Airplanes and Ships

December was a busy month for us with hobbies, family and travel. The month just “flew by”.  This has turned into a “multi-modal” post!  Having been retired for over 6 years from the “transportation industry”, I love using those old “work phrases”….

Between Train club weekends, I had 2 workshops for 2nd Time Around, played host with my Queen Bees and worked on the final assembly of the Carolina Hurricane Quilt, got a 10 1/2 mile bike ride in with my daughter & granddaughter.

I started the month of December at the Train Club with the 2nd weekend of the open house season, and followed it up with a trip to the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild meeting for the annual holiday luncheon, and another gathering of the Queen Bees for our Christmas luncheon and fun gift exchange.  Sadly in between, I was squeezing in trips to see a dear friend in her last days of hospice care, and got there as often as I was able.  No regrets, I did the best I could and hoped it brought her some cheer. I was blessed to be asked to help contact my pastor for the family, and my friend as well.  Somewhere in between all this, we managed to get the Christmas tree out of the closet and assembled, and some of the lights put on.

Hubby and I were at Philadelphia Int’l Airport waiting on our flight to Florida when we saw Air Force One land. Here is a quick video I shot – Air Force One at Philadelphia .  No matter which President is in office, seeing that plane land is always an awesome sight!  (And I worked in an industry where I saw giant cargo planes land all the time, and had Air Force One on our ramp on many occasions). I just think it is a beautiful sight.  The President was in Philadelphia for the Army – Navy game.  We made sure to arrive at the airport early, so we would not get caught up in the predicted traffic snarl that accompanies any US President when he travels to a city.

Heading to Ft Lauderdale to go on a cruise in December was a lot of fun (but a crazy idea given our calendar, but a much needed respite).  We arrived on Saturday, December 8, and sailed on the lovely Regal Princess on Sunday Dec 9. We had a beautiful mini-suite on board this ship.

The welcome aboard glass of champagne is always a pleasant greeting!

Of course, I have a full album of photos of the trip, and you are welcome to browse through them. Regal Princess Cruise photos .  I won’t bore you with them here, but suffice to say, I took a lot of photos.  Our week on the ship was lovely, and this ship is one of the ships using the new Medallion instead of the cruise card. It was an interesting, relaxing week.   I certainly enjoyed just being at sea, taking great walks on the ship, eating endless amounts of food and desserts! We finished out the week with an airboat ride in the Florida everglades before we flew home.  Like I said, multi- modal kind of week.

We got home 1 week and a day before Christmas, and ran thru the house getting the tree decorated, the other decorations up, and the lights out on the porch before the grandchildren arrived. We got home Sunday, and they arrived on Friday and let me tell you, we were zooming around getting ready, along with unpacking and a weeks worth of washing to do!

There is lots more to the December story, but I am out of time today!  Stay tuned….I have 20 minutes to get ready for another Ocean Waves Quilt Guild meeting before I race out the door.  Happy New Year.

 

 

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