This will be short, because the pictures are aplenty. We are back from a week in the Eastern Caribbean, Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, St. Martaan and Princess Cays in the Bahamas. As you can tell by the pictures, it was a great family time and we had a ball. The picture of me with Barack Hussein Obama Darla felt was in poor taste, but I'm not punching him. It's a love tap. Hey, he even sent me a birthday card. Darla and I both sort of dreaded the formal nights, but it was a great picture taking opportunity and it was nice to hang out in formal attire with Dad, Darryl and Randy and the wives. We also celebrated Cheryl's birthday and my 55th birthday.
Shirley got the gang dancing on Thursday night and there are pictures of that as well.
I think my only regret on the trip was not exploring the island of St Martaan/St. Martin, which is a Dutch and French island and we ended up shopping with the gang for three hours and missing out on sightseeing. All of them had been to the island before and they were looking at watches and jewelry and time just got away from us and then Darla and I bought a few things and were out of cash, so we just headed back to the ship.
We did take a tour on San Juan and saw the downtown and part of the island. Darla and I also broke away from the gang on Wednesday and took a cab on a short sightseeing tour of St. Thomas and were then dropped off at Coki Beach, one of the white sand beaches with green water that is so famous there.
Darryl and Randy both had shopping agendas. Darryl bought a new Canon Rebel digital camera and a couple of new lenses. Randy bought a Tag Hauer watch in St Thomas for a small fortune. Even Dad and Shirley got into the act and bought his and her Seiko watches on St. Thomas. Darla and I are still paying for two students to attend cal Poly SLO and did little shopping of consequence. I got a tank top and a golf shirt and Darla got a cover up. We did spend some money on pictures taken by the professional photographers on the cruise ship. It has been awhile since we had any new pictures taken professionally and they turned out very nice.
You can see how close we were to Darryl and Cheryl with the picture taken from our balcony down to theirs. Randy was two rooms to the right of them as you look at their balcony and dad was down about three rooms from Randy. They all had rooms with a Jr. Suite, consisting of a bed and a sitting area with a couch and the balcony. They also had a shower and a tub. Our room was just the bed and a small desk with a mirror and it only had a shower in the bathroom. We had drinks most nights at either Darryl's room or Dad's.
Darryl and I both bought the same shirt on St Martaan and ended up both wearing the same shirt on the trip home. Darla got a kick out of it and had to take a picture.
We had a long wait at the airport on Saturday before the flight home, but that turned out to be a blessing as I had left my eyeglasses at the restaurant of the Courtyard hotel in Ft. Lauderdale and they could not locate them on the Saturday that we left on the cruise. They are nice Oakley frames and I thought perhaps someone had stolen the frames. The glasses somehow appeared during the week that we were gone and one of the shuttle drivers met me up at the Virgin America check in and brought the glasses to me. We were relieved as I would have had to order a replacement pair.
Speaking of Virgina America. I have taken many of the airlines from American to United, Southwest, Frontier, Continental, Alaska, etc., but not one holds a candle to Richard Branson's airline. First of all, he has wireless internet on the plane, DirecTv service on the seat back in front of you, video games, music, movies and television shows at your fingertips. You order your food right from the video screen and the flight attendants bring it. They don't push a big cart up the aisle and bring you cold sandwiches. More airlines should do it the Branson way, but most won't. The old joke is how does a billionaire become a millionaire? Buy an airline. So far, Richard Branson has dodged that bullet.
It was a gorgeous day in Roseville today with blue skies and 72 degrees with no wind. I was able to clean up the yard and put down some crabgrass preventer on the lawn. I also cleaned up the pool and drained off some of the water from the recent rains. I also went all around the house and sprayed weed and grass killer on all of the grass buds coming up in the cracks of the sidewalks, driveway, flowerbeds, and tree rings. We have the fruitless cherry tree on the side yard in full pink blooms and the African violets around the pool are in their full purple royalty.
Well, that is it for this week. I hope you are all well. The weather was amazing on the cruise and we saw rain once or twice, but the tropical variety which lasts ten minutes and goes right back to 90 degrees. It was definitely a tremendous memory for us and for Dad and Shirley. They are on the second leg of their cruise, having visited Princess Cays today and sailing on now to Aruba. Stay strong in the Lord and remember that all of the good in your life comes from Him. Ciao.
o
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