Day Two: At Sea

Mary stands at the ship's prow.

Monday was day two of our cruise, and we spent the entire day at sea. The distance from Seattle to our first stop, the Alaskan town of Ketchikan, is about 650 miles. I believe at top speed the ship travels about 17 miles per hour, so it takes a day and a half to cover that distance.
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Essentially we spent the day walking the deck and eating. And eating. And eating.

The food is plenty and fabulous. Horizon Buffet is open pretty much all day and you can wander in and eat pretty much all you want, pretty much any time you want, pretty much as often as you want. They offer a huge variety of delicious foods. So far we’ve eaten both breakfast and lunch there twice. It is good!

Our table at the start of the meal: delicious breads, real butter, and fresh flowers every night!

For dinner we can eat at the same buffet if we like, or we have the choice of 4 other restaurants: the Santa Fe, Pacific Moon, the Savoy, and Vivaldi. These are nice sit-down restaurants where you are seated by a maître’d and waited upon solicitously by the head waiter. Each place has its own décor and ambience.
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You would think these restaurants served different types of food, such as Mexican, Chinese, American, and Italian. However, we discovered on the very first night that all 4 restaurants share the exact same menu. Whichever you choose, the menu selections are identical.

And what a menu it is! It’s like the foods you see prepared by high-class chefs on cooking shows, where presentation is as important as flavor, and quality is more important than quantity. It’s all incredible.

Our desserts: Ed's heart-shaped chocolate mousse brownie and my cheesecake.

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The head waiter begins by placing our cloth napkins in our laps for us. He refills our wine glasses with a flourish, handling the bottled water as if he were serving us from a bottle of 200-year-old fine wine. After each course he whisks away our fine silver cutlery, even if we haven’t used it all, and then quickly replaces it with a fresh set before the next course arrives.

The dishes on the menu are sorted into “appetizers,” “soups and salads,” and “main dishes,” so we thought we were supposed to choose one item from each section. We soon found that we could order absolutely anything at all from the menu, as many dishes from as many sections as we liked. Almost like a buffet with a menu!

Ed and the wake behind the ship

Other than eating more than we should have, we truly enjoyed having the freedom to walk the deck several times throughout the day.  Three laps around the perimeter of the ship is equal to one mile.  We did only one lap, but we returned to various places on the deck several times and probably put in close to a mile total.  We've also put in a lot of time going up and down stairs, enough to leave me with slightly shaky knees, so we are getting some good exercise!

On Sunday, our first day, the waters were very smooth and there was hardly any motion to be felt.  Monday was quite different, though.  The waters weren't terribly rough, but they were choppy enough to make the floor rock beneath your feet.  Ed experienced some seasickness but quickly recovered.  It didn't bother my stomach, but it caused me some lightheadedness.  I found it a little bit disorienting at times.

Where do you supposed the rolling motion felt the strongest?  In the shower and on the toilet!  It's amazing how strong the effects are when you're in a tiny little bathroom!

Mary huddles in her jacket while watching a cloudy sunset from a deck chair.

At the end of the day, we enjoyed relaxing on the deck and watching the sun go down behind a bank of clouds.  It was beautiful and restful.  In fact, we stayed for about an hour and a half and even dozed off for awhile.  I think these are the moments that will linger among my favorite memories of our cruise. 

Day One: Sapphire Princess

Ed and Mary at the “Sail Away” party on the top deck of the Sapphire Princess
as the ship embarks from Elliot Bay in Seattle.

This shot was taken by the ship's photographer and cost us $20!
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I can’t believe we’re really here! Ed and I are enjoying the honeymoon we’ve always dreamed of: one whole week alone together on a cruise ship heading up the coast of Alaska.

Mountains seen from the plane at 36,000 feet
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Our flight to Seattle was crowded and a little frightening to me. I hadn’t been on a plane since my friend Peggi and I flew to Hawaii 30 years ago, in January 1980. Yet I loved spending those 3 hours beside my new husband. Ed was so patient and encouraging, I found myself almost enjoying the flight!

We used this napkin to keep me distracted by coloring in all the states I’ll have visited by the end of this honeymoon trip.
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We arrived in Seattle at 1:00 and took a shuttle to our ship, the Sapphire Princess. Our stateroom is small but very elegant. They use a lot of mirrors to make it appear larger. The bathroom is teensy-weensy and there’s no seat on the toilet, which is a little weird. How odd to sit directly on the porcelain rim!

I love this plaque by our cabin door, identifying us as Mr. Edward Reynolds and Mrs. Mary Reynolds.

This is the only place where no one has ever known me by any other name!
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The ship set sail right on schedule at 4:00. Ed and I ordered virgin strawberry daiquiris (no alcohol) and joined the “Sail Away Party” to watch as the ship pulled away from the pier and headed out into the Puget Sound.

Mary, age 55, at the top of the ship
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The ship is gorgeous, immaculate, and huge. It’s easy to get lost in it, as we’ve already learned several times. There is room for about 2,700 passengers on the Sapphire Princess. That’s like a small town! We’ve met a lot of nice people from all over the world, including two couples from Arizona. In fact, one couple from Mesa is friends with a family I’ve known for years in Pinetop-Lakeside. Small world, indeed!

One of several pools on the ship: notice the regular pool on the right, which is under the water of the larger, shallower pool.
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The food is amazing! The stereotypes about constant eating on cruises appear to be true. There are restaurants everywhere you turn, with a tempting variety of delicious dishes. Willpower is necessary, since the food is included and you can eat all you want for no extra cost. (Yet they charge you $3.50 for every bottle of water you drink! We’re learning some of these lessons the hard way…)

Ed sits at our luncheon table, with a beautiful view of the Seattle seaport as we wait to sail.
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Before dinner we got settled in and then went exploring. Navigating the system of elevators and stairs is surprisingly tricky, and we had to ask for directions multiple times. After dinner we spent some time at the railing, looking out at the passing scenery. On the port side of the ship we saw the Canadian coast creeping by. On the starboard side were many large, inhabited islands.

Ed looks out on the water.
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In the evening we enjoyed sitting on the deck and watching the sun disappear behind the sea. I didn’t have my camera with me, so I missed that photo op. Ed and I were both exhausted by the time darkness fell and we called it a night. It was cool to come back to our stateroom to find our sheets turned down and chocolates waiting on the bed. This is the life!

Thank you, my sweet husband, for giving me the gift of such a wonderful honeymoon!

Birthday Boys

Today is Jacob's 19th birthday.  In 5 days, it will be Dylan's 13th birthday.  My sons are growing up too fast!

In all the madness of getting married and traveling between states and planning a honeymoon, I somehow missed the fact that I will be gone for Dylan's birthday.  And for the 4th of July.  It makes me a little bit sad to miss these events with my family.  I've never missed them before.

They assure me that they will be fine without me.  I know it's true, and that makes me a little bit sad, too.  It also makes me proud of them.

So we celebrated both boys' birthdays today, exchanging gifts, sharing an ice cream cake, and having our traditional birthday dinner at El Rancho.  It was fun to have Ed join us this year.  (Sarah was with us, too, but she was behind the camera.)

Jacob, we told you not to say "Schuster!"

Now the boys are off at the lake with their cousins, having what they consider to be their real birthday celebration, while Ed and I are madly trying to finish packing for our honeymoon cruise to Alaska.  Suitcases, tote bags, toiletries, stacks of clothes, and other personal items are strewn across the bed. Slowly, slowly, it's all coming together.

We'll be up at 4:00 in the morning, ready to drive away at 5:00 so we can arrive at my sister Karla's house in Mesa by 8:00.  She'll drive us to Sky Harbor Airport so we can make our 10:00 flight from Phoenix to Seattle.  I'm a bit nervous, but I'm so excited!

If everything goes as planned, I intend to blog each day of our cruise.  If you're interested in the sights of the inside passage on the way to Alaska, stay tuned!  

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Truck and trailer at Carl's Jr. in Pueblo, Colorado.

We had a very long but safe and uneventful trip from Wyoming to Arizona yesterday.  Even though we were hauling a big trailer packed to the ceiling, and the truck was loaded like we'd hired Jed Clampett as our mover, we made the trip in 14 hours.  That's 2 hours less than when we'd hauled the fifth-wheel trailer down the previous week.  It probably helped that Ed and I were alone and thus able to make fewer stops.

The Denver skyline.

We agreed that we could happily live the rest of our lives without ever making that drive again!  Of course, our family vacation to Estes Park, CO, in July will also require a 12-hour drive, so we'll have no choice, although we're pretty sure we'll break that trip into two 6-hour drives and spend one night in a hotel along the way. 

Castle Rock in southern Colorado.

We got home at 10:45 p.m. and pretty much fell into bed after midnight, yet we were up at 6:00 this morning because we had so many tasks to tackle today. Since we'll only be home today and tomorrow before leaving again, this time for 11 days to go on our honeymoon, nothing could wait. 

A beautiful sunset over New Mexico.

Among many other errands, Ed got his new Arizona driver's license and registered his vehicles in his new home state.  We spent a lot of time with our insurance agent updating my policies into our policies.

Jacob, Ed, Dylan (on truck), and Sarah unload the Dodge Ram 3500.

We also rented a storage unit for most of Ed's stuff, since we won't be home long enough to deal with it until the end of July.  We figure we won't need the unit more than a few months.  There will be a huge yard sale once we start blending our things into one home!

The best part of the day was returning to Helmut the Jeweler to pick up our wedding bands.  We designed and ordered them more than 5 weeks ago, when we still planned to get married on June 24th (yesterday would have been our wedding day, if we'd been patient enough!).

The actual photo of the ring on my hand doesn't really show the amazing detail the jeweler put into the ring, so here are some of his computer renderings.  The center ring is my engagement ring, his one-of-a-kind design called "Paradise."  Notice the heart-shaped prongs that hold the round diamond in place.  So cool!

Although the jeweler designed two bands, one for each side of the engagement ring (because he prefers a more symmetrical appearance), I chose to go with only one wedding band.  His original design for the wedding ring was studded with a series of diamonds all along the band.  I love diamonds, but I prefer a simpler look with fewer stones.  So the jeweler, Stephen, worked with me to design an original band to suit my taste.  I love the two heart-shaped diamonds, which he suggested in keeping with the heart theme.  It turned out better than either of us expected.  I love my rings!

As much as I love mine, I think Ed's ring is even cooler.  While we were choosing our rings, we noticed the jeweler's wedding ring, which looked almost like this one except it had only one, larger diamond which was placed in the center.  The more we admired it, the more we knew it was the right ring for Ed.

The jeweler explained that his inspiration for this ring was the crown of thorns worn by Christ at the time of His crucifixion.  Ed chose to have the three smaller diamonds, which to us represents the Godhead, who overcame death through the Savior's sacrifice. 

It was a wonderful, productive day, and tomorrow looks to be just as busy.  I only hope we can have everything ready in time for our departure on Sunday morning!

Farewell, Wyoming

That's it.  We're all packed up and ready to head out bright and early tomorrow.

We were up to our elbows in boxes, but members of Ed's ward at church showed up in the evening and made short work of  carrying the boxes and furniture out to the trailer, where Ed supervised the loading.  (My husband is almost as OCD as I am!)  It was all done within 3 hours. 

Here they are loading the quad.  Dylan is quite happy that the four-wheeler is heading toward home tomorrow!

My first visit to Wyoming has been quite an adventure!  While I'm most excited to be back in our permanent home in Arizona, there are many things I'll miss about Wyoming and northern Colorado.  Here are a few photos of our memories of the area:

This is a view from Caryl's front yard.  This is a land of wide skies, vast grasslands, rocky ridges, bison and cattle, and old homesteads surrounded by prairie.

Right now these little yellow flowers are growing profusely along the roads and throughout the grasslands.  They make me a little bit homesick for our similar yellow flowers blooming throughout the White Mountains of home.

This is the view along the highway between Caryl's house in northern Colorado and Ed's place in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  This is very typical of the scenery for hundreds of miles around.  It's usually very windy.

I grew up with that old song about "where the deer and the antelope play," but I never saw an antelope until I came here.  They are everywhere!  Antelope are much tinier than I imagined, and they blend well into the landscape.  Ed and Dylan made a game out of who could be first to see one of these tiny animals in the surrounding prairie, and Dylan became very good at spying them from great distances.
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Ed's apartment was just a few blocks from downtown, and his neighborhood was filled with these stately old homes that I love.  Red brick was obviously very popular once upon a time, but there are a lot of other great styles, like the curlicues and gingerbread adornments on the old Victorian homes.  This particular house was right next door to Ed's building.
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Farewell, Wyoming, the home of my sweetheart!  You'll always have a special place in my heart!

Back in Cowboy Country

18 June 2010 - Kicking back at home in Lakeside:

Caryl, Dylan, and Sarah watch while Ed rocks on Guitar Hero!
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After 5 wonderful days at home in Pinetop-Lakeside, Ed and I headed back to Wyoming yesterday. Due to various errands I had to run before we left, we didn’t get on the road until after 10:00 a.m. It was about 1:00 this morning when Ed and I arrived back at the Cheyenne apartment, and it was after 2:00 a.m. when we finally went to sleep. Needless to say, I am very tired today!
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Somehow this drive seemed even longer than the last one. It was especially hard on poor Caryl, my 75-year-old mother-in-law. She handled the drive to Arizona pretty well, but the return trip really wore on her.
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Crossing the border from New Mexico into “Colorful Colorado.”
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It was a tough decision, but we decided to allow Dylan to stay at home with Sarah and Jacob this week, rather than making him come to Wyoming with us again. He’d handled his first week here well, but the second week was tough on him. He was growing quite homesick for his siblings and his dog, which made him cranky.
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Since we’ll only be gone for 4 days this time, it’s a good test of how well my children can get along in our absence! Still, I must say it feels mighty odd to be here without my youngest child. The apartment feels strangely empty with just Ed and me.
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Crossing from Colorado into Wyoming about 10 miles from Caryl’s Colorado house.

Since it was dark when we arrived last night, I shot this picture today.
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Ed spent today fine-tuning the truck (new fuel injectors, new brakes, and new temperature gauge) and driving his mom to do errands in nearby Fort Collins. Tonight we got started on packing up the apartment, getting everything ready to load into a big trailer that his bishop offered to loan us for our move.
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We hope to have everything loaded and ready to go by tomorrow night so we can get a good night’s sleep and then head back toward home early Thursday morning.
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By the way, yesterday was Ed’s and my first anniversary. First month, that is. And they said it wouldn’t last!

Where Home Is

"Home is where the heart is."

We've all heard the old saying, and I've always believed it.  Now, though, I feel it.

Ed with one of his best friends, Kelcey.  12 June 2010

I'm a real homebody.  I love to travel, but in the end where I really want to be is here in my own house with my three adored children.  That has always been true for me.  At least, it was true until I fell in love with a certain man and married him, then put him on a plane for Wyoming.

The four days I spent here without Ed didn't feel like home at all.  The yearning in my heart was to be in Cheyenne.  No, that's not right.  My yearning was to be with Ed, wherever that might be.  I didn't even know it was possible to feel like this!

Ed pulls the bad engine out of his truck.

While I was in Wyoming with Ed, I spent 17 days away from my two oldest children, Sarah and Jacob.  That was a first for all of us, and I missed them like crazy.  Still, I knew my place was with my husband.  Cheyenne was home for a time.

Dylan assists with lifting the engine.

There was plenty of work to be done before we could return to Arizona.  Ed spent the first week tying up loose ends and completing jobs he'd promised to people in his community and church.  During the second week he had to pull a burned-out engine from his truck and put in a rebuilt engine.  Dylan provided some assistance, but it was a huge job.

Living and dining area in trailer.

My job during that second week was cleaning and prepping Ed's fifth-wheel trailer for the trip.  In order to be able to haul the trailer to its new home in Arizona, Ed had to have the truck up and running, so he worked at it almost nonstop.

The trailer's little kitchen.

Ed's mom, Caryl, came to Arizona with us to check out the area.  We're hoping she'll decide to move here to be near us.  She loved the retirement apartments we toured and she's enjoying our mild weather, beautiful scenery, and friendly people, so we're hopeful!  Meanwhile, she's staying in the fifth-wheel trailer parked in the driveway.

Geoffrey and Meghann have their first dance as Mr. and Mrs.

The youngest son of Ed's good friend, Kelcey, got married and had his wedding reception on June 12th.  We knew we had to stay in town at least that long in order to attend the festivities.  It was a lovely reception, but I remember looking around and then hugging Ed and whispering, "I don't need all this to feel married.  I just want to be with you."

The truck and trailer finally ready for the road.

We had hoped to be on the road by Monday morning, but last minute problems with the new engine forced us to stay in town until Tuesday morning.  We toyed with the idea of leaving late Monday and driving all night, but we weren't ready to go until almost midnight and we were all simply too tired by then.  We spent the night at Caryl's home in northern Colorado and left at 7:45 a.m.

I followed Ed all the way to Arizona.  This was the view ahead of me for almost 16 hours!

It was a very long drive!  It was 10:30 p.m. Arizona time when we finally pulled into the driveway of our White Mountain home!  That's 11:30 p.m Wyoming time, so we were on the road for almost 16 hours.  It's normally a 12-hour drive, but hauling a heavy trailer slows things up a lot. 

The snow-capped Rocky mountains provided gorgeous scenery through most of Colorado.

Our family will be vacationing in those mountains come July!

It was fun and exciting to call Cheyenne home for a while.  I loved seeing what Ed's life was like and meeting his friends and living in his apartment.  Yet being home with him here in my world, with my children within arm's reach, is even sweeter.  He says the White Mountains already feel more like home to him than Wyoming.

The sun sets as we near the western border of New Mexico.  Home is just 3 hours away! 

I dread the long, long drive back to Wyoming next week.  I guess I could wait here for 4 more days while Ed drives his mom back home and packs up his apartment.

Who am I kidding?  When Ed drives away, my heart drives away with him.  Where he is, there my home is.  I'll be in Wyoming next week.

Never Say "Schuster"

The following is a public service announcement.

For the public’s safety and protection, it is imperative that all citizens understand that there are some words that must NOT be used to elicit a smile from persons posing for photographs. Repeat: there are some words that must NEVER be uttered by persons posing for photographs.

Try not to be frightened upon viewing the photograph displayed below. The well-meaning but misguided photographer decided to depart from the traditional wisdom of asking the posees to mouth such words as, “cheese,” “money,” or “my dad has stinky feet.” Please note that each of these words and phrases end with the long “ee” sound, thus arranging the mouth into something approximating a smiling position.

No, this unwise photographer thought it might be more fun to ask the posees—two young females attending a baseball game in late April—to speak the name of a young, popular, attractive (aka “hot”) male character from the young ladies’ favorite television series, Glee, thus personalizing the shot.

The resulting photograph is, to say the least, shocking. View it at your own peril.

Sarah and Emmi. Enough said.

You were warned. Never, never say, “Schuster.”