"Not all those who wander are lost..."
22 September 2012
The wonderful world of Jimmy, starting 2 March 2012
22 December 2009
Lunchtime...
Molly threw the card away for me and helped me to laugh, rather than cry, over it.
I'll be eating my sandwich and drinking my Pepsi at my desk today.
15 December 2009
"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...
Brown paper packages tied up with strings;
These are a few of my favorite things..."
Ryan, in his sweet kilt
17 November 2009
Panama canal
Excavation marks on the canal wall.
A Panama City Fire Training facility. :)
The bridge of the Americas
Since opening, the canal has been enormously successful, and continues to be a key conduit for international maritime trade. The canal can accommodate vessels from small private yachts up to large commercial vessels. The maximum size of vessel that can use the canal is known as Panamax; an increasing number of modern ships exceed this limit, and are known as post-Panamax or super-Panamax vessels. A typical passage through the canal by a cargo ship takes approximately 8–10 hours. In fiscal year 2008, 14,702 vessels passed through the waterway with a total 309.6 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons.
While the Pacific Ocean is west of the isthmus and the Atlantic to the east, the journey through the canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic is one from southeast to northwest. This is a result of the isthmus's "curving back on itself" in the region of the canal. The Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific end is about a third of a degree of longitude east of the end near Colon on the Atlantic.[2] An estimated 14,000 ships pass through the canal each year. Only 1,000 ships per year passed through the canal at its beginnings.
She was authorized on 13 September 2002 and is scheduled to be built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. The keel was laid on 4 October 2006 at the company's shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
On 26 January 2008, Dewey was christened in a ceremony in Pascagoula, by Deborah Mullen, the wife of Admiral Mike Mullen. Dewey is set to be commissioned in 2010, as the 55th Arleigh Burke class destroyer.
16 November 2009
15 November 2009
Post Costa Rica walk
Both of us
Costa Rica
M.S. Serenade of the Seas
It was a GREAT ship!
They have a lot of facilities on board, they certainly keep you entertained while on board.
They have:
A rock wall
A mini golf course
A dance club
15 bars
8 cafeterias
3 swimming pools (1 waterslide)
An Art gallery
Fitness Center
Spa Center
Solarium
Arcade
Basketball court
Cinema
Stage Theater (with a show each night – my favorite was the magician Nick Lewin)
Casino
On-board shops
Internet areas (the ship hosts wireless internet connectivity at a charge of 55¢ per minute in most public spaces.)
A Library
Beauty Salon
Jogging Track
Golf simulator
3 big whirlpools
Ship info:
Serenade of the Seas was built at Meyerwerft Yard in Papenburg, Germany and completed her maiden voyage on August 25, 2003. The ship is 294 m (965 feet) long, 32.3 m (106 feet) wide, has a 8.5 m (28 feet) draft, and has a cruising speed of 25 knots (46.3 km/h). There are 12 passenger decks, serviced by 9 passenger elevators (6 of which are glass and either look over the Centrum atrium or outside the ship through a glass wall). The ship holds 2,490 guests and 891 crew. It is powered by two smokeless gas turbines, each able to produce up to 25.25 MW (33,860 HP) of power. There are a total of 1,055 staterooms aboard, 829 of which are ocean view, 589 of those have balconies.
****Interesting Side Note: We were on the Serenades 300th voyage, the last night there they had a sort of birthday party for the ship, with cake for us. J
We made it back!
Our trip was great!
We went to:
San Diego
Sea Day
Cabo San Lucas, The United Mexican States
Sea Day
Acapulco, The United Mexican States
Sea Day
Huatulco, The United Mexican States
Sea Day
Puntarenas, Republic of Costa Rica
Sea Day
Panama Canal / Colon / Cristobal Pier, Republic of Panama
Sea Day
Oranjestad, Aruba
Sea Day
San Juan, Puerto Rico and travel home
Pictures and videos will follow.
-Ryan
04 September 2009
Hankies
Yes. Hankies.
My Grandma McGuire is a hankie user and always has one or two stashed in her purse or pocket. She buys most of her hankies at garage sales for less than $1, and they all have pretty vintage patterns printed on the fabric. I find garage sales to be very dangerous places for me to frequent with cash in my pockets. I have neither the space nor the funds for that hobby.
I have found a few hankies at local antique stores, but I have a difficult time justifying spending $5-6/hankie when I know my Grandma spends so much less. Department stores sell men's hankies, but I have yet to find women's hankies in similar places. Why is this?
I have managed to find a few online places that sell hankies. A while ago I even bought some from the Moda Home site. I actually use them everyday. I love the vintage designs.
A few other hankie sites I've found online are:
Hank and Cheef - http://hankandcheef.com/shop.html
Hankettes - http://www.hankettes.com/qs/category/8/148/0/0
I haven't purchased hankies from either website, but I am thinking about it.
What kind of fabric would one use to make their own hankies?
26 August 2009
It's been a while...
04 August 2009
Tomatin Distillery, Loch Ness and Ruthven Barracks
We then continued to drive North to Inverness. We parked about a floppity-jillion miles from the city center and walked in (upside: free parking and a little exercise). We stumbled across this little park-thing with an island in the middle of the river. It was really pretty. Ryan took a video. I took pictures. We liked it.
In city center, we went to a (free) museum documenting the history of Scotland and the Inverness area. It was fascinating.
Ryan's aunt and uncle, Nancy and Pat, gave him (thank you so much! we had a great time!!) two tickets for a Loch Ness tour. The tour actually started by bus as we drove from the city center to the Loch. The driver, Kenny, gave a fact-filled monologue on the history of Inverness in a deep Scottish brogue (regurgitated below, as I remember it... sorry for any inaccuracies!).
The second leg of the tour was by boat, on Loch Ness. The views were amazing; we could see a rain storm moving in from the South over Loch Ness, and the curtain of mist that proceeded it, while a clear blue sky shined behind us in the North.
The third leg of the tour was an hour free time at Urquhart Castle. That was my favorite part of the day. The castle is in ruins, and the land surrounding it is incredibly green. I wish I could use words or photographs to describe how beautiful it is.The fourth (and final) leg of the tour was a history-packed drive from the castle back to Inverness, narrated once again by our dear guide, Kenny.
On our return trip to Kingussie, we stopped at the ruins of the Ruthven Barracks, just one mile East of our guest house. As soon as we stepped out of the car, the skies opened and started to pour on us. We made the trek up the hill to the barracks anyway, and were really glad for it: the hill on which the old fort sits offers a beautiful view of the surrounding area. It was totally worth having to sit in soaking wet clothes through dinner (fish and chips again... yes, I ate fish... and I liked it!!).
Alors, the history lessons of today:
1. The world is very old.
2. So is Scotland.
3. Inverness and the surrounding area used to be full of Picts, but was officially "founded" in 560AD by Saint Columba, Inverness got a royal charter from King David I in the 1100s and became a city in 2001 (um, apparently we saw this charter at the Inverness museum today... I don't recall this, but Ryan says it is so, thus it must be so).
4. The current Inverness Castle is pretty new, having been built in 1836. It is currently being used as a court and sheriff's offices, serving much the same purpose for which it was built. I wanted a look-see around the building, but the only way in seemed like a bad idea.
5. Bonnie Prince Charlie was born in exile in 1720, but tried to stage a rebellion against the British throne for the Scottish throne (which he believed belonged to his father, who would have been James III of Scotland/James VIII of England and Ireland... he was declared king of England/Ireland/Scotland by his cousin, Louis XIV of France... those countries, however, recognized his siblings Mary (and her husband/cousin, William d'Orange) and Anne as heirs to the throne during that time due to speculation about a baby-switch at James' birth and the usual Catholic vs. Protestant problems).
6. Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite uprising failed in 1746 and following the Battle of Culloden he was forced into exile in France.
7. Bonnie Prince Charlie's commander, Lord George Murray**, tried to continue the rebellion after BPC's lame abandonment but the Jacobites were again defeated at Ruthven (1 mile from Allt Gynack).
8. Urquhart Castle (a stop on the Loch Ness tour) was given to the Grants by "the crown" in 1509, who owned it until 1912. The Macdonalds often attacked the castle, as did the Jacobites, though I'm not quite sure whether they were in cahoots with each other or not. The Grants (some relatives of the 18th president of the US, apparently) eventually destroyed their castle so as to keep the Jacobites/Macdonalds from using it.
9. The Macdonald Clan (a Irish-Norse hybrid of people) liked to invade and destroy. A lot. The local sept was eventually sent to the Carolinas by the king, but judging from where we ate our midday snack yesterday, I think they snuck back in...
10. The entire Loch Ness area (Inverness, the Moray Firth, Loch Ness) is situated directly above the most active fault line in the U.K. It is partially because of this that Loch Ness is so freakin' deep (~800 feet). This makes it a perfect hiding spot for Nessie, but alas, the Loch Ness Monster is probably a myth. It is sad, but true. Still, I wouldn't go swimming in that lake. Just in case.
I'm sorry this turned into a novel! Ryan will probably insist on being the blogger tomorrow! :) The babbling brook outside the window has turned into a raging river thanks to the torrential downpour earlier today. I am going to try to let it lull me into a deep and restful sleep. I hope you are all well! :)
~meg :)
PS-we have lots more videos but our internet connection is unfortunately a bit slow. I guess the weather can really affect the connectivity. Anyway, sorry about the lack of videos!
PPS-sorry about the weird spacing. I can't get anything centered the way I want it.
*Ryan said he read that the Tomatin Distillery was the first in Scotland to be Japanese-owned.
**Perhaps these Murrays of Atholl are ancestors of my McMurrays?? 1746 is a bit recent th