Cruise photos

I have been wanting to share a few cruise photos with you all since we returned but I have had a difficult time getting to it.

 Waiting to board the plane to Ft. Lauderdale

We had such an amazing time on the cruise I can't even tell you. It is painful to even think about it because I never wanted to get off the ship to begin with and everyday I wish we were still on it! We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale the day before our cruise left and we were excited to meet Barb and Dennis at the hotel. We hung out in Ft. Lauderdale for a day had a fun dinner and went for a short walk on the beach.

Relaxing at the hotel pool in Ft. Lauderdale

Playing a ring game at the restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale (Leo was able to land the ring on the hook three times--better than anyone else!)

Saturday morning between 10-11am we took a shuttle to our cruise port. We were on the Eurodam on the Holland America Cruise line. We went through the registration requirements on land and then they gave us our ship cards and the okay to board the ship. We were all so excited and had no idea what to expect (except Barb and Dennis who are master cruisers now).

During registration waiting for our number to be called to get on board!

Finally! Us on board the ship!

 Our room, the door is at the very end, the bathroom is opposite the closets

 Our room with the balcony behind Leo and I and the pull out bed.

On our decks! Still docked in Ft. Lauderdale.

We had 3 rooms right next to each other and they opened our decks so that we could move between them. Every morning we would order our first course of breakfast delivered to our rooms which often included croissants, pastries, bagels, maybe cereal or bacon. Later we would have our second breakfast course in one of the many dining areas and there were would have muesli, fruit, bacon, sausage, eggs, omelets, waffles, really whatever we wanted! Oh, the life!

We got on board the ship around noon but we didn't leave port until about 4pm so we walked around and explored the ship!

 Deck 3. You could walk all the way around deck 3. Cindy and I walked around it 6 times = 2 miles!

Piano Bar and orchestra playing before we left Port in Ft. Lauderdale. It kind of reminded me of Titanic but I soon forgot about that!

Adult swimming pool at the stern or the back of the boat. Cindy and I sunbathed here one day when we were at sea all day.

 At the adult pool

Leo ordering his first round of drinks up in the Crows Nest bar. He got a virgin strawberry daiquiri and Aidan got a banana daiquiri. 

We spent a lot of time hanging out in the Crows Nest bar playing games, trying the drink of the day, listening to live music, or just hanging out.

Next post: our first stop Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

Delay, delay, delay

Well my flight was cancelled and the only flight out was tomorrow night. Sucks!

Ethan and grandpa Russ will get to DC before me.

I'll let you know when I get home.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cape Coast

Before I get into Cape Coast I have poopy news! My flight to DC has been delayed by 13 hours! Barf. I hate it. I'm so sad I am not going home this evening. I was SO excited to go home. So now I am supposed to get home at 6:45 pm. I was to arrive in DC at 5:45am tomorrow.

Now to Cape Coast...

(Elmina Castle from the Road Leading to the Town of Elmina)

(Inside the Castle)

Yesterday I travelled to the University of Cape Coast to conduct a few interviews. We left the hotel at 6:30am. Like the rest of my trip, the interviews (that I scheduled at least three weeks ahead of time) were delayed rescheduled, blah, blah, blah.

(this is where they chained slaves for punishment in the Sun)

So instead of waiting for an hour and half (and what turned out to be longer) in a small, hot office where the air conditioning barely worked, the driver took me to Elmina Castle. Elimina is an old Castle that was a trading post erected by the Portuguese. It later turned into a castle where slaves were traded. The conditions were dispicable and unimaginable. The driver (Alex-who is the absolute best--he and Isaac) walked me around and told me a little bit about the Castle.

 (If you look closely it is ALL people. I'm not sure I have seen anything so crowded!)

Elmina is also an area where the fishermen come to unload their catches and sell their fish. It is so incredibly packed. The boats are all wooden. There were some expert carpenters making the boats on the beach. I wonder how long it would take to make one boat? Everything takes so long here. You see half built buildings deserted and you wonder when was the last time someone came to work on the building.

Anyhoo...we left late to return and I didn't get back to the hotel until close to 8pm. I had to still do work because I had my final out brief for two different projects I'm working on. So I stayed up late and got up early to try to finish my write-ups. It was a bit miserable but I guess worth it because today went fine.

I'm ready to go...not really because I haven't packed yet but I'm eating dinner in the hotel lobby of spiced chicken and jollof rice again. Keep your fingers crossed my dinner agrees with me.

I miss my family SO much!

Sunday 6:30 pm downpour

I was in the hotel lobby working and I decided to pack up and go back to my room. I walked out the door and it was a downpour. ☔D-O-W-N-P-O-U-R!☔

Needless to say I walked right back into the lobby and I'm waiting for it to stop!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday at the Pool

Today is Saturday, March 24th and my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Ma! I went to bed last night at about 11pm and woke up this morning at 9:10am. That is the longest I have slept in a long, long time. I guess my body was really tired. I probably could have slept longer because the reason I got up was from a knock at my door to clean my room. I forgot to put the "do not disturb" sign on my door. Duh! I was actually glad she woke me up because I might have missed breakfast.

Breakfast for me was just a lot of bread products because my stomach has been hurting since about 8pm last night. I'm okay just ate something that didn't agree with me. I'm drinking lots of water so I don't get dehydrated if you know what I mean. Lunch was also a Clif Bar because I was nervous to eat anything else. I brought Clif and Luna bars to eat every day :)

This morning there was a bride and groom taking pictures around the hotel. It was neat. The bride was amazing in a typicaly wedding dress and the mom (I think) was dressed in this beautiful African Dress with a big, beautiful head piece. I wish I had my camera. I wanted to sneak a pic.:)

I went to the pool today and did a little reading and work. It was nice. The pool is really beautiful. Here is a pic (at Becs' request):

As I was sitting by the pool I was thinking how disappointing it was that there are no lizards here. At the last hotel I stayed at (La Palm) I saw several walking around the pool. Not to be out done by the La Palm lizards, a Labadi Beach lizard showed it's face as I was leaving the pool.

Tonight I have been invited to have dinner at a work colleague's house. She invited me over at 6pm and I plan to take a cab. Don't worry Ma, I asked the driver who has been taking me around during the work week if it was safe and he said "yes" and it should cost about $3.

My hotel has it's own private area on the beach as well. It's actually pretty nice. There is a bit more litter than I care to see but its not too bad and there are little sand colored crabs running around on the beach...like the ones we saw at Virginia Beach.

Tomorrow I plan to work more - maybe go to the pool and maybe tomorrow I will go to Global Mamas, the shop Rebecca recommended. Even if I don't go tomorrow I will definately go sometime next week. On Thursday, I am going to Cape Coast to visit staff at the University and I think there is a shop their too.

That's about it for Saturday. Still looking forward to getting home!

In Ghana (yes, again)

So my Ma asked if I would blog while I was away and I couldn't refuse. I know she is less interested in what I am doing than just wanting to know that I am safe. How could I refuse that?

So I left DC yesterday Tuesday, March 20 at 11pm (EST) and arrived in Accra, Ghana at 2:30pm (Ghana time) on Wednesday, March 21. As most of you know we just arrived home on Sunday morning from a week long cruise in the Caribbean which was too fab! Yes, I am a little crazy. I will try to put some pictures on the blog of our trip when I get home. Anyhoo, I had enough miles to upgrade my ticket to business class which made my trip a bazillion times betters. There really aren't words to describe how much better business class is on an overnight 12 hour plane ride. It's just so much more civilized. I could actually recline to sleeping position and slept about 6 hours on the plane. I NEVER sleep on planes. I'm dreading the plane ride home because I don't have enough miles to upgrade on the way back. Boo, sad.

It's 90 degrees here and humid. They will start their rainy season in about a month. The hotel I'm staying at is nice but I haven't really got to explore yet because I have so much darn work to do. I ate dinner in my room: grilled spicy chicken with jollof rice and have been working since I got here. The power went out while I was eating for about 40 seconds and went off while I typing but this time it was out for about 20-30 minutes. Ugh! I hate that part.

I have to say...getting a little tired of the work trips, especially the international travel. Not sure what i'm going to do about that right now. My poor little guys were in tears when I left. I miss them so much too (and my big guy).

Here is my room:

 

Bathroom

 Room 1

 Room 2

It is a much, much nicer room than the hotel I stayed at last time.

Good night!

Addicted to two new TV shows

For Christmas I got the Nook Tablet. I love it so far. I got it as an early Christmas present so that I could take it on my trip to Africa. In Africa, I primarily used it as a reader. I finished The Book Thief which I highly recommend and started to reread the Twilight books. I know, I know...but sometimes you just want a book you can breeze through without thinking, especially on an airplane.

Yesterday, I started playing a little bit more with the Netflix streaming and put a few shows in my instant queue:
Coupling (a British comedy they tried to make in the US but it flopped-it definately was not "the next friends")
My Boys (an American comedy, started in 2006, that didn't do great but I really like it)
Gavin and Stacey (a British comedy that Thotlady turned me on to...really funny...like a cross between Friends and Absolutely Fabulous--not sure if Thotlady would agree)

The other show that I added which I have never watched before is Vampire Diaries. I started with the first episode of season one last night. I am not into Vampires. Sure, I love the Twilight trilogy but that is pretty much the extent of my Vampire show watching. I don't watch movies about Vampires (unless it includes Vampires with the last name of Cullen) or TV shows (no Buffy for me) but I've heard this series was good so I decided to try it.

I'm addicted. But I'm also afraid. Most people who know me from when I was young know that I am a bit of a fraidy cat. I never watched scarey movies with my mom and Heather. Never read scarey books. Sorry Mom, I will never read a Steven King novel. So when I started watching Vampire Diaries last night after the kids went to bed, I watched two episodes and got a little scared and had to turn it off even though I was so tempted to continue. I had to watch Coupling and My Boys to lower my anxiety but I'm still hooked! I'm still a little scared but totally hooked!

At the same time, Aidan and Jason got hooked on a new TV show too. You'll never guess what it is. Wait for it....wait for it...

Finding Bigfoot (on Animal Planet)

They are totally addicted too. I think it might scare Aidan a little but he still wants to watch it. It's like he knows he shouldn't but he can't stop. It is a show about people who search all over the US for Bigfoot. Jason loves Animal Planet so of course he loves it too. I think it's hilarious and they don't like it when I tease them about the existence of Bigfoot, the sounds apparently Bigfoot makes, or the clues that lead people to believe he exists. Ha!

So I wanted to know what you think about Vampires and Bigfoot. Check out the two polls on the right of the blog.

P.S. If you're wondering about Leo, he's not into Bigfoot or Vampires. He loves Wii Go Vacation. He's been snowmobiling, expanding his Villa, skateboarding, snowboarding and exploring.