I returned from vacation to see a class was going on at work for CPR.  It's been half a life time since I took those classes, so I was disappointed to only get on the waiting list, but pleasantly surprised to see an opening mid-day yesterday.  I jumped in and managed to get into the class last night, so I am officially back up to speed.  I can't believe how much has changed in their instructions!  Perhaps I shouldn't wait another *cough* years for my next update.
 
Second night with a walk again last night.  I had to wait until it was dark just to get it cool enough to consider going.  The house was staying reasonably cool to the point I wasn't going to turn on the air just yet, but then...
 
Vixen wanted to stay out, and I granted her wish since there appeared to be no rain in sight for the night.  Just as I was cuddling up w/ Saf and the bedroom window open my eyes got a bit of a burn and I had to cough a bit.  Within seconds I could smell it - skunk.  Time to close the window and turn on the AC and to go see if it involved Vixen.  Sure enough, she's out there rubbing herself around on the grass.  For once, I think this one got away - thank goodness, I really didn't want to chase down a stinky corpse and pry it from the dog.  Needless to say, this morning Vixen took her breakfast on the deck and she will be none too pleased when it really heats up later today to be cast out from the air conditioned house.

Yesterday was truly a long day.  I am in the midst of things that when combined with being away has left me feeling quite inept and in the wroooong work.  Yes, it was one of those come home and cry for a little while days because I simply can't fathom doing all of this for another 30 years.  There are deadlines, ones my effort will never be good enough for (in my own opinion).

 

I took up a last minute invite to go see Avengers at Westwood last night, even though it wasn't high on my list.  I had watched Captain America while on the cruise, so I guess it makes sense to now see Avengers.  Meh.  At least it was a very welcome distraction.

So, today the repair man friends recommended called and scheduled to meet me over lunch for the washer.  Turns out it was a broken switch on the door, so that's repaired.  $130, not cheap, but not awful either, at least it's fixed... and because it was apart I was able to clean up under the lip of the washer and get all that gunk out.
 
From there I went to Wagner's to pick up the Durango and drop off the Tib.  Autumn looks beautiful all cleaned up and ready to rock.  I admit I was a bit nervous to pull out with her, but she feels better, way better than she did for the past year.  That bill with all of the fixes on the list, inspection, and whatnot was around $2200 - major ouch, but still less than a down payment on a new car, or at least so I tell myself to make it seem less painful.
 
They don't have the equipment to test the sensors on the Tib, but it turned out unnecessary anyhow as the sensor went out when I started it to head there.  Amusingly when I talked to them this morning he noted that if it was the gas cap as I first suspected it could take a couple of days for the sensor to turn back off... ta da!  Either way I left the Tib so the body shop can fix a few spots on the spoiler where the clear coat was too thin - something Davey T noted last summer when I had Drake detailed.
 
With all of that handled my list of issues is wiped clean - for now anyhow!  Back to work and reality today.  I'm struggling to get back up to speed and my brain is fighting it, c'mon old gal, you've got it in you.

Well, I'm back and unpacked... I guess it's time to catch the world up on my adventures.  I'll be dating the posts for each stop appropriately, so you'll see some older posts getting added below.  It's been quite the good vacation.  It didn't speed by, I feel like I've been gone for a month and a half - so much so I had a rather hard time remembering my work computer password last night.  I even survived cooking for myself today at lunchtime.  It's funny how fast you get to the point of spoiled where you realize you're hungry and think "rats... I can't just walk to a dining room and grab something".

Slept til 11ish today, definitely needed it.  My trip back was even longer than expected.  We left Barcelona at 10am on the 22nd, that went smoothly *it is my experience that all international flights are pretty good about being on time, unlike domestic flights which are a constant cluster frell*.  I slept a little on that flight and we got in on time.  Headed to our next gates and shortly there after a storm rolled up.  Now, they said the cancellations were all weather related, which gave them an out to be a-holes to us, but that was after they said my flight was initially delayed because my flight crew's aircraft in was diverted to another airport due to aircraft issues.

After cancellations they gave me the option to leave JFK (AA) and head to Laguardia, at my own expense - thanks assholes, to catch a flight on Delta.  I joined up w/ a few others to split the cost of a taxi and got to LGA just in time for THAT flight to also get cancelled.  I waited it out in the line and got slid into the last flight back to DCA that evening at 9pm, a full 5 hours after I was suppose to leave.  Now, keep in mind, because I switched airports I had to get my luggage and take it over there.  They of course wanted to charge me for a checked bag because my international flight was on AA, not Delta.  I was still tense waiting for it as other flights were cancelled from there and nothing left there until about 40 minutes before my flight was to load up.  I did eventually get on and we headed out, but my luggage did not.  How did they NOT get my luggage on there when it was w/ me and there more than 4 hours ahead of time?  Only like 10 bags came off of that aircraft.

Further, note that on my trip TO Barcelona my flight from DCA to JFK was also significantly delayed, so much so that when I arrived at JFK and had to go from one tip of the U shaped terminal to the other I had to RUN the whole way just to join the very tail end of the line of people walking onto the aircraft.  Dani's was tight too due to weather coming from DFW, but not quite as tight as mine.  Regardless, I made it by the skin of my teeth - and my luggage was, much to my surprise, there in Barcelona with me!

The Delta baggage folks at DCA were so confused that I wasn't staying there, and further so when I said "home" was in PA.  They did at least ship it to me, and it arrived darn near a full 24 hours after I got to DCA - in one piece, so that's an unexpected blessing.

Also before I left I didn't get the Durango back, I'll be waiting to hear that total bill tomorrow.  Better still, the day I was to leave I tossed two blankets into the washing machine.  When I returned from work they hadn't drained and rinsed out.  My washer is now on the blitz, I have two soaked heavy blankets, and need to get the hell out of here to drop off the girls and get to Kirkus'.  Ended up manually draining the washer and leaving the squeezed out blankets in the tub.  That boded for a rather stinky house, but it was my only real option and off I went.

Without the Durango, the Tib is now loaded with dog fur again.  *sigh*  I felt quite bad too as Vixen sure didn't want to stay at camp.  Poor kid.

Casa de Rex is a pretty nice pre-flight hotel:  comfy bed, freshly made chocolate chip cookies upon arrival, all the amenities.  He'd best be careful or I'll end up there every time!  As a result of my later than expected return adventures I ended up crashing there for a few short hours upon my return as well, before heading home just in time to get the girls bright and shiny Saturday morning.  They slept pretty much all day, and are still wiped out.  I'd imagine it's tough to sleep at the kennel w/ the other dogs barking and acting a fool.

We had a short day in Monte Carlo, Monaco today.  Before getting off the ship we met up with Kay and Tito for breakfast.  It was quite easy to get to the bus stop and buy a pass here.  I kind of wish we had a full day here as I felt rushed.  There isn't a ton in Monte Carlo, but the views are worth the time.  We stopped first at the Casino to get pictures out front and of Hotel Paris, then out over the water.

From there back on the bus we headed to the Jardin Exotique, arriving just minutes before it opened.  There was plenty to see here on the cliff-side gardens, but I don't think there was as much variety as I expected, just lots of similar cactii etc.  We stuck around to do the first tour of the caves there too, which was included.  I had to marvel that they don't lecture you to not touch things or break them off, and it looks like lots of people break things off.  250 steps down, at least this grotto was nice and cool!  As with most everything, it's so different than here in the US, there aren't rails on walk ways to protect you from your own idiocy and they don't bitch at you for touching/photographing etc.

Back on the bus we headed to the area of the Cathedral and palace... time didn't allow for us to find Princess Grace and Prince Rainier's graves, so we just headed straight to the palace for the exciting 2-minute changing of the guard.  Along the way we stopped briefly at the chocolate store and bought some evil delights - I think the delay by the horde of oriental travelers that inundated the place behind us is what did in us finding the graves.

Regardless from there we hopped back on the bus to the stop nearest the port and headed back on board for a shower and a nap for the girl - while I got packing.  Tonight's show was called circle of two and was by FAR our favorite even though it was a short show since it was the last one.  Long story short this guy comes out carrying what looks like a doll, but it's actually a woman, he just heaves her around with such ease!  He's trying to set up the little ballerina on the pedestal and this that and the other ensues.  Good stuff, I found myself smiling throughout.

Today we tendered at La Spezia, near Livorno - which is where we ported the last time in the Pisa/Florence area.  It is a bit further to Pisa/Florence than Livorno, so I opted for us to visit the villages of Cinque Terre.  We tendered in and took a ship tour.  I would have planned to visit them on my own, but with the mudslides last fall I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of what was in order.  Everything is VERY much so cleaned up and the villages are all very picturesque, but they pretty much all blend together, similar looking houses and a church in the middle.  Once again here they are all mixed up in my head.

We drove along the gulf, again windy tight roads and then arrived in Manarola, the second village, from where we walked along the lover's path to the first village, Vernazza.  It was quite a nice walk, but felt very rushed.  I am always reminded of why I hate ship tours once I'm back on one - 40-50 ppl, so rush rush rush, then stand around and wait for everyone to reconvene.

We then moved on to a ferry boat which took us to Monterosso where we got to taste a little pesto and some local wines then do some shopping and wandering around.  Back on the ferry we then road to Portovenere, pausing at a little cave where we saw some teenagers cliff diving.  BACK on another ferry (I was quite sick of these by the time we got back to the port and needed to tender back) to the port.

This was my last chance to find an Italy sweatshirt that wasn't for the futbol team, and I was successful despite the tourist shops not having much in the way of typical tourist items!  It is the one thing I had wished I had bought when I was there the last time.  I also purchased a small crystal heart shaped orange and red pendant at a store where we also bought little rose earrings for Dani.  Everywhere we went we indulged with a small snack - pastries or gellato, etc.

Unlike the last time I was in Rome, we were at a less busy spot in the port, we probably could have walked out easily, but instead took he free shuttle at 8am, which I also think was earlier than they started running the last time.  We made the earliest train we could and got off at the San Pietro station before 10.  This train was PACKED.  We walked to St. Peter's Square and I was surprised the lines weren't like the last time.  We moved pretty quickly inside St Peter's and had plenty of time to take it all in.  Snagged a couple of post cards, which I had already gotten postage for, and wrote them up quickly to mail from Vatican City before we headed for the Scavi tour.

You'd think it would be cool underground like that but it was not it was warm and humid, but it was easily mid-90's outside in Rome.  This was very far the neatest thing we did... The history given to us was awesome, I had not realized that St Peter's bones were truly found right there where the Vatican sits, and we were even able to see the container where they're housed from a bit of a distance.  As you move up into the grottos you can see where all of the popes are laid to rest.  VERY VERY cool... Dani enjoyed the church as well.

From there we walked around the wall to the Museum.  I'll admit, if we could have I probably would have cut through to get to the Sistine chapel and not spend much time in the Vatican museums, but in retrospect I am very glad there isn't a shortcut.  There is so very much there.  We didn't go slowly by any stretch, but it still took quite a while to get through and was worth gawking about.  Frankly, the Sistine chapel was a bit of a disappointment at the end.  Everything says you'll get shushed and yelled at for cameras, and they did have us put the cameras away on the way in, but once inside everyone had their phones out and up in the air taking pictures.  Sorry, but if they're doing it, so am I... so snap snap snap.  It was also quite loud.  Amusingly, others we talked to said when they were there they did get shushed and cameras were very much so nixed.  So I guess we got lucky and were there when some guards were on lunch break!

We stopped to grab something to eat and it pretty much sucked... the artichokes I ordered were so salty they were almost inedible and the pizza (yes again) still disappointed Dani.  There was 4 blobs of buffalo motz cheese on it a couple halved cherry tomatoes, and one spring of basil in the middle... no sauce (as I warned her).  It wasn't much to write home about.

Here is the only place we had a bit of a worry during the trip... we made it to the train station (San Pietro) and only two trains left we could take to get back in time.  The later would get us in at 6, the shuttle stopped at 6, and we'd need to hoof it (fast) to the ship by 6:30 - way too tight.  The earlier turned out to be a fast train, which should not have been included on our BIRG ticket.  We took our chances and boarded it anyhow, validating our tickets like good little girls.  I figured they'd check us after we got moving and we'd get in trouble in some way, needing to pay more, but we couldn't afford to wait for the other train.  We did get checked... the guy looked at our tickets for the validation and handed them back thanking us, nothing else said.  Talk about major crisis/worry averted.  I think he was just being nice, very nice.

We were so busy we didn't get to head anywhere else, I really do wish we had had two days there, there is so much in Rome I would have loved to show Dani.

We returned, showering quickly and feeling pretty okay despite the heat and long day.  Another show with the singers and dancers, one I've seen a couple times before - they really need to create a few more shows.  Another free drink at another welcome event for C&A - yay!

Today's stop was in Salerno, Italy - it's near Naples, kind of.  There didn't seem to be easy/fast options to Capri from here, so this time I figured we'd take in the Amalfi coast, and I'm not sad about that decision - it was stunning!  Here again we did a private tour with a family of four I found on Cruise Critic and another older couple.  We met up w/ our tour guide, Paolo, from Joe Banana Limos outside quickly and were on our way.  There were transportation strikes in Sorrento, so he had to reorganize our plan a wee bit and it resulted in us only getting a photo of Sorrento from afar to Dani's dismay as she wanted to find a music box there.

We drove along the coast on the gorgeous winding cliff-side roads.  This is one place where I got all turned around on the order of things.  We did see Positano, Amalfi town, and Ravello (not originally part of the plan) and a lovely little garden with excellent views.  Since we didn't get to Sorrento he also took us to this sweet little place for some good pizza - a stop you wouldn't anticipate being so yummy or having such a good view until you get upstairs.  Dani and I shared a 4-cheeser (she was surprised at it not having sauce, but so it is unless you want margherita or the like) and some lemoncello.  I ended up buying a cute little Cave Canine tile and ceramic lady bug at one stop and a small bottle of cream of lemoncello that we drank after returning to the ship in Monte Carlo.  It was a hot day, for sure.  Paolo gave both Dani and I a small bottle of lemoncello at the end, so there was some extra to bring home.

The other thing to note here is the size of the lemons... holy man!  I had no clue.  I can only imagine how much lemoncello those rinds would help make :)

Tonight's show was a pianist, again, not my favorite, Linda Gentille... she was a bit full of herself, which didn't help me appreciate her show much more.  After dinner we attended the majority rules game show quite tired - or at least I was and then headed off to dream land.

Our last day at sea before another run of three busy busy busy days on land.  Dani slept in, I headed to breakfast to discover this was the chocolate breakfast!  I requested some food to take back with me, hoping to lure her out of bed without too much complaint, a bit late and didn't think I'd get it... but our head waiter ended up coming through with the goods!  I tapped her when I returned to the room, got a glare, and then wafted the chocolate smell in her direction, which was enough to gain her interest and get the day underway.

Today we took in more than the other days at sea including a copy cat game, which I should have volunteered to participate in *rats* and the sexy man competition.  I've got to say there was quite a few nicely built guys on board who participated!  After lunch we snagged tee shirts out on deck, an Italy one for her and a France one for me... yes, I know we aren't going to France on this trip, but we did on my last European sailing, so it worked well.  We sat in on part of an art auction and then headed to bingo... I was at 1 number to win the larger game - RATS!  I'm not much luck when it comes to those things.

Tonight was the first time I took advantage of the diamond 'lounge' before dinner, while the girl was getting ready.  On this ship only wine, champagne, beer, soda for free and a discount on mixed drinks.  It was pretty slow up there, so I chatted with the bar staff assigned to us and did some people watching along the mini-putt, which we never did go do.

The show was Judy Kolba a comedian/singer who was actually quite good - prb my second favorite show of the trip.  After dinner we headed to the centrum for the 70's night celebration guessing which outfit each of the cruise staff would be in.  Carlos ended up the cowboy - he's quite nicely built and Mali our other favorite was the 'military guy'.

We were up and moving early today for Ravenna, Italy.  Everything I had found online made me believe we could walk out of the port and get to the city center quite easily on our own - not so!  Not only that but the shuttle was $15 a person, which I think is ridiculous, and contrary again to information I found online that said free shuttles.  We wasted some time wandering on our own, not finding the streets called out in my notes before we gave up and came back to learn the truth.

The maps of the town weren't awesome, it seemed like some roads were missing from the maps... maybe I was just tired.  The things I had noted weren't too amazing to see and we were leery of trying to go in to see the mosaics because we were in shorts. I made Dani take over the maps because I was 'done' with this town before we even got there thanks to the bad notes, so she navigated us around a bit.  I also made her attempt to procure her own bottle of water from a grocery store we wandered through.  I purposely gave her more change than she needed and you should have seen the look the cashier gave her when she dropped all of it (almost double what she needed) into her hand at the checkout!

Long story short neither of us were a fan of Ravenna and the best thing we found there was some gellato.  We, and many others we talked to back on board, wish that this had been our day at sea, followed by an over night in Civitavecchia (Rome).

We were happy to come back a bit early to soak our feet in the hot tub and grab some grub at the sea view cafe before showering and getting ready for the second formal night.  Tonight was all about embarrassing Dani - first the magician show used her keep hold of a 'can' in which he had a couple of items as part of his act.  Needless to say for the rest of the trip people would meet us saying "oooh, Danielle has the can!"  From there we watched the sun set and headed to dinner where they brought her dessert with a candle and singing, much to her dismay.

Shortly after dinner there was a midnight buffet of which I did not partake, but we went up briefly to dance and enjoy things.  Another fond memory of the cruise staff, Carlos, is his 'dance' that he used for every type of music.

Day 2 in Venice I convinced the girl to get up a bit early so we could head to St Mark's Square straight away since our 24-hour pass expired around 1pm.  It was SO crowded during sail in the day before I was worried, but it didn't seem as bad there.  We walked around the square and then started following the signs to the Rialto bridge, not getting as lost as I expected.  There is lots of shopping to be had along the way for those interested, on the bridge as well which reminded me a bit of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence (spelling?).  Across the bridge we stopped, snagging some fresh cherries and a watermelon drink from a vendor and watching the pigeons stroll around.

We continued walking and got to the market area of the San Marco district, which always interests me, I love seeing all of the fresh goodies and interesting purchase options.  From there we took another vaporetto along the grand canal, hoping off for a little more aimless walking and exploring then back to the station and ship.  We had until around 7pm that we could have stayed out, but I think we were both a bit too tuckered and gave in early.  It was nap for the girl and hot tub for me once again.

Venice is quite nice, I think it was Dani's favorite stop.  I'd be happy to go back, that's for sure.  I guess it would be better if you could bask in the romantic aspects of Venice too.  Meh.  I was surprised I never smelled the canals.

Tonight's show was a violinist - which is like nails on a chalk board for me.  I guess it's the rubbing on the metal strings... he was good, but there were still spots where it sounds sqwalky to me.

I also wanted to comment a bit on our dinner waiters, Gonzalo and Zoran.  I really liked Zoran, he remembered my preferences and would bring me iced tea each night etc whereas Gonzalo seemed to always be rushing us, even though we always got there pretty on time and were the last to get our food amongst his tables.  Usually when you're finished things get whisked away quickly and you're on to the next course, for us we'd wait for things to be cleared and wait for the next round - dinner taking nearly 2 hours each night.  The smaller tables would be on dessert and we had not yet gotten our main course, their desserts before them while our food sat on the tray after it finally came out for 5-10 minutes.  I have to admit that was a bit disappointing... but it's hard to say where all of the blame lies.  It seemed like the waiter would go to get our food and be gone for forever.  It was also so late that we often had little option for replacements as the kitchen was out or closing down by the time we got our meals so we were again rushed to check that meat was cooked, things were still hot, etc.  It was also readily apparent that the two did NOT like each other and were at each other's throats.  That's not a good thing.

Day one in Venice we were able to get off the ship around 12:30.  It was a bit of a hoof to the Termini where we could get a Venice card ticket which would give us unlimited use of the vaporettos/traghettos.  It's a bit like the metro to get around (sign wise etc) and we screwed up on our first trip, heading in the wrong direction, but quickly got the whole thing down and were on our way to Fondamente Nove and off to the surrounding islands including:
San Michelle - the walled cemetery which was also pretty darn neat
Murano -  where we walked around a bit.  Glass blowing was only from 10-12 so we didn't get to see that.
Burano - where we also walked around a bit.  We did see one woman working lace here, so that was neat.  We also saw teenagers pull up in their boat at one point.  I mean, it makes sense, teenagers drive here, too, but it seemed odd at first.  Amusingly they had pink carpet and fuzzy dice in their boat!  We picked up a lacey looking Venetian mask for Dani and a small lace (obviously not hand made given the reasonable price) butterfly for me.

We did spend a lot of time on vaporettos as a result, so I'm glad we got these in on the first day.  That with our longer walk back to the ship brought us in at 8, just enough time to clean up.  Oddly, since we were overnight in this port we didn't eat at our regular dinner table and they didn't have a normal show.  Instead of the show they had the newlywed game this evening, which I missed a good chunk of to get cleaned up from a warm day.  For dinner you head in at will like you do at lunch time.  We ended up at a dinner table w/ a couple from Ireland and 3 couples from South Africa.

Of the South African couples 3/6 ppl had issues with something being stolen or attempted to be stolen in Barcelona!  I got a bit of a laugh during the conversation when NASCAR came up and the one tried to explain to the other the difference between it and stock car type racing.  She ended up saying it's kind of zef which promptly led to me noting that I had fallen for the band Die Antwoord.  Turned out the gentleman closest to me knows Yolandi's father, who is a minister!  They recommended a few other bands for me to check out (fokofpolisiekar and snothead/snotnose - at least that's what it translates to) that I'll need to see about, so that was a fun and interesting meal. After dinner we went up for 'pub night' which was basically sing alongs.

Today we stopped at Split, Croatia, where we had a private tour booked with folks I found on Cruise critic to the Krka National Park and waterfalls.  Turns out Kay and Tito (our travel mates) were in the room right next to us!  Not realizing as diamond I could sneak off on the earlier tenders we waited for the first one they'd allow us on after tours went, which put us a half an hour behind on our schedule, but our travel mates were also on this tender.

We met up w/ our guide getting off the tender and off we went for the 1.5 hour drive to Krka.  It's not the most picturesque area/drive, but it wasn't awful. I felt a bit rushed along the loop at the falls by the guide, but it was still nice.  I guess I expected taller falls than what we saw.  Due to being a bit late we didn't get to jump in for a few, so be it.

We did get back with a little time to spare so we walked over to the Diocletian's Palace area that is RIGHT at the port area and took that in quickly even though I had deleted those notes since I didn't anticipate getting to look around there.

Dani decided to be all energetic when we got back and went for a run on the treadmill while I instead went and soaked in the hot tub for a few.  Today I added the start of a series of sun-induced headaches to my overall bodily discontent.  I probably had 6 or 7 days where I came back with a tension headache tightening up the back of my neck making it tough to move my head around and throbbing up behind my eyes like it wanted to turn into a migraine.  Fun times but something I know comes with the sun for me.  Maybe I really am a vampire.

Tonight's show was a production show, first of two.  I recognize the one male singer from another trip - he may have been on Freedom in the fall as Dani also recognized him.  He's one that reminded me of an old friend.