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Latest Cruise

First cruise aboard aboard an Oasis-class ship, the Wonder of the Seas. Cabin 10th floor 10147 Missed shuttle to cruise ship. Caught ride on another van got to terminal by 1 p.m. picked up scooter, went through security, up to Windjammer for buffet lunch. Very good, crowded, but they had handicapped tables available. Usual dishes and treats. Then to theater to check off safety drill. I'm now in cabin and Julie is off people watching. Met cabin steward and he will separate beds. RC app doesn't seem to be working. We set up stuff and get confirmation message, but then then the crew has no record of it. But we work it out. Dinner of fish filet was very good. Show tonight was the RC singers and dancers doing a variety show. Then off to bed. Day 2 Up at 8 a.m. and off to the 'Jammer for  hearty breakfast. Went to Solarium for dip in whirlpool and some reading. Lunch of roast beef, mashed potatoes and various salads. Nap and then get dressed for formal night in dining room. Itali...
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lacy

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 By Bruce Shawkey This is Lacy ... .... our most excellent tour guide at the Gold Rush Brewery "You can have ALL the beer you want." This was part of our Alaska cruise. We were told on our tour tickets we were limited to two beers, but Lacy told us otherwise. We had a buffet lunch as well, and as I recall we had chicken legs as our meat entree. Lacy told us she moved to Alaska with her boyfriend, but he couldn't stand it and moved back to the lower 48. "Turned out I was the one with the balls," Lacy told us. She was a hoot.
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Winter Getaway 2010-2011

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 I am putting together this blog entry in 2024, by memory as best I can recall it. I had it in blog form, but foolishly erased it after getting complaints  from the folks back home it was taking too long to load. It was my first winter getaway following Gwen's death in 2009, so I really want to get something down before my memory faded all together. I did not bring my kitties with me this trip; Dawn was kind enough to look after them. This was all about Orlando; the thought of spending winter in Fort Myers hadn't occurred to me yet. I started out in Kissimee at a cheap motel (I think it was a Motel 6) because I wanted to be close to all the Disney Parks, and reasonably close to the mid-winter NAWCC Regional. I paid for the room by the week to save a little money and was able to get a room with a 'fridge and a microwave oven.  One of the restaurants I remember during my time here was Tarentino's, an Italian place in Kissimee. They had a cute hostess named Leilani (or som...
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The Pacific Coast Highway

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 By Bruce Shawkey State Route 1 is a major north–south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. Constructed: 1934, it is the longest state route in California, at  656 miles. The most popular stretch of the highway is between San Francisco and San Diego. I had a chance to travel part of the highway with my late wife in the mid-80s, and have a photo of her posing along the highway, next to her ashes at Roselawn. The Route is in danger these days, due to mid slides, rock slides, and forest fires which spur erosion. It cost millions to keep the route in drivable condition, with funds coming from state and federal sources. Is it worth saving and maintaining?  A recent episode on CBS Sunday Morning answers with a resounding "yes." I agree. Construction of the Pacific Coast Highway involved blasting through granite, marble, and sandstone with 70,000 pounds of dynamite. Lime was smelted to make concrete.  The most difficul...
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Keeping a Travel Journal

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 By Bruce Shawkey Found this interesting book in the Internet archive about keeping a travel journal, which I have done for a number of years. It's always fun for me to read about past travels, whether to the next town over, or the next continent. In her introduction, author Lavinia Spalding writes: "Keeping a travel journal is a time-honored art form steeped with tradition and romance, a practice with countless iterations and formulas. Some people approach it like a religious discipline, sitting each afternoon with pen and notebook to dutifully chronicle the events of their day. " I would add to that everything I ate (being a foodie), the hotels and motels I stayed at, and the shenanigans of my two cats, who were often my semi-reluctant travel companions when traveling by car to Florida, where I spent many winters.  Here's a look at her table of contents: 1 — Let the Wild Writing Begin Choosing a journal and beginning your journey    2 — It's the Intention that M...
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Trip to New York With Gwen September 2007

 We are beginning our second full day here in New York at the Affinia hotel by Penn Station. We’ve had to scale back on our planned activities. Some was caused due to time delays getting here (fog in Milwaukee and apparently lots of other places in the Midwest, too). Other cutbacks due to running out of steam and the fact that things just seem to take longer than we anticipated. But let's focus on what we DID do. Yesterday (Friday), we went on the Circle Line Tour to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We had to go through a complete security check (very similar to what you do at the airport now) BOTH at the ferry dock, and again at Liberty Island to get inside the statue. For Gwen, this included a hand search and swabbing of her hydration backpack. At the Statue of Liberty, they also ran us through the "puffer" which I guess checks for explosives, drugs or both. I had quite mixed emotions at the Statue Tour, with the irony of the whole situation not being lost on me....
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Cafe on the Park in Lake Mills

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 By Bruce Shawkey One of my favorite places to go is Lake Mills and have a meal at the Downtown Café and say hello to Arta, the owner of the establishment. A visit to this place on Memorial Day weekend found the place was hoppin’. Always good food there, I had a Gyro while Dawn had a turkey melt sandwich. Fire Department was there in force soliciting donations for Muscular Dystrophy Association. We threw a dollar into the boot. Then, per our usual outing to this lovely community, we went to McDonalds for a vanilla cone. We didn't think Arta was there, but she was was working in the kitchen, and she saw us and came out to say hello, and I gave her a hug. 
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