The Lost Files

DG figured out how to download the photos from his phone this week and there were some fun ones that made me ooh and ahh. This picture was taken the first day of our honeymoon on our cruise ship as we drank the Bon Voyage cocktails on the poop deck. A drink with an umbrella, um yeah I'll have two.

Island Living

Monhegan has 60 year round residents. Most people on the island have been there for many years, inheriting the homes that have been in their families for 3 generations. The picture above was taken from the lighthouse. The large building to my right is the Island Inn. In front of the Inn is Queen’s Cottage where we stayed. Even though Monhegan is only 1 mile in length, it has 17 miles worth of trails. These range from Rocky cliffs 500 feet above crashing waves to beautiful forests where people build fairy houses. Some of the fairy houses were elaborate mansions with flags and stepping stones as the one seen below.


On the boat ride to the island, the ferry gives you an informational pamphlet which is fascinating because it is very blunt about what you can and cannot do on the island and the consequences of your actions, which are usually death. Do not try to kayak around the island: you will die of hypothermia. Do not fall into the water on the South side of the island; no one has EVER been saved. When hiking pull your socks over your jeans as ticks are prevalent. Oh yeah, and bring cash, or you will go hungry. Most places on the island do not take credit cards.

Being on the island is kind of like camping. Some inns (and houses on the island) still do not have electricity. There are no tvs or phones in the rooms. There is no grocery store or hospital. A woman named Feryl has been the island's EMT for something close to 20 years, but she is ready to retire. The lure of the island is that it is perfectly beautifully tranquil. If you are antsy and need to be on the go constantly, this is not a vacation for you. But if you can relax and sit facing the harbor and read a book all day, this could be your heaven.

This trip reminded me how beautiful Maine is. This coast line is one of the most beautiful in the country (sorry Seattle). I'm already working on a future blog post, Portland, Oregon vs. Portland, Maine!

Ayuh, Lobsta yum...

We arrived in Portland, ME last Friday and drove an hour and a half up the beautiful coast to New Harbor, ME where we stayed at the Gosnold Arms. You know you are getting old (or turning into your parents) when all you can remember about your vacation were the meals you ate. So be prepared to read about every strip of mouth watering lobster we could put in our bellies, because when in Maine, you must eat as much lobster and drink as much Maine beer as possible. Oh and eat enough blueberries to turn your poo blue. And that ends the poop talk portion of today’s blog entry.

After checking in to the Gosnold, we walked across the street (to the ocean) to the only restaurant in town, Shaw's Wharf. As seen above, DG had the lobster, Maine beer, and steamed clams. Duh and of course we had the blueberry pie for dessert.

This was merely the beginning of our lobster and blueberry feasting as we ate both at almost every meal. The next morning, after gorging ourselves on home-made blueberry pancakes at the Gosnold, we got on the Hardy Boat to head to Monhegan Island.

Monhegan is an island 1 mile in length and 1/4 mile across which is 10 miles away from the mainland and takes an hour to get to. Every ship that comes in gets a big welcome from people on the island. Joy and her whole family were waiting for us when we arrived. We felt very special.

Oh wait, but back to the food. At the Island Inn in Monhegan, they served a complimentary breakfast which included Lobster Casserole (which was really a strata) and blueberry pancakes at breakfast every morning. I could eat this every day. It was so good I'm kind of dreaming about it right now. On our last morning there, I asked one of our servers what the recipe was and he recited it to me as if he was cooking for 100 people. The minute he left the table I scribbled it down on something (that I hope DG has) and plan to recreate this soon for six. (Cyn you guys will be invited over for breakfast when this happens.) During lunch, we ate Lobster rolls with chowder and for dinner at night we had full lobsters, or Lobsterman's Pie which was Lobster cooked in heavy cream and sherry and poured into a puff pastry. I may try to recreate this as well someday. If you every go to the Island Inn, I also insist that you have the Blueberry soup with cake croutons. Ingenious. Cake croutons! Not that cake get's old enough in our house to become stale enough to make croutons. The one place we missed out on was Hot Fat. The fisherman that owns this stand goes out, catches fish, comes back and often sells out of the 3 items that he has on the menu because he is so popular. You can see pics of Hot Fat and Monhegan on DG’s Flickr account.

More about the wedding tomorrow...

The Extended Honeymoon

Joy is married! We are back from Maine, back from eating Lobster for breakfast lunch and dinner, and all blueberried out. The babies are in our laps and we are headed to bed.

Vacation review tomorrow.

Baked Alaska

During our 7 day cruise, formal dinner was every evening at 8:30. Though we always had the option of going to eat a buffet or have a seated informal dinner in a different dining room, we loved our table so much that we wanted to go to dinner with them every night. This however meant dressing up (no jeans, flip flops, or tank tops). Two of the evenings were formal nights. We are talking ladies in their full length beaded sequined gowns dressing up. For me, formal night meant wearing eye liner. Above is a shot of DG in our room amusing himself while I was putting my face on.

Every night we were seated with the same group of people. I don't know how they pair you up, but Celebrity did us right! We were seated with 3 other couples that were young and fun and that we wanted to hang out with even after our 2 1/2 hour dinner was over.

Even our wait staff was great. Everyone was from a different country. Debravko our waiter was from Croatia and Lorenzo our wait staff was from Honduras. They honestly treated us like kings and queens. Debravko had been on the ship for 7 months, working 7 days a week. This was the last week of his contract where he was going back to Croatia to spend a couple of months with his wife before heading back onto the ship. During our last formal evening, Lorenzo and Debrako pose with our dessert, Baked Alaska.

Two naps a day Christy

Each evening, we were given a newsletter with a schedule of events for the next day. The schedule listed numerous activities that we could participate in. There were wine/margarita/martini tastings in the several bars, bingo, karaoke, classes, shows, nature talks, and in addition to the events, there were also night clubs, a coffee bar, spa, gym, casino, 2 level theater, movie room, video game room, computer room, as well as shuffle board, ping pong, and basketball. Here is a day in the life on a cruise ship:

8am Get up and work out at gym with prime whale watching views
10am Eat at the breakfast buffet until you are so full that the only thing to do is start drinking
11:30am Go to a wine tasting with Fernando the ship's Sommelier
12:30pm Slightly tipsy and still full from breakfast, cuddle up and take nap
2:00pm Eat lunch buffet
3:00pm Play bingo and drink Mudslides (a milkshake with liquor)
4:00pm Play ping pong hoping to get more exercise
4:30pm Catch the last 1/2 hour of European Pastries at the Cova Cafe Coffee Bar and play cards. Kick DGs butt at Gin Rummy.
5:30pm The motion of the ocean lulls you into taking another nap
6:30pm Watch movie
8:30pm Dress up and go to our 5 course dinner (Pick one appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert.)
10:30pm Go to bar and try to dance off how full you are.
12:30pm Go to bed bloated

By my 3rd day I seriously had to stop eating dessert at every meal. I limited myself to twice a day. This made me feel a little better. I also tried to limit my dinner to 3 courses, though our waiters were total food pushers and salad dressing pushers. I haven't stepped on a scale yet, but lets just say that my pants are a bit snug and I am having sugar withdrawal.

A Room with a View

Let our overview begin with our lovely luxurious mother ship, The Mercury. It was big, very big. Big enough to hold 2,100 passengers and 900+ crew members. There were 13 or so floors, though we never took the elevator. The rooms though were small, very small, 175 sq. ft. small. Luckily we had a room with a window. DG sat out in Ketchikan and took a pic of me up in the room.

From one of the top decks of the ship, here is a aerial of the pool. There were 4 hot tubs, but in the 40 degree days, it was a bit too nippy to be out in it.



Tomorrow, our lackidasical days.

Eagles, Orcas, and Dolphins Oh My

We watched killer whales for an hour this morning, running from one side of the ship to the other in a frenzy of excitement. DG has a good eye. Yesterday, we saw our first bald eagle. It was amazing. We are back to land tomorrow. *sniff* Tonight is our last formal dinner with Debravko and Lorenzo our wait staff and our fun table.

It's the Motion of the Ocean

I don't know if it is good or bad that I am posting from our honeymoon.

2100 guests
895 crew
food for 2.1 million
5 course meals every night
full breakfast and lunch buffets
have I mentioned the food??

Having a great time! Pictures to come.

3, 2, 1

It's honeymoon time.

This week will be the longest I will go without posting as I don't think we will have interenet connectivity on the ship. But when I get back, I'll have daily diatribes on life on the ship, whether or not I used the workout clothes or wore the 6 pairs of shoes I brought.

I can't wait for just some me and DG time.

When in Maine...

eat lobster and blueberries. We got Joy's menu in our inbox today to pick our food for the wedding. It is a veritable smorgashboard of New England food. It makes me want to throw out my carrot stick and non dairy veggie dip and demand my lobster dinner. Joy, if you are listening, I want the Maine Blueberry Soup with fresh berries, cream, creme de casis liqueur, and CAKE croutons with a side of lobster and corn on the cob please. Is it too much to say that I'm looking forward to a meal I'll be eating in a month?

Roadtrip Highlights

We pulled out of Denver at 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning to head to Yankton, SD. I had packed us a full car of food including fresh fruit, air popped pop corn, and egg salad sandwiches. After putting the dogs in their seatbelts, we were on the road for just over 8 hours when we got to DGs parents house. Some of the highlights were:

Hour 1 Talk to my parents on the phone, spot a hawk and a coyote in the median. That took up a good 15 minutes.
Hour 1.5 Eat 1/2 of the food we brought.
Hour 2 Eat the rest of the food we brought. *crap*
Hour 3 The part where I'm so bored I stare at my legs and start jiggling the fat announcing it was the fat jiggling portion of our road trip.
Hour 3.5 Crawl in the back seat with the dogs for a cuddle, but dog who has had excessive bad gas the whole trip chases me back to the front seat.
Hour 4 While filling the tank, bought DG his favorite road trip food, sunflower seeds, cheddar cheese nips, and a Twin Bing. (Rare candy from IA which consists of chocolate and crushed peanuts over a cherry nougat.)
Hour 5 Started watching Tommy Boy on the Video Ipod.
Hour 5.5 Pull down my tank top and see how long it takes for DG to notice that I've exposed myself.
Hour 6 Pass a sign for a town in Nebraska called Worms.
Hour 7 Go through the drive through Dairy Queen in Central City, NE, where they gave the dogs their own soft serve
Hour 8.5 Finally arrive DGs parents, ahhhh.



And on the return
Hour 1 painfully slow - Keep turning around to stare at the dogs and see if they are doing anything cute.
Hour 1.5 - Pout that the latte that I got leaving Yankton tastes like dirty dishwater. I accuse the coffee shop of using Folgers, whine a bit, taste the coffee again to see if it's gotten any better.
Hour 2 Turn down Dairy Queen annoucing that DG has to choose between Dairy Queen and Dunkin' Donuts
Hour 3 80's Hair metal hour dj'd by yours truly on the Ipod
Hour 4 Grabbed lunch in Grand Isle, NE and threw out entire latte from the morning.
Hour 5 Bad Navigator takes a 20 minute snooze
Hour 6 Stopped in North Platte, NE only to find that the only Dunkin' Donuts in the midwest has been shut down a year before. In desperation, DG buys a bag of smart food, diet coke and some Skoal chewing tobacco.
Hour 7 Find spit cups and throw in some chew, talk about having children. (I'll explain this one later this week.)
Hour 7.5 DJ all chick rock hour
Hour 8 A front piece of the car windshield rips off during a wind storm in Eastern Colorado, causing a bit of a scare.
Hour 9 Pull into home and give a great collective sigh of relief.

More observations on South Dakota to come...

Hitting the Open Road

Early in our relationship, on roughly our 7th date, DG asked me to take a road trip with him to Omaha, NE to attend a wedding. I was skeptical at first because 1) Omaha, NE had once stolen 2 weeks of my life that I am still bitter about, 2) there was going to be a sleepover involved *gulp*, and 3) 9 hours in a car with a guy I barely knew was either going to be really good or really bad.

Well, we all know the ending to this story, but let's just say that I love a good road trip (remember Dollywood?) and 9 hours in a car alone with DG and his Ipod is enough to make any girl weak in her bees knees.

A month later, we hit the open road again to travel to Burt Lake in upstate Michigan to vacation with Cynthia and her family. Along the way we stopped at Devil's Tower in WY, Mount Rushmore, Corn Palace, the Badlands...etc. My travel journal is here, and pics of the trip are here. On the way home, we stopped in DGs hometown of Yankton, SD.

Now prior to this trip, South Dakota was one of the 11 states that I had never visited. If you had told me, as a young girl growing up in CT that I would be marrying a man from South Dakota, I would have stared at you incredulously, tilted my head, fluttered my blue tinted eyelashes and said "You mean the state with the capital of Pierre?" Because that was in sum all I knew about that state. This probably would have followed by a princess like tirade on how I was never going to date a corn fed midwesterner, but that's another story.

So Yankton is located in the far South East corner of the state, and I have now been there no less than 2 times, going on 3 as we are gearing up to pack the dogs in the car and take the 9 hour drive to go to DGs 20th high school reunion. More than the event, I am looking forward to being in the car with DG, stopping at the one Dunkin' Donuts located in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, buying sparklers and other tame fireworks on the side of the road, listening to MY Ipod, and eating egg salad sandwiches that I've packed for us in the cooler.

Alaskan Cruise

We are very excited to go have picked Celebrity X as our honeymoon cruise line. 1) I have never taken a cruise. 2) Alaska is one of the 9 states I have never set foot in. CHECK! 8 to go 3) They have a coffee shop on the boat. 4) We get to see glaciers. 5) We leave the ship everyday to go off into ports to hike, bike, or take dog sled rides. 6) Buffets meals AND gym 7) They have shopping on the boat. 8) Going to the theater every night! 9) 8 nightclubs on the ship in different themes. 10) There are too many cool things to list. I can't wait.

The Honeymooners

Out of the blue on Sunday, we started researching our honeymoon. By Monday morning, I contacted a travel agent and we currently have the trip on hold. We want to sleep on it for a couple of days before we purchase it, but I'm pretty sure it's perfect for us. It was originally David's idea and I wasn't too keen on it. Then I started looking on line and my mind was changed! Now I think I am more excited than he is. So where is it you ask?!? Let the guessing begin.
We will see whales.
We will hear large glaciers cracking.
Our room will be 175 sq. ft. *gulp*.
We may gain 10lbs.
We can have massages every day after we take our morning swim.
We will not be able to swim in the ocean.
We may take a dog sled ride. (Alright that gives it away.)
And the answer is....