Rich and Jane's Big European Extravaganza

Yes, we are off on another trip!  Back in the fall, we decided to book a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome.  After looking at the dates, we realized there was another cruise a week later, going from Savona to Stockholm.  Wowie, could we do both, with a week in Rome in between?  Yes, we could!  The first cruise is on Celebrity and is a repositioning cruise similar to the one we took to Australia a couple of years ago: mostly sea days, but a great way to get to Europe (and super inexpensive compared to some!)  The second cruise is on Costa, infamous for  running aground off the coast of Italy awhile back, and the captain abandoned ship while there were still passengers on board...I think there was also a Costa ship that caught on fire a few months later. So we will see how well this one goes. haha

My mom and one of her friends, and Rich's sister and one of her friends decided to join us on the first cruise and the week in Rome.  We left Unalaska on April 4, just to give ourselves a cushion in case we had bad weather at home or other delays that would prevent us from getting to Florida on time.  Of course, since we built in extra days, we had beautiful flying weather and no problems so we are just chillin' out in Ft. Lauderdale till we leave on the 9th.

In Anchorage waiting for our flight to Chicago.

After a six hour flight, we arrived in Chicago at 5 AM.  Neither of us could sleep much on the plane.  I am getting too old for these all nighters!

Then Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale, another 3 hours of flying.  Arrived in Florida at 10:30 AM and luckily our hotel let us check in early.  We were pretty jet-lagged and I had a bad headache from no sleep so we took at 4 hour nap, which threw us off even more.  Walked around a little bit and got some dinner. Watched two movies, "Selma," which I loved, of course, and "Birdman," which was interesting but odd.  Then we couldn't fall asleep till 6 AM! Crazy!

The next day we met up with Rich's friend Kevin, who used to live in Unalaska and worked with Rich. They hadn't seen each other in 12 or 13 years. We had a good time chatting and enjoyed Korean tacos and Bao buns for lunch before we said our goodbyes and Kevin dropped us off at our hotel.  It was fun to meet him and I know the guys had a good time catching up.

Today we are finally on a decent schedule and went to do some pre-cruise shopping.  We walked part of the three miles to the mall and then caught a bus the rest of the way when we decided it was pretty hot and Rich was about to get a sunburned head without a hat on.  My Alaskan husband has no suit, nor even a decent jacket for dress up nights on the boat or for any special occasion, so we splurged on a nice jacket for him and enjoyed talking with our sales guys all about Alaska, Sarah Palin, and who can or cannot see Russia from their house.

Caught the bus back, had dinner at the hotel, came back to our room and the TV remote did not work.  We called to see if we could get a different remote and the maintenance man came up to fix it.  After going back and forth a few times, he came to the conclusion that it was not fixable and would probably have to trade out the TV.  It was already late and we didn't have to have the TV so we told him no worries and they could just exchange it tomorrow after we checked out.  The front desk called us and told us they were comping our dinner. Score!

All of our fellow travelers arrive tomorrow and we are planning to do some laundry and a little more shopping before leaving on the boat on the 9th.  Internet is pricy onboard so I will probably not be posting much here but will be updating on Facebook and Instagram if you want to follow along.  Has anyone ever used the app "1 Second Every Day"?  I thought I would give it a try--it's just what it says, you video one second each day and in the end you have a quick little movie of your trip.  One second is really fast so it will whip by but I thought it might be fun.

Cousins Reunion

My dad was the youngest of 8 kids who grew up in NJ.  He joined the military,  which meant that our family moved from base to base around the US and in Europe throughout our lives. While most of Dad's family stayed in the NJ area, his sister Catherine (my Aunt "Cass") married, moved to Chicago and raised her family there with my Uncle Bill. Our family typically traveled back to NJ on vacations and between assignments,  so I never got to know my Chicago cousins very well. I can remember one trip through Chicago when I was about 16 and seeing one or more of the cousins at various family gatherings over the years, though not very often.

Back: Mary, Bill and Cate
Front: Tish and me

My cousin Mary and I reconnected on Facebook awhile back so I was happy to know that she planned to get some of her siblings together to meet with us while we were in Chicago.  Mary and her husband John live about an hour or so out of the city so Rich and I took a nice walk to the train station and rode the Metra to Lake Forest.  Mary and her sister Cate met us at the train station (in a cool little convertible!) and took us back to Mary and John's lovely home, where we were joined by Cate's guy Howard, my cousin Tish, my cousin Bill and his wife Patt.

Cate and Tish helping in the kitchen

 Howard and John enjoying the nice evening outside

Bill and Patt

It was super great to spend the evening chatting and catching up on many years' worth of news.  We figured out that I probably had not seen Bill in 40 years!  We also had lots of fabulous food prepared by several family members and awesome desserts made by Mary, who's a pastry chef.

Howard and yummy pastries

Rich got in on the barbecuing

Bill, John and Rich

Bill and Patt drove us back to the city since it was (sorta) on their way.  I learned more about the McMahon branch of the family on the ride--I always thought that my Aunt Cass had married a Chicago guy and that's why the family lived there but Bill said his dad was actually from Philly and went to Chicago for his job in the printing business.

I was completely thrilled to have this time with my cousins.  It's funny how family is family, no matter what, and even though we never knew each other well, we chatted the night away, shared stories, laughed about some of our family characters, and tried to keep track of marriages, kids, grandkids, careers and adventures.  What a fun night!  Thanks so much to my cousins for coming out to see us, and especially to Mary and John for hosting all of us.  I'm still smiling about the great time we had.

See you next year in Jersey!

Out and About in Chicago

Here are a few shots of the Blackstone Renaissance--we thought it was a very cool hotel!

We took a ride on the "L" and walked around Bucktown/Wicker Park

Street musician

 Need some eyeglasses?

 Or a monkey....or a hi-five?

 Great buildings

I always love street art   ("Rise all freedom fighters, rise, and take your stance once again"--Bob Marley)

Some of my favorite guys

And quite a roll call of activists

 Lovely houses

Waiting for the train back.  I think I really am a city girl at heart!

Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town

Up and at 'em at 5:30 AM to catch a cab to the Seattle airport--not my favorite thing but I survived.  :)  We had an uneventful flight to Chicago, arriving at 2:30 PM with the time change.  Checked into our hotel, the Blackstone Renaissance downtown, and had a late lunch/early supper at Mercat a la Planxa, the on site restaurant with food by Jose Garces.  He's been on Iron Chef and some other shows.  We had a bunch of tapas and let me tell you, they were fabulous!  I think he's my new favorite guy.  I'd like to say that we had a full and fun day but by the time we ate, we were exhausted and really did not do anything but chill out on the first night.

Day Two we hit the streets and walked for miles and miles and miles and miles.  The sun was out and I was happy just to be out in the warm weather!

We had lunch at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill--Mexican small plates which were also quite delicious but I think I have to say that I like Jose Garces' better.

Frontera Grill

Then we walked all the way to the Navy Pier and wandered around.

Rode the ferris wheel

A couple of view from the ferris wheel

A tall ship

Navy Pier

I had a little bit of therapy with Bob Newhart, aka Dr. Bob Hartley

Walking along the river

A little bit of performance art

I've been having trouble with my phone on this trip--sometimes I can get calls, sometimes I can get texts, sometimes I can get neither.  It's pretty annoying since I got this phone from Alaska Wireless so I could use it at home and while traveling.  I am feeling like I should have just kept my cheap little tracfone which at least worked everywhere BUT Unalaska.  I don't really need it in Unalaska anyway.  Ugh.  I have cousins in the Chicago area so we've been trying to communicate about getting together on Sunday and it's been a hassle getting through to each other. I've also been trying to plan a trip to the federal prison in Terre Haute, IN so I can visit two of my former clients but cannot seem to get in touch with the staff person I need to reach.  I've left my number but I am afraid he can't get through if he calls back.  So it's been a bit frustrating all the way around.

Otherwise, we are having lots of fun in the windy city!  The third day was a little more chilly but still nice enough to get out and walk around.  I will continue with that in the next post!

PS Anyone know why the song calls Chicago "that toddlin' town"?  I looked it up and there are a couple of different explanations!