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StLouisCruisers

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  1. Vanessa, I'm sorry you still have some sleeping problems caused by the leg pain. They really need to find a fix for your nerve issue. I'm glad you get a chance to see the UK friends and hope that sitting in the theater isn't too painful today. This has really affected your every day existence and I'm sure you want your old life back. I hope you can get the IPad working properly soon. I guess I should leave those daylilies covered for a few nights due to freezing temperatures. But last year they didn't get uncovered and most didn't even show up for the one week of blooming they normally do the first week of June. Sigh. I sure didn't choose them, that's for sure. The strangest thing happened last night at 8:00. I was sitting here with the TV on doing stitching I guess. I looked up and saw a box on my screen saying Tune to Call the Midwife? or something to that effect. Normally it doesn't do that - only when there are about 5 different programs/movies etc. programmed at the same time. It can only handle so many shows at one time. But there was only Call the Midwife and one other thing recording. If it hadn't shown that box on the screen I wouldn't even have known it was recording it. I immediately texted my twin and said Hey, Call the Midwife is on now! and she texted back in a split second saying Thanks! Ha! Ha! One thing that put a smile on my face and made me happy on Act Happy Day is a text I got this morning from DGD Morgan. She said only 1 week after moving in and she already feels such a dramatic difference in her overall happiness and how she lives her life. She said she's so so thankful for being able to move. 🤍 Well, we're thankful that she's no longer anxious and unhappy. Priceless!
  2. Jacqui, we plan on taking the laptop anyway so it's no problem at all. I'll begin on April 18th and do through the 5th. If you need help earlier than the 18th, or a day to get back to normal after the cruise, I can do the 6th too. You shouldn't worry about posting during your trip at all. Roy @rafinmd you can continue the fleet location maps if you don't mind. You do it better with the ship names and all. Thank you! If I should run into any Wi-Fi problems it would be nice to have an email address for Roy or a cell number to text. Roy, could you email me with some contact info at my screen name @ yahoo.com ? I have Vanessa's email but hate to burden her with an extra chore. Chances are all will work 100% perfect! We want all our Dailyites to enjoy their cruises without worry.
  3. Pennie @Nickelpenny that was very sweet of your cat sitter to give you the paw print to remember Martina by. I'm not surprised at all the tears - I would too. Actually we all would! Jacqui @kazu could you give me the dates you need me to substitute for your Daily posting again? Sometime in mid April to May 5th or 6th is all I can remember. We will drive to Tampa/Clearwater for Morgan's graduation weekend on May 2nd but don't need to leave at an unnaturally early hour so I can easily do that and pack up the laptop to leave. Our Airbnb has Wi-Fi so I will be able to post while there and don't have to drive home early on the 6th so could post before we go if needed. Her graduation ceremony is the 5th. Just need to know your away dates again. When we get home from that weekend we have three days to finish packing and preparing for our cruises. And that includes a hair appointment and getting a rental car for the drive down to Fort Lauderdale on May 10. I'd better get a lot done ahead of time. 😜
  4. I went to Ashdod in 2014 on our Holy Land cruise on the Prinsendam. It was our first voyage on Holland America and it was Black Sea and Holy Land B2B. We were originally booked on the Ocean Princess to go to the Black Sea and the Holy Land but due to political unrest that year Princess cancelled Egypt ports and most of the Black Sea ports and just substituted Greek Isles ports instead. So we cancelled them and took a chance on the Prinsendam, and loved it! In Ashdod on October 26, 2014 we immediately left the port for our drive to Jerusalem. I only have a few photos around the ship of the tugs, etc. However the countryside of Israel is very nice. Arriving at an overlook of the city of Jerusalem we stopped to listen to our guide and take in the view. According to my notes we next stopped at the Church of All Nations, also known as the Basilica of the Agony. It's a Roman Catholic church located on the Mount of Olives next to the Garden of Gethsemane. The church has beautiful murals on its facade. The olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane are many hundreds of years old. Seen off to the side and on the hillside slightly above the Basilica of the Agony, is the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. This is one of Jerusalem's most picturesque sights due to its seven gilded onion domes, each topped by a tall Russian Orthodox cross. Interior of the Basilica including the high altar overlooking a large slab of rock, which is said to be the very rock on which Jesus prayed in agony on the night of his betrayal. I borrowed this photo of the rock because mine was blurry. We got on the bus to move on to view the Catholic Cemetery, but I got this photo of the Basilica and the Church of St. Mary Magdalene from the road next to the cemetery. Gives you a good perspective. Taken through the bus window though. The Catholic Cemetery And here is the Tower of David, Jerusalem's citadel, located near the Jaffa Gate on the western side of the old city wall. Continuing on in Jerusalem, we got off the bus and walked through the Jaffa Gate, walking past stalls and shops. Entrance to a convent. Very well worn stone pathways. There was a huge gift shop we were allowed to look around in for some time but I stayed outside most of the time taking photos of fountains and small stalls. From there we walked to the Holy Sepulchre Church which is believed to be the site where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried. Inside the Church we saw the Crucifixion Altar and the Tomb of Jesus We continued on with the tour for several more hours and I have a lot more photos but wanted to cut to the end where we went to the Wailing Wall (also known as the Western Wall). The area was divided with women on one half and men on the other. From there we walked back through a different gate to our bus and the drive back to our new home away from home, the Prinsendam. There really is too much to see and learn about on these tours so it is somewhere we should try to visit again. It was the same way in Haifa when we went to Nazareth and the Jordan River. I recommend a Holy Land cruise to everyone. Note: the above comment was made by me in 2021 and it seems it will be a long time before we can go back. My cruise there late in 2024 has cancelled Israeli ports, so we must wait, it seems.
  5. Good morning friends! Today it's 47F bright and early, and we will have partly cloudy to sunny skies at various times today with a high of only 60. Tonight the temps will plunge to the freezing range. Hopefully new growth won't be damaged and stall our spring flowering. Sometime soon I need to get outside and find the daylily growth and uncover it from the piles of pine straw thrown out there Friday by the crews. Nasty looking stuff and I'm not a fan of this southern custom. Thank you Jacqui @kazu and Roy @rafinmd for the Daily and Fleet Report as well as the fleet location maps. And thanks to Rich @richwmn for collecting and storing all the info for easy retrieval. Well, I'd say all the days today are good ones. We all like being and acting happy. Recycling around the world is a plus for the environment. And the Goddess of Fertility brings to mind my great nephew and his wife who are super parents and awaiting a set of identical twin boys. May their beloved first set rest in peace. The quote today is fun but true. Yum! Pot roast and fork tender makes it even better. I would probably pass on the drink and wine. All excellent days in history for this date. Thank you Food and Beverage ladies Debbie @dfish, Dixie @summer slope and Ann @cat shepard for the reports today! Prayers were said very early today for my DB, great nephew Alex's twin boys, friends Scott and Susan, the people under hardship in Israel and Ukraine, the hostages still alive and held, the men and women of our military on bases and ships in the region, and our dear friends here on the Daily Care list.🙏 I hope for improvement for you all each day. Three cheers to everyone with celebrations at hand and cruises to enjoy!🎉🚢🎂 Thank you Vanessa @JazzyV for the list keeping! Praying you have a very good week! The destination today is Ashdod, Jerusalem, Israel. We enjoyed photos and discussions on Ashdod on April 29, 2021, October 25, 2022, and November 21, 2023. I've only had the pleasure of seeing this port and the environs once in 2014 on Prinsendam. My next trip there this Nov.-Dec. was cancelled after the tragedy in Israel last October. 😢 Who knows if I will make it there again? Anyway here are the links for you and photos will come after. I'm making very good progress on the Christmas stocking, and plan to take it with me on my May-July cruise to work on. I hope I haven't neglected you all due to working on it. And last night I found that Call the Midwife was back on my PBS station so just HAD to watch that. Keeping busy here! Hope you all have a great Monday, and please try to stay safe and keep well!
  6. Busily working on my cross stitching and some laundry but want to repost the St. Patrick's Day celebration tree. Thanks for the link to Father David's sermon today Graham @grapau27. ☘️
  7. What a fun idea! I'm Smiling Sparkly Pants and DH is Dreamy McNaughty!!☘️ Thank you Gerry @ger_77!
  8. Nancy, thanks for pointing out the story of the NM State Trooper. What a terrible thing to happen. They need to throw the book at that murderer. Prayers for the trooper's family. 🙏😢 Debbie, add me to the list of carrot lovers. Your recipes today look good and I rarely eat corned beef. DH likes it though. Annie, so sorry to hear about the keyboard bath, and the taxes too. I hope your boss is generous with his gift! I so agree about the news people. Hope you enjoy your St. Paddy's Day!
  9. Good idea Jake! I hope you get to see English Harbour in person. Really a beautiful sight.
  10. For those who want to look for particular posts on certain dates, go to the general Holland America Line thread first page where you would find today's Daily for instance. At the top where the page numbers are, look to the right where it says Sort By. There are page numbers from 1 to 5102 at the moment. This number rises each day as new posts are created. Click on the down arrow and put a number in the box. For 2020 you have to go back a good bit so start around 500. Then when you see the dates there you can go up or down until you find the date you want, like when Dixie just asked for Sept. 1, 2020. In a short time you should be able to find Rich's Daily with that date. Click on that post and begin your journey back in time to all we discussed that day. You'll find so much you had forgotten! The post for Sept. 1, 2020 was on page 519.
  11. St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda We stopped at this Caribbean port in 2015 on our South America cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Los Angeles, 49 days. St. John’s is a small, poor town and doesn’t take long to explore on foot. This first time there I took a tour after our walk around town. There were two cruise ships in port so it was rather crowded. There were the usual touristy souvenir places But we decided to head up a hill to a church we saw from the ship, St. John’s Cathedral But it was in poor shape and under renovation. Time and hurricanes had done their damage. It didn’t look nearly as bad on the outside as it did on the inside It would take a lot of work to get it to look like this again! After lunch I headed out on my ship’s tour. The first stop was Blockhouse Ruins where we had a commanding view of land and sea. We viewed the remains of the powder magazine, gun platforms, cisterns and the officer’s barracks. Next we saw the Shirley Heights Lookout point with its picture perfect views of English Harbour. Our final stop was Nelson’s Dockyard, the finest example of a British Naval yard in the Caribbean. We got to look around a while and enjoy a beverage in the Copper & Lumber Store bar before heading back to the ship. If you needed a T-shirt they had a good selection In 2019 we again visited St. John’s, this time on the Rotterdam, and stayed in town taking a brisk walk as exercise. We went up the hill to the church again but it seems it is still under construction. The church consists of outer stone walls with a second wooden building inside. They felt this type of construction would help protect it from hurricanes and earthquakes. However all buildings require maintenance over the decades. I wish them luck completing this project. We were not able to enter the church on this trip as they had blocked entrances to visitors. Hoping they complete work on St. John's Cathedral and take it back to its old glory days.
  12. Good morning friends and Happy St. Patrick's Day! I have a temp of 52F right now. It will reach around 66 and it will be cloudy with scattered showers today. No big plans to celebrate or go anywhere. Thank you Jacqui @kazu and Roy @rafinmd for continuing to post the Fleet Report and Daily as well as the fleet location maps for Rich @richwmn. I'm happy to recognize Camp Fire Girls (I was a Brownie), Doctor Patient Trust Day and Corned Beef and Cabbage. When we went to Kroger yesterday they had all you needed to prepare that traditional dish right as you walked in the front door! We won't be having that but DH will have something planned by the time he has finished breakfast. No thanks to the rum punch or the Shiraz. Many interesting days in history on our list. Poor young St. Patrick being kidnapped. Nice discovery by Magellan, a big day in Italy and hurray for Albert Einstein. A cheer to our F&B ladies Debbie @dfish, Dixie @summer slope and Ann @cat shepard for your excellent reports.👍 Prayers for the Care list individuals, those in Israel and Ukraine fighting for their countries, the hostages still held and our troops in the region under fire. Also I pray for my DB's health and well being, great nephew Alex's twins in utero, and my friends Scott and Susan. 🙏 Cheers to our celebrants of happy events and cruisers! 🎉 Happy 63rd Anniversary to Jim and Sheila! 🥂 Bon Voyage to Kathi @Scrapnana! 🚢 Thank you Vanessa @JazzyV for the awesome lists you present us every day! The destination today is St. John's Antigua and Barbuda. I was surprised to see we hadn't highlighted this port before, I guess because there are several other St. Johns. So another new port! We visited there twice in 2015 on Ruby Princess and in 2019 on Rotterdam. I'll get the photos together shortly. Hoping everyone has a nice St. Paddy's Day. Stay safe and keep well, and if you're traveling drive safely and/or have a good flight.
  13. Thanks for your photos today Lenda @Quartzsite Cruiser. Nancy @ottahand7 if you'd like more photos of Moorea, the first date it was posted there were some nice photos from John @Copper10-8 and @daisybertie. When I was looking for the first destination of the day I found @KirkNC started us up on Rabbit, Rabbit, White Rabbit on the first of February 2021. It caught on fast! He wasn't familiar with the white part, but others recalled it from their ancestors. Lorraine @cruising sister we are enchanted with Baby Murphy! She looks so precious dressed in her shamrocks. Thank you so much for posting her photo. BTW, I found out from DD that my great nephew's twins are identical and boys! The first set were too. Not only that but both sets of twins were "natural" and did not need any medical intervention for their start in life. Wow, is all I can say! Elizabeth @Haljo1935 not a problem ranting about the miserable day you've had. Any ONE of those things could put you in a bad mood, but all of them? You have my admiration for holding it together this well! Maureen @RMLincoln your photos of Moorea are gorgeous! Give your DH our compliments. @irishjim it's always good to see an old friend! Congratulations on your 63rd anniversary tomorrow! Rich @richwmn thank you for your gracious post today. Everyone who can help here is pleased to do so! Vanessa @JazzyV thanks a bunch for the photo of @RedneckBob today. It was a hoot seeing him sail by! Ann @Vict0riann I'm so sorry to hear of your DD's fall and OMG! Her broken bone! I hope things go as smoothly as possible with the cast and she's healed and back on her feet as soon as possible. Oh no @Mr. Boston! What a bummer for your DH catching your "germs". Seems to never fail. I hope it won't be long before he's feeling much, much better.
  14. I have one item that I feel should be corrected. I've gone back to check and the first destination of the day was on March 1, 2021. Up to that point some of us would post photos when a place was mentioned, or a retired ship was thought about and photos shown. It was post #3 on March 1, 2021 when @richwmn said "Since we have been treated to pictures of various places, I thought I might add a "Port of the Day" for discussion. Today would be Georgetown Grand Cayman Island. What do y'all think?" I started my port spreadsheet and have kept it up ever since. So it will 3 years in just a few few weeks!
  15. Such a sad tale. I am so thankful Sarah has you and Pauline. Give Pauline lots of hugs from your Daily friends.
  16. Happy Anniversary to the Daily! Bon Voyage to our cruisers, @Suslor, @RedneckBob and @Crazy For Cats! Enjoy! Debbie @dfish the chicken recipes and photos look so good! I'm sure many of us will be saving those recipes. Sorry about your bad luck at Farkle.
  17. We've been to Moorea twice, once on Golden Princess in 2014 and again on Maasdam in 2017. In 2014 we went on a private tour with a CC group. It involved a Polynesian BBQ, ray and shark feeding, sightseeing at a barrier reef, snorkeling, etc. The day after this we were scheduled on a tour with Patrick in Bora Bora so they were essentially the same description tours, but Patrick's was much better! Still, I can show you a few photos from Moorea. Arrival at the pier. Welcoming committee. Scenes along the way Stingray feeding I was a little nervous watching this from the boat. I did go out when they spread out a little bit and that was fun, but when the sharks came I got back in the boat to watch. Arriving at the motu for the BarBQ. Not quite the same as Patrick's pig roast in a pit! The food and drink was good though, and after we ate you could take a little dip in the water to cool down. In 2017 on the Maasdam, we sailed from Papeete to Moorea in the early morning because they are only about 18 nautical miles apart. A beautiful sunshine-y day! The reefs visible in the water When we reached shore on our tenders we were met with dancers and musicians, local foods and lots of jewelry. We stayed in town this day since we hadn't done that last visit Free food! We bought a pair of black pearl earrings for me that day. We walked around the village and then peeped into the Ebenezer Church. It was Easter Sunday. And a look at a unique treat at dinner that night for Easter Sunday. Sorry about the number of photos! So much to see there.
  18. Good morning friends! This morning our temperature is 56 with partly cloudy skies. High temp will be around 75 with a mixture of clouds and sun today. I hope the weather is good in Chicago because DGS Ren has a soccer game there today. Go FC Dallas! Thank you Jacqui @kazu and Roy @rafinmd for the Fleet Report and Daily as well as the fleet location maps for today. I'm happy that today we do everything RIGHT! A salute to black press and freedom of information. The rotisserie chicken sounds great, but I have no idea what the drink is. If I liked Cabernet Sauvignon I wouldn't mind a boxed wine. Not a good day for poor King Gustav III of Sweden but thankfully Lister made an important discovery about antiseptic surgery which saved many lives. Thanks to the F&B ladies Debbie @dfish, Dixie @summer slope, and Ann @cat shepard for their reports. Prayers said today for my DB, great nephew Alex's identical twin boys (just like the first set!), friends Scott and Susan, the people of Israel and Ukraine, the hostages enduring months of captivity, the military members in danger in the region, and all of us here on the Daily Care list who could use a helping hand and improved lives. Congratulations to those celebrating special events and the many cruisers among us. Thank you Vanessa @JazzyV for the great list keeping skills. Hoping all is well with you! The destination today is Bahia d Opunoha, Moorea, French Polynesia. This is a bay on the island of Moorea. It's also the first time for such a specific location on Moorea but we've enjoyed photos before of our Moorea visits on April 23, 2021, March 28, 2023 as well as July 13, 2023. I'll post the links for those dates next. Hoping for a much calmer day after yesterday's upheaval. AT&T was on the scene repairing damage to their network capability on our street until nearly 9 pm. Thankfully we don't have AT&T! So peace and quiet sounds great. I hope everyone here enjoys the St. Patrick's Day weekend. Stay safe and well!
  19. Oh my Joy! That IS a lot of bad news! Sorry to hear of your friend with Covid and the friends with the property damage. Condolences to your neighbor on the loss of her husband. And let's hope the medical practice issues turn around before long. Hope you have better news soon. KFC coleslaw is delicious. You have good taste! What is wrong with the rest of the family not liking KFC coleslaw? Oh well, more for you! Hope you enjoy that cruise, and that you get the answers you need and want at your medical appointment!🤞 Wow whee! Can you buy some lottery tickets on board? You certainly are on a lucky streak. Now have fun picking the free cruise! Couldn't happen to a more deserving person.🎉
  20. We're having quite the upset on our street today. First we were supposed to have pine straw applied to the mulched beds in about two weeks but this morning the 18 wheeler arrived to unload bales of pine straw. This time they didn't knock over any mailboxes like they did when they delivered for the common areas. Here's the load left in front of our house. At the same time the contractors laying down new fiber optic cable arrived and began digging holes for them to thread the needle down each side of our street. Here's a pic of them at a few of my neighbor's yards. And here are both teams at work at the same time in the same place! We called our roofer and asked him to delay working today because there is just too much going on and we don't need any more stress at the moment!!
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