On the Island Princess

After a quiet morning, our Lyft driver came at 10:00 and took us to the ship.  It was our first ride in a Tesla. We were surprised that the roof was glass, so we could look up at all the tall buildings.  I took a picture as we went past the World Trade Center but it did not turn out very well due to the hazed glass  He then took us across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was also a first for us.  

We got to the ship by 11:00 and, since we had all our documents on file and our medallions, we got to use the shorter lines for xray scanning and security. After that, we walked right on the ship.  Our cabin was not ready yet, but we were able to stash our carry-ons in it and headed to the buffet for lunch. Love that bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce!

We have great views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan from our balcony.  We also have Reserved Collection dining which is a special dining room area, and were very surprised to see the same hostess, Arita, that we had last year.  She recognized us even before seeing our names on her iPad.  Another benefit of Reserved Class Dining is a glass of champagne on sail-away day!  Note the Manhattan skyline in the background.

SURPRISE!  Due to the hurricane, the captain just announced a major schedule change.  No Caribbean ports, but staying in Manhattan for 3 days and doing an extra day in Bermuda.   While in New York, we get a free ferry or shuttle to Manhattan during the day.  So we can remain on the ship or do a couple of days of NYC sightseeing.  

On a positive note, we get 50% of our cruise fare refunded as a future cruise credit and still get to visit Bermuda, which is why we booked this cruise in the first place.   So, in the end, all is well!  

We enjoyed dinner tonight, (salmon for Mary, and pot roast for me) with very good desserts.  Mary's was had mascarpone pie with blueberry sauce while I went for the hazelnut souffle. 

We are debating NYC activities for the next 2 days, but we may stay on the ship tomorrow as rain is predicted from 11am on for the rest of the day. Hopefully Thursday works out better. 

Day 2 in NYC - Carrier Intrepid Museum

 

We only had 1 activity planned for today, visiting the Intrepid Air and Space Museum. The Intrepid was a WWII Essex class carrier that was commissioned in 1944.  It saw some action in the late WWII battles, but most of it's war experience was in supporting the air war against North Korea and in Vietnam.  It was finally decommissioned in 1974.  

It also support the Mercury and Gemini programs by being the main recovery ship for two space flights in the early 60's.  

The range of airplanes on this ship was very wide, from WWII planes (like the Hellcat on the left) up through the jets that flew in Vietnam, pictured on the right.  Feel free to click to enlarge any picture. t was all pretty neat to see.    

There were many exhibits about the role the Intrepid played over its years of service. We walked through the Vietnam one, among others.

I did climb into the ship's island and got this picture of the navigation station.  I also sat in a quad 40mm gun mount.  very cool!

But the main reason I wanted to visit the Intrepid was to see the Space Shuttle Enterprise. This one never made it to orbit, but paved the way for the others. . It was in a special environmentally controlled building on the deck.  Now I can say I've seen all 4 surviving shuttles. 

They also have one of the last Concorde. supersonic passenger jets on display. It was neat to see.  

So it was quite a day of sightseeing.  Tomorrow we head to the Island Princess to begin our cruise.  We still don't know if there will be any itinerary changes due to the hurricane. If not, I expect some rough seas on Wednesday evening as we head south along the eastern cost .

Day 1 in NYC

 

We had a nice, relaxing morning today.  After watching church, we headed out on a Times Square shopping trip.  Our main stops were the M&Ms store and the Hershey Store.  

This picture on the right is barely 1/3rd of the  "M&M wall".   You can take a plastic bag and hold it under the bottom of a color and add as much as you want.  At the counter, you pay by the pound. 

Lunch was at Shake Shake, then we headed to our hotel to get ready for the play.

We had tickets for the matinee performance of the Book of Morman.  It was nearly a mile to walk to it, and it was a bit warm.  We found the play very hilarious!  But we can see how someone who is very serious about religion could be offended.   

After that we headed to The Perfect Pint, an Irish pub recommended by friend Gail.   I enjoyed Shepherd's Pie while Mary had a pair of cheeseburger sliders.

Tomorrow we head to the US Intrepid air and space museum.  

Heading to NYC

 

Today was our travel day to New York City.  We're here for 3 days, then we board the Island Princess for a 10 day cruise to the eastern Caribbean and Bermuda.  We've cruised out of New York several times and like to stay at the Fairfield Inn Time Square since it's not only close to Times Square, but a lot of the Broadway theaters.  We got a room on the 29th floor this time, but with all he tall buildings, there's not much of a view.  

Since we've stayed here a few times, we have a favorite close-by restaurant, Schnippers. After dinner we walked around a bit and got a selfie at Times Square.  

Not much else to write about today.  Our travels were pretty much on time, no issues with the flight and we got a very nice Lyft driver to take us to our hotel, where our room was ready when we arrived. 

Tomorrow we plan some morning shopping and lunch at a local deli before we see The Book of Mormon. 

Last Full Day in Florida

All good things do come to an end, and that is true of our vacation since we are flying home tomorrow. 

The main activity for today was playing golf.  The day started out as typical, with some sleeping in, breakfast, et al.  The only concern was that a rain storm was predicted for early evening.  I left by 10:30 to meet my golf buddy John Olson at his house.  We got to the course well before the 12:05 tee time, only to find out the course was backed up.  Once we started playing, I spotted three alligators. The one pictured on the right looked to be about 12' long.
As is typical in Florida, play was quite slow.  So slow that we we still on the course at 5:10 and got caught in a torrential downpour as we were finishing the 18th hole - both John and I were totally soaked. 

Mary was able to do most of her packing this afternoon after doing some beach-walking and sunning by the pool.

Due to the storm, no sunset pictures tonight.  This could be the last blog st of this trip unless something noteworthy happens tomorrow. Hopefully our drive to Tampa, flight home, etc all goes smooth. 

Florida Day 8

We did a day trip to Venice today.  Not many pictures, but a nice drive to se some scenery and a rather beautiful town.  Our first stop was the Shamrock Park and Nature Center . The nature center didn't have much to offer so  we took a 3/4 mile walk through a palm forest area. Next we headed to an area beach for a short beach walk.  

I'd told Mary a number of times about Tony's Chicago Beef so she finally got to experience it today for lunch. It's a local dive, but has a lot of character, and the food was good. 

After we got back to the condo,  we took it easy for a while, then headed out to Mama's Italian Restaurant for dinner.  Amazingly, there was no line.  Around here if you want immediate seating at a restaurant you need to arrive before 5:00 (4:30 preferred!) We enjoyed our dinner, but neither of us could finish our portion so, with our trip ending soon, we have leftovers for dinner for tomorrow night.  

We got back in time for the sunset.  It was a bit overcast, but we enjoyed it in spite of the clouds, then headed inside since it was a bit chilly.  One more sunset to go...

Golf tomorrow with my regular partner, John Olson,  then time to start packing.

Florida Day 7

No major activities planned for today.  We took our usual morning beach walk and found some neat sand carvings. There's a hammerhead shark, an alligator (with teeth), a turtle and part of a starfish. Looks like the alligator almost got washed away in last night's high tide. 
I also took a neat video of the larger than usual waves.  4 seconds in, I had to back up so my feet would not get wet.  Enjoy!  

Wave Video

We walked about 1/2 mile to the Sandbar Tiki and Grill for supper.  It is still being repaired from hurricane damage, but is open for business with a limited menu. We were seated at a table right by the water.  Weather was great, warm and sunny. 

After we got back, it was sunset time! No surprise there, I'm sure.  Watching sunsets is quite the activity in Florida. Check out all the people watching!  And when the sun sets, there is applause and air horns.

Tomorrow we are planning to drive to Venice and visit the Shamrock Park and Nature Center and see what else we find.

Florida Day 6

 

Over all, we've had a nice, quiet and enjoyable day. This morning we enjoyed a great breakfast at Mimosa’s,  nice breakfast/ lunch place. We both had omelets with hash browns and toast. It was a nice change of pace from our typical breakfast of a peanut butter English muffin (me) and a bowl of oatmeal (Mary).

After doing laundry, we had lunch then drove around Englewood.  We found a nice ice cream store  (Yeah for peanut butter chocolate swirl!) and came across an Artist street fair and walked around it for a while.  

The skies were clouding over this evening and we had some rain after dark.  What was interesting is how the sea has started to take back the beach.  Due to the large waves yesterday, it created a small cliff in the new sand. Many people were sitting on this sand ledge.  No good evening sunset, but still a pretty picture as you can see.

Our days of 80 degree weather and blue skies are taking a break as we hit a "cold" spell.  We have no specific plans for tomorrow so we’ll see what develops. 

Florida Day 5

 

Mary and I took a 30 minute walk this morning along the beach.  Not many people around, and it was at low tide so we had lots of hard sand to walk on.  All the sand has been spread out on the beach, but it's in need of final smoothing.  I spotted a bulldozer putting the final touches on the sand.  You can see the high ridge of sand on the left.   The picture on the right shows the before (foreground) and after (distance).

We celebrated Valentines Day a day late today at Farlow's, a high end seafood restaurant in Englewood.  Mary had a Seafood Pot Pie and I had a Shrimp and Cornbread dinner. Both were delicious!

We don't have anything planned for tomorrow besides the thrill of doing laundry 8-)

Florida Day 4

 Happy Valentines Day ❤️ to all!  

Mary and I had a very nice day visiting Gasparilla State Park followed by lunch at the South Beach Grill.  We heard that we should  stop and see the Johann Fust Comminity library on our way.   It had an amazing courtyard with beautiful flowers.  Had we not been told about it, we would have driven right by it.   It turns out the main part of the state park was closed, but we found a nice beach on the gulf side of the island.  The area was pretty quiet and we enjoyed a 1+ mile walk up the beach and back.  It was sunny and about 80 degrees and walking along, listening to the waves made it all the better. 

The restaurant opened at 11:30 and we were among the first in line so we got an excellent table overlooking the beach.  The food was very good.  Mary had fried shrimp and I had a shrimp and sausage skillet over a bed of creamed corn.  We talked about how blessed we were to be able to enjoy a great meal in a place like this. 

We got back to the condo mid afternoon, enjoyed a West Wing episode, then sat by the pool for an hour. Normally the pool area has a lot of residents each afternoon, but today it's remarkably quiet. While I was sitting there, a bird flew in for a drink from the pool.

We are celebrating Valentines Day at a fancy restaurant tomorrow since we could not get a good reservation time today.  

Florida Day 3

A short blog since not much happened today, just more time in the sun.  We drove around Manasota Key to see the remaining hurricane damage.  We drove up to where the bridge was washed out so you need to use the southern bridge for one part of the island and the northern bridge for that part. 

The picture on the right shows some of the left over hurricane damage along the beach. 

We did visit the Englewood Farm market, but did not buy much, just 1 grapefruit and two scones.  We spent the afternoon by the pool .  While we were there, some people spotted a dolphin out in the bay, which we enjoyed watching.  I'm playing online bridge this evening while rooting for the USA hockey team to beat Sweden in the Four Countries match.

So another peaceful day comes to an end.  Tomorrow is a day trip to Bocca Grande and the Gasparilla Island State Park, which is near Fort Myers. 

Florida Day 2

 

We had a relaxing, full day today, starting with a nice beach walk.  We walked 3/4 mile up the beach and back.  The sand was quite soft which made walking on anything but the part by the ocean a bit difficult.  But we definitely enjoyed the sunshine!

After lunch, we spent a couple of hours relaxing by the pool.   What a pleasure to be able to sit and read on a nice, warm, sunny day.  Quite a few other residents were enjoying the sunshine and the pool, also.  

This evening we enjoyed dinner with a former DTE co-worker, Irene Chmura.   She retired n 2011 and has lived in Florida full time for 3 years now. We ate at the Lighthouse Tiki Bar which recently opened after recovering from hurricane damage. There is still quite a bit of un-repaired damage in this area, but the area is gradually getting back to normal.

We got back in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset.  It is fun to watch all the people doing the same thing, and then applauding once the sun goes down.  

Tomorrow we plan to go to the Englewood Farmers Market, then enjoy this beautiful weather.