was probably our favorite meal, at least it was mine. Every day from 4-5pm there were finger sandwiches, fruit tarts, cookies, scones, bite size desserts. After a day of touring a new city, this was the perfect snack to take the edge off until dinner. The dinner options were endless, too. We opted for the sit down dinner nearly every night. The service was impeccable. Perhaps living in Germany has really lowered our standards.

The People -- There were over 1700 passengers and 800 crew members aboard our ship and I think they all knew Carter after the first couple of days. Carter was one of very few children and he managed to charm the socks off of everyone. Towards the end of the cruise, Carter was getting high-fives from all the old men and wait staff as we walked through the breakfast room each day.

When we booked the cruise, we opted for a large dinner table that would seat 10 guests. We figured the more people at the table, the more likely we were to find people we liked. I was so afraid that with a small table we would be stuck for 12 days with a couple or a family that we didn't like. A larger table meant more options. As it turned out, we sat with two other families and loved them both.

The first was a family of three from western Arkansas. The father retired at the ripe old age of 39! He had been in the oil industry and grew tired of it and wanted to spend time with his son who had just been born. Fortunately for them, he is still getting residuals from some of the oil he discovered when he was working. Now he runs a ranch for fun. The son just finished his undergraduate studies and is starting dental school in the fall. The cruise was his graduation gift.

The second family was actually three generations: grandparents (Lee and Joann) and grandson (Hunter) from northern Louisiana and the daughter/aunt (Amy) from Texas. Lee had the most impressive handle-bar mustache. His wife, Joann, is a gun-toting, traveling nurse. Their daughter, Amy, is a 45 year old breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer at the age of 37. Fortunately she has been in remission for the last 4 years. Carter immediately fell in love with "Miss Amy." He was broken hearted the nights she didn't come to dinner in the main restaurant. Amy was just too sweet to Carter. She read him books at dinner, bought him some cars at a flea market in Helsinki, and two small Legos in Copenhagen. I think that Carter would have happily ditched us and gone home with Amy.

The third family that we befriended on the cruise was a family of three from Edinburgh, Scotland. The daughter, Kate, quickly became Carter's best friend at the Fun Factory and as a result we got to know the parents (Scott and Pauline) quite well. Carter and Kate were nearly the only two young children on the entire boat and Scott and Pauline were one of the only other couples under the age of 50. As Scott said, it's not the quantity but the quality. We enjoyed having cocktails together after dinner in one of the lounges while the kids played together in the Fun Factory. We are hoping to visit them in Scotland before we need to move home to the US. Pictured below are Kate and Carter (she's standing and he's sitting in a chair...that's why he looks so much shorter).

Another group worth mentioning were all the Jewish ladies on our St. Petersburg Jewish Highlights tour. These were all New York Jews currently living in the Miami / West Palm area and they were professional cruisers. At first you could tell they were quite upset to have to share a tour with a 3 year old but by the end, Carter had them wrapped around his little finger. We were actually thanked by one woman for bringing Carter along on the tour. Another woman said, "Oy, my granddaughter would be perfect for him." And a third woman told us to have more children. The part that cracked me up the most was when one of them admitted to going to the Jewish services on the ship in order to find a fourth for Mahjong.

The Fun Factory -- This is essentially an on-board club for kids. In other words, free babysitting. They had scheduled activities every day, all day long. On port days, Carter would only go to the fun factory after dinner. On sea days, we would pick the activities in which Carter would be interested and then plan our day around them. Generally there were a lot of craft type activities and Carter would just play with his cars or Legos by himself while the other kids did the crafts. The two best activities were the Family Bingo and the Family Scavenger hunt. Of course the parents were far more competitive than the kids.

The Winnings -- Yes, you are reading that correctly. Ben entered two Texas Hold'Em Pokers tournaments in the Casino on the ship and won. The first tournament, he came in 2nd place. The second tournament, he came in 1st. Combined he won $500! Way to go, Ben. I can't say that I fared as well in Jackpot Bingo. However, the Gale family dominated Family Bingo in the Fun Factory and won great prizes like a Velcro wallet, a pillow, a beach ball, and stuffed (plush) starfish, and a beach bag...all with the Celebrity logo. Don't get too jealous.

Part 2 - Ports of Call will be coming tomorrow.

On Vacation

Just wanted to let you all know that we'll be on vacation for the next 2 weeks and will not be posting to the blog. We'll be on a 12 night Scandinavia & Russia Cruise. Hopefully we'll have lots to blog about upon our return.