A Quiet Beach Day

 We had nothing special planned today so we improvised and visited some places we liked in the past.

Our day started with a 2 mile beach walk.  We spotted this Valentine's Day leftover, and I could not resist getting a picture of my Valentine standing inside it.   On the right is a picture (click to enlarge) showing the intense beach erosion.  In the past, some group had the foresight to build the brick breakwater which protected the beach behind it.  But on this side, erosion from this year's hurricanes was pretty severe.  Many wooden ramps which allowed people walk to the beach in this section were washed away. 

While walking, I spotted the unusual shell on the left; one shell with some smaller shells stuck to it!  Speaking of shells, this is a great beach for a shell collector.  It is very hard to walk this beach without crunching them, as you can see on the right.  You definitely need some beach shoes to walk in this area!

After lunch we headed for the Seaside Seabird Sanctuary.  It's a rescue place for injured seabirds and has a large number of bird enclosures on site, separated by type of bird.  And there are lots of other birds hanging around like this fellow on the right.  Many of the enclosures have high roofs so the birds can fly around inside them.  They even had a bald eagle and several owls.

After the sanctuary we did some shopping at John's Pass Village before having supper at Mad Beach Craft Brewing.  After we got back to our condo we headed out to watch a beautiful, cloudless sunset.

Tomorrow we are headed to Sarasota for dinner with fellow DTE retirees Irene Chmura and John Olson with John's wife, before going to a Jim Curry Band concert in Sarasota.  

Golfing Day

 

Today I drove to Rotunda West where my golfing buddy, John, has his second house.  After a quick lunch, we played the course where he lives.  It's one of 5 courses there. It was great getting caught up with him and what's going on  with his family.  We were having such a great time I neglected to get a picture of us on the course. That's how it goes sometimes.  After golf, I had dinner with John and his wife, then headed back to the condo.  I was gone from 9am until 8pm so it made for a kind of a long day, especially with all the traffic congestion on I-75.

While I was on my golfing trip, Mary had a relaxing day on the beach. She took two long walks on the beach.  On one, she took this picture of these interesting rocks on the shoreline.  The other picture is our condo complex.  It was a great day for enjoying the sunshine, which she did.

Nothing much planned for tomorrow.  A few walks on the beach and some sightseeing.  More to tell in then next post!

Arriving in Florida

Our Florida vacation started today with a flight to Tampa and driving to our Airbnb condo on the beach at Treasure Island.   We had a comfortable mid-morning flight from Detroit to Tampa, and the rental car pickup afterwards went smooth. 

The picture on the upper right is the view of the Gulf from our balcony.  Before dinner we took a walk on the beach and loved hearing the sounds of the waves.   The beach in this area was covered with a lot of shells so we were glad to have our tennis shoes on.  

As we returned from dinner the sun was setting so I caught this picture. 

Golf tomorrow with my golfing buddy, John!  

Day 7 - At Sea

Today is our only sea day so Princess had to pack all the normal sea day activities into this one day.  It is also Packing Day as we disembark tomorrow.

Mary got these sunrise (left) and sunset (right) pictures today.  The morning started with another speedy Sudoku session followed by a Goofy Golf contest.   I won the Sudoko and came in second in Goofy Golf so I now have three medals.

Today was Pub Lunch day, but they did it differently by just adding the pub lunch items to the regular lunch menu rather than holding it in a special dining room. That actually worked out quite well! My bangers and mashed is on the left while Mary's fish and chips is on the right.  YUM!

Dinner tonight was also special with Surf 'n Turf!  I guess I should subtitle this post as "food we ate today".  

Before dinner, we took on the inevitable task of packing our suitcases.  We packed all but our dinner clothes so we could easily add them after dinner and set out our suitcases.

We have a Princess shuttle to the airport tomorrow.  I'm not sure if I will do another post or not.  I hope you've enjoyed coming along with us on this short getting-reaquainted-with-Princess cruise.  

Day 6 - Halifax. Nova Scotia

We had a morning excursion to see Peggy's Cove.  The weather was beautiful!  Sunny but a bit chilly. It's an hour bus ride each way, and we had a very chatty tour guide which helped pass the time.  She mentioned that Nova Scotia has 4 seasons, pre-winter, winter, post-winter and construction, and this was a beautiful pre-winter day. 

We were fortunate to be the first bus that arrived so we could get pictures of the famous lighthouse without having any people out by it.  I took over a dozen pictures of the lighthouse from various perspectives and this the best of the lot.  On the right is a photo of the cove itself, complete with fishing vessels.  We spent an hour, walking around and doing some shopping. By the time we left, there were 7 busses there and this is from just one half-empty cruise ship!  Sure glad we were the only ship in town!

I do love how Princess has implemented their new medallion into everything.  A medallion is a 1" circular device that completely replaces the traditional cruise card.  The Enchanted Princess is the first ship that Princess built once the Medallion program was introduced so support is built in rather than added on.  It's a lot more that just having your cabin door unlock as you approach.  When you walk up to pay for something at a shop, the clerk addresses you by name!  I suspect even the automatic doors sense a medallion is approaching and open rather than relaying on an optical sensor.   Very cool technical implementation!  

We had a very good dinner tonight!  Club Class dining always has one special that is not on the regular menu and tonight it was shrimp in lobster sauce.  Mary had that (pictured on the left) while my prime rib dinner is on the right.  After having  lobster last night we are getting some very delicious and special meals!

Sea day tomorrow as we head back to New York City for a Saturday flight home.  

Day 5 - St John New Brunswick

Another day, another port to visit.  We had a quiet early morning and breakfast before heading into town.  The townspeople were super friendly and helpful.  As you can see from this picture, the town rises rather steeply from the ocean!  We had to climb for 2 blocks before reaching our shopping destination.  Mary bought a post card and shopped at a Christmas store as well as a few others.  After that we walked around a bit then headed back to the ship for lunch. 

After lunch I played "Goofy Golf" and ended up winning my second medal. The rest of the afternoon was quiet, with some time spent on the balcony which was OK as long as you had a blanket and were in the sun.  We watched the tide flow out of the Bay of Fundy; it sure moved fast!

Tonight was the second formal night (They call it "dress to impress" now), and the menu featured Lobster!  YUM!  It's nice that the waiters de-shell it for you.  Our waiter said that this was the first cruise since the pandemic where they were allowed to do that. With the price of lobster  being so high, we are glad Princess still has this on the menu. When we were walking around Bar Harbor yesterday, there were virtually no prices posted for lobster (they just said "market").  We did see a lobster roll priced at $30 and $35, but most of them were "market" as well.  

This evening was the second Production show titled "Rick Opera".  We hoped it would feature songs from all the famous rock operas, and it did include several we recognized, but a lot more that we did not.  The singers and dancers did a fabulous job of performing it.  Overall another good quality show.  

Tomorrow we are in Halifax and have a morning excursion to Peggy's Cove.  The weather is supposed to be sunny, which is very good. The last time we were here it was so foggy you could not see the time of the famous lighthouse.

Day 4 - Bar Harbor

Today we visited the quaint little village of Bar Harborn, Maine.  We had nothing planned except to walk around the town a bit.  It turned into quite the day!  Mary caught one pretty picture of the early morning and another showing the fall colors.  The trees have some dark red colors that we don't see in Michigan.  

We took the water shuttle into town.  The one thing I wanted was some New England Clam Chowder. We easily found the shopping district, and shop we did! Many of the stores were closed for the season and some of the remaining ones had year end sales going on.  I wanted a new long sleeve T-shirt and we found one for under $10!  As we headed back to the ship and walked down the pictured street toward the dock, we spotted an open restaurant and each had a cup of clam chowder.  YUM!   It's the place on the left with the moose on top. Overall we had a very pleasant day in town.  

On to St John, Canada tomorrow!