Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum

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We're on our way to Florida for the holidays. This trip we've finally stopped to visit the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum. A stop here was first recommended to us by Clay's sister Sue & her husband Mike a very long time ago! We must have driven by it on I-95 over 30 times over the years. When it was offered as a paid excursion by ACL last month, I balked as we'd drive by it again. So, here we are at last. I think it is a well done museum, but I am just not that interested in WWII history, so it was rather wasted on me. Clay was disappointed that the B-17 on display was not accessible (for years? There was a video saying it would reopen in 2014!) now. We were both disappointed when we went back out to the car in the parking lot to find that someone had keyed a big long arc in the paint of the hood. What is wrong with people? We did note the prominent and frequent signs in the parking lot to hide your valuables, so vandalism and theft are evidently expected problems in the lot out front. For the cost of admission, you'd hope they could provide a secure lot. Just saying. We bought our tickets online at $11 each, the senior rate of a $1 discount.

We are spening the night at a Sleep Inn at this I-95 exit. It is fine. It is convenient. It is a free night's stay for us using 8000 Choice Rewards points. So we can't complain about it! We found a Chinese restaurant very close by. It had a menu online and looked inexpensive. We went to fill the gas tank and eat. It was New China. Two problems, it turned out that it was a takeout place and while the portions were huge compared to the prices, the food was not very good. There was a lot of it!

So, that is our first day on the road. Tomorrow will be better because we'll end at Mom's house!

I don't expect to do much blog posting over the holidays. I am still trying to get years' worth of photos moved off Flickr before they start deleting photos from free photo storage accounts like mine next month. I'll be busy getting ready for Crystal Serenity's 2019 World Cruise too. So, expect new travel posts in mid-January 2019.

Happy Holidays!

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We're Going Around Again, briefly

We couldn't survive long without an upcoming trip being booked. Now wasn't the best time with the hustle of the holidays and the leaking water supply line in the front yard needing to be completely replaced, but when a door opens you should step through if you can. We did it.

We are booked very last minute on Crystal Serenity's 85-day 2019 World Cruise. I'll blog about it here and not create a free-standing blog for the trip even though it is in no way a road trip.

Here's an overview for you:

a map

an itinerary

DATE	PORTS	ARRIVAL	DEPART
Jan 13, Sunday	Los Angeles/San Pedro, CA, USA		Embark pm
Jan 14, Monday	Los Angeles/San Pedro, CA, USA
Jan 15 - Jan 19	Cruising the North Pacific Ocean
Jan 20, Sunday	Oahu/Honolulu, Hawaii, USA	7:00 AM	11:59 PM
Jan 21, Monday	Maui/Lahaina, Hawaii, USA	8:00 AM	10:00 PM
Jan 22 - Jan 23	Cruising the North Pacific Ocean
Jan 24, Thursday	Fanning Island, Republic of Kiribati	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Jan 25 - Jan 26	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
Jan 27, Sunday	Pago Pago, American Samoa	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Jan 29, Tuesday	Crossing the International Date Line
Jan 30, Wednesday	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
Jan 31, Thursday	Lautoka, Fiji	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
Feb 01 - Feb 02	Cruising the Pacific Ocean
Feb 03, Sunday	Waitangi, Bay of Islands, New Zealand	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Feb 04, Monday	Auckland, New Zealand	8:00 AM
Feb 05, Tuesday	Auckland, New Zealand		6:00 PM
Feb 06 - Feb 07	Cruising the Tasman Sea
Feb 08, Friday	Sydney, Australia	5:00 PM
Feb 09, Saturday	Sydney, Australia		6:00 PM
Feb 10, Sunday	Cruising the Coast of Australia
Feb 11, Monday	Hobart, Tasmania, Australia	8:00 AM
Feb 12, Tuesday	Hobart, Tasmania, Australia		1:00 PM
Feb 13, Wednesday	Cruising the Bass Strait
Feb 14, Thursday	Kangaroo Island, Australia	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Feb 15, Friday	Adelaide, Australia	8:00 AM	9:00 PM
Feb 16 - Feb 17	Cruising the Great Australian Bight
Feb 18, Monday	Albany, Australia	7:30 AM	5:00 PM
Feb 19, Tuesday	Busselton, Australia	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Feb 20, Wednesday	Fremantle/Perth, Australia	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Feb 21 - Feb 27	Cruising the Indian Ocean
Feb 28, Thursday	Mauritius/Port Louis, Rep. of Mauritius	8:00 AM	9:00 PM
Mar 01, Friday	St-Denis, Réunion, France	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 02, Saturday	Cruising the Indian Ocean
Mar 03, Sunday	Taolanaro, Madagascar	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 04 - Mar 05	Cruising the Indian Ocean
Mar 06, Wednesday	Maputo, Mozambique	7:00 AM	5:00 PM
Mar 07, Thursday	Richards Bay, South Africa	7:00 AM	9:00 PM
Mar 08, Friday	Durban, South Africa	7:00 AM	9:00 PM
Mar 09, Saturday	Cruising the Coast of South Africa
Mar 10, Sunday	Port Elizabeth, South Africa	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 11, Monday	Cape Town, South Africa	7:00 PM
Mar 12, Tuesday	Cape Town, South Africa
Mar 13, Wednesday	Cape Town, South Africa
Mar 14, Thursday	Cape Town, South Africa		7:00 PM
Mar 15, Friday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 16, Saturday	Luderitz, Namibia	7:00 AM	4:00 PM
Mar 17, Sunday	Walvis Bay, Namibia	8:00 AM	11:00 PM
Mar 18 - Mar 20	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 21, Thursday	St. Helena	7:00 AM	3:00 PM
Mar 22, Friday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 23, Saturday	Georgetown, Ascension Island	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 24 - Mar 26	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 27, Wednesday	Dakar, Senegal	7:00 AM	11:00 PM
Mar 28, Thursday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Mar 29, Friday	Porto Novo, Cape Verde Islands	7:00 AM	6:00 PM
Mar 30 - Mar 31	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Apr 01, Monday	Santa Cruz de la Palma, Spain	8:00 AM	5:00 PM
Apr 02, Tuesday	Cruising the Atlantic Ocean
Apr 03, Wednesday	Málaga, Spain	1:00 PM	11:59 PM
Apr 04, Thursday	Cruising the Mediterranean Sea
Apr 05, Friday	Barcelona, Spain	8:00 AM	10:00 PM
Apr 06, Saturday	Monte Carlo, Monaco	4:00 PM
Apr 07, Sunday	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Apr 08, Monday	Monte Carlo, Monaco	Disembark am

Voodoo Doughnuts

I'm back to talk about Voodoo Doughnuts. We first had these in their home town of Portland, OR. They have traveled quite well to Universal Orlando Citywalk.  Today we ate the last 2 of the dozen we purchased on Friday night! We needed a lot more than 2 mornings to eat a dozen! So, I have some favorites and some not so favorites. We got an itemized receipt, so I know what we had. Here goes...
Clay's favorite is Apple Fritter. At $2.95 and dinner plate-sized, it is a bargain. Sharing or 1/2 a day seems a good idea. Clay tried to eat one + help eat his share on the first morning after the ant clean up and I think that just about did him in. That brings me to Memphis Mafia, our least favorite and most expensive at $5.25. It is described as Fried dough with banana chunks and cinnamon covered in glaze, drizzled in chocolate and peanut butter with peanuts and chocolate chips on top. It could serve a family of 4 dessert. It was overwhelming and too many flavors and too greasy. We advise against it. We ended up with one of these because when we originally ordered, Clay requested 2 apple fritters and they were out. As we walked away, the guy behind us called us back as the fritters had been restocked. Clay got his fritter but we kept the Memphis Mafia. Some of my favorites have cereal on top. Those did not store or travel well. The cereal was soggy by the morning after. Keep that in mind when ordering. If you aren't going to eat them immediately, I'd advise again cereal topped doughnuts. We got Triple Chocolate, Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting and Cocoa Puffs at $1.95. We got Oh Captain, My Captain, Raised yeast doughnut with vanilla frosting and Captain Crunch at $2. One of my favorites was Grape Ape, Raised yeast doughnut with vanilla frosting, grape dust, and lavender sprinkles at $2, a delicious blend of sweet and tart. A new seasonal favorite was Grinch at $3.75, another great combination of sour apple custard filling with sweet icing on top. It even traveled really well. Among regular selections, I also have as favorites Portland Cream (Raised yeast shell filled with Bavarian cream and topped with chocolate and two eyeballs, representing the vision of the great city of Portland at $2.45), the signature Voodoo Doll (Raised yeast doughnut filled with raspberry jelly topped with chocolate frosting and a pretzel stake (characteristics of Voodoo Dolls are all different) at $3.20), Old Dirty Bastard (Raised yeast doughnut with chocolate frosting, Oreo cookies, and peanut butter at $2.60) and PB&J (Raised yeast shell filled with raspberry jelly, topped with peanut butter and a side dip of peanuts at $2.95. The last 2 regular doughnuts that were not too special after all that, were Bar Maple (Raised yeast doughnut with maple frosting on top at $1.60) and Diablos Rex (Chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting, red sprinkles, a vanilla frosting pentagram, and chocolate chips in the middle at $2). 

A Happy 60th Birthday

Nov 30 photos

Dec 1 photos

I had a mostly terrific time for my b-day in Orlando. I had second-guessed my decision to travel for 1 day to spend in Orlando after all the last minute travel we've done this fall, but in the end I was happy we went. We drove down in the middle of the night on Friday morning. We had one stop for gas and biscuit breakfasts at Bojangle's in Walterboro, SC on the way down. We arrived too early to check in and spent a couple of hours at an outlet mall. We went on to the Holiday Inn & Suites by Universal Orlando about 2pm and they let us check in around 2pm. It is conveniently located for an easy walk to Universal Studios and CityWalk. We had stayed here for a previous b-day trip and returned. Last time we checked in after midnight due to a canceled flight. The desk clerk took pity on us and upgraded us to the Suites tower. It was really a nice place to stay then! This time we got what we paid for which was a good-sized, clean room for $225 for 2 nights. The big difference in my mind was the view. From the suites tower, we could see Hogwarts. From the inn tower, we could see the new Hyatt. We really only slept there anyway, so it didn't matter. Since we were early, we took a nap. The beds were weird. They sloped from a high center to low sides. It felt like you were crawling uphill the whole time in bed. Both beds were like that! There was a construction project building a pedestrian bridge over Kirkman Rd. We decided if we come back, we'll try the DoubleTree which is on that side of the street. I guess it would depend on the price as it is only one extra street to cross!

I had a birthday dinner request at CityWalk for tonight. Tomorrow on my actual birthday, we'll eat fast food in Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. So by about 5pm we arrived in CityWalk. My request for tonight was Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. We had both looked at the menu and picked what we'd order. I stayed with my picks and my meal was delicious. Clay fell apart at the table and asked if he could get a plain hamburger with mustard and onions which was not on the menu. He was disappointed. He's not sure what happened. I had the Croque Monsieur which was perfectly done. I shared the flourless chocolate cake with Clay. We both agreed it was the best version of flourless chocolate cake we'd ever had. It was served warm and came with a scoop of Nutella ice cream. Clay decided if we'd both shared everything I ordered it would have been perfect. Maybe next time! My other reason for dinner at CityWalk was Voodoo Doughnuts. I wanted to take a dozen back to the room for 2 days of breakfasts. It turned out a dozen was at least a half dozen too many! And we left them out the first night and attracted ants. They didn't get inside the box but it was a mess.

On my actual birthday, Animal Kingdom opened to WDW Resort guests an hour before opening to the public. Still it wasn't too crowded. We had to swap our email printout ($260 for 2 1 day/1 park tickets + $25 for parking) for magnetic keycard tickets and go get a b-day pin for me. We were still in sight of the rope for a rope drop entry. That means you get there before park opening. For us that was 9am. We dropped the ball on booking our fastpasses for today. We wound up with only Festival of the Lion King show at 10am and Rivers of Light show at 7:30pm. We rode Kilimanjaro Safari before the show and got there too late to use our fastpass! We walked right in and sat right in front! The one ride which was the reason for the trip was Nav'i River Journey in the new land of Pandora at AK. That was the only low point of the day. We couldn't get fastpasses for it and had to wait 85 minutes in a standby line. The ride itself was only a 3 minute dark boat ride. It was fine but nothing really new or exciting. Nothing to warrant an 85 minute wait. Oh well. We saw Pandora in daylight and after dark. I'm glad to have done both. I missed a lot in daylight that was amazing in bio-luminescence mode. We spent the majority of the day collecting Wilderness Explorer badges. You can pick up a WE handbook as soon as arriving on Discovery Island. Then walking through the park you find guides and troop leaders who teach you something, or you have to do something in your book or the park to earn a sticker for them to put in your book. It was fun. You could at least do it with a short wait each time. If we'd ridden more than 2 rides all day, we'd have needed more days! We ate lunch at Satu'li Canteen. I had picked Steamed Pods (cheeseburger bao buns). Clay couldn't decide again and was going to try for a kid's menu cheese quesadilla. I saw a dish with 2 pods on it and figured rightly that we could just share one order. That worked perfectly. Clay was pretty much off his feed this weekend. Usually he is the one who has studied all the menus and is in anticipation of every meal. Not so this weekend.

We had great weather. Partly cloudy and a high in the mid-70s I think. It sprinkled on us for about 5 minutes in the afternoon. Not long enough to get the umbrellas out. We took in the last show of tohe day of Finding Nemo by walking right in about 1 minute before it started. Time for an early dinner. We ate dinner at Yak & Yeti's fast food side. Again, Clay couldn't decide. I shared my Honey Sesame Chicken and he ate an egg roll on the side. It was just right.

We really enjoyed the Tree of Life Awakenings and the River of Light show. They were both also new since our previous visit.

It was a good day and a good Birthday. Since I was wearing my button, I guess at least 100 times today random strangers wished me a Happy Birthday. There was usually just enough time between wishes that I was surprised each time someone told me!

Nov 30 photos

Dec 1 photos

Final ACL post

We have been safe and sound and resting a bit at home. Sorry I didn't get back sooner to wrap this up. Amtrak wasn't quite the breeze home that we'd hoped for. Instead of 11pm departure, it was closer to 1am departure. We were exhausted and stressed. The good news is that our bedroom was made up for sleep and we hit it. Clay was on the larger bottom bunk and I was up top on the narrower one. I think we both slept pretty well all things considered, but we were exhausted. Since we were late departing, we wouldn't arrive in Raleigh before late morning instead of 8:39am. I decided that meant a shower was in order for me. It turned out that the private toilet in our tiny bedroom was also our shower stall. It worked out fine. Sorry, no photos! We went to the back our sleeper car to get complimentary ice water, orange juice and coffee. We had it with the last of the snacks we'd taken from the Independence lounge and had breakfast in our little bedroom. It could have been worse as a trip home and it could have been better. All things considered, it was OK.

The sleeper experience did put an end to Clay's proposed cross country by sleeper train trip. I had been arguing against it but not against a multi-segment train trip. I definitely did not want to spend multiple nights in a train bedroom. Clay has now agreed with me. So, there's that. We still might book a sleeper accomodation for daytime travel just for the privacy and peace vs. coach and potential problems. That is if we decide to do it at all.

We have gotten our onboard bill charge by ACL. It was $420 dollars for all our excursions. Still not convince if or when we'll cruise on ACL again. What made this trip was the fact that there were only 43 passengers on a 100 passenger ship. You can't plan on that happening again! We'll see.

Jacksonville, FL

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We were docked on the starboard side overnight. We had a river view of the bridge. It was cold, in the 40s F again overnight, but clear and sunny with a predicted high of 66 F. So, nearly perfect weather for a day out.

We had a last breakfast early and vacated the cabin by 8 am. We vacated the ship by 9 am. We walked down the riverfront about a half block to the Hyatt Regency in front of the ship. We could see the riverfront walks on both sides of the St. Johns River, as well as the Peace Park and Jacksonville Landing. We had thought we'd spend at those but we were wrong. We dropped the luggage at the Hyatt with no questions. We set off for Sweet Pete's. We walked down the river front under the bridge watching the dolphins who live there. We found the Landing to be all restaurants. We got to Sweet Pete's right before 10 am opening to find paper signs taped to the doors, closed for renovations. 

The Museum of Contemporary Art did not open til 11 am. We killed time at Hemming Park and the library with a few hundred homeless people. Downtown was dead on a Saturday morning. We found little open. As we bought our art museum tickets, we were told there was to be an artist guided tour and to just follow the group leaving. We had all day to kill, so we did. It was an interesting and easy hour spent with Gideon Mendel. A pleasant surprise. We spent some more time in the rest of the galleries then headed out. We asked the woman who'd steered us to the tour for a lunch suggestion. She gave us 3 within a few blocks and recommended MOSH when she learned we had the day to fill. We walked by each of her lunch suggestions and picked Burrito Gallery. We easily spent another hour there by eating too much. We had walked by Mocha Misk'i earlier and returned for dessert. We had a custom made brownie sushi. Lastly, we walked down to the drawbride to MOSH. It was geared to children and a nightmare. But we'd paid and reserved 5 pm planetarium tickets so we stayed. Plus  our  train doesn't leave til 11 pm! We crossed back over the bridge as the sun was setting. We were still too full from lunch, so went directly to the Hyatt. Pandemonium! Evidently the Steelers are staying  here as well as all their fans. We just took seats in the lobby and enjoyed the team spirit.

We reclaimed our luggage and I typed this up. We should head to the train station wthi an hour.

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Fernandina Beach, FL

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Well, the end is in sight! We sailed from Brunswick, GA at 3 am. We crossed the state line sometime around sunrise. We saw the submarine base shortly after we passed it. It was on the starboard side, so we had to be dressed to go outside and it was about 39 F today. We looked for wild horses as advised on our port side as we sailed along Cumberland Island,  but no luck. We had early breakfast successfully this am by changing sides of the dining room. While we were eating, we dropped anchor off Fernandina Beach marina. Their big dock was damaged by hurricanes and they have not repaired it yet. It was fine. Not a long ride and smooth, but cold. The good news was the bright sun and cloudless skies for once. Even though I don't think it got over 60 F, it was warm in the sun. We were on the 8:45 am tender ashore on the Amelia Island Seaport Walking Tour. It was $20 each. After the tour when the visitor's center had opened, we went in and they gave us a booklet titled Historic Fernandina Beach Tour that described every building we'd  stopped to look at from the outside. It was about a 90 minute tour, no entry to anything. The waterfront street is Front St. The main street through the business district is Centre St. We started at Front & Centre and ended about 5 blocks up Centre so we could shop our way back to the tender dock. We stopped first for a hot chocolate to warm up and use the restrooms. Then we zigzagged back and forth to spend time on the sunny side of the street. We had a really good lunch at The Salty Pelican, which Harold recommended. We took the 2:30 pm tender back to the ship. We packed in the afternoon. At 4:30 pm Harold gave a 40-minute or so trip recap. Cocktail hour, dinner and entertainment followed. They finally offered surf & turf for our final dinner. Someone stuck a stuffed lobster in my open suitcase while we were at dinner as part of turndown service. That reminds me, I don''t remember mentioning it but on arrival we had a gift tote bag on our bed. It is a different style bag than the we got on our previous cruise.

Tomorrow breakfast is 6:30 to 8 am. Out of cabins by 8 am. Luggage out after dinner tonight.

We'll check our luggage at the Hyatt where we dock in Jacksonville, spend the day, have dinner, Amtrak sleeper to Raleigh at 11 pm. Arrive Raleigh 8:39am or so.

I probably won't be back posting before next week since I don't have a keyboard for now.

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Brunswick, GA

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It rained again over night as another cold front came through. I don't think the high today exceeded 60F, but at least it didn't rain. They had breakfast a half hour early this morning to accommodate an 8:30 am tour departure. We and the others at our breakfast table were seated and had ordered by 7:05, then we waited until 7:45 am to get our food. The it was only after complaining up the management chain. Sadly, the hotel manager blamed it on our new and inexperienced waitress. Back to the bad old days we remember and what keep us away from ACL. If your employment policy is 90 day training cycles as new hires only, then your managers are responsible for supervision and training. You don't ever get to blame new untrained workers! So, not a good start. It has been a blessing to only have 43 passengers, but you know after 3 days... Anyway, not a good start. Then there was a blowup, a melt down and an equipment failure as we tried to load the bus to St. Simons. We have a mother and son in power chairs and they have not been handled smoothly or even allowed ashore at all ports, so this was important, but people were out of patience this morning. We were on the bus with about a dozen who were not taking the $45 tour but the $15 transfer only. It turned out we need not have been rushed because all of the sleepy little waterfront community did not open before 10 and we were back on the bus to leave at 11:30. We just wandered, saw the waterfront and tried to stay out of the wind. I got to put a pin in St. Simons Island. The people who did the sea turtle & Jekyll Island tour may not have fared much better as their last hour was spent in an open-air trolley. With a high of 51 F or so and a stiff wind, the chill must have been near freezing. Again, at least no precip! After a reasonable lunch, Clay left at 2 pm for the shrimp boat tour at $50. He gave me a downtime assignment of using the Internet or my feet to research finding a place to eat pizza ashore tonight. If it isn't raining this evening, it is Fox's for pizza. It is only about 3 blocks away. We sail from here at 3 am tomorrow, so we have time!

There is a statue, I guess you'd call it, near a historical marker at the town end of the park we are docked along side. There we learned about Brunswick's Liberty Ships. We'd never heard about that before somehow!

Tomorrow at 8 am we anchor off Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Fl. We disembark on Saturday. We had to return our disembarkation forms yesterday. Not looking forward to my birthday in Disney's Animal Kingdom as much as I was 3 weeks ago! If we'd known that we were going to take the fall train trip and this 2-week cruise, we probably wouldn't have booked Disney World. But that was already planned before the other 2 came up.   Oh well, you only turn 60 once.

Clay returned from his Lady Jane Shrimp Boat tour very excited. He had run out of battery on his phone, so I guess he took lots of pics. He declared it the best excursion of the trip and maybe one of the best ever. There were only 11 participants. He said he stayed back and never handled any of the catch so he didn't get stinky or dirty. He still didn't think I'd have enjoyed it.

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Sailing the Intracoastal Waterway

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We departed Savannah about 4:30 this morning. We will travel south in the ICW until we reach Brunswick, GA about 6:370 pm. It is an overcast, low cloud day. There is a lot of leftover standing water on outside decks from yesterday's torrents of rain, but it is not raining or even misting today. It is only about 60 F though and windy so not really comfortable outside for sailing. The curves and marshes of the waterway are interesting though. We saw one crabber emptying his traps. We saw a shrimp boat headed somewhere. Lots of  birds, docks, homes, boats, yachts, sailboats. We have not seen any dolphins though the Captain announced at breakfast that they were thick.PS. We did finally see a dolphin come out of a winding creek out of the grassy marsh. That was a surprise!

Speaking of breakfast, there were no menus this morning. They were promised so we could place our lunch & dinner orders but they never appeared. The kitchen will have to punt for lunch since they usually have our orders plated & ready to deliver when we sit down. That or everybody is being offered soup, salad & a cold sandwich or entree. We'll see. Last night a fellow passenger went table to table during dinner & asked everyone to order brownies for dessert tonight. I think the kitchen got wind and conspired to thwart her conspiracy.

Yesterday there was some kind of plumbing drainage issue on deck 2. We saw the men coming and going from cabins with a plumbing snake. This morning we had breakfast with a couple who said they packed all their stuff in their suitcases and then crew carried it up to an empty deck 3 cabin for them. They said they moved between 8 & 9 pm. They said 3 cabins moved. There had been 4 empty cabins up here. They said they were told after spending the day snaking and not finding the drain blockage that they'd have to bring in specialist plumbers. Presumably  before next cruise since they've told us it is sold out sailing back to Charleston.

Anne has scheduled a scavenger hunt today, it is too social for me to participate. I had expected more of an Easter egg hunt. She had a military honoring event, a future cruise booking event, we got a past passengers' cocktail party invite for 11:30 am. We don't really want cocktails and hors d'oeuvres then so I don't know about that. At 2:30 pm is round 2 of boozy charades, indoors this round. Pass. At 3:30 is another lecture by Harold on leftover topics. I hope we'll Finlay watch the DVD this afternoon. Dinner, 8 pm port overview for Brunswick, I hope , though the Ship to Shore says Savannah. 8:15 music in the lounge.

We did attend the past passengers event. Anne gave away ball caps. She said you could have a travel mug instead, so Clay took a cap & I asked for the mug. She said she'd get me one but not yet. Oh well. We had some delicious fresh brownies and I took some to the women with the write in campaign as well, so still a win. Lunch was as expected without  pre-orders. Salad, soup, turkey BLT, patty melt or portobello melt. Berries in champagne or ice cream for dessert. After lunch, we spotted the 2nd bald eagle of the day and a big cluster of dolphins.

We did watch a Bruce Willis movie this afternoon. We hadn't seen it before. The Prince, no idea why the  title, but Bruce's role was almost a cameo. It was engaging though violent. We are docked on the port side in Brunswick, Ga at 5:10 pm, so ahead of schedule. It has been misting with lower visibility all afternoon, so we were glad to stay inside. There was a party of porpoises dockside to welcome us to Brunswick. It doesn't look like there is anything of interest in walking distance of our dock.

We are here until 3 am on Friday. Tomorrow we had a choice of a $45 Tour to St. Simons Island, or $15 transportation only, or Sea Turtle Center & Jekyll Island Tour for $50 and a $50 shrimp boat experience. We chose the $15 morning transportation only. Based on tomorrow's hourly morning forecast we'll hope to miss the rain but carry rain gear. Clay is signed up for the shrimp boat. They've been warned to wear dirty clothes! He has high expectations. I expect a quiet afternoon alone with perhaps a nap.

In other news, Flickr sent me an email saying they are deleting the photos from free storage accounts like mine effective sometime in January. I currently have over 3500 photos linked or embedded in my blogs there. I have my work cut out for me over the holidays for sure now!

I'll post this now assuming no surprises.

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Savannah, GA

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I slept well here in Savannah. It poured rain after dinner. Clay and others complained of ship's horns around 2-3am but I didn't hear anything until trucks backing up about 6:10am. We had a leisurely breakfast and headed out for the Segway tour place about 9am. We ha 45 minutes to find it and got there early. It was much hotter today with a forecast high of 77F and stormy in the afternoon.

We ended up having a private Segway tour. That is always a happy occurrence, especially when we saw the sized groups with the other provider. Good for us but I guess not so good for the provider. We had a good tour. It was a good refresher. I think we glided by or stopped at all but 7 of the 22 squares. We went through the Victorian District. We went inside The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was beautiful. We got a refresher on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. We heard about the current movie production in town of the new Lady & the Tramp. At the end of the tour we asked for a nearby lunch suggestion and were directed to Crystal Beer Parlor. We went and enjoyed it. When we got inside I remembered it from our first meal on a previous trip to Savannah. Clay asked what we'd had and it was chili. Today he had a fried oyster sandwich and I had BBQ pulled pork nachos. He had a beer and I had a root beer. Sitting in our booth, I followed up on a sign we'd seen while walking for a free DOT circulator bus. We walked a few blocks down Jones Street, past Mrs. Wilkes, to the closest stop. We rode back to within a few blocks. We detoured down the Riverfront for some shopping. When the first wave of this afternoon's storms passed, we deployed umbrellas and got back without getting too wet.

We thought hard about eating out here tonight, but decided to stay aboard. One the rain! Two, tonight is the Captain's pilot house tour, cocktail hour and dinner. I think the only thing special will be opening the bridge. We've already ordered dinner and it is a repeat of a previous menu, but the Captain is making such an effort, we'd hate to stand him up.

I'll post this now, if needed I'll come back.

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Hilton Head, SC

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We slept through the early morning departure from Beaufort and woke up as we neared Hilton Head. The weather prediction was off by a few hours and there was some sun shining as we anchored. We saw a lot of dolphins/porpoises as we sailed in and at anchor. The wildlife winner here though was pelicans. Since it looked good this morning, we counted the morning tour participant lists and came up with near 20. They had told us the open launch tender held 40, so we got in position behind the tour people to get a spot. Just to be able to set foot ashore. As we waited the Captain signaled his intention to leave early by warning everyone tendering at 9 to be back on the 11:15 am return tender because he wanted to have the option to scrub the afternoon here. We are really glad we decided not to carry on with our Segway plans here to wait and see about tendering.

It turns out there wasn't much to see around the Harbour Town Yacht Basin where we tendered ashore. It was a very short tender ride. It was mostly like a small outdoor mall. Most of the stores didn't open until 10 am. Clay bought a sale t-shirt. There was a small fake red and white lighthouse that is supposedly a famous landmark. You can pay to walk up and visit a gift shop, but we didn't as the rain had arrived and there was an unscheduled launch ready to leave. We got onboard in time to ehar the announcement that due to incoming thunderstorms, we'd sail at noon. I hope the afternoon tour boat people aren't too upset.The new Captain is much more informative than the first one. He said this worked out better for tides and the ICW too since we'd catch a daytime passage to Savannah and arrive this afternoon. We were already scheduled for an overnight there, so hopefully they can get our dock space early. We are scheduled to depart Savannah st 4:30 am on 11/14.

Lunch is at 12:30 pm. There is a popcorn movie scheduled in the lounge at 2:45. Clay doesn't want to watch from across the lounge. We picked up a DVD from the 2nd deck midship lounge to watch in the cabin. Clay says he'll go get the popcorn. I smell a nap this afternoon.

Annie started her popcorn movie at about 2:15 instead of 2:45 and I missed out on getting popcorn. It feels warmer and sunnier here in Savannah even though the hourly forecast is showing a 54% chance of storms right now. Clay already ordered a lamb shank for dinner so it is not clear yet if we'll stay onboard or go ashore. We are docked right on River Street, but we haven't figured out what's near by yet, as of 2:40pm. They don't have the gangway out yet.

We are docked on the port side.We are docked near 160 East River St. We went up a parking lot and an old steep flight of stairs to find ourselves in front of Five Guys. We walked another block and a half and checked out the Johnny Mercer statue in Ellis Square. Our destination was in sight. Sorry Charlie's Oyster Bar. $1 Oysters M-F from 4-6 pm + $3 local draft beers. Clay gets his faves and still gets his lamb shank onboard after 6:30pm. I had hot hush puppies in honey butter. It was comfortable ashore and we neve did see rain here. Fingers crossed for weatehr this nice tomorrow for our 90 minute 10 am Segway tour.

The new Captain is named Stokowski. Unlike the previous week's Captain, this one is sociable. He sat with us during cocktail hour as well as spent time with others.  He came to dinner and filled the last chair at our table. It has been a nice change. We learned that the ACL Independence was purpose built to sail the Intracoastal Waterway and is the biggest ship that can sail it.

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Beaufort, SC

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We were docked when the battery-operated smoke detector over the bed started chirping at about 6:12 am. Apparently, the new Captain onboard apologized for all the noisy side-thrusting to pass through the swivel bridge to enter Port Royal and dock at the Waterfront Park right in downtown Beaufort. We slept right through all that! It was the dying battery in our smoke detector that sent Clay out for the 6:30 am escorted walk. A cold front had come through and it was in the 50s F here this morning. I stayed in and got the battery replaced. We did not appreciate the Lowcountry Heritage Tour. We found the white woman guide who had no kinship with the Gullah people masquerading and imitating a Gullah woman to be borderline offensive.  Also offensive was the fact that she was constantly selling something, books, maps, Jesus and/or real estate. The tour just didn't sit well with us. We did see low country outside of Beaufort though so it wasn't a complete waste of time. We drove over the McTeer Bridge. It is a pivot bridge and we got stopped coming back over and got to watch how it works. We could see several islands including Parris Island and our destination St. Helena Island. We stopped at Coffin Point, Coffin Point Praise House and the Chapel of Ease. We drove through the complex at Penn Center. We learned that Beaufort was one of the first southern cities to fall to the Union during the Civil War. It was where the first secession documents were signed yet one of the first to fall. It was just abandoned by the wealthy planters. Thus it was spared any damage during the war as it was occupied as a port and center. It was also the earliest experiment in dealing with the aftermath of slavery and the beginning of reconstruction. We learned a lot.

We were back for lunch. The Marine Corps Band was setting up in the park where we are docked. They started a concert for Veterans Day at 1pm. That was a bonus and we had prime seats. After lunch, Clay was going to replay the morning walk for me. He has a horrible sense of direction. I called quits on it. We did some shopping on the main drag and then headed back to the ship. As we crossed the street, we found ourselves between the red and blue horse carriage tour kiosks. Clay wanted to do it, so asked at the blue one with the earliest time. They took 3 women ahead of us and the 2 of us for a final tour today. It was $23 each. ACL charged $30 each and filled every seat on the carriage. We scored. It was a good 50-minute or so tour and we learned a lot again. We got to catch a glimpse of the Big Chill house. We were back in time for cocktail hour.

We are docked here until about 4:30 am tomorrow. We are told we will cruise the ICW to Hilton Head by 8 am or so. We are supposed to anchor off Harbour Town and tender in. Three of the 6 tender runs are priority to those on tours. We did not book a tour. The choices were alligators or dolphins on small boats. The Ship to Shore for tomorrow has a couple of caveats about canceling due to weather. The forecast is stormy with a high of 64. Having ridden in Independence's open tender in Beaufort, NC we are not planning to go ashore at all in Hilton Head at this point. We'll see what happens tomorrow. We depart Hilton Head tomorrow at 8pm for Savannah. Fingers crossed for better weather there as we have Segways booked!

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Charleston, SC

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We had a full day today on our 2nd day here. At 9 am we took the complimentary tour to Magnolia Plantation. It was a great place to visit and included the house tour. It was the 1st plantation to become a tourist attraction. Really interesting, was that the stories they were telling about the family members that lived there sounded so familiar. I had read a novel based on them! I recommend Sue Monk Kidd's "The Invention of Wings".  Most of us got back in time for lunch before the afternoon tour to Ft. Sumter. There has been a consistency to the cluster cuss factor every time we go ashore with no info, wrong, incomplete, untimely, different info to different people. The ground operator here put it best yesterday, ACL has such high employee turnover, that no one ever knows anything from one visit to the next. It is unfortunate because I find their itineraries desirable. But at these prices who needs their problems. The Fort Sumter visit went smoother. Everyone made it back. The National Park Service knows how to handle a crowd and has it down pat. We paid $35 each for the afternoon tour.

We are all aboard now, I assume, because we're casting off. We have not been told if we are heading back to the Atlantic Ocean. I guess we'll know in an hour or so, by dinner time. Back after dinner.

I am a much happier camper now. We cruised back down the Ashley River just a little and turned into a narrow channel to the right. We're back in the ICW! We will only sail til 2 am according to the schedule before docking in Beaufort, SC. Clay is planning to join Harold's 6:30 am complimentary walk in the morning. We are both signed up for the 9 am Lowcountry Heritage Tour at $50 each. We'll be free the rest of the day. It being Sunday we don't know how much will be open. The afternoon tour was a $30pp horse carriage ride that we decided against.

We don't sail from Beaufort until 5 am on 11/12. We'll arrive in Hilton Head, SC at 8:30 am on 11/12. So, still not much scenic cruising, but if the rest of the cruise stays in the ICW, I'll be happier.

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Charleston, SC

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Bad news is that as we sailed from Wilmington yesterday, the Captain announced that we were headed again to open ocean and not the intracoastal waterway for which this cruise is named. Once again, no excuses or reasons were offered. He warned that last night was 3-4 foot seas and tonight they'd be bigger at 4+ foot swells but pushing the stern and shouldn't feel any rougher. We didn't book this cruise until a week after Hurricane Florence to check that the ICW was open and undamaged. We still can't find any news of closures, so we are concerned about the open ocean sailing. We'd never have booked the southeast coast cruise in hurricane season in this small a ship. In fact, we'd didn't. But, we booked and now we're going where they're going. We'd just really hoped that any alteration like this, would be unavoidable and not just because they can. I don't suppose we'll ever know the justification. Adding that we had lunch with people who had breakfast today with Harold who told them we were sailing in the ocean because the ICW was filled with storm debris and needed dredging. One told me she didn't think I should be disappointed about ocean cruising on a trip titled "East Coast Inland Passage." She ordered a BLT for lunch and came unhinged when it arrived without tomatoes. I guess it is all about managing expectations! She apologized without any irony to the table and the waitress, but said if it has tomatoes in the name, I expect tomatoes. Amen, sister, I feel ya.

We were scheduled to arrive in Charleston at noon today. So, that was an unpleasant morning at sea. The good news is that we arrived 2 hours early! We are docked at Megadock on the starboard side. It is closer to Historic downtown Charleston than we'd been informed. You could walk but it looks about twice as far as Wilmington. Since we'd already ordered lunch onboard, we stayed onboard. We had a 9:15am port briefing for the next week's port talks and tour booking. That was happening as we docked, so when Q&A came, we asked about where the complimentary shuttle would drop & pickup in downtown Charleston. We had the same pushback as in Wilmington, but this time from Harold. He eventually got it, as Anne had, that it was a reasonable expectation to walk in now and avail yourself of the included shuttle to return and if you did not ride over, you needed an address to get the shuttle back. I haven't been down to see if maps with addresses and timetables have appeared yet, but we did bid farewell to some walkers who already left. Editing this afternoon to add that at 1:20pm when we left to meet the 1:30pm first shuttle that a sign was stuck on the wall by the gangway. It said the shuttle point downtown was at 173 Meeting St. That was at Meeting & Market, in front of the historic city market and right where I'd have expected it to be. It was definitely tourist central! Clay bought me 2 Christmas  presents there and informed me that I could not expect a new Surface because me keyboard broke! Anyway, maps did not appear at the exit until we returned about 4 pm. Better late than never, I suppose.

We are docked here until 6 pm tomorrow. We booked the free downtown shuttle, the complimentary Magnolia Plantation tour at 9am tomorrow and the $35 each Fort Sumter tour tomorrow afternoon.

We learned at the tour briefing for next week that we have 2 more tender ports in Hilton Head and Fernandina. We will cruise all day Wednesday the 14th from 4:30 am to 6:30 pm. There was no mention if that was going to be "scenic" ocean cruising or if we'd finally get into the ICW. We'll see. I expect that it will be at least another 4 years between ACL cruises for us! The service issues we had in 2014 have been largely fixed on this sailing, but the seemingly indiscriminate route change is unacceptable to us. We would not have booked this itinerary on this size ship as an ocean voyage. Adding here that our lunch companions had said farewell to the ACL trainer that has been onboard with us. The waitress mentioned that all the service staff had been working harder than usual the apst week because the trainer was onboard and she would leave so and they could go back to their own ways. I laughed out loud and told her we weren't looking forward to the staff 's planned backsliding. She said she did not mean it to sound that way. One woman told her that the trainer had in fact already left and the waitress heaved a big sigh and looked around in relief. Good grief!

In a spot of bright news, based on info gotten this am, we've booked Segways in Savannah. We learned we don't have enough information to book them in Hilton Head or Fernandina yet. Waiting and seeing.

I don't think I've mentioned before and typing is so hard now... dolphins or porpoises! Here and in Beaufort. We've only seen one bald eagle, in Yorktown. We've seen too many herons, egrets and cormorants to count everywhere including in canals at night sailing.

We are docked here overnight, so we'll hope for a calm night! We have no plans except dinner onboard so I'll post this now.

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Wilmington, NC

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We sailed in the ocean after we left Beaufort last night. The Captain made the announcement, but no reason was given. We left at 9:30pm as originally scheduled. We arrived here in Wilmington a bit over an hour and a half behind schedule. At last night’s overview and in the Ship to Shore, we were told a complimentary trolley bus would be provided.all afternoon. We were told it would drop off and pick up.in downtown at the Tobacco Warehouse, no address. The dock address is 10 Harnett St. The problem is we had never heard of a Tobacco Warehouse here and neither had Google. We wondered if they meant the Cotton Exchange. But it covers a full city block, so you’d still need an address to find it on time. ACL had one tour that left on said trolley just after arrival.

Anne did her morning table touch at breakfast to make sure everyone is set for the day, provide last minute info and answer questions. We’d kept quiet last night, but this morning with just our table, we tried to pin Anne down. She got pretty upset,  but bottom line was she didn’t know. Clay pointed out to her that it wasn’t an unreasonable.expectation to be given a street address or at least an intersection corner as a place to meet. She disagreed and said if we rode the trolley to town, we’d see where it dropped. I pointed out that we planned to walk in this am and ride back in the pm. She finally understood but she all but said if we were on the tour it wouldn’t be a problem, or not her problem. Then she raised the other discrepancy from last night. She said it was 2 or 3 miles from our deck to downtown and Harold said it was about 3 long blocks. Google said it was 14 minute walk from dock to Cotton Exchange but we couldn’t get confirmation that was the pickup point. Finally with other passenger support, she agreed to get an address. When we got off the ship, on a table by the bulletin board was a stack of laser printed maps showing the dock and giving 121 N. Font St. as the address. That wasn’t so hard.

We walked along the River Walk, so went out of our way and walked further. We shopped through the Cotton Exchange. We went to lunch at an old fashioned counter grill place called Pender’s. We had burgers. They served breakfast and lunch only. After seeing the huge servings of grits, I may have to try them on board one morning as they are always on the menu. We walked on to find Kilwin’s for dessert. Clay had ice cream and I had caramel covered marshmallows. We crossed to the median of the short side street to some benches and found ourselves at the start point of a horse drawn carriage tour. They pulled up and unloaded as we were finishing up. We could go next for $12 each for just us. It was about an hour and went through part of downtown and part of the historic district. It had finally started misting heavily enough to be cold, wet and miserable, so we were glad to be under the carriage cover and her wool blankets.  We walked back and caught the 3 pm trolley back to the ship. The last trolley is 5 pm, all aboard is 5:30 pm and we depart at 6 pm.

We are scheduled to arrive in Charleston, SC tomorrow at noon. I guess we’ll find out at tonight’s overview if we’ll sail in the ocean again or not. We’ll be in Charleston overnight. We’ve already been warned that we'll be docked way out of town at Megadock. We’ve signed up for complimentary shuttle rides on Friday and the free Magnolia Plantation tour Saturday morning and $35 each Ft. Sumter tours in the afternoon.

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Beaufort, NC

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We were out of the canal and in the sound when we woke up. We'd already anchored off Fort Macon State Park. The State Port at Morehead City was the view from our balcony. So much for the most beautiful anchorage you've ever seen promised by Harold as a fair trade for the half-hour tender ride each way to Beaufort. They carry a large open boat hanging off the back of Independence and it is our tender. They say it will carry 40-something. We watched it leave with 20-something at 8:45 am for the day's only excursion. I can't see them getting twice that number on there. I believe there were only excursion participants onboard. Annie had said if they could accommodate non-tour participants they would but I don't think that happened. The next tender to town was scheduled for 10 am departure. We saw it coming back and went down to the dining room hall to wait. A couple of the tender hands we'd talked to earlier asked us to come on through with them. We did not want to sit out there bobbing and waiting 10 minutes but were glad we did. No announcement was made. No one went back to the hallway to see if there were other passengers. A woman we had breakfast with had told us she was going on that tender but she either missed it or changed her mind. Good news is that we spotted 6 wild horses on Carrot Island on the ride in to town!

We started at the National Park Visitor Center almost across the street from the public dinghy dock where we landed. We got a map and the ranger showed us her photos of Florence flooding. Several of the Front St. businesses have not yet reopened. We walked in and through most of the open shops on Front St. though. We had lunch at Clawson's. Clay got fried oysters and I had an exceptionally good grilled cheese sandwich with ranch dip. The highlight of Beaufort for us was the Maritime Museum. It has displayed artifact recovered from the shipwreck of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. We had heard about it but it was closed last time we were here so it was our 1st priority. We walked back to the dinghy dock on the other side of the street. We went in those shops. We stopped for ice cream. We made sure we were early for the 3pm return. There was only 1 other passenger. There were 4 dinghies tied up and no room for our big open boat. They waved and pointed down the street. Clay followed them. I waited with the woman until we saw the boat disembark its 4 passengers. We went a block or so down to meet the tender. The last tender back leaves town at 4:30pm. We are set to depart our anchorage at 9:30pm.

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Coinjack, NC

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November 6, 2018

This is a day late because we were without Internet and cell signal almost all day and night. When it came back this morning, we found my Surface keyboard is broken. I'm trying to type this with the touchscreen but Parkinson's makes that really hard. All to say from here on out for this trip it may be mostly Clay's photos instead of my comments. Sorry!

So, Coinjock had a load of yachts! The marina shop had an extensive selection of t-shirts. But, you wouldn't want to spend all day there! We didn't because we'd signed up for the excursion to Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brother's National Memorial. It was $65 each for a narrated ride there and back, one hour or so each way, plus a ranger-guided tour. We learned on arrival that there was no ranger on duty today. No alternate plan was offered since people were already scattered to restrooms etc. When we left the bus, we were told to be back onboard by 11:30. Harold stopped my plan to buy a 1903 Wright Flyer replica kite and fly it in the 45 minutes we had remaining. He said if everybody'd go get on the bus now then we could leave early and go see something else. Of course, everyone couldn't be found and rounded up. So while the majority of us sat on the bus and waited, a minority arrived back at the appointed time happy and wondered why everyone else was so grumpy. It was badly done.

We were back onboard by 12:30 for lunch. We sailed as planned right after 1pm. We went up top to see some canal cruising. Very quickly we were in the very broad North River and there was nothing to see. The wind also drove us off the top deck. Later that night we'd enter the Alligator River and sail the Alligator-Pungo Canal. We went up again after dinner to find they were using the front spotlights and the sky was flashing with heat lightning with no thunder. Shortly, rain arrived.

These Intracoastal Waterway canals are the reason we booked this very expensive cruise and never did it occur to us that these hard to access areas would be cruised during meals and in the dark. We have high hopes there are other areas like this to come that we'll be able to see and enjoy. Harold however keeps bringing up hurricane damage may force us out into the ocean. We'll see. We're going where and when the ship is going, so it will be whatever comes.

There was a lecture this afternoon. We won't do that again. We skipped the future cruise sales talk after it. We skipped the Not-so-newlywed game. Since we didn't spend much time up top, we returned to the cabin for a long afternoon nap. It was smooth sailing and we had a great nap.

After part of cocktail hour and dinner, we attended the evening overview for tomorrow's schedule and ducked out of entertainment. I don't think I've described cocktail hour. It is heavy hors d'oeuvre and a big bar of most kinds of liquor for mixed drinks plus beer and wine. At the evening entertainment, right after dinner, they served popcorn, root beer floats and sundaes. You could eat and drink solidly from 5:30 pm to 9 pm.

I'm using a public terminal in deck 3's mid-ship lounge for this and it is a bit better. But I'm not too happy about the public logging in and neither is Clay, but it will have to do until we get home and figure out what to do about my Surface.

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Norfolk, VA

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Mercifully, we did arrive at Norfolk last night and spent the night rocking at the dock and not rolling and pitching at sail. It is raining again but we're told it should stop by midmorning. We have no plans except to join Harold on his complimentary walking tour. We are docked right beside Nauticus, so a great location especially if we decide to revisit that museum. We'll see if we find something else on the walking tour or not. The other options today were Naval Station & MacArthur Memorial from 8:45am to noon for $50 each and Old Cape Hetry Lighthouse & Botanical Gardens from 1:15pm to 4:45pm for $50 each and includes a boxed lunch from Independence. All aboard is printed on the Ship to Shore today. It is 4:30pm for a 5pm departure.

Tomorrow looks trickier. We are supposed to dock in Coinjock, NC at 11:30am and depart at 1pm. According to Harold Coinjock has a 6" salt lock at the end of the Great Dismal Swamp Canal, a gift shop and a steakhouse. Or else nothing. The only thing offered here is the Wright Brothers National Memorial from 8:45 am to ? for $65 each. We signed up for that as it sounded like the only way off Independence for the day and we've not been since its all new and reopened. It is a mystery how it will work though. We'll see.

We  had another big breakfast even though it is Monday today because the menu was just too appealing. At breakfast, I asked our tablemates if their cabin clock had the correct time. The answer was yes, that it was wrong on arrival but since it didn't change on Sunday morning now it is correct. I went to the office and requested our clock be reset. I was told it should have happened automatically, then she offered to reset it now. She did, thankfully. The Internet was down most of the morning, but after breakfast it is back. I couldn't look up Nauticus before but now I've learned it is closed on Mondays after Labor Day. We already informed the kitchen that we'd be off the ship for lunch assuming we'd spend the day in Nauticus. Oh well, now we'll spend it somewhere else or eat from the lounge snack bar if we find ourselves back here. I am sure if we showed up in the dining room for lunch now anyway, they'd accommodate us but we'd hate to do that. We'll see what we learn in Harold's 9:30am walk.

It started pouring rain sideways as we set off on Harold's walk. Clay snagged me a blue plastic poncho from Independence and thank goodness because everything that wasn't under that blue bag got soaked. Luckily it was warm today because Clay got wet to the skin from shoulders to heels. Harold turned us loose from his walk between 10:30 and 11am. It was at the Taiwan Friendship Pavilion. We sheltered under there and stripped off layers and tried to dry out a bit and Google our options as it seemed it might stop raining. We decided to head for the MacArthur Memorial as an easy walk. Bad news it is closed on Monday too. I don't know what happened to the ship's excursion people who paid to go there. We wound up at MacArthur Center across the street. It is a full block, 3 story shopping mall. It was dry! We used the restrooms and stripped off wet layers and sat for a while. I was ready to call it a day, eat lunch at Famous Uncle Al's Hot Dogs  that Clay had picked and return to Independence in defeat. It wasn't raining as hard when we went to eat. As we finished eating, I decided that we could just cross back to the mall and watch a movie and still have an hour to walk back to the ship. So we did. Bonus was finding 8 Below Ice Cream on the 3rd floor of the mall with Regal Cinema. You may recall our recent discovery of rolled ice cream in Richmond. We had Reeses Cup again, but these guys used 4 full size cups instead of the 1 we had at Narwhal. It was much denser and candier!

So we had a good day in the end and an all-American experience.

I am going to assume that anything else that happens after departure this afternoon will either not be noteworthy or that I'll come back and edit if it is. So, I'll post now before we start sailing.

Clay & I skipped cocktail hour and watched sailaway in the dark from our balcony. We headed south across to Portsmouth and south down the Elizabeth River. We passed lots and lots of big ships in dry dock. Tracking us with Clay's phone's GPS it says we're only 38 miles from Coinjock. Clay says that is land miles since it will be more than 12 hours before we arrive. Too bad it is at night as it looks like little rivers and canals and bays and lakes and it would be something to see all the time, if we could see. Oh well. Hopefully there will be some more sailing like this in the light!

We think we've figured out tomorrow's logisitical quandry. I think it is a typo. I think it is supposed to be 11:30pm tonight that we dock in Coinjock.The time line works that way and makes sense in a context of sloppiness. More later.

So, we were right about the typo. Another correction is that the 6" salt lock occurred during dinner at this end of the canal, not the other end as earlier described. It was at Great Bridge Lock. We are traveling, at night, in the Chesapeake & Albemarle Canal. We left dinner ASAP to go up top outside and see. We'd just gone through a drawbridge that had closed behind us and was full of cars while close on either side of the ship was forest and ahead a black shiny ribbon. They are not even using flood lights or spot lights as headlights. It is still really cloudy so no moon or stars either. It was eerie. I hope there will be a lot more cruising like this but in daytime!

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