Monday, January 28th:  For all my teacher friends - I just spotted this letter from a retired Texas teacher. We do have it good in Ontario, current labour dispute notwithstanding!

CORPUS CHRISTI — Nan Kittell, Coldspring

Retired Texas teachers need boost

If you, a loved one or a friend is a retired Texas public schoolteacher PLEASE help us now!

Texas retired teachers do not receive Social Security nor do we receive "cost of living" increases. Our income has stayed the same since 2001.

It takes a vote by the Legislature for any increase. This current Legislature will be bombarded with requests for funds and because they meet only every other year, this will be the only chance for an increase for another two years.

Teachers do not make big salaries today, but go back 20 or 30 years. What they earned then determines their retirement checks now.

Gasoline alone is twice what we paid twelve years ago. So we can only drive half as often. Remember what bread and milk cost in 2000? More than double now. We retirees, out of savings, are moving in with our children.

At 80 years old my medications and physicians office visits are a big part of my monthly outgo. Older people expect more medical costs. They need more funds to pay for those.

While more and more people qualify for welfare and unemployment, more retired teachers are seeking employment. I worked full time at age 75-76, but cannot do so any longer.

A simple phone call to your local representative and senator urging support for retired teachers will help. Also contact Rick Perry's office asking for his endorsement for a pay hike for retired Texas teachers.

Sunday, January 27th:  Morning was church - our new choir director, Tracy Stirk, is excellent - he introduced a bunch of new music on Wednesday - great attitude, definitely professional, a teacher.  Afterwards, I had lunch at Rob and Helen's, followed by a thorough analysis of Rob's Tower Garden (a verticle aeroponic garden which can accomodate all kinds of vegetables).  If you have a small space but want a garden, you really should check this idea out!  Just google "Tower Gardens".  Helen is going to Costa Rica and then Panama for two months, Rob's mom is coming to stay with him for a month, then Rob is going to join Helen - their son in Panama is having another baby.  I've agreed to water Rob's seedlings while he's off putting Helen on a plane and picking up his mother Monday and Tuesday morning. The seedlings start off hydroponically in a tray, then are transferred to the Tower, where they are "rained on" every 15 minutes by a pump system.

Monday, January 21st to Saturday, Jan. 26th:  Monday was laundry day - washing all my cruise clothes;  Tuesday I pulled all my clothes out of my cupboards and did another sweep - getting rid of more clothes. (At the Boot Camp in Livingston, I was introduced to a time-honoured RV practice:  if you buy new clothes, you have to get rid of the same number.  Remarkably wise, for obvious reasons, when one is living in a small space!)
Wednesday I went out with Rob & Helen, JB & Jan, to the Ocean Star.  This was once a functioning oil rig, which has been turned into a museum - fascinating!  On any given day, if you look out across the ocean from the seawall in Galveston, you can see the oil rigs anchored out there - so if was great to actually see the inside of one.  We had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack, then went to "The Great Storm", a movie (well, actually, a compilation of slides from 1900) depicting the hurricane of 1900 which  innundated the island.  I found it really interesting, although Helen, JB and Jan went to sleep . . .  In 2008, Hurricane Ike swept over Galveston, although the devastation was nothing compared to that caused by the 1900 storm.  By that time, pretty much all of the houses were on stilts - but one result of Ike was that all houses built thereafter had, by law, to be built on stilts 12 feet high. (I think I said, in an earlier post, that 20 feet was the height - that was erroneous!) The seawall did its job of taking the oomph out of the storm surge, although standing floods literally drowned hundreds of red oak trees.  Miraculously, Dora and Ron's RV park sustained little damage, with quickly receding flood waters of 23 inches only.  They spent a lot of time running free bbq meals for other not so lucky residents around the area. Those two are just awesome human beings!
Thursday I didn't feel very well (think it was the shrimp at Joe's Crab Shack), so I stayed inside all day, watching tv shows on Netflix. Rob & Helen dropped by twice to check on me.
Friday morning I went to the office to pay my rent and was accosted by Ron, Dora, Harold and Eileen, who were concerned because I hadn't been at the pot luck the previous night.  (Dora saved me a piece of lemon meringue pie made by Virginia, who insisted that I would like to have one.) I spent most of the afternoon and evening at Lorna's, exchanging cruise photos on our flashdrives.
Saturday morning at breakfast in the clubhouse, more people came to ask how I was - since I had effectively disappeared the previous day, too. What a community this is!
Saturday afternoon I walked over to the ocean for a while, then to the grocery store for staples.  In the evening, Rob, Helen, JB, Jan and I went out for dinner.  They had been told about a restaurant "down the road a piece" in the west end of the island (Galveston is at the east end).  Well, we drove for about 40 minutes before giving up.  The GPS took us to a bushy piece of land with no buildings at all on it.  We turned around, Helen checked the name and location on her phone, and we found it - about 10 minutes from the RV park.  It really was "down the road a piece"!  It was a good restaurant, right on the water - which would have been great if we'd been there before the sun set!  Ah well, it was an adventure . . .

Fascinating display illustrating the different ways of anchoring oil rigs

                                     

Joe's Crab Shack - Me, Rob, Helen, JB, Jan

Diver's suit

Looking up through the rig

Helicopter on pad at top of rig

Pelicans et al  on pilings

On the top deck - JB had foot surgery, so avoided walking too much.

From Joe's Crab Shack - Ocean Star in top right

Pelican alert!

Cormorant

Awesome sight!

The beach and the ocean are still captivating!

                                     

I will never tire of watching the waves

                                     

Saturday, January 19th to Sunday, January 20th:  Last day at sea was Saturday;  Sunday morning we returned to Galveston port.  I spent the greater part of Saturday enjoying the pool area - last chance - and this was actually the Texas Tenors night, although I inserted the photos earlier.  Part of the day was spent packing.  On Sunday morning, we wheeled our suitcases down to Deck 1 to stand in line for about an hour before desembarking and going through customs.  I declared nothing, since I only had to declare stuff that was actually going to stay in the states.  I feel like I'm perpetrating a scam, since I do plan to live in the states for part of each year - wonder if I can get away with the reverse when I get to Canadian customs . . . Hmmm.
Sunday was a crazy day - I got Ron and Dora to drop me off at church - choir practice was at 10:30 - felt quite wobbly walking around - like the earth was still moving under my feet - I gather this is normal after acclimatizing to the motion of a ship for a week.  Went out to lunch with Rob and Helen, then back to church to rehearse for the Dinner Theatre production put on by choir members.  The theme was Rogers & Hammerstein musicals, and individual and groups of choir members performed songs from various musicals.  I was part of a group which performed "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?), which was great fun.  There were five of us - four soloists and one chorus (that was me - I joined the group the week before I left on my cruise, so got one 10 minute practice in before leaving).  We rehearsed once before performing, and although I knew all the word off by heart (of course), I wasn't really sure when to not sing- and the script which was supposed to be emailed to me somehow didn't make it - so I basically winged it.  One of the other women gave me pointed looks when I was supposed to sing - or not - so I only chimed in twice with soloists - and only for the briefest moment.  It was all quite disorganized, but really fun!  I went home thoroughly exhausted.

Maurice bought all the ladies a rose (we all had to leave them on the ship, since they weren't allowed in the U.S.)

  

Balconies beside the elevators, overlooking Deck 5 (Lorna and Andre waving)

Friday, January 18th:  Cozumel - last port of call! The sea was a bit rough today, so all ocean excusions were cancelled - Dora, Ron, and Bev had booked for snorkeling, and that was canceled, which was a shame.  I, however, had booked for encountering dolphins, which took place at Dolphninaris, which houses about seven outdoor pools - so that went ahead as planned.  This was my first time up close and personal with dolphins, and it was awesome! My group got to observe, stroke, hold and kiss a dolphin - and yes, I bought the video of my experience.  After that part of the day, I walked towards downtown Cozumel, but didn't find much of anything - just one huge, two-storey grocery store and a few souvenir shops - and another cruise ship dock with the expected tourist trap of stores around it.  I would have liked to have found where the real locals live, but I guess I'd have to go further inland to have any luck there.

Awesome sight!

Dolphinaris

A group waiting for the dolphins

So cute

                                       


                                          

Performing

"Dancing" with a dolphin

                                     

So soft!

                                     


                                      

Searching for the "real" Cozumel

Lots of unkempt, burnt out areas like this one

Boring . . .

. . . and more

In front of an (obviously tourist) hotel

Motorcycles for rent

Waves crashing against the docks 

Our ship, next to "Allure of the Seas", which is much bigger!

Cozumel from the sea

. . . and again

Thursday, January 17th, 2013:  Today we stopped adjacent to Belize - couldn`t get close enough to dock, because of the coral reef.  Instead, we dropped anchor quite a ways out and climbed into `tenders`or small boats which transported us into Belize.  I booked an excursion on a glass-bottomed boat, to go over the coral reef and check it out.  My group was picked up by a tender and taken to the glass-bottomed boat, where we were able to look at the coral, fish, plants, etc. - absolutely fascinating!  The coral was disappointingly khaki-coloured - no colour variation at all - our guide told us that a lot of the coral is dying due to human interaction and pollution.  After our reef watching, we were taken to a tiny island to swim, eat hamburgers, and drink coconut milk (literally - a guy chopped the top off a coconut and put a straw in the resulting hole).  Then we were taken back to the ship.  I hopped another tender and went into town - well, actually, just to the dock area - not enough time to see how the real people lived.

Tenders coming alongside the ship to take passengers off to Belize

Tenders away!

On board the tender

Away from the ship

Reef watching

Two tenders waiting for us to finish reef-watching

Gorgeous colour variations caused by the little world beneath the surface

Note the coral sticking up above the surface

The tiny island

At this point, it was pouring rain in Belize - we missed it, though.

Belize tourist trap

Lorna toured the actual area and took photos

                                     

Again with the dichotomy - the University of Belize

                               

. . . and locals selling wares

                                     

. . . and a local house

                                     

. . . and downtown

                                       

Cool palms!

                                       

And the tender brought us back to the ship