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Cruise Review – Oceania Vista

I am back from my latest venture and reflecting on how it went. First up was my cruise on the Oceania Vista. The Vista is a newer ship, it just launched in May 2023, and only holds 1,200 passengers (with double occupancy). It was nice to sail on a newer ship, although you could already see areas where a few small pool tiles needed to be replaced and edges were frayed, but they were very minor and rarely seen.

The ship sailed from Miami and was scheduled to stop in Cozumel, Harvest Caye (Belize), Roatan (Honduras), and Costa Maya (Mexico). You might notice I say “scheduled”. Unfortunately the wind conditions prevented a stop in Costa Maya, so there was a last minute decision to reroute and we had an extra day at sea. The cruise went from March 9th to March 16th. This was my birthday treat to myself, as my birthday was on March 15th!

So what did I decide? YES, I would do it again just with another itinerary (maybe 4.5 stars out of 5?). I loved the ship, the crew were amazing and the food was very good. I had a nice balcony and spacious veranda cabin all to myself. It was beautiful. I did sit out on the balcony almost every day, but I couldn’t really leave the door open as it whistled like crazy when I did.

I remembered to bring some magnets and used them to post my tickets and boarding pass in front of the door lock so I didn’t forget them. I also posted the daily schedules and other information above my desk. I was very glad I had the magnets for another reason too, there was an annoying blue light above the door that didn’t turn off, I used two magnets and some paper to cover it up at night! I didn’t need it, the nightlight in the bathroom was more than enough light at night.

Sail away
One room in the library
Pool relaxation
Happy Hour
Our amazing historian
Amazing spa pool, sitting in front of the jets is like getting a massage.

One of my favorite spots was the library, the scope of reading materials available was very broad. I even found a book I have been wanting to read and brought that to my room. I also loved the bakery, they always had little treasures to try every day. The good thing was I avoided the elevators often and walked everywhere so even though I ate very well I didn’t gain an ounce! I was sad to leave and head out on the next parts of my vacation in Florida.

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Book Thoughts – Shutter

“Shutter” by Ramona Emerson is a book that I picked up at lunch time, started reading and all of a sudden it was 1 a.m. (0100) and I was finally finished. Do you ever wonder why a certain book calls to you, why you can’t put it down? What ephemeral feeling does it fulfill that you didn’t know you needed? Hm…

The main character is a young Navajo woman (Rita Todacheene) who is working hard to save money to help her grandmother, for a better life on the reservation. After finishing a degree in art, she starts work as a forensic photographer for the Albuquerque police department working all sorts of death-related cases documenting conditions and situations related to the death. If you are familiar with her culture, you know that photographing and documenting death scenes is very unexpected and difficult for her.

The story skillfully weaves her love of photography from a very young age to the present with her need to make a living using her talents. The unexpected twist is that she also has talent as a medium. This ability opens her to a dark path that she needs to navigate to help a tortured soul find answers and rest.

I loved the blend of history, culture conflict and crime. If you love a mystery mixed with a dash of history about another culture, I highly recommend this one!

www.ramonaemersonbooks.com

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New Year, New Memories

I thought I would take a quick moment to write about one of the goals I am working towards this year. Have you every thought “if only I had asked Mom or Dad about…..”? I know I have. Last year I started a project “My Past, Your Future”. It is a scrapbook aimed not as much about photos as it is about memories. Sadly, I got side tracked after my mom passed last February and started working on a scrapbook about my trip to Florida and back after my retirement (which is another work in progress, can’t work on just one thing at a time!). So my goal is to finish!

So what is this project? A friend of mine, and my scrapbooking mentor Beth Lilja, is leading a group exercise that poses a set of unique questions each week that you then take and reflect and write about. For example, here is the prompt for Week 1:

What is your full name | why did your parents give you that name | were you named after a family member or somebody significant | is there a story about your name | how do you feel about your name | do you wish you had a different one | do you have a nickname and how did that come about | did someone give you that nickname or did you do something to trigger that nickname?

You pick out which question or questions that speak to you and write about them, if you scrapbook about them you might add some art or photos.

This is a free group activity. You can join in by Zoom or you can get the prompts through email (or both), it is your choice. There is a website dedicated to example pages (many of us do this as a scrapbook, but you are free to do your own thing such as simply writing in a notebook). You then save this for your children, nieces, nephews, cousins, etc. The hope is the project, when completed, will help answer some of these questions.

Interested in joining in? Beth or Lindsey will send the first prompts to help you get caught up. To sign up go to www.gettingorganizednow.com. There is no obligation to finish, but I highly recommend checking it out. If you want to learn more first, feel free to drop me a note! Below is the last page I worked on as an example, it definitely needs a lot of editing!

page-23-sports-and-music
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Going back – to Camogli, Italy

I have been looking back and reminiscing as my Facebook site keeps sending me “one year ago today” reminders. So, I thought it would be a good time to fill in some of my blanks before I dive into creating a scrapbook on my trip. I am almost done with my “Florida and Back” trip from earlier in 2022. I am definitely behind! So here it goes…

After leaving Como, Italy I sent my daughter home and jumped on a train south to Camogli through Genoa and Milan. All was going well, until……Milan. All of a sudden our non-stop train stopped just outside of Milan. It turns out there was an earthquake ahead and they needed to make sure the lines were safe for us to continue. So they passed out some snacks and water and left us to sit. About an hour later we parked at the station and an employee walked through and said “cancelled”. He did not speak English and I don’t speak Italian so it was very confusing. In fact many in my car were Americans and didn’t speak much Italian either! But we just got up and followed everyone out the door. I was pointed towards customer service (at this point I was in tears and trying to pull it together), where you take a number. This line moved SLOW and there were over 100 people in front of me (an hour later), so I kept walking back and forth to the taxi station but most were gone. About 90 minutes later I finally found a taxi driver willing to drive me to Camogli, which was about an hour south. I just barely made it to the hotel before they closed for the night. I was so grateful I definitely gave him a good tip!

Camogli was beautiful and a great place to stop and relax. I rented a small efficiency mid-way down the “cliff” that leads from the main part of town to the historic part of the city along the coast. I washed clothes (in the sink) and hung them out on a line to dry. They had a tiny “kitchen in a box) that had a small stove and microwave and I did find a small grocery store on top of the hill. I bought a giant box of Corn Flakes, which definitely brought home a taste of home! And there was a lovely garden in front that I spent some time relaxing in, when it wasn’t raining.

The steps along my rental, I was halfway down.
The church next to Castel Dragone. I did peak in.
I had to try some chocolate gelato!
My favorite lunch spot in town.

On Monday I met up with a friend of a friend (Alexandra) who took me on a tour of a part of the Cinque de Terre region via ferry. This was my favorite part of my trip, she was awesome. We stopped in Portofino, San Fruttuoso, and San Margherita. I am glad for her company, by this time I was a little nervous and I know I wouldn’t have had the courage to try the ferries without her! We also had an awesome lunch in San Margherita, I had the linguini with clams, and a great dessert. It was a beautiful day and she helped me understand how to figure out the trains a bit to help alleviate my fears over trying again.

Copy of submerged statue
Tourists!

As my stop in Camogli came to an end, I headed up to the train station for my journey to Nice, France. Sadly not non-stop, I did one changeover near the border between Italy and France. I also did a great job getting a few complaints about all the room I took up with my backpack and luggage as we got closer to Nice. The further along we went, the more people that boarded and I ended up crammed into a corner with all my stuff, trying to be smaller than I was. LOL I will write more later!

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Going Back – to Lake Como

Here I am, looking back to my vacation in Europe. I did a terrible job keeping up with it all while traveling this last time, but I want to write down my thoughts before they completely disappear! In fact there are no notes between September 16th (our stop in Mannheim and Heidelberg Germany) until September 29th when I was in Nice, France. And nothing between there and arriving home. Plus my notes were very sketchy. Why??? I note that I wasn’t feeling great and I was exhausted by the time I arrived at my stop in Italy, then I must have just given up? So here we go….

My daughter and I finished our European river trip on AmaMora with a 3-day stop in Lake Como after a drive through Switzerland. The last stop on the cruise was in Basel. After leaving the boat we took a drive through Switzerland and stopped in Bellinzona, Italy for a tour and lunch. I have to say, the rest stop in Switzerland (below) was a real treat, what a beautiful stop! Bellinzona was a nice stop for getting out to stretch our legs.

Bus Stop in Switzerland
Lunch Stop
City Streets
Mountain top Fortification

After our quick stop, on to Lake Como and our weird hotel. Don’t get me wrong, it was a Hilton and overall a nice enough hotel, but the rooms were dark and stark and the food in the restaurant was just okay. It was a short walk across the (very busy) street to get to the trail along the lake shore which was convenient. Just not my choice for a comfortable place to stay, but the room was definitely very large.

My room at the hotel. Unfortunately, the travel pillow I bought the cover for in Amsterdam was “lost” by the staff at the hotel. I am so sad I left it behind! I missed having it on my travels.

Como, Italy is a very busy city with super narrow “sidewalks” and beautiful buildings.

Como-Brunate Funicular Railway (or Funicolare Como-Brunate) – One of our tours was up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city, which is where the village of Brunate is located. My first experience in a funicular cable railway system! In a funicular, cars are attached at opposite ends by the same cable, known as a haul rope, to safely take you up some very steep slopes. I loved it!

This is my tour guide
The Swiss alps are off in the background

We did also tour about town a bit.

Our visitors at the café on the lake. We stopped here twice, happy hour and lunch.

Tanya set up a short wine tour for us in Como. I have to say, it was a bit crazy walking the super narrow sidewalks as we followed Google map to our location. One misstep and you would be smooshed by a car! These are the wines I enjoyed most during our visit. Sadly, their advertisement said they ship their wines, but unfortunately not to the U.S.! Someday I will have to see if I can track these down.

Last Stop: Lake Cruise

When in Como, you need to do a lake cruise to see George Clooney’s house! Of course! And, we also saw lots of other “stuff”. 🙂 We stopped in Bellagio to do a little shopping too. I bought a silk scarf for my sister-in-law Jill and a wool scarf for my sister Laura. Looking back, I should have bought more scarves, they were so beautiful, but now that I am retired I don’t wear dressy scarves as often.

Our guide from AmaMora stuck with us in Como
Shopping in Bellagio
There it is!

Last Stop: the Cathedral

There is always a cathedral to look at in European cities and villages! And they are works of art and always a peaceful place to stop and gather your thoughts. When on my own I would usually spend more time just sitting and enjoying the atmosphere.

Well, that is about all I remember from Como. Next I think I will go further back and add in some more thoughts and photos of the river cruise.

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My Mom

My mother unexpectedly passed away on February 4th, 2023 with myself, my sister (Laura) and my brother (Mitch) by her side. Although she has been in a nursing home since January 2020 (right before Covid lockdown) and in assisted living prior to this time, she had been hanging in there. Sadly, her kidneys shut down and she quickly went into a coma and then hospice where she thankfully didn’t linger very long at all. I am so glad I was able to make it down to be with her at the end. She was very unhappy, she was unable to do any of the things she enjoyed, even reading was becoming a challenge, and she was in so much pain. So on the one hand we were resigned to losing her, but on the other hand I will miss her so much. I love you Mom!! Forever and always.

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Kate is Back!

Okay, so this is a novella and not a full book. I read this well within the space of a day, I set time aside to just sit and read as I knew I wouldn’t want to do anything else at all during this time.

Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for Gordon & Ilona Andrews, a husband and wife writing team. They now have six series out there, but my favorites are definitely the Kate Daniels and Hidden Legacy series. I say Kate is back as the team has been focusing more on other series as they felt the Kate Daniels series came to a natural conclusion. But she wormed her way back into their writing much to the delight of their fans.

As for the series, I have read them all and I love them all! However, I do recommend starting at the beginning of whichever series you choose as they definitely build on each book going forward. Not the type of series you want to jump in the middle of. In addition, the Ryder series is actually more of an extension of the Kate Daniels series, so don’t start there. However, each book tends to have a somewhat- to completely-satisfying ending so you don’t feel like the story is incomplete at the end of the book (not always the case with some authors). You can pause and reflect at the end of a book, before rushing out to get the next one. Other authors of mine tend to write one book that just happens to go across 3, 4, 5 or more books really. You have to wait until the entire series is released or you get very frustrated. Not my favorite but when you love the author what can you do?

The website is a great place to pick up some of their online novellas, and to sign up for their blog or publishing updates. They do an excellent job keeping it up to date, and is often full of fun quips or ideas and is easy to read.

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Wayzata Mystery Book Club Update

I am not sure if anyone here knows, but there is a tiny mystery book club that meets most months in Wayzata, Minnesota that I am a part of. We meet for dinner at our favorite restaurant, talk books and catch up on our lives since the last time we met. If you are reading this blog, love mysteries and are interested in joining with us please let me know. New friends are so welcome! (Purchasing dinner is not required, but a glass or tea or soda along with a nice tip for the hard-working staff is appreciated).

For January 2023 our book will be “Murder Wears Mittens” by Sally Goldenbaum. This is the 12th book in the Seaside Knitters Society series. The reviews are good and my thought was that a nice cozy mystery was perfect for winter. Plus one of our members loves to knit, so this seemed appropriate!

Murder Wears Mittens by Sally Goldenbaum | Goodreads

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Forever Gifts

Just a quick posting on what Forever has available for Christmas or other seasonal gifts. They have recently come out with a number of new products that I can help you with! These are above and beyond the traditional photo books and photo cards that you can typically purchase from a company such as Forever. Other options include video conversion, permanent (pre-paid) storage, etc.

How about designing and printing the following with your favorite family photo(s):
– Puzzles
– Blankets
– Mouse pads
– Coasters
– Table top panels
– Ornaments
– Magnets
– Frosted glasses
– Insulated water bottles
– Photo Mugs
– Metal or Canvas wall panels

For more information and pictures, go to: https://www.forever.com/design-and-print/ Gift cards are available!

Cards are always popular, and they often have great deals on printing your cards. I always recommend waiting for a sale! You can use a standard design or work with me on a custom design. They have upgraded their paper quality and yo have the option for matte or glossy. Also, you can upload addresses and they will print your envelopes for you!

Christmas Card from 2020Download
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River Cruise Review

My dream trip of a lifetime, did it meet my expectations? Yes and no.

River Cruising

So, what was it? Where did we go?

The trip started out as a river cruise in Europe with my daughter. We chose the Rhine Castles & Swiss Alps cruise on Ama Waterways. Tanya chose September as working the best with her work schedule. We started in Amsterdam and ended in Basel, Switzerland with a 3-day add-on in Como, Italy.

Ama Waterways

Don’t get me wrong, I love cruising! But river cruises are definitely different. Not a lot of on-board activities and what they do have doesn’t always have a lot of room available if the weather isn’t great and you can’t use the top deck. But, you are here for the food and tours more than activities, so not a big deal! Food was good and they always had some good options if you didn’t want the main entrees. Tours were generally great, except for Sundays and holidays when you head into town and most everything is closed! I did the “slow motion” groups once to see how that worked for tours and it was more personal as the groups were smaller and you saw most everything the main group saw. Also, being a small boat if someone brings on a cold (and laughed over how it wasn’t Covid so no big deal) it leaves over half the boat sick by the time of disembarkation.