Thursday June 30, 2006

What so no one likes our pretty car?! Just kidding! Okay so we are LOVING it! Carl has driven into work almost every day this week. We've put 160 miles on it (it had only 45 yo start!) and we are only half tank but fill at half even when we had the 4runner! Anyway - Carl normally has the carpool, but he's likeing driving - I told him no more next week.

Speaking of which - Carl was on the local news. I have mentioned before where he works. Now that he baliffs for the court, they were hearing a case on the govenor because the legislator is sueing the gov. (she's an idiot, but that's a different story), anyway there is a clip where they show the court room, http://www.azcentral.com/12news/video/ If you want to click on it will give you dates and the video, click on the one for Tues and the one that says Supreme Court hears Veto challenge. It's pretty cool! He gets some pretty good air time. His 15secs of fame!

On other good news - I gave my two week notice today!!
I quite! Dang it felt good. I was a little nervous because I knew Robyn wasn't going to make it easy for me. I got offered a postition with Norweigan Cruise Lines as a Vacation Planner. Full time! How can I pass that up! She's mad at me - but I'm not letting her talk me out if it and in her words "i'm not going to beg you twice!" I had an that oppurtunity with the City of Phoenix a while back, she talked me out it, saying I could go full time, then the college girls came back and I am still at a normal schedule. With the same pay. So it stayed the same. And she gives me a bad time about leaving at 2pm, so I don't have a heart attack walking in 110degrees to go home.
It's a little cooler at 2 then it is at 4pm! She read my letter of resignation and said " I don't know what to say!" Then she went on to talk about how much fun Lauren (one of the college girls) is and how much she'll miss her in JULY!! What am I chopped liver?! I am even giving them two week notice!! I couldn't believe. I felt like she kicked me in the gut! I understand she's mad, we had a good relationship, but I feel burned. Should I?

So after work, I had to go back over to Norweigan Cruise Lines and picked up paper work to do my drug test. Annalese (the girl who hired me) officially welcomed me. She said I would also be getting a welcoming packet in the mail with all the information I would need. We talked a little bit about scrapbooking. Oh and my training starts the 17th not the 20th like I orginally thought.

Maybe I'll enjoy it again when I am not working there anymore. I think it's just burned me out

Our primary pizza part with our class was yesterday also. It's been a crazy week. It was fun though and a good chance to talk to the kids and get to know them better! They are good kids, and they love to talk about what they are doing and how they are spending there summer!
I am teaching again this week because Marni (my partner) is out of town. Although I think everyone is since it's 4th of July weekend so to speak! Everyone have a great weekend!

Monday June 27, 2006

I am sorry I have not been very good about my blog lately. I have just not been happy with it. But I still want to keep one. I have been super busy but with some good news to post. I am sorry I will add more photos of my trip soon. I know I left off Berlin - one of my favorite stops!
But here is why we have been so busy. (or at least part of it!). It's a 2006 Hyundai Sonta. It's aqua blue. The part that sealed the deal was not only payments under $300 but that the seats adjust so I can drive! (I am 4'11) so this is an issue for me. We LOVE LOVE it! Gas milage is AWSOME as well. And these days that's everything too!

I will update more on the trip more tomorrow. It's been sort of crazy weekend. Carls parents leave tomorrow, and I been getting caught up on everything. I was trying to hurry and document stuff so I wouldn't forget it. But for now, I hope you enjoy the pictures. I may just find a way to do more pics. The slide shows will only let me do ten pics at a time. So we'll see. talk to ya later.

FORMAL NIGHTS

I hope you all aren't getting bored reading this stuff. I only wanted to put a few thoughts on them I hadn't intended them to be so long. Here's our formal nights. They were fun. I am not one that usually likes to get dressed up let a lone being in a dress We had great fun, but it was cold. I had to wear Carls jacket a few times. Whenever we did have formal night, it was requested that you stay in formal wear, the remainder of the evening, for shows, the casino, etc. I was suprised at how formal people really were. It was nice to see. And people staying in there formal till the early hours of the morning. The sunset pictures are real. It's on our veranda And with Carls camera. It did great pictures, don't ya think? It's not a backdrop. It was awsome to have it on Formal night!!
The group pic from left to right: Kathy (black dress,)Her husband Bob, Jannette, her husband Skip (in the beard), Marie than me, than Carl, Herb

Day7
Visby - Sweden
Forecast:partly cloudy/light showers
Currency:Swedish Krona
Language:Swedish

We had to wait to get on the ship tenders (lifeboats) to take them over to Visby.
It was sort of a mess. Visby is such a small island the boat did not dock, but anchored a mile out. We took the tenders to shore. Which was an adventure! We were thankful Carl had his seasick patch! There were only a few times, when we could really fel the ship moving.
Visby is one of the older towns in Sweden. Sweden was neautral in WWII so it's buildings and cathedrals were untouched. However, they did have means to protect themselves if they ever were invaded by the Germans.
We walked around the town in little over an hour. Not much shopping there, except expensive jewlery from the town merchants. The Ruins of St Peter were amazing. Thats the castle ruins you see. Then the church Saint Katarina is very simple but very pretty - mom we took pictures of the stain glass for you! I LOVED it! It was soo simple but so pretty.
They have a botanical gardens, that is beautiful, that was were all the traffic was so we didn't go all the way in.Carl loves the UTFART signs which mean exit!

Visby evening was also our last formal. I was kinda sad. We have had such a good time with Bob, Kathy, (Tenn), Jannette and Skip (Tampa Florida) and Marie (Kentucky!). They were a riot! They said how great it was to have a table you enjoy. That doesn't happen very often. We were soo glad!! They are frequent cruisers. Jannette and Skip got medallions for over 100sea miles! They are friends with Bob and Kathy but Marie fit right in with us too. We got the impression she was widowed.
Our table was always the last ones to leave the dining room. I will post the formal pictures seperate, because there are too many of them too. I hope I don't run out of blog space. This is only a fraction of the pictures too.

Day 6
Stockholm Sweden
Currency:Swedish Krona
Language:Swedish
Forecast:Sunshine!
Religion:Lutheran


We were VERY excited to get Sweden. We even went to bed early so we could be up when we docked. Coming into port was BEAUTIFUL! Stockholm is made up of 14different islands. Some are privately owned. Most do not have running water or electricty, but people come out in the summer, and from the pictures you can see why! Instead of ducks being in the water there are white swans. The houses are cute! Each house has their own dock to the water.

We also had an 8:30am bus tour, but then we would do the rest on our own.
Yes, I was a little annoyed that Herb and booked all bus tours, but it was a good way to get a view and the history of the city. It was just a pain to get in and out and wait for the group. But fortunately in Stockholm, we had a fairly small group,
and we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. To our suprise, we were able to end the bus tour early and get off at the Opera house and do our own thing. So Carl and I got off. Herb had trouble with his hip, which i found out later why he wasn't doing all the walking. But Stockholm, is his birthtown. His father (Far Far) worked as a Lt. to the King. He gaurded the king. There is a LT. standing at the formation of the changing of the gaurd. That's what Far Far used to do.
When we got off our bus tour, we headed straight for the Palace to catch the Changing of Gaurd. It was a bit emotional to be walking up the steps. Feeling Far Fars presence very strong. That sounds strange I know. We were both quiet walking up the hill to the back of the Palace.
We actually got to the bank enterance and one of the gaurds had everyone move aside as a black motorcade came through. There were people in the cars waving and the crowd waving back, we later learned it was the royal family!! Carl did try to catch a picture it should be in the slideshow. We have MANY pictures of the Changing of the Gaurd so I will only post a few.
On the tour we did the Vasa Museum, the main reason for doing the tour. It's a boat that was to set sail and was too top heavy and sank right in the harbor! It's an embarrassing story for Sweden, but the museum is magnificant.
We did the "Walking Street" in Stockholm where I tried Melon icecream, but it tasted more like cantelope.
On our way out of one of Sweden's biggest department stores (compared to Harrods in London), Carl found Pomac. Mom will remember it's the drink that Carl had been trying to find like Martenelli! We looked and looked. We were also looking for Swedish paddles for Christmas (to roll butter) but found out they don't make either one anymore. Anyway, we were on our way out of the dept store and Carl saw it out of the corner of his eye. We went running back. We had to be back on the ship by 5:30 it was now almost 3 and the bus left every 15 min, he wanted to be back on by 4.
There on the very bottom level, which was a market place with just about EVERYTHING, he found Pomac!It made his trip. He managed to get four bottles home!
Another wierd thing in Stockholm was it was graduation, so the high school students were driving around in these big dump trunks wearing white hats and blasting music, it was a HUGE street party!
Stockholm was so clean. I was suprised for such a large city. It was also one of our favorites of course. (oh the first sets of pictures came in dark because it was still early in the morning when we came into Stockholm but if you click on it you will see the better picture! The slide show doesn't do them justice!)
When we got back we played tennis on deck9. It was kinda funny to play it on a moving ship!
Have I mentioned how great our dinner group is?! They are so funny! I will talk more about them on Visby, since Stockholm is so long! But was also had our Dessert Extravagnza which I will try and add to the slide show!

Day 5
Helsinki, Finland
5.2million people
Language:Finnish/Swedish
Religion:Lutheran/Orthodox
Currency:Euro

We did Helsinki on our own. It's a small enough town and lots of shops. Mostly trendy shops. but it was a cute little town!I did find scrapbook supplies in a downtown store, it was an office supply store. Nothing we didn't have at home.
We did a bus tour in the afternoon.We went to the Rock Church which was pretty cool. It's built of a mountain. The other picture of the tower you see is their olympic flame/Olympic stadium. The statue Carl is giving a thumbs down to is a wierd statue that the Queen gave to the city. It was kinda tacky we thought and so did the tour guide! LOL! It was not a favorite for the people of Helsinki!

St. Petersburg!
Day 4
Yes, we spent two days in St. Petersburg! So the second day we spent on the ship, because you couldn't go into the city, unless you were on an excursion or had a visa.
So we did laundry. Carl went and saw Munich and I saw The Chronicles of Narnia.
I really liked. It is very close to the book and very well done. I might have to buy that one.
We did go to an evening show. It was a Comedian/Magician. He was pretty funny. His tricks were lame, but his jokes were funny!

Day 3
Monday 06/05/06
St. Petersburg Russia
weather:rainy,breezy 51*
Currency:Rubles/US$
Religion: Russian Orthodox

We arrived in St. Petersburg sometime before 7am. It was pouring rain and freezing!
The rain was coming down sidewise. There wasn't as much fog as there was in Estonia.
Just cold and wet.
We hoped the weather would clear up before our excursion into Pushkin for Catherine the Great's Palace. I had no idea what to expect.

We didn't have the excurcsion till later in the afternoon around 2:00pm. So Carl and I walked around the ship. We played ping pong on the Lido Deck (where the pools and buffets were).
It did start to clear up, weather wise with breeze and a little bit of sunshine as we headed for Pushkin on the bus. Pushkin is about an hour outside of St. Petersburg. But it took us a little over two hours due to traffic in St. Petersburg! It was TERRIBLE! Apparently though that is the normal.
There was some confusion about taking a camera. Our brochure and the ticket office told us that we were not able to take pictures on the tour unless we payed an extra $55. Well when we got on the bus our guide "Olga", told us it was only $5 to take pictures of the palace inside. There were only a small handful who did actually bring their camera. We were also told that it wasn't safe to care your belongings
Fortunately I was not impressed with Catherines Palace, nor was Carl. Some people that's their thing, all the gold and statues and gaudy furniture. It's a duplicate of Versailles in Paris, France. Only blue. There were two rooms at the end that were more simple and more Victorian looking that I did like a little better.
The city itself it quite depressing and sad. Nothing has been updated since the communists fell. The city was very dirty and the buildings were run down and broken windows and graffiti. It was very sad.
Oh we did see the LDS missionaries. We were bummed we didn't have time to stop and chat with them. They were on the other side of the street, but it was fun to see them there!!
It was intresting hearing other people on our excursion and our table mates say the same thing. Bob, Kathy,Skip and Jannette (our tablemates) also told us they went into the city more on their excursion and it didn't get much better.Marie the elderly lady that is also at our table was on our tour.
We had a band that met us at the docking port. Watching people coming back from their excursions was on of our favorite past times. We could watch from our veranda most of the time, otherwise we would go to Deck 3 or Deck 8.
Russia was very tight on their security. Not only did we have to have our passport but a photocopy of our passport to hand them at the immigration. It was a fairly quick process and we got a Russian immigration stamp.
Anyway I apologize the few pictures we have of St. Petersburg were of the port.
The funest part of the day was trivia in the Queens Loung with our table group! We have gotten to know them and hit off right away! They invited us to play trivia with them since Carl and Herb are big trivia people too. We came in 2nd next to them!

Day 2
Tallin Estonia 6/4/06
Arrival 8:30am
Panaromic Bus Tour
Uptown and Medevil town
Gingerbread House/Russian Orthodox Church
Town Hall
Currency:Euro(can't remember the local currency I think it's the Russian Ruble but I'm not sure.most places took the Euro)
Forcast:breezy,overcast, about 50*

We took a bus to old town Tallin. We had a tour guide named LIISA (with two I's).
Carl referred to her as Pipi longstockings, because he couldn't remember her name, and she had a great accent and had blonde pigtails.
He also got a shirt for his bday that said "Follow Me I'm Lost" people that it was really funny! It's nice to know old people have a sense of humor. Since we were pretty much the youngest people on the ship except for a few families with teenagers.
Old town was very cool. Even a little eerie, with the fog settling over the old castle ruins. Which I very much wanted to see.
This was one of our favorite towns. It was quite and very clean. Most of it still in cobblestones streets. There is one picture that looks like an ampitheatre. I can't remember what Pipi longstockings called it, none of us could pronounce it anyway. But they have huge concerts there and celebrations for midsummer and other things as well as rock concerts. It was very foggy as you can see in the pictures. The day we were there, they had a dog show going on, so that was kinda fun!

(keep scrolling -days will go backwards as I add more!)

Day 1 AT Sea
6/03/06
The first day we had a full day at sea! A chance to explore the ship. That we did.
We took long naps to try to recover from our Jetlag. It took me a lot longer. We were able to check email and play in the casino and check out the Exploration Deck and movies while we were at sea. The exploration deck (deck 5) is where we spent a lot of time!

This was also the first night of our casual dinner and to meet our table. We had the late dinner which was 8:00pm. We originally had the first time but for some reason we got changed.

MS Amsterdam
(keep scrolling -days will go backwards as I add more!)
The ship was bigger than I expected. However there were a few things I liked and disliked about it. The shopping on the ship, was not as well as I had liked. The movie theatre and show rooms were very nice. We often met in the "Queens Lounge"(where they did the shows) for our excursions.
On Deck 3 you could walk 3.5 laps for one mile. Carl and did this almost every day, it helped keep us up to par with all the eating we were doing. Our deck 6 was the Veranda deck. Besides 7 it was the only one with balconys.
Deck 3 was also the entrance to the bow of the ship. We were only able to get to the bow one day, because the first day or two we tried to go out, it was too windy and I didn't feel safe. Not too mention it was FREEZING!
Oh the one of the sunchairs has another ship in the background I can't remember which port that was, but we shared it with two HUGE ships. One was the Princess line.
The tenders (lifeboats) were on Deck 3 also.We had our painless life boat drill on Day 1. We would not let Carl hum the theme to "Titanic"! with good reason! LOL!

Copenhagen/Denmark 6/2/06
We took a train from the airport to downtown Copenhagen, which was about 15min or so. Then we took a taxi from the trainstation to our hotel.
It was overcast and cold.
Mom the white elevator door picture is for you! This is the original elevator in our Hotel, which is no longer in use. But you wanted doorways and windows so here is your first one! we thought is was pretty cool!
We had lunch at a small cafe next to the hotel.
It started to pour rain, but it was on and off for the rest of the afternoon.

We checked into our hotel and then headed for the "Walking the Street" where all the shopping is, we also attempted to find original Christis statue, Herb has been there many times, but he could not remember the name of the church it is in. And no it is not an LDS location.

After while, Herb went back to the hotel to rest, and we went and explored Copenhagen on our own. We found the Danish Royal Palace, the Hans Christen Andersen street, where they have a little mini theatre and still tell of the fairy tales.
It would have been nice to take a canal boat tour, but due to the bad weather they weren't running.Carl took all the pictures with his new camera. There is one you see in the slide show that is fuzzy but if you click on it, it should give you a clearer picturer.

In Copenhagen, the major way of transportation is the bicycle. As you can see in one of the pictures there is a double decker bike rack. You can rent them or own them. The suprising part was very few of them were locked up. Another favorite thing was the old fashioned baby carriages. It was nice to see the fathers walking the majority of them. That is common in both Copenhagen and Helsinki.




Finally we are home! It's been a great experience but we are glad to be home!

I will upload pictures a little later. Right now, we are trying to keep up with jet lag and get things done before Carl goes back to work tomorrow. Hope everyone is okay!!