Kasha Katuwe - March 30, 2013

Although we missed having John and his family join us for the Easter Weekend, we did take the opportunity to enjoy the nice weather and go on a little hike at the Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument outside of Santa Fe.

 The area which is in the foothills of the Jemez Mountains is famous for its "tent like" formations and the narrow canyon carved into volcanic pumice.

 It's a wonderful combination of colors - red & tan cliffs, green ponderosa pine trees, and of course, blue skies.

It's also kind of a photographers dreamland.  Besides the beautiful colors and marvelous shapes there always seems to be a way to get the sun to just barely peak out from behind a cliff or tree.

The boys did a great job on the hike.  Even Michael logged in a mile or so of actual hiking.  After the hike we joined GiGi for a picnic at the base of the canyon.

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #10

The blog entries that follow (in reverse chronological order) are daily accounts of our Caribbean Cruise and New Orleans tour.  Internet access was slow and expensive so the blog had to wait until we got home.  Special thanks to Cassandra for providing some of the pictures and to the entire Mrazek "team" for helping out with edits of my narrative.

Our Last Day
On Tuesday, February 26, we all started to go our separate ways.  Bryan and Cassandra had a very early flight.  The rest of us left by late in the afternoon.  Before heading to the airport, we did manage to drive around some of the suburbs of New Orleans.  We saw lots of beautiful parks and more cemeteries.

All in all we had a fabulous time.  We saw new things, learned about new places and people, and most importantly got to spend time with family members we don't see nearly often enough.

Now......, where are we going next?!?

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #9

Day Nine (Monday)

Late breakfast at the hotel. We drove into town (Garden District) and did our walking tour.  The weather was nice and the architecture quite interesting.  We toured in Lafayette Cemetery and were fascinated by that.  We then took the streetcar system back into the French Quarter for lunch and some more shopping.  After battling the rain on and off throughout the day we finally gave up and returned to the hotel.  We dried off and then went back out again, listening to some jazz at “The Spotted Cat” and eating some more local fare at the Praline Connection (some of the food was very good, some so-so).

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #8

Day Eight (Sunday)

Off the ship by 8:30 (toting our own luggage), picked up the rental car (van) and headed for the French Quarter to meet Stefanie and Kinsey for our 10 am tour.  Nice plan, except for the Rock N Roll marathon rolling through the part of the city that we were in.  We got trapped, literally, inside the route these marathoners were running and had to park quite a ways away from our intended destination.  We rode the streetcar into the French Quarter and met up with the girls.  We then ate some bennettes (sp?) and hot chocolate at Café De Monde.  We wandered around and shopped for a couple of hours, ate some gator cuisine and then started our tour of the French Quarter.  More wandering and shopping.  We then met Bradon at the Casino and then had some authentic New Orleans food at Mother’s.  Back to the hotel for more visiting and to send Bradon on his one and one half hour drive home.

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #7

Day Seven (Saturday)

All of this day was at sea.  We slept in and ate a late breakfast.  We then enjoyed some very warm weather on deck for about an hour or so.  For lunch we attended the “Presumed Murder” dinner theater.  We had to pay extra for mediocre food, with mediocre service, and a mediocre show by the Second City cast.  We didn’t have the best seats and couldn’t see much and it was difficult to hear.  Other people in the crowd really seemed to love it so maybe it was just us – or not, maybe it was just a rather mediocre event.  After lunch we reserved a conference room and used a large screen flat panel TV to view the pictures and videos that we had taken so far.  We had dinner reservations at Bryan’s favorite restaurant on the ship, the Versailles.  Bryan couldn’t make it however, he had to send his older sister (below, next to Frank) in his stead (please see Bryan for details).  After dinner we attended the cruise ship’s big finale performance with all of their singers and dancers and their magician and their acrobat duo.  The finale (in all white with fake snow) was particularly impressive.  After the show some of our group watched the karaoke finalists (and were  quite unimpressed) and then we all gathered at restaurant that no one else on the ship seemed to even know about, the Blue Lagoon, for late night snacks – hamburgers, fries, chicken tenders, etc.  So finally, with the prospects of early disembarkation the next morning, we all turned in early for the night.

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #6

Day Six (Friday)

Tulum – This was our most challenging day from a logistics standpoint.  We had to get off the ship, get to a ferry (via taxi or walking), take the ferry across to Playa Del Carmen, then meet up with our tour guide who would drive us the 45 miles or so to the Tulum ruins site.  All of that worked well and we met our guide, David, a recently returned missionary for our tour. The trip in the van to Tulum was around 45 minutes.  David wasn’t necessarily a talkative, confident guide but he was quite nice.  His mom, Alma, from central Mexico founded the tour company and his Dad, Manual, helped out.  They were all there to get the tour started (we were guessing that David was kind of new at this).  It was fairly hot but there was a decent amount of shade around the ruins.  As we went from building to building at the site, David had us read scriptures that related some of the things we were seeing with Book of Mormon history.  Of particular interest at this site were the references to the Descending God (koolkookahn [sp?]).  In the main building (called El Castillo by the Spanish) he described the glyphs & murals that seemed to depict the Father, Son (Koolkookahn) and the Holy Spirit.   He also discussed the murals depicting dark skinned men sacrificing a fair skinned man.  In other places there are are murals depicting fair skinned men “teaching” dark skinned men.  The buildings are a collection of residences (for the upper class) and a few temples (which don’t have the pyramid shape that other sites do). The site sits atop a hill overlooking an incredibly beautiful beach.  After the guided portion was over were wandered around for 10 to 15 minutes (we would have liked more time but our cruise ship schedule precluded it).  We returned to Playa Del Carmen, did some shopping, and got on the Ferry (which was quite late and really stressed us out).  On the Ferry we were entertained by a local band (not all that great but they did make the time pass faster).  Thanks to a brisk pace between the ferry port and the cruise ship we got on board with just over 10 minutes to spare.  We were greeted at the dock by members of the crew with cool moist towels, frozen treats, and lots of smiles.

Back On Board – Bryan made “reservations” at one of our favorite restaurants (Aqua) with our servers Eugene and Ruluca.  Most of us had turkey and gravy.  The caramel flan was a disappointment.  At dinner we spent some time rating our guides (Ivan was #1), our tours, the shows, and our servers.  After dinner we went to a musical called “Shout”.  The cast consisted of five women singing and dancing to popular songs from the 60’s.  Based upon the previews we were a little worried about the content but it turned out to be pretty tame.  Before the show started Carol-Lynn and I jockeyed for the best seats in the balcony – she won.  After the show we joined a crowd of people at the Chocolate Buffet.  One of the chefs was doing some pretty incredible Karaoke which had the crowd really in to it.  Mike was so inspired during the singing of YMCA that he did the motions while carrying two plates of chocolate goodies – somewhere between the letter M and the letter C one of those plates “didn’t make it” and crashed to the floor and broke.  During this time we reflected on how outstanding the crew members have been – Eugene, Ruluca, Joseph (Happy Happy), Curly, Arnold (room attendant), and “Jane” (the Trivial Pursuit girl).

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #6

Day Five (Thursday)

Zipline – We walked right off the boat and into a market square where we quickly found our guide.  With wrist bands on, we were loaded into a van for a 30 minute curvy bumpy drive to the zip line area.  Unlike Belize or Costa Maya, the 36 mile long island of Honduras is filled with hills so we were on some pretty crazy and curvy roads.  This also gave us a chance to see more of the “real” Honduras – poor yes, but bustling with people going about their lives.  I didn’t feel sorry for any one or any circumstance I came across.  In our van we became acquainted with some of our fellow zipliners  - we would see Jeremy and Kathleen later in the day.  At the zip line company’s parking area, we got outfitted with harnesses and helmets.  We were then transported to the top of a “mountain” on an extremely steep road – we were quite glad we didn’t have to walk.  There were at least 8 zip line segments, some of the quite long.  Everyone did quite well and had a good time.

 

Roatan Shopping – After zip lining we returned to the ship, put some stuff away, grabbed some gear and then headed back out to Roatan for some shopping. We left the “safety” of the port shopping area (managed by the cruise line) and ventured out into the “real” city – or at least that part of the city that catered to tourists.  Carol-Lynn found some soccer shirts for her boys.  Cassandra some shells and mother-of-pearl things and Cindy brought 3 conch shell bracelets (only 2 lasted long enough to make it back on board the ship).  All of these purchased at the same shop from a very nice older woman (Carmella) – who played a mean Conch Shell.  A little farther down the road Cindy found a Christmas ornament made from Mahogany.  Case and Carol-Lynn purchased other items in this area as well.  I was pleased to see how respectful everyone was to these merchants – the bartering was kept to a minimum.

 

Back on Board – We returned from shopping and then started to wander around the ship.  Bidding farewell to Roatan from an observation deck, Trivial Pursuit in one of the lounges, a meal in the buffet line, followed by an acrobatic show by a Russian husband and wife ballet team.  With a rather big day planned for Friday we turned in relatively early.

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #5

Day Five (Wednesday)

Snorkeling – To get into Belize City, we had to take a tender boat from the ship to the shore (we were parked off the coast about 5 miles – to protect the barrier reef environment).  Getting into and out of one of these boats and finding a seat is not fun – we all would much prefer to just walk off onto a pier or something.  After about a 20 minute ride, we arrived at the Belize City marina and on the docks where it was a mad house.  With four cruise ships parked offshore there’s probably around 6,000 people all descending on this little village in the space of an hour or two – all looking to have their version of fun (and we were no exception).  We eventually found our tour operator, signed the liability waiver forms, got our little wrist bands, and then hopped onto another boat for our 30 minute ride to Goff’s Caye (pronounced key).  The tour “guide” Bernie spent that time telling us all about Belize (formerly British Honduras) – he was quite entertaining and made the ride seem a little shorter and the bumps a little less severe.  The 1.5 acre island sits on the edge of a barrier reef (second only in size to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia).  It was definitely a post card looking island with white sand, palm trees and a little grass hut or two.  Initially there weren’t too many people but that changed as the day went on.  Frank stayed on the island while the rest of us snorkeled around this reef.  We saw several fish and quite a variety of coral.  Three of the tour operators were in the water with us – herding us along.  They would dive down to the bottom every once and awhile a pull up a sea cucumber or a starfish or something. After snorkeling we had about an hour to sit around and explore.  Casey found some contraband (coral pieces) but was told by an official that it would be okay to take with us.  We got on the boat for the return trip and sat next to a group that we was really into the rum punch – not so fun on the rough seas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shopping – At the Belize City port, Cindy purchased a clay nativity set signed by the grandson of the artist.

Back on board – After our tender boat ride home, we got cleaned up and prepared for an early dinner.  While at dinner there was some kind of storm that really soaked the ship.  We didn’t realize it until we got on the upper observation deck.  We watched one of the other cruise ships depart the area and took in a gorgeous sky – the pictures will tell the story here.  We enjoyed a comedy show, by Shark Bait and learned that there is a college for clowns and that these two former Ringley Brothers clowns (I’m not using that term figuratively here) were honest to goodness graduates and now out on their own.  Their juggling and comedy was very entertaining – I think Frank laughed the hardest of all of us though.

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #4

Day Four (Tuesday)

Spontaneity?….. Not – This day was supposed to be “spontaneity day”. We had planned most of the cruise excursions well in advance and we saved this day out for us to decide something to do “at the last minute”.  Well, about a week before the cruise, I started to worry about the shore excursions we wanted getting booked up.  After talking with everyone in our group, we agreed that we should go ahead a book at tour, in advance, to see the Mayan Ruins at Chacchoben – so much for spontaneity. Frank had heard or read something about a tour guide that grew up in the area (the guide’s father owned the land and discovered the site).  I found this guy on the internet and made a reservation with “The Native Choice”.  For Cindy and I this was our first time seeing some Mayan Ruins and so we were particularly excited.  Amanda had done some research for us before the trip and recommended this site (a close second to seeing Tulum).

Arrival – After breakfast at the Market Café (buffet), and at the appointed time, we stood in long lines to leave the ship.  We walked down a long pier (alongside the Disney Cruise ship, Fantasy (which seemed huge compared to ours) towards the cruise-line-created-port of Costa Maya.  We walked past numerous shops into the outskirts of Mahahuel, a small fishing village.  We were directed into an area filled with people waiting for their tour with “The Native Choice”.  As van after van filled with people and tour guides, my hopes of having an intimate tour with someone who really knew the area were quickly diminishing.  We piled into a van with six other people and with our driver and the tour guide.  Our guide spoke very good English and right at the start gave us some wonderful insights into modern day Mayan people and culture.  About half way into the trip we realized that we got the guide we had wanted.  Ivan was part owner of the tour guide company, very well educated, and capable of speaking several different languages.  His stories and discussions about the modern day Maya and the ancient Mayan people were quite captivating.

Chacchoben – It took us around 45 minutes on a pretty decent road to get to the site.  Just before you enter the parking area you can see one of the temples sticking up over the jungle canopy.  I could write pages about what we saw and learned but a couple of things really stick out: 1) the Mayan calendar was complex in a number of ways and was key to tying science, agriculture and religion together; 2) The 52 year cycle in this calendar system spawned a regular rebuilding spree (reflected in the temple construction).

 

More on  our guide – Our guide was maybe in his late thirties.  His father was Mayan and his mother a “matiste” (part mayan, part European).  He is the youngest of seven children and his family lived quite a ways away from the local village.  He started “primary school” at age 7 – which is all that was offered in the area - and then his mother sent him to boarding school which as he put it was a “mixed blessing”.  A curse since he had to be away from his family for so many years and yet a blessing because it allowed him to go to college and get degrees in accounting and business.  His college expenses were paid for by the Nestle company.  They expected him to work for them after he obtained his degree – which he did for three years – but he really just wanted to go “home”. He spent part of his time talking to us about some pretty deep philosophical topics and the Mayan people: satellite TV and happiness, satellite TV and their view of outsiders, the “high” crime rate and chickens.  Too many to recall or tell but all so insightful.  Towards the end of our tour, he stopped along the trail and picked up a sherd – a broken piece of pottery.  He explained how valuable an intact pot or plate is on the black market – hundreds of thousands of dollars.  He then related a story of how his mother used one such plate (not knowing its value) as a platter to hold feed for the chickens.

 Shopping – Cindy purchased a clay Costa Maya Fish tree ornament in the Cost Maya tourist shop area.   

Back On Board – We returned to the ship and ate at the Aqua restaurant where some of our most favorite servers Eugene and Raluca took great care of us.  Frank would regularly meet up in the dark halls of the ship with his “supplier”, Curly, for regular Pepsi fixes.  And somehow, Carol-Lynn would always end up with a drink too.  After dinner we took in a show – the Second City comedy act.  Although this group claims a rich and glorious heritage and past the current players left quite a bit to be desired.  Frank really enjoyed the inflatable woman routine.

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #3

Day Three (Monday)

Cruising – On Monday, the cruise ship spent the entire day traveling south towards the Yucatan peninsula and our first port – Costa Maya.  Carol-Lynn was quite focused on getting us good deck chairs in a desirable location so she and Cassandra got up early to reserve our spots.  The idea was to spend this “day at sea” relaxing in the sun and reading.  After breakfast in the Blue Lagoon we found our reserved chairs and for about 5 to 10 minutes braved the 30 knot winds pummeling the ship (and us).  The crew eventually closed off many of the outside areas due to the “dangerous” conditions.  And guess what heavy winds on the high seas does to a cruise ship – yes, makes it kind of a wild ride.  Of the six of us, Cindy was most sensitive to the ship’s motion which is why Carol-Lynn hog tied her and forced her to wear a “patch”.  So at that point we realized we’d be spending the entire day inside the ship.  We first watched a presentation about how the ship is run with details on food and the staff – it was actually quite interesting.  My question about how an engine fire might disable the ship (like the Carnival Triumph) was not well received by the grumpy chief engineer.  We had a nice 2^nd and 3^rd lunch in the buffet area and then we attended a magic show in the main theater.  The magician, from England, was pretty good but at the end of his act he pitches us a DVD of his magic tricks that he’s selling in the lobby – sheeesh!  We ate dinner in an “upscale” restaurant, the Versailes, and then took in a “show”.  This one involved the ship’s dancing and singing cast singing music from the 70’s (Styx, Queen, Donna Summer, even one Eagle’s song) and was quite entertaining.  Cindy was still a little knocked out so we turned in early that night.  The rest of the group stayed out until all hours of the morning – you’ll have to read their blogs to see what happened to them.

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #2

Day 2 (Sunday)

New Orleans Preview – after a really mediocre warm (not hot) breakfast in our hotel lobby we took a short trip to one of the French Quarters (I’m starting to think that there is only one of them).  We boarded a trolley close to our hotel and rode it along the river front.  The river, in this case, is the Ol’ Muddy (Mississippi) and on this day at least, it lived up to its nickname.  Like the shuttle driver the trolley drivers weren’t overly friendly as we first timers tried to figure out how to put our “exact change” into the machine.  Although the temperature was “cool” the bright sunny day made it quite pleasant to be outside.  At the end of the Riverfront Trolley line we got off and walked through the French Market which was kind of a glorified flea market with a heavy emphasis on left over Mardi Gras masks and beads and anything to do with gators (stuffed heads, sandwiches, jerky, smoothies, etc.).  We walked down a few streets and into Jackson Square.  We noticed that there was quite a bit of restoration work going on.  We are very excited about spending more time here after the cruise.

 
On the ship – After returning to our hotel we dragged our luggage a couple of blocks to the cruise terminal.  We got all our stuff taken care of and boarded the ship.  We joined Cassandra and Bryan for lunch in the main buffet room.  Our cabins were ready for us shortly after lunch - we had three interior staterooms right next to each other on Deck 9.  We explored the upper decks of the ship while still in port.  It was rather windy but the temperature was warm enough to make it a pleasant day.  That evening we ate our second dinner at the Aqua restaurant and then attended a “Welcome” show in the ship’s main theater (for us hobbits, first dinner was just a couple of hours earlier at the grill on the upper deck). For the welcome show, our cruise “director” was part game show host and lounge singer and sang “Cabaret” as an introduction.  He had a good voice and all but I kept thinking this was a joke because it was so cliché - it was like watching a Saturday Night Live skit.  The show included a live band and singers and dancers (the girl in the leopard print leotard was also our emergency disembarkation coordinator).  After the show we wandered around and found a three person Japanese band singing pop music (with heavy Asian accents no less) – more Saturday Night Live material here too.  In a small pub we then found a “traveling troubadour” who was quite talented – kind of a young Bob Dylan type, playing the guitar, the harmonica and singing.   The lowlight of the evening was the Mardi gras “parade” – members of the crew threw beads at us then formed a “parade” into one of the lounges. The best part of this Mardi gras activity was watching Cindy steal a string a beads from an unsuspecting senior citizen.  Through all of this, Frank has done amazingly well.  We’ve walked and talked him nearly to death.  I think he has enjoyed the ship and the food with his only complaint being the “up-sells” - we are regularly asked to purchase reservations in fancy restaurants (with cover charges), upgraded beverage plans, bingo and game show sales, raffle ticket sales, photos, art in the art gallery, jewelry, etc.  Now that we know what their “shtick” is we can head them off before they get too far into their pitch.

What I Did For Summer Vacation (in February) #1

Day 1 (Saturday)

Getting to New Orleans - Frank (Grandpa) joined us for the start of our trip by driving down from Edmonton, Alberta (>1600 miles).  With Amanda acting as our chauffeur and Mikey as an upbeat companion, we started our journey from the airport in Albuquerque.  Our Southwest flights included a stop in the “Big D” – lots of ten gallon hats and cowboy boots were seen.  We arrived at the New Orleans airport and quickly found Cindy’s sister Carol-Lynn who was every bit as excited about the trip as we all were.

Airport Shuttle - We arrived in the late afternoon and took a shuttle to our hotel.  The shuttle driver was part driver and part tour guide.  He was quite knowledgeable about the “French Quarters” as he called them (we only found one though). I’m pretty sure our driver was a former movie actor - if you’ve ever seen the movie Elf and can remember the African American department store manager then you’ve seen our shuttle driver.  He was heavy on the horn as he drove and talked but he didn’t know much beyond his script - someone asked him “what kind of tree is that” and he said, basically, “how the $%#& should I know”.  He did mention on several occasions how much federal money they needed to rebuild the city after Katrina and pleaded for more (not like I have any say in the matter).  After a 45 minute drive/tour we arrived at our hotel but the driver/tour guide was not too happy with my stingy $5 tip – I guess he didn’t realize that I pay taxes and that I have already been helping rebuild his stupid city over the last 8 years.  Oh well, welcome to New Orleans.

 
Hotel & Dinner – Our hotel was chosen for its proximity to the cruise terminal.  It was rather expensive and not much to write home about.  But the staff was friendly and the room was able to comfortably accommodate the four of us.  The hotel proved to be especially confusing for Carol-Lynn.  After being given a room key, she was encouraged to commit to memory our room # (since it wasn’t written on the card).  She struggled with that task but not near as much as trying to remember what the name of the hotel was and what city we were in – I kept a close eye on my Sister-In-Law from Montana after that.  Dinner was an exercise in spontaneity and compromise.  Spontaneity, because we hadn’t picked a place to eat ahead of time and compromise because everyone unavoidably has their likes and dislikes.  This is why Mike likes to be in charge.  We plan ahead and do what I say – no deviations, no last minute changes, no freedom, no agency, clean, efficient – I think this approach has been tried before.  Anyway, with spontaneity and compromise in full swing, we walked around for what seemed like hours only to end up eating at an exotic New Orleans eatery, L’ Fudd Ruckers in a smokey casino (not exactly Cindy’s first choice).