Since we were going to be in New Orleans for a month, we decided to take a 7 day cruise to Honduras, Belize and Mexico. We went on the Carnival Sunshine which is one of the upgraded ships with a Guy's Burger Joint, many restaurants and a huge water slide. They themed this ship like a beach outing and instead of the "carnival blue and red" uniforms they are wearing sky blue shirts with khaki pants/shorts. The serenity deck is actually 3 decks and away from all the kids activities.
The first port we stopped at was Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras. Pretty neat stop. They have these chairs that take you from the cruise terminal to the beach or you could walk to the beach. I took a tour of the island. The tour guide was very informative and there were a couple of good stops. One of the stops was at Yubu, the Garifuna Experience. This was a place where they did the native dances. Really fun to watch. We also saw authentic food places like "Bojangles"... hehehe For those people who don't know, Bojangles is in the southern part of the US and is a chicken place like Church's or KFC.
Our next stop was Belize City, Belize. It was a 15 minute tender ride from the Carnival ship to the port, but worth it. I decided to take the Xunantunich Mayan ruins tour. WOW.... first it was a 2 hour ride from the port to the ruins site each way. The ruins are just a couple of miles from the Guatemalan border and all I can say is WOW... I have never seen anything like them before in my life. We were able to climb to the top. A little scary, especially for someone who is afraid of heights. There are no railings or anything... once on top, the view is just awesome... can't think of any other way to explain it. On our way back, we stopped at a place to get authenticate food. It was really good.
Our last stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. I liked the Mayan ruin tour in Belize so much that I wanted to see what the ruins in Cozumel were like. They were not as extravagant as the one in Belize but they were really cool. The had a lot more "pieces" of the ruins than the Belize but they were smaller. One thing it did have was a lot of iguanas. Cozumel is an island so the tour also went from the ruins around the beach front of the other side of the island and then back to the port.
Back at the ship, they had a few additional restaurants that you could go to other than the normal ones included and the steakhouse. They had a sushi, an Italian and an Asian restaurant. We ate at the Italian restaurant once and it was good, but we loved the Asian restaurant. Went there 3 or 4 times.... YUM
Looking forward to our next cruise.
You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.
Gotta run.....
We arrived in New Orleans... still searching for warmth. I really do like it down here. We took a drive out to the other side of the Mississippi River down to the Gulf... saw the shrimping boats. Our main accomplishments while we were here was the cruise (see the next blog) and Mardi Gras. Our son, Dennis, turned 21 the week before Mardi Gras and we had him come out for it. What a blast that was. So neat to hang out with him. We went to the Tabasco Factory in Avery Island, saw Oak Alley Plantation, went out to see a couple of parades the night of Lundi Gras and caught lots of beads, then took a tour of New Orleans and drove him out to Mississippi so that he could add one more state to his list of places he has been.
Now we start heading back to the west coast for our grandson Hudson's birth. Next stop is San Antonio, TX.
You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.
Gotta run.....
Been a whirlwind few months. First off we made it to Grapevine, TX before the storm hit. Boy has this been some winter. Feels like it will never get warm. We spent Christmas and New Years there. Downtown Grapevine is such a pretty place at Christmas.
I also took a trip to the Bush Library. I was such a busy place. They had a very beautiful display of Christmas at the White House as well as the regular features. It was really hard to go into the 911 portion of the exhibit though.
Still in Grapevine, I went to the Gaylord ICE Show. What a neat concept. This years theme was the Nutcracker and everything is made from ice. It was such a beautiful site.
After Grapevine, we decided to go to Little Rock, Arkansas. Spent the week there and saw the town as well as the Clinton Library.
Next stop was Memphis, Tennessee and Graceland. WOW... a must if you are in the area. Such a beautiful place. We also saw the Lorraine Motel where MLK was assassinated.
We decided to take the drive to Nashville, TN and look around there also.
After the week in Memphis, we drove through Jackson, MS and looked around that town then went on to Baton Rouge, LA.
Our next stop is New Orleans for a month. Got a cruise and Mardi Gras.
You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.
Gotta run.....
Well at least this trip was a lot better weather wise. We left Albuquerque, NM on Friday after Thanksgiving and stayed the night in Amarillo, TX. Got their with enough time to look around just a little and then had dinner at The Big Texan Steakhouse. Really good food.
The next morning we traveled to Oklahoma City, OK. We stayed at Twin Fountains RV. This was a nice place with Hunt's Brothers pizza on site. Really helped for when we got snowed in later that week. We went sight seeing on Sunday. We went to a couple of Museums; The National Cowboy and Western Heritage and the 45th Infantry. We saw sights like OSU, the capitol, homesteads and mansions. We also stopped by the Oklahoma City Memorial. Beautiful memorial but such a rush of emotions when you go.
We were suppose to head out to Little Rock, AR the next weekend but ended up getting snowed in and couldn't get out until late Tuesday afternoon. This did give me the opportunity to go to the ASA Softball Hall of Fame and drive on snow and ice.... something I have never done and not sure I want to do again. Because the next storm was coming in on Thursday, we decided to just head on down to Grapevine TX a few days early.
You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.
Gotta run.....
OK. Our first stop will be Albuquerque, NM for Thanksgiving with my sister in law. I don't know if we could have had worse weather. We left Las Vegas, cold and raining. We seemed to be following the storm and as we continued across I-40, we hit the snow. We were suppose to stay the night in Flagstaff for the night and continue to Albuquerque the next day, but with the snow we just kept driving to get off the mountain. We stayed the night in Holbrook, AZ. We were there just before dark and really only set up and grabbed dinner.... not much snow, just a dusting. We ate at a Mexican restaurant called Joe & Aggies Cafe on US66. What a need place. Apparently, Holbrook, AZ is the town that "Cars" was about. Story goes that John Lasseter (director) would sit and talk with one of the owners about the way it use to be before I-40 came to be. There are even signed sketches from the movie on their wall. Good food too. First introduction to Sopapillas... YUMMMMMM
Woke up the next morning to snow. Had to scrap off our slide awnings of all the snow before it would close. Finally got all of the slides in and off we go to Albuquerque. We stayed in the truck tracks most of the way and really questioned if we were going to make it. I-40 was closed going into Texas and wasn't sure how far that closure was going to go, but we made it. We stayed at American RV Park which was nice and thankfully the snow had stopped and we just needed it to melt. Bad part was that we still got below freezing and had to disconnect the water every night.
Del and I are big race fans and one of the cool things here was the Al Unser museum. This is actually 2 museums in one. The first is what I would call a normal racing museum... some race cars, engines, tires, etc. The second one is Unser's private collection of cars... totally awesome.
One of the other things we saw while in Albuquerque was a couple of hot air balloons. Although it was not really the season for them and it was really cold, there were a couple of brave souls out there. This one was just getting ready to take off. They are sooooo pretty and colorful. In the fall, they have a hot air balloon festival. Would love to see that someday.
One of the things that New Mexico is known for is their chiles. New Mexico cuisine has some of the best flavors. Definitely try it if you get here.
Well our next stop is Oklahoma City, OK.
You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.
Gotta run.....
Well it has been an interesting 15 months to say the least. While in Nebraska, we had a family tragedy and rushed back to Las Vegas. From there, we went to Klamath Falls, OR for our granddaughters first birthday. While there, Delbert started not feeling well. We decided to go down to Orange, CA to see a doctor. We found out that he had stage 3 colon cancer and needless to say, that put a stop to our traveling for a while. He had surgery while in Orange and then we moved back to Las Vegas for his chemotherapy and moved into an apartment. Chemo went well and he completed it in May 2013. We have taken a couple of small trips including a couple of weeks back up to Klamath Falls for our daughters "official" wedding and seeing the grandbaby.... We did loose our best friend of 10 years and trip navigator while in California in October.
With all of the tragedy hopefully behind us, we are now ready to embark on journey again.
You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.
Gotta run.....
OK.. Iowa has A LOT of corn. Everywhere you look are stalks of corn. We spent the night in Iowa City, Iowa and got to Lincoln, Nebraska on Sunday. We are staying at Camp A Way. It is not far from the University of Nebraska and downtown Lincoln.
On Tuesday, we drove into Fremont to visit my brother and his family. I got to see nieces and nephews that I haven't seen in over 30 years.
You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.
Gotta run.....
