CLEVER IDEAS

Clever Ideas

 

24 Clever Ideas to Make Life Easier  Why didn't I think of that?! You'll be uttering those words more than once at these ingenious little tips, tricks and ideas that solve everyday problems. Hull strawberries easily using a straw.  Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes.  Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or computer screen with WD40.  Stop cut apples browning in your child's lunch box by securing with a rubber band.  Overhaul your linen cupboard, store bed linen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match.  Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone & iPod in a bowl. The concave shape amplifies the music.  Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags.  Add this item to your beach bag. Baby powder gets sand off your skin easily, who knew?!  Attach a Velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys.  Use wire to make a space to store gift wrap rolls against the ceiling, rather than cluttering up the floor.  Find tiny lost items like earrings by putting a stocking over the vacuum hose. Make an instant cupcake carrier by cutting crosses into a box lid.  Forever losing your bathroom essentials? Use magnetic strips to store bobby pins, tweezers and clippers, behind a vanity door Store shoes inside shower caps to stop dirty soles rubbing on your clothes. And you can find them in just about every hotel.  A muffin pan becomes a craft caddy. Magnets hold the plastic cups down to make them tip-resistant.  Bread tags make the perfect cord labels.  Bake cupcakes directly in ice-cream cones, so much more fun and easier for kids to eat.  Microwave your own popcorn in a plain brown paper bag. Much healthier and cheaper than the packet stuff. Install a tension rod to hang your spray bottles.  Turn your muffin pan upside down, bake cookie-dough over the top and voila, you have cookie bowls for fruit or ice-cream.  Freeze Aloe Vera in ice-cube trays for soothing sunburn relief.  Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering.  Use egg cartons to separate and store your Christmas decorations.

 

2012 August, Cruising the Baltic on NCL with Cathy and Mike.

    

IT’S AUGUST,2012, AND WE ARE OFF FOR AN NCL CRUISE!

August 10:  Richard ‘buttoned up’ the house and Brenton took us to OIA.  I TAGGED MY RENTED WHEELCHAIR, AND THE ATTENDANT TOLD ME IT WOULD ALWAYS GO WITH ME ON THE PLANE. In Atlanta by 12:30 we had plenty of time to find our gate.  We had a brief lunch and headed to International flights to wait for our 3:15 to Paris.  Cathy and Michael joined us there, and I left the chair at the plane door, as instructed. (but that was the last I saw of it.) Our seating was quite close and crowded and no one slept very much.

 

August 11: We arrived at CDG air port at 6:10, waited for my wheelchair which never appeared.  After forty minutes an attendant appeared with a chair and pushed me what seemed a mile through the Paris Air Port, with the three others following.  We missed our flight to Copenhagen, and found out our bags were all still in Atlanta.  Tense hours later we were finally put on a plane to CHN, and there reported missing luggage and wheelchair.  A taxi took us to the ship through the middle of Copenhagen, and described the city quite well as we traveled.  One stop for Richard to look for clothes (no luck) and we were at the ship.  At check-in we made a full report of our four missing bags, and got to our cabin about an hour before we sailed.  Food on 11^th deck staved off hunger until dinner.  It had been a long day, and Richard and I retired early.  Cathy bought a top in the ship store, as they had an early tour.

 

August 12: Germany: Cathy and Mike took a thirteen hour tour to Berlin, on the train, and then a tour bus, and saw such historical sights as the site of the former Wall, but found a completely modern city. After sight-seeing she had time for shopping, and bought a Christmas candle tree, but had it shipped.  Richard left the ship to explore the port, but found nothing open (Sunday) but restaurants.  We were in Warnemunde, which was a port formerly in the Eastern Zone.  Mostly I rested.

 

August 13: Monday was a sea day.  Ship shops were open all day, and Richard found underwear.  I bought sweat pants and a tee shirt, but in my carry-on I had packed one extra set of underwear and socks.  Cathy found the casino, played a while and came out about even.  We like eating in the restaurant and being served.  We found the food choices more limited than previous cruises, but the service was excellent.  Mike suffered a cold, and slept a lot.  We are all glad of our Kindles.

August 14:  Still wearing the clothes we left home in on Friday, we took a sight-seeing tour of Tallinn, the capitol city of Estonia, and previously a Soviet state.  It is a Medieval town, dating mostly from about 1000 A.D., and is now a ‘democratic republic’.  One of the most impressive sits was a war memorial.  It is a sea coast town, only 82 miles across the Baltic from Finland, with which they claim similar heritage and language.  In shops near the ship Cathy and Mike bought a few souvenirs and she got an amber necklace and earrings, for their anniversary, which is this week.  When we all got back on the ship we were told our luggage had arrived, and would be sent up later.  We sailed for St Petersburg.  Sure enough, after dinner the bags were at our cabin.  We were ever so thankful for clean clothes!!  Richard was disappointed to find his new hard-side suitcase had a big dent in it.  There were shows every night but for the most part we did not take advantage of them.  The ship is very large, and walking everywhere left me very tired by nightfall.

 

August 15:  St Petersburg.  Before we could go ashore everyone had to fill out a Visa form, in duplicate, which contained all the information on our passports, but they were required also.  Then before we could get on the tour buses we went through Russian customs.  Once we got started, the first thing we saw was a huge complex of high-rise apartments.  They were close together and appeared to be somewhat flimsy.  Later our tour guide told us they were very cheaply built in the seventies, that the walls were so thin if one coughed on the second floor people on the eighth could hear them.  She also said they were soon to be torn down.  She was trim and attractive, and spoke English quite well.  On this bus tour we traveled through several neighborhoods of wide tree-lined boulevards and frequent parks, while she indicated the important buildings.  They were substantial, most a few hundred years old.  Peter the Great built St Petersburg on the river there, and on 21 islands.  Surprising to us was that they have more canals and waterways than Venice!  It was a very clean city, with so few signs that we wondered where were the grocery stores and shops, where were the schools? (other than the University, which she pointed out.  After several minutes of watching people on the sidewalks, it dawned on us that we saw no fat people at all, rather skinny actually, most of them.  There are many churches in St Petersburg, but most are museums.  She actually mentioned that services (Orthodox) were held on Sundays in two of them.

      Cathy and Mike had a much more interesting tour that day.  It was a full day tour, which included Catherine the Great’s castle, and the Hermitage, which houses thousands of objects d’art, from many famous artists.  They also had lunch served in the Hermitage, but were not greatly impressed by Russian cuisine.

 

 

August 16:  Still in St Petersburg, the four of us together took a combination bus and boat tour, and we seemed to see much more from the tour boats.  Both days included one stop at a small shop, where we could buy Santa ornaments, nesting dolls, chess sets, sample vodka, etc. It was small, but was so stuffed with goods there was no vacant wall space.  Richard bought me an apron, and Cathy got Christmas ornaments.  The weather was nice and we really enjoyed the boat ride.   Bridges were only a block apart, and one young man raced from bridge to bridge to wave to us! As mentioned, signs were scarce, with only corporations such as Coke, Volkswagen, and Samsung being obvious.

Most impressive of the churches was one built on the spot where a ruler was killed, known as the “church of the spilled blood”.  We went inside to see the mosaics, the art work, and the icons.  Our next port was Finland.

 

August 17:Helsinki has about the same population as greater Orlando, and the whole country has fewer than the state of Florida.  Boat building is an important industry, as is lumber. We walked about a quarter mile to a park, from which we took a boat ride while the tour guide gave us statistics and facts about the country.  The Royal family has a castle right in Helsinki, and  all the government buildings are close by.  The largest church is a Methodist, and their favorite son was obviously Sibelius.  A park dedicated to him has giant pipes that ‘sing’. From the boat we walked through a huge street market selling all kinds of crafts and hand-made goods.  Cathy fell in love with a sweater, but it was $800 Euros!  They claim not to have been involved in the second World War, which meant that they accommodated their neighbors enough not to be invaded.

 

August 18: Stockholm, Sweden is also very much a land and water city.  Again we toured by bus and boat.  They also have a Royal Family who lives mainly outside Stockholm, but the royal castle is right there next to their state house, and that’s where official functions, dinners, balls take place.  It is a bit larger and more modern than Helsinki, with somewhat more trade, but their trades are pretty much the same.  Both are so near the arctic circle that winters afford only six hours of daylight, so people go and come from work in the dark.  Both boast of extensive cultural opportunities, which were more obvious in Sweden.  We remarked several times that they were an attractive race of people.

 

August 19: Another sea day gave us a chance to enjoy all the boat had to offer.  We slept late,  browsed the shops, Cathy and I made more contributions to the casino.  Richard and Mike enjoyed a stage show, an illusionist.  The shops offered folk items from Russia, gemstone jewelry from around the world, and mostly clothes with the Norwegian Logo. All things we could do without.  Cathy and Mike celebrated their twenty-third wedding anniversary, and the restaurant personnel sang to them, quite beautifully.

 

August 20: We were packed and ready to depart so took our own baggage off the ship and waited our turn for a taxi.  Our return trip took us through Amsterdam, where we had a lengthy wait, then boarded a KLM for Atlanta.  The return flight was significantly better.  The plane was a bit more spacious, the food much better, and the attendants very helpful.

Back in Atlanta  we cleared customs and went in search of the wheelchair we left behind.  We had no luck at all, although Richard spent hours then and the next day trying to find the right place to file  a claim.  It was late, we were tired, and so we spent the night at the Airport Hyatt, where I had reserved a room.

 

August 22:  We were so glad to see friend Carl F., who came to the Orlando Airport to pick us up. We were also happy to see home again, where frequent rain had kept the grass and plants green,  lawn service kept it trim and neat, and Carl had cleaned the pool!

 

      2012 August, Cruising the Baltic on NCL with Cathy and Mike.

 

IT’S AUGUST,2012, AND WE ARE OFF FOR AN NCL CRUISE!

August 10:  Richard ‘buttoned up’ the house and Brenton took us to OIA.  I TAGGED MY RENTED WHEELCHAIR, AND THE ATTENDANT TOLD ME IT WOULD ALWAYS GO WITH ME ON THE PLANE. In Atlanta by 12:30 we had plenty of time to find our gate.  We had a brief lunch and headed to International flights to wait for our 3:15 to Paris.  Cathy and Michael joined us there, and I left the chair at the plane door, as instructed. (but that was the last I saw of it.) Our seating was quite close and crowded and no one slept very much.

 

August 11: We arrived at CDG air port at 6:10, waited for my wheelchair which never appeared.  After forty minutes an attendant appeared with a chair and pushed me what seemed a mile through the Paris Air Port, with the three others following.  We missed our flight to Copenhagen, and found out our bags were all still in Atlanta.  Tense hours later we were finally put on a plane to CHN, and there reported missing luggage and wheelchair.  A taxi took us to the ship through the middle of Copenhagen, and described the city quite well as we traveled.  One stop for Richard to look for clothes (no luck) and we were at the ship.  At check-in we made a full report of our four missing bags, and got to our cabin about an hour before we sailed.  Food on 11^th deck staved off hunger until dinner.  It had been a long day, and Richard and I retired early.  Cathy bought a top in the ship store, as they had an early tour.

 

August 12: Germany: Cathy and Mike took a thirteen hour tour to Berlin, on the train, and then a tour bus, and saw such historical sights as the site of the former Wall, but found a completely modern city. After sight-seeing she had time for shopping, and bought a Christmas candle tree, but had it shipped.  Richard left the ship to explore the port, but found nothing open (Sunday) but restaurants.  We were in Warnemunde, which was a port formerly in the Eastern Zone.  Mostly I rested.

 

August 13: Monday was a sea day.  Ship shops were open all day, and Richard found underwear.  I bought sweat pants and a tee shirt, but in my carry-on I had packed one extra set of underwear and socks.  Cathy found the casino, played a while and came out about even.  We like eating in the restaurant and being served.  We found the food choices more limited than previous cruises, but the service was excellent.  Mike suffered a cold, and slept a lot.  We are all glad of our Kindles.

August 14:  Still wearing the clothes we left home in on Friday, we took a sight-seeing tour of Tallinn, the capitol city of Estonia, and previously a Soviet state.  It is a Medieval town, dating mostly from about 1000 A.D., and is now a ‘democratic republic’.  One of the most impressive sits was a war memorial.  It is a sea coast town, only 82 miles across the Baltic from Finland, with which they claim similar heritage and language.  In shops near the ship Cathy and Mike bought a few souvenirs and she got an amber necklace and earrings, for their anniversary, which is this week.  When we all got back on the ship we were told our luggage had arrived, and would be sent up later.  We sailed for St Petersburg.  Sure enough, after dinner the bags were at our cabin.  We were ever so thankful for clean clothes!!  Richard was disappointed to find his new hard-side suitcase had a big dent in it.  There were shows every night but for the most part we did not take advantage of them.  The ship is very large, and walking everywhere left me very tired by nightfall.

 

August 15:  St Petersburg.  Before we could go ashore everyone had to fill out a Visa form, in duplicate, which contained all the information on our passports, but they were required also.  Then before we could get on the tour buses we went through Russian customs.  Once we got started, the first thing we saw was a huge complex of high-rise apartments.  They were close together and appeared to be somewhat flimsy.  Later our tour guide told us they were very cheaply built in the seventies, that the walls were so thin if one coughed on the second floor people on the eighth could hear them.  She also said they were soon to be torn down.  She was trim and attractive, and spoke English quite well.  On this bus tour we traveled through several neighborhoods of wide tree-lined boulevards and frequent parks, while she indicated the important buildings.  They were substantial, most a few hundred years old.  Peter the Great built St Petersburg on the river there, and on 21 islands.  Surprising to us was that they have more canals and waterways than Venice!  It was a very clean city, with so few signs that we wondered where were the grocery stores and shops, where were the schools? (other than the University, which she pointed out.  After several minutes of watching people on the sidewalks, it dawned on us that we saw no fat people at all, rather skinny actually, most of them.  There are many churches in St Petersburg, but most are museums.  She actually mentioned that services (Orthodox) were held on Sundays in two of them.

      Cathy and Mike had a much more interesting tour that day.  It was a full day tour, which included Catherine the Great’s castle, and the Hermitage, which houses thousands of objects d’art, from many famous artists.  They also had lunch served in the Hermitage, but were not greatly impressed by Russian cuisine.

 

 

August 16:  Still in St Petersburg, the four of us together took a combination bus and boat tour, and we seemed to see much more from the tour boats.  Both days included one stop at a small shop, where we could buy Santa ornaments, nesting dolls, chess sets, sample vodka, etc. It was small, but was so stuffed with goods there was no vacant wall space.  Richard bought me an apron, and Cathy got Christmas ornaments.  The weather was nice and we really enjoyed the boat ride.   Bridges were only a block apart, and one young man raced from bridge to bridge to wave to us! As mentioned, signs were scarce, with only corporations such as Coke, Volkswagen, and Samsung being obvious.

Most impressive of the churches was one built on the spot where a ruler was killed, known as the “church of the spilled blood”.  We went inside to see the mosaics, the art work, and the icons.  Our next port was Finland.

 

August 17:Helsinki has about the same population as greater Orlando, and the whole country has fewer than the state of Florida.  Boat building is an important industry, as is lumber. We walked about a quarter mile to a park, from which we took a boat ride while the tour guide gave us statistics and facts about the country.  The Royal family has a castle right in Helsinki, and  all the government buildings are close by.  The largest church is a Methodist, and their favorite son was obviously Sibelius.  A park dedicated to him has giant pipes that ‘sing’. From the boat we walked through a huge street market selling all kinds of crafts and hand-made goods.  Cathy fell in love with a sweater, but it was $800 Euros!  They claim not to have been involved in the second World War, which meant that they accommodated their neighbors enough not to be invaded.

 

August 18: Stockholm, Sweden is also very much a land and water city.  Again we toured by bus and boat.  They also have a Royal Family who lives mainly outside Stockholm, but the royal castle is right there next to their state house, and that’s where official functions, dinners, balls take place.  It is a bit larger and more modern than Helsinki, with somewhat more trade, but their trades are pretty much the same.  Both are so near the arctic circle that winters afford only six hours of daylight, so people go and come from work in the dark.  Both boast of extensive cultural opportunities, which were more obvious in Sweden.  We remarked several times that they were an attractive race of people.

 

August 19: Another sea day gave us a chance to enjoy all the boat had to offer.  We slept late,  browsed the shops, Cathy and I made more contributions to the casino.  Richard and Mike enjoyed a stage show, an illusionist.  The shops offered folk items from Russia, gemstone jewelry from around the world, and mostly clothes with the Norwegian Logo. All things we could do without.  Cathy and Mike celebrated their twenty-third wedding anniversary, and the restaurant personnel sang to them, quite beautifully.

 

August 20: We were packed and ready to depart so took our own baggage off the ship and waited our turn for a taxi.  Our return trip took us through Amsterdam, where we had a lengthy wait, then boarded a KLM for Atlanta.  The return flight was significantly better.  The plane was a bit more spacious, the food much better, and the attendants very helpful.

Back in Atlanta  we cleared customs and went in search of the wheelchair we left behind.  We had no luck at all, although Richard spent hours then and the next day trying to find the right place to file  a claim.  It was late, we were tired, and so we spent the night at the Airport Hyatt, where I had reserved a room.

 

August 22:  We were so glad to see friend Carl F., who came to the Orlando Airport to pick us up. We were also happy to see home again, where frequent rain had kept the grass and plants green,  lawn service kept it trim and neat, and Carl had cleaned the pool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011 September visit to New England

 

 

FALL VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND

 

 

Richard and I had not been to New England for a couple of years, so in September, 2011, we decided to visit Ginny and Ron (Richard’s sister and her husband, Ronald Hogg). We arrived about 4:00 p.m., and got a bus to Cape Cod, but it was 7 by the time we got to Ginny’s.

Wednesday, September 21

 

It was a long, fun day.  Ginny drove us through Boston to Melrose, where we observed that the folk's house has now been changed from Brown to white.  (bet that took a bunch of paint)  After looking around at the changes since their last visit, Ginny and Richard were ready to go on to Marblehead, where Richard was born, and spent much of his childhood.  The day was beautiful, sunny, pleasant temp.  After time on the Neck, we went through the town and to the cemetery, where Lee and Dick are buried.

We were looking for the Clam Box, but it took quite a bit of back and forth driving for Ginny to find it (near Rowley, where the Jewetts of 1836 first lived.  We found it, ordered Clam Dinners for all, and such a plate you never saw!  But we made a great headway.  I was the only one not cleaning my plate, but took the rest home.

Back on Cape Cod Ginny fed us, Richard finishing my clams.

 

Wednesday, October 22.

Rainy, as the weather man said it would be all weekend.  The four of us took a ride to find a shoe store.  In Sandwich we found one, and it had 9AA! And in Trotters!  My favorite shoe....a 1 inch heel black pump. 

Lighthouse and Coast Guard Station on the Cape Cod Canal.

Thursday,Sept.23

We decided to go to the mall in Hiannis.  There I found another pair of shoes, sandals.  We had separated, so I waited in the food court for the return  of Richard and Ginny.  On the way home Ginny ordered Lobsters, which were ready at 5.  They were delicious, but were nor filling out their shells.  (Better time for Lobsters -  Spring) We had a spare, and with what I didn't eat, there was enough for lobster rolls on Saturday

I'm also getting a lot of reading done on my Kindle.

 

Saturday, September 24 , 2011

G,R and I decided to go back to the Hyannis Mall movie, to see "Contagion", Glynnis Paltrow, Matt Damon,  It was very close tothe book, but the story could have been done better. Sunday, September 25, 2011Sunday, September 25

 

Scott and Stacey Hogg had invited us to a cook-out at their home in Bridgewater.  But first we had to attend a junior football game, in which their two older boys played.  We sat with the twins, who are adorable, friendly smart and cute. 

 

Scott and Stacey bought a foreclosure, which has four floors, including the basement, Six bedrooms, a mother-in-law suite, and sits on 2 acres of land.  It is beautifully landscaped, which Ron takes care of, and has a nice pool.  Best of all, when they get to High School, the boys can walk.  Their youngest who is just three took to Richard, but all the kiids are super friendly, acted as if they had known us for ever.

 

Carol (Hogg) joined us for lunch.  She lives only a mile from Scott.

  

Richard shows the boys his camera pictures.

 

Monday, September 26

 

On our last day to enjoy Ron and Ginny we took a ride, visited the Glass museum in Sandwich, (the site of America's first glass factory, in early 1800s) and then visited the Coast Guard Museum on the Cape Cod Canal, and had lunch at Sea Food Sam's next door.

When I was packing the lid came off some night cream, onto Ginny's dark blue comforter! I tried to get it off, with towel, damp cloth and soap, but the residue stayed.  I left the next morning without telling Ginny, and worried about it after we got home for two days before I emailed her about it.  She assured me that it was a duvet cover which came off and could be laundered in the washing machine.  I was SOOO relieved!

 

Tuesday , September 27

It was a very long day.  We left Ginny and Ron's house at 7:30  for our 11:00 o'clock plane, and had plenty of time in the airport.  Then we had to change planes in Baltimore, with a three hour wait, so it was 8:30 when we got home, (Ed and Heather met us) and went to FAT BOYS for dinner, but they were closed, so we had wings at PG's (I had never been there before, although it is close by the Kissimmee Post Office.

 

We truly had a great time.  I found a couple of books for my greats, which I’ll be sending.

 

Now we are planning a cruise with Carol and George, and DJ Dillon.  We leave the 23^{rd of October 2011}.for the Western Carribbean.

 

Cruising South America and the Panama Canal

CRUISING SOUTH AMERICA AND THE PANAMA CANAL

Excited?  Of course we were, and getting checked in to an Airline we’d never even heard of before: a Chilean flight on Aviance.  The helpful lady checking us in said she was from Colombia, which was our first stop.  It was in the middle of the night when we landed in Bogota, and a helpful skycap took us to their international waiting room.  Lots of work was going on in their airport, and what we saw was quite modern.  We were at a high elevation, and the evening was cool and comfortable.  Our connecting flight to Santiago, Chili came two hours later, and we met the plane on the far reaches of the airport.

By 5:30 we off the plane in Santiago.  We got our luggage, and my wheelchair, and on the way out of baggage claim a woman with a “Holland American” sign directed us to a coffee shop to await our bus to the port at Valparaiso,  about a hundred miles away.  We were off by 8:00, with a chaperon who said our ship was still two hours from reaching port, therefore we would have a coffee stop, and a tour along the way, especially in the port city.

Chili is quite modern – more so than the other countries we visited.  Skiing in the Andes is only an hour and half from Santiago.  Their exports include copper (we saw an open-face mine) and aluminum, and lots of wine.  The country we passed through looked very much like southern California.  Our guides said that Chili gets virtually no storms: no hurricanes or tornadoes.  Occasionally they get earthquakes.

Valparaiso and its neighboring town are full of 1700’s architecture, and before the canal was built, it is said to have been South America’s busiest city.

The ship actually started this cruise in Argentina, and many of the people on board had already been on their voyage for two weeks.  They had been disappointed by the weather when they rounded the tip of the continent, with weather too bad to make a couple of ports.  About four p.m. we were under power and out into the Pacific Ocean.  We went to dinner at a quarter of seven, told the maitre de we would sit with others, and joined two ladies.  Shortly afterward a youngish middle aged couple joined us.  All four of the strangers were from Auckland, N.Z., but didn’t know each other.  They were excellent companions,and we ate with some or all of them several times on the journey, with a farewell dinner together on the last night.

Susan Finlayson was about 60, works for NZ Airline, and had met Mary, her cabin mate, just before leaving NZ, but they were cabin mates.  Mary Reardon was 53, program director of a retirement village.  (Both were, or had been married) Robin and Jennifer have a novelty shop in Auckland, which he described as Angels and Devils.  Robin is also a glassblower, has a great gift of gab, full of stories, never met a stranger, and we soon enough had invitations to visit!

At the Next port, still in Chili, I believe the only reason the ship stopped was for an archaeological expedition, which we did not take.  I didn’t get off the ship, but took a few pictures of the impoverished town on the hillside from the ship. Richard walked around a bit.

Next was Millaflores/Lima, Peru, and we were there two days, so that some folks could take the excursion to Machu-Pichu.  It involved a flight, an overnight hotel stay, strenuous walking, and it cost almost as much as the rest of the cruise!  Richard got some wonderful seaside pictures from the cliffs overlooking the Pocific at Millaflores.  On our second day there we took an excursion called “Lima, Then and Now”.  The first part took us to a 1790’s house right next to the capitol building, occupied since that time by the same family. (A woman of 101 still lives there;we didn’t see her.)  The house was filled with furnishings, paintings, artifacts, throughout the past three hundred years, and had a wonderful courtyard, with plants almost that old!  The second part of that tour was to the home of a contemporary architect and his wife.  It was modern, but also had a courtyard.  The point of interest here was a collection of more than 2000 religious ornaments, crèches, paintings, that he had collected.  In the patio courtyard we were served a refreshing drink by the master himself: a concoction of apricot, blueberry, white wine, and who knows what else…he said the recipe had been in his family for 140 years.     We made another stop in Peru, at a town much less desirable than Lima.  It was truly a third-world kind of town and country-side, with people literally living in big boxes on a hillside.  The town had a Colombian era church, but not much else.

After a day at Sea we were next in Equador.  It seemed a little more prosperous than the last stop in Peru.  A change of government in recent years has evidently helped.  Here we went to a museum, which housed a few artifacts and lots of school-kid art.  Then we went about twenty miles inland, to Montecristi.  This is where PANAMA hats are actually made, and we were able to observe all the steps they take in manufacturing:  splitting palm fronds into thin straws, weaving, which appeared to be labor intensive and backbreaking work – but every hat is made by hand.  They sell from $25 to $500., depending on how much labor is required, how fine the weaving.  After weaving the hat is pressed with an old fashion iron, heated on a stove.  We each bought a hat of the cheaper variety.

The guide also told us that Peace Corp volunteers had been here off and on since the 60’s.  One family stayed, and exports to America the crafts of Ecuador.  We visited another factory where  “vegetable ivory” – very had nuts of a palm tree – are made into buttons, costume jewelry, etc.

Another two days at sea and we were in Panama.  Richard and I took an excursion bus which allowed one to get off and on at certain spots.  One place was a new and extremely upscale mall.  The stores ranged from GAP to CARTIER’S but the emphasis was definitely on the higher priced stores. (They did have delicious ice cream)  Floors, columns were all white marble,  What wasn’t marble was shiny stainless steel(I guess that’s what it was). 

We had seen the demonstrations of the canal offices on a previous cruise, but we had not been through the locks on a ship (Before, we traveled by train coast to coast through Panama)  There were four locks in all.  We started into the canal at 8:00 a.m., and reached the Atlantic about 6:00, so it took all day.

The ship had been attacked by a digestive virus that made many people sick, so from about the third day no one was allowed to touch anything that other travelers had touched.  That meant that in the buffet, we pointed and a n attendant served our plates.  In the dining room salt, pepper, sugar, bread and butter were all removed from tables, and an attendant provided what you needed.  Now coming out of the canal, in spite of all those efforts, and having antiseptic at every turn of the ship…Richard and I came down with the ailment.  It meant staying in our cabin and having room service (but we didn’t really feel like eating) for two days.  Fortunately there was a sea day, and the visit to San Blas Islands, and everyone told us we didn’t miss much there.

By the time we reached Jamaica I was feeling fine, and Richard much improved.  We took a tour that took us to a church built in 1790, the oldest in Jamaica, and to a 1790’s home of the Barrett family (Elizabeth B Browning’s father was born here, her brothers ran the 2000 acre plantation devoted to indigo and sugar cane)  We were impressed at how the construction of the building captured sea breezes, making the excessive heat more tolerable.  Nowhere else did we see so many blooming flowers as in Jamaica.  Most were varieties we also have in Florida.  But now that we were back in the northern hemisphere we were back to springtime, while all the South American countries were having fall.

Our last stop was at the Cayman Islands, which we have visited four or five times on other cruises.  We had seen the turtles, the crocodiles and we had been to “Hell”, a volcanic eruption that surely looks like Hades.

Our flight time home from Ft Lauderdale was 10:30.  But that time came and went with everyone still aboard the ship, waiting to clear customs.  When we finally got off and were told we’d have to wait for the next day’s flight to Orlando, we knew there HAD to be a different way.  So at 2:30 we boarded a US Air flight to Charlotte, with a transfer back to Orlando, and got to O-town at 8:00 p.m.  No grandchildren available, so we got a cab…only to realize when we got home that we had no house keys! A call to Brenton brought him from his job at the bowling alley within about ten minutes. Home safe and  SOUND!