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4/23
& 4/24 - Thunderstorms, Tornados & Flash Floods Oh My!
During our stopover
in Dallas, we ran into a series of spectacular thunder/lightning storms
which pretty much shut down the airport so that planes could not either
land or take off. We could actually see the separate storms from the
airplane. After what seemed like forever, the storm subsided enough
so that our plane was allowed to finally to land. After we had made
it to our hotel, the "severe weather" alarm went off (it sounded
like a fire alarm), meaning that there was a serious threat of a tornado
& flash flood & that everyone needed to evacuate to the nearest
shelter area. We were a little worried because next door to our hotel
was a trailer park. Luckily, the tornado didn't touch down in our area.
After more flight delays, we finally made it to San Juan, Puerto Rico
the next evening. There's nothing like a little excitement to start
out a trip! |
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4/25
San Juan, Puerto Rico
As our plane landed
in Puerto Rico, there were iguanas sunning themselves on the tarmac.
The weather has been excellent today - sunny & in the 90's. This
picture is of San Cristobal Fort. Besides being huge, it protected Puerto
Rico and San Juan Harbor during the Spanish American War. It is one
of the largest forts ever built in the Americas. |
No, this isn't
a pool. This is the water just off of the beach of Curacao. |
4/27
Curacao
We spent today
in Curacao. The size of Curacao is only abour 180 miles. It is 35 miles
north of Venezuela and 42 miles east of Aruba. While some English
is spoken here, Dutch is the official language. Below are some pictures
of Curacao. |
Since
Dutch is spoken in Curacao, most of the signs are not in English.
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Here's
our floating RV. This picture was taken while we were onshore in Curacao.
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This is the Punda
waterfront in Curacao.
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Here's Curacao's
version of Diet Coke!
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This is one of
the many types of cactus found in Aruba. |
4/28
Aruba
Aruba is a part
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is only 15 minutes from Venezuela.
There are lots of aloe vera, cactus and palm trees on this island. Today,
we visited the town of Oranjestad which is Dutch for "Orange City."
We took a small boat out to a small, uninhabited island, snorkled and
located at least 20 different types of fish (some that we've only seen
before in aquariums and some that we've never seen). There were also
tons of interesting-looking lizards running around and sunning themselves
on nearby hot rocks. |
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Here's a sign for
the post office. |
Another traffic
sign written in Aruba's official language (Dutch). |
 Another
cactus picture with some local wildlife.
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The local folks
in Aruba seemed to continually say that it is "one happy island."
This motto is even on their license plates. |
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4/30
Panama Canal
Our ship entered
the Panama Canal around 6:30am this morning. It took all day to get
through the 80 kilometer long canal. Our ship went through three sets
of locks (similar to the Ballard locks, only much larger) that took
us from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Before our ship went
through the first set of locks, we were at sea level. The first set
of locks raised us to a height of 26 meters above sea level. Once we
were through the first set of locks, our ship entered one of the largest
man-made lakes in the world. It took two more sets of locks to bring
us back down to sea level in the Pacific Ocean. When going through the
locks, a train-like machine called a mule (see picture) slowly pulled
our ship through. At times, there were only inches from our ship and
the edge of the canal. Today, we had 97% humidity and was extremely
hot! |
Before entering
the Panama Canal, we spotted a crocodile. |
This is one of
the mules that pulled our ship along through the locks. Each mule
costs around 1 million dollars.
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Here's another
cruise ship getting ready to go into the locks.
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The black line
towards the middle of this picture is the space between the sip and
the edge of the Panama Canal,. If our ship had been much larger, it
would have been too big to have gone through!
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Here's a container
ship getting ready to enter the first set of locks after our ship.
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Two
Scarlet Macaws |
5/2
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Today
was spent in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. In 1502, Columbus named this area
Costa Rica (which means rich coast) after noticing that the natives
wore a lot of gold decorations (jewelry. etc.). This Central American
country was the first to grow coffee and was the first to export bananas.
|
 Two
Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs |
Coconuts |
A
palm tree with coconuts hanging from it. |
A cart that sold
the coconuts. When you bought them, they would cut them open &
insert a straw so you could eat & drink the insides.
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Blue
Morpho Butterfly |
Towards the end
of our day in Costa Rica, a thunderstorm hit. |
Pelicans
were everywhere by the shore in Puntarenas. |
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5/4
At Sea
Unlike the night
before where there was a wonderful sunset on very calm seas (see above),
today we have high winds and very rough seas. The winds are so strong
that the Captain closed one side of the ship down. The sign to the left
is posted on all the doors on the starboard side. Walking down the halls
in the ship is quite a challenge. The ship moves like a big rollercoaster.
This weather is supposed continue through the rest of the day.
Tomorrow, we will
spend Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) in Acapulco, Mexico. |
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The Acapulco
skyline
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5/5
Acapulco, Mexico
We spent the day
in Acapulco, Mexico. One of the things that we had a chance to do was
to watch the cliff divers at La Quebrada. These crazy people dive off
of 130-foot cliffs into a narrow cove of water (which is only safe when
a wave has come in). The divers must dive at just the right moment.
Below are pictures of some of the cliff diving that we saw. |
Fort
San Diego |
The cliff divers
first climbed up the rocks (with no shoes on). There were even two
small children who were diving today.
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Once the waves
were just right, they dove in one by one.
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Here's another
dive.
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The police force
helped us get safely out of the port of Acapulco.
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There
were tons of taxi cabs in Acapulco. 99% of them were Volkswagon Beetles.
Many of the cab drivers named their cars (the first car in the picture
is named Lilian). |
This is one of
the taxis that we took to get to the cliff divers. We chose it in
honor of Mrs. Gates (look at what's on the back window).
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5/6
Manzanillo, Mexico
Mananillo has beautiful
beaches & is known for fantastic deep-sea fishing. We only spent
about five hours in Manzanillo, so we didn't have a lot of time to see
or do too much.
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People
were walking around and selling things on the beach. |
The
wonderful white sand beaches |
More
pelicans
Houses
on the hillside in Manzanillo |
Mexican
Navy Ships |
5/7
Puerto Vallarta
Today was spent
in Puerto Vallarta. We hopped onto a bus & went into the farming
community near Ixtapa. We should be very thankful for everything that
we have in the US as typical things like electricity and running water
were considered luxuries for many people in the towns that we visited
today.
Because there
is a drought in Ixtapa, people sometimes run out of running water.
The black jug-like containers that are on top of the building hold
extra water for whenever "city" water is unavailable. The
tanks are black so the sun will heat the water that is stored.
|
This
is a Yak, which is a type of fruit. |
A
Prickly Pear Cactus |
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This
is a Palm Tree that has a Fig Tree (the big bushy part at the bottom)
surrounding it. This Fig Tree has grown all around on the Palm and is
basically squeezing it. |
Pelicans
flying overhead
Here's
a view shot of the shoreline in Puerto Vallarta.
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Hundreds
of Pelicans sunned themselves perched on one of the ship's ropes while
we were docked in Puerto Vallarta.
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A
Blue Agave plant
When
Agave plants are harvested, the leaves are cut off & this (the pina)
is what is left.
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5/8
Cabo San Lucas
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The
town of Cabo San Lucas has a large marina in it. |
Here's A Cabo
San Lucas stop sign.
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There
wasn't a dock large enough for our ship, so we had to board these
tenders to get to shore. Each tender could hold about 120 people.
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Here's
a picture of one of the super expensive resorts in Cabo San Lucas.
This
is one of the large yachts that were docked in the marina.
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We
found more pelicans in Cabo San Lucas. They are much larger than you
would think!
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The rocks at
Land's End.
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Here's another
amazing water picture that was taken in Cabo San Lucas. It's hard to
believe that this is the Pacific Ocean! |
5/10
Los Angeles
Before we arrived
in the Port of Los Angeles, our ship met up with a school of porpoises.
They swam & jumped alongside our ship for quite a while. Below are
pictures of the porpoises that we saw.
When we found out
that our ship would be spending a day in Los Angeles, we knew that there
was only one thing that we needed to do. Of course, that would be to
go & visit Disneyland! |
Sleeping Beauty's
Castle
Some of Mrs.
Gates' friends were looking for her
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It's
been said that Walt Disney wanted Disneyland to always be clean. He
figured that the average person would walk about 20 steps looking
for a garbage can before giving up & throwing their garbage onto
the ground. That's why there are so many garbage cans in the park.
|
When
Disneyland was built in 1955, there was an apartment built above this
fire station for the Disney family. Whenever they were at the park,
they would stay in this apartment. All of the Disneyland cast members
always knew if Walt Disney was at the park if there was a light shining
in the window. |
| 
Here's the California
Adventure entrance. The attractions in this park are all themed around
the state of California.
Here's the entrance
to Tomorrowland |
This
is a picture of Big Thunder Mountain. Mr. Soderberg's parents live on
the real Big Thunder Mountain Ranch in Sedona, AZ.
Not all of the
attractions were open. |
Here's a view of
Main Street, USA.
When
you walk down Main Steet, USA, you will see lots of names painted onto
the windows. Those names are people who helped to design or build Disneyland. |
Different modes
of transportation around Disneyland
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| 5/12
San Francisco
The
sea lion welcoming committee |
The
Golden Gate Bridge |
The
city of San Francisco |
Alcatraz |
We're
finally back home! Chloe & Calvin are both very happy with their
gifts. |
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