Chihuahua Desert Garden at UTEP

The weekend prior to our trip to San Antonio we went to the poppy celebration out at the archeology museum, located where Transmountain Road starts up into the Franklin Mountains. Unfortunately there were no poppies, but we still had a good time, and the scenery was gorgeous. There are some groups that are trying to get the area turned into a state park. In the meantime, not much can happen in that area because there is a lot of unexploded ordnance around (it's in the area of Fort Bliss).

Our quest for poppies took us to the Chihuahua Desert Garden at the University of Texas, El Paso. This campus is also home to the Sun Bowl. There we found not only poppies, but a multitude of other flowers in bloom, including a number of beautiful specimens of Texas Mountain Laurel, and a spectacular yucca. The garden covers a fairly small area, but is beautifully designed and has a nice representation of local flora. This is one of the jewels hidden in El Paso. Besides the garden, the campus is worth a drive through because the architecture designs are from Bhutan, with beautiful tile patterns which are different on every building. The architectural detail is consistent throughout the campus, though the buildings were not all built at the same time.

Texas in Spring

This last weekend we took a trip from El Paso to San Antonio to visit family, and I was delighted to see all the spring wildflowers along the way. Since this is desert on the El Paso end and it's still fairly dry near San Antonio, there were no tall plants. If you keep your eyes open, there is much to see. The first couple of photos were taken at one of the rest stops on the way to San Antonio. The yellow flower is a nightshade and the orange a poppy.

The remaining photos were taken when we stopped on the roadside specifically to take flower pictures. It was exciting to see my first bluebonnets. They were blooming close to mile marker 310, which further west than Harry has seen them before. There were multiple places where we saw the lavender verbenas, lots of yellow daisies, and seemingly equal numbers of the yellow evening primroses, especially in
the median.





















I was especially intrigued by this tree that is growing at the west-bound rest stop on I-10 at mile marker 50. A little research proved it to be a Tamarisk or Salt Cedar, which is actually an invasive tree. Sad to know that since it is so pretty when blooming.

Grand World Voyage Part 12: the Amsterdam

The postings about the 2008 Grand World Voyage would not be complete without saying something about the ship we sailed on, her wonderful crew, and life on board. The Amsterdam is a nice size ship (just under 1300 passengers), and very nicely appointed. All the areas always had gorgeous flower arrangements, which showed great creativity.

There was a wide variety of activities available. I chose to participate in many of the 'dam dollars' activities, where one could earn 'money' which could be exchanged for goods at periodic times during the cruise. They had some really nice things to choose from, including a nice jogging suit and a really good windbreaker. These activities were a lot of fun because of the social aspect, but also (at least for me) because they offered a chance to develop some physical skills. My favorite of those was at long last being able to sink free throws on the basketball court.

Of course there was also team trivia, which is where I met my husband. That aside, it was a fun activity, which took place on sea days right around lunch time. That certainly kept our brains from going soft from all the luxury surrounding us.

The food was excellent, as expected, and all of the service on board was superb. I have always enjoyed getting to know crew members, and on a 4-month cruise one can really get to know them. Our dining room stewards (Fajar and Barkah) and our wine steward (Ramiro) were the best of the best, and a lot of fun. Our cabin steward (Rusmadi) was also great, and a very faithful and hard worker - he has been a cabin steward for 35 years! Of course he made those wonderful towel animals for our bed each night. Sometimes it was interesting trying to figure out what they were, but they were always well done.

I enjoyed being able to dance to the music of the Station Band from the Philippines. They played a wide variety of songs, which were great to dance to. I'm talking real dance music that you could do specific dances to. They were doing their sixth world cruise, and deservedly so, as they were all excellent musicians, as well as being fun people. One great feature of this long cruise was that there were five or six dance hosts (technically they are social hosts) who were there to dance with us single women. Two of them I knew from a previous cruise, which was nice, and they were (for the most part) a lot of fun. There was one exception to that, but I solved that problem by eventually refusing to dance with that one (rest assured, the refusal was always polite).

We had a dessert (read chocolate) extravaganza the night we left Istanbul, immediately following that amazing party at the cistern. I don't remember eating anything, but the desserts sure were beautiful. The gentleman in the photo with me is Danny, one of the cooks, who is from the Philippines, and who became a special friend.




We had a 'regular' lunch time extravaganza also, with a pirate theme, which included quite a few ice sculptures. This, too, was beautiful to look at. The only problem with it is choosing what to eat when the selections are so numerous.

Another thing that was fun was that for every theme night, the dining room staff decorated the dining room to the hilt and of course had costumes to match.

We had a grand time on this grand world voyage. I am very glad that I did decide at the last minute to go on this cruise. It truly was the experience of a lifetime, something I would recommend to anyone who wants to see the world.

Grand World Voyage Part 11: Winding Down

This was my first time in Lisbon. The feel of the city was very nice, but I mostly did not find it that interesting. Perhaps that's because I know very little about Portugal. One thing that did impress me as we drove through the city was the tile work that was everywhere. Most of it was on the facades of buildings. The most memorable other place is one place where a bridge crossed over the road we were on and the retaining walls on either side of the road were done in bright rainbow stripes of color.

Our excursion went out to Estoril, a beach resort. We went for a short walk on the beach where we found some tide pools and came home with sea urchin shells. Along the way we stopped to see the monument to the Portuguese explorers, which was really beautiful. The monument is the bow section of a ship, with statues of the explorers on one side and statues of the people who financed the expeditions on the other. There is a huge area in front of the monument done in inlaid granite, that has a map of the world and many other symbols. This was an amazing work of art. I also found the series of old forts along the ocean very interesting.
































The island of Madeira, famous for the fortified wine of the same name, was a beautiful and pleasant surprise. One friend lost her heart to the island. I might have, also, except that I had already lost mine to Malta. The island is very mountainous, and as you drive through the countryside, you see many terraced fields, with stone retaining walls. These were apparently built by prisoners (unfortunately I don't remember the whole story our guide told). One of the great sights is the airport, because when they needed a longer runway, they built it out over the ocean on concrete pylons, reminiscent of our freeway bridges at home.

Madeira is also famous for their handmade lace, which is really embroidered cut work, and which is absolutely beautiful. We visited a lace factory, where we saw how they transfer the patterns, the rooms full of patterns, and the packaging process. The handwork is actually done at home, so we were not able to observe that. The ladies who do the work are highly skilled at fine embroidery.

Another great visit was to a large market, where we saw lots of fish and produce. There was one very long black fish that is endemic to the region. It looked ugly, but we had it for lunch, and it was one of the best fish I'd ever tasted. I don't remember its name. The produce was very interesting. We tried the fruit of a philodendron, which was very sweet and had a wonderful flavor. I never realized that philodendrons had any edible parts.

We went to the main place where the Madeira wine is made, in the city of Funchal, and got to taste the different varieties, the difference being the age of the wine. The one aged longest was the one that tasted best. Another stop was a place that made everything imaginable of rattan. Once again, the variety was astonishing, and the handwork was flawless.

The island is very beautiful, with many spectacular views. This was a place very well worth seeing.







Our next-to-last port before disembarking was Bermuda. We were scheduled to dock at King's Wharf, but ended up anchored because all dock space (there's not much of it) was taken both at King's Wharf and Hamilton. We therefore had to use tenders to get ashore, and Bermuda requires that we use theirs. That created quite a zoo, even though their boats held a lot of people. We ended up beyond the cutoff point for the first tender, and by the time we finally got to the island, we realized that we didn't have time to walk to the botanical garden, as planned. So we turned around and got right back on the tender. We were sorry that we could not see the botanical garden again, as we had very much enjoyed it on our first trip there. Fortunately for us, we had been to Hamilton before, when we did have time to explore more thoroughly (That was a week-long Bermuda cruise on Celebrity). And the scenery going to and from the ship was beautiful, and the ride pleasant.






Our final port was New York City, where a great many passengers disembarked. Tina & I spent our time walking, because we wanted to buy gifts for our dining room stewards. We ended up walking about five miles that day, but were successful in our shopping. Our walk took us through Times Square, which was fun, knowing that we were in the place we watch every New Year's Eve. The electronic advertising was overwhelming, both in size and in quantity. This was a sad time for us, because we knew there would be only one more full day before we had to disembark and this incredible journey would come to an end.

The grand world voyage truly was an incredible journey, both in terms of the places we went, and the people we met. The ship had been our home for almost four months, and we came to love the crew, the new friends we had met, and the life style. The journey whetted my appetite for returning to many of the places we visited.

I've talked to a number of people who said they would get claustrophobic or bored spending so long on a ship, and truthfully, in the beginning I didn't know how well I'd handle it. The longest I'd been on a cruise ship prior to this was 18 days. What I learned is that we are adaptable, the ship is quite large, and if you have interest in any of the many activities, there is always something to do. Many on the ship did not like the eight days at sea between Panama and Nuku Hiva. I enjoyed being able to stand on deck and watch the flying fish, and participate in the many activities. It is also good to have sea days because too many port days close together take a lot of energy and make it difficult to fully appreciate the places visited, when they are too close together.