Packer Cruise: Day Two

Not a very eventful day today, except for the "Packer Service" this morning. There was no Mass onboard, so Travalon and I went to this service, which was very evangelical with people singing songs we had never heard of. LeRoy Butler did talk about his faith journey, which was interesting, but I could have done without the rest of it. I have a feeling Travalon may never complain about going to Mass again! Afterwards he went to soak in one of the on-deck hot tubs while I competed in sudoku and trivia tournaments with strangers; we came in second, but there is no prize for second place on this ship. I also prayed a rosary in the ship's chapel, which is very nice and would have been a wonderful spot for a Mass. (Hint, hint, Royal Caribbean.) So far there have been two weddings there, but the service we went to was in an auditorium. After lunch we sat on our balcony as I played the ukulele, then we played miniature golf and ping pong, swam, and soaked in the hot tub. Tonight there was a Q&A with current Packers, which was very interesting, but we had to leave partway through to get to dinner, which was formal tonight. We ended with a drink at the highest level bar; I asked for the driest red wine they had, and they gave me something Spanish that was wonderful.

Just a few pictures from today. First is the artwork right across from our door, which seems appropriate because there appears to be a bright yellow ukulele.

Here are Brett Hundley and Blake Martinez waiting for Ha Ha Clinton-Dix to show up so they can start the Q&A session.

Finally, a shot of the deck from the bar we were at this evening. I think this is the kiddie pool, since it is shallow and brightly colored, but honestly I see very few people of any age in this one. They tend to hang out in the other two, or in the case of the obnoxious drunken college students on spring break, in all the hot tubs. It is very hard to find one not infested with them, taking selfies and throwing limes from their adult drinks at each other.

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Packer Cruise: Day One

This morning Travalon and I walked through the subtropical paradise of southern Florida about a mile to get some coffee, then we got in the car and drove to Fort Lauderdale. We parked and took the shuttle, and a guy on the shuttle informed us that the Packer Backers were only about one-sixth of the people on the ship. Here we thought the entire cruise was going to be our people! As always, there was a long line for check-in, but it went quickly, and soon we were eating lunch while gazing out at palm trees, turquoise water, and sailboats. We had to be present for the muster, and Lynn Dickey was right next to us so I got to shake his hand! After that there was a party up on the main deck, and we got to meet Paul Coffman, James Lofton, and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, and we saw Dorsey Levens but didn't meet him. Apparently there are 700 of us Packer Backers on this cruise! Travalon and I enjoyed our balcony, and I played the ukulele as we sat out there watching the boat leave Fort Lauderdale. The one thing about this cruise that didn't occur to either of us is that, since it is during Spring Break time, there are a ton of really obnoxious college kids on it. We weren't expecting that - back when we went to college, nobody could afford to take a cruise! We explored the ship, which has a lovely chapel but unfortunately no Mass tomorrow. I guess there is a non-denominational service with the Packer players tomorrow morning that I will try to attend. At dinner we sat with a lovely couple from a town about forty minutes east of us. Now I am blogging while Travalon is exploring more. Right now it is raining and lightning out, but the sea doesn't seem too rough. Hopefully that continues to be true...

Here are some pictures from the town we were staying in, I believe it was called Lake Worth. First are three different colors of bougainvillea. They had them everywhere there!

Next, some lovely golden bromeliads.

And some cute cacti!

Behold the colorful town hall of Lake Worth.

This was our view at lunchtime. I could get used to this!

Here are pictures of Travalon with two former Packers: Paul Coffman and James Lofton.

And here I am with Ha Ha Clinton-Dix!

I also made a short movie of the reggae band that greeted us as we boarded the ship, but then I read that we are not supposed to make videos of the performers. So you'll just have to imagine three Jamaican guys in yellow shirts playing reggae.

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Southbound Road Trip: Day Three

Today we drove through most of Florida, which is a very long state. We stopped at the Stephen Foster Museum and saw dioramas of his popular songs and also a piano with a very strange keyboard. There was supposed to be a carillon concert at noon, and we got there just in time to hear it, but then they informed us that the carillon wasn't working. At least the blooming azaleas were gorgeous. We also saw the Suwannee River; the roadsigns for it all had the first few bars of music from the famous song on them, but unfortunately there was no safe place to pull off and take a picture of this for you. We had lunch at Sonny's Bar-B-Q, another Southern chain, and they didn't have catfish on the menu but they did serve it to us. What a relief, because on a Lenten Friday there wasn't really anything else on the menu that we could eat. We drove to St. Augustine and spent a couple of hours looking around the city; we got there too late to tour the old fort, but we did walk around it, and we discovered an Eastern Orthodox shrine to St. Photius on one of the old streets. The Basilica was shut for a private event when we first got there, but they opened at six for Stations of the Cross, and they use the same booklet we do back home! St. Augustine is a very touristy place with lots of boutiques like they have in Galena. We walked around the campus of Flagler College, which has the same beautiful Spanish architecture, and their carillon played some music for us - it even played "Michelle" by the Beatles! But no Stephen Foster songs. Then we drove forever to get to the southern part of the state. Now we are near Fort Lauderdale. Tomorrow we get on the ship!

Here are some pictures from today. This is the piano with the weird keyboard, invented by a Hungarian, that was at the Stephen Foster Museum.

The azaleas were so beautiful in front of the trees dripping with Spanish moss.

The famous Suwannee River.

 The National Shrine of St. Photius.

The old fortress in St. Augustine.

The inside of the Basilica of St. Augustine.

This church was beautiful too. It is Presbyterian.

A couple of shots of beautiful Flagler College.

And finally, a movie of the Flagler College carillon, not playing "Michelle."

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Southbound Road Trip: Day Two

This morning we got caught in some rush hour traffic while heading into Nashville, but we got to the Johnny Cash Museum in the really cute part of downtown with all the music-related places. The Patsy Cline Museum was just upstairs but we had to forego it to save time and money. I will say the latte they made at their cafe was about the best one I've ever tasted, and the museum itself was very interesting. We got to see two actual Grammies! Then we hit the road and headed to Stones River National Battlefield because Travalon loves Civil War history. We walked around a bit there, then we had lunch at one of the thousands of Waffle Houses that dot the Southern landscape. (Seriously, we have seen two within a mile of each other several times on this trip!) Outside of Chattanooga we drove up a somewhat scary mountain road to Rock City. This tourist attraction is heavily advertised on barn roofs and billboards the whole way there, but it is totally worth seeing. It is beautiful rock formations planted with gardens, an overlook from which you can see seven states on a clear day (like we had today), and cute statues of fairy tale characters lit with black lights. I will warn my readers that the fear factor and strenuous factor are both moderate, if you are afraid of heights like I am. We had dinner at a Zaxby's, a fried chicken place where almost everything on the menu is over 1000 calories. (The Huddle House was like that too, and of course they were out of the three things that were a reasonable number of calories.) Southern chains are not really into offering healthier options, it seems. We drove past downtown Atlanta on the freeway, and the city lights are so beautiful there. Now we are in Cordele, Georgia - we had hoped to make it to Florida tonight, but we got stuck in rush hour traffic in Chattanooga and road construction in Macon, so that set us back. More soon!

Here are some pictures from today. First, when we woke up, it had snowed a little bit but the flowers are two months ahead of the ones back home, so I took this picture of a white blooming tree with the white snow on the ground under it.

This wall of single records was in the Johnny Cash Museum.

The Waffle House we had lunch at had its own jukebox.

Next are some pictures from Rock City: lights in a cave, Hansel and Gretel, a waterfall dyed green for "Sham-Rock City" celebrations, one of the many stone bridges we crossed over, and Travalon at the outlook from which you can see seven states (Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama).

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Southbound Road Trip: Day One

Today is the first day of our road trip to Florida, where we will get on the Packer cruise. We left early this morning and had a fairly uneventful trip through the northern half of Illinois. We had lunch at the Bob Evans in Bloomington, since you can't find that restaurant in Wisconsin. We stopped at Clinton Lake State Park for a hike and got on a smaller highway that was far more interesting than the freeway. We drove on a bridge over Clinton Lake and then passed through a number of small towns, then we got back on the freeway and took another hiking break at Wayne Fitzgerrell State Park on the shores of Rend Lake. It had been very windy at Clinton Lake, but it was much more pleasant by Rend Lake, and we saw lots of deer, some blooming daffodils, some curly grass, and a flock of large, beautiful birds flying in eerie silence above us. They made such beautiful patterns that I made two short movies of them. We stopped in Metropolis and saw the giant statue of Superman, and we had dinner at the Huddle House, since that restaurant is only in the South. The downtown of Metropolis was surprisingly dead for 7:15 in the evening. Now we are just outside of Nashville. More updates to come.

Here are a couple of pictures from today: the curly grass by Rend Lake and the giant Superman statue in Metropolis.

And here is a short movie of the beautiful birds flying. They were very large and white with black wings and long necks, and I think they might have been cranes except cranes are usually quite loud, and these birds were completely silent. Anyone know what they are?

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Snoopy Drive-In

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Travalon and I had a pretty mellow one, since he had a cold. Saturday I cleaned, since I hadn’t on Friday, and then Richard Bonomo stopped by. We had three tech questions for him: why didn’t our DVD cleaner work, why didn’t our vacuum work, and could we get the Snoopy Drive-In to work? Rich took care of the first two questions in short order. The third one was more problematic; I had asked Travalon what his favorite toy had been, and he said the Snoopy Drive-In, which inspired him to order a used one from eBay. When it came, the battery contacts were so corroded that it didn’t work. Travalon got some Naval Jelly, and I tried to clean them but didn’t make much progress. Rich thought we could do a workaround, but he didn’t have time to look into it that day. He went to pick up Kathbert, and we all met at Mr. Why’s grave for the ninth anniversary of his unfortunate death. Then I talked Travalon into going to a mysterious restaurant for lunch; it is a little Quonset hut on Regent Street that just says “Food.” Once we entered it, we realized it was Noosh, the restaurant that used to be where McGee’s is now that we had never gotten to try. Despite its humble appearance, the food is really good. Then we took a walk at Olbrich Garden, another in Yahara Park, and another along the canal from Tenney Park. We stopped into the Parched Eagle for a game of Klask, then we made dinner at home and Travalon watched movies while I went to see a bluegrass band at the Chocolaterian.

Yesterday Travalon went to visit his family, while I went to some friends’ house for brunch after Mass. Rich, Travalon, and I went for a hike on the boardwalk in McFarland, and we ran into one of Rich’s former housemates. Then we went to the hardware store and got some cheap supplies to try to fix the Snoopy Drive-In. We went to Rich’s house, and he got the Snoopy Drive-In to work! We watched a little movie of the Peanuts characters skateboarding and jump roping, and Travalon demonstrated how you could make it go faster or slower or even backwards. It was jerry-rigged but Rich said he can probably come up with a permanent solution. Travalon and I were starving, but we couldn’t talk Rich into letting us take him to dinner to thank him. We went to Rockhound Brewery and had a delicious dinner to end our low-key weekend.

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The Panda Family

Happy March! Wednesday evening I went over to Light Bright's house, bringing plant cuttings for us to plant after dinner because her two-year-old, Corban, loves plants. Light Bright is on some sort of diet where she has to eat sixteen ounces of vegetables at dinner, so our dinner was a huge salad with just eggs on it. Then we planted the cuttings with Corban, who is super cute. After he went to bed, Light Bright suggested we have some crab dip and herb crackers, since - let's face it - a bunch of spinach and beets does not exactly fill a person up. Then we had deep, spiritual conversation.

Today I slept really late and didn't have time to clean before having to take my car in for its oil change. Travalon and I went for a walk on the boardwalk in McFarland, but he has a bad cold so we didn't go the whole way. Then we went to the zoo and spent a long time watching the red pandas. In the evening we went to the Mallards' duck blind for their fish fry. We had a great view of the field, and as darkness fell, the field was lit up with neon lights. The fried bluegill and potato pancakes were delicious, and there was a guy playing the guitar and singing classic rock songs. We had a great time, but poor Travalon was not feeling too well so we didn't stay too long.

Here are some pictures from today. First are some shots of me in front of flowers. They say the big thing now is to go to Hobby Lobby and take pictures in the fake flower aisle, and we were right next to Hobby Lobby, but in fact we were in Shopko. I took a selfie and Travalon took a picture of me, so you can decide for yourselves which you like better.

 Next are some pictures from our trip to the zoo.

In the zoo gift shop we found some more stuffed red pandas, so Travalon got a big one and a really small one, and he said they were Randy and Andy's mother and little sister, Mandy and Candi. I suggested the little sister be named Shandi instead, and he went with that. Travalon is going to write their story, and then I will post it on this blog. Here they are: Shandi, Andy, Randy, and Mandy!

I also made a movie at the zoo, of a bittern standing on the path and whistling:

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