Our stateroom (again)

More photos of our huge room and the cool roll in shower.

If you've never been on a cruise before, you might not think that room is large, but trust me, it's a mansion! As we walked down the halls, sometimes we could see into other people's "normal sized" rooms. There is about 1/2 the space. Jackpot!

I threw in that photo of Jonathan and I to show off the cool t-shirt I'm wearing. I bought it in the Vancouver Canuck's gift shop. His name is Johnny (I didn't make that up). He's a lumberjack/hockey player. I thought he was cute.

Our stateroom

If you know me, you know that I'm super thrifty (hence, we can afford this cruise).

Check out the SWEET view from our stateroom!

Actually, it wasn't so bad. I like having a window room b/c that way you know if it's morning, noon or night (I'm assuming a non-window room would be kind-of confusing). A balcony would've been sweet, but I like leaving my room to go to an open deck to sit outside. If I had a balcony, it would feel like I never left the room.

We also lucked out and got a handicapped room. The room was HUGE. There was ample space along both sides of the bed (enough for a wheelchair to fit). And, say what you will about roll in showers, but I like them!

Every morning we were welcomed by a nice view of snow capped mountains. It was odd at first to be on a cruise ship in the snowy mountains. I mean, I always associated cruises with tropical paradises. But it was nice to do something different for a change.

It's Olympics time!

I mentioned that the Vancouver-ians are big time excited about their Olympics.

In a downtown park, they had this giant countdown clock (which is impossible to read in the sum) running. I'm normally not really into the winter Olympics, but I guess I'll tune in to see some of the familiar Vancouver sights.

Sarah Palin lives here!

Jonathan got much better photos of Sarah Palin's governor's mansion, but I thought this photo was kind-of funny.

A big old RV next to the governor's mansion.

The "mansion" was really just a semi-large house. And it was in a regular old rural area of town. No fancy walls, or guards or anything. The backyard was in plain sight, with just a regular fence. I guess Sarah and her family were out of town the day we were there.

Stanley Park

My favorite part of Vancouver (besides the pizza slice I bought for only $1.25 - it was delicious!!!) was Stanley Park.

The Park is over 1000 acres. There is a totem pole area (I guess totem poles are big business up in British Columbia and Alaska), a huge rose garden, many other gardens, beaches, lawn bowling (what ever that is) and other things. It's named Stanley Park after the same guy that the Stanley Cup in hockey is named after.

Overall Vancouver was a very pretty city.  The day we were there, it was very sunny and warm.  However, I guess it rains A LOT there, which sounds pretty dreary to me.  One of our tour guides said that 20% of Vancouver-ians are millionaires.  So, even though Jonathan wants to pack up and move there (city water is free and health care is free - plus there is hockey!!), I'm going to try to convince him to stay in sunny Florida.

How cute is this guy?

Vancouver is the host for the 2010 winter Olympic games. And they are REALLY excited. All over town was Olympics this and Olympics that.

I fell in love with the 4 Olympic mascots. My favorite was Quatchi. He's a sasquach who dreams of being a hockey goalie.

I didn't buy the life sized Quatchi, but I did buy a little tiny plush. He's just so adorable!

Vancouver: Day 1

Jonathan was very excited to see Vancouver, Canada. I think b/c Canadians are really into hockey, and Jonathan is really into hockey, so he's really into Canada.

We were only in Canada for 1 day before our cruise. We bought tickets to one of those hop on/hop off trolleys that take you all over town. I love those cheesy things. It's a great way to orient yourself to a large city. Plus I stink at map reading.

Thankfully, the trolley took us right next to the GM Place, where the Vancouver Canucks hockey teams plays. If they would've won their last playoff series, they would've been playing a home game! Alas, they lost, so there was no playoff hockey for Jonathan. He drowned his sorrows in a Canucks t-shirt and puck purchase.

We're both wearing jeans and warm long sleeve t-shirts and we were BOILING.  The temp was 80 something degrees.  Actually, our entire vacation was pretty warm weather.  I guess we got pretty lucky, b/c every local we talked to made a comment on the unusual weather.  Yee-haw!

We're *almost* home

Jonathan and I are sitting in the Anchorage International Airport.  This place is QUIET.

There are literally 5 additional people here.  That's "here" as in "in the entire airport"!

Did I mention it's 5:30pm Alaskan time, and our flight isn't until 8:59pm.  Talk about snooze time.  Although Jonathan and I are trying to keep each other awake, b/c we'll have all night to sleep on the airplane.

We connect to an Orlando flight in Houston tomorrow morning.

Photos coming soon!!

Vacation ... barely!

So I did something yesterday (Saturday, May 16) that I've never done before.

I missed my flight!!!

That's right, when Jonathan and I were unloading our luggage from the car, Jonathan said, "where's my duffle bag?"  I said, "I don't know ... crap, our passports are in there!!!"

Did I mention we're going to Canada, so we needed passports?!?

At this point our flight is leaving in 1 hour.  There is no way he can run home to get them, and make it back on time.

So I took all the luggage to the airport to see what we our options were.

Long story (and tears) later, we actually got a better flight.  Before we had to stop in Houston and stop in Portland on our way to Vancouver.  With this new flight (and no extra fees from United - thank you United guy!!!  I think me crying really sealed the deal), we only had to stop in Chicago.

Here was my time line:

4am - wake up

6am - changing my 6:30am flight to a 10:30am flight

10:30am - leave Orlando

12 - arrive in Chicago (if I would've known I was flying into Chicago I could've had my brother or my friend Julie meet me at the airport.  We had a 3 hour layover.)

4pm - leave Chicago late

7pm - arrive in Vancouver

9pm (which is really midnight) - fall asleep!

So, all in all, I sat around the Orlando and the Chicago airport for about 7 hours total.  Thank goodness we brought our laptop and some Futurama DVDs.

Thank you Ramada Inn for the free wi-fi!

Yay - Vacation!

Jonathan and I are headed to Vancouver Canada at 6:30am tomorrow morning. *yawn*

Then, on Monday, we're hoping on the Coral Princess for a whirlwind trip around Alaska. I have all my sweatshirts and jeans packed.

Beware, in a week you'll be bombarded with photos of ice and snow.

My Tattoo

Did I spell "Tattoo" correctly?

The other day I was thinking, "how long have I had my tattoo?" I remember getting it the spring semester of my Junior year in college. If I did the math correctly, that was 12 years ago.

Happy 12th birthday little cutie! I've never regretted getting you for one second!

In fact, I would love to get a second smiley face (but this time with sun shine rays around it, or maybe inside a little, fat heart), but I can't think of any place to put it.  I don't want it clearly visible (so that rules out arms, chest, face (ahhh!) and legs).  But I also want it visible to me (so that rules out my back). Getting a second ankle tattoo seems like I would be lopsided. I'm out of body parts!

I must say Jonathan is not a huge fan of it. He tries to rub it off every chance he gets.

Thrift Store Goodies!

I love a good thrift store!

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find one in Florida yet. The Goodwill store near our local mall wasn't really a great deal busting store.

But I found this tank top, and I'm in love! It cost a budget busting $2.50 (that's a lot for a thrift store), but I couldn't pass it up.

The buttons were messed up, so I had to fix those. One button actually still had a sewing needle inside! That's really safe huh?

I can't wait until summer to strut my stuff!

Yes, I am an adult ...

. . . yes, I sleep on pirate sheets!

I found these at Target in 2007. Jonathan was on a Disney cruise (for work!) and I was home by myself. I though the sheets were kind-of cruisey, and they were on super mega sale, so I couldn't resist.

Flower Power!

It's Epcot Flower and Garden Festival Time! Jonathan's work crew took a 1/2 day and walked around Epcot. Since I was home on "vacation", Jonathan invited me along too. It was really fun!


I have some of these flowers in our front yard. They aren't blooming yet. I hope they look like these someday!

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Ewwwwww ... maybe?

Every time I go to Walmart, I see this weird stuff near the check out area.

Actually, I thought it was Iced Tea GUM, until I googled this photo.  They are actually mints.

**side note - I always thought it was ICE tea, not ICED tea.  Like "tea with ice = ice tea."  Maybe I'm not southern enough.**

Anyway, I'm too cheep to pay $1.79 to try it myself, but it just sounds so odd.  Oddly delicious, or oddly gross ...

Top 5 Horror Movies

I'm a horror movie fan.  They scare the bejesus out of me, and I typically have nightmares, but I love them anyway.  I try to watch them every chance I get, which isn't too often because Jonathan is not a fan.

In no particular order, here are 5 horror movies I highly recommend:

1.  Saw (the original) - It's not super scary or your typical "horror" movie.  It's more suspenseful and it's a fantastic story.  Seriously, there is a genuine plot and everything!  And I guaranteed you won't be able to guess the ending.

2.  The Hills Have Eyes - I think this was a remake, which is normally grounds for "booooo!".  Although, I never saw the original, so I didn't care.  This movie is boarderline lame and boarderlione awesome!  For me, I thought it was awesome!  Typically the people dying in horror movies are lame people you don't care about, but this movie did a great job on getting to know the characters.  I actually felt really sad when certain people were killed.

3.  High Tension - I haven't met anybody else who has seen this movie, and I can't believe it.  It's another movie where the ending was a total shock.  I ALWAYS recommend this movie.  It's pretty gory, but it's a great horror flick.

4.  Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the remake) - I'm not sure why, but this movie scares the pants off me.  There's not much of a story (crazy guy with a chainsaw is after a bunch of teens), but I still thought it was a great!

5.  Vacancy - This was also more "triller" than horror, but it's still giving me nightmares, and I saw it about 2 months ago.  Again, you get to meet the characters and feel for them.  And the situation seems to real, that made it extra scary!

Honorable Mention:

Final Destination (1) - I love this movie.  I think it's so scary because people are dying by every day objects (like a bathroom floor or a bus).  After I watch it, I'm afraid to get off the couch, because I know anything can kill you.  It's a creepy feeling.  And this is the only movie that made me scream out-loud in theaters.  Watch out for that bus!

Hostel - Seriously, I saw this movie about 3 years ago, and it's still burned in my brain.  It should've been rated XXX (for various reasons).  It was so disturbing.  But I've got to hand it to the writers, it was a creative idea.  I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I'm terrified to see Hostel 2.  I don't think I'll ever see it, even though I'm curious (because the kid who survives the first movie is back for the sequel)

Up

How cute is Carl Fredrickson?

I just love the little tennis balls on his cane in this sculpture.  This little guy is at the Disney Animation Courtyard area of Disney's Hollywood Studios

I've heard the movie UP is pretty sad, and very unlike a typical kids animation movie, but I'm pretty excited to see it.

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