Harley

The Ladies Care Group I go to decided to have a pot luck luncheon before we quit for the Christmas Holidays and that each of us should buy a nice mug and we would play a game and do a gift exchange.  Everyone would end up with a mug and we'd leave them at the church so we could use them every time our group meets.  Last Thursday one mug was missing...Harley couldn't be found!!!  Who absconded with him???  His owner was beside herself with worry!!!

At last...Harley was found!!!

First Earthquake in our new house

Dec. 29 about 11:40pm B and I were having a drink and in a pretty heavy discussion when the house shook like a big tree had fallen close by or a couple of big trucks had collided  nearby or a plane crashed at a nearby airport....dishes rattled, then I realized it was an earthquake!  4.9 earthquake centered not far from Victoria, British Columbia.  When we lived in Queensborough, earthquakes always felt more "rolling" like a wave...this was more of a THUD, followed by a bit of shaking....so, quite a different feeling.  Scared the heck out of us!!!  Went outside to check things out...the stars were so clear and bright....just beautiful and everything seemed so peaceful.  Now we hear that there was an earthquake near San Bernardino, California a couple hours earlier...still waiting for more updates.

Halloween

Last year was our first Halloween in our new home but we didn't get any little trick and treaters come to the door.  Felt quite cheated, but reasoned that since there are only houses that are close together and not so far from the road on one side of our street, we figured they'd go into the subdivision so they could cover more houses...and of course get more candy. 

This year we bought candy...just in case...and furthermore hubby said, "if no one comes we can eat it!"  I was so delighted when a knock came to the door and the familiar, "Halloween Handouts...trick or treat".  Three little munchkins were there.  A little while later more came, then later some "older" munchkins arrived....they had huge bags that were filled with so much candy, we were wondering if they would eat so much they'd be sick???  Altogether we had about 10 or 12, which wasn't a lot, but it definitely did feel more like Halloween!!!

Selling Gold

Last week or so we received a card in the mail saying that a company was coming to our area and they would buy any gold, sterling silver, old hockey cards, old coins...that sort of thing.  The card also said they pay better than other companies...true or not...who knows????  Anyway I didn't have much time to sort through stuff but we did have some stuff hubby found with his metal detector a few years ago.  There was a broken up, squashed ring, a small bent up gold band and one earring and a couple other things.  We weren't busy Friday afternoon and that day the sale was stationed at the hotel in the local casino, so off we went.  We were told a couple of the things weren't gold, but the 2 rings and earrings were and they said they'd pay us $90 for them.  We hadn't expected that much so thought it was a good price, so we took it.  Went down to the casino and I won a 2 for 1 buffet (to be used at a later date), then we played the slots and I was up $10.  Hubby was down $15 or so but then played another machine and won enough that he was only down $2...not too shabby for a afternoon's entertainment!!!!  Now I'm going to be looking through some old coins to take the next time they're in town. You sometimes hear of people finding an old original painting in their attic.  Wouldn't it be nice to find a real treasure??? 

Blood Moon

We were camped at our park in Birch Bay and I managed to get these pictures of the Blood Moon/Eclipse of the moon.  I really had to zoom in on it so that's why it's blurry.  Overall, I thought it was pretty good for my little "aim and shoot" camera... Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the full moon after the eclipse was finished, but the moon was really big and bright!!

 

Our Stateroom

Here are some pics of our stateroom.  We always book the lowest inside cabin as close to the center of the ship as possible...that way if the seas are rough, there's not so much "rocking and rolling" in our cabin.  Cabins are quite small, but I was amazed at the amount of closet and storage space and the safe was easy to program and use.  The room wasn't as yellow as the pictures indicate...the closet is a better image of the colour.  One of the channels on the TV was a "bridge cam" so we could see where the ship was going and what the weather was like.  Another station had the "report from the bridge" telling you the distance sailed from embarkation, or the last port, air temperature, sea temperature, sea condition (rough, moderate, slight, or calm)...all that sort of fun stuff.

Because this is Princess' 50th anniversary they had a TV station with all the re-runs of the "Love Boat" on it.  There were also TV stations with news and movies on them.

From San Francisco to Hawaii, Ensenada and back to San Francisco we travelled 5448.3 nautical miles = 6066.2 statute miles = 9769,3 kilometers.  From San Francisco to Vancouver is an additional 862.5 nautical miles.  We were on board the ship for 17 nights.

correction

It was the end of April that we were in San Francisco.