Rain, Rain Go Away

Neither of us had been to Freeport before so we were looking forward to checking it out. As it turns out, there was torrential rain that day and we didn't get off the boat.

I'm glad that none of the shore excursions appealed to us, so we didn't have to worry about cancellations or refunds. Apparently the snorkeling and diving excursions went ahead as planned. I guess if you're in the water a bit of rain doesn't matter. But it did keep people out of the pool for a while.

We also learned that the town was about a 30-minute cab ride away. We wouldn't have been able to disembark and just walk around. It's been our experience that the shops on the docks (built by and for the cruise lines) are not teeming with bargains, so unless we are absolutely desperate for a souvenir, we typically avoid those shops. It's not the same as visiting the town.

By the time we were ready to head out, it had cleared just a bit. But as you can see, there's no town and not even a nice beach anywhere near the dock.

On the bright side - we now have a reason to return to Freeport.

A Day in Key West

We were having breakfast with some young ladies the day before we docked in Key West. They inquired as to whether we'd been to Key West before (we had) and what to do while there.

Easy answer. Go to Sloppy Joe's and have a burger or a drink. Then go to the "southernmost point" marker and take some pictures. Apparently this was the answer they got from their dinner companions the night before.

While that's not all there is to Key West, when all you've got is an afternoon, it hits the high spots (at least for us). It was what we intended to do.

We rented an electric car because we didn't think my knee could withstand the walk into town. (Really, I'm not sure I could have walked the distance into town in the heat, anyway.)

We drove to the southernmost point marker and there was a line of people waiting for photos. I must have been so lucky the last time I was there. That time, no one was around and there was absolutely no waiting. We decided to go have lunch to see if the line would be shorter when we came back.

As we approached Sloppy Joe's, we could see the line of people that went out the door and around the block. I wonder how many of them know who Ernest Hemingway was. But that's the big draw because while the food is good, it isn't great. I'd wanted to get a T-shirt but I didn't want it badly enough to stand in line for half the afternoon.

So we had ice cream instead. We found a place that provided free parking for the electric car, which was really more of a noisy golf cart with a little back seat. I don't remember paying to park the last time I was in Key West. Anyway, Key West is supposed to be "laid back". Laid back places are not obsessed with parking fees. It was a bit inconvenient and there were places we might have stopped if we hadn't had to figure out where to park. Next time we're in Key West we'll either get there via car or if we go on a cruise, we'll take one of the hop-on/off trolleys.

We drove past the southernmost point again. The line was still too long so we set off in search of lunch. We found a great little spot with an upstairs balcony overlooking a marina. We had blackened fish tacos (wonderful) with our view.

After lunch, we decided to bite the bullet and get in the photo opportunity line.

Mark said that he would rather go to Key West on our July road trip than to the mountains. (See what happens when you forget to buy sunscreen?)

Special Assistance

In my younger years I was a bit of a rebel. I liked breaking the rules. But these days I’m a bit more compliant. I read and follow the instructions. So in the past, when the instructions on my cruise boarding pass indicated that I should arrive for boarding between 2 and 4 PM, that’s the time I showed up. And then I had to wait in line for several hours to board the ship.

I didn’t want to do that this time. My knee was just not ready for several hours of standing. I had spoken to the customer service folks at Carnival weeks prior to cruising and they indicated that I should just tell one of the porters that I needed special assistance and they could direct me to the right place.

 Because I needed special assistance to board, we decided to go to the dock early rather than wait until 2. As expected, the porter had no idea where I needed to go. He only knew that it was someplace inside the terminal. So going early was a great idea. We avoided the line that usually snakes outside the terminal where you stand for an hour or more before going inside to stand for another hour or more. (Because you don't really think anyone can just stroll up to the front of that line and butt in front of people who have been waiting for an hour, do you?) But at 11 AM the line was inside.

I asked the first official looking person I came to where I needed to go to get special assistance. “Up that ramp past security” was the reply.  After clearing security, we went up the ramp and asked the next official looking person. She took us over to a short line of two or three people, then she snapped her fingers and a young man with a wheelchair appeared out of nowhere. I sat down and we waited behind the two or three people in front of us. When it was our turn, I was wheeled up to the counter and we completed all the necessary forms, had our photos taken for the card keys and we were off. He wheeled me right onto the main deck and told us that our stateroom would be ready around 1 or 2. When I said I didn’t need the chair on board, I thanked him and he took the chair and went off to help someone else.

It must have been 11:30 and we were on board. Granted, we couldn’t go to our stateroom, but we were on board. Hassle free. Hours before we would normally have turned up at the dock. Time to have lunch. Time to relax. Pull up a deck chair and let the holiday begin.

From now on, I’ll be turning up at the dock around 11 AM no matter what the instructions say - even when I no longer need special assistance.

Shopportunities

You'd think that I would have packing down to a science, or at least an art. Sadly, it seems that every time I unpack, something is missing.

I've forgotten to pack underwear. (I've done this twice. You'd think forgetting once would be enough to make you remember for the rest of your life, but apparently not.) I've forgotten to take a scarf, which is only important in England. I've forgotten my toothbrush. Most frequently I forget cotton pads - those little round or square things you use to take off your makeup. Sometimes I forget bits of my makeup - like mascara.

Mark isn't really any better. He forgot to pack his underwear once. He forgot to pack pants (like Dockers) two times. He's also forgotten his formal shirt and cuff links. He's forgotten his toothbrush, too.

Most of these forgotten items, especially pants and underwear, require a shopping trip - also known as a shopportunity. Over the years I've come to accept the fact that I've forgotten something and look forward to the shopping trip. It seems there's always a Macy's or a Marks and Spencer nearby for clothes or a CVS or Boots when I need toiletries.

When I got up in Galveston the morning of our cruise, I wasn't surprised to realize that I'd forgotten to pack

• Eye liner
• Foundation brush
• Razors
• Cotton pads
• Sunscreen

Little things. But so necessary. And since we were going to CVS we thought we'd get a night light just for our stateroom in case either of us needed to get up during the night.

Apparently these are things that are commonly forgotten because after we'd paid the CVS clerk and he bagged up our stuff he said "Thank you. Enjoy your cruise." Or maybe we just had that "cruiser" look about us. 

What did surprise me was that I managed to get out of CVS without buying the cotton pads or the sunscreen. No problem. There would be a CVS in Key West.

Hotels, Motels, and Inns

I thought I'd Google the differences between hotels, motels, and inns. Click here to see my search results. Some interesting answers. I agree with some of them. I'm amused by others. And a couple of them made me scratch my head and wonder why anyone bothers to respond to a question with an "I don't know" answer. It's not a test. If you don't know the answer don't weigh in on the matter.

So it seems we all have our own ideas about hotels, motels, and inns. And Holiday Inn messes with all of them, because it's name indicates that it's an "inn", which seems to have more ambiguity associated with it,  but some of them are clearly hotels and others are motels.

Interesting (at least to me) but getting off track. I want to talk about Gaido's Seaside Inn. When I booked it, I was expecting a motel, and that was okay. Unlike some of the respondent's to the question, I don't believe motels are sleazy by definition. The reviews of Gaido's on Hotels.com were positive and this is the picture that was displayed.

Looked okay to me. We only wanted to stay one night and we didn't want to have to get everything out of the car. I didn't book it online because I was trying to use a free night (which couldn't be done for complex and somewhat ridiculous reasons) so when asked if I'd prefer a sea view or courtyard view, I chose the courtyard view. I assumed that the courtyard was what I was looking at in the picture. My mistake. Although many (if not most) motels put their pools in the courtyard, not so at Gaido's. I should have looked at the rest of the pictures. Then I would have seen that the pool is at the front and a bit to the side and NOT part of the courtyard.

If you have a sea view room, you'll also be able to see the pool. So where is the courtyard? Turns out that there are rooms on the back side of the building you see in the picture. These are the "courtyard" view rooms. On the opposite side of the "courtyard" there is another building similar to the one in the picture that also overlooks the "courtyard".  I thought the pool was in the courtyard. But it wasn't. Even so, I expected a courtyard without a pool to look something like this. (But it didn't.)

 I didn't expect the "courtyard" to be a parking lot. (But it was.) And while this isn't Gaido's courtyard (it was raining far too hard to be outside taking pictures) this is pretty much what it looked like - complete with chairs that you could sit in to enjoy the ambiance of the courtyard.

Actually, it would have all been fine if we hadn't been trying to check in while there was a torrential rain and thunderstorm in progress. As it was, we couldn't see anything past the sign that said Gaido's Seaside Inn. We had to park and get out and go look for the registration office - signage to find it was seriously lacking or totally obscured by the weather. (One good thing about hotels - they have lobbies that are easy to find.) I had my handicap sticker so we could park in the front to go look for the office. No handicap spots available. We were just going to get soaked. (At least I was. I can't run yet.) Once under the eaves, we found some other guests who were happy to point us in the right direction. We had to get back in the car and drive to the back of the building. But then the directions to our room weren't clear. We knew it was on the upper level but couldn't see the number from outside. Since we saw two even numbers side by side on the building in front of us we assumed (wrongly) that the odd numbers must be on the building opposite the parking lot. After going up the wrong set of stairs - and mind you I don't do stairs all that quickly yet (still not over the knee surgery) I was making my way down while trying to let Mark know that it wasn't the right staircase. Unfortunately, the staircase he went up wasn't right, either. All of this in a downpour. It was back to the office to find out where the room had disappeared to. Turns out we had the one room where the door faced the staircase instead of the parking lot and couldn't be seen without first going up the stairs. Did I mention that it was raining really hard?

The room was fine. But another problem with motels is that there is no room service and no restaurant. You have to go back outside. I knew that good food was waiting for us next door at Gaido's Seafood Restaurant and we needed to get over there in spite of the downpour. It's not an "open all night" establishment and our arrival had been delayed by the weather. And checking in took considerably longer than it should have - probably 20 minutes to find the office and then find the room and did I mention that it was really raining? When we arrived at the restaurant we were told that they wouldn't be seating any more guests. What? They seriously didn't think I was going to get back in a car and drive somewhere. As it turned out, there was a couple there ahead of us and they seemed to be waiting. If they could seat them, they could seat us. But it seems they were waiting to speak to a manager because they weren't happy about not being seated, either. The manager came out and he was fantastic! He apologized to us and to the other couple for the misunderstanding, explained that the storm had clogged things up a bit because people who would normally have left had lingered a little longer but that we would be seated as soon as possible. It only took a few minutes to get seated. Our waiter was extremely friendly and helpful and served us some of the best seafood we've ever had! Anywhere. Ever. And by the time we left to go back to our room, the rain had stopped.

The Driving Rain

Even though I'm an excellent driver, I'd rather be the passenger and let someone else drive. But I am perfectly willing to take my turn on a long journey because if you share the driving duties, no one gets too tired.

Then there's the matter of leaving on time. We typically set our departure time and feel that we've made it if we've got the wheels rolling within an hour of the set time. (Note that this only applies to road trips - not airport runs.) So the Friday we left for Galveston we were late leaving. Our departure time was supposed to be 1 PM, but by the time we did all the little things we had to do before leaving the house for a week, and then leaving and returning home to get our passports, it was 3 PM before we actually set off in earnest. We would arrive closer to 8:30 than 6:30.

Mark drove through the Dallas traffic. I'm a bit timid when it comes to lane changes. (I should be a bit timid - that cervical spine fusion I had a decade ago put a few limits on how far I can turn my head to see what's behind me and mirrors have blind spots.) But once we were out of the city and sailing down I-45, I took over the driving duties so Mark could finish his reports and get them sent off. The entire trip was supposed to take five and a half hours. Of course, one of those hours was spent getting through Dallas. (Another would be spent getting through Houston.)

But I drove and admired the wildflowers along the highway until we were about an hour away from Houston. At that point, the GPS showed that we were about an hour and a half away from our destination in Galveston. At that point I turned the driving over to Mark.

He'd probably only been at the wheel for 15 minutes when the rain started. It started out slowly so we were hopeful that it would only be a few big splotches and then it would disappear. But instead, it started to gain momentum. By the time we were on the south side of Houston it was torrential.

That last 30 minutes ended up being an hour. Water was running down the street like it was a river. It was so dark, I couldn't see anything out the passenger side window. But I could see on the GPS that we were very near the water. I didn't know if the water flowing on the road was from the rain or if the Gulf waters were washing up onto the road. I only know that I was, shall we say "a bit edgy". I'm glad I wasn't driving. But I wasn't happy being a passenger in that, either.

Years ago I was caught in a flash flood in Sherman, Texas. I saw what I thought were small cars driving through the underpass and thought that if those little things could go through, my big-butt Buick wouldn't have any trouble. What I later learned is that those little cars were floating. My Buick sank and stalled and I couldn't restart it. I started to panic when I saw that the water was halfway up the door. When the water started coming in on the floor and getting my feet wet, I was beyond panic. I was rescued by some guys with a pickup truck who pushed my car to safety. (No cell phones in those days.) I'm grateful to them. I'm not a strong swimmer anyway, and I think I would have drowned trying to swim in rushing water wearing a business suit (plus it was dark and I wouldn't have known which way to go.) But that's probably why I get a bit edgy in those weather conditions.

So while Mark was driving, and doing his best to avoid the people who drive like they are immortal, I sat quietly in the passenger seat praying to reach our destination safely. (It only takes one idiot...)

But we got there. Safe and sound.

Get Up and Cook

Mark decided he wanted to try out being a vegetarian. But we were not to have those bland, dull, uninteresting vegetarian meals. No. We were going to have vegetable curries. I love curry. I got out my 660 Curries cookbook, made a list and went off to the Asian market. It doesn't even bother me to be the only white person in the store. Just call me Badeep.

On day one, I made Bhuna Hua Simla Mirch Aur Masoor Ki Dal (slow roasted bell pepper with red lentils) and Bund Gobhi Aur Aloo Ki Subzi (cabbage and potatoes with fennel and chiles). I started cooking around 6:30 and around 8:30 I told Mark he'd have to finish it because I was just too worn out.

On day two, we still had a bit of the dal left over and I made Phool Gobhi Pyaaz (cauliflower in onion-chile sauce) and Kolhapuri Vanghi (stewed eggplant with coconut-chile spice blend). This time I started at 5:00. I needed to start sooner because we really wanted to eat before 9:00 PM and the eggplant recipe called for two teaspoons of Kolhapuri masala, which I would need to make.

The Kolhapuri masala consists of dried chiles, dried coconut, white sesame seeds, black peppercorns, mace, bay leaves, and white sesame, coriander, cumin, mustard, and fenugreek seeds coated in oil and roasted in a skillet. After it cools off you grind it and blend it with cayenne pepper and paprika.

Today is day three. I still have a bit of the dal, as well as the eggplant and cauliflower dishes. I also have a bit of basmati rice, although tonight I will heat up some garlic naan bread. Tonight I'm making Chinnay Vengayam Kari (pearl onions with spinach and tomatoes) and Mirch Ka Salan (spicy banana peppers with coconut sesame seed sauce).  But in order to make the pearl onion dish, I will need to whip up a batch of Sambhar masala and a batch of Punjabi garam masala. And unless I want dinner at 9:00 PM again, I should get started now. Just as soon as I finish clearing the devastation from last night's cooking adventure. (Not one clean cutting board left in the house and I have six of them!) To sustain this type of cooking, I will need a bigger dishwasher, although I have no idea where I'd put it.

These dishes are very flavorful and I haven't missed the meat. But they are "fussy" and require a significant amount of prep time. Even with Mark and I both cooking last night, it still took us two hours to get it all on the table. Those Indian women must start cooking the moment they get up.

I need to rethink this whole Badeep thing.