Becca's First Cruise

Hello again Internet readers… This will serve to chronicle our New Year’s Caribbean Trip and Mexico Trip 2012-2013! This was our first vacation with 6 month- old Becca Arielle, or as her friends know her, PBAS. We flew out just after Christmas to Fort Lauderdale Florida to a hotel a half block from the beach. We visited with Beth and Becca’s Great/Great-Great Uncles in Delray Beach. They were very excited to meet Becca, and even more excited for the lunch special.  (As always, you can click on any photos to see a full size version)

With Uncle Izzy, Myra, Uncle Joe, Aunt Edna

Sunset beach walk in Ft Lauderdale

 After a wonderful drive through Fort Lauderdale rush hour, we met Tobi, Greg and Jackie* Kaufman near the beach. We walked the boardwalk and took the kids drinking.

Everyone with their sippy cups

The next 3 days are a blur, as I got a little wee touch of the flu. I was generally OK, except for my night sweats, which resulted in Beth drowning in pillow sweat. Twice.

Hanging on the cruise ship

We toured the private island for Holland America, which had beautiful beaches, clear water, and an adequate number of people selling drinks. We got clamshell tents, to hang out in, and Becca crawled/slithered about 10 feet through the sand.

Becca playing in our clamshell tent

Enjoying the sand

Enjoying the crystal clear water

The next day we had a sea day, which was mostly me watching movies, and Beth and Becca playing black jack. To work out (while I was an invalid), Beth Ergo'd Becca and did 10 sets of 10 flights of stairs.

We stopped in Grand Cayman, which Beth and I had been to last year, for just a minute, followed the next day by a trip to Roatan Island off the coast of Honduras. We did a very nice beach excursion there, which was mostly spent changing and re-changing and then sun blocking children. Quick note the time it takes to sunblock a child is not at all proportional to their body size.

in the water in Roatan

Beach in Roatan

Hanging on the beach in Roatan

We enjoyed our second New Year's on a boat; Tobi, Beth and I dragged Becca along to the massive party the boat threw. Greg graciously stayed back in the room with Jackie. Becca slept through several hundred people screaming and yelling.

Dinner on New Year's Eve

The 6 of us on New Year's Eve

Party!

Cheers!

The real party animal

The last stop was Costa Maya, Mexico. I affectionately call this “fake Mexico” as the entire city is a shopping mall with a fake beach and a Senor Frogs that holds at least 2,000 overweight white people. Do they dance to Gangnam style every 10 minutes? Of course.

Having fun on the beach in Costa Maya

Shopping and... signing Becca up for Mexican infant wrestling?

The last night was the first we all spent together, and Jackie and Becca really hit it off. As platonic friends. We went to dinner that night, and in honor of the kids, and the poor menu, Greg and I ordered off of the kids menu, which was quite good!

We sailed back to Fort Lauderdale, and enjoyed another day on the beach, with the Kaufmans. We were all mostly alive at this point, which was nice, and we had a long walk on the beach.

Beach in Ft Lauderdale

After returning home for 4 short days, we quickly departed to a 3 day Mexico cruise with the Schulman clan on Carnival’s Inspiration. The name of the boat indicates the inspiration you must have to enjoy the most awful decrepit ship they would let Americans sail on. That being said, you certainly don’t over pay.

The cruise had a very lively crowd, comedians both nights, and no shortage of liquid fun. Yes, that’s our waiter corking a bottle for $12.50. Yes, that bottle is a $1.99 Charles Shaw.

2 Buck Chuck!

Becca thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, as she was constantly held, tossed, thrown, hugged, squeezed and smiled at. She had ample glasses, necks and noses to scratch and claw.

Piano Bar!

She watched about 6 hours of football and went to every bar on the ship. Everything was very happy except for an ugly incident where she was not allowed into an 18 and over comedy night. Here is a letter from PBAS to Carnival about her experience:

To Whom It May Concern: 
Thank you for denying me entrance to your 18 and over Comedy night. Had I heard about Doug Williams “motherf***ing” this and that, I probably would have instantly become a drug dealing murderer. Now, of course, I was asleep in a stroller when I got there, and my immediate three activities were smearing peas into my face, licking an empty glass and laughing at a ceiling fan, but don’t let that fool you. I can definitely understand, and be hurt by adult jokes. Instead my parents took me to a bar. Again. 

Thank You Carnival, 
Princess Becca Arielle Schulman 
Cabin R127

And that concludes our vacation… we had a great time, and we made it traveling with an infant. Becca was a champion, and Beth does a great job with her. Important note: neither Greg nor I got frustrated with our wives a single time, and neither of us felt burdened by traveling with children (or wives).**

* Jackie's real name is actually Jason
** lol

Alaska: Days 1-4

So begins our Alaska adventures, this time traveling with our good friends Tobi and Greg. We started our trip with a late night flight to Anchorage.  We arranged lodging in a log cabin type hotel, called Long House.  Greg and Tobi were placed in a tiny room with a full sized bed, while we were inexplicably placed in a double sized room with two king sized beds.  None of this matters when you get to the hotel at 2am, but may matter if you are 6 months pregnant.

The first morning, we took a walk 3 blocks from our hotel.  Note: blocks are super long in Anchorage.  We visited the exceptionally overrated “Earthquake Park,” the commemorative park where the 1964 earthquake that struck Anchorage shed several hundred feet of land into the sea.  It looks like a forest on the sea.   We then walked along the Tony Knowles Coastal Walk.  It's basically just a low grade walking path through the suburbs with some views here and there.

We then wandered in to town, and got lunch at the mall.  Despite being a relatively small city, they do have a nice big mall. And with good vegetarian options. After that, we continued our walking tour of downtown Anchorage.  We ate dinner at Glacier Brewhouse where I had the best Veggie Burger EVER!

Glacier Brewhouse, Anchorage

The next morning we went to Seward, where the cruise leaves from.  Tremendous scenic drive, and on the way, we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  They had Moose (Meese?), three types of bears (none Golden)  and some other types of Alaskan animals.  Definitely a fair value for the $10 entrance fee.

Elk at the Wildlife Conservation Center - check out the antlers on these things!

We also had a brief stop at Canyon Creek for a photo op:

At Seward we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center.  The aquarium was built with funds from the Valdez oil spill, so it's way too nice for the small town.  How small?  Their cell phone towers do not handle data plans at all!

Beth, Rich & Greg at the Alaska SeaLife Center

After a quick tour, and 40 minutes trying to get an away message for my email, we boarded the pride of Holland America line:  The Zaandam.   Despite my pleas and emails, we were placed in a room right next to Tobi and Gregory.

Quick rundown on the Zaandam – 10 year old boat, felt older, other people on board felt much older.   Inexplicably the central atrium houses a 3 story pipe organ (snoozer).  Two pools, theatre, several bars, casino.  Convenient room location next to the exit and the stairs/elevators.

Holland America's Zaandam

The first two days were at sea and cruising by glaciers in the College Fjords   The first day we saw Harvard glacier after cruising through the fjords that it had previously carved out.  Witnessed some small to moderate calving, before turning around.  Glacier viewing began at 6:30 am, which is really early, even in Alaska. 

Harvard Glacier in College Fjords

That night we had rough seas and Greg suffered some nausea.   I would have guessed it was with the prospect of Tobi being 3 months from delivering a child, but apparently, Greg gets motion sick and there was a wicked awesome storm.

The next day, we cruised through Glacier Bay, which is a large bay with glaciers.   It had a really nice glacier, Marjorie Glacier, where we witnessed some good calving.  We sat there for an hour and watched little and big chunks fall of the 250 foot face of the glacier.   Apparently 4 horizontal feet calve every day!


Calving on Marjorie Glacier (don't miss about 20 seconds in!):



We then sailed off and headed for Haines. Some highlights of our two
days at sea include Beth going in the hot tub with me, Tobi being
called up to participate in a magic act on stage with a magician from
the Magic Castle in Hollywood, and Greg and Tobi squabbling with the
host of the Newlywed Game before celebrating victory over a couple
married almost 61 years and another middle-aged couple who'd been
married about 20 years.