h20skibum

Uh oh, I hadn't noticed. 🤔 I think I missed something the last couple days. Spent Wednesday and Thursday at the hospital in Pittsburgh with Susan. She had surgery, and she is now out and on her road to recovery. Dr. said things looked malignant, but they will not know until pathology comes back next week. I wasn’t aware you could tell by looking.

That would be nice, but they may want to keep me on them to address my aneurysm. Maybe at a reduced amount would be good.

Congrats to both of you. I am ashamed to admit that I put on a few extra pounds while watching our grandson all summer. I guess I can’t eat the same quantities of bad food like an 11 year old can. So after her went home in August, I started eating healthy, low calorie meals. I had a goal to lose 20 pounds, which would get me out of that “overweight” BMI range and back into the “normal” range. After looking at what they consider as a normal BMI for my 5’-8” height (that is a weight between 122 and 164), I realized I don’t know many “normal” people. And Greg @Sea Dog, weight loss will lower your blood pressure. At least that is what I am seeing. I think I mentioned I had been keeping a log of blood pressure readings, twice a day for the last six months. My average has gone down about 10 points after losing those extra pounds. Will have to see what my cardiologist has to say at my appointment in a couple weeks, since mine seems to be getting a little low now with the BP meds. Hovering right around 97/60 now.

+1 @dani negreanu Dani. I am heartbroken, every time I turn on the news, and see the terror that has been unleashed on Israel. My prayers are with you, your family and friends.

+1 @Sea Dog Greg.

I won’t even say how long our heat has been on. Happy wife, and all that. 😂 I have even been getting prompted to get the propane heater set up by the hot tub already.

I was just talking with Susan about doing Royal up for a GS for our December cruise on Symphony. According to Royal’s site, there are still seven available, as well as two bedroom ones, a few CLS and a Royal Suite. Who knows, maybe we will get lucky. I thought it odd that the GS cabins are currently listed less than a JS for that sailing.

Yes, that is the one. We will be there on the 20th, and Aruba the day before. Our Odyssey sailing was a little different, because we were sailing with Covid protocols, and at about 1/3 capacity.

The best way to enjoy that hot apple cider, is to add some fireball to it.

A cold, wet weekend for us. Saturday, we went to our grandson’s football game. They are now 1-1 on the season, with this as their first win. After the game, we traveled to Applefest. Surprised that this little town of about 8,000 packs in about 100,000 for their 3 day festival. We missed the rain while there. The have a couple of parks that were filled with craft vendors and festival food. This is a place that attracted me. They were giving out free samples of vodka, rum, whisky, bourbon, etc. More rain when we returned home, but we were rewarded on our walk with a nice rainbow

I think it was @dani negreanu Dani that asked if there would be a “Summer of Fun 4”? Well, the answer appears to be “Yes!”, as some planning is already underway. As part of 2024’s Summer of Fun, this happened last week. That’s right, that cruise #3 on the list for us, will be my California grandson’s first cruise. Not only that, but we will be taking all 3 grandkids along, as well as my daughter and her husband. My daughter had been the lone holdout, remembering how seasick she got on the one cruise we took her on when she was 11. We convinced her that a short cruise on an Oasis Class ship, in a low, midship balcony would be a perfect one to try again. So I booked three, deck 6 balconies on the, soon to be new, Utopia of the Seas. The grandkids are all ecstatic, and my SIL is just as ecstatic, because he has always wanted to try a cruise. I just hope our weather is nice in August. The last time we sailed in August, it was on this ship. And we had the worst hurricane of the last century. That sailing was our honeymoon, and we will be celebrating our 44th anniversary on our Utopia sailing. We also hope to squeeze in some Disney World time as part of next year’s fun. So, stay tuned.

Thanks for the entertainment @harryfat1. I have enjoyed your report, as always. Enjoy your cruise on Odyssey. We did that same route on her a couple of years ago. We like those 8 night sailings to A & C so much, we did a couple more of them since then and have another in December. We will be like two ships passing in the night, since we will be on Symphony, sailing into port the day after you sail out.

@Sea Dog Greg, definitely stay on top of it. Hope you get back to normal before your cruise. @A&L_Ont Andrew, how is the jaw doing. I hope you are able to get it open to enjoy some eating pleasures.

I have done that, but evidently they have not heard the message.

+1 @dani negreanu Dani.. Adding our prayers for your safety.

Happy engagement anniversary. Dinner looks great.

I tend to agree with what OB, Dave, and Graham said about time to spend in London. There is so much to do and see. We were there three days, after a cruise from Southampton. You know that Susan and I are both big walkers, and we walked everywhere in London. I just looked back at the trip report I did, and we walked 20 miles our first day there. If you want to read about just the London part of the trip, it starts on page 10 of this link. Although this was four years ago, I recognize some familiar posters from Dani’s thread that followed along. One nice thing was we had a private tour post cruise with International Friends, that took us to Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Windsor Castle and dropped us at our hotel in London. Just these sites would take up a day.

We have noticed it on every ship we have sailed on since the restart. Although we has sat as far away from the sound source as we could in each venue, some we had to leave because of how loud it was. I have heard the same complaint from many others. Seriously, don’t their sound engineers have dB meters, to check levels?

@FromSea2ShiningSeaHelen, you have a great eye for photography. I am enjoying all your photos.

Ours are even higher. I think it also depends on the ship and the length of sailing. Our next 3, all on Oasis class ships.

Picked up this chestnut, and plan to roast a few. I am not sure if this says that we grow our chestnuts big, of if Royal has small drinks! It wouldn’t even fit in Lime and Coconut pail.

That is good to hear. I hope you continue to improve. wishing you an early happy birthday on the 14th

So tell me, does that link have the compass for the entire week, or is it refreshed every day to provide the compass for that day? Are you then saving the pdf to your iPad to have a copy, post cruise?

They are in San Rafael. Quick trip for them to Napa, or to the City.

Happy 41st Anniversary to you. Great way to celebrate on a cruise.