Lagoa das Furnas and Cozido

The memories are a bit behind now. Re-wind to the 16th: We arrive at our first European port-of-call: Punta Delgado on the island of San Miguel in the Azores islands. So, while we were still in the Atlantic, we had at last set foot on Portuguese territory.

We were quite excited and tried to hook-up with some of our fellow-travellers who were renting a tour taxi. But it didn't work out so we walked into town and admired the architecture and toured a local church.

But this wasn't adventure, exactly. We kept bumping into Skip and Lynn (whom we knew from the ship) in town, so the four of us agreed to rent a car and follow our noses. Now this is more like it.

The nice lady renting the car suggested we go to Lagoa das Furnas, in the opposite direction of most of the tour buses. So away we went on a narrow, winding road, trying to read the international road signs and Portuguese place names. It was glorious, green and beautiful.

The villages were crammed up against the road. We were afraid of taking the legs off of some of the natives who were sitting on their doorsteps, dangling their legs out onto the road. Space is at a premium in Europe.

We were mildly anxious (it's not an adventure, otherwise) about finding the right turnoff to the Lake. But there was nothing untoward. We arrived at the lake, not quite sure what to expect.

We found a park at the north side of the lake set against what was the steep walls (several hundred feet I would guess) of a caldera. Next to the parking lot was a long concrete structure housing baths or something. The steam was rising out of the ground at several places. The lake's (or is it a lagoon?) name begins to make sense. So we pose in front of one of the bubbling springs.

We had noticed some mounds of dirt near us with stakes and numbers on them earlier. Suddenly someone got excited: "They're digging up a mound!" So we rushed over and watched:

So it turns out a local restaurant was slow cooking in the earth itself. We dashed back to the car to follow the van into the town of Furnas so we could try this Azorean delicacy. Alas, we were too slow and lost the van. We came to a t-intersection in the town and had to make a choice. Against my advice we turned right and fairly soon the town started to disappear. Just as we were about to turn around we saw a sign that reminded us of the markings on the van. Sure enough the restaurant is just up a side road attached to a national park.

So we sit down to a feast of beef, chicken, pork, three kinds of sausages and lots of vegetables with a mighty fine Portuguese wine.

Of course all of this is on Wikipedia, but it was complete news to us. When we checked the ship's brochure later there was no mention of the Hot Springs or Cozido. So we were very pleased with ourselves, avoiding the road well-travelled (touristically speaking) and discovering something the more conventional travellers would never have found. There were more adventures that day but this was the highlight. We'll close with a view from the caldera rim looking toward Logoa das Furnas.

Does It Need Batteries?

Redneck Palm Pilot

Thanks to Kevin Miller at Heart, Mind & Strength.

Happy Mother's Day

Here's a lovely collection of thoughts for the Day. (I'll print it up for my wife):

Happy Mother's Day:

"In honor of our mothers, a few great quotes:

[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled. - - Emily Dickinson

A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them. - - Victor Hugo

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother. - - Abraham Lincoln

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. - - Oscar Wilde

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world.
It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down
remorselessly all that stands in its path. - - Agatha Christie

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. - - Henry Ward Beecher

God bless - and Happy Mother's Day to the Moms!

Jay"

(Via DeoOmnisGloria.com.)

Speaking of Retirement

Oh, I wasn't was I? Well, I am now. It appears that semi-retirement is coming soon (perhaps this Fall). And I'm getting a little excited, because I've been thinking about going back to school. SFU offers courses for free to those sixty years and older, which I will be soon enough.

So my theory is, if I get enough courses from the local College under my belt before then (thirty credits worth) and keep my gpa up, then I should get admitted easily. Then I can follow a dream from my adolescence (which has been unnaturally prolonged into old age): get a Degree. It's highly improbable, but it does get the juices flowing, I must say. I'm currently day-dreaming about the Humanities (Latin, Greek, the Classics and all that). Who knows?

Shuffleboard Anyone?

What does one do when stuck out at sea for five days? Actually, we were never bored and kept fairly active. Each evening we would plan the following day using the Daily Schedule of activities. Lorna concentrated on the multiple variations of Trivial Pursuit, winning many prizes in the process. I went to some lectures and took some computer courses on how to use Photoshop Elements to handle digital pictures.

Somewhat surprising to me, the wife avoided the casino after the first day. She was there every day on our first cruise. I can't complain, though. We came out about five dollars to the good.

Meals were the anchors of the day. Breakfast and Lunch rotated between the formal sit-down type and the cafeteria-style. Dinner, however, was almost always the sit-down, formal to semi-formal, in the main Dining Room. We enjoyed the eating with the other couple who had travelled extensively and were excellent company.

And the Evening was always capped off with live entertainment in the Theatre. We had our usual sitting place and enjoyed the variety of offerings. There was music (both classical and popular), song and dance, marionnettes (better than it might sound), comedy and a magician. And waiters would bring drinks to you, if you wished. (I was, uh, money-conscious enough to avoid that, by and large). It's the sort of thing we rarely do at home.

Tomorrow or the next day I'll show you some of the activities they had onboard during the Sea Days and talk about the weather.

The Mighty Atlantic

Work calls me away from the story right now, but that's ok. We're spending five days at sea and this pretty much summarizes the journey:

Our Next Adventure

was to visit Nassau in the Bahamas. We bravely headed out on our own to be met by entrepreneurs right where the dock met the land:


A group of eight or so (all strangers to us) piled into a van and off through the streets we went. We stopped at a hilltop fort:


Then we went to the Atlantis Resort, home-away-from-home of the fabulously wealthy:


We had some Bahamian food (including, of course, beer) when the tour was over at a local restaurant the guide recommended to us. We wandered back to the ship quite happy with our experience. A very nice beginning indeed.

Now we get to face the mighty Atlantic and my fear of open water.

Mother's Day

We typically take Momma (the wife, that is) out to dinner for the Day. In that we are very conventional. Our only departure from convention is to do so in the week preceding to avoid the crowds. So tonight we'll take her out for Greek, a family favourite. Don't forget the important woman in your life (unless it's too conventional and commercial for your tastes).

Key West

Today (Monday last year) we landed at Key West:


It's a short walk to the centre of the tourist district. We took a ride on the Conch "train" (motorized, really) around the high-points of the island. This included driving by the marker for the southernmost point in the continental U.S. (Cuba is just over the horizon):


The wife's high anxiety about the possibility of being left behind by the ship wasn't eased by my attitude: "We'll just fly to Nassau and wait for the ship to arrive!" But this was the perfect stop for training ourselves to be independent: no real risk, all important points within easy walking distance, plenty of time. Hopefully tomorrow will be another good step forward.

Epimetheus is My Name

That's Greek for Afterthought. His brother Prometheus, of course, is Forethought. How often in my life I have done something and then said to myself: "what I should have [not] done (said) is..."

The case in point, our first full day at sea was a Sunday and we were overjoyed to see a Catholic priest on-board. It was one of the background concerns during the lead-up to the trip: how were we going to observe our Sunday obligation if there was no priest? So we happily celebrated Mass yesterday (last year--you know what I mean).

The Open Water

Our full day onboard was crossing the Gulf of Mexico. So this was a day of participating, exploring and meeting. A theme that would develop in interesting ways over our vacation was the issue of structured, organized (expensive) tours versus spontaneous and do-it-ourselves (and in some ways risky) touring.

We had done ship-organized tours on our first cruise, but I was determined to avoid them this time. Each evening before a port-call they would announce that paid tours would cease being sold at 7 p.m. Tonight would be the first of a few conversations about this. The wife politely enquires (slightly anxious) about buying a tour before the deadline. And I firmly refuse (also a little anxious).

Tomorrow will be our first exercise in spontaneity.

Memories #2

So we woke up Saturday morning and walked and drove along Seawall Boulevard, gazing at the Gulf of Mexico, soon to be our highway. We ate a delicious lunch at Gaido's, then returned the rental car and made our way to our new home, the Galaxy. We had our complimentary drink ("Bahama Mama") by the pool as we pulled out of Galveston Bay:


We're underway.

A Virtue

Ok, we all know that humility is an important virtue. And the good news is that as we get older there are more and more opportunities to exercise it. For example, we just realized that we had our Tex-Mex feast on Friday, May 6th, not May 5th. So either the celebration of Cinco de Mayo was deferred by some Texans to the weekend or Pappasito's is just plain popular.

I'm sure we all feel better now. Now I can look forward to many more opportunities to exercise this virtue, of which I have a great need.

Othercott?

If my work schedule and circumstances permit, I plan to attend some other movie when the Unnameable Movie premieres. Protesting can be counter-productive in simply bringing free publicity to the object of the protest. Boycotting silently, so-to-speak, may allow the "Hollywood machine" (Careful, the word Hollywood is almost always a sign of a rant coming) to advertise their way to a box office success, at least on the first weekend. That, in turn, they would try to parley into further success. (A general rule for consideration is that the more advertising you see on a movie in advance of it's premier when you've never even heard of it, the more likely it's a disaster and should be avoided).

In the meantime, here's a good article for your edification.

Thanks to Mike Aquilina at The Way of the Fathers for the link.

The Worst Vice?

It's one of my worst anyway (I have six others):

In the world sloth calls itself tolerance; but in hell it is called despair. It is the accomplice of every other sin and their worst punishment. It is the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing and remains alive only because there is nothing it would die for. We have known it far to well for many years. The only thing perhaps that we have not known about it is that is a mortal sin.–Dorothy Sayers

It's interesting to consider what a terrible thing sloth is. I do remember that Thomas Aquinas defined sloth as "sadness that the good is hard to achieve". That seems more empathetic, in a way, than Dorothy Sayers explantion. But the Angelic Doctor didn't live to see our day, did he?

I'd put more thought into this but there's a hockey game coming up (Edmonton/Anaheim). Or I could blame the Blackhook porter. Oh good, that's gluttony. This isn't a good sign, is it?

Thanks to Southern Appeal for the quote.

Memories #1

So we're remembering our trip from last year. One year ago today we left for Houston via Calgary. We picked up a one-way rental and jumped on the Interstate thinking about eating before we settled in in Galveston. We found a Pappasito's, probably the one in Clear Lake.

We had quite a wait getting a table as the place was packed. Only now, a year later, the wife suddenly realizes why: "It was Cinco de Mayo!" Good grief. I'm definitely not the brightest bulb in the marquee, an I?

Anyway we feasted on Tex-Mex in the grand style:



Then we headed off to Galveston in the dark and found our motel across the road from Gulf of Mexico.

Our great adventure had begun.

Alive and Well

The Union appears to have convinced the Employer that six extended-hour shifts in a row is too much. In any case, I was told yesterday at 3 p.m. (1500 to us hospital types) that today's and tomorrow's shifts were cancelled. So I'm enjoying the sunshine, catching up on Internet stuff and planning some domestic chores.

Surviving

Remembered my password, so I'm dropping a note from work. The Union appears to agree that six long shifts in a row is too much. So I'm hoping for a resolution fairly soon. In the meantime, I'll be working through until Saturday (Day Six), Sunday off and a short shift on Monday. So I won't be very visible until, perhaps, Tuesday. God be with you in the interval.

Home Again

We got back last night catching an afternoon ferry from Nanaimo. It was a circle trip: down to Seattle (a brewery and two wineries), Tacoma (three museums), Port Angeles (the lovely drive along US 101), Victoria (a brewery pub), Duncan and Cobble Hill (four wineries and some farm-fresh eggs) and return. It's good to be back.

Now the six days of twelve-hour shifts begins on Monday. I'm hoping to hear from the Union that this isn't allowed so a more humane solution can be used. Otherwise I'll be huffing and puffing (psychically speaking) until late June. Still, the prospect of (semi-)retirement is still a great lure. Deo Volens!

Sun Run Fun

So I survived the run, where I walked and jogged. It was fabulous weather, sunny and cool. My time was an improvement on last year's, so that was nice too.

Now Mom and I are planning a few days off for a trip in the neighbourhood. If all goes well, we'll be back Saturday. I have no access on the road, so you few faithful can leave off checking the blog for a few days. Be good!