November 2013
We took a short cruise to Mexico on the Carnival Inspiration in November 2013. While it was chilly, we still had a fun time.
Carnival Inspiration I
Norwegian Pearl to Alaska
June 2013
We took a cruise to Alaska on the Norwegian Pearl in June and the weather was perfect!
So excited to cruise Alaska with the family.
Day at sea, fun evening exploring the ship.
Red Onion Saloon, Skagway
White Pass Railroad
Bowling on the Norwegian Pearl
Halibut Fish & Chips on Creek Street
Swimming in the pool while sailing in Alaska.
Enjoys some relaxation onboard.
Victoria is absolutely charming! I loved the city, had high tea at the Fairmont, bought chocolates and wandered the quaint streets.
Last morning of the cruise….he couldn’t even stay awake for breakfast!
Exploring Seattle means Pike Place Fish Market first.
Rowan kept asking to eat all the fresh seafood we saw.
The famous Piroshky Russian Bakery was a required snack stop in Seattle!
Seattle from the Space Needle
What a great trip!
Beaches Turks & Caicos
September 2015
Back to my favorite family resort in the Caribbean! There are many reasons why I love it, the crystal clear blue water, the soft powder white sand, the amazing array of restaurants and bars, the food is really good, the accommodations are great and the butlers make everything easy. It is a huge resort so you can make your stay as active or as quiet if you want, the best of both worlds.
One of my favorite island groups and you can see why, it’s breathtaking!
First thing I do is get right in the water!
Barefoot by the Sea is a great spot for a seafood lunch in the sand, right from the pool or beach.
Love my family room, separate bedroom for the kids!
Good morning view from my balcony overlooking the Italian Village pool, then breakfast in Key West.
Fun cocktail hour on the boat with the butler serving cocktails and canapés.
Sunsets are too pretty!
Lunch at the Jerk Shack today, Jerk Chicken and Jamaican Meat Pies-yum!
Relaxing at the beach and by the pool, and cocktails with Janet.
Trying to ease back into reality at the Centurion Lounge in Miami…
New York Visit
June 2016
I love going home to visit family, we always go to all our favorite places we miss living in California.
Morning view over Central Park from the Parker New York.
Love the coffee shop in the Parker, it reminds me of the coffee houses in Vienna.
Have to have a bagel and smoked fish on the lower East Side.
Walking the Brooklyn Bridge.
A great view to the Freedom Tower.
The 911 Memorial
Rays Pizza in Greenwich Village
McSorley’s in Greenwich Village is the oldest continuously running bar in NYC.
Dinner on Mulberry Street in Little Italy with friends.
Subway back and view from the Parker.
Birthday Champagne Breakfast in bed!
Birthday Lunch at the Carnegie Deli, overstuffed corned beef, pastrami and chopped liver on soft rye bread!
Times Square
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Central Park is such a peaceful spot in the middle of Manhattan.
Afternoon relaxation at the rooftop pool of the Parker.
Top of the Rock in Rockefeller Center has spectacular views!
Norwegian Gem
June 2016
New England & Canada from
New York
We cruised to celebrate my parents 50th Anniversary! Eighteen of us, all five kids and grandkids, celebrated for a week and had an amazing time.
Starting the cruise off right!
Lunch the first day.
Enjoying the gorgeous day with the NYC backdrop behind us.
There is no better sail away than from New York on a sunny day.
Going under the Verrazano Bridge never gets old!
Lots of excitement and fun on the first night!
Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia was so beautiful! But it was a chilly day so chowder and lobster were in order!
We always met back up on deck and talked about our day.
Dinner in one of my favorite NCL restaurants, Le Bistro! Excellent French Cuisine and a sumptuous setting.
Woke up to beautiful lighthouses in Portland, Maine.
It’s such a typical New England town.
Of course a stop at a Lobster Pound was in order.
Back to the ship to relax and enjoy the pool.
Happy 50th Anniversary Mom & Dad!
The kids
The whole family
Enjoying the evening onboard.
Sailing into NY at sunrise is another favorite of mine!
Carnival Vista
We had our National Conference 2016 onboard the Carnival Vista for an 8 day Southern Caribbean itinerary.
The Vista is a whole new class of ship for Carnival and it’s beautiful and very big! I love the new color schemes and decor. There are sooooo many things for families to do on the ship from slides & splash pads to sky rides and ropes courses.
During the first session before we even left the dock I won a Princess Cruise! Arnold Donald, the CEO of Carnival Corporation and John Heald, Official Carnival Blogger, presented it to me.
First night fun at the party with friends and a taco from the Blue Iguana.
Another party tonight, picture with our CEO Brad Tolkin then an amazing lobster dinner. Our usual watering hole each night was the Havana Bar, my favorite! I just love the decor, the music and the drinks. Plus it opens onto an outdoor area at the back of the ship that is private during the day for Havana Suite guests only. It’s very tropical in theme with palm trees, cabanas and lounges around the pool.
Good morning Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos, one of my favorite island groups! Carole and I headed straight to the beach to relax in the crystal clear waters, powder white sand and swaying palm trees. I can just sit in the water all day!
The Chef’s Table was a culinary highlight! About 3 hours, you start in the galley and watch or help make many different appetizers to have with paired cocktails. The chefs tell you about the ingredients and methods, it’s very interesting. It’s fun, casual and entertaining. By the time we were halfway through I was stuffed! Then we were able to watch them make my favorite chocolate melting cake!!!
The Dominican Republic was another relaxing day. We were in La Romana and spent the day in the water and on the sand with cocktails.
More pictures of the ship, the Atrium, the Main Dining Room and another favorite place, the Alchemy Bar!
Tonight is the Awards Ceremony, it’s a highlight of the conference. It’s done like the Oscars with shows and entertainment between the different award categories.
I was proud to have won the Cruises Inc. Top Producer Awards for Disney Cruise Line and Disney Destinations!
Pictures with Debbie, Drew and Heather. What a great night!
We spent today in Curaçao and it was sunny then rain clouds, then sunny and finally the skies opened up! But we did get a gorgeous sunset and rainbow over Willemstad!
Day of work at sea.
But time for a nice Lobster Roll at the Seafood Shack.
Today we were in Aruba so we headed directly to beautiful Palm Beach and relaxed all day!
An amazing dinner with Drew, Mia and Carole at the Steakhouse. Food was beautifully presented and delicious.
Final dinner with friends until next year on the Harmony.
Delta One Service
I loved the service for Delta One from LAX. We flew to JFK and the reception there was just as great.
Walking into the check in lounge.
Rowan looking at some of the snacks.
They took our bags for us and walked us to the Sky Lounge to wait for our flight.
They drove us on the tarmac directly to our plane!
Upon arrival in New York we were whisked behind the scenes and walked through the back of the airport.
Two Porches waiting for us, drove us through the back of the airport.
And the back door into baggage claim where they got our bags for us.
Delta One is a great experience!
Panama
PANAMA CITY — BOCAS DEL TORO — BOQUETE — DAVID
Panama, where do I start?? I love Panama, it is a vibrant and exciting city with the famous Panama Canal and one of the fastest growing banking industries. The countryside and beaches are stunning, the wildlife is abundant and it reminds me of what Costa Rica was like before it became overrun with tourism.
Bocas Del Toro is an archipelago off the northeast shore of Panama near Costa Rica on the Caribbean.
Our beach is beautiful, I get to look at this every day, all day!
Our Coral Reef Ecology Class out on the reef.
Our Coral Reef instructor Al
Liz and I in the lab, there are old Apple IIe computers under those covers!
This is what happens when you put down your beer!
Poppy Romero’s house saw a few parties!
We are just laying in the shallow water talking.
View of our home
Some of the rustic cabins.
Fer de lance, or three step viper because you die three steps after being bitten. It’s considered one of the most dangerous snake in the Western Hemisphere!
One of my favorite places to sit and read in the late afternoon.
Our room with the big nets and our parrot friends.
The town of Bocas from the water.
Finally out after a week at the lab! Party time in Bocas town, there were lots of great little bars.
Back home and a party at Poppy Romeros.
Love the late afternoon sun while we waited for the dinner bell. I loved eating fish, rice and beans everyday.
I didn’t like when these guys would “click” into our room at night!
A weekend trip to Volcan Baru with a beautiful hike.
So many beautiful waterfalls, rivers, flowers and butterflies.
Great picture, we were in the cloud forest.
We loved the hot springs all over, felt great after all the hiking.
The stop sign looks different!
One of my favorite pictures! We were so excited to head to town for the weekend again!
Until the bus got stuck in the mud….
But we made it out and into Bocas town bars.
My girl Tiffany in the Primates Class.
Relaxing on our stoop.
Studying with my classmates.
Cool underwater pic.
Coming back from a hike…muddy hike to see the Howler Monkeys we hear all day.
The sunsets were crazy! Too beautiful for words.
The whole group, all the classes together for a farewell picture. What a great adventure and learning experience. Thank you ITEC-Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation, I learned so much from my few hours under water everyday, recaps after dinner, lectures, experiments, research and papers on Coral Reef Ecology course.
Costa Rica
OSA PENNINSULA-DRAKE BAY — GUANACASTE-NICOYA PENNINSULA-PLAYA TAMBOR — ARENAL — SAN JOSE
Costa Rica is a beautiful county with friendly people they callTico’s. Many don’t know that they have one of the highest literacy rates in the world at 97%!
I met Jeff in Costa Rica after I left Panama. It was an easy trip for me but I missed my first flight from Bocas Del Toro to Panama City. Thankfully there was another flight later on so I still made it to San Jose before Jeff. We spent the first night there then took off the next day for the Osa Penninsula down south on the Pacific side. We stayed in a beautiful resort on Drake Bay. Getting there was tough, small plane from San Jose, landing on a field, Jeep to the shore, wading in the water to get on the speed boat to take us to the resort!
There were little buildings with amazing views of the water and the whales that were constantly breaching. All you had to do was sit on the grass and wait to see them.
With no TV, WiFi or phones it was a perfect place to getaway.
Our room
Storm moving in
Cocktail hour and Jeff playing the guitar.
Yes I will marry you! Jeff proposed last night during a thunder and lightning storm, it was memorable with the sounds of the storm, the sounds of nature and no electricity, 100% natural ❤️
The pool and amazing views
Hard to see but after we went SCUBA diving with Black Tip Reef Sharks, we ran into a family of Humpback Whales. We all quietly got into the water and watched the mother, father and calf swim by, probably about 20 feet away from us! I almost lost my breath it was so amazing!
We spent another day hiking the rainforest and ended up cooling off in the waterfalls.
Next stop was Arenal, we were so excited to see the slowly and calmly erupting volcano but there were clouds for the days we were there.
Tabacon Hot Springs was a highlight! A beautiful resort with colorful flowers and a multi-tiered hot river running through it. They have the temperature posted for each pool and you can choose how hot you want your bath to be!
Next stop is the Nicoya Penninsula in Guanacaste. It is on the Pacific side and more north.
We stayed in Playa Tambor and it was beautiful.
Back to San Jose on our last day before flying home.
This was crazy to see in San Jose, this happened the day after we left. Thankfully we narrowly escaped this!
Ensenada
When we visit Ensenada we always eat!
Carnival Inspiration 2019
Crown Princess 2016
Since Anthony Bourdain loves Le Guerrerense I had to try it too. It’s just a street cart in an unassuming area of Ensenada. It is surrounded by bags of fresh shellfish, from clams and oysters to sea urchin and snails. Their specialty is tostadas and they shuck the shellfish right in front of you, slice it up and top the tostada, then of course a fresh squeeze of lime and some avocado. It is the freshest and tastiest tostada I have ever had! We tried so many of them and they were about $3.50 each! We will definitely be back.