The Things We Bring Home

Before we left for our cruise I took out this puzzle of Australia that we had and decided to put it together again, but didn't have time to finish it.  When we got back home working on it was a totally different experience, because...we'd been there!!!

We saw several didgeridoos while shopping in Australia, but most of them were over a meter (3 feet) long, then we found this one which is about 63 cm (25 inches).  It was also a lot less expensive and fit in our suitcase, so even though the longer ones are supposed to have better sound we decided to go with this one.  To be truthful, I'm not sure what kind of sound will ever come out of it anyway...and furthermore, we bought it for more of a souvenir than a musical instrument...and after all, it IS hand painted hardwood!!!!   

Several years ago when we were in Dakar, Senegal we went on a tour to this market and when we went inside this hut the fellow watched our eyes and when he saw me look at this guitar thing, he picked it up, kept pushing it into my hands and started bartering with me....only $40.  I kept telling him I didn't want it so he kept lowering the price.  Finally I felt sorry for him and broke down and paid a whole $5 for it!  Hubby told me I'd never get it home without it getting broken...took some creative packing...but I DID get it home completely intact and totally enjoy showing it off and telling the story of how I acquired it!

Food on Board

Usually when we go on a cruise I take all sorts of pictures of the food on board.  In the dining room especially, the food is always presented in the most beautiful way...sometimes it looks too good to eat!  For some reason this cruise I only took a few pictures of the food, but I'll share some of them with you.

On the Lido deck for breakfast you could get a big plate with your bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, waffles, crepes or eggs benedict on it but my favorite were these small plates with fruit, the little glass of muesli and a big glass of guava juice. 

 
 At lunch time they had these small plates with salad, cheese and sliced meat or whatever on it.  It was a nice small size and you could try several.  One thing I didn't want to do is go to the salad bar...the salad bowls they had were so huge and the servers did not know the meaning of "just a little bit" you would end up with a salad big enough to serve a family!!




They had a real nice Asian section with an assortment of sushi, soup, vegetable and/or meat stir fries, egg rolls...all that sort of stuff.


Desserts of course were decedent... puddings, cakes, jello, pies, bread pudding with vanilla sauce and of course they always had hard and soft ice cream.


 Of course there was always room service, if you wanted it.  We usually ordered fruit, yogurt, toast or a Danish but you could get bacon and eggs if you wanted it.



 One night in the dining room this was the appetizer I ordered.



Every day at 3 or 4 pm they would have afternoon tea and serve little sandwiches and cookies or cakes.  One day they had an Indonesian tea with Indonesian food and tea.

Back to British Columbia

Docked at Ogden Point in Victoria.  It's a really nice port for tourists.  There is a bank of payphones there, internet is available at one of the gift shops and there's lots of maps and information on things to do in Victoria...we could have used ports like this in our travels!!!  Good job Victoria!!

We were supposed to meet up with one of my cousins here, so I phoned her.  She'd been trying to get hold of me but of course I didn't have phone connection or internet while we were at sea.  Unfortunately she was unable to come see us today, so we chatted for a bit instead, then we decided we'd just go for a walk.  It was a beautiful sunny day and there was a slight, cool breeze blowing....it was heavenly!!!

 Walked to Fishermen's Wharf.  There's also a really nice park/playground nearby.  On the way there we met a very nice man riding his electric unicycle.  He asked all sorts of questions about our trip and cruising in general....think he's wanting to go on a cruise!

 We didn't leave Victoria till about midnight.  It was so beautiful sailing out of the harbour at night with all the lights shining on the water.  We could even pick out the Parliament Buildings because they were lit up.

 Woke up to a sunny morning in Vancouver.  We ordered room service for breakfast and waited in our stateroom until they called our number for disembarking.

A good friend of ours was waiting to drive us home.  We had a very interesting trip and I took over 1000 pictures.  Hope you've enjoyed the smattering I've posted.  Thanks for letting me share and re-live our holiday with you. 

Honolulu, Day 2

It was so nice staying on board at dock last night.  Got up had breakfast then went out exploring.  Being that it was Sunday, a lot of the stores were closed.  Went to see the palace.  We were told that it's the only royal palace on American soil.  Couldn't go into it but saw it from the outside.

The palace is set in beautiful gardens and as we were walking I turned and saw this peeking out between a bunch of vines.  Had to zoom in but I just love the design...no idea what the building is.

 Couldn't go into the church because of a private function, but again we got to see it from the outside.

 If any of you watch Hawaii Five O you'll recognize this statue of King Kamehameha.  Apparently he was the king who united all the tribes of the Hawaiian Islands.

 The sun set so quickly tonight!!

We set sail for our 5 day trip to Victoria, British Columbia about 5:45 pm.

Going to a Luau

We are staying at the dock for the night so we were able to book a tour to go to a Luau.  The bus picked us up at the dock and took us out of town.  We ended up driving through an industrial area and I was beginning to wonder what sort of warehouse they were taking us to, but we did get to a lovely property right on the beach.  Apparently years ago when they started the Luau here, it was all sugar cane fields in the area but now they're not growing sugar cane so it's an industrial area.

This fellow handed us each a lei of seashells and we had our picture taken.

 Once everyone got there and the food was ready this fellow blew the conch shell to signal the beginning of the luau.

We followed the torch bearer to the underground pits where our dinner had been cooking and these fellows scraped the leaves and coals away to remove the meat that had been cooking for several hours.

The meat in the front right is the meat from the ovens.  Left front is some other meat and fish.  The stuff in the beige container on the top left looked like gummy worms, but the bus driver had told us to try it.  He said it would taste like chicken soup without the broth...he was right and it was very tasty!!  Top center and right is a bun, some fruit and some salad.  The little white cup with purplish stuff in it is poi.  Poi is made from the taro root and was a mainstay of the Hawaiian diet for many years.  The bus driver told us it tastes like wallpaper paste...he wasn't far off...it did have an odd mild taste.  Apparently it takes on the flavour of whatever you cook it with, so that's how many people us it today.  They had chocolate cake and the white squares are a firm jello-like dessert made from coconut milk...it was tasty. There was also a little cup with some preserved fish which was diced up really, really tiny and mixed with some tiny diced up vegetables with a very light dressing on it, but it didn't seem to get into the picture.

After dinner there were Polynesian dancers doing their native dances.  They told us Polynesia goes from the Hawaiian islands down into the South Pacific and includes New Zealand.  The dancers from each of these areas were similar but each country had their unique style and unique native costumes.

When we got back to the ship the fuel barge was tied up beside us and loading enough fuel to get us to Victoria and Vancouver. 

Honolulu

We arrived in Honolulu this morning.  We're docked at Pier 10 which is also known as Aloha Towers. The Coast Guard ship was docked across from us. Everyone aboard had to meet with US Customs officers, face to face and get a clearance paper to get off the ship. The procedure took awhile, but after getting clearance it was nice to get off the ship, walk out to the road and go exploring.  

 We found the Wal-Mart and Ross stores, but couldn't find an ABC store.  Last year we were in an area where there was an ABC store on every corner, so it seemed odd not to find one.

 Did find several interesting buildings though.

In one area they'd closed the street and made a nice walking area complete with fountains and plants.

 
In this area there were statues of young girls doing the Hulu dances....they were adorable.

Seder Dinner

There was a Rabbi (a woman), a Priest and a Pastor (both men) on board the ship.  They held several services during the cruise.  As it happened we were onboard for Passover, so the Rabbi announced in the daily bulletin that they would be holding a Seder Dinner on the Lido Deck (the buffet area) and that anyone would be welcome to attend, all you had to do was sign up at the office several days beforehand, so we did.  There was such a good turnout we took up one whole side of the Lido Deck!

The first picture is the Seder plate.  If you look closely (and upside down) you can see what each circle is to have on it.  Each of these things have specific meaning to the Jewish people and the celebration of Passover.

 Throughout the meal there were several readings from a book and several toasts of wine.  The Rabbi asked the Priest, the Pastor and several others to read different sections and of course there were sections the whole congregation read aloud together.

 The first course was....Fresh Iceberg Lettuce with Tomato and Cucumber (oil and vinegar dressing)

 Then we were asked to pour everyone a glass of wine and to put 10 drops of wine on our side plate.

 Next course...Gefilte Fish with Red Beet Horseradish (delicately poached white fish served with a red beet horseradish sauce)

 Between each course there are more readings and toasting with wine.  This course was  Chicken Matzah Ball Soup (a traditional soup of savory chicken broth with handmade matzah dumplings).

 Then Roasted Chicken (beautifully roasted Empire chicken served with carrot, sweet potato and prune tzimmes, asparagus with lemon and potato kugel)

For dessert we were served Fruit Salad with Cinnamon Sugar Sauce-Parve (fresh fruit marinated in a sweet cinnamon sugar sauce) and Hazelnut and Coconut Macaroons-Parve (a sweet way to end your meal). 

The whole procedure took over 3 1/2 hours and the Macaroons got served late...almost like an afterthought, but it was very interesting and enlightening.  The cooks and waiters did a superb job considering they don't do this very often and there were so many people to serve.
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did some research and came up with this info:

tzimmes....a Jewish stew of sweetened vegetables or vegetables and fruit, sometimes with meat

Empire chicken....Kosher, Empire is an American company that raises it'sfree range chickens without
              antibiotics or hormones.  A team of 65 Rabbis oversee the kosher slaughter process.

potato kugel....Jewish dish of potato and onion baked together

Parve....Jewish...having no meat or milk in any form as an ingredient and being permissible for use with both meat and dairy meals as stated in the dietary laws.

10 drops of wine....represent the 10 plagues...blood, frogs, vermin, beasts, cattle disease, boils, hail,
            locusts, darkness, slaying of the first born.

Keeping us Busy

We have five full sea days between Pago Pago and Hawaii, and another 5 sea days to Victoria, but there is so much going on you don't get a chance to be bored.  There were movies, lectures, cooking demos, games, craft classes, etc., but you could also go swimming, have a sauna or hot tub, read or just laze around.  Two of my favorite things to do were going to the tech classes on Windows 10 and go to the jewellery talks.

I went to talks on chocolate diamonds, black pearls, tanzanite, Australian Opals and Faberge Eggs.  Sometimes after the talks they'd have drawings for a door prize.  I kept entering but never won until I went to the Opal talk, then they drew my name and I got an opal pendant!!  It would have been exceptionally nice if they would have had a draw at the Faberge Egg talk, but those things are worth a fortune, so guess they couldn't afford it!!!  I've often read about them in novels but I was totally thrilled to actually get a chance to see them...couldn't touch them because they're worth thousands of dollars each, so they were behind locked glass doors.

 This is the pendant I won!!!!  I tried to buy some earrings to match but didn't care for the ones they had there.  The girl suggested I wear silver earrings with it.