Our 115 day World Cruise, day 40, The Farm at South Mountain Arizona

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  Our day started out as usual except that Sandi came to Starbucks by herself....we had a girl's morning!  We had fun!

                                                                     
How do you like my new shirt?  I have diamonds on my shirt, I have diamonds on my ears and I have diamonds on my shoes!   My shirt is a, "Just My Size" from Walmart!  Only  $6.97                                                                          


                       

                         Vicki and Sandi are having a nice chat and enjoying their morning tradition!

                                                                                 

   Vicki planned our day today and she did a really good job.  No, we did not go on a trip.  We went to South Phoenix, down by the airport, to take our suitcases in for repair.   Vicki had then planned that we would go somewhere around there and have lunch.  We then realized that we must be close to The Farm at South Mountain.  Let's have a new adventure, Vicki said.  I got Siri on my iPhone and for once she cooperated...she gave us the address, the directions and she talked us to the Farm.  I did not know that I had a talking GPS in my phone!                                                                      

                                                               

Here we are and this is really cool.  Imagine how these pecan  trees will look when they are green.  Also the green grass down the middle.  There are 2 sit down restaurants at the far end of the fields.                                                                                      

Let's share a chicken sandwich and then we can take dessert home with us.  I'll get us peach cobbler and we will take my mother a piece of pecan pie.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

   We are going to come back here in the spring.....can't wait!  They even loan out blankets so you can sit on the ground!                                                                                  

                                                                                       

                                                     The   birds are singing like crazy here!

There are also tables and chairs with umbrellas.  We did not sit here as all the tables were filled.                                                                                    

                                              Vicki is over there getting the food!                                                          

   Since we could not sit at the other tables we found a picnic table.  They put your lunch in this nice basket and you can go and find a seat anywhere you want.  Our basket was rather large considering that we were splitting a sandwich and there was nothing in the basket!                                                                                                                                           

 It was so fun today to go somewhere we had never been.  It is a neat place!                                                                                             

                           Someone Special has a birthday tomorrow!  Guess who?                                                                                  


WHERE WE DID NOT GO TODAY.....but the AMSTERDAM did!

                                                         At Sea

 Day at Sea February 14, 2013 Thursday
 Postcards from Paradise
Everyone we spoke to today agreed that it was the most perfect day for Valentine's Day. The dining room was extremely decorated in red hearts and ribbons, so much so, that walking out of the elevator on deck four was blinding. One Durch lady claimed it was too much for her, all these celebrations. Funny how some people don't appreciate the effort put into making this cruise special. The night crew must have been up until the wee hours of the morning hanging all the moblies and streamers throughout the ship. We like it.

For the last two days, there has been a group of workers, not belonging to the crew. We believe they have contracted a job on this ship that cannot be accomplished by the regular crew workers. Anyway, the job has involved installing boxes and cable on the promenade deck. Today we finally asked one of the workers who spoke some English exactly what they were installing. Turns out to be related to the operations of the lifeboats. The boxes will be for future use according to the hotel manager.

After our morning stroll, we came back to our room to find two fancy boxes of chocolates, and two Steiff miniature stuffed bears, which are actually key fobs. We also had a very sweet card from our friend Kween Karen, who created Valentine's cards for this occasion. Yes, this was starting to be a fine day.

With a slight cool breeze, and the sun out, it was our best choice to spend the day at the back pool, of course. Many ports are coming up in Australia, so we don't expect this nice weather to continue for long. We came out the doors on deck eight and ran right into more good friends Pauline and Mike. She handed us two little bags of the good Valentine hearts one of us loves. Sure reminded us of home and the kids, who usually remembered us with those good little heart candies with the corny messages printed on them. No matter how old we are, there is still a little kid in all of us.

Tonight was formal and we had company. Peter, the purser, joined us as did Yuri and Val from the group Black Tie. Since our table is so large, only a few sitting near the entertainers could converse with them. Sometimes that is a good thing, since we failed to attend their shows. We did hear that their second show with the Australian music was really good.

A Valentine's Day Ball was held in the Queens Lounge, foregoing the evening shows. They give away prizes, including a grand prize package filled with wonderful gifts. In order to win this prize, you had to visit the Explorers Lounge today and guess how many tiny little red foil hearts were in a champagne glass. You had to be present to win at the Ball. Good way to draw a crowd, however, we wonder where they would put all the people if every guest on this ship attended? Guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out who won the prizes, since we usually do not attend these affairs.

Speaking of tomorrow, we will be sailing into the spectacular harbor of Sydney very early in the morning. To help us get some extra sleep, we got another hour back on the clocks tonight. Originally, we thought the time difference between New Zealand and Sydney was three hours. But we were wrong, because we depended on the information we saw on the navigational channel on the ship's TV. They were off by one hour.

Bill & Mary Ann

                                             Tomorrow Sidney Australia