Taking a Twilight Tour in Forks, Washington

Posted on August 18, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Twilight Tour Bus

Many of the cruise ships heading for Alaska each summer depart from Seattle. Passengers who have a bit of extra time to spend in the Seattle area before or after their cruise find numerous things to see. Seattle, of course, has its major icons like Pike Place Market and the Space Needle. It also has lesser-known delights like the Underground Tour or the Freemont troll.

Some folks venture out a bit farther to visit Mt. Rainer, the area’s largest mountain, or her more famous sister Mt. St. Helens, who blew her top in a 1980 volcanic eruption. What about the many Twilight fans though? There’s something extra special for them to see. You don’t even have to be a Twilight fan to enjoy a Twilight tour in Forks. Randy, our tour guide and bus driver, had lots of tidbits of information to share about the local area and the book that saved a town.

Forks High School sign

We booked an evening tour with Team Forks that included a hot dog roast on the beach. The tour met at a flower shop right across the street from Forks High School. The school itself has been rebuilt, but it still has the original sign. The flower shop has mostly been taken over by Twilight merchandise. Forks may be a small town, but there’s no shortage of places to buy all things Twilight.

City of Forks police car

We had a group of five, and were joined by two other people on our tour. Our friendly bus driver/tour guide Randy gave us all plenty of time for photos at the school sign before boarding the bus, and even brought out his cardboard cutouts of Bella and Edward to join in the posing. Sometimes they have actual live look-alikes for the movie characters, but none joined our tour.

Here it is….the Forks City Hall Sign

The bus stopped first at Forks City Hall, home of the police station where Bella’s dad Charlie (Chief Swan) works. We had plenty of opportunities for photos inside and out. When a real live Forks cop pulled into the parking lot he posed for photos with tourists as well. Just about everyone in Forks welcomes Twilight fans.

Randy said that before Twilight, Forks was a dying town. Mainly only fishing or hunting brought visitors in the pre-Twilight era. With the town’s main source of employment – logging – on the fritz many people had been laid off and the town itself had so little money it considered unincorporating because the town could not pay its bills.

B&B in Forks better known as Cullens' house

Miller Tree Inn B&B, AKA the Cullens’ house

Just a few hundred yards down the road from City Hall we found the Cullens’ house. Apparently the team Forks tour does not have a monopoly on cardboard cut-outs of the movie characters as Edward peered out of an upstairs window. People who really want to immerse themselves into the Twilight experience can stay at the Cullen’s house, as it is a Bed and Breakfast.

Edward looks out the upstairs window

In between stops Randy added more tidbits of information about either Forks or Twilight. He said the whole concept of the books started with Stephanie Myers having recurring dreams about a misty clouded shadowy place.

Forks Hospital, Dr. Cullen’s parking space

Next the bus stopped at the Forks Hospital where the head of the vampire family works. Randy mentioned a need to relocate Dr. Cullen’s parking space sign due to its original location causing tourists to interfere with the arrival of ambulances. With the looming possibility of an emergency occurring right when tourists have stopped to take photos, the ambulance gets precedence.

Bella’s injured, get Dr. Cullen quick!

Twilight author Stephanie Myers literally discovered the place of her dreams in an online search for the setting of her books. Not having actually been to Forks at the time, she based the character’s homes on actual places in “for sale” listings. Bella and Jacob’s houses on the tour are those very houses from the original descriptions. The house described in the book as the Cullen’s house was a ways out of town and later burned down. Needing a suitable replacement for the tours, they found one right in town that fit the description.

Bella Swan’s house in Forks WA

Following a short drive through the backstreets of Forks, we stopped at Bella’s house. This house remains a private residence, but they have placed a sign in the yard proclaiming it as the home of the Swans. While we were there a couple of Mormons out on their proselytizing duties walked by. They seemed amused by the Twilight bus, but did not object to having their picture taken even though they are not part of the story. Perhaps even vampires or vampires to be need a bit of religion in their lives.

Do Vampires Bite Mormons?

Stephanie did her research well, finding later when she actually did come to visit Forks that the descriptions in her books fit the actual places they intended to describe as well as if she had actually seen them.

Bella's trucks at the Forks Visitor's Center

Bella’s trucks, movie version and book version

Parked in front of the visitor’s center sit two old trucks. The oldest and reddest one looks like Bella’s truck as described in the book. The more oranger-looking and somewhat newer one is of the type used in the movie. Apparently they could not find one from the book that actually ran when filming the movies. The first movie was too low-budget to have a replica made. We had lots of time for posing with both trucks and the cardboard cut-outs. Jacob came out to join Bella at this stop.

Forks Chamber of Commerce / Visitor's Center

Bella’s truck, book version

Before the filming of the first Twilight movie, crews came to Forks to do the prep work for filming there. Then the state of Washington stepped in demanding a hefty tax. Unable to afford it at that time, the film crews moved to Vancouver B.C. and Oregon instead. After the first movie became so successful, the state wanted a piece of the action, but by then the movie makers had soured on Washington and did not care to make a deal.

Jacob and Edward at the treaty line

As we headed out of town, Randy gave options of which Twilight movie to play. I thought the how-it-was-made one sounded interesting, but got out-voted by everyone else who preferred watching the first movie. We stopped at the Treaty Line, which was a sign at the entrance to a campground. The campground also offered restrooms, a store, and a small cafe.

Forks has embraced everything Twilight. The success of the books and movies brought enough tourists to the area to revive Forks from a dying town to a thriving town, thus becoming the book that saved a town.

Jacob the werewolf's house from Twilight

Jacob Black’s house, La Push WA

Jacob Black’s house offers Twilight fans another opportunity to immerse themselves in the story. It operates as a vacation rental home, sleeping up to 10 people. The tour still stops there, with photo ops on a motorcycle as well as in front of the house.

Rialto beach at La Push

We stopped at a different beach than where the tour normally goes, as Jacob’s people, the Quileute tribe, had some sort of ceremony going on where the tour usually stops. We went to a sort of mystical beach with huge logs to climb over and a nearby flat-topped island with trees only in a ring around the edge while the center remains a sacred burial ground to the tribe. The surf crashed into shore with great force and a heavy undertow. A kind of mist surrounded the rocky stacks in the water.

Randy cooking hot dogs on Rialto Beach

Randy cooked the hot dogs while the rest of us explored and enjoyed the beach. We had our choice of beef or turkey hot dogs roasted over a fire and plenty of logs to sit on. A couple seagulls came begging and enjoyed the leftovers, one running off with an entire hot dog which it swallowed whole. It looked like enough to choke a seagull, but then again they probably eat whole fish that way too. It gulped it right down without any trouble.

Rialto Beach, La Push WA

On the way back we stopped at the “Welcome to Forks” sign for night photos when it is lit up.

Welcome to Forks sign at night

Forks has two different Twilight Tour operators. The original Twilight Tours in Forks, and Twilight Tours by Team Forks. We had nothing to go on but the websites, and went with Team Forks because it looked like more fun and had the tour including the hot dog roast on the beach. Our guide said both tours go to the same places, and will actually work together by sending guests that want to book when they are already full to each other. In his opinion, his tour is more fun and the other more informative. The cardboard cut-outs of the movie characters for picture posing are only on the Team Forks tour.

Some people prefer to tour the area on their own rather than taking an organized tour. The Forks Visitor Information Center provides maps of all of the Twilight destinations to assist with do-it-yourself Twilight Tours.

Forks sits just about 140 miles from Seattle, so many visitors get there by rental car. A day tour that includes transportation provides another option. Those who choose to drive themselves also have the option of spending the night in the Cullen’s house B&B or renting Jacob’s house. Forks has several motels as well.

GPS or mapquest will tell you it takes just over 3 hours drive time to get from Seattle to Forks, but that does not include the state ferry where you have to add waiting time and loading and unloading time as well as the time it takes for the actual crossing.

Another option is to bypass the ferry and drive around crossing on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge instead. It is a toll bridge, though the toll is less than the ferry fare. When the ferry lines and waiting times are long you can drive around before you would have even gotten on the ferry, but when it is not peak time the ferry makes a nicer and faster trip.

Lavender farms sell an assortment of lavender products

lavender in Sequim, WA

Things to see on the way to or from Forks include the lavender farms of Sequim, Hurricane Ridge near Port Angeles, and the historic town of Port Gamble.

Posted in Day Trips, Port City Side Trips, Washington | Tagged #TwilightTour, Bella's house, Cullens house, Forks WA, Jacob's house, photos, travel, Twilight, Twilight Tour, Twilight Tour in Forks | 15 Comments

Nothing to Eat at the Chocolate Buffet

Posted on August 11, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Norwegian Sun

We had good meals on the Norwegian Sun. On the one-week cruise I took with my son and grandson, they served lobster twice. The ship had all sorts of different eateries, but since a number of them cost extra we pretty much stuck with the dining room or the buffet. Chris did try the sushi and said it was well worth the nominal fee. Justin had either pizza or a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner every night. If anyone could starve on a cruise ship full of food, he could. So much to choose from, and the picky six-year-old wouldn’t try hardly anything. He insisted he didn’t like it without even giving it a chance.

One thing I did notice though, was that while we had a lot of tasty dessert choices each meal, none of them were ever chocolate. I wondered what was up with that until finally the daily events paper mentioned a late-night chocolate buffet. This we must attend, Chris and I agreed. Justin didn’t seem so thrilled about it, but really, what’s not to love about a whole room full of chocolate choices in every cake, cookie, pie, mousse, or pudding type imaginable. Even Justin could find something he liked there.

We waited in a bit of a line to get in, Justin grumbling about not wanting to go. Once through the door, they had three rows of tables piled high with chocolate goodies of every shape and variety. Another passenger said all three lines had the same things, so we grabbed plates and went down one of the ones on the side. As Chris and I filled our plates, we kept offering Justin things, while he said no to everything. Finally I just put some things like chocolate pudding on his plate that I know he likes, and a few things that looked like the sort of thing he would eat such as chocolate rice krispie cookies.

“There’s nothing to eat at the Chocolate Buffet.”

After we got to the end of the line and Justin still had said no to everything, we found out the tortes and fancy cakes were all in the middle line, just the outer two were the same. I figured I had more on my plate already than I could ever eat and decided to skip those no matter how good they looked (and they did look good.) Chris found a couple things to try there, and Justin still said no to everything. We figured once we sat down he’d at least eat the pudding.

We found an open table, which was not easy as the room had quite a crowd. Justin refused to eat anything, I suppose just to be stubborn since he said he didn’t want to go to the chocolate buffet in the first place. Then we noticed a table with a crewmember behind it, serving ice cream. We took Justin there to see what they had. Surprisingly enough, since this was after all a chocolate buffet, they had strawberry or vanilla. No chocolate ice cream at all, although they did have things like m&m’s or chocolate sprinkles people could put on top.

Justin settled for a bowl of strawberry ice cream, and did actually eat that. I can’t imagine anyone else going to a chocolate buffet and eating nothing but strawberry ice cream. Justin is one of a kind. (I do realize there are people who can’t eat chocolate, but what are the odds they would actually go to a chocolate buffet?)

Posted in Cruise Food, Norwegian, Shipboard Life, Sun | Tagged cartoon, chocolate buffet, cruise, dessert, food, picky eater | 6 Comments

How to Fold a Towel Turtle

Posted on August 4, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Towel Turtle on Carnival Liberty

Supplies Needed to Make a Towel Turtle

1. Bath Towel

2. Hand Towel

3. Washcloth

4. eyes (bits of paper or felt or googly eyes)

Video of Stateroom Steward Folding Towel Turtle

How to Make a Towel Turtle Body

The turtle takes the standard towel animal body, same as many other towel animals.

one side of towel rolled to middle

Lay the bath towel out flat.

both sides rolled to the middle

Roll both ends to the middle.

rolled towel folded in half, rolls to outside

Fold rolled towel in half, rolls to the outside.

pull the ends of the tips out of each roll

Pull the tip out of the end of each roll.

pull the rolls into legs

Take the two tips that are the ends of one roll in one hand and the tips that are the ends of the other roll in the other hand and pull all four at once until the rolls pull into legs.

finished towel animal body

How to Make a Towel Turtle Shell

Lay the hand towel out flat.

fold the hand towel in half crosswise

Fold in half the short way across the middle.

fold hand towel in half diagonally

Fold in half diagonally so it looks like a triangle.

How to Make a Towel Turtle Head

Lay the washcloth out flat.

how to make a washcloth head for a towel turtle

fold down one end of the washcloth

Fold one end down a couple inches.

one side of washcloth folded over for turtle head

Fold both corners down from the middle of the folded end turning that end pointy.

both corners folded over for washcloth turtle head

Roll both sides to the middle at the same time.

if you don’t have camera in the other hand, you can roll both sides at once

Shape the pointy end into the head and make sure the rolls of the neck are tight.

Putting the Towel Turtle Together

set the head on top of the body

Set head on top of body.

drape the shell over the turtle with the straight edge to the front

Drape the shell over the head and body.

finished towel turtle

Tuck the ends of the shell in at the back and sides and decorate with eyes. Bits of paper, cloth or felt work for eyes. Googly eyes work well too.

for a different way to assemble the turtle, tuck the head between the leg rolls on the body

For a different way to assemble the turtle, turn the body over and nestle the head between the leg rolls, then flip it back over and put on the shell instead of putting the head on top of the body before adding the shell.

flip turtle over so neck is underneath

top it with a shell for a different finished towel turtle

Next in this towel animal folding series: Towel Dog

towel bulldog in Carnival Liberty launderette

For instructions on folding other towel animals check out My Cruise Stories Towel Animal Page, where clicking on any photo brings you to a blog with instructions on how to fold that animal.

Posted in Towel Animals | Tagged crafts, how to make cruise ship towel animals, photos, towel animal folding, towel animals, towel art, towel origami, towel turtle, video | 6 Comments

How to Win a Fantastick Hair Clip Great for Cruises and Everything Else

Posted on July 28, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

my flexi clip collection

You Can Wear the Flexi Clips Everywhere

Up-do’s made easy. No more hair in your face on windy decks. No hair tangled around pony tail holders. A versatile stylish hair clip you can wear any time, anywhere. What more could anyone ask for? Speed and ease in styling their hair? With these clips, you get that too!

I first discovered the Lilla Rose flexi clip on my daughter’s blog when she did a review on a fantastick clip for mommies to keep their hair out of grabby baby fingers. The first thing I thought when I saw it was what a great clip to wear on cruise ships. I posted a link on my facebook page, and Linda Menke saw it and asked if I’d like to review the clips too.

My hair is slicker than a freshly zambonied ice skating rink. It is also thin, baby fine, and straight. Did I mention there’s not that much of it? My greatest irritation with it is how my ears always want to stick out. (Thin hair and big ears are not a good combination.) No ordinary hair clip stands a chance. Barrettes slide around, headbands not only hurt my head, but also pop up or slide off, and ponytail holders tangle around the hair and break or pull out hairs that I really can’t spare when removed.

I mentioned this to Linda when she asked me if I wanted to review her products and she welcomed the challenge. It takes great confidence in the product to welcome a challenge that big. I think I got lucky that my very first product review is on such a great product.

horseback riding with the flexi clip

My sister and I gave the flexi clips a real test on a camping trip where we wore them horseback riding every day. On a cloudy day I put all my hair into a bun with a medium size flexi clip over it, and on the sunnier days we both wore ponytails with hats to keep the sun out of our eyes. I used an extra-small flexi clip for the ponytail and my sister used a small. In both styles the clips stayed put through the ride and beyond. A random stranger at the trailhead complimented our hair clips. These clips would work great for horse shows too. There’s even a flexi clip on the Lilla Rose website with a horse head as the center decoration.

I took this close-up of the ponytail myself, while riding my horse down the trail

Tips For Using Flexi Clips

I’ve found that the key is using the right size clip for the style you want to wear. It needs to have enough hair to fill the clip with just enough room left over to include some of the other hair under the styled part. If you use the right size clip and get it securely held into some of the underhair, it will stay on there all day whatever you do, even if you fall asleep on it in the evening after a hard day’s work. If your clip is too big for the chosen style, then there’s not enough hair to hold it in and it will tend to slide. If it is too small then you don’t have room to get some of the hair underneath included in the clip to keep the styled hair in place. Also when wearing flexi clips with danglies, make sure the clip is high enough on your head that the danglies don’t catch in collars on clothes or jackets.

trail riding with flexi clip in pony tail

more hair means a bigger flexi clip for the same style

Unfortunately, I don’t have a cruise coming up in the near future to test them on. The closest I could come to that for now is to stand out on deck on the state ferry. The next cruise I have booked is a transatlantic though, and I will definitely pack my Lilla Rose flexi clips and the headband too. Since receiving sample clips in the mail, I’ve worn them everyday, everywhere. I like them so much I bought more. I’m really looking forward to wearing the princess tiara dangle clip on formal night, and trying the not so fancy ones on the waterslide when I finally get to go on that cruise.

Lill Rose flexi clips stand up to the wind and sea

on the deck of the state ferry

I use the extra small for pony tails or half-ups (though I actually can fit all my hair into it for an up-do.) The mini also works for me for half-ups. I use the small for styles from the Lilla Rose website, although since I have layered hair not all of them work for me. My favorite turned out to be the medium because I can just twist my hair into a basic messy bun and clip that over the whole thing with plenty of underhair to hold it in securely.

the simple danglie jet size small flexi clip on the job at work

I’ve never mentioned my day job in this blog before. Other than paying the bills, it has nothing to do with cruising or travel of any sort. I’m a press brake operator in a sheet metal shop. Yup, I bend parts all day. I also start early in the morning and work a 10 hour shift (12 lately, we’ve been on overtime.) My normal routine used to be take a shower, put some clothes on, and get in the car. My hair dried in route and I ran a brush or comb through it before getting out of the car. I ignored it the rest of the day and it looked like a mess.

Now I can duck into the bathroom and put one on when I get there (which is normally a couple minutes before my shift starts.) The clip stays in all day and my hair looks much neater.

I work mainly with guys. One would think they would not notice such things as hair clips, but a number of them commented on the flexi clips. You know the clip is special when that many busy working guys notice it. They aren’t the only ones noticing it either. At my niece’s graduation dinner my family commented on what great-looking clip the daisy freestyle dangle was. (I love that one.)

Lilla Rose flexi clip, princess tiara dangle

princess tiara dangle worn on a windy beach

I wear the clips around the house, to the store, and for all my routine chores. My hair stays exactly how it started. Sometimes the hair on top of my head or around the clip isn’t the neatest from the get go, but that’s just how my hair is, impossible to get a perfectly groomed look. Sort of like Harry Potter’s hair, which was described in the books as being “all over the place.” Or maybe I’m just hair styling challenged because I’ve never gotten it to look perfect in any sort of style or clip of any sort ever. But it is better in the Lilla Rose clips than in any other one I’ve ever tried. Layered hair like mine does present a challenge trying to keep all the ends contained.

The Lilla Rose Headband

Thin hair and big ears always means fighting a loosing battle trying to keep my ears from sticking out through the hair when my hair is down. I’ve tried a variety of headbands, and they either hurt or don’t stay in place, often both. The Lilla Rose headband is adjustable so it can be as tight or loose as the person wearing it wants, to find their own balance between comfort and staying in place. I wore mine to work and it did its job of keeping my ears from sticking out, and felt so comfortable I never really noticed it, where usually when wearing a headband I am very conscious of its presence. I had it snug, but not tight, and it barely moved at all.

using Lilla Rose headband as necklace, flexi clip for scarf clip

Creative use of Lilla Rose products

I think the headband will be perfect for the times I deal poker or blackjack for an outfit that provides casino games for parties. On a recent trip with some family members though, my niece found a whole lot more creative use for it. She wore it around her neck like a necklace most of the day, then when we stopped awhile on a very windy beach she had it handy to pull up over her hair to keep it from blowing around.

Lilla Rose headband holds hair on a windy beach

More About Lilla Rose Flexi Clips

Lilla Rose has lots of different styles of hair jewelry. I love the flexi clip, but you might like something different. The winner of this giveaway picks whatever one they want. For those with long, thick, curly, or any other different type of hair who may be thinking something that works for me couldn’t possibly fit around your hair never fear, the flexiclip comes in a wide variety of sizes ranging from mini to mega and accommodates all types of hair. There’s many different styles and colors to choose from.

How to Win Your Very Own Lilla Rose Hair Clip

Winning your very own Lilla Rose Hair Clip is very easy. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog about what sort of Lilla Rose product you would like to win. That’s it, and you are entered in the drawing for this giveaway sponsored by Independent Consultant Linda Menke. To see the Lilla Rose products, visit the website. Click on go shopping to see all the wonderful products you can choose from if you win.

Want more chances to win? To get your name in the drawing extra times, there are several things you can do for bonus entries. You can like Linda’s facebook page, and comment on my blog that you did so. You can also watch the styling videos on Linda’s website and comment back on my blog with your favorite hairstyle. For yet another entry share the blog review on facebook, and again comment back on the blog that you did so. It’s really easy to share, just go to my facebook page and hit the share button on the link posted there. (While you’re there feel free to like the page.) These three things plus your initial comment give you up to four chances to win. Only two of them require a facebook account, so all those of you not on facebook still have two chances to win. The winning entry will be drawn at random from the comments, which is why it is important to leave separate comments for each entry.

One lucky winner among those people who comment on this blog will win their very own Lilla Rose product of choice from the Lilla Rose website priced under $16. If the winner lives outside of the USA, they may need to pay postage to receive their prize.

For those who don’t wear hair clips, Lilla Rose also has other products. And odds are you know someone who would love to receive one of these great clips as a gift.

Anyone living in the US, Canada, or Mexico can purchase Lilla Rose products directly from Linda’s website. People living in other countries can order their great Lilla Rose hair jewelry directly from the sponsor of this giveaway by emailing her at Cliptomania@ymail.com. She’ll figure out the shipping cost, send you an invoice through paypal, and ship your items directly to you.

WINNER will be announced on this blog on August 12. If you’ve entered be sure to check back because it is the winner’s responsibility to contact Linda Menke to claim their prize.

flexi clip size comparison of the 4 smallest sizes

Be sure to leave a comment about what flexi clip or other Lilla Rose product you like so you have a chance to win. If you are on the home page and not this specific post, click on comments in the tiny writing at the end of this post and before the next one to leave your comments.

In case you missed them above, the 4 ways to get entries into the giveaway are:

1. Main entry – View products in the go shopping section of the Lilla Rose website and leave a comment on this blog saying which product you would like to win.

2. “Like” Linda Menke’s Lilla Rose facebook page and leave a comment on this blog that you did so.

3. Watch the styling videos on the Lilla Rose website and leave a comment on this blog about which style you liked best.

4. Go to My Cruise Stories facebook page and share the link to this blog, then comment on this blog that you did so.

These must all be in different comments to count as separate entries.

THE WINNER IS:

To make this as fair as possible, I put a number for each comment on a piece of paper, put them all in a pile and stirred them up. Then I drew #14. Counting down the comments, the 14th comment came from…………my sponsor. This would never do, so my husband drew another number. Congratulations to lucky LINDA of comment #11. Yes the sponsor’s name is also Linda, but this is a different Linda. It’s just a Linda kind of day. Linda of comment #11, please contact Linda Menke at Cliptomania@ymail.com to claim your prize. Linda said in her comments that she liked the renaissance cross the best.

If you entered and are not the winner, you also may want to contact Linda Menke because if you read comment #14, she mentions special deals to everyone who entered the drawing.

Posted in Product Reviews | Tagged flexi clips, free, giveaway, hair clips for cruises, hairclip, Lilla Rose, photos, product review, win | 33 Comments

One Lovely Blog Award

Posted on July 27, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

My sudden string of awards continues with the One Lovely Blog Award. It’s wonderful to know my blog has been noticed and appreciated.

A great big thank-you to Nicole of NMNPHX for the nomination. Check out her blog for some really entertaining posts. She even has her very own award called the spotlight award that she awards to other blogs with no strings attached.

I have to agree with Nicole that the tree graphic for this award looks nicer than the heart graphic. It’s a much more attractive picture, I think.

As with most blogger to blogger awards, this one has some rules. The rules for this award include thanking the person who nominated you with a link back to their blog (and honestly that is the polite thing to do rule or no rule.) Also post 7 random things about yourself and nominate 15 other blogs for the award. Fifteen is quite a lot. A number of the blogs I would have nominated already had this award displayed. Which just goes to show other people like those blogs too.

Seven Things About Myself

1. My favorite name that I ever gave to a horse is Royal Golden Glow. The name totally suited her because she was a golden palomino. Her dam (mother)’s name was Royal Blue Sue, and sire (father)’s name was Mr. Glow Buck so her name combined both their names and her color.

2. Both of my children married people from other countries.

3. While riding in the car with me, my dog likes to sit in the front passenger seat, and then wants me to hold her paw while we drive down the road.

4. I wonder if there is any such thing as a politician who would do right by the people they are elected to represent instead of cutting everything except their own overly generous salaries, perks, and benefits to save money. Not likely.

5. I like pajama jeans.

6. I think experimental cooking is more fun than making known recipes.

7. Given the option, I’ll do without something rather than wait in line for it.

My Nominations are:

Feel free to check out this random collection of interesting blogs. (Just a note to other bloggers – if you want to make your blog easy to find, put a link on your gravatar!)

The world according to Hannah

Fotobird

A Mom’s Reviews

Clement Allen Photography

Envisioning Future

Zent Creative Blog

Munchow’s Creative Photo Blog

Afternoon Popcorn Snack

The High Heel Gourmet

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged awards, blog awards, blogging, blogs, random stuff | 11 Comments

Mount Roberts Tramway in Juneau, Alaska

Posted on July 21, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Norwegian Sun in Juneau viewed from Mount Roberts

The bus from our scenic river raft tour dropped us off at the base of the Mount Roberts Tramway in Juneau, Alaska. Glad we had purchased our tickets on the ship, we bypassed the ticket line and went straight to the tram line. Figuring in time spent in line to go back down, the return trip itself (which takes 6 minutes from the 2000 foot high top back down to the lower tram station at 27 feet above sea level ) and catching the shuttle back to the not-quite-in-town pier where the bigger ships like Norwegian Sun docked, we had about 15 minutes to spend at the top.

Mt Roberts Tram

There seemed to be quite an extensive building up there with gift shops, a restaurant, bar, and theater. Somewhere up there there’s a nature center and observatory that we didn’t have time to look for. Along the sides of the wide hallway in from where we exited the tram, people had cameras set up to sell vacation photos to the many tourists. We bypassed all that and went outside where they had a pretty extensive set of trails. With such limited time to explore, we took a very short hike.

Justin in the snow on top of Mount Roberts

In June in Juneau, not all the snow melts on the tops of even small mountains. We saw snow alongside the trail here and there, and then a big patch covering the entire trail. We thought hiking through snow in June was pretty good. I topped that one later though, riding horseback through snow in August.

Mt. Roberts tram over Holland America Cruise Ship

We managed to find a few minutes to take some photos from the top of the mountain. The tram ride itself is quite scenic, as most mountain tram rides are. I wish I had more to say about it, but we spent such a brief time at the top we didn’t see enough to know anything more than that we could have spent our entire time in Juneau up there without running out of things to do.

view of Juneau from inside the Mt. Roberts tramway

We definitely did not want to get left behind in port, so we made sure to come down from the mountain in time to get back to the ship. If the bus from our river raft excursion had been late, the boat would have waited since that was an official ship’s excursion, but once we left that bus we were on our own. Even though we bought the tram tickets on board, since those could be used at will and not with scheduled transportation to and from the trip they did not count as something the ship would wait for.

Mt. Roberts Tramwway in route

Only once have I ever been on a ship that did not leave port at the scheduled time. In Belize, customs took a very long time to clear the ship, so the shore excursions started late and a whole boatload of people must have had an all-day tour because they got back about an hour past time the ship should have left. I bet they were glad they had an official tour. We booked one on our own there, an excellent cave tubing adventure. Even with the late start they got us back to the ship on time.

After wondering all day why we had so little time to spend in Juneau compared to what we got in our other ports, we got back on the ship shortly before the scheduled departure time. We went up on deck to watch it leave, and there we saw a short distance away the Princess boat we seemed to see at a lot of our ports circling around waiting for us to leave so it could have our place at the dock. That pretty much explained it. Juneau did not have a whole lot of places for the larger ships to dock, so each one could only stay a short time.

Things to do in Juneau, Alaska

However you get there, Mendenhall Glacier is Juneau’s main tourist attraction. For more ideas on what to do or see, check in with Juneau’s Visitor’s Center.

If you come in on a cruise ship, they offer plenty of shore excursions to choose from. A number of them involve glaciers, which you can arrive at by land, sea, or air. Other options include a zip line, fishing, wildlife watching, dogsledding, gold mining, biking, kayaking, eating salmon, a hummer tour, or a photo safari.

When we went there were also people around the town square type area where the shuttles stopped with signs offering an assortment of bargain tours, and busses people could ride to Mendenhall Glacier for a nominal fee.

Free things to do in Juneau include a self-guided walking tour (you can get a map at the visitor’s center,) or tours of a brewery or the capitol buildings.

More Blogs About Juneau

Juneau, Zipline, Mount Roberts Tram on a stormy day, Glacier Gardens, River Raft Excursion, Mendenhall Glacier, Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center

Posted in Alaska, Norwegian, Shore Excursions, Sun | Tagged Alaska, cruise, Juneau, Mt. Roberts, photo, snow in June, tram, travel | 6 Comments

Juneau River Rafting Shore Excursion

Posted on July 14, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Norwegian Sun in Juneau

Juneau offered more shore excursions that we wanted to do than any other port, and our ship spent the least time there. We wanted to see a glacier up close. Our first choice would have been dogsledding, but to do any real dogsledding out on the ice and snow of a glacier involved taking a flight that for the three of us would have cost more than our entire cruise. The less expensive dogsledding tours weren’t real dogsledding at all, but wheeled sleds on dirt trails, on the dog’s summer exercise and training type sleds. We could have taken a bus tour to Mendenhall Glacier, and probably would have, but then we came across a brochure about a scenic river raft trip.

“See Mendenhall Glacier from the water,” it proclaimed, conjuring up visions of rafting among the icebergs below the glacier, looking up at a towering mass of ancient ice overhead. That sounded like a much more fun way to see the glacier than a bus tour. We also couldn’t resist buying tickets for the Mount Roberts Tramway, as they did not cost very much. We hoped to have time to use them, figuring we definitely wouldn’t have time to wait in line for them when we got done with the raft trip. And the person at the shore excursion desk did say we could return them if we didn’t use them.

The Norwegian Sun was one of the bigger boats touring around Alaska at the time. We saw a Princess boat or two about the same size at some of the ports, but everything else looked considerably smaller. Juneau had a dock a short distance from town for the larger ships like ours. Shuttles ran back and forth to town. We got on the bus for the raft tour. It stopped in town to pick up some more guests from the smaller Holland America boats docked right at the base of the tram in the touristy part of town. That’s where the shuttles go, the driver explained, in case anyone wanted to get off there after the tour.

At this point in time, Sarah Palin was still governor of Alaska, after her failed attempt to win the vice presidency. As we drove past the governor’s house, the tour guide made a point of saying that in Alaska governors are real people and live in a house like everyone else. A nice house, but they don’t get a mansion.

“Traditionally,” the guide said, “They’ve always kept chickens in the back yard at the governor’s house. They’re gone now though. Shortly after the lost election Sarah Palin had a big party and invited all sorts of people from town. She served up chicken cooked in a variety of ways. When asked why she had all the chickens killed she replied that she couldn’t get any peace and quiet with them all out there saying Ba-ROCK, Ba-ROCK all the time.”

I have no idea if there was a shred of truth to this, but it definitely made a good story to tell a busload of tourists, most of whom had never seen Alaska before.

Mendenhall Glacier looks closer through the camera

The bus pulled up on the shores of a frigid lake sparkling in the sunshine, where everyone donned rubber boots and rain suits. Rain or shine, raingear is standard attire for the raft trip. We walked down to the beach where the guides divided people into groups for each of the waiting rafts. Off in the distance, we could see Mendenhall Glacier, a large white speck on the hillside. When asked if we would get better views later, they said no, this is the only place we see it at all.

bergy bit looks like a duck

The lake did have some bergy bits floating around, but nothing large enough to consider an actual iceberg. Up until this point, all the shore excursions we had ever taken had always met our expectations. This was the first time we encountered exaggeration in the description. It’s not an isolated thing though, on a later cruise on a different cruise line I took an excursion that downright lied about what to expect. One would think they would tell the truth because customers who get the excursion they intended to purchase leave happy, customers who don’t leave disappointed. And they tell other people.

river raft

It’s not that we didn’t enjoy the raft trip, because we did. It’s just that we went to Alaska with glaciers in mind, and now had passed on our opportunity to see one up close. I felt a bit guilty about this because this was my pick on the excursions. We did learn that rather than taking a ship’s bus tour to the glacier, a person could just catch a bus to the glacier from the town square sort of place where we picked up the Holland America passengers. Far cheaper that way.

Unlike a white water raft trip I took later, on this scenic float the guide did all the rowing. On the white water trip everyone had a paddle. On this float the guide had a set of oars. The rest of us just got comfortable and enjoyed the view. We saw swallow nests in the side of a cliff with swallows flitting about, and eagles flying around overhead. The guide talked about the native fauna and flora of the area. He explained that for the most part they navigate around fallen logs and things to keep the river as natural as possible.

bridge on the scenic river float

During the mostly smooth ride, we did hit one small patch of minor riffles. Justin was very disappointed that it didn’t get wilder. He probably didn’t know the difference between scenic float and white water rafting when we chose a raft trip, although had it gotten too wild he wouldn’t have liked that either.

At a bend in the river, we came to a wall of cars. Apparently at some point in the past, Juneau had issues both with an eroding riverbank and nowhere to put junk cars. They thought they’d solve both problems by using the junk cars to buffer the riverbank and keep the water from eating it away. Now though, they’ve had some environmental problems with the car bend. It did make something pretty interesting to see along the way though.

At the take-out point we had a snack and traded our raingear and boots for our shoes. The bus took us back to the town square just in time for a brief ride on the tram.

More Posts About Juneau

Ziplines, Mount Roberts Tram, Mount Roberts Tram in a storm, Mendenhall Glacier, Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center, Glacier Gardens

Posted in Alaska, Norwegian, Shore Excursions, Sun | Tagged Alaska, cruise, glacier, Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier, river float, river raft, scenic, shore excursion | 8 Comments

How to Fold a Towel Elephant

Posted on July 7, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

towel elephant

The towel elephant, the one that started it all. Once on Thanksgiving I posted a picture of a towel turkey on facebook. Then Lauren of Australia (who does not understand about Thanksgiving, being Australian and all) posted a picture of a towel elephant, saying it trumped my turkey. I put up a poll about that, and after it kept getting a ton of google hits from people wanting to know how to fold towel animals, I decided I needed to write a blog about it, even though I wasn’t very good at it at the time. I’ve learned a lot more now, partly from the videos we made on our last cruise, but mainly from dissecting them into steps for these blogs.

What You Need to Make a Towel Elephant

Supplies needed: One bath towel, One hand towel, eyes (which can be paper, felt, googly eyes, whatever works.)

How to Fold a Towel Elephant Body

Start with the bath towel. This one does not take the standard body so many of the other animals use.

Lay the bath towel flat, and fold the long sides over a few inches

Lay the bath towel out flat and fold a few inches over on both long sides.

How to fold a cruise ship towel elephant

one side rolled to the middle

both sides rolled to the middle

Roll both ends into the middle.

fold rolled towel in half and stand for elephant body

Fold in half with rolls to the outside and stand up for a body with four sturdy round legs.

How to Make a Towel Elephant Head

hand towel hanging on a wall hook

Using the hand towel, either tuck a bit of the center of one long side under your chin, or hang it on a hook or peg on the wall if you have one available.

Roll both sides at the same time. Photo only shows one because my other hand was on the camera.

Roll both sides toward the middle so it ends up somewhat triangular with two rolls.

rolled towel

If you have a good imagination, it resembles a paper airplane at this stage.

turn it over to fold down the middle bit for the forehead

Turn rolled towel over and fold the middle part at the wide end down to make the forehead. Then pull the ends of the rolls out to each side to shape into ears.

pull the side bits into ears

curl the tip of the trunk and shape the ears as desired

Curl the pointy end into a trunk. Position trunk as desired.

Shape the ears, place onto the elephant body and decorate with eyes. For a sturdier, more portable elephant head you can safety pin the rolls together on the back, or run a pipe cleaner around it under the fold.

finished towel elephant

Now you have a finished towel elephant.

Towel Turtle in Carnival Liberty Atrium Elevator

Coming up next in this towel animal folding series: TOWEL TURTLE

Click this link for instructions on how to fold a variety of other towel animals.

Posted in Towel Animals | Tagged crafts, cruise ship towel animals, how to, photos, towel elephant, towel folding | 12 Comments

Rogue Child on a Cruise Ship

Posted on June 30, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Cruises make a great family vacation. Bringing children along provides many entertaining, interesting, and sometimes exasperating moments. The cruise lines all have children’s programs with different activities for kids ranging from preschoolers to teens. Norwegian’s was called Kid’s Club at the time we went on this cruise, but they have since updated their children’s programs. The youth programs on the cruise ships serve the dual purpose of giving the kids not only something to do, but a place to meet others near their own age, and giving the parents some child-free time to explore the adult areas of the ship. All the big cruise ships have casinos and bars, and some also have adult-only pools or deck areas.

While exploring the Norwegian Sun, we found the kids area, and the appropriate room for six-year-olds like Justin. While we talked to the people in charge, Justin wandered about the room discovering toys and a TV where kids could watch movies or play video games. Nobody else was using it at the time, so Justin got into playing a game, and wanted to stay when Chris and I were ready to go. That’s what the kid’s area is for, right, leave the kid and go off and do your own thing? Yeah, we thought so. Time to hit the casino.

At the casino they gave us coupon books with special deals for a variety of games. Slot machines were always open, but some of the table games just had dealers in the busy evening hours so we couldn’t try everything at that time. After a bit one of us thought we needed to get something from the room, so we went back there intending to return to the casino afterword. We entered the room and saw the message light on the phone flashing ominously. Kid’s club had called. The free play time Justin wanted to stay there for had ended, and when a scheduled activity started that he had no interest in he became quite disruptive and they wanted us to come and get him. No more casino that day. We went to get him and found him isolated and shoeless in the time-out area with a frustrated-looking caregiver who couldn’t possibly have looked any happier when we said who we came to pick up.

Justin with a towel elephant

A schedule of the next day’s events appeared in our room each night alongside the nightly towel animal. This schedule also included a list of times and events for kid’s club activities as well as when they had time for free play. So we decided never to leave Justin there randomly again, but to first go over the schedule and make sure any activity that would happen during his time there was something he chose and wanted to do.

He chose an activity, and we brought him there early for the free play time, which he quite enjoyed. Once again though, when the scheduled activity started Justin could not manage to behave himself like all the other kids even though this time he had chosen what he wanted to do. Again he ended up in time-out, this time for hitting someone, and we got paged. A couple more coupons through our casino book, but still a lot left.

One day they had rocket-making as one of the kid’s club activities. Justin said he really wanted to do that. So we tried again, bringing him early for his favorite free play time. They must have had some good video games. We still did not get through our coupon book before getting paged to go to kid’s club. His rocket did not turn out the way he wanted it to, and he took out his frustration by smashing other kid’s rockets before they got to test-fly them. Back to time-out for him. Third strike, you’re out. We were asked not to bring him to Kid’s Club again, not even just for free play. The rest of those unused casino coupons were doomed to stay unused.

Now your rocket won’t fly either!

We still had a great time on this cruise. After that we just picked activities that included Justin. He probably saved us some money that we didn’t lose in the casino.

Justin had a lot of energy. He liked to run down the hallway on the way to our cabin. Chris frowned upon this behavior and never allowed it. When I was alone with Justin though, I never saw the harm in it if it was mid-day when nobody was likely to be in their room sleeping. Good way for him to work off some energy I thought. He’d run right past our cabin door, but when I got to the door and he’d turn around and run back. So much the better, that much more energy used up.

Justin has always been a very hard child to feed. There is an extremely limited menu of items he will actually eat, and those only if they are presented exactly to his liking. On a cruise ship full of more food than anyone could possibly eat, he could actually starve. The only things he ever ate at dinner were either a grilled cheese sandwich or pizza. We saw other people’s kids eating lobster on lobster night, but while we enjoyed our lobster, Justin ate grilled cheese. At least he ate something.

His mother said he would eat broccoli. We found some on the lunch buffet one day, but his idea of eating broccoli was to slowly nibble so few of the very tips that after half an hour of grazing on the same piece of broccoli, it just about took a magnifying glass to actually find any gone. Perhaps he ate it better at home, but we didn’t try feeding it to him again that trip. He found something wrong with just about everything at the buffet. He didn’t like the color of a perfectly normal slice of cheese, wouldn’t even eat bread or a roll sometimes, and that’s normally one thing he’ll eat.

The Evil Strawberry

One morning when we decided to have breakfast in the dining room Justin ordered french toast. We told the waiter plain french toast with nothing on it. The plate came with powdered sugar on the toast and a strawberry off to the side. Justin wouldn’t touch it. We had to ask for another plate, stressing just the french toast, nothing else. Apparently the chef had issues with an ungarnished plate because the next one came out with no powdered sugar, but still a strawberry. No amount of pointing out that we could take the strawberry off the plate and it hadn’t touched the french toast would convince him to eat it. Nope, they had to bring out a third plate with nothing but the piece of french toast on it before he would eat.

His slow eating did come in handy one day. The ship was scheduled to go through Tracy Arm for glacier watching, but for some reason went through Endicott Arm instead. Being in an inside cabin, we obviously could not watch from our room, so we opted for a slightly early dinner at the very beginning of the time they started serving it. The fanciest of the two main dining rooms had some nice large windows and since we got there right when it opened we got seated next to one, as was our plan for going there at that time. We also got lucky in that all the glaciers turned out to be on just one side of the boat, and we got seated on that side. We had such a great view even the waiter found excuses to come often and pause by our table. For once long after Chris and I finished eating, we didn’t mind how much time it took Justin to nibble his way through his food. We just sat back and enjoyed the view. Justin’s slow eating ways gave us an excuse to stay for a long time, but even he eventually finished eating so finally we had to leave our wonderful view in the dining room.

Glacier watching in Endicott Arm

We stopped by our cabin for coats and went up on deck to see the glaciers from outside. Justin found another little boy there who could have been his twin in size and personality. The two of them ran around the deck having a great old time while everyone else looked for glaciers and watched chunks of ice float past, some with birds of one type or another sitting on them. The other kid had some toy cars that the two of them drove around in the recessed area next to the railing intended for draining water off the deck when it rains. Luckily that deck was not very crowded.

Children on a cruise ship will likely behave similar to the way they behave at home. This particular child got suspended in kindergarten for throwing stuffed animals at his teacher. We actually thought that was a bit ridiculous since his dad once threw a chair at his kindergarten teacher and we didn’t even hear about it until the parent-teacher conference.

children throw things at teachers cartoon

Changing Times

Posted in Alaska, Norwegian, Shipboard Life, Sun | Tagged bad behavior, cartoons, cruise, cruise ship youth programs, family vacation, fussy eaters, glaciers, kids on cruises, photos, travel | 6 Comments

The Sunshine Award

Posted on June 29, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Wow, I feel special now. After getting nominated for the versatile blogger award last week, now another award nomination! The Fotobird has nominated me for the sunshine award. This is an award for bloggers who creatively and positively inspire others in the blogosphere. Thanks for the love!

All these blog-to-blog awards come with some rules. The rules for this one include posting the award logo in a post or on the blog, answering 10 specific questions, and nominating 10-12 other bloggers. Also to put comments about their blogs with links to them on the post, and comment on their blog informing them of the nomination. Also include a link to the person who nominated you.

So here’s the 10 Questions

1. What is your favorite color?

Blue, the color of the sky on a sunny day. (A rare occurrence here in the rainy Pacific Northwest.) Also the color of the sea, in particular the vivid bright blue of the warm seas near the islands of the Caribbean.

2. What is your favorite animal?

I like all animals (well I might not go so far as to like slugs). I’ve had a variety of different pets over the years, though currently I just have one dog and two horses. One thing I’ve never had though is a real live gecko and I think geckos are awesome.

3. What is your favorite number?

I could go with the standard lucky 7 on this, but to be a little different I’m going to say the one on my paycheck. Except it’s never big enough.

4. What is your favorite non-alcoholic drink?

Everything I drink is non-alcoholic. Hard to pick a favorite, but I’ll go with chocolate milk.

5. Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter?

I have to say Facebook on that (check out My Cruise Stories Facebook Page).

6. What is your passion?

Traveling. There’s so much to see in this world. That’s one reason cruises are so great, unpack once and see several different places while the getting there is as much fun as the being there.

7. Prefer Getting or Giving Presents?

Giving definitely. Opening gifts is anti-climactic compared to shopping for that special gift that I think someone else will love. (Of course there’s no guarantee they won’t think it’s useless junk.)

8. What is your favorite pattern?

Um, I haven’t used a pattern for anything since Jr. High Home Ec sewing class… OK, all kidding aside, I’ll go with fluffy white clouds in a blue sky. Maybe that’s not a standard pattern like stripes or plaid or something, but whatever.

9. What is your favorite day of the week?

Honestly, any day I don’t have to go to work. But if I had to pick just one I’ll say Sunday. By then usually the major work for the weekend is done.

10. One Thing Which I Would Like to Improve About Myself?

I’d like to get in better shape. It’s just so hard to find the time to exercise on a regular basis.

My Nominees

Sunshine on My Shoulder – It’s the sunshine award, how could I not nominate a blogger who goes by the name of Sunshine? Plus she jumped off a cliff while cave tubing in Belize. (They didn’t do the cliff thing when I went cave tubing.)

Travel . Culture . Food – She nominated me for the versatile blogger award, which definitely brought sunshine to my day. Time to share the love.

Travel With Kat – Virtually travel the world through all the photos on this blog.

Weird News Around the Bend – Oddball news items that are so offbeat they’re entertaining.

1001 Scribbles – lots of great photos to brighten the day

Denisa Aricescu – it’s in a foreign language, but the layout is cute and she “likes” all my posts, and that definitely brings me sunshine.

Modern Scottie Dog – lots of cute dog photos, and what’s better than a dog to bring sunshine to any day

Writing With Light – a photoblog

Pause – mostly a photoblog

Belle Grove Plantation -Lots of history and a bed & breakfast that looks like a nice place to stay.

Sunshine in the Caribbean

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blog awards, blogging, blogs, sunshine award | 3 Comments

Cruise Stories

Taking a Twilight Tour in Forks, Washington

Nothing to Eat at the Chocolate Buffet

How to Fold a Towel Turtle

How to Win a Fantastick Hair Clip Great for Cruises and Everything Else

One Lovely Blog Award

Mount Roberts Tramway in Juneau, Alaska

More Blogs About Juneau

Juneau River Rafting Shore Excursion

More Posts About Juneau

How to Fold a Towel Elephant

Rogue Child on a Cruise Ship

The Sunshine Award

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