Cruise life and eating

What can I say about cruising to the Caribbean onboard Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas? First, there's the food, lots and lots of it. Had breakfast and lunch mostly in the Windjammer Buffet which had a varied menu. Eating there was fast but crowded. Among the more memorable dishes I liked were the Indian curries and lentil, the jerk chicken and of course the desserts. CJ, our Singles International concierge, had reserved tables for dinner at the Great Gatsby main dining room where the menu changed daily except for some permanent classic dishes. I ditched my diet and ordered multiple appetizers, or 2 main courses or 2 desserts. The food was pretty good. My favorites were the escargots, steak, and lamb shanks; for desserts I liked the souffle and everything chocolate. The Maryland crab cake appetizer did not come close to the real thing and I should know!

Buttery and garlicky escargots (without shells), sopped up with sliced bread. Yum! I ordered this appertizer 3 times, not often you can get escargots although Lidl sometimes has them frozen in their shells.

Way too big slices of prime rib done the way S. and I liked it!

I kept forgetting to take photos of the dishes I tried, I was so eager to taste them. Below was garlic tiger shrimp with rice and chocolate souffle (really good).

The best part of the dining experience was eating with the STI group, it was a lot of fun, especially sitting at the small table with the three ladies (you know who you are)! There was also specialty dinning in three different restaurants: Giovanni's Table (Italian), Izumi (Japanese) and Chop Grill (American). I signed up for Italian food was somewhat disappointed since I have slightly different expectations, having lived in Italy for 5 years.

Lots of activities to keep busy. I joined fellow cruise mates in the morning stretching and Zumba classes, line and Latin dance classes, silent disco, shuffle board, name that tune trivia during happy hours (closest was about 50% right), got into the solarium pool, etc.

A highlight was the balloon drop when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve. It was rather crowded at the Centrum, so a number of us watched it from the balconies on the upper floors, toasting the new year with champagne offered by the ship's crew. A great way to greet the new year. I went to bed shortly after since I had a shore excusion at our first stop in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

Embarkation day!

Spent a very restful night in my room at the Hyatt, a big difference from sleeping in Millie of course! Met more fellow cruisers at breakfast, then we had a meet-and-greet + pre-cruise briefing led by CJ the Singles Travel International concierge for this cruise. There was just enough time, before I had to check out, to go look for a store that sold lottery tickets. The Mega Millions lottery was up to about $640M and I wanted to buy a couple of tickets. I'm one of those people who only play when the winnings get big enough to make the news. The Whole Foods across the hotel did not have them, but I found a little convenience store that did. Mission accomplished! I doubt I would win anything given the odds, but I can say I played. Embarkation went pretty smoothly, we were onboard by about 3 pm. I headed straight to the buffet since we missed lunch, got my luggage and unpacked. And then we sailed away just before sunset. I got to the upper deck and got some great photos. What a classic sunset!

Pre-cruise day in Miami

Checked out of Ortona South Campground to drive to downtown Miami, about 2 hours away. The drive took longer because I stopped by a Goodwill store to see if I can find some white clothing for the white dance night on the cruise (just found out about that on the RC app). I found an almost new white cotton top and Capri pants that fit plus a beach dress. Also bought a small saute pan, since I forgot to bring one with me. Total cost was less than $15 - I love treasure hunting in thrift stores! The drive to the Hyatt Regency was slow, with heavy traffic all the way there. I was able to check in and put my luggage in my room before jumping back into traffic, heading for the Hilton Airport Blue Lagoon where Millie will be parked for the next 10 days. The hotel is somewhat out of the way which was why I chose it. From there I got on the free shuttle to get to the airport, took the Miami metro rail to Government Center ($2.25 fare) and the metro mover (free) to Knight Station which was next to the Hyatt. So much faster than driving!

The Hyatt was a pretty nice hotel, the free 1-night stay was part of the STI cruise package. The hotel is in downtown Miami but there is a lovely view of the water from the back. There was a Whole Foods store across front of the hotel with an Amazon locker from which I retreived a last minute purchase. There were almost 50 people on the cruise. We had a nice dinner at a Brazilian restaurant nearby and started to get to know each other. There were a few veteran cruisers in the group, and it was nice to hear their stories and experiences.

Driving to Miami for a cruise

Back in May, I booked a 9 night New Year cruise with Singles Travel International to the Caribbean. I decided to drive down to Miami instead of flying, which turned out to be a good decision after seeing the mess with flights, especially on Southwest Airlines over the Chrismas holidays. Since I am driving Millie, I planned to do some camping along the Gulf Coast after the cruise. It was pretty cold when I left in the morning on Dec 27. I stayed the night at a motel in St. George, South Carolina. Another long drive on Dec 28 towards Miami. I could not find an affordable hotel in Miami (rooms were $150+), so I camped at the Corps of Engineers' Ortona South Campground near La Belle, FL for $10 a night (discountered with the senior national parks pass). It was a small but very nice park, looked like good fishing waters near the locks. I arrived rather late and did not bothered to connect to power since I was staying a night only.

Had a good night's sleep before leaving for the 2 hour drive east to Miami the next morning.

Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

I spent the long Indigenous Peoples' Day (formerly Columbus Day) weekend (October 7-10) on a camping/hiking trip at Blackwater Falls State Park in West Virginia. The trip was organized by Bob, who runs the meetup group Hiking, Kayaking, and Cultural Adventurers. About 18 members went on this trip, most stayed in cabins or the lodge at the Canaan Valley Resort. I camped at the State Park's campground and was joined by Nadine in her RV. I met Nadine when camping at Manatee Springs State Park FL back in March. Fall folliage was just starting to peak, and the campground's trees were showing their colors.

Saturday Oct 8: In the morning, we took a scenic drive to Parsons to observe the multi-tribal pow wow, Thunder in the Mountains. I have never attended a pow-wow before and it was quite interesting. I got permission to take a photo of one of the tribal members in his regalia. We got there at about 11 am but the event did not start until noon. We were only able to catch the opening ceremony before we had to head back to the state park for our 1 pm group hike.

The trailhead to Blackwater Falls, our first hike, was close to our campground but very crowded. Because of the folliage, the fantastic weather and the long holiday, it appeared that everyone wanted to hike to the falls. The trail was short and very easy, much of it was a boardwalk to the beautiful falls.

We then drove to the trailhead of our second hike, Elakala Falls. There were relatively few visitors; the trail was also less accessible. It was much more difficult getting to the bottom of the falls, requiring climbing over and hanging on to rocks but well worth the effort.

After dinner at our campsite, we joined fellow hikers at a campfire at Bob's cabin where we chatted and made s'mores. It was a lovely night, with a full moon.

The next morning, Nadine and I visited the town of Davis, instead of going horse riding with some members of the group. We had a fun time looking at the fall exhibits around the small town.

After lunch, we made our way to the Canaan Valley Resort "main lodge" parking lot to meet up with the group for our hike to Bald Knob. Bald Knob (4,843 ft) is the highest summit of Back Allegheny Mountain in Pocahontas County, WV. We were told that this would be a challenging and steep 5 mile hike. There was a misunderstanding over the meeting place and by the time we figured it was the ski lodge, the group had already left. We did not know the way to the trail. Fortunately we asked the right person: a lady who used to work at the ski resort was getting to her car in the parking lot. She gave us some useful information, including the fact that we could take the ski lift to the top and where to get tickets ($5 for seniors). Since we were already so late, we decided to take the ski lift. I found the ride up to be a fun but cold experience.

At the top, we saw a few members of the group who had gone on this outing before and knew to take the ski ride instead of hiking. We took a lot of photos, then decided to hike down. On the trail back, we found that a fork led up to the actual summit; apparently the ski station was not the summit. More lovely views, unfortunately my phone battery died and I missed out on photo opportunities. The trail down was indeed very steep, which made us happy that we did not hike up!

We were both tired and sore by the time we got back to the campsite. I am glad that Bob planned the itinerary with the easiest hike first, leaving the tough one last. The entire trip was a great experience. I decided to leave for home on Monday morning, instead of joining the group on a driving tour and dinner.

Crabbing = Crab Cakes

I spent most of the summer fishing and crabbing. The crabbing season has been pretty good this year, mainly because I am able to go to a few of my favorite crabbing spots on weekdays and had the pier all to myself most of the time. My best day's catch was almost 3 dozen crabs! My daughter and I could not eat all of the crabs, so I spent a good amount of time peeling them (after steaming) for crabmeat and then making crab cakes, crab fried rice, crab omelette, etc.

It was fun catching your own crabs, from piers or bridges, using topless traps, ring nets and hand lines with chicken drumsticks as bait.

Then steam the crabs in the evening and put away in the fridge.

Next two days, peel crabs, season them for crab cakes, and reserve some crabmeat for stir fry.

These crab cakes were put into the freezer, will be taking them to family members over Thanksgiving!

Otakon 2022 (a non-anime fan perspective)

I attended one day of Otakon 2022 (July 29-31) at the Washington DC Convention Center on a guest pass, courtesy of my daughter who is a long time volunteer convention staff. This was the first in-person convention since COVID-19. They had over 40,000 attendees, the highest number ever for Otakon! Must be the pent-up desire to attend a Con in person. It was entertaining to check out and take photos (with permission) of the cosplay participants. Some of the more interesting costumes are posted here.

What I liked about Otakon 2022 was that they required attendees to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. Verified attendees were then given a wrist band and allowed admission to the exhibit halls and conference rooms. All attendees had to wear masks; it was good to see that this was enforced because there were people everywhere and no way to maintain physical distance. Due to the huge numbers, some sessions had long lines of people waiting to get in.

Cons are not just for anime fans only, there were a good number of educational sessions. I attended sessions on "Color and Kimono", the ultimate bucket list of places to visit in Japan, living and working in Japan, a demo on Ikebana (Japanese art of flower arrangement), and a couple of technology related talks.

There was also a Makerspace lab where participants learned to make lanterns and origami objects, supplies provided. Below are the paper cranes that I made, with patient guidance from the staff in the lab and fellow participants.

In the early evening, I attended "Masquerade" briefly where participants performed in cosplay skits. There were more sessions at night. I really wanted to attend Furoshiki, the art of Japanese fabric gift wrapping, scheduled for 9 pm. But my brain was tired so I went home at about 7 pm instead. Maybe next year ...