snow removal in Omaha- we had to get out the big guns

kay wins the grand prize in the ship building contest

Kay, janae, Glen the cruise director, Janell and lauren

in our winning sweat shirts

Kay's funship III won first place. he had the whole cruise to put together this winning ship. We won sweat shirts, a piece of carry on luggage, water bottles, luggage tag and a underwater camera.

the ship had to be constructed to hold 10 cans of soda, it must float and not use anything that the ship could use again. He got a Styrofoam grape container from walmart garbage in puerto vallerta, added candy to it with wooden flute masts, a hot Tub sea shell and many extras. It took up his down time and he had a great time. Lots of attention of course. We also won the marriage game. someone said after they liked us because we looked like we really loved each other. Yes we were entertaining and entertained. Holland America is our new favorite cruise line.

Panama Canal

We went to the  Mira Flores Visitors center of the Panama Canal the night before passage and learned about the construction and the new construction. The best part was the simulator,     I crashed my boat…

The morning of passage we lost Ben and Winnifred but perched ourselves in the Crows nest on the top deck, front of the ship to go through the locks.  We felt very prepared with our reading and movies.  The Mira Flores/Pedro Migel locks took  two hours , then Gaton Lake and the final Gaton locks and we were 8 hours in the Panama Canal experience.

Happy Birthday Kay,  He was kind of mad because he thought he was turning 52 but I had to remind him he was turning 53.

Panama Canal cruise

We are on a Panama Canal Cruise. Six of us.  Me and Kay, Lauren and Janell and Kay’s parents Winnifred and Ben Cope.  After Kay getting Southwest airlines to open the door for me and his mom and Ben in a wheelchair, we didn’t miss our flight.  We did have to kill about 4 hours at LAX.  We left Ben and Winnifred with our luggage and they must have had the cruise people feel sorry for them  as they and gave them some transfers so we got to get to the ship free.

They have great food, good shows, great company.

First stop was unplanned.  There was a medical emergency, appendicitis.  They evacuated a crew member  at Cabo San Lucas and we went onto Puerto Vallerta.  After a visit to Walmart for sea sick meds we took everyone downtown for shopping and Kay, Lauren and Janell ate lunch at a back ally Mexican place. 

Next stop was Huatuclco known for it’s snorkeling.  We just happened to find a nice snorkel and fin set abandoned in our room hidden behind the emergency life jackets. We rented another set on the beach and snorkeled in pairs. The water was great and the snorkeling was great too. 

Chiapas was a little different.  It is a small town that cannot handle the two ships that were in port.  Kay waited in the taxi line for 4 hours.  Everything was backed up for hours.  We really wanted to see the ruins at Izapa since they are the place of the famous Stella (stone) 5. It is significant because it is of the tree of life, Lehi’s dream from the Book of Mormon.  Kay had a copy of it  in his house growing up and we have it now.   Our taxi took us to the ruins but when we asked about the Stella 5 they said it was down the road.  We saw some old friends from NJ, Hal and Kay Gaisford there, from the other ship.  They were told our ship was on red alert and 400 passengers were sick from our ship and not to shake hands with us.  News to us!

We asked their tour guide if we could see stella 5 she said it was too dangerous.  she told our cab driver it was too dangerous.  the grass was too high, over our heads, , there are military guys there hidden and we may get shot.  Kay told our cab driver if he got shot we would pay him extra.  Kay begged our cab driver to take us, the other locals thought it would be fine.  We decided to send one cab back and one cab would go see Stella 5.  We went, our driver asked several people on the way and all of the sudden we were there.  A park.  Our cab driver called the other and we all made it.

For Guatemala I hired a private company to take us to Antigua.  We passed by two active volcanoes on the way, one was smoking.  Antigua was beautiful and a place to buy small souvenirs.

Christmas cards 2009

Janae and Janell volunteer

Janell and I have been volunteering at Thanksgiving Point. I get regular emails asking for help and we volunteer for the fun things. Halloween was Barnyard Boo, a carnival for preschoolers or kids that don't like to be scared and this week we were Santa's helpers. I took pictures of Santa and families and Janell mounted them and delivered them.

Snow in Omaha by Kay

Thursday was the third day in a row school was canceled in Omaha. Tuesday it snowed, Wednesday it snowed some more, the wind blew and the temperature dropped below zero. Thursday was just cold and the city is still digging out. I spent the first two days plowing snow. As soon as I got it all plowed I would have to start over at the beginning. I plowed my lots 3 times on Tuesday then spent all day Wednesday moving it out of the way and plowing walks, roads and parking stalls. Of course that was between driving tenants to work, pushing and pulling stuck cars and teaching my Burma tenants about driving in the snow. Many of them have nice cars but have never driven in snow before. Like most inexperienced snow drivers they don't realize spinning your tires as fast as they can does no good. One tenant was stuck in the middle of the parking lot in his nice Dodge Durango 4x4. When I saw him spinning his tires until the rubber smoked I stopped him and motioned for him to let me help. He didn't speak English. I hopped in, shifted it into four wheel drive and slowly straightened it out. I spent about a half an hour getting the car in the picture started this morning so she could get to school. She had not started it since before the snow started falling. Believe it or not she did not leave the hood up overnight. The wind blew all that snow up onto her engine while it was parked with the hood closed. This afternoon I went into an apartment to finish some work and noted it was very cold. I switched the furnace on and started my work. Out of curiosity I went and got a digital thermometer and placed it on the counter while I worked. The furnace had been running a while so I am not sure how cold it actually was but the thermometer dropped to 46 before it started rising.