Island to Alaska with Pictures

[laughing husky]

we just got off the ship in Vancouver.......and my husband and I are at work wondering when the dining room will deliver our meals......and where is the butler?????...We have laughed and laughed and laughed.....especially about the dolphin.....This was our first cruising ship also....HOT, HOT, HOT!!!!!!!

[Perley1]

Your review is GREAT! Making me wish I were leaving tomorrow! I'm on the same itinerary, Island, July 16th. Can't wait! Anxious to read the rest of your review - great comedy, and great pictures (and captions!)

 

Thanks for sharing!

Pam

[cworld]

Thanks everyone for your encouragement, It keeps me coming back.

 

Let's see, if I remember correctly we were getting ready for dinner.

This might be a good time to introduce ourselves. My name is Carl and I'm a frustrated novelist. No really, I'm an Air Traffic Controller. I've spent the last 17 years toiling away for Uncle Sam. Fifteen long years in the swamps of Eastern and Southern Texas. Finally after doing 15 years at hard labor, I was pardoned to a teaching job here in beautiful Oklahoma City (you know what the say about those who can....).

My wife an I have been married for 25 years. As I said earlier we took this cruise as an anniversary present. We haven't had a vacation without our brats since their inception (or is that conception, I get those confused?). We have two lovely children, a beautiful petite young lady, 20 just finishing her sophomore year in college, and a strapping 15 year old boy whose claim to fame is that he is finally taller than dear OLD dad.

We met in Oklahoma and lived here for 7 years after we got married. Be it ever so (hear the music in the background, I do) humble there's no place like home. OK is home for me and it has become home for my wife. We both really enjoy watching sports, especially baseball. So much for us. On with the show.

We started to get dressed. My wife was stressing about would we be dressed appropriately? Would every one be in dresses and suits? Would people look at her funny? Would we be comfortable, after all we're not dress up people? Does my makeup look OK? (Makeup, I thought you decided to leave that at home. No, I (guys you can fill in the blank) changed __ _________.) Yes dear, you look great. Every thing will be fine. No one will look at you funny. Let's go I'm starving. I'm sorry what was that, you need a few more minutes for..... After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about 5 minutes (that's almost a year in mosquito time), we were off.

We took the amazing elevator down the stairs. Now if you've never been on a talking elevator before, it's really something. It announces in this really sultry voice the floor that it is stopping at. "Caribe deck" "Emerald deck" "Dolphin deck" COOL. Also, these have to be the smoothest riding elevators I have ever been on. I never felt any acceleration or deacceleration. And they were very fast. Very quiet except for the smooth talking lass with that really cool accent.

The inside of the elevators is all glass. There is a gold plated hand railing and all of the trim of the elevator is gold. It is really lavish. Inside by the control panel there is a list of the major rooms on each floor that the elevator can reach. Needless to say I was impressed with the elevators.

Now a word from my practical side. The foward elevators had access to decks, 7 - 15. This elevator is the one just outside the Horizon Court, and the Princess Theatre. If you are trying to get to the Horizon Court without going through the outdoor pool this is the elevator to use.

The mid-ship elevators in the atruim only went to the atruim floors, 5-8. These were really cool. Not only were they all decked out in gold trim, but they were glass. You could see the beautiful atrium as you ascended and decended (went up and down for you south Texas folks, sorry, I just had to throw that in there). This was great as long as you didn't have an fear of heights. (Which really, no matter what my wife says, I don't. Just because I never wanted to look out the window and actually watch doesn't mean I was scared.) The other mid-ship elevators also had access to decks 5 -15. It's important to remember that you can't go foward past the dining rooms on decks 5 and 6. If you need to get from the back of the ship to the front of the ship, you have to be on deck 7 or above. On formal nights the atruim area gets of pretty people all dolled up in their fancy duds gettin their picktures a'made, and it can be pretty hard to make your way to the chow hall. You might want to mosey on up to the upper decks and avoid the "beautiful" people as you make your way to the Horizon Court for some of that great buffet food (Sorry, I had to slip that in so my sister in Arkansas could understand something I wrote.) If you exit these elevators on deck 14 you will be at the indoor pool.

The elevator in the aft end of the ship goes from deck 5 to deck 14 (the sports deck doesn't go all of the way to the back of the ship). On decks 6 and 7 it exits at the Universal Lounge.

Rating for the elevators (drum roll please) A+

 

Note to Princess - What's your secret for keeping all of those mirrors so clean? I don't remember seeing any fingerprints or other foreign substances in any of the elevators, at least none on the glass.

 

Hey Carl, are you ever going to get to dinner? Not tonight. It's late, and I have to get up early in the morning, so until next time, good night, and ....ZZZZZZ

[cworld]

OK. OK. OK. I made a mistake. Something tickled my mind this morning and I re-checked my deck plans. The foward elevator only goes up to deck 14, not deck 15. You know, if I was a real writer and had a good editor things like this just wouldn't happen. Sigh.

 

 

I'll post some more this afternoon, and I hope to have the Patters up with the pictures tomorrow.

[SharB]

Hi Carl!

Can't thank you enough for taking the time to write such an entertaining review. I'm at work, but keep sneaking back on line to check for the latest installment!!

 

Shar

[cworld]

Good afternoon sports fans, we're back with another riveting installment of "Are you ever going to let them eat?." When we last saw our hero and heroine (can you really call someone a heroine without getting in trouble these days, and notice I spelled it correctly...not heroin for you gutter minded people, I'm talking about a female hero, not something that blows you mind), they were babbling on about the elevators or something, on their way to dinner. (Ding, Ding, we have a winner in the longest meaningless sentence every written contest. I don't think it's really one sentence, English was never my best class.) We went took that fabulous elevator down to the 6th floor and walked to the Bordeaux dining room.

When I first saw that name, Bordeaux, I envisioned something out of Bourbon Street. Something very New Orleansish. Maybe that's because we lived close to Louisiana for so many years. Maybe it's because I'm not really up on my European geography (or is it geology? I get those 2 confused), but I thought Bordeaux was in France. Is this a fancy French restaurant in disguise? I'm getting confused. If this if a French restaurant, hows come the stiffs meetin’ us at the door are speakin Italian? Ifn youse know what I mean. If not French, but, doesn’t Bordeaux usually bring up thoughts of a dark maroon color? I’m not real sure about that, since I don’t drink, but I think that Bordeaux is a dark colored wine? Right? So why does this room look like this.

 

Note to Princess – Next time you refurbish the Island, and every other ship that has a Bordeaux dining room, either change the name of this restaurant or fork over some of our hard earned cash to a real good designer (like the one who designed your atriums) and have them upgrade this room. Of all the things we saw on the ship this was probably the most uninspiring. The dining room is the heart of the ship. It should be a major show piece. It should be something your guests can’t experience at home. Just walking in the room should blow us away, especially when the food doesn’t. It might have looked real good in the sketches, but it came out pretty plain.

 

As you can probably tell I was a little disappointed in the Bordeaux dining room. I know, I know, I saw the picture on the internet before we left, Some of the things were pretty neat, like the window tables for 2/4, and the ceiling that looked like stars. But overall it was underwhelming. A pretty big let down after walking through the atrium.

Any for a tour of the dining room… We walked in to the small waiting area, and asked for a table. We were asked if we wanted to share with other guests, and politely (well pretty politely) declined. For the first night my wife wanted to sit down and stake out the joint (before we jumped off and set with a bunch of snobbish people who take outrageously expensive cruises, dress in tuxes and cocktail dresses for breakfast, drive cars that nobody can even spell there names, and probably eat people like us for breakfast). We were immediately seated at a table for 2/4. Kinda in the middle of the dining room. Table 35, to be exact. Just for a reference it was somewhere between 6 an 6:30.

To me, the dining room looks like 2 identical rooms that are set side-by -side divided by a short wall. I didn’t take any photos of the dining room to look and compare, but this is the impression I got. In each section if I remember right (and as we’ve seen before that’s not always true, there are a couple of tables for 8 in each section, along with 2 or 3 sets of tables for 2/4. Each section has a workstation where the servers put trays when they are delivering food, and clean up items that are no longer needed. Each half of the room probably had 5 or so of these sections. The dining room was decked in the coral and beige colors that were constant throughout the ship. All of the railings were gold. There was etched glass all around. (To tell you how underwhelmed I was I don’t remember what was etched on any of the glass.)

For serviceability, I think the dining room was well designed. The isles were wide and the work areas were well placed. I never noticed any of the servers having any problem maneuvering with or without trays. The tables were large enough for several plates (for us hoggish types that sometimes need 2 entrees), and for drinks and bread. The chairs were very heavy and pretty comfortable until they dumped you out after 45 minutes…(just checking to see if you are still with me). The coolest thing was the revolving door that leads into the kitchen. It was fun to watch the servers try to time the door just right. A friend who toured the kitchen told me that they have an escalator that connects the 2 dining rooms. Only one kitchen, and the servers go up or down as the case may be.

Back to the tables for a minute… Why 2/4? The tables for 2 are really more like tables for 4. They are set about 8” apart from an adjoining table. There is not room to walk between the tables. We set in these tables 3 times during the cruise. One time we actually talked to the people at the other table, the other times we didn’t (and the first night it was pretty awkward). If you are looking for a quiet candlelight dinner for 2, call room service and order that expensive dinner on your balcony, because you won’t have a lot of privacy here.

The tables for 8 seat 8 comfortably, but, conversation can be difficult, especially when you have to look around the table decorations. (More about that later, 2 weeks or so at the rate I’m going now.) The chairs are the same heavy chairs that you see at the tables for 2. I think that all of the tables are anchored to the deck and cannot be moved. So there’s no way to push tables together.

The tables were always set and ready for the next group of victims (I mean passengers).

I forgot to mention that as we walked in we passed the soap dispensers. We were required to use them only one time and that was for breakfast the first morning in the Horizon Court. The rest of the time we breezed right by them without a thought.

 

Addendum to note to Princess – I just saw a picture of the dining room, and although it looks really nice, it just doesn’t grab you. Most of us go to nice restaurants several time a day (or maybe just a year), and are used to nice. For the heart of the ship, the thing you want us to remember, the place you want us to talk about for years to come, it should be more memorable.

 

This is already 1,200 words, so I’ll sign off and try to get through dinner tomorrow.

 

Have a great evening sports fans.

[cworld]

By the way, in case you just can't wait any longer.

 

Bordeaux Dining Room Rating B-

[Hate 2 W8t]

Thanks, Carl. I have been checking for your latest installment all day! :D I absolutely LOVE your review. You write like I do...every last detail! At work, I have to force myself to write in a more succinct manner. Tough to do when you love to share all of your impressions and ideas.

 

 

Keep it comin'!

[cworld]

Welcome back, you’re dreams were your ticket… (Oops, sorry, kinda daydreaming here.) Let’s see if I can get a little of this done on my lunch hour.

 

Announcement - my wife made me show her what I was spending all of my time on last night, and I’m sorta in the dog house. She wanted me to assure you that she didn’t really bring 7 pairs of shoes. (So it was really 5, what’s the difference, maybe really just 4, but whose counting. And by the way, how many pairs did you put back in the closet after the big suitcase was too heavy? HUH?) She had a few other editorial comments and threatened to join her first board group just to make sure I was being accurate. I asked if it would be OK if she proofed what I'm posting before it's posted. She said that would be alright.

 

So being a real man, here I am writing this at work where she can’t see it so I can say whatever I want without some overbearing, blowhard, humorless, buttinski looking over my shoulder telling me just what I should write. (Just kidding dear, what I really meant to say was) Won’t it be great when my beautiful, thoughtful, helpful, partner, the love of my life, the person I see as I go to sleep every night and wake up with every morning, the only one for me, wonderful wife helps me out with these posts.

 

 

Note to self – This real man thing isn’t working too well, you might think about junking it and trying some other approach.

 

 

Enough of that personal junk, and back to dinner. My wife did remind me of one thing I left out. On our way to dinner, we ran in to a wedding party getting their picture made. They were taking pictures on the marble steps on the 5th floor of the atrium. What a beautiful setting. How lovely this picture was. There was a beautiful bride in her lovely white wedding dress, a handsome groom in his smart looking black tuxedo. All of this was going on while a bunch total strangers stood around and gawked at them as the shared their most intimate moments (someone pass me a hanky). It was so inspiring that right then and there my wife changed her mind about our daughters wedding. She now wants our daughter to get married on the Island (like our daughter has no say in the matter). This started a little argument inside my head. One side says, “You go girl, Yea, baby, that’s right, I’m right there with you”, while the other side, the side that contains my wallet says, “Wait, Stop, Nope, NO, I don’t think so, NOT IN THIS LIFETIME”. What I said out loud was “wouldn’t that be nice”.

 

There were 3 weddings on the cruise that we knew about. At least one of the lucky couples was in a room just down the hall from us. It brings back memories of our wedding and honeymoon. Let’s see, it was 105 degrees in Dallas the day we were married, the plane broke down the next morning befor we could leave on our honeymoon, we were to young to rent a car, and then we went on the mighty SS Dolphin. Nope, no real comparison. (Kids today are so lucky. They don’t know how good you have it. Probably spoiled rotten brats. Did you have to leave the butler at home? Is the maid along? I saved for 2 years to go on my honeymoon, how about you? Did mommy and daddy just shell out the money or did you just dip in to the inheritance? CARL!!!! STOP IT!!! Snap out of it man.) Oops, thanks. Sorry. I would love for my daughter to get married on a cruise Just make sure I'm there. It’s such a beautiful setting. Such a great place to make memories and start a life together. Sniff. I did notice that all of the weddings were the day we sailed or the next day (imagine that).

 

The next afternoon we ran in to a beautiful pair of little girls that we had spent a quality hour with in the line for U.S. Customs. They were with their parents, and the whole family was dressed to the nines. It was formal night and we thought they might just be going to have their pictures made, but it was pretty early, around 4 in the afternoon. We asked the girls why they were so dressed up. They said they had just been in their aunt’s wedding. They were absolutely adorable. I would guess they were about 3 and 5. Daddy’s going to have a hard time when those 2 grow up. They were so cute. Mom and Dad looked like the stepped off the pages of GQ. All in all it was very thought provoking… A wedding on a cruise ship… maybe.

 

Wedding picture in the atruim rating A+

 

Well lunch time is up. I promise I’ll try to get to dinner tonight.

 

 

Till later

[Perley1]

I agree with the rest - I'm finding myself sneaking out here to see what the latest saga is in the adventure! :) You really need to write a book!

 

Love the pictures too - what kind of camera do you have - amazing shots! I'm trying to figure out how many memory sticks to take with. Need to study up on my digital camera's features too.

 

Look forward to the next "chapter"! Making my future trip on the Island that much more exciting!

 

Thanks for sharing - Pam

[AmyinGA]

This thread is turning into my drug of choice. I am so elated when there's a new post and I feel so bummed when I come back and there's nothing new. I am starting to wish that cworld was on a month long cruise.

[cworld]

Thanks for the kind words. Pam, I bought a Nikon D70 for the trip, and I'll probably work that in to the story pretty soon.

 

Carl

[Shirleya53]

Carl, I am now copy & pasting it in an email to my husbands computer so he can read it and chuckle too!! I anxiously await each installment of journal and pictures.

[ahracer]

Carl,

 

My wife and I were married on the Island in 2003. It was great. I highly suggest it if your daughter is interested.

 

Scott

[cworld]

Well, lets see, where did we leave off? (As if I didn’t know.) Dinner time, time to eat, chow, supper, FOOD. I’m starved. A little off the subject, but it seems like it fits in here. My favorite place in the whole world (at least before this cruise) is Walt Disney World. One of my favorite shows at Disney World is Cranium Command. It’s a story about how the brain of a 13 year old boy works. In the show they show the stomach. Norm from Cheers (George Wendt) plays the stomach. To make a long story short (like I can do that), the stomach doesn’t get any breakfast and by lunchtime he is begging for food. “Could you please toss some groceries down here? We’re getting kind of empty. This thing is really growling.” Stuff like that. Well, my stomach was asking for some groceries. We missed the lunch buffet, by being in Customs for hours and hours. My poor stomach hadn’t seen anything since the cereal and banana that Continental Airlines (probably the only airline still serving meals on airplanes in the cattle car class) graciously served us on the airplane this morning. But that was hundreds of hours ago. This real mans physique needs lots of calories to stay in top condition. SNORT. (Insert message from pesky conscience…That’s not what your doctor keeps telling you.) (Insert another message from pesky conscience, and growling stomach... Quit beating around the bush and let’s eat.)

 

As I said earlier, we were seated quickly, and the server was right there to put our napkins in our laps. Good start, very upscale, high class. She (yes our server was a she) then asked if we would like something from the bar, or some sparkling water. WATER, my wife says, YES. I'm thirsty, I’m dying. Please. Hurry. The server said "OK will that be Perrier, or something else" (and yes, that’s spelled correctly even though it’s pronounced pear-ee-ay, those silly French, they need to learn how to speak correct English). My wife said sure, bring me some Perrier. Knowing what was happening, I said no thanks. Our server asked for my wife’s cruise card and my wife was a little surprised (you have to remember, from what we recalled from 25 years ago, any drinks that weren’t alcoholic were included, free, gratis, no deniro, no cost. In fact every night the house wine was included with dinner, and this was on the SS Dolphin, scourge of the seas). As soon as the first server walked away the other server came over and filled our water glasses. OOPS (Make up your own funny story about wives and insert it here, because if I write what I’m thinking I’ll probably have to sleep on the couch for a week).

Cheap lesson learned. ($2.30 tip included) Know what you are asking for when you order something.

 

Let’s introduce our servers. I don’t remember their names, (recurring theme), but one of them was from South Africa, and the other one was from Bulgaria (or one of those other Eastern European countries). The only thing memorable about them were that they were both female. They were the only completely female team I noticed, I might have missed it, because I had other things on my mind, (like FOOD, didn’t someone a couple of days ago mention prime rib?). I’m not prejudiced against females (really, REALLY, believe me, trust me, even my mother would attest to that), but these two weren’t the best I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t bad. The service was adequate, each course was served promptly, and correctly. They were nice looking, neither one of them had 3 eyes or anything like that. They were just too business-like. Stiff. There just wasn’t any panache. There wasn’t any extraneous conversation. It would have been interesting if they had spent a little time and let us get to know them.

I was looking for servers that would have us wanting to come back to their table every night. That whenever the week ended I would whip out an envelop with a great big tip (to our servers from that night, if you are reading this, your great big tip is below in the note to Princess). I was hoping that we would find a place were we could come just say, bring us whatever you think we might want, and somehow, magically out of thin air, great big steaks, meduim rare would pop up, with huge baked potatoes floating in butter, with a lobster tail or two on the side, and Oh by the way, before we serve the main course wouldn't you like to have this wonderful chocolate desert thingy... Maybe I was hoping for too much.

 

Note to Princess – In your next training course for your servers, you might emphasize to them, that some of their guests are borderline deaf. We had several servers during the week that were hard to hear. You might also want to tell them that the first night is the most important. It sets the tone for the week. Be cordial and extra friendly.

 

Service in the Bordeaux dining room the first night – C

 

I’m sorry this is so short tonight, it’s church night, and I didn’t get an early start. I also have meetings with some “heap big honchos” in the morning and need some beauty (well maybe not beauty) rest. And sorry, but don’t expect anything more until late tomorrow night. I’ll be tied up all day (work interferes with life too much, I can’t wait to retire).

 

Sorry stomach you will have to wait a while.

 

Good night.

[Mrs. cworld]

Dear, this was very booorriiinngg tonight. You are going to have to do better or you will put your readers to sleep. :rolleyes:

[SharB]

Mrs C:

Please wish your DH pleasant dreams (same to you). I'll be looking forward to the next installment tomorrow evening.

 

Shar

[phabric]

Have been enjoying reading about your trip, ours isn't until later into the season.

[Hate 2 W8t]

I love it!!!! At this rate, we will still be reading by the time my cruise comes up in late August! :D

 

Can't wait to see how dinner turns out.......

[prophotogirl]

LOL I'm loving every word of this review! :D

 

Mrs. C - Welcome to Cruise Critic!

[Perley1]

Welcome Mrs. C! Thanks for letting your DH share with us his stories! I, like the others here, have found myself looking forward to new postings out here! :) Keep them coming! Only 50 days til I'm on the Island Princess myself! :)

 

My Mom has joked that we're just going to get copies of your pics, and tell everyone that we took them! ha!

 

Keep the story rolling - enjoying every minute!

Pam

[debinnh]

I love this review too, I just hope he gets throught it by the time I leave on June 18!

 

Carl: I bought DH a D70 too (which I have taken more photos with than him). What kind of lenses do you have? I have the standard one that came with the camera and another one, a telephoto, don't remember the range right now. Love the photos. How much did you practice with it before the trip? How much memory did you bring along? We have two 500's. Will that be enough? What quality settings did you use?

[cworld]

June 11, 1980

 

 

Dear Mom and Dad,

 

So far everything is going swimmingly. After you left the airport Saturday morning they announced that we would have a little delay. OK. Fine. No big deal, we don’t have any deadlines in Orlando. We just sat around the airport and talked to Roy and Shirley. Mark and Carla were still there. After about 30 minutes they announced that the delay was going to be a couple of hours, because one of the engines had some problems. That was just a little unsettling. But we waited, I mean what else could we do? There weren’t any other flights available, so we just sat around and chatted.

About 11:30 they started boarding the plane. As we walked by the cockpit I heard the captain tell one of the stewardesses it was no problem, THE bolt that holds the engine on was loose. I wanted to jump up and say, no problem, how many bolts hold the engines on? I thought I heard you say THE, like one and only, bolt. But as usual being my reserved self, I just sat down, buckled my seat belt and kissed my WIFE. (Wife, sigh, doesn’t that sound good?) We got off about 12:00 and landed in Orlando a little after 3:00. No engines fell off or anything.

When we got to the rent a car place they wouldn’t rent us a car, because we were too young. Well why didn’t the stupid Travel Agent tell me that before I shelled out the bucks for the car? It was supposed to be part of the package, but they wouldn’t rent to us no matter how hard I cried.

We jumped in a cab and rode to the hotel. My first cab ride. It was a little intimidating, I didn’t really have the a lot of cash at the time. We were expecting to have a car, and we had stashed our travelers checks in the bags. It all turned out OK.

We had a good time at the Magic Kingdom. Like you said you can get real sick in that “If you had wings” thingy. We got stuck in that tunnel with that spiral going round and round and round and round and round. I finally had to close my eyes or lunch was going to come back up. I thing my favorite thing was either the Skyway to Tomorrowland, or maybe 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I sure wasn’t going to even try to ride the teacups, after what Cat did when we were little, no thanks.

Tuesday we got on another plane (no problems this time) and flew to Miami. What a dumpy town. We were nervous the whole time on the ride from the airport to the cruise ship.

We got on the ship around 2:00. It was a lot smaller than I envisioned. I know that they say the beds are queen size, but they are the smallest bed I’ve every been on. When we laid down to check it out, it was almost as bad as when Kevin and I had to share that little bitty bed in Mustang.

We unpacked and walked around the ship until dinnertime. Dinner was interesting. The ships air conditioning was broken, so they made an announcement that we didn’t have to dress up for dinner. When we got to the dining room, it was probably about 85 degrees. Not very comfortable.

They seated us at a table with 2 other couples on their honeymoon. One was a major society type couple from Georgia. She just didn’t know how she was going to function without her mammie. The other was a couple from Mississippi. They were pretty normal. We’ve started playing Spades with them in the evenings.

Supper was great. Our servers introduced themselves. They didn’t speak great English, but they were really funny guys. After the first night they had our tea ready and always kept the glasses full. The food has been pretty good. They serve some things I would never try, like foi gras. It smelled pretty bad. They brought me second steak one night when they thought I might need a little more. One thing I can’t believe is how much food they serve you each night. The portions are enormous. I’ll probably gain 10 pounds. The hamburgers and hot dogs they serve for lunch are great, even better than yours. They cook them on the deck right by the pool and just pile them on your plate. If you ask for a medium rare hamburger, that’s what you get. They chef is great.

We’ll fly back to Dallas Friday. We’ll pack up our cars and head home. We’ll probably see you before this gets to you.

We’re having a great time.

 

Love,

Carl

 

Capt’n. We just went through a time warp. No kidding Mr. Sulu. Mr. Spock, what just happened…

 

Gol-lee, Mr. Wizard, this Way Back Machine really works. This letter we found is from 1980, that’s a real long time ago.

Not really Rocky. When you are looking at time from a geological perspective….

 

Dug this letter out of our files. (Not really. I made it up. It’s kinda like what you'd see on a TV movie “Based loosely on actual events. The names have been change to protect….) One of the few things I remember from the SS Dolphin, scourge of the Seas, is the food. The food was good. Not overwhelming, but every meal was really good. The portions were big. There wasn’t much on the menu that I wouldn’t eat.

 

OK time to get it out. I’m a picky eater. I grew up in Oklahoma, and Nebraska where the vegetables are fresh, the fruit is sweet, and the beef is thick, marbled and served hot and juicy. Give me a big thick juicy steak cooked with the juices just poring out as you guide your fork gently into the meat. Your knife slips through the almost red center like it was cutting butter. You put a piece in your mouth and it just melts, you almost don’t even have to chew, and the flavor, mmmmm, the flavor just explodes as you bite in to it... Life just doesn’t get any better. Add a baked potato with 2 mounds of butter on it, maybe a little sour cream peaking out from between the butter. A few bacon bits on top and let’s not forget a great big ear of freshly picked corn on the cob. The kind that still has some strings on it. Give it to me right out of the pot still dripping, I’ll roll it in some butter…. Now that is a meal I’d write home about.

 

Stop it Carl and tell the poor folks about dinner

 

Yea, yea, yea, get off my back. Those meetings today were killers, and I'm a little distracted. Besides, it’s not like I’ve been stringing this out for 2 or 3 days. (OH, YES IT IS!)

 

Our slightly stiff servers, who for lack of me actually remembering their names, I’ll call Judith and Justine, brought us the menus. All right, give us a minute, and we'll be ready. Isn't that what your supposed to say in a fancy restaurant. We want to fit in here. (We already knew what we were going to order, we came down and looked at the menu posted on the door a couple of days (no Carl, hours), yea, right hours ago.

I'm having PRIME RIB. PRIME RIB. PRIME RIB. NEBRASKA PRIME RIB, That’s gotta be the best. When I was growing up we lived in Nebraska for 3 years, and I can still smell the manure. But, the meat was really good. And I've been looking foward to NEBRASKA PRIME RIB since I found the menus posted somewhere on the internet a couple of weeks ago.

When Judith or Justine came back to take our order i proudly proclaimed in that great radio DJ voice all Air Traffic Controllers use when they are trying to impress people "I’ll have the shrimp cocktail, the salad with (I’d never seen any of these dressing choices before, can’t you just get a little Ranch dressing around here) balsamic dressing, and the piece de resistance, Prime Rib medium rare."

My wife, who is a little more adventurous when it comes to food than I am, ordered the shrimp cocktail (copy cat), the salad with balsamic dressing (again copy cat, or maybe she ordered first and I was the copy cat, I’m kinda confused about that), and Medallions of Beef.

Mmmm, Medallions of Beef, if memory servers me…. We are both addicted to Food Network, Iron Chef, Iron Chef America, Emeril Live, Good Eats, Unwrapped, all of them. We watch all of those shows almost every day. We’ve seen several shows where they prepared Medallions of Beef. They look like they would taste pretty good, so, she said. Let’s try that, medium well.

There was also a seafood pie thingy that looked interesting, but it had calamari in it, so nope, can’t eat anything that was called squid in a former life. It just sounds yucky. Beside it’s all slippery…(yea, like shrimps aren’t)

 

There, Judith and Justine, go to it. We have been waiting for 25 years for this. No pressure. Our mouths are watering, our tongues are all set… SERVE ON!

 

Sorry folks, it’s sleepy time. The next installment will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

Till then,

(quoting the old AOL sign off ) “Goodbye”

[cworld]

Carl: I bought DH a D70 too (which I have taken more photos with than him). What kind of lenses do you have? I have the standard one that came with the camera and another one, a telephoto, don't remember the range right now. Love the photos. How much did you practice with it before the trip? How much memory did you bring along? We have two 500's. Will that be enough? What quality settings did you use?

 

debinnh,

 

I bought the camera at 6:00 pm the night before we left. So, needless to say, the pictures you see are my first ones with the camera. I did take one of the dog, just to see how it worked, but that's it. I have basically the same lenses. I took most of my pictures with the lens that came with the camera. I also have a 40-300 (or something like that) telephoto lens. I bought 2, 1 gig fast memory cards, and I took my laptop along so if I needed to transfer some pictures I could. I did actually fill both cards 2 times, for a total of 2008 pictures. I used the highest quality setting, knowing that if a card got full, I could download it to the laptop if I needed to. I took a lot of pictures just to try out the camera. I wanted to test the repeating picture feature, so I would tend to shoot 10 pictures when one would work.

 

Sometime next week I'll work the camera in the story and you'll get the whole picture (pun intended).

 

Thanks for your support,

Carl

[Joy2Day]

I'm beginning to see the whole picture. You owe it all to your childhood. Growing up in Oklahoma and Nebraska -- Big 12 Football rivalry big time. How confused you must have been!! The Nebraska beef and the abundance of corn on the cob I can understand. But the sweet fruit? There's no fruit in Nebraska because there are no TREES in Nebraska -- at least none west of about 90th street in Omaha. Of course, what does this Missourian living up here in "Herbie Husker land" know?

 

Seriously, I'm cracking up here. At this rate, I'll have a novel to read when I get back from Alaska at the end of June. :-)