Remembering the Titanic

As usual, we traveled through the night and woke up in another port the next morning. We looked out from the ship on all sides to see what we could see.

We could tell by the flag that we were still in Canada--Halifax, Nova Scotia, to be exact.

Looks like this port also had some big, pink, hop on hop off buses just like our last port.

From the other side of the ship, we could tell we weren't the only cruise ship in that port. As a matter of fact, we ran into someone we knew out sightseeing that had cruised into port on this big ship. It was Steve and Darla Blodgett from our old Ogden 30th Ward.

Big ships--small world!!

This little island with the lighthouse was the most picturesque view from our ship's deck.

While waiting for Nani or Mom and Dad, I'd sometimes entertain myself using a camera and the full-length mirror in our room.

Sarah has pointed out to me time and time and time again that we do not have a full-length mirror anywhere in our home. I didn't realize how nice it is to get a full-length shot of myself when I'm getting ready to go somewhere. It was quite the view that I haven't had since my days back living on 22nd Street in the old Ogden 30th Ward.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for providing Nani and me with a full-length mirror in our basement bedroom. Wish I had one now...

I got Nani in on the mirror picture-taking action.

Ahhh! Dad and Mom are ready to leave the ship. Here they are standing next to their door, which was next to our door, which also had a tacky "Legacy Family Tree" sign on it. Not only do we flaunt we're into researching our family tree, but Nani and I were frequently seen with a close, living branch of our family tree. And most of the time we even proudly claimed them as our own.

When we first got on the ship, the cabin steward asked if we wanted the adjoining, connecting door between our rooms unlocked. Nani and I exclaimed, vehemently, NO WAY!! That surprised Orwin because he just assumed we would want our Mama (as he always called her) to be able to come and visit whenever she wanted.

We assured him that if we asked our Mama if she wanted the door between our rooms unlocked, she would respond the same way. When Orwin learned that not only was our Mama with us, but also our Daddy, he then understood why we all wanted our privacy.

The tour we chose that day was The Heart of Halifax by Trolley. That was a little deceiving because we didn't really ride in a trolley--it was a bus painted to look like a trolley.

We stopped for a few minutes at the Citadel that is a huge fortress built on top of a big, green, grassy hill which overlooks the harbor and the city of Halifax--complete with its own town clock.

We learned the French word for STOP.

This is our kilt-wearing tour guide who guided us to our next stop--The Fairview Lawn Cemetery, which is the place where the victims of the Titanic are buried. Halifax was the closest major port to the area of the sinking of the Titanic.

Most cemeteries are laid out in straight lines.

The area of the Titanic victims is curved and is designed to look like the shape of a ship's hull. The shipping company paid to have uniform tombstones for each of the victims which gave the number of the order in which the bodies were recovered, the date of death and a name if that was known.

At a later date, some family members have added larger tombstones with more personal information on them.

In the center of the hull is the grave of the unknown child.

It is believed that it was one of the children of Alma Paulson who happened to be buried right across from the child.

Our token changing-of-the leaves tree that we spotted amid all the green.

After our tour of Halifax was completed, we had to walk through a big shopping area to get to the entrance of our ship.

I found a t-shirt I liked. We did hear our fair share of "Eh?" while visiting our neighboring country of Canada.

Nani and Dad found a placemat that showed such beautiful pictures of all the colorful leaves that we were supposed to have been seeing on our trip. Oh, what could have been...

We ate lunch on the ship in the Windjammer, as usual.

Then we walked back out onto land and decided to visit the Public Gardens. There was so much to see and everything was so beautiful!

It is a good thing we took our umbrellas because it was pouring down rain on us.

I think Mom looks like she could be in an advertisement for a raincoat. She looks so cute and stylish posing under her umbrella.

There was a section of the garden that had the most beautiful flowers.

This is some of the food we ate that evening in the dining room.

These are the towel creations that awaited us in our rooms that evening. Dad and Mom's steward, Wendy, had been telling us for days that she was going to fix up the best animal ever.

Dad did love that she positioned his television remote control in the alligator's mouth.

Our show that evening was "Invitation To Dance" by the ship's singers and dancers.

Dad and Mom then called it a night while Nani and I went to the Maharajas Lounge to have some fun.

We wanted to watch the "60 Seconds or Less Game Show".

I caught on very quickly that the tickets with numbers on them that were being passed out to everybody in the room were soon to be the determining factor of who would end up being the contestants on the show.

As this one was handed to me, I told the ticket passer-outer that only one would be needed at our table and this one was going to my sister.

Imagine my total delight when the game had several contestants up there making fools of themselves and then they called...Nani's number!!!! Ha ha ha!!!!

Up she went to meet her opponent and watch her instructions on the screen to figure out what in the world her challenge was going to be.

It was the Vaseline-nose/cotton ball challenge. Both women had to grease up their noses and without using their hands, get as many cotton balls from one container into the other container in 60 seconds.

Nani was a ferocious contender with great greased-nose skills and won her opponent by a long shot.

High five to Nani for being the WINNER!!!!

Congratulations to you, Nani, for not only being very talented, but also for being a very good sport. Your sister was VERY entertained by it all!!!!

And look what a magnificent prize she won for her efforts--a Royal Caribbean cap.

What a wonderful souvenir of the cruise and of her moment in the spotlight winning her challenge!

Go, Nani! Go, Nani! Go, Nani!

Waking Up In Canada

Next morning we woke up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

We ate breakfast in the Windjammer Cafe as usual.

The Big Pink Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour is what we had signed up to do that day. Nani looked cute standing by the small replica of the pink bus and also by the real, big pink one.

We thought it wise to get directions and figure out where we might want to hop off and hop on again.

Don't we all look adorable wearing our pink dork dots???

A natural phenomenon occurs at the Reversing Falls.

In the basement of this cafe, we watched a film about the Reversing Falls.

It explains how the water in the river goes one direction at high tide and then there is a period of calmness before the water reverses and goes the opposite direction at low tide and then the cycle is repeated all over again and again and again.

To me, it didn't even look like there were any falls there by the bridge, but the rock formation deep under the water is where the falls are located. The reversing action has to do with the tremendous rise and fall of the tides of the Bay of Fundy that are the biggest tides in the world.

As the bay tides begin to rise, the St. John River's flow subsides until at slack tide the river is completely calm. When the bay reaches its peak tide, the river rushes upstream. As the tide goes out, there is another slack tide when the river is completely calm, and then the water reverses direction and the water rushes downstream in the opposite direction.

Across from the Reversing Falls, up on a hill, was the Wolastoq Park, featuring many carved, wooden sculptures. Wolastoq means "The Beautiful River" and the park overlooks the beautiful St. John River.

From our vantage point up on the hill, we could see our ship off in the distance.

We went back to the ship for lunch.

I don't have any more pictures of what we did that day, but I know we hopped off and on that pink bus at least a couple of other times. My memory is foggy as to what other things we saw when we were doing our hopping. I wish I had Nani sitting right here by me with her pictures helping me remember all that we did.

As our ship was leaving the port, we noticed the harbor pilot boat moving alongside our ship. According to the law, each port has a pilot who is experienced in that particular harbor and he comes aboard the ships entering and leaving the port to help the captains safely navigate their ships in and out of the port.

Here's a great view of the Promenade Deck of the ship. It was my favorite deck to walk along to get from one end of the ship to the other because there were always interesting people and things to look at. Although, we did discover that all throughout the ship, on every deck and on the walls by the elevator and on the stairways, there were so many pieces of artwork to look at and admire. The ship was a floating art museum and we enjoyed the variety of things to see no matter where we were walking.

I could hardly wait for dinner every evening for several reasons:

1. I was happy to see our friends, Stephen and Rosely Webster.
2. I was curious to see if any other people would join our table.
3. I enjoyed being served by Vincente and seeing his big smile.
4. I liked that Elicia soon knew our preferences such as the small triangular-shaped rolls that soon became my favorite bread of choice each night.
5. I was anxious to see how generous Vincent was going to be with the extra, unsolicited food he kept bringing to our table.
6. I could hardly wait to see what delicious soup would be available for my consumption.

This evening I chose two--a hot soup and a cold soup. Usually I chose the cold soups that tasted just like dessert to begin each meal. I know Vincente thought I was crazy, but I wanted both kinds this night.

Here are the other appetizers and main dishes that we consumed that evening.

Vincent had developed the habit of not only bringing us plates of fruit, cheese and nuts before our meal began, but then he started bringing us extra plates of main dish meals. He'd just bring them out and set them down--an extra plate for every two of us--and just smile his big smile and keep on doing it night after night after night.

Crazy waiter! Crazy because we just went ahead and ate whatever he put before us. Perhaps then we should say--crazy diners! We were all worried we were going to put on 10 extra pounds that cruise.

Here's dessert.

Pretty sure this one was doused in uncooked-off liquor. Man it was strong! One small nibble was all it took to confirm I wouldn't be eating any more of that extra dessert our darling Vincente had brought to us.

Yes, the man started bringing us unsolicited extra desserts as well--and ice cream for all. It was a food free-for-all for all of us. But, we did make note that our table was the only one getting all these extra edible enticements. We were definitely getting very spoiled.

Here we are--the stuffed Ward family waddling out of the dining room on our way to Studio B to watch "Spirits of the Seasons" Ice Spectacular.

There were lots of beautiful scenery and costume changes as they went through the different seasons.

Probably the most impressive act on the ice was when this couple performed their tricks rolling around the ice in the center of this iron ring. They did some pretty cool stuff that required a lot of strength.

Sometimes Nani and I would go off and do things by ourselves. This particular evening we were very, very (and I mean VERY) happy that Dad and Mom were tired and chose not to go to the late-night entertainment after the skating show ended. They went off to bed and we went off to watch The Love and Marriage Game Show in The Palace Theatre.

It was hosted by our very own cruise director, Jimmy, and we soon knew we were in uncomfortable trouble when the third couple was chosen. First couple has been married a couple of weeks, second couple was the in-between couple, and third couple was the longest-married couple pulled out of the audience to participate.

When I realized this third couple has been married a couple of years less than Dad and Mom, it occurred to me that if Dad and Mom had followed us down to The Palace and had been sitting there and Jimmy had asked who has been married the longest, I just knew Dad would be frantically waving his hand to get the recognition he/they deserved--married for 55 years. WOW!! That's saying something and most of the time it's a great thing to be recognized for...

...unless...

...you're being singled out as the last contestant couple to go up on stage to be asked questions that are going to make not only you uncomfortable, but also all the people in the audience uncomfortable--ESPECIALLY your two daughters who would be there hearing every single question and every single answer.

We knew we were all in for uncomfortableness when the second question asked to the husbands was "If you could change two things about your wife, what would you make bigger and what would you make smaller?" That poor third husband was having the hardest time figuring out what to make bigger on his already larger-than-life wife.

And the questions just went downhill from there.

Dear Dad and Mom--thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for being party poopers that night. We're all very happy that you have enjoyed 55 years of wedded bliss. Just don't go announcing it to the world when someone is looking for the next big suckers to star in their Love and Marriage Game Show!

A Car, A Cow, A Catastrophe

Glen took an excursion with Kenny,
like they always do,
to Oregon for the BYU game this weekend.

He never made it.

He came in contact with a large object.

This is what our new Avalon now looks like:

These are Glen's words as I was trying to write them down as he was talking to his kids on the phone when he got home:

The GPS said to take this 2-lane and Kenny said he'd looked on Google Maps and this was the most direct route and so we went with it. I was going on 2-lane roads that was supposed to be a straight shot. It's a 2-lane road for 350 miles! Well, 240 miles into a 2-lane road, we're coming into a city and I'm slowing down and all of a sudden there is a black blob in front of the car. I hit the brakes and smack this black cow standing broadside on the road. It's pitch black and 11:30 at night.

I hit this cow, my car is still running, the front is badly damaged. I pull the car to the side. I'm worried about cars behind me and that they will hit the cow because it's in the middle of the road flailing. I called 911 and said I just hit a cow and they ask me where I am and I don't know where I am.

A car is coming. I go out and stand in front of the cow so the car won't hit it. That guy pulls over and it's a kid who lives there and so I can get him to tell the sheriff where I am. I hear the sirens coming. I guide a few cars by and here comes a truck with a trailer barreling down the road, swerves to miss me and he hits the cow. That put the cow out of its misery. I thought the trailer was going to flip over. He pulls off. The sheriff gets there. I'm still trying to stop cars from hitting the cow. I mean, it's going to kill somebody.

The sheriff calls in reinforcements so we can get the cow off the road. He asks if I hit the dead cow down in the gully. I said I only hit the black one, not the brown one. So then they take all our information. The guy in the truck comes up and says we need to find out whose cows these are so the farmer can fix these vehicles.

The police says it's open range down here and you'll have to pay for the cow. What a nightmare. They call a tow truck cause my front end is bashed in. The tow truck gets there and gets the car on the tow truck. I'm asking them if there's a car rental in the city. No! The choices are 120 miles forward or 200 miles back. We ask if they can give us a ride into the city and we'll deal with it tomorrow.

The hotel is a fleabag as you can well imagine in a city of about 2,000. So every time I try to fall asleep, I see a cow crashing through my windshield. It came up onto the hood and it's a miracle it didn't come through the windshield. It's a miracle Kenny and I didn't get hurt. Kenny got a bruise on his knee and that's it.

I can't sleep all night. I finally get up and turn on my computer. I went to Google Maps for my own curiosity's sake and had we stayed on the Interstate to Portland and gone south then to Corvalis, it would have added 55 miles and 5 minutes to my travel time and it would have been a car and a cow cheaper.

So we're trying to figure out what to do. A bus goes through at 5:20 tonight going to Boise. Kenny calls a taxi. Roy's Taxi Cab shows up and is going to charge us $200 to take us to Boise and the driver appears drunk. The guy leaves and says he's going to get another car because that car won't make it to Boise. We walk by a couple coming from out of the hotel and I asked them if they were going to Boise and I said it would be worth $100 to them if we could hitch a ride with them. They said sure after we told them what happened.

They gave us a ride to Boise. They get us to the airport and now I have a little rental car that I drove back home. That's the story. I don't know what's going to become of it.

The car's in a lot with the front end bashed in. No pictures of the cow. When we were leaving the city, they'd already picked the cow up--picked both the cows up.

Rebecca asked: At what point did you realize you were going to miss the BYU game? Which are you mourning more, the loss of the car, the loss of not seeing the game or the loss of the cow?

Glen said: The rental car had Sirius XM radio and so we got to hear the game as we were driving home.

Abe's parting words to his father were: MOOOOOOOOOOO!!!