Author: Susie

We are pulling into the largest Naval port in the world! We just crossed over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which spans the boating channel into Norfolk. As we passed through the channel, I remembered driving over the bridge and sinking down into the tunnel fully aware that traffic, (giant ships), is passing over us.. and now I’m aware of the cars and trucks "under" us in that tunnel! Knowledge can be a scary thing! Weather is beautiful, about 75 degrees. From breakfast I walked up on deck to watch the Norfolk channel pass by, and then remembered book marker making in the King and Country Pub. Dash off for that! Busy busy. We ate breakfast with our friend Al who is a WWII veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. At 95 years old he is hale and hearty. He and Chuck exchanged sea stories… Also on this glorious day was daily Mass where I greeted my "cousins" Patrick and Leona McCarthy! Patrick is from Cork and was surprised that my grandfather Michael came from Dublin to the US. Oh probably had to leave Ireland in a hurry I always was told… We are meeting a lot of English and Irish who spend the summer in home country and return to the US on the repositioning cruise in October. Chuck would like to do that… He could live on a cruise ship all the time. Oh there is too much food!!!! Later, about noon, we will be walking into Norfolk to walk along the waterfront. Have a wonderful, warm and good weather day! God bless you!

This is turning out to be a most civilized afternoon. We are perched on bar stools in the Vintages bar with the most amazing music lifting from 2 decks below in the "atrium". This area of the atrium is all windows so we can watch the storm rage outside. All gray and cloudy/wavy outside. All warm and lovely within. I highly recommend letting everything go and Just settling with "nothing to do." So it goes. A glass of wine and nothing to do. Thank God!

Hi dear ones. No once can be squeemish. We had a meeting with the Captain and he is a very interesting man! He was born and spent most of his life above the artic circle in Norway! He said the gulf stream actually keeps ice off Norway. In 2009 the Captain sailed his own vessel, the Morning Song, a 43′ sail boat, from Antigua to his home in North Norway. He talked about catching the westerlies in weather like ours today. Photos taken on board looked cold. He has crossed the pond in 16 ton vessel and a 90 ton vessel. Some interesting facts from today’s talk: we are currently experiencing seas with waves of upwards to 6 1/2 meters, winds up to 40 to 60 knots. We are asked not to go out on deck so today is the first time I had a sense of how many passengers are on board. Explaining what we have done so far, the Captain explained: we passed under the Sunshine Skyway bridge at Tampa with an 18′ clearance. we made a wide berth around the Keys to protect marine sanctuaries. We caught the gulf stream to catapult us (my term) around the tip of Fla but now we are avoiding the center of the gulf stream due to high winds. We were supposed to go into Boston, but Captain said last year the northerly route out of Boston was very high winds and waves so he prefers the more southern route we’ll take from Norfolk to the Azores. interesting… Anyway, we are in the center of an intense low and it will clear for us when we pull into Norfolk tomorrow. I’m sitting at a window as I type and yes it is gray and wavy…. ship is moving around and some people are taking to their cabins looking a shade of green. I’m thinking of a cold beer, and there is a new painting in the gallery that I’d like to copy. I’ll see if Chuck wants to read while I paint in the gallery… It should be 79 degrees in Norfolk and Chuck and I plan to take a nice long walk. All in all… so far so good, and pretty quiet. God bless you! Sue

Hi! It’s only 9:30 pm and I’m yawning and ready for bed, but I still have Irish music to listen to. busy busy. Today started with 8am Mass and then I had to rush around to do all the things I circled on the "Daily Compass". Chuck had things to do too, so we did not meet until lunch time. My stuff was arts and crafts, watercolor class, celebration of color in art… and I actually painted 2 small paintings in my art journal. Chuck is keeping what he’s doing while I’m arting a secret. Tomorrow we MUST hit the gym. After the specialty dinner last night we took it easy on breakfast but smoozed the smorgasbord of goodies at lunch. I think I had 3 meats to start. What happened to go to the gym and eat oatmeal? out the window into the sea. Tomorrow is another day to be good. I made a card for Lisa’s wedding in arts and crafts. and I painted with 2 nice ladies in water color class. I was inspired to sit before a painting in the art gallery and paint it. The artist, David Najar, wins the contest by a mile! I just haven’t gotten sailboats down yet, but my birds are OK. We might have found our wine bar called Vintages with big roses all over as decoration. We enjoyed wine and Karen Carpenter type music before dinner as we sailed past Miami… We’ve made the turn and are heading north tonight. No one is talking about "the storm." Bye home! Our dinner friends are a CeeBee (he told me what this means and I forgot… construction builder?) they build things and during Vietnam era he built quanset huts for marines. and a USS Forestal seaman who pushed jet fighters around. He and Chuck commiserated about why they are deaf (standing right next to engines). We are now "on break" in the King and Country Pub. Our singer is an Irishman with a good range from Beatles and Monkees to Carole King and James Taylor. Yawn. Good. I’m also enjoying watching an LA Dodgers baseball game with the sound turned off on the bar TV. Back to basics. Love and kisses. God bless you. Sue

We boarded the ship with (gulp) 9 bags and two were delivered almost immediately to the room by a guy whom Chuck tipped. So the guy asked, "Is this all?" "Nope, 7 more," Chuck answered. "Oh let me go see…" The guy came back with all 7 bags. And got another tip. He was so grateful he said, "God bless you," as he tucked the tip into his sweaty pocket. Well. Then we spent about 3 hours putting all the stuff away. Stuff includes evening wear for a month, tee shirts and shorts for exercising, jackets and boots for hiking in England, baby gifts for the new little Trewin children, etc etc. Then we went ahead and booked into the Specialty dining room (have a free coupon from travel agent). YUM. We watched Tampa pull away and the sun set as we ate glorious chops. Now… full and happy, we’ll probably sleep all day tomorrow, except for Mass at 8am, arts and crafts at 9:30, water color art lessons at 10:30… lunch and then a nap. Tomorrow will go by very quickly, but I’m ahead of myself. We still have to move from bar to bar tonight to pick a good one. I’ve turned off my phone as we are in international roaming in the middle of Tampa bay. go figure. God bless you tonight!

We have too many masses of stuff that we packed. I agonized over leaving one light jacket behind. I am sure I have plenty! Packing it all into the car now for drive to Tampa. Watching the east coast and developing weather… Supposed to stop in Norfolk but weather might be an issue. I am sure RCCL weather people have their antennas up and directed at the weather gurus. Sunny and 75 here on west coast of Fla! God bless you.

Monday is the beginning – well actually we’ve been "summering" in North Port, hanging out in the pool with 2 of Laura and Dennis’ (cousins) dogs, swimming and drinking. Tomorrow we board the RCCL Brilliance and head for a tropical storm that threatens the east coast of the US…  I guess the ship will go around that!  I’ll write and tell all once I know how they will route us.   Love and sleep well this last night on soil… God bless you! Sue

Hi dears.  We drove the first leg of the journey with the little car LOADED with the ship luggage and 5 bins labeled with the various cities we will visit in the US (including a 5 foot elephant plaque and wedding presents!).  For now we are sitting here by the pool at cousins Dennis and Laura enjoying beautiful weather and I’m getting all the scraps of paper organized and maybe I’ll balance the check book before we go for 5 months.  I was having a panic attack of "I don’t wanna go" as George stood in our drive way saying goodbye to us yesterday.  I guess I’ve finally started to make Miami home again… finally I got some furniture out of the way and was able to put a table cloth on the dining room table and the Miami house is beginning to look like less of a disaster, and I am a home body even though I am the one who planned this giant trip!!!  …  All the garage sale stuff is stacked in Chuck’s office.  If you need anything from the garage sale stuff including chairs, tables… contact Dave or George.  Sale will be in October…  For now, maybe I can convince Chuck to buy a truck to make our US journey a little more comfortable!!!   Happy early summer!  Love sue

Hi dear readers! The writer’s chant is "write what you know about." Well I’m not so sure people want to read about midnight wanderings and anxiety! When I would visit my Mom and sister in LaGrange, I would wake in the night to find Mom gone and a light on in the hall. "3am", I would muse, "what is she up to?" I’d find Mom eating a piece of toast, or reading in the bathroom, or downstairs looking for Donna who was also up and wandering… Not me. Oh boy I can sleep in. But that changed. It is as if Mom’s spirit has entered my body. Now I wake up in full thought at 2am and have to get up to make lists, wash dishes, balance a check book, you name it. Chuck asked a friend today if we could find valium on the "black market" for Susie who is wandering the halls in the night. Last night I wandered and looked at the "too much luggage." and tried to clean up the dining room which I should be working on right now, but I wanted to stop here and say "Goodbye, we’re off on the northbound and eastbound journey today." We will sleep with cousins in North Port Fla and board the RCCL Brilliance in Tampa on Monday noonish. Anchors aweigh and all that! God bless America. Love Susie

Well it’s down to the priorities now. How do we get there and where can we buy wine? It is going to be an adventure in itself if the rental car has GPS as Chuck will want to use it, the girl in the box will have an English accent, and I’ll want to use my old fashioned maps. I generally turn on the GPS if we get lost. We have gotten lost several times in Georgia and Tennessee, but that was because the roads weren’t on the GPS. I am armed with maps and ready to go. It’s my job to tell Chuck which way to go at the roundabouts which sometimes we take several times, going round and round, trying to find our way!!! We must just LOOK like Americans as we careen around those circles! Meanwhile, we will be shopping in English grocery stores which I love to do. We always stop by the aluminum foil which the English spell with an extra syllable as in aluminium (AL U Min I UM) True. Chuck and I laughed out loud at that one and were practically tossed out of a grocery store in Bude for pointing and laughing. I guess Americans laughing at Brits isn’t acceptable. Oh boy are we ready. Today is a very big day in trip preparation: We will drive to Big Pine Key to pick up the last mail (hope Chuck’s new debit card is in there and the last bank statements that I will reconcile for 6 months… …), we’ll get a bunch of cash for tips, eat one last No Name Pub pizza… and then home to Miami for the celebration of the closing of the suitcases and application of the luggage tags. We are loaded with presents, books, and maps that hopefully we will dispense of and be lighter by the time we get to Southhampton on July 2. I’m looking out over the lake and it is a rainy day in Miami. Thank heaven for the rain as my yard is a crusty, hard scrabble mess of weeds and rocky dirt. In October we will try to put in a pump to get water from the lake and begin to water our lawn. We used to have a pump but filled it with cement during one of our many house projects. But that is an old story! Happy Spring and look out England!!! Susie and Chuck are coming. God bless us all.