Our First Night on the Ship

After we left the bay, it got cloudy and the wind and waves really picked up. I was surprised how much we could feel a large ship like that sway with the waves. We really had to hold on to rails and things to keep our balance. As I mentioned earlier, when there were particularly big swells, the elevators would make very loud clanging noises that were a bit disconcerting. The staff acted like it was completely normal, but I started to get sea sick after our second buffet dinner. We went to our staterooms, which for their size, were very nice and efficient. It felt better to lay down, but I didn't want to miss the introduction show in the elegant Princess Theatre. It went without a hitch as the singers, dancers, the comedian, Elliot Maxx, and activity directors really have their sea legs. Mr. Maxx performed with his guitar and sang a few original songs to familiar tunes like It's a Small World After All.





























Thanks kids for helping me remember the words,

When I booked this cruise on the internet,



I saw a picture of the room I'd get,
I didn't realize, it was actual size,
It's a small room after all.

After the show we went out on the 7th deck, The Promenade. It was very cold and the waves where breaking over the side onto that level. I thought the cold air might make my seasickness feel better, but it didn't. As it was too cold, we just went to bed. Our very nice steward, Stephan, who was from Romania had provided a most welcoming and lovely turn-down service. Rebecca and Rachel slept on the top bunks, which folded down from the ceiling at night, and the boys had their own room. I wish I'd gotten a picture of the other side of the room with the white topped, but oak lined dressing table, tv cabinet with fridge, and the convenient mirror shelf that I kept my room key, sunglasses, and camera on. We should have also gotten a picture of our tiny bathroom, with shower and interesting, space efficient fixtures. We stowed all our suitcases under the beds and in the large closet, while all our clothes fit in the drawers and on shelves and hangers.

The next day at sea was still pretty rough. Here's a picture of what it did to the 12th deck swimming pool.












































 

The Darkest Hour is just before Dawn - Day 6, Monday, July 30th

I was still wound a little tight as we completed the most logistical part of our trip with tagging our luggage, checking out of the hotel, dropping the kids and luggage by the pier as George, Rebecca and I returned the van and took a taxi back, being processed by security and getting our room/charge keys before boarding, and then trying to get oriented to the large cruise ship. We had just found the buffet and loaded our plates for our very late lunch when we heard the announcement to muster for the mandatory safety drill. We quickly stuffed our faces, found our rooms on Deck 5 where the life vests were, and then ran to Deck 7, the deck with the orange transport boats you see in the picture. Then after all that, we were finally able to slow down while everyone assembled on the upper decks, 11, 12 and 14, there was no 13, for the "Sail Away" party. I'm not really a loud party person, so I was wondering how much I was going to enjoy this cruise with all these snazzy, middle aged people sporting their $5 tropical drinks. We ended up settling on the more secluded part of  Deck 11 in the back of the boat for our delayed departure from the dock. I found an empty deck chair and tried to chill out while the rest of the family hung out at the rail.

The Dark Night of the Soul

It was a good thing we stopped at Dillon Beach because that was the last beach before the Cliffs of Insanity arose before us. As the night got darker, the road got steeper, narrower, and with tighter turns closer to the edge of the Cliffs. At first it was pretty fun, but after about an hour or so, I was wondering if it was ever going to end. The incline was so steep a number of times that I thought I was in one of my recurring bad dreams where I'm heading up a highway that gets steeper and steeper, higher, and narrower until I feel like I'm about to do a loop backward. I started praying Lord have mercy with every turn. I have to say I now have more respect for people in that area who are used to steep narrowness, and did I mention no guard rails? Just a view of the ocean far below, which I didn't even want to see at that point. Sometimes there would be a sassy little sports car that would shine it's high beams at our van's undercarriage to try to get past me. I sincerely wanted to let them by, but the only way on that continuous double yellow lined road was to pull over on intermittent "turnabouts" that were about the size of a postage stamp, with no guard rail, on a harrowing precipice. So ruining these people's pleasure cruises also made me more nervous. There were a couple of larger shoulder areas where I was finally able to let some of them pass. The only thing that made me feel better was that as we finally approached the end of the ocean cliff portion, an even larger RV started making it's way north towards us. We were like, turn back! This road was not meant for us!

Even as we headed into the redwood forest, the turns were still sharp as I had to keep in low gear going down those steep hills. I was pretty tired at that point so all the steering and braking really got tedious. George congratulated me, though, and said I went just the right speed, etc. I don't think he's so worried about my driving skills now, but I was so ready to turn the van back in the next morning, get on our Alaska-bound ship, and let somebody else drive. 

Sunday afternoon in California

After Liturgy we drove the short distance to the Golden Gate Bridge which was enshrouded by a cloud.
































































Our GPS told us that the nearest Wienerschniztel, hey, sometimes you get cravings, was in Oakland so we drove across Sausilito's pretty hills
































































to another bridge back to Oakland, which also had a mall where we bought jackets for the kids that didn't have them yet. San Francisco is chilly and windy in the morning and evening year round, but nice in the afternoon.

Then we drove back
across the bay
to tour the Napa valley wine vineyards



























































which, though beautiful, were a bit too commercial for our taste. We headed back west on 116, a moderately twisty turney up and down, forrested, sometimes with Redwoods, road, to get back on to hwy 1 before it got dark.



























































I'll just say that going north on hwy 1, south of San Francisco, with the ocean across the oncoming lane was different than our second experience. Coming up on the ocean in Jenner was innocent enough. Even though we were on the ocean side of the road, there was a shoulder and a bit of land before it dropped off onto the numerous public beaches. So we strolled along enjoying the views with those gentle golden hills on our left and planned to drive until sunset when we would park and let the kids play on the beach so as to maximize our view while we afforded a short pause in driving back to our southern San Francisco hotel. The vineyard map we had was not written to scale so we misjudged hwy 1's progress along the coast, and the gps only shows you about 3 miles of map at a time. Anyway it was a relaxing drive, with about 30 minutes until sunset, but then hwy 1 started going inland after Bodega Bay - isn't that where Hitchcock's The Birds is set? *insert sense of foreboding* After about 15 minutes, with the sun already playing hide and seek behind those lovely golden hills, I started to get nervous and asked George where the next public beach was. He said Dillon beach, but we couldn't tell how far it was, and we didn't know if would be faster to backtrack, which we seriously didn't want to do, or if Dillon would show up in time before the sunset. So I was really getting nervous thinking we were going to miss it. Then I saw a sign for Dillon beach, so we turned off hwy 1 to go straighter west toward the coast on a farm road. Those golden twisty turney up and down hills are so pretty! There were some interesting rock formations too in a valley area. I had renewed hope we'd make it back to the coast in time, but then there was a dumb, slow car in front of us that I


tailgated all the way to the coast which we barely got to, seconds before the sun dematerialized from view.












































































































 

,

The rest of Day 4 and Day 5 - San Francisco, Sunday. After all the day starts the previous sunset

We didn't have time to go to Yosemite as we had hoped. Instead we decided to take our time in Sequoia as it would have been too stressful to rush through both parks in one day. So we headed down the beloved mountains into California's fertile valley Saturday afternoon and with the aid of gps guidance found a chinese buffet in hot, dry Fresno. Just before sunset, we stopped at a fruit stand on our westerly route on hwy 152 and ate deliciously fresh cherries, grapes and nectarines for dessert. This road became dramatically gorgeous around Gilroy where the golden hills rose again to divide the valley from the ocean. Then the coastal redwoods guarded the best twisty turney, up and down road I've ever driven on. The difference was that the curves were banked so that you didn't feel like you were going to fall over the edges. It was like a nice smooth roller coaster. I strongly recommend this route to California coastal hwy 1. But it would be funner in a low profile sports car. Sadly it was almost dark when we got to the coast, but I could see and hear enough of the moonlit white-tipped waves crashing into the rocky coast, and smell and feel the salty, moist wind on that hilly highway to feel exaltation. The Texas coast is marshy or sandy, but flat. This was quite different.

We made our way to our hotel in southern San Francisco which we
approached along it's southern peninsula. Sunday morning we drove into the beautiful
but crowded city. It was a little nerve-racking navigating on the
one-way, steep, crowded streets and finding a place to park to attend
Liturgy.

Holy Virgin Cathedral was finished by St. John the Wonder-worker, who died a few days before I was born. We missed the English service, but the Church Slavonic was beautiful, and the choir heavenly (click here to another tab to get more of the Russian choral atmosphere). Understanding "Ghospodi pomilui"- "Lord have mercy" and "Slava"- "Glory" helped a lot. Also the Russian attendants were wonderful examples of humble, loving, devoted veneration of the Saints through their icons. Americans are much more timid and self-conscious about it. Some of the parishoners remember St. John in person and their love for him was very evident as they venerated his relics on the right side of the church and in the generous manner of the couple who gave us a tour of his original resting place below the Church. They had both been students in the Russian school surrounding the Church while he was serving there. Not that he still isn't.

 

Here's some mood music to go with the post below.

I've added a Collection called Way Out West Vacation 

Colors Of The Wind

Judy Kuhn

Sequoia National Park, Day 4, Saturday, July 28th

When we rounded the end of the Sierra Nevada's the terrain changed


































to rolling, grass covered hills. The grass got more golden and the hills more pronounced the further we progressed around the bend in the late afternoon towards our hotel in Visalia where we had reservations. I began to understand why California is called the "Golden State". Those were the most beautifully glowing golden hills I've ever seen. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of them, but this one is a little like them. We were pretty tired out when we got to the hotel so we finished off our lunch meat, and called it a day.

The next morning we drove for a gorgeous 30 miles of rivers, lakes, and green hills which grew into the Sierra's and Sequoia National Park.
























The Giant Trees grow at about 7000 feet and under that range's particular conditions, so once again we ascended switchback mountains on the scary, I mean thrilling, side of the road.
























And then we entered, tada!:

The weather was just perfect as we ascended further with our windows down into the expanding trees.



















After the Visitor's center area, the parking lot for access to General Sherman,
























the tree with the most mass, not the tallest, widest, or the oldest mind you, was quite a steep hike above the tree.
























Luckily there was a place to drop off those who didn't feel like exerting themselves that much, like Rebecca and you-know-who. The rest of us got quite the work-out.

The Park Ranger said he's about 2000 years old according to carbon dating, but with new methods he gets younger all the time. Here's some more pics of Sequia National Park:
















































































 

Intro to California

Don't worry, the brakes cooled down again as we emerged from the Valley
of the Shadow of Death. George and the kids say that was the only bad part of our trip. Adventurer me actually enjoyed the the far outness of the scenery, but I was glad and very relieved
when we finally made it out of there safe and sound with radiator
fluid, air conditioning, and brakes fully restored.

The DV Park Ranger had told us to not go through the Sierra Nevada's on
our way to Sequoia National Park as it is too twisty-turny and takes
longer than going around the southern tip of the range towards the town
of Mojave.

















He also told us to first take a slight diversion northwestward to Lone
Pine where a bunch of old westerns were filmed. Come to find out, if
you don't go to Lone Pine, there isn't any gas or restaurants for way
further than you probably want to travel on that southerly route. But
it was nice to stop at a fast food place for a late lunch of really
good Chipotle chicken taco salad. We all got huge drinks with refills.
Then we went to Lone Pine's Movie Flats which is located in the Alabama Hills



















on the desert eastern side of the Sierra Nevada's where many movies, including one of my favorite shows growing up, The Lone Ranger,
were filmed. I hadn't realized the beautiful mountain in the back drop
was Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48.














Glenn Hirsch,
the comedian on the ship said, "so what does that make Alaska, the 'upper one'"?
This would have been a great place to go 4 wheeling through the sand dunes.

We completed the wilderness portion of our journey south along the eastern edge of the High Sierra's with desolate dry lake and river beds on our left. The Park Ranger grabbed his chest when he showed us on his Death Valley map how Los Angeles sucked the rest of the water out of the region. I remember seeing a documentary on the aqueduct that dried up many people's farms in this valley between the Inyo Mountains and the SN's. This part of the trip took longer than expected, so we didn't make it to Sequoia National Park until the next morning. 

Turning the corner

Jordan, who is pursuing Criminal Justice with the goal of becoming a police officer and then maybe a detective, just came back from his first day at Weatherford College where his first class, "Introduction to Criminology was interesting with a tall teacher who sounded like Father Peter Gilquist and is the head of the whole Criminology department. He was pretty funny like when he said, 'if you don't have a book for this class, I suggest you go get one, the book store sells them for a very good price, only 10x what they're worth'." His next class, Intro to Sociology had a glitch because the teacher they had planned didn't work out so they got out early. That combined with the fact that he has a free hour between Soc. and History, made him able to come back home and get Ben and Jared for their first day.

I think it will be so cool to some day not too far off, take a picture of our three oldest sons wearing a police uniform, a cassock, and an air force uniform respectively. But as the Lord wills, and may He protect their paths.

We'd like to interrupt this programming...

This just in this week:

George's heart cath was negative for blockage (yay!) but we still don't know what's causing his tightness, pressure, dizziness and shortness of breath unless it's spasming coronary arteries which is undetectable on a heart cath. Therefore Friday George was fitted with a 30-day heart monitor, but of course has had no symptoms since then.

In response to complaints from the Tree Guild, I'd like to retract my statement about INSANE trees and amend it to trees with THRILL ISSUES who are addicted to stress and don't feel alive without it. Don't worry Bryan, I'm not quite that sensitive - anymore. : )

And Jared and Ben scored very well on their tests (the evaluator wants to frame them!) so they get to skip college Algebra and jump right into college level PreCalculus as high school seniors this semester, which is worth 4 credit hours and starts tomorrow at Weatherford Community College. We wish them success so that they can take Calculus 1 next semester.

Death Valley - Day 3, July 27

George drove most of the previous day as he has issues with letting me drive -it's the man's place, he is more relaxed if he is in control, and my reliance on my peripheral vision as well as my being (he thinks too) confident in my ability to gauge how long I can look away before any oncoming car or cliff can catch up with me (but I've never had a wreck while the car was moving, except for two slight mishaps at 2 miles an hour getting out of a gas station and out of my driveway, but I was a teenager!). So his chest must have been feeling a lot of pressure to let me drive on that 15 mile peninsula at the end of our Grand Canyon trek I told you about last entry. Uncharacteristically of me, I only stole a few glances at the emerging canyon as we went along the no-shoulder, narrow switchback road, mainly because I was trying to convince him to relax. The way out was scarier than the way in because the precipice was on the west side of the road. But the light was good and there were insane trees growing in cliff rocks to keep you from falling over so I was only mildly nervous - unlike how I felt on Highway 1 along the California coast but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The next morning he insisted on driving after we checked out of the Excalibur and headed through Las Vegas' Moon-like mountains into Death Valley's Mars ones. We were thinking being on Mars was pretty cool at the beginning "cool" part of the day as we made our way down below sea level to Death's visitor's center.Then you have to go back up and out for a very long way. They tell you to turn off your airconditioner so that your car wont overheat. So here it is above 100 degrees with my heart patient driving without airconditioning 'cause sure enough the engine began to overheat as we left Mars and ascended into Mercury's hot side. The mountains were obviously volcanic with the steam still coming out of the scattered black rocks which were laying everywhere. Hell would be having to walk barefoot through Death Valley. But still our brand new rental van's engine continued to overheat so we had to turn on the heater full blast to get it to cool down! Then the climb up and down Death's mountains began to melt the brakes and even when we were inspired to put the thing in low gear, we still had to pump the brakes and worried about sliding over the side as we took the turns. We only got one picture as our knuckles were too gripped to secure objects to even think about letting go to hold a hot camera.

The Grand Canyon - Day 2 cont.

The North Rim main visitor center area presented some spectacular views of the Grand Canyon, but it was sad to learn that what I thought was haze was really smog from mines and cities to the west. Is western progress really that necessary?














I'm thankful for advances in medicine and other comforts such as a convenient transportation that lets us visit 4 National Parks in 3 days but the quality of the visit is also diminished by effects such as this. I've always been "Indian" at heart, love the beads, buckskin, moccasins, and their spiritual communion with nature. That reminds me that our guide in Juneau was of Tlingit descent and the relaxed but vigilant way she spotted the bald eagle on a distant tree seemed inherited to me. What would America have been like



if we had been more cooperative with the Indian way of life? Too late now. Thanks Teddy Roosevelt for keeping some of it preserved. When he established the Grand Canyon as a National Park he said, "leave it exactly as it is." Remember that '70's polution commercial where the Native American stands by a littered smoggy highway with a tear rolling down his face?

This is taken after a 15 mile drive down a peninsula to the east of the main visitor center.




My back which has been bothering me for about 2 years now was starting to hurt by the time we got to this part, but the hike to the end of window rock was worth it. This shot shows how windy it was up there. It was also cold!

Day 2, July 26

So we woke up early, 9am our time, 7am Las Vegas time! and fed the kids McDonalds breakfasts as the rumors about cheap buffets weren't substantiated in our experience, while George and I drank our protein vitamin shakes. Then we headed northeast towards the Utah border and



















Zion National Park, which Father Stephen had so compellingly recommended. The geology was very diverse along the way varying from sand dunes to dramatically erupting dark stone edifices and chasms to striated sedimentary sandstone cut outs. But those scenes are on video, so I'll try posting them later. Here's some from Zion though. 
























It's frustrating that you can't get a sense of the immensity of the mountains through the photographs. They just trigger a memory of how overwhelmed I felt but now can't convey. It was a beautifully cool noontime as we drove through the park eating our sandwiches we made in the rental van after stopping at a grocery store. I already showed you a window in the 1.1 mile tunnel that Father Stephen had told me about. The switchback drive up the mountain to get to the entrance was gorgeous.



















Here's a lady rock climbing near the entrance. That is really zoomed in as she was hard to spot on the cliff above us.
























The terrain was different on the other side of the tunnel with neatly stacked layers of rock rather than eroded ones. When I get to heaven I would like to see a time lapsed movie of how the earth was formed, and the whole universe for that matter.

Then after all that drama, there was virtual flatness until we got closer to the Grand Canyon's north rim. tbc

What I did on my summer vacation - Day 1 cont.

Rebecca was a little nervous about take off and landing on her first flight at an aware age, but other than that, she took it all in stride. She loved the peanuts and soft drinks as well as the fold down tray and "reclining" seats. Southwest has new leather ones with improved lumbar and neck supports. There was a comedian on the ship that made fun of the reclining seats that only go back two inches and he demonstrated in small shifts of posture as if he were one of those dolls whose eyes close when they are supine, "awake", "asleep", "awake", "asleep". I forgot to recline one time and noticed no change in comfort. I guess it's supposed to make you think you are in more control of your environment than you actually are.

We got such a good deal on our flights because we had one touch down in El Paso and a lay over in Phoenix on our way to Las Vegas. On both flights, the touch downs caused a delay in arrival because they also use them to let on passengers whose flight delays made them miss their previous connections. I guess it increases their options and lets them fly more people cheaper. So since we got in Phoenix late, we thought that we only had 5 minutes to get to our next plane which was across the airport from where we landed. Not good news for George who gets symptoms in his chest upon exertion. Nevertheless we powerwalked down the treadmill, which Rebecca thought was way cool, to get to our gate. This indeed caused George to feel pressure and dizziness and made him take NTG - his nitro pill. Then we discover that Phoenix is two hours back from Dallas time, not just one! During these episodes the kids got a little quiet, but they seemed relaxed and enjoyed the new surroundings anyway, and thankfully they were short lived.

So we made it to Las Vegas, drug our luggage to our rental van, and checked in to our cool hotel,
if you can hold your breath as you pass through the smokey casino. The people at the slot machines made us all feel sad, but the rooms were nice. Then after dropping off our luggage we stopped at a drive through MacDonalds - $2 more expensive a meal than in Texas! - and headed to Hoover Dam.
























We got there just before sunset.
The glowing chasm was beautiful though I'm not sure how I feel about all the damming of once mighty rivers. (to get a bigger view, click on the pics. To get an even higher res view, click on it again on the next screen.)

Day 1 - July 25th

After all the planning, preparations, making reservations, shopping, scheduling pool vacation maintenance, dropping Kronk the bearded dragon at a friend's house, Pippin at the dog boarders, worrying about expenses, and leaving for the airport on time, it wasn't exactly a relief to finally be on our way because of George's new medical condition that he doesn't like to be talked about. But it's effects were such a big part of our trip, I don't see how I can write about the trip without mentioning it. Why are men so reluctant to talk about any problems? Since he is so reluctant, and hadn't even discussed it in detail with me, you can see what a big deal it was for him to take himself to the doctor a few weeks before our trip. I'll just say that he probably has cardiac ischemia and angina where the heart periodically - way too often - doesn't get enough blood supply and oxygen so that there are symptoms. The doctor won't know what's causing it until he does a heart catheterization which he wanted to do while we were gone and didn't like that we were going to go anyway. Well would you rather die having a very nice time or at your office desk? We picked the former, which by the mercy of God hasn't happened. His heart cath is scheduled for this Monday, please pray that they find the problem and fix it without further ado.

So until we got on the Dawn Princess to make our way to Southeast Alaska, we kept wondering if we were doing the right thing or if he should go ahead and check into a hospital in the cities we passed on the way to San Francisco because his symptoms got bad a few times, though characteristic of angina, they went away after taking newly prescribed nitro glycerin under the tongue. But once we were on the ship, he started to relax more which decreased his symptoms notably.  One thing that helped was that the ship's rocking motion made him not know if he were still dizzy or if it was the boat. He chose to believe it was the boat. And the first few days, there were high winds and waves that caused the ship to rock enough to make very loud clanging noises in the lovely elevators. I even got sea sick.

Back to driving to the airport in Dallas. It so happens that that morning there were terrible explosions of propane barrels in Dallas right by the intersection of I-30 and I-35, which was on our route, and which we could see a few miles before we got there.






















































We didn't hear what the cause of the upcoming billowing flames, smoke, and loud booms that swelled enormously and receded every few seconds until we turned on the radio after we had passed through flying, flaming barrel lids that went right over our van as we crossed the overpass getting on 35 from 30! That was at the peak of the fire, immediately after which they closed the highways. We would have missed our flight if we'd crossed one minute later. It was interesting seeing it on CNN at the Phoenix airport during our lay-over. More on Explosions here. And here's a video that shows the hurtling lids.

I guess smooth sailing wouldn't have been as exciting to write about after the fact. I'm glad for the distance time has given me to be able to write this knowing all 8 of us our 15 pieces of checked in luggage and 4 carry on's, as well as Pippin, Kronk, and the swimming pool survived intact.

More reasons I haven't written about our trip yet

What a hectic week so far! For me anyway as I prefer to only have one extra thing to do a day or less. Monday was get the final curriculum straight for this coming school year, including a call to Weatherford College to see about dual enrollment for Jared and Ben for their senior year of high school. They have done all the math Abeka offers since they completed Trig/Analytical Geometry last year. So I was told that for them to take Calculus at WCC I would need to fill out an early enrollment form, regular college application, and submit a transcript. Well that took all day yesterday as I hadn't conglomerated all their grades yet and had to find a transcript template on line, which I ended up modifying and making my own tables on WORD.

I guess it all turned out pretty well, because this morning as the three of us assembled at the College, the admissions counselor kept saying, "excellent" as he perused it. I have to admit I'm more impressed with their accomplishments after seeing them concentrated on 2 pieces of paper each. They've worked really hard to make good grades, and accrued 186 community service hours each! And that does not include serving as Altar boys and Choir members. But it does include Pysanki sale days, Peroghi making and sale days as well as food pantry and monastery and Mexico orphanage improvement projects.

Next they have to take a placement test and get cleared with the head of the Math Dept. The Counselor was really helpful and told them to come to his office and let him know after they scheduled their test and then again after they take it and he will personally register them without their having to stand in the long, last minute lines. Cool.

Ben's already started a post on the trip which will probably beat mine to the presses.

Ok, we're back

I was advised not to post our travel dates while we were gone for retrospectively obvious reasons. I'm not good at keeping secrets so it's been hard and not completely successful. But we had a really nice, once in a lifetime vacation that included planes, boats, buses, street cars, feet and automobiles. My percentage of being able to say, "been there, done that" has gone up significantly. I'd hoped to be able to post more under "friends and family" while we are gone, to be made public on our return, but the lack and expense of internet access was prohibitive. I only got one post in. And that one was rushed so I hope to reconstruct our trip now that we're back. It will also give me a chance to stay there for a while longer before school starts next week. Oh yeah, I have to call A Beka as they helped fill up our answering machine while we were gone with some curriculum ordering glitch. Back to real life.