Next Cruise
January 28, 2008
Well, it didn’t take too long. We thought we would skip a cruise this year because of two family reunions that we already have planned. Now, I am not sure that is going to happen. Cruising is our favorite way to spend a vacation and the thought of not doing one this year has not appealed to us.
It’s only been 7 months since our last cruise to Alaska, but the though of not cruising again until 2009 was more difficult than it should be. Anyways, we have decided to tighten the belt and see if we can’t go ahead and swing a cruise this Thanksgiving season, which is a common time for us to cruise.
Nothing is for sure yet as we want to make sure we don’t stretch ourselves too far, but we have been zeroing in on a couple of cruises that look really appealing to us.
The first is a 15 day cruise from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale. The cruise stops in a couple of ports in Mexico and then goes through the Panama Canal before making stops in Costa Rica and Columbia. This cruise would be on one of our favorite ships, the Celebrity Mercury. We like this cruise as leaving out of San Diego tends to save us a few bucks as we only need airfare back from Fort Lauderdale. Going through the Panama Canal would make for an exciting cruise.
The second is a 15 day transatlantic crossing. We have really been itching to do a transatlantic crossing since days at sea tend to be our favorite part of a cruise. The cruise originates in Barcelona, Spain and ends up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It features stops in Spain, the Canary Islands and St. Maarten. If we did this cruise, we would probably try to spend a day or two in Barcelona before the cruise. This would allow Suzanne and the kids to take in some authentic Flamenco dancing in Spain since they all take dance classe. {Suzanne and Savannah actually take the Flamenco classes.} It us unlikely we would spend any time in San Juan.
The transatlantic cruise would require the kids to miss more school since it leaves on the Saturday after Thanksgiving while the Panama Canal cruise leaves the weekend before Thanksgiving. Either cruise, perhaps a bit more so for the transatlantic cruise, would be a unique learning and cultural experience for them. On either cruise, the kid would still have homework responsibilities.
I am do to learn what my yearly bonus will be in the next few weeks and the taxes will soon be finished and we are expecting a refund. With the drop in interest rates, we are also refinancing our home and should reap some monthly savings there too. Hopefully, the combination will be enough to allow us to take a cruise this year.
Thanksgiving Activities
November 29, 2007
Whew, its been a busy couple of weeks here at Mr Papa’s World. Sorry for the lack of recent posts, but luckily I have been able to get a few quick thoughts. If you hadn’t noticed, I post a my quick thoughts at the top of the light blue sidebar here at Mr Papa’s World.
We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving this year despite not being on a cruise. Suzanne’s parents came over for a week long visit from Dallas over the holiday. They arrived the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. On Wednesday, Suzanne and the kids and her parents all went for a drive up to Mt Lemmon near Tucson. I stayed home and began work on the Thanksgiving feast. I used to Wednesday to prepare as much of the food that I could since I wanted to enjoy the NFL games on Thursday.
Thanksgiving Day went very nicely except for the poor results of the first two football games. My beloved Detroit Lions went down to defeat as their once promising seasons spirals downward out of control. Additionally, my most hated team, the Dallas Cowboys easily won their game. Suzanne’s parents, being from Dallas, are staunch Cowboys fans, so it was good for them.
One night during the visit, we had a karaoke night. As usual, Mr Papa didn’t sing, but just ran the mixing board and played the discs. The kids got a nice kick out of singing for Grandpop and Grandmother.
On Sunday, we took them out to Kartchner Caverns State Park. At the caverns, they have two wonderful, living caves that you can see. As a family, we have been there twice before, seeing each cave once. Our preference there is the Rotunda Tour, so we took them on that one. They were amazed as the caves aren’t quite like any that you may have seen before since they are still alive. After the tour, we had a nice picnic lunch in the state park.
Unfortunately, on Monday morning, I had to leave on a business trip to Florida. I should have said “early” Monday morning. My flight was at 6:00 am which meant a 3:00 am rise time for me in order to get ready and drive over to the Tucson airport. This was a single day meeting, but from Tucson, it pretty much takes a day to get there and a day to get back. The weather was pretty chilly in Florida, but since we left so early, I was able to enjoy about an hour on the beach staring at the ocean. Other than that, the trip was pretty uneventful, but tiring. I returned home yesterday evening.
This was my last planned business trip of the year. Hopefully, it stays that way. I will be at work this week and next week, before I begin my annual Christmas vacation. I like to take three weeks off at the end of the year for some good quality family time.
Suzanne’s parents left Wednesday morning to head back to Dallas. We all thoroughly enjoyed their visit. They were planning to stop in Cloudcroft, NM for the night on Wednesday before continuing home to Dallas this morning. They should enjoy Cloudcroft as they got some snow on Thanksgiving weekend. Hopefully, it was still there for them to enjoy.
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