Caribbean Cruise 2012 Part 2

It took a while for everyone to board and then for the luggage to get distributed to their respective rooms, so before going up to watch our leaving land, we found our cabin. We had upgraded to an outside cabin with a balcony and were really glad we did.

After leaving Galveston, we went exploring... (along with everyone else since the luggage was still finding its way to the cabins).

Basketball goal

miniature golf

Lots of things to do outside and inside.

Main lobby area

Casino

Shopping

Auditorium where they had live performances each evening.

The food was surprisingly good. And, something was available all the time.

This was the buffet area. It had several stations with various types of food that changed throughout the day.

Unlimited coffee, tea, and lemonade

One of two evening assigned seating dining rooms.

Next up - Excursions!

Caribbean Cruise 2012 Part 1

Before Marcene, Daddy, Lucille, and myself went for our drive to Telluride, Colorado and back, Tom and I enjoyed a Caribbean cruise. Our first!

It actually was a trip I won back in March at a thing here in our little town. Our town had just opened a new community center and a local travel agent sponsored a free informational meeting about river cruises and the door prize was a cruise of the western Caribbean. Tom had seen it in the local paper and thought we should support a local activity and attend and at the same time be able to see how the conversion of the old high school building into the community center had turned out (very nice). We each put our names in the drawing and my name was drawn!

We consulted our calendar and scheduled the 5 night cruise for the end of September/first of October. Since it sailed out of Galveston, Tom was able to play in a golf tournament in the Austin area the first half of the week prior to our Saturday sailing. Then, between the golfing and cruise, we snuck in a visit with Tom's mom in New Braunfels.

Check-in at the cruise line began around noon on Saturday so we left New Braunfels early to give ourselves plenty of time to find our way over to Galveston. Good thing, too, because we drove most of the way in fog before it turned into rain. Arriving in Galveston, we decided on lunch then located our reserved parking area and shuttled to the ship. Everything about the boarding process was very well organized and orchestrated. We were all checked through and boarded and on our way by around 4pm.

Not sure why they didn't want pictures taken, but that sign just begged to be documented!

After we got on board the ship, everyone found a spot to watch as we began our adventure.

The Disney ship was the first to pull away from the dock.

Goofy putting on the final touches!

We watched as we separated from land

and made our way down the ship channel.

The very tip of Galveston Island! We are on our way!!

Colorado Road Trip - Day 6

Day 6 - Thursday, October 11, 2012

Homeward Bound...

We spent the night in Alamosa, CO, and were down at breakfast for our last morning together, and an  early start for heading home. 

Heading east out of Alamosa, we watched the sun come up over mountains. It was so pretty highlighting the mountains and spreading the morning light.

The landscape soon turned to the rugged mountain low lands.

Daddy kept an eye on the country side while being our DJ, manning the CD player with fiddle music.  

We rode along listening to music and watching the scenery...

and taking pictures!

We made it to Trinidad, CO, and stopped for a morning break.

Everyone stretched their legs and got a favorite snack!

Heading south, passing through New Mexico.

Losing an hour, we passed back into the Central Time Zone.

Crossing into Texas...we're practically home, right?!

We stopped again in Dumas for an afternoon lunch. 

We ate, relaxed, and enjoyed our last break time together on this Colorado trip. Our total milage...
2,010.9 miles round trip

So glad we were able to make the trip!

Colorado Road Trip - Day 5

Day 5 - Wednesday, October 10, 2012

As the sun was just coming over the mountain in Ouray, we were up and ready for the day’s travel.  This was taken outside of our motel.  The sun had not yet made it to the town. 

As we were driving down the main street of Ouray, there was no traffic, but there was one deer crossing the road. This deer, however, had an injured back leg, and it was limping along. We all felt so bad for it. The day before, Daddy and Lucille had seen several walking down the main street!. We headed north out of Ouray, first filling up the car…$3.99 per gal.! Traveling on we were headed around the mountains to Telluride, CO.

We soon came to a wonderful view of the mountains we were going to travel around.

We stopped for a photo shoot.

A slowdown came when we met some road construction. 

We observed the improvement of the mountain road and...

were amazed as we watched how they dug into the side of the mountain to widen the road.

Such a pretty ride going toward Telluride, CO.

 

The history of Telluride is that of a mining town back in the 1800's.  Today, it is a lovely tourist vacation town.  Notice the center of the street.  It is an area for parking.

As we drove through the town, we kept our eyes open for a photo opportunity.  We found one in a small park area so stopped for a group shot.

Continuing on, my sister spotted a real pretty cluster of aspen trees that were easy to stand in front of.  So, we made a quick stop and postioned Daddy and Lucille for a picture.

There were lovely trees along the ski slopes.  From what we saw, it looked like Telluride would be a fun place to visit again and especially during the ski season!

Going back along the same road from Ouray, we came to an observation area. 

This is a close look at the summary, describing the beautiful road through these mountains.

My sister took advantage of the stop to capture the beauty of the area.

We didn't have an opportunity to see many mountain streams up close, but this was an especially pretty stream below the scenic stop.

Moving on around the mountain range back to Ouray, here is another picture of the mountain range.  With the aspens scattered over the hillside it added to the beauty. 

One interesting sign we began to notice was this sign...info. for trucks traveling too fast!

 

The ramp off to the right is where a run away truck can turn off and come to a stop.

This ramp was located on the Wolf Creek Pass, and my sister just happened to snap a picture.  I didn't know what it was at the time.

We traveled on south of Ouray back on the Million Dollar Highway.

The color in the trees continued to amaze us as we drove on.

We just loved the mixture of yellow and the dark green.

The beauty continued as we headed south to Durango.

When we were going the opposite direction the view seemed different, and at times prettier. 

We were so happy we chose this time of the year, and felt lucky that the trees were presenting a wonderful view of the changing season. 

My sister had to document the areas that were suffering from a pine beetle.   

Not everything was perfect.  It was sad to see the dead areas in contrast to the beautiful healthy areas.  We drove hard and made it back to Alamosa, CO, for the night.  Ending Day 5.