Caves and Corners

June 10, 2018 | Stacy

While yesterday consisted mostly of miles upon miles of getting further west, today we did a lot of sightseeing.

We were a little better at packing up from our second Homewood Suites, and got on the road fairly promptly.

Today’s breakfast wasn’t as amazing as yesterday’s, but it did the job and we didn’t have to cook or do dishes.

Our first order of business was to scrap the idea of visiting the mining museum I had penciled in as a maybe, but it was easy to dismiss. If there is one thing we have learned so far, it is less is more. We just are not as fast as we should be and we need to operate as such.

We headed west about an hour to Grants, NM. We traveled down a somewhat winding, desolate, desert road to an area with a few newer homes, two older log buildings, and a parking area.

We paid our entrance fee, looked around the shop, used the facilities and headed out onto the first trail. We opted to visit the Ice Cave first, which proved to be an excellent choice. This trail is shorter, and is downhill to the cave and uphill back to the starting point.

The climate and terrain are just so different from home. The ground here was littered with lava stone from the defunct volcano. The same lava stone I have paid $40 per cubic yard for my yard.

The Ice Cave remains around 31 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.

We headed back up to the host building and cooled off for a moment before heading up the old volcano. This was a little more work, but it was good to know our trek at the end would be all downhill.

Back down the hill we bought a souvenir or two, and found our water bottles and headed back out to the main highway to continue on our way.

We drove just a short bit to the Continental Divide.

And then to Walmart for lunch provisions.

Everyone plugged in to some media while we headed north to the spot where four states come together.

It was hot. Like well over 100 degrees. We had to queue in a line where they requested you take just three photos and move on. Our math said we were welcome to take 27 photos at the most, but we didn’t come close.

I had no idea how windy the desert was.

We headed into Arizona and back south/southwest toward Williams. I had done a lot of research on dining options between lunch and dinner. The desert is, well, deserted. And we have to navigate food allergies and find some places more willing to make accommodations than others. I really hoped to get some decent regional food, too.

I found Amigo Cafe on TripAdvisor and contacted them about food allergies. They confirmed they could work with us, so we stopped for dinner in Kayenta.

MY food was AMAZING. And the photo did not come out. Those not eating Mexican had poor American food. But in the end we were all fed and were able to continue on.

It would be two days until we realized AZ matched PST and not MST… It caused a ton of confusion. Truth is, I have no idea what time we left the restaurant.

We saw more rock formations than you can shake a stick at and marveled at God’s creativity.

We rolled into our Motel 6 in Williams too late to swim. Our sparse accommodations were fine, if not bland, and we all fell asleep as our heads hit the pillows.

Racking up the miles

June 9, 2018 | Stacy

We woke by 6 A.M. and got ourselves mobilized. It was our first morning of the re-pack/re-load process and it wasn’t pretty. What was fabulous was the massive breakfast they offered. Every palate was pleased as we ate and ate. It was awesome.

We got started – later that we wanted – (this will become a repeating theme) – and headed from Fort Smith, AR to Albuquerque, NM.

It is essentially a straight line through Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, and into New Mexico. Sights thrilled us as we took in places we’d never been before. But we didn’t stop, per se.

We played some games, read some books, watched some movies, and just kept moving.

We stopped at Walmart for more food at lunch time and enjoyed crispy fried chicken, potato salad, and cookies.

West, west. west. We just kept moving west.

We drove directly to Dickey’s BBQ pit in Albuquerque for dinner. Dickey’s BBQ Pit is a chain we’d discovered on our last road trip to Oregon in 2015. We were eager to eat there again.

As we approached the building, other would-be patrons warned us they were closed. The manager popped his head out the door to explain they were closing because they were out of meat and most of their sides.

We tried to find something fast… and it wasn’t fast. We asked our cell phones to help us find a Longhorn Steakhouse, but it said it was 13 miles away. We could see an Outback Steakhouse from where we were, and with a little finagling, found or way to it. In the end we spent WAY too much money and time for a so-so meal. We barely got to the hotel in time for a quick swim for a few of us.

Katriel fell asleep as we headed to the hotel. She stayed asleep through bed changes and well into the morning.

Elvis, Johnny, and pizza

June 8, 2018 | Stacy

After breakfast at Brother Junipers, we headed about 15 miles down the road to Graceland. We all knew we were going. We’d talked about it for months. None of us were prepared for how fabulous it was.

TCB stands for “Taking Care of Business” – one of Elvis’s mottos.

The admission prices are ridiculous, but we knew that going in. Thankfully, the cashier reminded us we could have a AAA discount with a valid card.

As it was shortly after opening, the incoming crowd was steady. We were instructed to head to a theater which showed a 7 minute movie on the life of Elvis Presley. I got a little teary as Elvis always reminds me of my dad. We exited the theater and followed the directions of the staff to an outdoor queue.

They then took a photo of us they offered to sell to us for $35 an hour or so later. We queued for a bus over to the mansion. Upon entering the bus we were all handed headphones and mini iPads for our upcoming tours.

We boarded the bus for the mansion and again had to queue to enter the mansion. It was at least 95F and we not only had to wait for the bus in front of us to get the front-step-spiel, but a bus of VIP package guests also got to enter before us. We finally entered the mansion, and for the rest of the day we had no more waiting.

The iPad system is really cool. It occasionally didn’t detect where we were on the property, but for the most part it was fabulous. Major facts and cool tidbits were narrated by John Stamos. You could spend as much time as you wanted in each room, and there were little extra links on the iPad that you could hit if you wanted to. For example, when you were looking into a certain room, if you hit one of the camera icons, you might then see a photo of Elvis sitting on the couch in front of you playing his guitar.

Elvis designed this room on the first floor for his parents, including a walk-in closet for his beloved mother.

The narrator said Elvis would position himself for a grand entrance into the foyer when guests arrived.

This TV, though… LOL

The stairs to the basement.

I want this rec room! There are plenty of seats on these couches!

After we exited the mansion, we rode the bus back over to the main complex. We then realized we had barely scratched the surface of what was there. We spent the next few hours looking through his cars, clothing, and other memorabilia, including a section devoted to his military service. We also enjoyed the wide variety of shopping experiences. They sincerely enjoyed the shopping and Nigel had a very hard time deciding what to treat himself to.

I smiled to myself as I took this photo next to the Johnny Cash outfit in the area of people who were influenced by or worked with Elvis. Nigel had no idea where we’d be going later.

We thought about grabbing some ice cream, but decided instead to just get ourselves over to a Walmart for lunch food.

We enjoyed our first car lunch: sandwiches made at 75mph, with macaroni and potato salads, chips, and — cookies!

From there we lazily drove to Dyess, AR. No one under 46 knew where we were going.

Our GPS indicated we would get there at 3:05 P.M.
The website said the last tour left at 3:00 P.M. I called them about 10 minutes out and explained we were coming from NY and were likely going to be 5 minutes late. They joyfully offered to hold the tour for us!

Nigel saw the sign about five miles before we got there:
Johnny Cash Boyhood Home

This area boasts a rich history of swamp-land-turned-family farms.

From Wikipedia:
Dyess Colony was established in Mississippi County, Arkansas in 1934 as part of the New Deal efforts of Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide economic relief to ameliorate suffering in the Great Depression. The experiment was the largest such community-building experiment established by the federal government during these years.

Basically – families who met the criteria and were willing to take on the arduous work of converting swamp land into farms were given a house, a chicken coop, and a small barn.

The old theatre still stands

and the colony center administration building has been turned into a museum and meeting space.

They still have the original projector from the theatre house.

Can I tell you how much I love the fact that Nigel just happened to have on his Johnny Cash t-shirt?

After watching the movie that explained both the New Deal effort and how the restoration was completed (including oversight by Johnny Cash’s sisters) we looked around the museum before getting on the bus to head over to his house on Plot #266. We were joined by one other couple. The woman’s mother was raised in the house next door to J.R. Cash and she was eager to see what it may have looked like.

Our bus driver was the former mayor of Dyess.

We left Dyess around 4:30 P.M. and headed west to Fort Smith, Arkansas. We had planned to grab dinner at a KFC buffet, but we wanted to swim. A few miles out we called in pizzas, so after we got to our Homewood Suites, we unpacked the van, gobbled up pizza, and hit the pool and/or showers.

By the time we hit the bed, most of us had been up well over 24-hours except for some nap time in the van the night before.

Let the good times roll.

On your mark… get set..

June 7, 2018 | Stacy

Poke along…

although we’d planned for months and had our packing done, we could NOT seem to get out on time. Starting almost an hour late is never a fun way to start out, but we didn’t lament it.

I started out in the back row with the two little girls, and John drove with Tab shotgun.

Around 9PM Stewart and I took the front row and John tried to sleep. I say tried because nine people in a van is not the Waldorf Astoria. PFT. It’s not even Motel 6. But he grabbed some sleep as did the others – Tab on the floor. At 3AM I scooted back to the floor in the back and John took over with Nigel as his copilot. It’s not easy, but it’s part of the adventure. It’s fun to wake up in the morning and be states and states away. At around 8AM we pulled into Brother Juniper’s in Memphis Tennessee. I’d found the restaurant on TripAdvisor weeks earlier and a call from John encouraged us that we’d have a good chance of Stewart finding a delicious, safe meal.

My black bean burrito was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever, ever had. I’m going to rate it higher than cruise ship breakfasts, only because you rarely get Mexican breakfast options on a ship.

Johanna and Katriel shared a plate of Cinnamon Roll Pancakes. I purposefully did not try it.

Katriel got a little wiggly by the end of the meal and the waiter noticed her and started a conversation. From about ten feet away, he lobbed a small butter packet to her. She laughed with glee and picked it up and SHOT IT BACK. Her toss had the perfect arch and caught every one of us by surprise. HIS Baseball, here she comes!

With happy tummies, we piled back into the van and moved on to our first activity…

Mommy’s Crown Princess Cruise

January 8, 2018 | Stacy

Back in October I saw a 5-night cruise on Princess Cruise lines that boasted an incredible rate and spanned a relatively un-busy time for our family. I asked John, “Can I see if Jenn wants to go on this cruise?” He said yes, and then she said yes and then I said, “Book it!” to my travel agent.

In the very early morning (or middle of the night, depending on how you look at it) John and I headed out into the 1 degree weather to pick up Jenn for our 4:30 A.M. arrival time at the airport.

We look cold, but we also look happy, no?

The planes required de-icing in both Rochester and Baltimore.

We were the last ones on the flight from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale. We had very high boarding numbers and did not get to sit together on either flight. I did get to sit next to very friendly people on both legs, and managed to get a window once and an aisle the other time. AND – I was on my way to a CRUISE – so it’s not like I was complaining!!!!

We caught a cab to the port from the airport. It was such a smooth and easy embarkation.

One of the nicest things about Princess Cruise Line is they allow you to go to your stateroom as soon as you board. We arrived at our cabin just as our luggage did! Wow, they are fast!!! We poked around the room a little.

We paid $1 more per person per night ($10 total) to have our interior room upgraded to the obstructed ocean view. It was nice to have a little sunlight.

Then we headed to the dining room for a table service lunch.

Some salmon for Jenn.

Some ravioli for me.

How can we not smile like this?

Dessert was cruise-shippy – meaning it was yummy, had a fancy name, and I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is…

We changed into swim wear, and I have to be honest – we didn’t have a great plan. We just browsed. It was chilly for Florida (60s and windy) and we had to go to our muster drill at 3:30 anyway, so getting into a hot tub seemed chancey.

We explored the ship.

I tried the first of many mocktails.

We took pictures and said our last good-byes to our families before we lost cell service.

Jenn checked out a contest in the gym as I watched sailaway from the bow. It was exquisitely windy, but OH SO FUN!

A short while later we dressed for dinner. We ate in the Botacelli dining room at 5:30 P.M. each evening. Our waiter was Mechior. It was a table for ten.

(Traditional cruise dining has assigned seating and assigned tablemates. Many cruise lines now have some traditional dining rooms and some anytime dining, and some have gone to all anytime dining. Jenn and I opted for dining with others, and had two lovely couples sit with us the first night. Only one of those couples, Ron and Laynette, ended up eating with us the duration of the cruise. One couple never returned (they had been on over 100 cruises!), but a new couple joined us on night two and remained throughout the rest of the cruise, and another couple joined us on nights 3, 4, and 5.)

Jenn had some pork and apple dish.

I had beef. Truth be told, I had a lot of beef this week.

We also ordered a seafood dish to share. It was called basa or something. It was ok.

This is the signature Love Boat dessert. It was an option every night, but I only had it the first night. It was amazing.

We looked around some more and then headed to our cabin for an early night. We had been up since way before dawn. They gave us each a bag, and a reminder to set our clocks back.

Oh. My. If only…

To be continued………

Hopewell Rocks at the Bay of Fundy

July 29, 2017 | Stacy

We left the Anne Shirley motel around 7 A.M. and started our trip to Bangor. Our first stop was going to be at the Bay of Fundy. Our trip times were coordinated to hit the low tide in our effort to maximize the treat.
I was able to access the Tide Times from here.
The parking lot was very crowded, and as this is a Provincial park, not a National park, we had to pay to get in. (Our entrance was somewhat delayed as I tried to explain to the cashier that the deal she was trying to talk me into for my “group” of three was, in fact, NOT in my best interest. I know it likely annoyed the people behind me in line, but I wasn’t going to pay the $3 more she kept insisting was the “deal.”)
We got into the very crowded learning center, use the restrooms, dodge the evolutionary content, and get out to the pathway in about 20 minutes.

The Learning Center couldn’t really prepare us for what we were going to see.

The first outlook offered us only a hint.

We began the long walk down to the ocean floor. It was lovely, and cool, and fragrant, and not buggy!

There were little spots along the way with outlooks for more peeks.

And then we finally go to the bottom section.

It was so cool to me to walk there, knowing that in 12 hours or so the spots under our feet would be under ~ 45 feet of water. It blows my mind that the space we were occupying would easy be occupied by fish later in the day. I LOVE CREATION.

It was slimy. Tab is more agreeable to mud than Marie and I and she ventured out further than we.

She went out further and further and, yes, I was getting a bit nervous…

She came back (phew!) and we started back up, stopping at the foot wash station…

Last, but NOT least, we enjoyed lunch at the canteen. Marie and I noshed on some amazing lobster burgers (slurp!) and Tab enjoyed a gigantic plate of onion rings.

Amos 9:6
Who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth— the Lord is his name.

Prince Edward Island Surprise Road Trip

July 24, 2017 | Stacy

This is where I should be starting my series of posts on the surprise road trip I took Marie and Tabitha on the morning on July 24th. However, Stewart had JUST completed his digital photography class at FLCC and the camera was set to record each photograph as some fancy .NEF file instead of the normal .JPEG. We need to find a time and a way to convert each image. There are 300 of them.

I’ll be back.

Second Sea Day (last cruise day)

May 21, 2016 | Stacy

We started the day with everyone sleeping in. I would have let it go on indefinitely, but I knew that we wanted to eat in Savor with Cher and her team and that closed around 9:30 A.M. I woke up the kids a bit after 9 and everyone jumped into their clothes or swim suits.

They gave us two tables by the window today instead of the long table we’d had every other morning. I ordered Katriel the peaches and blueberries again today. When the waiter learned she only ate the blueberries (I ate the peaches) he brought her a small dish filled with blueberries.
Man it was going to be hard to go back to normal life tomorrow.

There were not a lot of photos this day. There was a lot of pool time. Waterslide time. Mini-golf time. And club time.

We left the water areas long enough to eat lunch in the buffet. We settled for this outside but not in the sun section. I didn’t want to be cold in the A/C and many did not want to eat in the blazing heat.
See Tab at the bar behind me? That was where their buddy Craig worked.

It got a bit busier in the pools this afternoon, but it was far from unbearable. Much of the crowd waxed and waned. We were some of the only ones to practically take up residence.

We did take a little time around 3 P.M. to all head back to the room and do some packing up. Thankfully, we pretty much just had to throw stuff into suitcases without much sorting.

We had dinner reservations for 6:30 P.M. at Moderno Churrascaria, their Brazilian themed dining spot. Nan and Kelly decided to eat in the MDR as their credits and dining package had gotten used up. The food here was pretty unique. There was a buffet with a variety of items – sushi, bamboo shoots, salad, asparagus, etc. They also brought a serving dish with potatoes, yucca, mushrooms, and rice. They did not bring us beans because of Stewart’s allergy.

They had, we believe, 8 roaming servers with huge skewers of meats, as well as one with grilled pineapple. It was a LOT of meat, and I confess we probably didn’t appreciate it as much as we would have liked to.

They brought Stewart a crazy amount of meat. Like, two pieces of every kind. They grilled his separately.

I had to take someone to the bathroom and I got a glimpse of the setting sun. As Marie and Tabitha wanted to hurry back to the stateroom to change and go to their club, I grabbed the camera and hurried back to the aft deck to take photos.

It was windy, warm, and wonderful.

Dessert was a zero. That’s ok. We stopped by the buffet for a few more before we retired.

Boys went to hang with Craig a while and we took the little girls back to the room for bed and packing. Marie and Tab enjoyed their club til about 10.

It was hard going to bed knowing it was the last night on the ship. It had been so much fun.

Port day 4 ~ Cozumel

May 20, 2016 | Stacy

My desire to take my family to Playa Mia Waterpark is the reason I picked a Western Caribbean itinerary. We’d been talking about their giant inflatable for over a year. While the ship had an excursion to Playa Mia, I booked it via Viator, an off-shoot of TripAdvisor. They have a solid reputation, and a back-to-the-ship-on-time guarantee. They were cheaper by about $15/pp. Kelly made her own plans to visit Mayan ruins. As she was traveling solo she went ahead and booked through NCL.

I had to set an alarm to get up. And it was hard. Very hard. The busy-ness was getting to me AND we lost an hour sleep last night adjusting the clock… (or did we?) I got up around 6:45 A.M. and got the kids up around 7:15. They didn’t rouse easily. Getting only about 6 hours sleep between our two Magic Kingdom days didn’t phase them; but today was a work-out for some of them.

We somehow mobilized and headed to the buffet because we knew it would be quicker. The permission to go ashore was likely to come around 8:10-8:30 and we wanted to be ready. Moods cheered as we left our stateroom and breakfast was as yummy as ever.

Nan and Kelly ended up meeting us at the buffet. Kelly was to meet her excursion group in the atrium at 7:45 A.M.

We drew closer to the pier as we were eating. It was the most overcast day we’d had, but still projected to be hot and dry.

As we finished our speedy breakfast I asked Nigel what time it was. (Nigel was “Master Timekeeper” as John’s watch had stopped working back in Disney.) Nigel told us it was 8:05 A.M. I declared this was perfect. Then I paused. Kelly’s ears perked up and she said, “It’s 7:05, right?”

I offered that, no, we had to advance our clocks last night. She has a moment of panic. I have a moment of shock. We all look for a black-clad employee and find one. She confirms it is 7:05 A.M. We were to move our clocks forward later THAT night.

I got them up an hour early.

I’m considered turning in my vacation planning credentials then and there.

It was a low moment.

No one scolded me. They knew how badly I felt.

We went back to our room and just did nothing until it was time to get off the ship. We were in the first hundred or so folks off the ship. We walked down the pier and stopped for photos. I was pretty nervous, I admit, on that pier. It felt dicey. I don’t know. Maybe I was vacationed out?
None of us took photos of the port area. We were all sort of off, I think. We followed the directions on my paper from Viator and found a representative from the club. He stated we were a little early (don’t go there, dude); but concluded that as we filled a van he’d get us one. (One nice thing about being a large group is we never had to wait for more people to fill a taxi to go somewhere.) He explained our package to us painstakingly: admission, transport, food, non-alcoholic drinks, non-motorized watercraft. He also mentioned all the things we were missing out on (alcohol, umbrellas, and motorized watersports) with Great Emphasis and assured us we could add those features to our package when we got there.

He lead us over and yon to a main street and called a taxi/van for us. We drove about 15 minutes and arrived at Playa Mia. The man from the port had told us to look for Julio when we got there and he would direct us into the park. Julio actually met our van and he again reiterated what was and was not included. He also told us that cabs leave every hour on the hour to go back to the port and we could decide when we wanted to return to the ship. He then said, “You have a lot of young princesses. When you want to go back, anytime, just come find me.” That was nice to know.

He lead us through a clean little shopping plaza to the cashiers. He gave the women in the booth our paperwork and they proceeded to remind us what was and was not included. They offered to sell us whatever else we wanted to add to our package. Um, we’re good.
The place was all but empty. I wonder now if they were even really open!
Pool area.

Looking back through shopping plaza we’d walked through.

Buffet/dining area.

Beach side pool with swim up bar.

Some dining tables available on beach.

The inflatable course.

It was so windy the chairs would blow closed as quickly as they’d reopen them.

We found chairs (there were thousands) and John and the older four went out to the inflatable. The sand was course. Very course. There would be no lounging in the sand here. That was hard for me to swallow. Frankly, I’d never go back. Beach was as yucky as the ugly one I went to in Jamaica with Emily 2014.

The water was gross and grassy. It was rough water; that isn’t their fault.

After John and the kids came back in, they told me how “scary” it was to fall off the course. There was really grassy water just beyond the inflatable and the water was murky.

We hung out in that area for more than an hour. It took that much time, incidentally, for cruise ship excursions to start arriving. The Viator angle DID get us an extra hour there. Yay us…

When John and Tab came back in, they went with Nan, Johanna and Katriel to the beach side pool. Soon Marie and Stewart came back in, then finally Nigel. We all relocated away from the beach. I think we are all a little let down.

We decided to eat. This meant figuring out what Stewart could and could not eat. Honestly, he didn’t miss anything. The buffet was immense… but it was so American-ized! I was really hoping for spicy food, but it was very bland.

It looked so good, but was so bland.

We headed to the waterpark side after lunch. We spent a few hours over there.

Here is a photo of the kids and I in the whirlpool just moments before they told us kids were not allowed in the whirlpool.

Which, I gotta tell you, was not posted and makes ZERO SENSE in the world when you consider its location right smack dab in the MIDDLE of the main pool.

We had fun. We were on vacation on an island in the Caribbean. But we wouldn’t go back. It was far from awful. But it was far from amazing, as well.

It was 2 P.M. on the nose, I believe, when we decided to find Julio. He had a cab/van right there for us to pile into and we were back to the ship in no time.

There are three ports there, and the one we were at was very nice. We saw some street performers, and peeked in a store or two. But mostly we headed back to the ship. Of all the places we stopped it was the most built up port. Hotels and such immediately outside the port complex. You have to go up and over the road to get back to the port side. It made for nice photos, if not a little jumbled for strollers and wheelchairs.

We did the ropes course again (most of us – Katriel wasn’t keen to repeat it) and did some pool time.

It really was so fun.
The plank was closed today. I’m guessing it was because it was so windy????

We had our last group dinner tonight at Le Bistro, the French restaurant. It was beautiful, and strikingly small.

The service was attentive and sophisticated. They were exceedingly nice.
The menu – I think it was really good. But I think after two weeks of eating out it was hard for us to be moved by food. For appetizer Marie had escargot, and Nigel may have as well.

This was an app, as well, but none of us know exactly what it was. Something fishy?

The soup course was fun. They brought us out this. At first I wondered if maybe this was it and I was going to have to explain to my kids that what makes this fancy is the exquisitely small servings?

Then the waiter returned to soupify my soup.

And yet another server (the creme-bearer???) came by to add the white swirls.

It was delicious.

I had to take some girls to the bathroom between courses. A lovely older couple signaled for me to stop and they proceeded to tell me how fantastic my family was, asked if that was Grandma at the end of the table, and shared how much we made them miss their extended family. We chatted a few minutes and she later grabbed Nan on her way by, as well. It’s always an encouraging thing to hear, especially when your kids are the only ones in a finer dining room.

Dinner came under silver domes.

Well, Marie got a pot?

Tab ordered pizza, but they gave her Daddy’s plate somehow…

Can you see the reflection? Katriel was on my lap. She was tired.

I had a lamb dish. I thought I would try something new. When the boys heard what I had ordered, they made sport of me until I couldn’t eat it.
“Yer eating a widdle lammy?”
”Was he baaaaaad?”
I was careful to to waste any of my beans.
Five beans.
And that smear was some other bean concoction. I am clearly too bourgeois to be impressed.
Of course someone suggested what part of that lamb that was…

Tab gave Daddy back his plate. That is a bamboo shoot. Is bamboo native to France?

Now – there were no jokes when dessert came.
Honestly – their desserts might be a reason to eat there.
Four or six of them got these desserts for two. Siblings who would pierce one another’s cheek with a dull carrot for looking at them wrong are suddenly UN peacekeepers when there is chocolate to share.

Rivaled only by the tiramisu as best dessert on the ship.

After this gourmet brownie, Hanny still said normal brownies are more fun.

I think there were a few kids to the clubs, and a few to the golf course and Craig.
We were all tired, and I believe all in bed by 11. Or 10? Or is that 12? Island time?