Moving Day

I suppose I should have saved that subject title for if I ever decide to get out of Florida but for now it will be used to say that I'm moving onto the ship tomorrow but will only be there a few days before I fly back to Ft. Lauderdale. Got a month in the ol' F-L and then on to a job in Virginia followed by (hopefully) a little R&R&RA.  (Rest & Relaxation & Running Around)

 

See cause I'm so smart that with my two weeks off I think I'll go to IAD, PHX, FLG and PDX just for kicks (and gradumifications, hilarity, familiarity and quasi-family).  And seriously I've used the airport codes cause for a few of these places it might feel like that's all I've seen.  Of course this might all change (well, at least drop the last airport code) if I need to go to Finland for meetings regarding the Allure of the Seas sometime in May. 

 

However, as a few people love to remind me I've got it good.  Real good.  (Too bad I keep remembering that it's all relative.)  And I do remember that. . . . I guess.  Now if someone will just remind me of that when I'm on that eleven hour flight from Amsterdam to Houston on Thursday, I'll be fine.  Actually, I'll be fine if I can just get an aisle seat. 

Well, as usual, I'm rambling.  Managed to work out And drink just a little tonight which seems to make me mellow.  Perhaps I shouldn't write posts when listening to the slower songs by Tool (mom, don't bother looking that band up).  Happy thoughts to all.

G'night.

Home On The Twenty-Fifth

Ok, so it's only a few days sooner than I thought I was gonna get home but this is very exciting stuff!  This means I'll have FOUR FULL WEEKENDS in Florida before leaving on the next journey!  (And NO, this isn't sarcasm (even though the "NO" was) because I'm looking forward to four weeks working only fifty to sixty hours a week and getting in some biking.)

 

It's still cold here. . . yup. . . almost cold enough for me to look forward to the Miami heat.  But not quite.  Hope all is wild and quiet in the world.  It is here.

Chilly Willy

Those of you with dirty minds take two steps back in this game of redlight, greenlight that we call life.

Been in Papenburg, Germany since Sunday on an "emergency" call to the Eclipse new build project. (All my best to Skip's mom, and Skip himself, during this tough time.)

Whelp, turns out it's cold in northern Germany this time o' year. . . who'da thunk it? This morning it was minus four on the ol' celciometer. Cold and gray and meanwhile it was actually NICE in Miami for once right before I left. Ah well, at least I can work out a bit without sweating too much (of course "working out" in this environment involves me either stacking pallets, wrapping pallets or pushin' the ol' pallet jack around the warehouse for hours on end (and by "jack" I'm not referring to my co-worker who's first name isn't Pallet but it happens to be Jack. . . yeah, he's too old to push around) which can be fun but gets a little old on the ol' back) which is completely different than Miami usually is where I'm dripping with sweat just getting geared up to ride my bike, without actually riding it.

Three steps forward to anyone who got all of that last "sentence" on the first, or even second, go 'round. An additional step forward to anyone who thought my adaptation of the word celcius was at all clever. . . it may not have been at all clever but at least I tried. Which reminds me of this story. . .

Once upon a time (or Back In The Day, as the kids sometimes say) whilst involved with a ceremony at church (no laughing, please) I was standing around with my brothers and at least one other "older" person. (Remember that when you're young even people two hours older than you are "older.") I don't remmeber the exact conversation but not surprisingly it was centered around the Virgin Mary and various jokes that might pertain to such a singularity as her. At some point, rather innocently I might add, I piped up and blurted out, "But I thought Mary had a little lamb!?" Welll, I'm pretty sure I didn't understand how funny that might be and on what levels but I did think I was funny and the "older" kids actually laughed and I felt a little too good about myself. When asked where I came up with my fine little interjection I responded something to the effect of, "You gotta swing the bat if you wanna hit a homerun." About as genius as those sports commentators who point out that the team who scores more points is gonna win the game. Fin.

Quite the masterpiece above, eh?
Everyone who read that take one step back cause you probably just got a little dumber having read it.

Ok, so far dinners have been taken in the hotel restaurant (which is excellent but not exactly lively) so tonight it's off to the pub for the Man U football match (hopefully) and some rumproast. Papenburg is only about fifteen-thousand people so I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get a seat at the bar.

Five steps forward to anyone who snickered at the word, "rumproast."

T-I-D-E. . . Tired

Or so a certain woman in a certain BB King song would lead me to write. Cause that's how ya spell tired when you're too tired to say all the letters.

I leave Tokyo manana. Bound for Wisconsin I am. Culture shock here I come. Quite a few people might think that I'd rather be here than at my destination. Arguments for = fresh sushi, cute Japanese girls and the "thrill" of traveling in foreign lands. Arguments against = big fat steak, a pace not designated by twelve million people living in one small area and shit howdy! have you ever even met my brother in Wisconsin?!?!? The man is a laugh riot #1 cowboy genius comedian savant extraordinaire! (Seriously, if the adjectives don't get separated by commas it means a little something extra.) Oh yeah, and he has been reported to read the dictionary while patronizing the latrine! (Though I have never witnessed such actions myself and I'm sure he only studies the words of our forebearers as a means to add to his legendary cowboy genius status. The cad!)

So I must say that Singapore and Tokyo were great (especially the food, which will likely warrant a whole folder on Flickr but will sadly never be seen by my great foodie-friend Missus Brandy Sue Loo Hoo Harms-(insert Italian sounding name here). But that's ok because perhaps the Indian Ocean connection with the weak ankles will pick up on the pictures and upon her next meeting with the Loo Hoo will convince her that she should spend some serious time in Asia for her new food blog.) But, uh, yeah, food is good. . . especially here.

As usual I'm quite obviously babbling, which is a serious sign that I haven't had enough to drink tonight. However, fat and happy as I always am I'd like to take this opportunity to say that too much time spent in large cities might be bad for people. Perhaps I've spent a day too many wandering around incredibly crowded streets just waiting for my head to snap on that one guy or gal who isn't Asian but then again, perhaps I just need to relax and visit another Onsen. More likely, I'd say.

Final thought: In light of reviewing the above post I wonder if I'm allowed to write an entire entry within parentheses? Does writing within little sideways arcs mean that I didn't mean any of it? Are asides considered a permanent thought as opposed to a flightful fancy? Do tangents hold rank with the 'real' words that supposedly make up the trunk of this grammatical experiment? Am I more full of shit than a dung beetle's nest?

Likely.

Let Another Project Begin

Minor chaos will ensue for my project which starts tomorrow. However, the logistical nightmare in Haiti makes me wish I were putting my meager talents to a more noble purpose. I'm all for altering the plan and being as flexible as possible but that place is screaming for a little order and a person with the vision to see the entire scope of the problems. I can't even begin to comprehend but my heart goes out to the people on that island.

I was going to post pictures of the Singapore skyline, local sights and some of the ridiculously awesome food I've been eating but it just seems wrong. Time to sleep in a bed I am currently forever grateful for. (And if that's not ironic truth in two words I don't know what is.)

Is That A Rocket In Your Pocket? Or. . .

My man TC writes, "…there’s a rocket launcher looking think on your flicker at picture 1100526. What is that thing and, if it is indeed a rocket launcher as I suspect it is, can I get one shipped stateside for an engagement gift?"



My answer: That is ABSOLUTELY a rocket launcher, Brother! And HOW! You never know when those crazy pirates are gonna snap up that grand ol' tradition of hang glider attacks on giant cruise ships! Initially we were just gonna go with millions of doves we could release from the stacks on the ship to interfere with the gliders but eventually a slightly more hi-tech solution made more sense.

Your order has been placed for one (1) industrial strength, self-guiding rocket launcher along with a mounting system for your mountain home. Good luck with the foes you plan on deploying this system against; aggressive mountain elk, flying marmots, raptors and of course, hippies. Happy Hunting!



Ok, actually this is a crane mounted on one of the high points of the Oasis of the Seas.



I won't tell you what the crane is actually for because it's so mind bogglingly dull compared to images of hunting flying marmot pirates from the rooftop of a mountain home (maybe with a few PBRs alongside) that you'd probably pass out from lack of blood to the brain due to all the blood looking for a part of the body that is doing something more interesting than thinking about what this crane is actually for.

Good night.

I Want To Be THIS Guy

Can't Type. . . Must. . . . Link.

The final frame is so true.
Dino Truth

Twin Falls, ID.
Family Fun

Politics Suck
Also True

P-A-R-T-Y? (Because I gotta!)
Final Nights in Finland

And what post would be complete without a picture of some people drinking in a freezing warehouse. . .

The best part of the job?

Getting Home

Sitting in Terminal 5 at Heathrow I finally have the time to write about the end of our work on Oasis of the Seas in Turku.  I stress that it's only our work in Turku that is done because when the Oasis arrives in Fort Lauderdale on November 11th it's like a whole new job will start.  The ship is 99% finished, or will be upon arrival stateside, but one key are is missing a few things.  We haven't put in the trees and plants for Central Park.  We're talking 30'+ trees and a ton of other foliage.  Such is the task that we have to use a 650 ton crane to reach up and over decks 15 and 16 where the pools are to drop the trees down onto deck 8 which is open to the sky for Central Park on the center line of the ship.  That part doesn't bother me so much and will probably be pretty interesting to set up and work. 

The other projects that are going on will probably bother me a little.  Good Morning America will shoot live on the ship one day and not too soon after there is a concert planned with Rihanna on the stern which is the Aqua Theatre.  The amount of road boxes and gear that we're going to have to load will necessitate another crane to work the aft end of the ship.  And seeing how everyone involved is in entertainment (or as my co-worker Skippy calls them, the dancers and the prancers) I'm sure it will be, um. . . made much more difficult than it needs to be.  On top of those two cranes we also have 3-4 shell gate doors that will see a steady influx of provisions, shop goods, wine, etc. and a steady outflux of garbage and tools from the work still going on during the Atlantic crossing.  (And why the heck isn't outflux a word?)

But, as usual, I undress. . .  uh, digress.

The end of the job was hectic but from our side it was well in control.  Actually if some areas on the ship had been ready sooner we would have been done with all the loading at least a week before departure.  As it was we were still lifting things to the Boardwalk and Central Park well past midnight and the ship pulled away from the pier at 0600 on Friday.  The best part was the safety items that absolutely had to be on board before departure. . . two small air shipments that went from Copenhagen to Helsinki and didn't arrive to the ship until midnight and about 0500 respectively.  I do find it a little ridiculous that the ship has been loading heavily for two months and we can't even get everything we need locally from the EU on board.  Oh well, done now.  Skippy and I cleaned up the warehouse on Friday and loaded containers to Miami and containers to stay in the yard for storage for the Allure.  There's a pretty good chance I'll be going back to Finland next year for the Allure around the same time.  There's a rumor that the Allure will be commissioned a month earlier which would be truly awesome because we would be in Finland for the better part of the summer.

After cleaning up the yard Skip and I took a shot of Jagermeister and had a 500ml Lapin Kulta (local beer) at the hotel.  But the celebration was only just beginning.  The fork lift and truck drivers from the shipyard invited us to an Ice Cream Sauna party.  I know, doesn't sound too good with just a bunch of dudes but its only called the ice cream party because these guys sell ice cream for a small profit throughout the year at their office and use the proceeds to rent a large sauna every few months.  SO, it should have been called the beer and sauna party, cause that's exactly what it was.  We got the sauna up to 75 degrees Celsius, which I am told is NUTHIN' for these guys, and it was interesting to sit there and wonder if your skin can actually spontaneously begin to blister from the heat of the steam.  Also interesting to roll in there with a cold beer and before you can finish the darn thing it's damn near boiling hot.  (Of course, I had to commit the ultimate party foul and allow a beer bottle to break on the floor in the sauna. . . fellas took it pretty well though.) 

Sauna party lasted till 11pm and then we headed to one of our favorite places called The Castle. . . I may have spoken of it before.  Closed that place down and all in all had an excellent last night in Turku.  Had a nice dinner in Helsinki last night with a new local friend and significantly less alcohol but significantly more food than the night before.  Early to bed, early to rise and now I'll be in Miami around 6:15 if all goes well.

Hope to catch up with people this week.  I'm supposed to be off the whole week but there's too much work for me to ignore so I'll settle for sleeping later than 0600 and maybe multiple sushi meals!   Kiipis!

Congratulations Are In Order

Just want to send out a sincere congratulations to my man TC for his recent engagement. She's an amazing girl and I wish you both the best for all the years to come.

The Bosses Have Gone Home

After tomorrow we'll have brought in 67 containers this week.  There's about 320 total for the project so that's a pretty good chunk for one week.  That leaves only 19 containers left for next week which is a walk in the park.  The ship is struggling in a few areas but overall it's looking quite amazing.  My bosses (literally; my manager, director and VP) were here this week which kinda slowed things down a little.  Not too bad though and it was good to have them see a little of what I'm doing here.  Of course my manager has done 3 ships here so it was nothing new to him.  Went on the piss last night so I'm trying to turn in early tonight.  There will be plenty of time to celebrate once this behemoth sails away on the 29th and I have a long Halloween weekend in a downtown Turku hotel before returning to the states around November 3rd.  Can't wait for that meeting in downtown Miami on November 4th. . . right. 

I'm lookin' at Thanksgiving with family in Idaho, possibly Xmas with broham in Wisconsin and definitely a visit to the Bay Area in early January right before I fly to Singapore for my next project.  Maybe I should try for a few days in Tokyo right before since I gotta fly through there anyway.  Gotta get off the eternal, infernal machine now.  G'night.

Trial By Sea

Don't you hate it when people put a title on something that's MUCH more interesting than the actual writing below will be? At least you've been warned this time around.

I'm writing mostly because the ship comes back at 0400 tomorrow and though I don't have to be there when it arrives the actual arrival is nonetheless a distinct representation of a shift in lifestyle for me. Gone are the ten to twelve hour days and newly born are the twelve-plus (at least) days. In a way I look forward to it because there's never a dull moment and at the end of most days we can kick back with a beer in the warehouse and reflect on how much we loaded on the ship that day and all the fun complications we had. There's certainly more satisfaction in physically seeing things get done than writing emails and fielding phone calls all day.

That being said, I had a moment today when I realized (probably for the Nth time) how much I'm actually following my chosen university studies. I had two majors in college; broadcasting and journalism. Granted I don't think I spend nearly enough time in front of the camera (the news world would melt from either adoration or madness if my mug appeared on the nightly news) but despite my horrible grammar I do spend plenty of time writing emails and reports. Mostly I remember courses that focused on future technologies and that was at a time when I didn't even own a cell phone. Now I carry a minimum of two mobiles with me almost always and half the time there's a radio or two involved and I've thought about getting a pager just cause I like that retro-look. (There's an 8-track in my Honda Element.)

So that's about it for my night before the storm login event. I might still have a few minutes to myself online every day but as I've proven before I doubt I'll be writing much here. Sadly I probably won't even have any interesting pictures until the ship is closer to finish and then certainly once it gets to Fort Lauderdale. I'm off to bed at twenty-two hundred and feeling pretty okay about that. However, a little White Stripes on the Archos might have something to say about that. A little late night work ever killed anyone. . . but if you've ever seen a guy who looks like he got maimed by his computer you might have accidentally stumbled upon a little something the interwebs don't want you to hear about. User Abuse: when a computer abuses it's user by dragging them into a cybertronic abyss despite Hurculean efforts to avoid it and often completely unbeknownst to the user until three hours later when cramps have formed and social life has been abandoned.

And as usual. . . I regress.

Update

Things are going pretty well over here. Obviously work is about eighty percent of my time but the free time is okay, though too brief. As you may have noticed I try to stay off the laptop when I get back to the hotel (and with the nine or ten hour time difference for most of you I haven't been keeping up with too many people). Been hitting the basketball court at least a few times a week and of course there is occasionally a night on the town. No Finnish girlfriend though and in about a week I'm probably going to move onto the ship.

It's nice living on the ship cause my commute drops from twenty minutes to twenty seconds but of course it's also nice to get away from the yard each night right now. Guess there's nothing left to do but convert our office container into a bar every night around twenty-one hundred hours. I just hope they finish the basketball court on deck 15 soon since basketball (and lifting heavy boxes that give me drunken Yoda looking bruises) seems to be the only exercise I'm interested in these days. Finally got a cruiser bike in the yard though and rode the whole shipyard today.

The ship is getting there. There used to be a pontoon with cranes on the starboard side but they've removed that in preparation for departure for sea trials on Monday.



Yeah. . . she's huge. And yes, the lower part is also baby blue. I hear the under water hull is hot pink with purple stripes and teal writing that says, "Eat our wake." But that could all be rumor.

I've got an easy day tomorrow and I'm not even going in until nine o'clock!!! Holy cow, whatever will I do. (Oh yeah. . . sleep.) Of course there's always a million things I can do to get ready for the storm that's about to hit. We've got more than two-hundred, forty-foot containers worth of material to load between about October first and October twenty-eighth. Should be good times. However, the ship is on sea trials from Monday till Thursday this week so I can get a lot of rest if I want to. Amazingly it hasn't gotten very cold here yet. It's actually fifty-four degrees right now at half past ten at night. However, apparently we'll wake up one morning over here and it will just be downright cold. . . and then it will stay that way until about June. I'm hoping for one more week of good weather since the ship will be gone and I can tear up the blacktop (and my knees) playing ball every afternoon. (Knock on Wood for good weather. But try not to hurt my brother too bad. (And if you got that joke I say, "mornin' to you."))

Along a different stratification I think I'll be heading to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year. After three months of working almost every day it will be amazing to sit back, play with my adorable nieces and eat a twenty-four pound turkey over the course of a week. Mmmmm, tryptophan induced coma. (Insert drool here.) Off to a good book and a soft bed. Kiipis from Turku.

Photo Diary: Life in Turku, Finland

The Hotel.


The Ship.


The Work.


The Bruise.


The Work (reverse view).


The Courts.


The Nightlife.


The Scenery.

I Got Words

Ooh, and pictures! But pictures are probably worth more than words. . . and I do have quite a few pictures. . . so does that mean my words are moot?. . . or mute? Hmm, something not to think about. You may think that I've been drinking (and there might be a smidgen of truth to that) but the reality is that I've mostly been poring (if not pouring) over gigantic spreadsheets all day trying to get a handle on this job I find myself on. Not that I don't love container manifests, airway bills, obscure reference numbers that people tend to make up and place in a spreadsheet as if they hold some significance other than on their own spreadsheet, oh! but I don't. (You corporate people are probably with me. The rest of you take note; live an "alternative" lifestyle. I don't care what it takes. Live with your parents, shoot for the olympics, sell beanie babies on ebay. . . I don't care what it is, just don't let it be "corporate." The best part being if this post manages to get me fired or suspended or somehow otherwise able to find myself with some quality time off because corporations can't let people have private lives anymore and they hafta check if we're just a little too into Weezer on our facebook page. (By the way, I'm not too into Weezer. I think I'm fairly well balanced into an occasional Weezer session.))

But I regress.

Anywhere, here's my suggestion. Check out today's comic on XKCD (right side) and then pick one of my last albums on flickr (same side). Something a little fun is the wedding pictures. Something a little overwhelming (if you know ships) are the pictures of the Oasis. More to come, always more to come. In the meantime I'm gonna try to call it an early night. The days are gonna start startin' earlier and last lasting later. . . darn, couldn't quite make that work.

Oh yeah, and this.
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1366

Travel Update Version 8.4.9

Well another month gone and here's the latest and greatest. There's a few more pictures up on Flickr (link on right) and I'll try to start getting Oasis pictures up starting next week. So. . .

August 7-9 in Seattle: Last wedding of the season!

8/11 - 10/31 in Turku, Finland: Oasis of the Seas new build project.

Thanksgiving? Christmas?

2010

January 18-28 in Singapore: Legend of the Seas dry dock.

April 18 - May 3 in Freeport, Bahamas: Freedom of the Seas and Celebrity Century dry docks.

August - November in Turku, Finland: Allure of the Seas new build project.

If that doesn't make much sense to anyone I guess the main thing to take away from this is that I MIGHT not be traveling as much next year. By the end of 2009 I'll have been out of the country for about 6 months. . . 2010 looks like it might be less than 4 months. Of course all things are subject to change and I imagine things won't stay this way.

For now suffice to say that I leave for Finland on Monday so I hope to catch quite a few people on the ol' telephonic cellular devices this week and weekend. After that I'll be trying to use Skype with my work computer (not always a plan that works). I hope this finds everyone enjoying summer in one way or another.

And Then He Cruised

Ok, a little blasphemous as usual, but whaddaya expect? Got off the cruise in Stockholm last Monday and I gotta say it was exactly what I expected. Awfully nice to wake up in a different country every morning and not have to pack my bags. Pretty nice to almost always have food and hot tubs available. Rather nice to finally take a cruise so now I can have a slightly more enlightened take on the whole thing. Of course there were a few cons. (Seriously, I met some ex-cons at the pool.) I don't like feeling herded around and I don't like being waited upon (though that second one is obviously something I created myself) But all in all I had a good time. Really it was only the cost of the drinks that killed me. Though some might argue that the actual drinks themselves were the ones doing that.



As you can tell I've put some pictures up on Flickr. I'll be the first to admit they're nothing special. The lighting was sub-par in both Tallinn and St. Petersburg due to overcast weather and all kinds of other excuses. As usual what's really missing is an adequate number of pictures with people in them. But just as I'm sitting here alone at eight-thirty on a Saturday night in the Netherlands it just so happens that when traveling alone I don't do a very good job of making friends. Ah well, so it goes.



I'm in Eemshaven now. About two and half hour drive Northeast from Amsterdam (and isn't THAT a shame). Doing a bit of work on a new ship that Celebrity is bringing out in a few weeks. The Equinox. She's a beautiful ship but I don't know her specs offhand. Things might change but I think I'll be here for another week and then spend a week in Southampton, UK for some final loading with this ship. Then two weeks in Miami before a wedding near Seattle and then straight to Finland for two and a half months on the Oasis of the Seas. I MIGHT have a few things to write about that job. . . if I'm not tearing my hair out. (Of course, if you know me then you know that's why I keep in short. Don't get me wrong, the shortness isn't stopping it from Falling out, but it certainly is harder to tear out on a tough job. I just don't have the patience for tweezing hairs off the top of my head when there's chaos going on around me.)



May the rapture find your pet well taken care of.
http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com/Home_Page.html
Oh yeah, and I didn't actually meet ex-cons at the pool. . . they were just heavy equipment operators.

Two Days Gone

Welp, two days in Stockholm flew right by. Could have been all the walking, all the beer or the accumulation of all the naps. (I do love a good nap.) Gorgeous city and the people seem friendly. Not that I've met too many, been keeping to myself for the most part. But with eighty degree weather and all this sunlight it's easy to catch a few smiles on the street. . . and a lot of smiles at the outdoors seating at the bars.

I board the cruise tomorrow and guess I'm looking forward to it. I know, I know, I'm going to love it. Probably just wish I had invited someone with who could actually come along. Oh well, we'll see how she goes. No matter what it should at least be restful (though I'm not sure how I can forget about my work in the cruise industry while I'm on board a cruise ship). Life is SO rough.

Got a few pictures around Stockholm but nothing too stunning so maybe I'll post a few on flickr later. I'm sure to have a ton of pictures to upload once I join the Equinox in Eemshaven and have good access again. Yeah. Excitement, adventure, a Jedi craves not these things. . . well, I'm neither a Jedi or an adventure junky. . . I wonder how much a massage costs on the ship. . .

It's Been A While

(Heavy emphasis on the "H" in while.)

Turns out that I haven't been to a new country in quite some time. So to remedy that I just arrived in Stockholm, Sweden a few hours ago. I'm here to do the smart thing and take advantage of a free cruise bequeathed to me thru work after one year or employment. Yeah, I know, I've been there well over a year (and I almost lost the chance to take this cruise cause they put a time limit on it). Well, the remedy is a quick four day jaunt from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia then on to St. Petersburg, Russia and back to Stockholm. That'll be three new countries on my tally. . . if I had a tally.

There's Wimbledon on TV (though my Swedish is a little rusty so I'm listening to music on my cell phone instead of the Swedish Chef commentary (Bork! Bork!)), there's a relatively clean bed to sleep in and there's a new city to explore outside. And by the way right now it's only dark here from about midnight to three in the morning. Of course not all things go smoothly which is why my luggage decided to stay in London (turns out luggage really likes tennis) and I'm here with nothing but my grubby-eleven-hour-plane-ride clothes to wear out tonight. Not to fear. . . British Airways gave me a spiffy little bag of toiletries and it included a T-SHIRT! Hooray! Oh and by the way if you haven't heard about Terminal 5 in Heathrow Airport, stay as far away as possible. Take it from someone who travels a little bit these days, that terminal is the thirteenth layer of hades.

Anyway, fairly uneventful trip as usual. Just hope I get my luggage sometime tonight. Got a good cab ride from a young guy who gave me the skinny on what to do and where to go. Turns out all the guide books are right. . . go where they tell you. So I've got two days of kicking around the city and seeing what kind of trouble I can't get into and then I cruise, for the first time in my life. Oh, and for those trying to keep track of my whereabouts I head to Eemshaven, Netherlands after the cruise on July 6th. Should be there a couple weeks and then a week in Southampton, England. That's all for work on our latest ship coming out called the Equinox on the Celebrity side. Finland is calling my name in mid-August as well so there's one more country off the big board.

Alrighty, if I'm going to be in the hotel room and not outside with the pretties then I better be sleeping. Beautiful thing about midnight sun when you're on vacation. . . I can nap till ten at night and still enjoy a beer with the sunset. Stay calm, all is well.

Don't Panic.

Yosemite National Park

I haven't been to Yosemite since my older brother and I did a quick drive through two years ago when I was moving out to Florida. I did a little hiking there yesterday and decided two years is definitely too long to go in between visits.



A friend and I did about thirteen miles and thoroughly wrecked ourselves in the process. For those interested we took 4-Mile Trail from the valley floor to Glacier Point. Then we took Panorama Trail past Illouette Falls to the top of Nevada Falls and finally dropped down past Vernal Falls back to the valley floor. About six thousand vertical up and back down by the end. I won't lie, my legs were a little shaky at the end since Nevada Falls to the valley floor is a two thousand foot drop over just two and a half miles