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adventures / Monday / photo — Comments Off
10
Jun 13

Sea day

This is a sea day. I must confess that before my first cruise I was skeptical of the entire adventure. And then on that cruise, as part of our honeymoon, I laughed at the notion of sea days. Now sea days are my favorite. I’d like to take a weeklong cruise of nothing but sea days. They are restive and there’s so much to do. Or not do.

This first sea day was also a formal night in the dining room. One of the menu choices was an appetizer of frog legs. One of my uncles has been trying to get The Yankee to try frog legs for years. Under the “This is vacation; why not?” rule she had some tonight.

She said they tasted like chicken.

Here’s sunset off the deck. Sea days give you plenty of times to see the water. We also ran a 5K this morning. And, of course, made all of the cruise ship jokes:

You also get to explore the ship. Our vessel has robots:

And, of course, we got to see a show. There are aerialists here. They fly around in the sky. They are from France. I bet if you get stuck on an elevator with them they don’t take up a lot of room:

We have another wonderful sea day tomorrow.

adventures / photo / weekend — Comments Off
9
Jun 13

On a boat

To my chagrin, they take pictures of you everywhere. This is just getting on the cruise ship, where we decided to add a little joy and class to the festivities. I took a picture of their picture:

What is she taking a picture of?

That’s Manhattan, with the newly topped out World Trade Center there in the middle, rising 1,776 feet. We’re departing out of Bayonne, NJ — which sounds like it should be exotic, but don’t be misled — and heading to Bermuda.

Here is a look at some of the vessels coming up the Hudson River as we are departing. This is the Blue Rose. She’s a 6-year-old oil and chemical tanker that can carry 38,500 tons, flying the flag of the Marshall Islands.

The Osaka Car is just four years old. She’s a car carrier, and can tote 12,321 tons safely. This vessel flies the flag of Singapore and cruises at an average of 13.4 knots per hour. If you’ve ever wondered what 183 meters looks like, today is your lucky day.

And here is Panama’s New Century I. Built in 2001, she’s 199 meters long and 32 meters wide. This is a Roll-on/roll-off and passenger ship. That sounds like an awful lot of fun.

But not as fun as our trip. As you leave the Hudson River basin you see Brooklyn on one side and Staten Island on the other. You cross under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, a double-decked suspension bridge, which was the largest suspension bridge in the world from 1964 until 1981. (It is now the 10th longest.)

What matters today is the vertical clearance. Anything under 228 feet can get under it. And while I can’t find any measurements for our ship’s height, we’re close enough to the bridge to make this a possibility in any child’s mind:

She stretched soooo hard to reach that bridge. She didn’t make it. She’ll just have to go to Bermuda with the rest of us.

Meanwhile, Allie is watching over things:

adventures / photo / weekend — Comments Off
8
Jun 13

Throwback Saturday

I decided, because I can, that this would be a light week around here. So this week is full of older pictures. Some of them have been in this space or elsewhere on the site or in some of the regular social media places before. So they might be old to you — and bless you for still visiting — or they might be brand new.

Enjoy.

On the way into Portland we flew over Mt. Hood. Just the first of a long weekend worth of amazing scenery up there. We talk about it often, and look forward to the day we find an excuse to go back:

Come visit on Twitter and Tumblr.

adventures / Friday / memories / photo — Comments Off
7
Jun 13

Friday throwback

I just made up a reason not to write a lot this week. My reason: June. So this week is full of older pictures. Some of them have been in this space or elsewhere on the site or in some of the regular social media places before. So they might be old to you — and bless you for still visiting — or they might be brand new.

Enjoy.

We were travelling somewhere, Boston I think, in 2011 maybe, when she reached over and grabbed my sunglasses. She looked far better in them than I ever have. And so I seldom wear them anymore:

Come visit on Twitter and Tumblr.

adventures / memories / photo — Comments Off
6
Jun 13

Throwback Thursday

My site, my rules, my lazy excuse — June — for a very light post. This is a week of older pictures. Some of them have been in this space or elsewhere on the site or in some of the regular social media places before. So they might be old to you — and bless you for still visiting — or they might be brand new.

Enjoy.

We saw this heading north back into Montgomery one day early last summer. We’d just been to a wedding. We’d discovered a new barbecue joint. We explored undiscovered backroads. We visited with friends. Everything was lovely. And then there was this crazy cloud:

Come visit on Twitter and Tumblr.