A Much Needed Rest - Cruising to Mexico

 Back in August of 2021 Darryl suggested we purchase a cruise for the end of January to celebrate finishing off this Dome project. Well, the project isn't quite finished, but we decided we could use a little Rest and Relaxation anyway.

Saturday January 29, 2022

I had a trim and new bangs cut for the occasion.

We boarded the Carnival Valor around noon on Saturday. It was chilly outside, only 46 degrees, but we found a nice spot on the back deck and watched the sailing from the back of the boat.

Hmmm.... I wonder if this window washer does house calls?

It was warm and sunny Sunday Morning. It was a "at Sea" day, so after breakfast and our personal "Church /Sunday School" we hit the links at the stack for a little Sunday Mini - Golf.

And we found the Adults only "Serenity" deck, which was warm, quiet and perfect for a Sunday nap.

We walked around exploring the ship and ate way, way to much for lunch.

Our dinner companions were delightful. Two couples about our age from Louisiana and Mississippi. The first evening we discovered we were all conservatives and like minded. When Karen said, "We voted for Trump", Darryl lifted up his leg, pulled his pant leg up and showed off the Donald Trump socks he was wearing. Oh how they laughed and the ladies took photos. Haha!

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It's not a cruise without cute towel critters.

Sunday night was also 'Dress Your Best' night in the dining room.

Darryl and I took the opportunity to have pictures taken. This was the only one good enough to buy.

Sunrise, Monday January 31, 2022 off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

When we docked at Costa Maya there were 3 ships in port. The Carnival Valor, the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas, and the Sky Princess.

We decided to walk into Costa Maya and found a jungle path that would take us to town.

Okay, not really a jungle path, but a path in the median of the road.

Costa Maya. Go to the right at the round-a-bout and end up in town, so naturally we went left,...

Toward the beach and the light house.

We walked about 6 miles so we took a taxi back to the pier. We watched the bigger ships depart. It was so cool when the Princess Skye sounded her horn as she backed away from the dock, because her horn played 'The Love Boat' theme music. Below you can see the Symphony of the seas leaving port.

According to our fitness app, we walked over 8 miles that day.

Wednesday morning brought us to beautiful Cozumel, Mexico.

We spent time walking around town, looking into shops and buying souvenirs. 

While Darryl shopped I sat in the park on the beach and indulged in some "plein air" watercolor painting. (That's just the French way of saying "outdoor")

While I was painting Darryl was shopping and he came back with this beautiful beaded jewelry for me! 

He has such good taste!

We said goodbye to our pretty little beach and headed back to the ship.

Back in our room we were greeted by a Velociraptor. 

Good-bye Cozumel. Next stop.... New Orleans.

🎤𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅗𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅯🎤

Sunday night and Monday night we went to the Karaoke bar to sing. I keep drawing a blank when it comes to what I should sing but eventually came up with a few oldies. I know I have a repertoire of hundreds of songs, but I just can't think of them when I need them. Here I am with our cruise director Marty and his assistant Lydia. On Monday night Lydia asked me to compete in the Karaoke contest on Tuesday night. I did and had a great time.  

The best thing about being at Karaoke each night was listening to a young man named Brandon sing. He sang older tunes and he was an incredible voice! People came in just to hear him sing. 

Our Wednesday Critter...

Wednesday was a very relaxing day at sea. We played games, lounged, ate then ate again. We watched the sunset over the ocean then went to dinner. After dinner we enjoyed the live musical Rock and Roll show in the theater before wandering down to the Karaoke lounge for one last chance to sing and hear Brandon Sing.

We docked about 6:45 Thursday morning and we were off the boat, in our car and on the way home by 8:45. It was not a fancy cruise, but it was just what we needed to recharge ourselves for the upcoming rush of finishing the Pascagoula job, packing, hauling stuff back to the storage units in Idaho, then going to the next project.... wherever that may be. 

See You Soon!

The Political Climate in January 2022 in the USA

 Parents, complaining at School Board Meetings because they are unhappy with being told they should have no say in what their children are taught in public schools, are called "terrorists" by the Biden Administration. 

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Shortages of everything due to "Supply chain issues" and ongoing problems caused by this administration's handling of the Covid-19 crisis.

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President Biden issued a vaccine mandate for government employees (except postal workers) 👀 and would like to do it for the entire nation. People who vaccinate their children for childhood diseases and are vaccinated themselves for flu and pneumonia, tetnus, etc., are labeled "Anti-Vaxers" because they don't feel they or their children are at serious risk from Covid-19 and don't want to get the 'shot'. Many are fired from their jobs. Nurses, Pilots, soldiers, etc. especially government workers. If they complain they are labeled stupid, ignorant, grandma killers or worse. There is no civility in this vaccine Mandate debate. It's the same with the stupid mask mandates in some states. And when it comes to school mask mandates, there is just no science to back up the need to mask school children 8 hours a day when no one else is masked. It is not a child's responsibility to keep adults safe!

With that being said, I want you to know that I was vaccinated for Covid-19 with the Moderna vaccine,  Darryl was vaccinated with Johnson and Johnson. I did it because I have had pneumonia several times and even though the vaccine doesn't stop you from getting or spreading the virus, it does prove effective against serious illness, hospitalization and death. Darryl only got vaccinated because he wanted to go on a cruise with me and you must be vaccinated to cruise. I'll discuss our personal and very minimal side effects another time.

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In the year 2021 more than 2,000,000 people crossed our southern border. Most of them illegally. Now we learn that most of them were single men between 18 and 64 and the Biden administration puts them on planes in the middle of the night and flies them to different cities around the country and turns them loose. There is no Covid-19 testing or even asking if they have been vaccinated. This is a foreign invasion facilitated by our President and his administration! There have been more than 25,000 crossing our southern border illegally in January of 2021. And this is the slow time of the year for crossings.

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With all of this in mind.... enjoy the political memes.

This 👇

This is me too. 👇

On President Biden:

This will be very interesting if they ever really get to the bottom of all this NIH and Wuhan Lab leak info..

This is how most of us conservatives who voted against Joe Biden, have studied the science on Covid-19, argued against the the lock downs, mandates, and masking, warned against inflation, etc. feel.

Yep.

The Science proves that a person who has had the Covid-19 virus has natural immunity that is stronger and better than what the vaccines can give you.

Ha! It's true too!

The annual winter weather "climate change" panic has hit as usual.

And although the Biden Administration, the elite ruling class and main stream media call them terrorists, I call parents standing up for their children and parental rights, Heroes!

And a peek at some of the shelves at my the Ocean Springs Walmart. This was a spot for fans and space heaters. Some shelves are fully stocked, but many are just sparsely stocked and some look like this. It's not just here in the south, it's all over the country. It's sad to see that this is the new normal in our nation when we used to be "The land of Plenty" and only saw empty shelves after a big closeout or Christmas sales. 

As I post this we are halfway through February and I am hoping the coming months will be better.

I will keep the faith and believe that they will.