Adventures

Step 1: Embark cruise ship.

Step 2: Devour everything in sight like a ravenous wildebeest.

Step 3: Rinse and repeat.

Clearly, we didn’t starve.

Oops! Did I forget the Dessert Extravaganza?

Oink! Oink!

I know what you’re thinking. “A week-long Alaskan cruise….yeah, real tough life there Buck-O…”

But before you get all judgy on me, cool your jets and allow me to explain. Here’s a bit of helpful advice, should you consider an Alaskan cruise of your own in the future (and you totally should).

1. Quit being a stubborn beast, swallow your cheap pride, and shell out the bucks for a waterproof (not water-repellent, not water-resistant, but fully waterproof) raincoat and waterproof duck shoes or rain boots. Decent ones on sale could easily run you about $50 each, but it is an investment well worth the cost. It poured in Juneau, it rained in Ketchikan, and it was windy as all get-out in Glacier Bay, so I cannot even begin to tell you how thankful I was for that Columbia waterproof rain jacket with hood and roomy zipper pockets (to keep the camera dry!) that I picked up for $50 on Amazon when it was on sale. I wore it every single day. Because I didn’t want to be a weenie or waste money, I opted not to invest in the supremely cute waterproof duck shoes I saw at L.L.Bean. What a mistake! Instead I wore thick socks and sneakers, which were both soaking wet and freezing cold approximately 30 minutes after docking in Juneau. I resorted to traipsing back to the ship, changing socks, and wrapping my feet in garbage bags to try to keep them dry for the rest of the day in port. This was stupid, uncomfortable, and ineffective. Rinse and repeat in Ketchikan. And my shoes stayed wet and smelly for at least two days thereafter. The lesson learned is don’t be cheap and just buy the cute, waterproof duck shoes. Or you can pull this little stunt and look like a dweeb – a cold, wet dweeb.

2. By the way, the later in the Alaskan cruise season (May-Sept.) that you go, the rainier it gets. I learned this in Juneau – a very good time to acquire this knowledge indeed. If you plan to cruise Alaska at the end of August when it’s not quite as frigid as it will be in May, I would highly suggest that you be in possession of said rain jacket and duck shoes. Or you can go in May when it’s freezing every day, but less likely to rain. Or you could just pick a random time to go and luck out completely. You really can’t control the weather, so my advice is to just be aware of its trends, pack appropriately, and don’t let the rain spoil your fun. It’s a part of Alaska, so soak it in!

3. I suppose I should also mention that the later it gets in the cruise season, the rougher the seas are. Let me repeat: Alaskan cruises are not for weenies!! I’d heard that Alaskan waters can be choppy, but I took this with little more than a grain of salt because I encountered virtually no motion sickness on my Caribbean cruise a few years ago where the waters were as placid as can be. Well, the Pacific Ocean can be a colossal beast and she’s no picnic at the end of August, I can assure you. By day two the barf bags were on full display by the mid-ship elevators, nobody could walk straight, the pools on deck were sloshing violently from side to side, and Bonine was our best friend. Bonine is the way to go in terms of a motion sickness drug. It’s dirt cheap, chewable, lasts all day, and helps even the queasiest of sailors. The seasickness patch that you stick behind your ear, on the other hand, is crazy expensive and kind of useless as we learned that the side effects are tiredness and dizziness. Dizzy, obviously, is exactly how you want to feel when you’re already feeling queasy. Am I right? So if you’re prone to the tortures of motion sickness (or even if you think you aren’t, because you will be), stock up on at least three boxes of Bonine. To be fair, the crew of the ms Oosterdam did say that the seas were unusually rocky, even for this late in the cruising season, so we may have just caught it on an “off” week. But if you think late August may be too much to handle, go in June. Or take your Bonine regularly and you’ll be feelin’ fine.

4. Invest in an excellent monocular or pair of binoculars. I’m talking about the good ones – a respectable brand, waterproof so the lenses don’t permanently fog up, fully multi-coated for extra clarity, and you’ll want a power of at least 10×42. Sure, you could drop $10 for a cheap pair of 8×25 binoculars, but be aware that you won’t be able to view any objects closer than 20 feet away, the images will be fuzzy instead of crisp, the eye hole will be smaller so you’ll see less, and it’ll be nearly impossible to hold it still for long enough on a moving ship to focus in on anything. We invested in two monoculars, one for each of us, that were high definition, 10×42, fully multi-coated, waterproof, and had a 6 ft. close focus. I say invested because they were costly, but we loved having them! We selected the Zen-Ray brand, a favorite among cruise message board forum members. We had incredible views of eagles, sea otters, islands, glaciers, mountain waterfalls, and so much more.

5. Lose 10 lbs before you go. Your pants may be sagging off your rump as you embark the ship, but don’t worry. You’ll eat it all back within a week and then you’ll be incredibly grateful to be one of only ten people who are able to leave the ship with clothes that still fit and not labeled as “cargo.”

6. Select your cruise ship based on itinerary. You’ll be on the ship for seven days, so it makes sense to select a cruise line that suits your wants and needs. You may be dreaming of a ship with a lavish spa with Turkish baths, spa services and a great salon, fabulous nightly entertainment of all kinds, wonderful musicians, art auctions, excellent food, a loose casino, a bingo tournament, a jogging track, basketball court, rock climbing wall, movie theatre, computer or cooking classes, bowling lanes, Wii gaming systems, dance clubs, a library, spacious staterooms, or any number of things. Every ship out there has something special to offer. Many cruise lines have a “label” – Carnival is the party cruise line, Holland America is for old people, Celebrity is for snobs, etc. I say ignore those labels, select the ship that offers the amenities that suite you the best, and take your itinerary into account! We chose Holland America because they’ve been cruising Alaska the longest and their ships are known for being just a touch smaller size-wise, so they can get a little closer to the glaciers. They also offered the longest amount of time in port each day for exploring Alaska, and they went to Sitka instead of Skagway and Glacier Bay instead of the Hubbard Glacier. Sitka is rarely visited by cruise ships, therefore it is a fairly un-commercial, small little Alaskan town where you can get a true sense of what life is like in Alaska. And from my research I’ve noted that Glacier Bay knocks the socks off of the Hubbard Glacier. We were debating between a cruise on the Norwegian Pearl or the Holland America Oosterdam, so we let the itinerary decide for us and I’m so glad we did.

7. Book adventurous excursions. Diamond shopping in Juneau, the city bus tour of Ketchikan, and a salmon feast in Sitka are not adventurous. They are overpriced and lame. You can do these things in Ohio, so why waste your time in Alaska shopping for jewelry when you could instead be doing something you may never have the opportunity to do otherwise? You don’t have to select the extreme 5-mile glacier hike or bear tracking deep in the woods of the Tongass National Park, but if you are physically capable, please attempt to select activities that require at least some sense of adventure and will illicit more than mere guffaws from your friends. This is the land of the great outdoors, of fire and ice, of wildlife, and of adventure – don’t be a weenie and spend it indoors watching a video about salmon runs. Get out there and watch the salmon run! Book the most unique, adventurous, and un-commerical excursions you can find (and don’t be afraid to book from outside companies – they often offer better excursions for a fraction of the price) and you’ll experience Alaska in a way you won’t soon forget.

You’re still here? Wow. Thanks for hanging in there! The pictures are coming soon – I promise! :-)

As if the week before our trip wasn’t enough crazy for one lifetime, this week is proving to be even more of a chaotic mess with commitment after commitment after commitment. We’re running on a prayer here people. While I don’t want to skip out on the blog front completely this week because that just sucks the fun out of life, don’t expect to gleam any brilliant pearls of wisdom, okay? I promise I’ll get to the good stuff as soon as I can make it happen.

In the meanwhile, allow me to regale you an utterly enthralling list of all of the various modes of transportation we used on our trip. I know this seems like a dreadfully dull and unlikely topic, but when we were sitting in the Seattle airport awaiting our plane ride back to Cincy, it dawned on me that over the past week we had used quite a hefty number of modes of transportation, and that some of them were actually pretty cool! Allow me to elaborate:

• Car
• Plane
• Helicopter
• Shuttle
• Skylink Airport Tram
• Cruise Ship
• Mountain Tram
• Tender Boat
• Inflatable Ocean Craft
• Commercial Fishing Boat
• Van
• Bus
• Dog Sled
• ATV 4×4
• Feet (definitely a lot of feet!!)

Pretty impressive, right? We were all over the place! I certainly have some good stories for you coming in the next few weeks… :-)

This summer I will…

– Bike the scenic Little Miami River trail, often

– Try my hand at homemade ice cream – cherry, peach and chocolate are on the agenda! So are homemade popsicles.

– Go fruit picking

– Catch fireflies in a jar

– Take more bubble baths

– Steam and devour a fresh buttery lobster feast

– Explore the rides, games, pool, scenery and fireworks at Coney Island

– Catch up on reading all of my girly glamour and travel magazines that have stacked up, unread, since October

– Go swimming (my swimsuit needs the exercise)

– Have a backyard picnic with blankets, Adirondack chairs, a radio playing good tunes, fresh-squeezed lemonade, cold cuts, beer, s’mores piping hot from the fire pit, and glow sticks/sparklers

– Wash my car with the hose Drink, play in, and maybe eventually get around to washing my car with the hose water

– Call in sick and spend a weekday riding coasters at King’s Island or Cedar Point

– Road trip for a weekend jaunt in Lansing, MI where we can dine at all our favorite eateries, visit old friends, see a show at Stormfield Theatre, play washers and disc golf in Grand Ledge’s Fitzgerald Park, enjoy an ice cream at Korner Kone, browse Horrocks, and re-live our life from two years ago

– Frequent the farmer’s market for tasty seasonable fruits and vegetables

– Hang out at a few local festivals and concerts in the park

– See a movie at the drive-in theatre in Amelia (and quite possibly make a feeble dent in that 4 lb. cheeseburger at Great Scott diner)

– See our families on long weekends and invite good friends over for dinner

– Go rollerblading (bonus if I don’t face plant it on the pavement)

– Try to convince my husband that I need a pet bird

– Get a little color on my skin (Yes, I wear SPF!) by spending more time in the great outdoors

– Catch up on all the seasons of Deadliest Catch

– Relish a day swimming, napping, hiking, and relaxing at a lake

– Enjoy a week-long week-long honeymoon adventure extraordinaire!

– Break in the grill

– Take at least one luxurious nap a week

– Buy Kentucky Bourbon (you know because I live 0.5 miles from Kentucky and haven’t tried it yet)

– Try three new restaurants in three different areas of town

– Treat myself to a few new summer frocks or accessories. I’m thinking pale blue and orange will be my bright summery colors of choice :-)

And then there’s those few things I really should achieve, like…

– Finding us a new place to live

– Secure more freelance/permanent theatre work

– Get my prescription updated and shop for stylin’  new eyeglasses frames

– Design and print our wedding photo albums and artwork canvases for the house

What’s on your summer bucket list?

Would you like to know the difference between a 5k walk/run in Texas and a 5k nearly anywhere else in the nation? I hope you’re ready for a staggering handful of generalizations, because this post has got ’em! In Cincinnati at the 5k’s we’ve participated in each runner’s pace was timed down to the second with an electronic runner’s chip fastened securely to your shoelace, you were given a number to attach to your clothing that was used for identification and to check up on your running stats and rank online post-race, participants stretched and warmed-up beforehand, the races had a strict start time signaled with a gun shot, a specific start line and finish line were established, a detailed course was charted and marked with traffic cones, signs and police officers, and goody bags contained coupons for running shoes and sports bras as well as granola bars and future 5k literature.

In the Texas Hill Country, the 5k is a casual and enjoyable experience, so much so in fact that you just may forget that you are indeed exercising and running/walking a race. It may be held on a ranch with an old wild west town setup for you to explore, where you take a covered-wagon safari ride through the hills then meander through your 5k at a leisurely, un-timed pace traipsing across meadows riddled with cow patties and cactus you must trudge carefully to avoid. Mile markers are approximate at best. You may begin your walk at any time you choose, and the start and finish lines are assumed. On your journey you may wander past alpacas, wallaby, pot-bellied pigs, llamas, deer, reindeer, longhorns, wild turkey, goats, hens, antelope, cattle, horses, zebra, water buffalo, yaks, and black catfish – all of which we saw. Upon opening your race-day goody bag you may pull out a brochure with full color, detailed, enlarged and squirm-inducing photos of poisonous spiders and venomous snakes and information on how to treat their bites. This pamphlet provides extreme comfort and reassurance as you head off on your 5k, ready to leap at the sight of the slightest crawl or slither.

But I don’t want to give the impression that this 5k is, in any way, inferior. It was a blast! A lovely experience choc full of personality and a 5k that suits the style of the Texas Hill County to a T. That’s not to say that all Texas 5k’s are as this one was. Like any other state in the union, I’m sure Texas produces some serious runners who are after an intense marathon experience, and Texas provides it. Anyhow, it was a great time and this particular organization may have one of the best 5k’s around! I hope it raised awareness and money for a truly wonderful organization – Hill County Mission for Health.

I think these pictures really capture the beauty and excitement of good times in the Hill Country. Enjoy! (And, as always, click to enlarge)

So, if you’re looking for a stellar 5k or just a memorable Saturday morning, be sure to check out Texas! I’ve shared the food and the wild west. Up next is girls night out and the cat in my life!

When, on a normal summers eve, Texas looks like this…

…you may be wondering how on Earth we Texans stay cool. For starters, it helps that we often experience dry heat with a decent breeze instead of unbearable humidity.

And then there’s the iced goodies. Yes, we stuff ourselves with…

That was my weekend in a nutshell. Then there was the Culver’s strawberry milkshake I downed the night before I arrived in Texas and the lemon blackberry ice I downed right after leaving Texas. It’s important to stay hydrated, after all. You have to be dedicated to manage all that cold goodness in only two and a half days. If I am anything, I am dedicated.

Least you think I ate only frozen yogurt and drank all my meals (I did not), allow me to share the other indulgences that aided me in my noble quest to eat my way across Texas. This is only a small cross-section of the evidence. Some of it, like the Bill Millers sausage and brisket poor boy with potato fries and pickled onions or the Mexican fish tacos at Aldacos, didn’t quite make it on film before I devoured it. My compliments to the chefs.

The most delicious tortilla soup ever made

Do you recall my quick quip about the jalapeno cornbread muffin I sunk my teeth into assuming it was a lemon poppyseed muffin? Only in Texas. Prior to that little adventure I’d briefly mentioned on our car ride to Milwaukee last Thursday afternoon how delicious our wedding cake was, especially the lemon poppyseed layer which was my absolute favorite. Ted spent the weekend in Green Bay and was going to pay a visit Monnie, his best man’s mom/his other mother/The Green Bay Cake Lady/our wedding cake baker. Jokingly, I told him that if she was baking a wedding cake that weekend and had leftover scraps when he went to visit that he should bring some back for me. Coincidentally and ironically, hearing about the jalapeno cornbread fiasco was just icing on the cake. My mishaps have good timing.

Have I ever mentioned how incredible my husband is? He is. He’s a pretty practical guy and we’re not big into flowers or gift-giving but he occasionally surprises me with sweet little unexpected things or kind gestures just to say I Love You – a new pack of hair ties because I’ve lost all mine, a pumpkin to carve because the raccoon ate mine, a pack of Packer pencils because I appear to be out of Packer pencils, glow sticks because I like glow sticks, or a lemon poppyseed cake just because.

Ted surprised me with this beauty on Monday night when we got home from our 7-hour Milwaukee to Cincy car trip. While I was in Texas he must have been missing me terribly (or, likely, he was just plain overjoyed to have the whole bed to himself) because he asked Monnie to whip up a small lemon poppyseed cake for me, knowing how much I love it. Monnie remembered the pumpkins at our wedding and she made and decorated a beautiful cake for us! It was such a sweet “just because” surprise! I certainly never expected a cake to be sitting on our living room table when Ted said “open your eyes.” He packed and transported it in the truck without me ever even seeing it. It was as sweet as it was delicious and I’m totally looking forward to enjoying lemon poppyseed cake every night this week! We ate some of it while watching Lilo & Stitch and sharing a leftover bottle of our Door County wedding weekend wine. My husband is clearly one cool dude. Jealousy is an appropriate reaction :-)

The past three days we’ve been busy hosting my sister, her husband and their two boys in Cincy. They came down from the Chicago area to visit us for Memorial Day weekend. We loved spending time with them, showing off our home turf, and exploring uncharted Kentucky territory that was new to all of us in the warm and toasty 90+ degree heat. In the past three days we chowed down at a fabulous Mexican restaurant with an equally fantastic view on the river between Newport and Cincinnati, visited the Churchill Downs grounds and museum, watched a few live horse races, experienced the festival-like atmosphere and tasted a slew of treats at the annual Taste of Cincinnati foodie fest, cooled off at the Children’s Museum and The Museum of Natural History and Science, introduced our guests to some classic Cincy favorite eateries – Hype Park Pizzeria and Skyline Chili, visited with famous retired racehorses at the Kentucky Horse Park, and walked to the ice cream shop down our street to savor some delicious homemade UDF ice cream (their peach ice cream is totally out of this world!) while enjoying each others company. Here’s a photo sampler from the weekend (as always, click to enlarge):

We had a beautiful Memorial Day weekend, thankful for the gift of freedom, and hope you had the same!