January 2019

We did go up to the Lido buffet for breakfast about 7:30.

Panorama Buffet at breakfast

I had a grapefruit, a bagel and rice pudding.

Breakfast in the Panorama buffet - Grapefruit, Rice Pudding and a bagel

We have been to Dominica before. In 2006, on one trip we did the Aerial Rainforest Tram, and on the other trip we went to the little museum and I shopped a bit, and then in the afternoon we had an excursion to a waterfall (which included a stop at Morne Bruce which is when I saw the cemetery we are aiming for).

Cemetery from the Morne Bruce heights in 2006

We left the ship - the walkway to shore was EXTREMELY rough. They had a carpet down, but it did not disguise from the scooter the fact that the boards were wildly varying levels. I could not get the ap to give me a way to walk to the cemetery. It just would not do it. I went down to ride out along a curb cut and a lady wanted to sell me fabric flowers and I said I wanted to go to the cemetery and she didn't think much of that idea. So we set off - me in the street because the curbs were unreliable and the sidewalk was more uneven then the street.

World War I monument

There wasn't much traffic. We did make one wrong turn and ended up at the Office of the President of Dominica.

State House Entrance

Gate to the Office of the President of Dominica

We went past the Our Lady of Fair Haven Roman Catholic Cathedral

Renovation of Our Lady of Fair Haven

which has no roof on it and is being renovated - they were meeting in another building which was right by the cemetery gate. We could hear the mass from the cemetery. (It IS the Catholic cemetery.)

Roman Catholic Cemetery gate

We got to the cemetery a little before 9 and split up to take photos. I was on the main path/road

Bob's photo of me in the cemetery

and Bob was over by the cemetery wall. Someone in a house next to the wall kept singing the first two lines of "I'm leaving on a jet plane..." and then he would pause a bit and sing it again.

Blue building with the man singing behind a gravestone

When I got opposite the house where he was, he waved and we wished each other a happy new year.

Crucifix

A lady stopped and asked me was I looking for someone specific, and I said no, and explained.

Roman Catholic Cemetery

Gravestone

I got finished taking photos (that is the path became too rough and uneven for me to go farther) about 9:30, so I sat in the shade of a palm tree and waited for Bob. He was at the far end of the cemetery, and about 20 minutes later he came back up to where I was. Together we took about 380 photos. I had thought he might go to the Public Cemetery which is across the street from where he was, but he did not.

Carribean from the cemetery

We walked back to the ship,

Mirror on the corner

Bob walking back to the ship

Essential oils and spices

Gas station in town (mostly for motorcycles)

Francois Security advertisement

Pacific Princess at the end of the street

Roseau map in front of the museum

and by now we have the routine down. After I negotiate the gangway (which sometimes has a big bump in it at one end where the scooter hangs up), I give my phone, camera and the little pocketbook with water and camera batteries to Bob or to one of the crew, and then I scooter through the magnetic doorway and get patted down.

We went to the room - Bob was soaked with sweat. So we changed clothes. We went to 11:00 trivia and we didn't do well. We couldn't remember who killed John Lennon or the name of the group that sang the song "The Wall" at the Berlin Wall (Pink Floyd) and we thought riboflavin was B12 and it was B2.

We went up to the Brunch buffet in the dining room. There were three buffet areas, and I only got to see one of them. One of the crew did help me with getting my food. I had a nice omelet, and a little roast beef which was kind of gristly, a kind of croissant with chocolate in the middle, a piece of cheese and a soft roll, potatoes, and some spaghetti which was impossible to eat as the strands of spaghetti were all short and slippery. The man helping me gave me too many potatoes, so I didn't eat all of them. Then Bob got us ice cream.

Brunch

On the way back to the room, I stopped off at the Excursion desk to see if I could do the excursion on Virgin Gorda. She said that excursion had been filled for some time. There was an officer there, and I asked him about the flags we saw when we were in the Grenidines. We saw the Bahamas flag, the Princess flag, the courtesy flag for St Vincent and the Grenidines and two other flags. One was diagonal red and yellow stripes and the other was a red flag with a yellow cross. He did not know, so he called the bridge. He said that they were the flags that were flown when they were tendering.

We came back to the room and I worked on photos and we watched/listened to the Rose Bowl parade and game. Bob rinsed out some handkerchiefs and put the wet shirts to dry by hanging them on the handrails in the shower (since there is no clothesline in this bathroom). We went up to 4:00 trivia and we did not know the colors of the flag of Iraq (we forgot that there was black there as a color), and we did not know the name of the evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk. (Dynamo) or the name of the official residence of the head of government of New Zealand. That last was a trick question as it was Buckingham Palace. Afterward I took the scooter around the running/walking track and looked at the pool which was empty

Zumba on the pool deck

Drained pool and hot tubs

Track on deck 10

Dominica from the ship

Clouds over Dominica

Rainbow over Dominica

Library

and we went into the library (which is quite a nice one). Bob suddenly said that the seat of the scooter was crooked. And he tried to fix it and could not. So we came back the room and tried to fix it again and again could not.

We went up to dinner. We both had the

Frosted Strawberry soup

and then I had the

Iceberg wedge with boiled egg

and I had a second time the

Chicken and leek pot pie a la Curtis Stone

This time the waiter took the top off for us. Bob had left his lactaid pills in the room so he couldn't have his usual ice cream, so he had the Princess love boat dream (chocolate mousse) and I had ice cream.

We came back to the room and Bob took the seat raising mechanism apart and thinks he has fixed it. So we will probably take the tender to Virgin Gorda tomorrow. But I am somewhat concerned that it won't stay fixed.

We got our disembarkation information. We are to vacate the room by 8:00 am and our group is to be called at 7:50 to go down and get our luggage. We are at dock 21.

The Fat Virgin - Virgin Gorda

We visited Virgin Gorda (dubbed by Columbus as the Fat Virgin on the basis of the outline from the water) in 1997 on a crewed charter sailboat. Our charter captains came into the marina in the evening so that early in the morning got us a taxi to the Baths. At that time I managed the stairs down to the Baths (and back up) but even back then,

Entrance to the trail with warning sign

Bob's pictures of the rocks

The trail that is underwater

the Devil's Bay trail was beyond me and I could only take photos from near the beach.

Our charter captains -Feb 7

Our charter captain peeking over the rock

Boulders in 1997

We were using point and shoot film cameras in those days. As we were climbing back up from the Baths, we met an excursion group from a little cruise ship coming down the steps.

Boats anchored off the baths

I really would have liked to go to the Baths and get some better photos. But I knew that I could not do the stairs, let alone the trail. I had thought maybe I could rent a boat and snorkel in among the rocks, but I couldn't figure out a way to do that. So I had to give up on going to the Baths this time. I had an alternate Idea (Plan B). If I couldn't go to the Baths, maybe I could see some cemeteries. So I did research and I found the obituary of the owner of the Speedy Ferries.

The boats were filled to capacity, the grand tent in Speedy’s Headquarters was filled and almost everyone in Virgin Gorda (VG) came out to celebrate the life of VG pioneer, businessman and son of the soil, Edwin Allen George aka ‘Speedy/Kiddo.’...

Boat loads of residents from Tortola, Anegada, St Thomas (US Virgin Islands) and Jost van Dyke came out in huge numbers to pay their last respects to the man who made inter-island sea transportation possible, affordable and easier for years.

The late Speedy’s body was placed on the back of a nicely decorated truck on its arrival from Tortola with sailors as his pall bearers. It was slowly driven from the dock to the main office and many mourners, family and friends walked the route.

Many residents will remember his many ferry boats over the years- from Speedy’s Adventure, Speedy’s Delight, Speedy’s Fantasy, Speedy’s Sprinter, Speedy’s Peacemaker and Ella G....

Omelet

Today I had an omelet at breakfast, because yesterday I had one at the Brunch Buffet and I decided that I liked them. About 10 we went up to wait for a tender, and the scooter folded up OK. It was a pretty bouncy ride in to the dock. The scooter unfolded OK. We wandered around a bit - the hurricane had taken out all the stores and the restaurant that was at the marina dock.

We wanted to get a taxi - Bob wanted some silicone grease and some tools. So I told the man working around the marina that we wanted a taxi to go to some hardware stores. He flagged a taxi down - it was van and not one of the ones with the seats in the bed of a pickup. The driver wanted to know if I could actually get in the van, so I did and they put the scooter in the back without folding it.

Then there were a whole bunch of people who also got into the van to go to the beach or the Baths. But after we dropped them off, I got in the front seat of the van (again with a boost from the driver although he asked first)

Top of the Baths

One of the large boulders by the road

and told the driver that Bob wanted to go to a marine hardware store and I wanted to see Speedy's grave and all the cemeteries on Virgin Gorda. So he took us by the '

Flax Family Cemetery

which we had seen on the way to the Baths, and then we went to

St Mary's Anglican

and Bob got out and took photos.

The van driver said his mother was buried there. After that we went to the Public cemetery

and then stopped at a hardware store. But Bob couldn't find what he wanted.

Water dispensing kiosk

So we went to Valley Methodist,

Valley Methodist Church

Half buried stone

We didn't find Speedy's grave. We went down by the airport there was another private cemetery -

O'Neal Family Cemetery

We saw a plane take off while we were there.

Airport windsock

Plane taking off

Key Return for rental cars at the airport

I saw a Tsunami evacuation sign,

Tsunami evacuation route

and said to the driver - Where would you go if there was a tsunami. He laughed and said to the top of the mountain. Which isn't very tall. The highest point on Virgin Gorda at 1,370 ft. is Gorda Peak

The taxi driver said he and his family had been on a cruise - they went to Barbados, St. Lucia, Cozumel and Belize. We also stopped by the

Saint Thomas Bay Cemetery

which is one of the oldest cemeteries on the island and is close to the Government Docks

Beach next to the docks

and another hardware store with no luck.

Rosy's - both a grocery and a household goods store

Rental car (left hand drive, driving on the left)

Regular (non-rental) car plates

Large boulders

Bath's to the left

School kids which due to overcrowding only go half a day

So he dropped us off at the marina and asked for $70 for the morning. We went to the marina hardware store, but it was closed for lunch. So we went on back to the tender dock and got right on the tender - there were 3 of us.

Tender coming in to the dock

Helmets behind Bob on the tender

Release mechanism for the lifeboat/tender

Speedy's ferry from the tender

Large boulders on the hill

Dream Yacht Charter catamarran from the tender

We went right to lunch when we got back.

Pizza at lunch

Bob's lunch

Charter sailboat sails past

And then after I organized the photos, we went to trivia, and this time we actually WON. I got coasters.

Tendering flags - Princess flag on the left, Bahamas flag in the center, courtesy BVI flag far right

Clouds lined up over the peak and a speedboat

Spanish Town and the docks from the ship

Rocks and boulders at the end of the island

We went to dinner and it was Italian night - all the waiters were dressed in stripes with neck scarves.

Chicken lentil soup

Blackberry soup

I had veal scallopini.

Breaded veal

When we got back after dinner, we found that tomorrow is another formal night, but Bob, thinking that there were only two like it said on the Princess Patter that we got on the first day, instead of three like I thought there would be, had packed all his stuff for formal night in the suitcase and did not want to unpack.

The Princess Patter is not up to snuff on this ship - the proof reading is not too good (at one point they advertised a lecture on the original inhabitants and Columbo) and the format is not as handy as on some other ships - on at least two cruise lines, the schedule is on a single column so you can take that off and fold it up and put it in your pocket and don't have to take the whole darn thing with you to know what is going on. Not everyone has an iPhone.

My left hip is OK but I have a lot of bursitis in my right hip. I found that they had filled the pool today, but I didn't find out until 5 pm. I am annoyed as I think if I could swim in the pool, my hip would feel better. They announced that they were draining it, but not when they refilled it.

January 3rd - Sea Day

We went to breakfast and I had the Eggs Benedict without the ham/Canadian bacon. Bob always has the same thing - hot cocoa and oatmeal. I went back to the room and worked on pictures and then we went to trivia. After trivia we went to lunch and we ate with the people that our trivia partners Ann and Don knew - both couples live in NH. The man sitting next to me said he was 79 and still working because they were not appointing judges. He said all the men in his family were lawyers. Bob had chicken soup and a

half BLT

and I had

Shepard pie

He had carrot cake for dessert and I had mandarin orange yogurt which was good. Some people had coffee ice cream and one lady found four coffee beans in her ice cream.

I met the lady in the accessible cabin next to ours and she asked me what I thought of the thresholds, and I said that they were very jolty. She agreed. Since her chair can spin, we can both get into the elevator together although there's not much room for anyone else in there with us. I have to head in and back out.

Bob spent all afternoon listening to people being sworn in and I spent the afternoon working on updating the cemeteries on the internet and then took a nap. I got dressed for dinner and went up by myself and Bob went to the buffet as a protest on being given the wrong information about formal nights. He said the buffet was totally lame. I had ,

escargots

Chilled Yogurt Apple Soup with crispy grape tempura

The soup was good but I totally did not know what the fried grape in my soup was (I had forgotten what the menu said). Then I had

Beef Wellington

This has with it some potatoes which were good (called a potato tart, but it was just layered potatoes), and a can shaped pea green thing which I thought was mushy peas but the waiter said was spinach. It didn't taste much of anything. They also had lobster tail but the people that ordered it saw that it was tiny. Then I had

floating islands

for dessert (which I love), and they also brought around candy. I had a piece of

fudge.

January 4th Sea Day

On the 4th, I had some intestinal problems and did not do anything except go to dinner and work on the computer. And pack. I was afraid to go swimming and did not want to have a wet bathing suit in my suitcase for the whole trip home. We had the suitcases out before dinner as requested. although they were still there when we got back from dinner. I started with

Grilled zucchinni and eggplant

I had a NY strip which was very good, but I could not eat all of it. I really would have liked to try the mussels but did not dare. And I find myself craving lettuce and vegetables other than carrots.

NY Strip

And they had the usual parade of the cooks and waiters with the Baked Alaska

January 5th - Disembarkation

On the 5th we got up at 6 and went to breakfast with all my stuff on the scooter. We were to be in the theater by 7:50. Bob just had hot chocolate (which disappointed the waiter who had learned what his normal order was), and I had

eggs.

Bob anticipated that it would be hard for me to get an elevator (although it has not been a problem up to now except once when we wanted to go down to deck 3 to get off the ship from deck 4 and all the elevators were full when they got to us so we went all the way up so that we could get down) and so he thought I should go up to breakfast and go to the regular place to wait for our disembarkation time instead of going to the handicapped area which was on another deck. So he went back and got his stuff (which he had on a luggage carrier that I had when I was at MOSH - it squeaks so I can hear him when he's behind me). He said he would meet me in the lobby, and I saw him down on deck 4 and thought he saw me too so I went on into the holding area (the theatre). But he had not seen me so I had to go back for him. By the time we got back to the theater, we were barely seated when they called our number. The scooter had a little trouble with the threshold out to the deck. But for the rest, it was a straight shot

We got our luggage (the only hold-up which was about 2 minutes was waiting for a porter) and went through immigration and customs at the same time. Bob had insisted on making a list of all we bought for customs and they just asked if we bought anything and didn't need the list.

I told our daughter when we were to start getting off and she said she would be there at 8:30 and I said I didn't think it would be that quick (Princess said 4 hours but I didn't think it would be that long). So she was to be there at 9 and I called from where the baggage claim was and she had not left Miami yet. I had not anticipated that it would be only 10 minutes. We sat and waited and people watched

Our daughter picked us up in the big truck so there was plenty of room for the luggage. (Our son-in-law is in MD deer hunting on the Eastern Shore).

Staying with our Daughter January 5th

We watched some TV and talked to our youngest daughter and her family on some kind of TV device which hooks up to the phone (we played Jeopardy with Alexa) and then we met our grandson and his fiancee for dinner at BJ's Brew House.

Son and fiancee at BJ's Brew House

When we got back, we had a choice of 3 places we could sleep as no one was home except our daughter. I said I wanted to sleep in the guest room, but the Murphy bed came off the wall when they got it out. Bob fixed it. Then he said he would have to crawl over furniture to get to the bathroom, so he went and slept in our granddaughter's room and I stayed in the guest room.

Sunday January 6th

On the sixth we left our daughters about 11.

Leaving our daughter's house

We were going to drive to St. Augustine and wanted to avoid getting there too early, but I had not actually looked at the mileage so I didn't think it was as far it really was. We stopped to eat at the Cove restaurant at Harbourtown Marina in Fort Pierce at about 1.

Cove restaurant

We each had an appetizer - Bob had half pound (5) peel and eat shrimp for $10 and they were good sized shrimp (the shrimp on the ship were tiny until the last couple of days when they broke out the bigger ones).

Bob's shrimp

I had lobster mac and cheese with asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes ($16) and could not eat all of it.

Lobster mac and cheese

We got to the hotel in St. Augustine

Trans Florida Central Railroad Trail across I-95

after a total of 355 miles a little after 4:30. I had preregistered for room 204 and they switched us to 203 because 204 was not ready and then switched us again to 205. They were dealing with an A/C that did not work (although it was quite cool and A/C was not really needed IMHO), and the door from the parking lot did not work.

Hotel room shades

Bob went out to Burger King and got himself a milkshake and burger and brought back a small salad for me. I tried to eat the leftover lobster mac and cheese but I couldn't eat much of it so I just had the salad.

Monday January 7th

Bob brought me up some eggs, bacon, cranberry juice and a bagel and cream cheese on a foam tray. There was also a banana but I didn't eat that. I just put it in my pocketbook. We left the hotel relatively early (about 8). There was some fog, and then as we approached Jacksonville, there was smoke. Everyone slowed down to look at a car that was on fire in a ditch off I-95.

Car fire

Traffic was slow through Jacksonville.

Jacksonville

Lighthouse sign

Carvana tower

Bob stopped about 10:30 and went to the bathroom and got a milkshake at Burger King.

Bob's milkshake

This was the same place we stopped for lunch on the way south but it was much nicer weather today. We got to SC about 11:30.

Entering SC

Jean our cat sitter called about the thermostat being set down to 60 and we talked to her about how to reset it. I was finished the call but was still looking at the phone when we got to the turn in Walterboro. Bob was so upset by the call that he missed it as he thought that the pipes would freeze if the thermostat was down that low - overlooking completely that the temperature outside wasn't much below 50 even at night and the pipes will not freeze at that temperature. Then when I tried to direct him back to the route he claimed irascibly that he had never been on that road before and that I did not know what I was doing. Then he decided that we would go to BJs and get gas and also go to Walmart and have lunch before we went to our son's. I was trying to get the map in the car to take us to BJ's and was unable to do it and he said he couldn't see that anyway. And then he had to use the bathroom and went to Walmart first. He bought Listerine to replace the bottle (almost empty) that he left at our daughter's. Then we went to BJ's where gas was $1.80.9. We got 44 mpg

Gas prices at BJs

It was now 1:30 so I thought we might go to Newks for lunch.

Newks

I found out it was a pizza, sandwich and salad place, and I asked for a Cobb salad,

Cobb salad

and Bob got a roast beef sandwich.

Newks chips

The salad was way to much for me to eat and Bob also ate only half of his sandwich so we put them in take-out containers.

We went to our son's and I knew the combination but Bob had to help me figure out how to open the door to the apartment which our son rents out on Airbnb sometimes. The apartment is really nice,

Bedroom at son's Airbnb

and the bathroom was right opposite the door which was very convenient for me as I had not used the bathroom on the stops that Bob made.

Bathroom

We talked to our daughter-in-law until our got home, and then they took us out to the Shuckin' Shack Oyster Bar for dinner.

Shuckin' Shack Oyster Bar

Bob had the

Crab ball appetizer

(there were five of them) and I had the

Mini corn dog appetizer

which I thought would also be five, but there were 10 of them.

Our daughter-in-law had a lobster roll

Lobster Roll

and our son had the combination platter. Our son and daughter-in-law said their key lime pie was very good but the lady that made that had left, so I had a

Creme brulee cheesecake

and Bob had the triple chocolate cake.

Sunset on our son's street

After dinner we went back to the house and talked - I showed them some photos of Nassau - especially the aquarium as they are taking an anniversary trip there. And also some photos of Bermuda and the Grandeur of the Seas in advance of the June cruise. We watched the Alabama Clemson game with the sound off.

Tuesday January 8th

This morning we had a lovely breakfast -

Kitchen

Breakfast area

Our daughter-in-law had gotten grapefruit, cranberry juice and oatmeal for us. We took the grapefruit with us as they do not eat them- they were very good. We left about 9.

On I-95

South of the border

We crossed into NC at 11:30 and stopped to use the bathroom at the Welcome Center.

I had meant to pre-register for the hotel in Rocky Mount but I forgot. So I tried to do it from the phone, but Safari kept saying that it wasn't a valid address, so I tried to log on to my Hilton Honors account and it wouldn't take any password that I remembered, so I tried to reset it. After three times around, I managed to get it reset and and registered.

Bob stopped at a Burger King about 12:15 and got a milkshake and asked them for a fork so I could eat my salad from last night. He said they didn't ask him why he needed a fork for a milkshake.

Bob's milkshake and sandwich from Newks

Burger King receipt

We were going to get to the hotel about 2:15 so first we went and got gas - the cheapest I found was $2.07 at a BP station about 6 miles off the interstate. We got back to the hotel about 2:45 and the room was ready. It is a handicapped room with a full roll-in sit-down shower, and an extra sink in the main room.

TV in hotel room

Door to parking lot

The restaurants near here are Cracker Barrel and Outback, and neither one of us wants to eat at either of them, so Bob is eating chips from the machine. He can't find his box of Lactaid pills, but he still has two pills to carry him over until we get home. It turns out that this Hampton Inn serves dinner on Tuesday and Weds so we had dinner here. It was salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, corn, a roll, cookies and lemonade or (I think) wine.

Rocky Mount breakfast-dinner area

Hotel dinner

Cookies

Wednesday January 9th

We left the hotel about nine and stopped in Dalgrin at the Burger King for lunch. Last time, Bob didn't stop on the way home. So we got here about one instead of at noon. Crunch greeted Bob, but when he saw me he ran and hid. The mail was all crammed into the mail box, so I sorted it. Bob has unloaded the car, got the TV back in operation, taken down the Christmas decorations, and done some loads of wash. I started the modem back up. We are more or less back to normal. Bob went to KFC and picked up dinner

Our gas mileage book

After this trip, I was intending to have breast reduction surgery, but I had an infection in my elbow, and then they wanted me to go into the hospital for testing (which the result was "Your heart is as normal as can be"). And then we had our brother-in-law's funeral. (Bob's sister's husband - the last one was my sister's husband) So our next trip was a 60th anniversary cruise with our children to Bermuda