FromSea2ShiningSea

Thank you, Dani, for your concern and thinking of us at this time. We are weathering the weather pretty well here considering the devastation that you see on the news. DH found puddles of water under the house. Hopefully, it will dry out when it stops raining. Last couple days, the wind and rain comes in the middle of the night and rain into the day. It gives us a break on and off during the day. Clears in the afternoon and evening Then it’s rinse and repeat. You’ve probably seen pictures of the storm surge that caused major flood damage to Capitola, a quaint, little costal town in Santa Cruz County. It destroyed the wharf, businesses and homes like hit by a tsunami. This is what it looked like when we were there in 2021. There’s the pier that had a restaurant, a tackle shop and people fishing. Restaurants and vacation rentals

It was fun tagging along with you. Thanks for sharing, Andrew.

I am so sorry I missed your post, Patti. I turned my notification off a long time ago so that's why I can't see who tags me. The pages on this thread multiplies so fast it's hard to keep up after being away sometimes. I cheat by trying to skim through or skip pages just to catch up. Lol. I'm glad @ownedbypets's daughter was able to find a nice place and all settled in now. I hope she makes new friends and enjoys her time here in the Bay Area.

Love Kohlrabi. But have only eaten the green version. I make soup with it. It has a mild sweet taste. It is a very versatile vegetable. Have not tried the purple ones yet.

I wish I had known you were going to be in my neighborhood. We live not far from where she is. We could have met with you, your husband and your daughter to welcome you all to the area as fellow CC members on Dani's thread. I guess I missed a lot of information from this thread since I'm always so behind, I just skip pages. Is she here for an internship at Stanford or a temporary job? Sounds like she's found a good place to live for now. There's a lot good eating places around there. Sorry for the cold and rainy weather. Wish it was warm and sunny for her. Please let me know if there's any questions or help that you or daughter may have with her stay here. I hope we can be of help to you/her.

Still going through my Allure pictures from 12/11. There are so many to post but as you can see, sunrise pictures are my favorite. On this cruise, I met a couple other gals who are just like me. We love sunrises. We’d meet in the mornings on the Sun Deck and wait patiently for the sun to come up. And when it peaks out through the clouds with its rays bursting through, we’d be so struck with awe. A sign that a brand new day is given to us to embrace. We couldn’t help but give praise. A Sunrise Art piece on one of the staircase walls In Guess Services celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah An American flag hung in the Royal Promenade to honor veterans Is that the red line that’s a no-no? Do you get extra credit for it being a foreign ship? Another sunrise After the rain comes the rainbow Not sure what this plant is called but the flowers are very pretty One of the Small Wonders. There are 38 Small Wonders around the ship and we found only 14. We didn’t know what we were looking for in the beginning but then we figured it out.

Just got back from Southern California to visit family for the Holidays. We left here on Christmas morning 3:30AM after my side of family’s Christmas dinner. There was such thick and heavy fog driving all the way down. I found out that In-N-Out Burger has a Company Store in So. Calif. so I was very excited about that and wanted take a looke-see in their physical store instead of shopping online. They don’t sell any merchandise in their restaurants. So the next day, we made a trip there. It was fun to see all the different stuff they sell but a lot of the merchandise was sold out. I just got a couple things. Kid’s t-shirts and couple pairs of socks which was what I really wanted. Adjacent to this is the restaurant. This is the original restaurant in this location. Of course, after shopping, you have to go get their In-N-Out Burger. Wonder what degree they offer at this university. Perhaps a B.S. (Burger Specialist) Degree. Or if you study real hard, you may earn a M.D. (“Masters of Deliciousness”) Degree

A few day late but here’s a few random Christmas pictures. Snoopy display in a neighborhood near us A nativity scene decoration at a house in a nearby neighborhood Had our family Christmas dinner at my niece’s house on Christmas Eve Cheese-stuffed pizza dough Christmas tree A Starbucks ornaments Christmas tree. Starbucks ornaments collected from all over the world. Cody making sure no scraps are left behind

We are back from our family cruise on the Allure. Everyone had a great time. Allure is a beautiful ship although I wasn’t sure I was going to like it when I boarded. It was so big and overwhelming to me. There were so many people everywhere. But by 2nd day, the crowd dispersed and we got to explore a little more and I felt much better about the ship. Just going through all the pictures now so I’ll share some with you all, if you don’t mind. First day. Lunch in the Windjammer. Oops…the cake got cut into before I could take a picture. I had to get a piece and it was good. These balloons are going to drop at midnight tonight. Royal Promenade A Happy Hanukkah banner hung from the Schooner Bar Central Park at night A sparkling Christmas tree in Vintages A gingerbread house display in the Royal Promenade Pretty dresses in the Aft elevator area The crowd was there and ready for the balloon drop at midnight So much fun…

Yes, you and your wife as D+ members can share your 10 drinks per day with your family members. Two bottles of wine are permitted per stateroom. Corkage fee is supposed to be $20 or $25 each but rarely enforced and charged in my experience. Enjoy your family cruise!

😢 @HBE4 😢 I am so sorry for the passing of your beautiful wife. Thank you for sharing your sorrow with us. I send you my sincere condolences as we grieve with you. Please take comfort in knowing that she is in loving arms of the angels now. Also, thank you for sharing your family photos from your last cruise together. I can tell from her warm smile that she was a wonderful person. May she rest in peace.

It did not make sense to me. I did not get what the story was about- the Seven Chapters. To me, it was a bunch of random themes, dancing, acrobatics and the use of a lot of technology. At times, it was like a circus, different things happening all over the stage and the screen at the same time. It just all seemed disjointed to me. On another note, Christine McVie, of Fleetwood Mac passed away yesterday. She was 79 years old. So sad. It won’t be the same without her. I’m glad we got to see them in concert in 2018.

Too long. It was the worst show I’ve ever seen. I wanted my hour back.

I am so very sorry. I pray for Eric, you and family to be comforted at this difficult time.

I was wrong. It was Pride of Hawaii that we were on. I hope you both are enjoying all the natural beauty of Hawaii. Say Hi to Sharron. Yes, we will be on the same Harmony with you next December. That was exactly what we saw, too. It was really an awesome sight when you see the lava flowing and hitting the ocean. From far away, it looked like fire. And then you realize the mighty force of Mother Nature. Sorry to hear about how damaged your chimney was. Would your home insurance cover the cost of repair? (Sorry I quoted the wrong thing above) That was the year we were there, 2006. I did take some pictures but I think they turned out looking like orange glob. I'm sorry to hear this, Debbie.

Beautiful pictures! That was my experience on Pride of America in the main dining room also. The service was so slow. There was hardly any guests in there and it took forever to get even your soup. It was the most disappointing. And that was 16 years ago. I didn't want to give you any negative opinion on the food service before because I thought they'd improve by now. There are chickens everywhere in Hawaii. One time, they flew over my garlic shrimp plate at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck picnic table. Scared the heck out of me. We will miss you on Allure in a couple weeks.

Thank you, Dani. Wow, that is a long list of "little wonders" to discover on Allure. I will make a copy of the list and try to check off all the wonders and treasures I will find although I think it will take me all 7 days to finds all or some of them. I will need to involve my family in this fun activity for sure. I have always wanted to try this Texas fruitcake. I'm just afraid if I ordered it and didn't like it, I'd be stuck with it. What a coincidence is right! I wish I could be able to send you, @aussielozzie18, and @dani negreanumy MIL's fruitcake. I would love for you to try it.

I know I am a little late in posting Thanksgiving pictures but we just got home so I think I better do it while it’s still Thanksgiving weekend. It was DH’s Thanksgiving family reunion at his mom’s house. We started our drive down in the middle of the night at 3:00AM to avoid terrible Thanksgiving Day traffic. There were 21 people that came for dinner. All our kids were there so it was a blessing that we were together. We then had a chance to talk about our upcoming family cruise that’s in two weeks on the Allure out of Galveston. This will be our first time on an Oasis class ship. The kids are SO excited about the cruise. My son said he and his fiancé are so excited about the cruise that they talk about it everyday,. This will be her first cruise ever. They want to do everything on the ship. I caught the sun come up on the horizon on the way down The 17 pound turkey My MIL makes over a hundred fruitcakes a year to give out to family and friends. It is actually a very good fruitcake. Not your typical Christmas fruitcakes that people make jokes out of.

The fish was really good! That was actually my seconds on the fish. It was fresh, hot and crispy. I don't like the fish they serve in the MDR. Done it and I regret it. We will be on Allure for the first time ever in a few weeks so we will check out El Local Fresh in the WipeOut Cafe. It's considered a snack place. By the way, on the Specialty Dining on our sailing, we really wanted to try Solarium Bistro. I know that Solarium Bistro is not a specialty restaurant but you need reservations for dinner. But on this particular sailing, that restaurant was closed off to us regular folks and used for Pinnacles only - all day long- for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The reason they said was because there were too many Pinnacles on our cruise. They said it was orders from Miami even though there was hardly anyone in there any of those times. They could've been flexible and open it up. It was really a waste of food and there were a lot of disappointed folks.

We had the UDP for this Odyssey TA. We purchased it at a really good price several years ago when we booked the cruise. So my intent was to eat a lot and gain a lot of weight. The problem with this ship is that there are not that many different specialty restaurants. The usual Chops Grill, Giovanni’s, Izumi, Teppanyaki, Wonderland and Playmakers. You try to map this out on a spreadsheet and you’ll find that there is only so many times you can eat at any one of these restaurants before it gets boring. Besides that, it is a lot of food. You finish one meal and before you know it, you got to go to the next meal. So we ended up not going to a specialty restaurant every night. About half the time it was the MDR or the Windjammer for dinner. In the end, I did not gain any weight. We decided that we will probably think twice before we purchase the UDP again because it is just too much food. By the way, I don’t know how I missed it but I did not take any pictures of the gym. This was a nice gym with lots of exercise equipments. Filet Mignon at Chops done just right My favorite in the Main Dining Room- Beef Tenderloin- on Day 2 Also on Day 2 MDR- Seafood Linguine Lobster Night in MDR- Day 6 Playmakers Classic Burger Onion Ring Tower Chicken Wings- sauce on the s Poke Nachos We had the Touch Down Sundae with 5 scoops of ice cream (very small scoops) for dessert. We devoured it before I could take a picture of it. Izumi’s Sashimi

Food. First stop in the Windjammer is one of the most popular stations- the Stir Fry Station. I make mine with no meat, noodle or rice. I’ll even add more veggies to the dish. The other popular station- The Omelette Station. Make mine a soft fluffy scramble with everything in it. Fish and no chips. You can also go around the corner outside the Windjammer to El Local Fresh, get a tortilla and make a fish taco with this. Nachos with all the fixings’ from El Local Fresh Poor piggy… Sorrento’s made a custom half carnivore pizza for me Another popular station in the Windjammer is the Ice Cream Station. It is in the front in between the bread and the bar. They have the usual- Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate, some with no sugar added. Each day they will also have other special flavors such as Pistachio, Coconut, Orange Sherbet or Rainbow Sherbet. They put out the ice cream even in the morning. If there’s a specialty flavor that you like, you better get it early because it will go fast and will be gone later on in the day.

That to me looks like something out of Star Wars.

Just a few more Odyssey pictures and maybe some food pictures and then I will stop. I thank Dani and you all for putting up with what seemed like a gazillion pictures from me. I hope you weren’t bored to tears. We had quite an adventure the last several weeks and I thank you all for allowing me to share part of that with you. A sea day sunrise The Solarium Deck 4 Royal Esplanade From Deck 5, you can look down into the Main Dining Room on Deck 3 A giant pool table Night of dancing in Music Hall Early before the sun came up And of course…this

On this one particular morning, we were so far out in the ocean that a helicopter had to come take a passenger that needed more care than the ship can offer. It had to circle around twice. The Captain had to steer to the north a bit so to create the right condition for the helicopter to drop the basket.

Two70 is a great venue for many activities such as Bingo, lectures, dance parties and the show The Book which you need reservation for. Lecture series on spies Captain’s Corner 70’s Party Dancing With the Stripes The Effectors was in the Royal Theater. A very well done show with outstanding lighting, staging and special effects. Other than that, I did not care for the show.