Cruising: What’s In My Carry-On, My Must Haves, and Packing Tips & Tricks

On May 19, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country DecorLeave a comment

And one more reposting here in my Cruising Series. I’ve slimmed this one down a bit too and I’ve added links to many of the items pictured. 🙂

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

I am writing this post to try and help those of you out there who might be new to cruising, or even those of you who might have cruised before, but, like to make a little list of things to start gathering before your cruise. I will include what I usually put in my Carry-On bag, my Must Haves for on the cruise ship, and I’ll even include a section with some packing tips & tricks. 🙂 I’ve implemented these little helpful hints on our cruises that up to this point have been to Alaska (4 times) & Hawaii and we *might* just have another cruise coming up this Fall. 😉 So enough chattering from me, let’s jump right in and get started…

I’ll begin with showing you my carry-on bag and what I normally will keep with me on our journey on the jet, or even in the car. Then…

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Hawaii Cruise Wardrobe Choices

On May 18, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor4 Comments

And here is the Hawaii Wardrobe Choices post. I have updated it as well with new links (to black stretchy pants and Skechers shoes) along with pictures of the outfits that I actually wore while on this cruise. 🙂

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

I cannot believe that our Hawaiian cruise is now behind us…<sigh>. We plan for months and months for our cruises, and then *poof* they’re over with way too soon. OH well, there is always the next one in the queue huh? I always like to have the next one to look forward to and to plan for. Those of us in the cruising world keep a close eye on our “Countdown”…And I do have one of those sweet “Countdown’s'” clicking away at the moment…YaY! We will once again be cruising with Princess Cruises; we are loyal to them and are now considered “Platinum” members of the “Captain’s Circle”…Woohoo, go us! 😉

Just as I mentioned in my Alaska Cruise Wardrobe Choices blog post, I am no fashionista, but, this plus sized girl does like to try her best to look put together and most importantly to *feel* pretty. My wardrobe for Hawaii ended…

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Alaska Cruise Wardrobe Choices

On May 18, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country DecorLeave a comment

I’ve done a little updating to this Alaska Wardrobe Choices post and to the Hawaii Wardrobe Choices post as well. I’ve slimmed down both posts a bit and have added links and a few more pictures to both…I’ll “Reblog” the Hawaii post as well. 🙂

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Goodness knows, I’m no fashionista! 😉 BUT, that said, I try really hard each and every day to put together outfits that help this plus sized girl look and more importantly *feel* pretty. Some days I’m more successful than others, but, trust me, the effort is always put forth. My daughters laugh at me and ask me why I don’t stay in my pjs just one day and not worry about putting my make-up on and dressing like I have someplace to go. I tell them, and they know this better than anyone, that staying in my pjs, while it seems like an awesome idea, just isn’t in my nature to do…not to mention the fact that I always have to be ready to go on a moments notice. 🙂

All that said, I’ve been asked over and over again what clothes I take on our Alaskan cruises, so in this…

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Transitioning: Patriotic–Memorial Day – Labor Day

On May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 By ArlynnIn Country Decor, Transitioning Seasonal Decor2 Comments

It is a miracle! Before doing this bit of Patriotic decorating, I hadn’t decorated one thing since January when I had put all of the Christmas decorations away and transitioned to my more generic every-day decor. I *always* decorate *something* around Easter/Spring time, but, I didn’t do it this year because of our Hawaiian cruise <~~ Getting ready for that kept me crazy busy for quite a while. Well, our next cruise isn’t until October–Yes, we’re booked on another cruise!! (Woohoo!!) Canada and New England on the Regal Princess…OMGoodness, I’m excited. ANYway, I digress, back to the subject at hand. I decided to add a bit of Americana into my decor for the rest of the Spring and let it take me through the Summer months straight through to Labor Day. I didn’t do an extreme amount of ‘creating’ in that I didn’t redo centerpieces, nor did I create a new wreath. Instead, I just added a touch of the Patriotic here and there pillaged from my past creations and my storage bins. Admittedly, I did purchase just a few new items…

Here we go:

I had found this bunting on sale at Plow and Hearth after July 4th last summer, it was still in the bag when I opened up my “Patriotic” Bin. I decided that I’d hang it right under the mantel…I used those spiffy diffy Command Strips to easily accomplish that job…

And that set the tone…Here are the other touches I added around this back portion of our home (family room, kitchen eating area, kitchen). I won’t put anything in the front rooms of the house, they are just fine as is.

I added a couple of tea dyed flags on either side of the hearth, as well as a patriotic plaque along with some wooden and metal picks stuck into the crock. I also added a couple of little wooden bird houses up on the mantel, All of the other decor on the mantel and hearth blended in nicely and that was by design–Burgundies, Blues, Greens, & Khakis are my chosen colors for this portion of the house all year round.

Next, I moved over to that little basket that I’ve been decorating and redecorating since Christmas…Here are the other two ways in which I’ve done up this basket in the past:

And here is how I did recreated it with a couple of Patriotic accents:

I moved on over to the credenza next…I truly only added a couple of pillow’y’ Patriotic hearts and a wooden birdhouse to the existing centerpiece…And then I plopped that “Welcome” plaque in front of the centerpiece…Whew…tough work there huh? Again though, my everyday decor lends itself beautifully to just inserting different ‘seasonal’ items to bring in a new and fresh ‘feel’. Go me…LOL. 😉

Now moving on to the corner decor on the other side of the credenza–I found those pretty pillows, wooden plaque, and that throw in our local “Home Goods” store. As I began to create this ladder decor, I did remove the other pillows and generic accent pieces that I had there on the basket, but I didn’t touch the stuff on the ladder–I simply tied the throw onto a rung, arranged the pillows to my liking, and added my little bears back into the mix. I love how this turned out in the end–I will admit, that I messed with this for quite a little while before I got it to where I was satisfied.

As for the rest of the the spaces, I honestly just added a pop of the Patriotic here and there…

First, I changed out the table runners on the end tables in the family room and on the island in the kitchen, not that they are all that Patriotic, but they blend in nicely:

To the island, I added a red candle and put a red and white pip berry candle ring that I had made out of part of a pip berry garland simply by cutting a portion of length off and tying it together with floral wire. I had made several of them last year to go around my mason jars & gerber daisies centerpieces that I used as part of our Family Reunion Decor And Craft Projects:

Next I moved to the kitchen table & hutch:

I switched out the tablecloth and added a couple of wooden stars to either side of the lantern centerpiece. Here is a link to my A Lantern Centerpiece for All Seasons post if you’d like to make one of these for yourself, it is easy peezy to do, I promise! 🙂

I added a couple of Patriotic stars, a plaque, and just a few other touches to the hutch and the crate corner decor (to the left of the hutch):

And that did it for the inside, I didn’t want to recreate the wheel, but, I was ready for a bit of a change, and I love, love, love Patriotic touches…Now, moving outside for just a few more touches…

I had made this burlap wreath last year, so I hung it on the front door…

And I added just a few things to my Little Red Wagon:

I found that wooden American Flag last year at Hobby Lobby, and I saw yesterday (5/13/16) that they still have it again this year:

And that completed the front porch transformation:

After that, the only other things that I switched out were:

The deco-mesh wreath for the lamp post, I made this last Spring:

And I switched out my decorative flags and gazing ball:

And then I stood back to see if I had enough of a pop of the red color & Patriotic for my liking…And I was satisfied…

I accomplished all of these little things in just one day…The only thing I haven’t changed out yet is the mailbox decor, it will eventually look similar to this though.

Here is a link showing you all of the different looks that my mailbox takes on…Seasonal Mailbox Decor…

I feel much better now that I’ve done a little bit of tweaking to my inside and outside decor. As I said above, this ‘look’ will take me through the summer months. NOW, if it will *just stop raining*! I thinks we’ve had 16 straight days of rain…I’m ready for some sunshine!! 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care!

~Arlynn ❤

Mother’s Day: Cookout & A Tribute

On May 10, 2016May 10, 2016 By ArlynnIn Special Occasions6 Comments

Being a Mom is what I know, what I love, and what I cherish. I never really had a desire to “be” anything else, some say I should have been an Interior Designer, possibly a Nurse, or maybe a Teacher, instead I have learned how to decorate my home in my own way & style, I certainly felt like “Nurse Mom” when my girls were little, and goodness knows I’ve done a lot of teaching through the years (and learning as well). I was lucky enough to be able to choose, and the hubby and I made the decision together, that I would not work outside of the home while the girls were growing up. That said, I volunteered a LOT when my girls were in school. 🙂 I have continued on as a “Domestic Engineer”; the girls are now out on their own and flourishing, and I still stay home and do my crafting, decorating, DIY projects, and now this blog (which has grown outside of its original parameters of being *only* a ‘crafting/home decor’ blog)…I am so grateful!! ❤

Anyway, we just celebrated Mother’s Day on Sunday so I thought I would give y’all a glimpse of how we celebrated–We didn’t do anything all that exciting, but, we had both of our grown and gorgeous girls here at our home along with our daughter’s boyfriend. We had a lovely day, one filled with tons of laughter, fun, hugs, and love. 🙂

I must take a moment to pay tribute to my beautiful Mom who passed away 3-1/2 years ago after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. Oh how I miss my Mom and oh how I hate Alzheimer’s and how it takes our loved ones from us one teeny, tiny, infinitesimal, bit at a time–It is torture to watch them go through the stages of Alzheimer’s, just torture. A bit about my Mom though, she was brilliant, she was beautiful, she was sweet, and she was the best Mom to me (an only child) that she could have been–she was an amazing woman! I will not lament further about her battle with Alzheimer’s today–maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to write a post about how she fought so long and so hard–but, not today. I will share a few pictures of her though…Here is her graduation picture (from college–she was a Biology teacher).

Here is a picture of her on her wedding day to my Dad; I always thought that she looked like a princess:

And here she and I are on one day when I was visiting her in the nursing home not too long before Alzheimer’s was finished ripping her away from us:

To say that I loved my Mom to the moon and back is an understatement. ❤ My sweet cousin Stacey, sent me this beautiful saying the other day–It completely expresses my feelings about my Mom:

I didn’t mean to get maudlin ^^up there^^, but, I couldn’t write this post without paying a bit of a tribute to my sweet Mom. ❤

Moving on now, here are some pictures that I took as the hubby and I were preparing for the kids to stop by on Sunday. As a rule made up over 3 decades ago, the hubby usually handles preparing the outside and I handle preparing the inside. I have found those lines to be somewhat blurred now-a-days though because truly, he and I help each other out here, there, and everywhere. ❤

Our grass has come in beautifully this Spring, the hubby has done an amazing job seeding, fertilizing, planting, and I’m sure doing many other things that I’m not in the know about…haha. Here are a few pictures of our home after he was finished mowing and spiffing up the yard…

And of the pups sitting out on the front sidewalk flanked by my favorite flowers, Gerber Daisies. Left to right, Gracie the Golden Retriever, Samson and Sophie the Newfoundlands:

The hubby also power washed the entire patio, it was pretty messy after the winter. I arranged the furniture, and put a few touches of this and that around to try to make it feel comfy and cozy out there–I love using red as an accent color:

The kiddos arrived on Sunday afternoon and we had a lovely time together…Here are just a few shots of us enjoying the day…

Left to Right: Dustin, our daughters Candace and Christin, & me–Sophie and Samson (brown) the Newfs in front:

And I can’t forget the fur babies:

Something on that grill sure smelled gooooooood!! 😉

Speaking of the food, the hubby cooked hamburgers, hotdogs, and chicken on the grill…along with peppers, onions, zucchini, and mushrooms…And I, for once in my life, bought (instead of making) macaroni salad, potato salad, & cucumber salad. Christin brought her wonderful deviled eggs and we added baked beans, chips and dip, and a cheese ball to the mix. We arranged it all out on the kitchen island and had a little buffet line and then carried our plates out to the patio (and are all on diets now…goodness…between the Hawaiian Cruise <~~~link to my cruise blogs~~~ and now this day, I’m struggling, but I will get back to my good eating regimen…really had already after the cruise, but, I did splurge on this most special of days). 🙂

I had prepared the island the day before–As I said up above, I really love using red as an accent color, I feel like it is a happy color (used in this way) and one that really pops. 🙂

I had the very best Mother’s Day that one could ever imagine–Having my family here with me was the best gift they could have given me… ❤

I did receive this too…VERY special!!! Thank you Christin!! ❤

How in the world did I get so lucky as to have two such wonderful daughters (and Dustin too, because he is fast becoming a member of our family)?! I sure don’t know, but, I do know I feel blessed and am so grateful to have them!! I definitely felt the love on this most special of days!!

Until next time, y’all take good care!

~Arlynn ❤

Hawaiian Cruise: Disembarkation, Final Thoughts, & Home Sweet Home

On May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

My goodness gracious, I am finding that I am quite sad and melancholy as I begin to write this my last Blog post in my Hawaiian Cruise Series. I was pretty sad while I was packing up to leave the Star Princess as well. It is always harder for me to pack at the end of a vacation than it is to plan the trip, organize the particulars, and pack the suitcases at the beginning of a journey. <Sigh> Regardless of whether or not I was ready to disembark, it was almost time to do so. The hubby and I spent the last afternoon on our last sea day packing our bags, we were ready to go…We went ahead and placed our suitcases outside of our stateroom door right after dinner that evening.

We found our ‘End of the cruise paperwork’ in our little mailbox along with our “Red 4” luggage tags that we were to put on our luggage that Princess would be transferring for us. We had pre-arranged for Princess to transfer us from Canada Place to the Vancouver Airport, and it showed us where and what time we were to report (the Vista Lounge)…

While packing, I made sure to put some shampoo, and my hair gel, and other necessities in smaller disposable bottles so that I could pack up my full-size bottles. Our daughter Christin had given both my hubby and I disposable (carry-on compliant) bottles; Christin is an organized person like her Mama and she fixed us right on up with all of these sweet little extras this past Christmas. 😉 🙂

Here is a picture of that extra bag that I had packed in my big suitcase all those many days ago, I knew I would need it for this last night; we’d carry it onto the airplane with us. We put our dirty clothes (packed up in a medium packing cube), my makeup & toiletries, the hubby’s morning toiletries, my curling iron (I used the ‘lovely’ stateroom’s hairdryer that morning throwing in a expletive here and there while drying my hair because it took me forever), and anything else that we saw that we needed to take with us.

SO, I was as packed as I could be…We had eaten our last dinner in the Horizon, walked around the ship taking pictures, and did some last minute shopping. OH and I went to the Captain’s Circle desk and picked up a couple of “Ruby” Pins…I had lost mine along the way somewhere, they were happy to give me two more. I had received our two Platinum pins earlier in the day accompanied by a letter welcoming us to our Platinum status…woohoo. Here is where I put all of my pins along with a pin of the Star Princess (that’s my carry on backpack):

We came back to our Stateroom and headed out onto the balcony because we could once again see land…

And we also got a little treat! We *finally* saw a wee bit of wildlife…These cute little (relatively speaking) Dall’s Porpoises showed up and were playing right around the ship. 🙂

They were so much fun to watch, I was like a little kid in a candy store…I was jumping up and down and clapping and squealing. I’m sure the other passengers thought I was a loon, I didn’t care much what they thought honestly, I was just happy to see these cutie pies. 🙂 ANYway, we sat out there until dark taking in the sights and sounds of our last evening on our cruise; bittersweet thoughts along with mixed emotions were flying around in my head. On one hand, I was ready to go home because I missed my family and my pups, but, I sure wasn’t ready for our much anticipated trip to come to a close. OH well, all good things must come to an end huh?

The next morning, we woke up and our “Log of the Cruise” was in our little mailbox, check out the distance traveled!! Wow Whee!!

And here is my last outfit of the day, comfy and cozy to travel home in:

We stood out on our balcony and watched while we traveled under the Lion’s Gate Bridge one last time:

And onward to Canada Place we sailed:

That is a fake smile on my face, I really wasn’t too, too thrilled in that picture…my hair was sure BIG through…LOL…Again, if a girl can’t laugh at herself, then there is something wrong…;)

We had to be out of the room by 8am, so we complied and headed to the Vista Lounge to wait to be called to disembark. This is about how I felt about getting off of the ship…I look hateful mean…I’m really just sad…:(

ANYway, we waited for about 45 minutes, and then our number was called and off of the ship we walked, straight into Canada Place, and onto our awaiting motor coach.

We had an uneventful trip to the airport, we were familiar with this ride because we’ve always disembarked from Canada Place (we’ve done 4 Alaska: Voyage of the Glaciers Southbound cruises that all ended in Vancouver). When we got to the airport, we went through US customs there…pretty painless process and then we headed to our terminal and awaited our flight to leave.

There was our first plane…

And we were headed home…Which at this point, I was pretty content to be doing, this is what I saw out of the jet’s window…apparently this is Wenatchee National Forest, Stehekin, United States (according to the time and location stamp in my Photos on my Mac)…

We had uneventful flights home and we landed safely and got back to our house at around 2am the next morning…yes, to say we were tired is an understatement…but, it was good to be home. Here is what greeted us as we drove up our driveway and made our way into the house. 🙂 🙂 ❤

It was so good to be home!!

And it was SO good to see our pups…

Now for some final thoughts about this cruise. As I have written these posts one after the next, I have found that I really didn’t have a lot of negative things to say and that’s because this was a wonderful trip that provided my hubby and I with many memories to tuck away and cherish for the rest of our lives.

A note all of you out there who have been so kind with your comments, thank you so very, very, VERY much, every comment has been taken straight to my heart and I am humbly grateful for the responses that I’ve received. ❤

So, sadly, it is time for me to close this Series out now, I have greatly enjoyed sharing our adventure with you. For now, I will go back to my crafting, decorating, and DIY projects (why I originally started this blog site…haha). More travel blogs will appears when we debark on our next journey…most likely with Princess, hopefully, sooner than later.

So for now, I will bid you all adieu and send you my love and say once last time…

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

Much, much love,
~Arlynn ❤

Hawaiian Cruise: Picture Tour of the Star Princess

On May 3, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

As I was perusing through my literally thousands of pictures that we took while on our wonderful cruise, and when I started to pull pictures out to be used in this blog post, I realized that I had way too many pictures and that this would end up to be a very confused and discombobulated post. So “Ms Anal Retentive” herself < ~~~~ me, decided to make collages out of ‘like’ pictures via a spiffy little app that I have on my iPhone. I have literally spent this entire day making these collages, but, I’m thinking that y’all will appreciate my efforts once you start scrolling through this post. 🙂

First, I will show you this gorgeous ship, the Star Princess from a bit of a distance:

She is a big, gorgeous girl to look at isn’t she? I love the way that Skywalkers is situated on the back, I think that it really gives this ship a ton of character.

Now, let’s climb on this beauty and work our way from the bottom to the top. Here is a little map that will help us navigate (of course there are a few decks even higher than this sign depicts…I didn’t get a picture of that sign…lol). 🙂 Please know that as hard as I tried, I did not get pictures of every single venue, but, the hubby and I worked as a team and traversed around the ship a lot taking random pictures and did the best that we could.

Deck 4: Gala Deck–This is where we caught our Tender Boat:

Deck 5: Plaza Deck:

I’ll go ahead and insert the collage of the Piazza here–It was breathtakingly gorgeous!

The International Cafe…Yum, Yum!!

Vines Shop: The hubby got us a really good candy bar from here one day:

The Internet Cafe:

The Capri Dining Room:

The only time we went in here was to attend one of their spiffy little sales that they often have going on on sea days:

Deck 6: Fiesta Deck:

Grand Casino:

Passenger Service Desk:

Calypso Cove:

And at the far end of Calypso Cove, you will find the Sundries shop:

Essence:

This is also the deck where they would set up tables for different special sales…

Promenade Deck:

Princess Theater:

Shore Excursions (the Princess Captain’s Circle & the Future Cruise offices were down this same hallway:

Crown Grill (This was by far our favorite place to eat):

Meridian Bay:

Photo Gallery:

Vista Lounge:

Dolphin Deck:

Our Mini-Suite was on this deck, D620, if you would like to see a very detailed video tour, I created one on my YouTube channel, you can find it here.

The walls in the Staterooms are metal, so it is always fun to bring some magnets with which to hang things:

We used the Laundromat on this floor a couple of times while on board, you use your cruise card to purchase tokens ($3 a piece) which then can be used in the washers and dryers and also to purchase laundry soap and dryer sheets (I recommend you take your own laundry supplies though, much cheaper and they don’t take up too much room in your luggage) It is free to use of the iron and ironing boards :

Deck 14-The Lido Deck:

Prego Pizza:

Trident Grill:

Neptune’s Reef & Pool and Movies Under the Stars:

Sundaes:

Calypso’s Reef & Pool:

As you can see in the pictures ^^^above^^^ there is a terrace type thing that wraps around the indoor pool (one deck up). They have chairs up there along with some ping-pong tables…very relaxing little place.

Horizon Court Buffet:

The Self-Serve Coffee/Tea Station, there is one on each side of the Horizon Buffet:

The Crab Shack is also held on this floor, they close down one side of the Horizon Buffet in order to accommodate the Shack…SO, SO good, highly recommend!!

Horizon Terrace and Pool

And then a couple more Decks higher is Skywalkers Nightclub:

Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the Sanctuary, the Fitness Center, the Wedding Chapel, the Youth/Teen Center, or a couple of the Main Dining Rooms along with other places that I probably don’t even realize exist..haha. 🙂 BUT, again, we did our best. 🙂 It truly is a lovely ship, (a bit of maintenance is needed in places, but, that is to be expected on a ship this size and one that is ‘at sea’ as much as this one is–I’m not complaining, just stating a fact); the crew works extremely hard each and every day to keep it sparkling clean and in great shape! 🙂 Speaking of the crew…they were absolutely wonderful, everyone ALWAYS had a smile on their face, everyone ALWAYS had a nice greeting or a put forth a sweet “Have a nice morning/day/evening”, I never saw one of them in a bad mood or being grumpy…ever!

I have one more Blog entry that will end this Series and in that I will talk about Disembarkation, possibly some final thoughts, although, I’ve pretty much said all I need to say, and our trip home (including a video of our pups when we walked back into the house). For those of you who don’t know, we have a Golden Retriever named Gracie, and two Newfoundland dogs names Sophie and Samson (brown). Here is a picture that I took of them yesterday…

And…Here is a link to my final post in this Hawaiian Cruise Series:

Hawaiian Cruise: Disembarkation, Final Thoughts, & Home Sweet Home

Boy oh boy do we ever love our pups. 🙂

SO, until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

OH one more thing…Here is a link to my very first post in this Hawaiian Cruise Series — And as in this one, there is a link at the end of each post that will take you to the next one in line–in chronological order. 🙂

And ***one*** more thing…haha…I promise just one more. 😉 Here is a video that I created for my YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels) of the Star Princess picture tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYpeocL6jas&t=55s

Hawaiian Cruise: Maui – Tendering & A Bit of Shopping

On April 30, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

I was awakened on the morning that we arrived in Maui with the oh so soothing (not) sound of the little “Tender” boats being lowered down into the water. As y’all know, our room was situated toward the aft of the ship, port side, and they chose to lower the Tenders right under our room down to be utilized to transport folks to shore. Of course, I didn’t mind being woken up, after all, we were in Maui! I will admit though, a wave of sadness came over me for a few minutes when I remembered that we were at our last port of call. I wasn’t going to think about that right then though, I’d think about that tomorrow when we were bob-bob-bobbing along heading back to Vancouver. That morning, I needed to get up and get ready for our day. 🙂

The stupid saga of my feet continues, grrrrr, we again had to cancel a day long excursion that we had had planned because my feet just weren’t recovering very well, stupid feet!

Honestly, we didn’t mind too, too much. Taking a little ride on a Tender boat, walking around town, shopping a bit, and having a nice lunch by the sea sounded really pretty perfect to us–we had been go-go-going for the last 3 days. We were content to have a bit of a more relaxing day planned. 🙂

***(BTW–My feet recovered completely after this day because the hubby pretty much wouldn’t let me stand, propped my feet up on a chair, and made me drink a copious amount of water for our 1st day back ‘at sea’..AND that did the trick, I haven’t had a problem since…thank goodness)***

Okay, so my outfit for the day…

Yes, I did wear those flip-flops, the next best thing to those pretty pink shoes. 🙂

And here is the Princess Patter for that day:

In the Patter there were instructions as to how one was to go about disembarking, we simply needed to head down to the Capri Dining room when we were ready to leave the ship, they’d give us a “Tender Ticket”, and we’d wait for our number to be called. All in all, it was a very smooth operation–not surprising because Princess has this stuff down pat. So off to the Capri Dining room we trekked…

And we were handed our Tender Ticket:

And then we sat down to wait:

It wasn’t long before our number was called (about 30 minutes), we were directed to go down a couple of decks (via stairs of course) to where we’d be loaded onto our sweet little **rocking** Tender boat…We saw this on our way:

Here the pictures will stop for a few minutes…That little Tender was rocking and rolling let me tell you…LOL…I took a look at it and then I looked at my hubby and grabbed onto him for dear life. It was going to be interesting getting ole “not so steady on her swollen, fat feet, bad knees, Arlynn” onto that ever moving Tender boat…

But, by the grace of all that is holy and with the help of the hubby and every Princess person’s hand that I could grab, I managed to step right onto that Tender. It was then that I saw the hubby climbing the LADDER to go up onto the top deck…OH JOY JOY…Okay, I was determined and I managed to climb right up (slowly) and pretty much fell right onto the little bench seat and proceeded to slide my rear to where it needed to sit. Whew, that was a little harrowing, but, dag nab it, I did IT!! Woohoo!!!

It was a lovely little ride to shore, and because I had managed to haul my ever so cumbersome self up that ladder, my vantage point was awesome. My favorite part was being able to see the Star Princess from the outside up close!

The view heading to shore was nothing to sneeze at either….

It was much less wavy when we pulled into the dock and I was able to climb right on off of that Tender with ease…The first thing that happened was that my hubby bought me a beautiful Lei…OMGosh, it smelled delightful!! AND the lady who made the Lei sweetly gave me a flower for my hair…BUT, it blew away within about 10 seconds of it being seeded not so securely into my hair (she had secured the flower onto a toothpick…now how in the world was I supposed to stick that in my hair and have it stay put with the gale force winds that were warmly blowing)? **Just asking…Silly of me I know…*** 😉 ANYway, here is that pretty Lei:

Windy? Yeppers, VERY windy! lol…

The hubby and I set off to do a bit of exploring and shopping, really nothing too astronomically interesting to tell you about that. We did see this school sign, it made me think of our daughter the teacher whose attitude is this almost every day of her life. 🙂

We were successful at buying some gifts for our girls on this day, we found some Vans shoes for a pretty decent price and they were really cute! We got the cupcake ones for one of our daughters…

And these spiffy tropical ones for the other daughter:

We also got each girl some pretty jewelry a necklace for one and earrings and a bracelet for the other. 🙂 My hubby treated me to some pretty jewelry too, he got me this pretty Plumeria flower necklace:

And then this necklace, earrings, and bracelet; a white plumeria flower just like the pink one up there…

After we had shopped for a little while, we stopped into a lovely, open and airy restaurant named Koa’s. It sat right on the ocean and upon entering, we, of course, climbed the ***stairs*** to the top outdoor deck. By this point, ***stairs*** and I were ‘one’. 😉

Here is the Menu for Koa’s:

And this was my lunch…OH goodness was it good, fattening yes, but delicious! That pasta salad was to die for!

This was our view in one direction…

And check out what was over my head in the background …I actually moved to the other side of the table after I took this silly selfie so that I could look out over the water…

After lunch, we started to head back toward where we would catch the Tender boat that would take us back to the Star…I clicked off a few pictures along the way…

Check out these two ladies…I would have LOVED to do that, but there was a line…Next time!

AND the gorgeous palm trees, blue sky, and puffy white clouds…Exactly how I’ve always pictured Hawaii…

Getting a Tender ride back to the ship was as easy as could be, we just walked right up and climbed on (literally, because we climbed to the upper deck again…haha…BUT, I was able to take this little video—Well part of the video is of them lowering the Tender down in the morning, but then the rest of it is of our little ride back…

I’m such a goober, I was taking selfies right and left, but, how many times are you sitting on a Tender boat with a HUGE cruise ship in the background?

We were back to the ship…AND maneuvering OFF of that Tender was NO easier than the harrowing trip was ONTO the Tender…LOL…I’m lucky I’m alive to tell the tale…<~~~ Just kidding of course, but, it was really rocky and I again grabbed onto my hubby, any available Princess person, strangers, poles, the roof of the Tender… once I got DOWN the devil ladder, and well, I’m betting y’all can picture it. 😉 I was happy to have my feet back on that solid ship <~~~ Uh huh, that made good sense…LOL…Relative to the Tender, that big ship was like the Rock of Gibraltar! 😉

The rest of the day/evening was spent r-e-l-a-x-i-n-g and hanging out on our balcony watching the Tenders come and go—Scintillating entertainment huh? Well, maybe not, but, we were happy to just sit and bask in the sunlight that Maui was providing on this gorgeous day in April 2016.

Here is the last Tender returning to the ship:

The sun went down over the western sky and our Hawaiian Islands experience had come to a conclusion. The cruise was far from over, but, we had seen all we were going to see of the Islands…Kinda sad really, but, I do feel as if we will return again…Lord willing anyway. 🙂 Many thanks to the gorgeous Hilo and her waterfalls, to Honolulu for allowing us to pay our respects to all of our brave, fallen soldiers, to Kauai for her beautiful crater and gorgeous views, and to Maui for finishing off our experience with a calm, very sweet, warm, sunny day. Hawaii will never be forgotten and we will hold all of the memories that we made while visiting her close to our hearts and ever in our minds. ❤

I’m not quite done with this blog series yet…Next up, I’ll take you on a tour of the Star Princess–Via pictures of course. I’ll show you how we enjoyed “The Crab Shack” & “The Crown Grill”, and..wait for it…THE LAUNDRY ROOM <~~~ exciting stuff! 😉 I’ll also share with you some of the gifts that I brought home for my family, among other things I’m sure. 🙂 Then in my last entry in this series, I will give you a short synopsis of my all-over thoughts about this cruise.

Here is a sneak peek at the tour and link:

Hawaiian Cruise: Picture Tour of the Star Princess

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

***One more thing. 🙂 Here is a video that I created of our day in Maui after I had finished writing my Hawaii Blog—I also have a YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj8o476A0Dg&t=1s

Hawaiian Cruise – Kauai: Spouting Horn & Waimea Canyon

On April 29, 2016February 12, 2017 By ArlynnIn Vacations13 Comments

Our 3rd port of call was Kauai, I was really looking forward to this day as I had the 2 previous days because each day of this cruise had been an adventure and I was looking forward to whatever might come our way on this day. The hubby was out doing his morning walk and taking pictures of the sunrise while I pulled myself together for the day’s activities (“pulling myself together” takes a little longer these days, so the hubby busied himself each morning as I primped…haha…;) ). Anyway, this is what I saw when I opened the drapes of our mini-suite that morning:

And here is the outfit that I chose to wear on this day. Now, remember, I had purchased those fancy pink shoes…

And I wanted to wear them on this day because I knew that we had a good bit of walking ahead of us, so this is the outfit I chose. I’ll lament further on those orange pants a little later. :

The very first thing that I noticed about Kauai was that it was windy as all get out when I went out on the balcony to try to take a selfie…Note those orange pants don’t look too bad…Y-E-T…;) The hubby ended up taking this picture…or tried to take this picture…I gave up after a while…lol…

ANYways, enough about those silly pants for the moment…

Little did I know that while I was pulling myself together, my hubby had caught some gorgeous pictures of us coming into port and of a lovely rainbow!

There’s the rainbow!! 🙂

And check out this gorgeous sunrise, the prettiest one we’d seen up to this point:

Here is the Princess Patter for that day (Nawiliwili is the name of the Port *in* Kauai*…

Here is a description of the excursion that we had planned:

We disembarked the Star Princess and met our mode of transportation for the day, this motor coach:

Our bus driver was the nicest fella, quite full of information (and of himself…he was a hoot). We started our 2 hour drive to Waimea Canyon with him narrating the entire way–He was full of stories and jokes. Kauai was a gorgeous island and I was thrilled to be hearing about all of the old stories about its beginnings and its people as we meandered around and through lovely little towns. Again, Princess does a phenomenal job when choosing these excursion guides/bus drivers/narrators…They are all excellent. I know some people feel that they can save a plethora of money by NOT using Princess to book their excursions, but, honestly, it is worth it to us to go ahead and use them, especially on this trip, this was our first time doing this particular cruise and we truly would have had no earthly idea of where to begin to choose off the ship excursions if it weren’t for Princess’ guidance. Shoot, even when we’re in Alaska (we’ve cruised there 4 times) we still use Princess…most of the time.

So, our first stop on the way to Waimea Canyon was here at Spouting Horn (and for a potty break if needed). What was the first sign I saw when I got off of the bus? This…LOL:

Really? Feral cats and chickens? Well I didn’t see any cats, but there were a couple of roosters strutting around…haha.

This was a lovely little lookout type place, the water was so blue and just gorgeous, the grass was green and lush, we definitely felt like we were in the tropics:

And here is Spouting Horn:

Wow, that was pretty neat, I really enjoyed our little stop there. It was time to climb back on the bus and head on up (literally…WAY up) to Waimea Canyon…

There were two ways that could be utilized to get up the the Canyon’s lookout, one was a set of stairs that yes, I traversed, and also there was a large winding pathway/ramp type thing that those with physical problems could use…Here is a picture of that pathway, as you can kind of see, it winds its way back and forth so as to reduce the pitch of the climb.

As you probably read in the description of this excursion ^^^up there^^^, we were getting ready to gaze upon what Mark Twain had dubbed “The Grand Canyon of the Pacific”. It was an amazingly gorgeously, ridiculously stupendous place. I think the pictures will speak for themselves, so I’ll hush now and just show you the beauty that *is* Waimea Canyon:

To give you a sense of the sheer size of this canyon, the white blip in the picture below is a helicopter! 🙂 Goodness gracious!

Another couple was nice enough to take this picture of the hubby and I:

YES, it was e-x-t-r-e-m-i-l-y windy! lol

AND those stupid orange pants that I had on had now expanded to a VERY large size…What in the world?! They stretched out SO much…I needed SUSPENDERS…NO kidding, I really needed suspenders!!! Sheesh…I was a mess for myself! I know I’m a big girl, but, I do NOT fill up those pants in this picture!! I’m lucky I didn’t get picked up by that wind and whisked away down into that canyon…Well, if that had happened, those pants would have served as a parachute and I would have landed safe and sound on the bottom. 😉 (A girl has to laugh at herself once in a while…lol):

Okay, enough of my ranting and raving about those stupid pants…LOL…We headed back down to our motor coach. They had a fruit stand set up beside the parking lot with fresh pineapple and candies and all sorts of yummy snacks and more of that fruity canned juice that we had had in Hilo:

And there was another rooster here and he was strutting himself around all over the place…;)

Here is our motor coach driver blowing into his conch shell giving us our 5 minute warning–it was time to get ourselves back to the bus…I’ll tell you, he really was a funny fellow.

And back to the ship we traveled being entertained the entire way (2 hours).

Check out what was waiting for us right before we climbed back onto the ship–The Princess folks did this every single day…Those cloths were damp and scented…ahhhhh, did they ever feel good!!

The hubby and I were very hungry and we headed to the Buffet for something to eat…I changed my outfit though, I’d had enough of those stupid parachute pants!! Here was my outfit for the evening hours…Notice my feet were getting better though because I’d worn those spiffy pink shoes. 🙂

After we got back to our room, we kind of hung out in there for the rest of the evening…Well, we really hung out out on our balcony because sail-away was kinda fun to watch. The dock workers unhitched us…And the side thrusters started to do their job…

As I’ve mentioned ohhhh once or twice in this entry, it was really windy on this day and I guess it was so windy that we needed a little assistance from a tug boat to get us out of the harbor. I had such a good time watching this little (relatively speaking) tug boat protect us from hitting the dock–as far as I know though, it never had to touch us, it was just there as a back-up if needed.

Our room must have been right at the pivot point because the tug boat stayed right below our room for quite some time as we made our way out of the harbor…

Once we got out far enough, the tug boat left us and we fended for ourselves to maneuver around and through those buoys…

We skirted the shoreline for a while on our way out of this cove and we came to this point. I saw this golf green right on the edge of a cliff…Haha…My 80 year old Dad is an avid golfer and has had 8 holes in one in his lifetime–he is a “scratch” golfer (doesn’t carry a handicap for you non-golfers out there). I know he would have loved to play *this* golf course…and particularly this hole…he loves a challenge. 🙂

Check out where the Pin is…Goodness!

Our day in Kauai had come to an end and as the hubby and I sat out on our balcony and enjoyed the warm tropical breezes while watching the sun set, we lamented once again at how lucky and blessed we felt to be able to do this awesomely beautiful cruise. We felt so relaxed and were just loving being right there at that moment in time….Memories were being made that we’d hold in our minds and hearts forever. ❤

We were steaming toward Maui, and of course, that is what I’ll be writing about next. Here is a sneak peek and link:

Hawaiian Cruise: Maui – Tendering & A Bit of Shopping

OH one more thing…I am going to insert some links in here just in case anyone might want to look back on my earlier posts that I’ve written about this cruise. I’ll also include a link to my video (very detailed) that I took and narrated of our Mini-Suite (D620 on the Star Princess).

Here goes:

Hawaii Cruise Wardrobe Choices

Hawaii: Packing, Traveling, Dinner With Dear Friends, & Embarkation

Hawaiian Cruise: First Day On Board & 10 Sea Days

Hawaiian Cruise: Hilo – Waterfalls & More

Hawaiian Cruise – Honolulu: Arizona Memorial & Mighty Mo

And here is a link to that Stateroom Tour of Mini-Suite D620 on the Star Princess

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

***One more thing. Here is a video that I created of our day in Kauai after I had finished writing my Hawaii Blog—I also have a YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGd1fO0Lgjs&t=3s

Hawaiian Cruise – Honolulu: Arizona Memorial & Mighty Mo

On April 27, 2016February 3, 2022 By ArlynnIn Vacations19 Comments

The feeling I have right at this moment as I start to write this post is one of quiet respect, mournful solitude, prayerful sorrow, and complete and utter sadness for those brave men and women we lost on December 7, 1941 in the attack on Pearl Harbor. This will not be an easy post to write, but, I will try my best to give you the overall feeling of how touring the World War II Valor in the Pacific site affected me.

When I awoke and we were docked alongside Honolulu, my mind started to go to that fateful day and to all of the details that I’ve read in all of the history books; I knew that I was going to experience, in the only way we who were not alive on that fateful day can experience, the horror of the deadly attack on Pearl Harbor that the United States endured. One of the main reasons that I wanted to go to Hawaii was so that I could pay my own respects to all that perished that day and to somehow, even if it was only by my quiet, respectful attitude while on that hallowed ground, convey my thoughts and prayers and most humbled reflection. It was not going to be an easy day for me, but, it was one that I had looked forward to for some time.

All that said, let’s get started…First of all, here is the Princess Patter for that day:

We had also gotten this pamphlet when we first boarded, this gives a list of all of the excursions that were available in Honolulu–We had already made our excursion reservations online before we set sail.

Also, at every port, we got this nice little pamphlet to give us more information about where we were going to be visiting.

The day before we pulled into port, we had received this letter explaining how things would work on our excursion-stringent rules that I was actually quite glad to see. As well, on our excursion tickets, we were asked to dress appropriately…no bathing suits or shorts with holes in them etc…I was really glad to see that too…We were going to a hallowed place, not the beach, and not somewhere that was necessarily going to be fun.

Here is what I chose to wear for this day:

Here was our ticket for our time to see the 20-minute documentary film depicting the attack on Pearl Harbor…We would have time to visit 2 museums onsite before and after the film and subsequent motor launch ride over to the Arizona Memorial.

Here was our motor coach for the day, the bus driver was absolutely awesome, she told story after story, I was brought to tears so many times while listening to her–she also made me laugh too. She was the perfect person to narrate our trip (Princess does such a great job at choosing these companies and their personnel…honestly, they really do).

In route, we caught our first glimpse of the Arizona memorial, we took this picture from the bus:

We parked and we started our tour…

Here are some pictures of the two museums, the first one was “Road to War” and the second one was “Attack”:

I was quite touched as I walked through those two museums, they are very well done!

Next it was time to go and see the 20 minute documentary film–I did not take pictures of that probably because I was quite moved. After the film was over, it was time to take the boat over to the Arizona Memorial.

This is a picture of the type of boat that you ride in over to the Arizona–They run two such boats, this was the one we saw as it was making its way back as we were moving toward the monument in an identical boat:

They pull you up right beside the Memorial…This is a very solemn trip for most including my hubby and I…

To this day, people are still put to rest in the Arizona:

You can still see oil leaking out of the ship:

And the most touching part of the Memorial was this the Honor Wall:

As you read in the first couple of paragraphs of this blog post, I think that you all realize how important this day was to me. I admit that I’m a very patriotic person and I am very proud to be an American. As Americans, when our citizens are hurt, we are all hurt on some level, so touring this Memorial was quite a ‘moment’ in my life for me. All that said, I’m now going to get a little bit negative in my statements here…Just warning you beforehand. I’d appreciate no judgement being hurled my way after the following statements are read, but I cannot remain silent on this issue, so here goes: Now, we all know that I’m the “Selfie Queen”, I’m forever taking Selfies here, there, and everywhere. BUT, you will NOT see a selfie of me in front of this wall, in fact, we had to wait for quite a long time before we could get a picture of this wall without someone standing in front of it SMILING and WHOOPING and HOLLERING while taking their selfies. I was appalled, absolutely appalled at some peoples nonchalant attitudes and their complete disrespect of this most solemn place. It was incredible to me. Now, I realize that we are Americans and that this site might affect us a bit more than some other countries residents…BUT, I would hope that if we traveled and toured a similar site in another country, that we would be respectful and solemn while experiencing such a place. After I saw that display of complete ignorance and disrespect to our fallen, I turned around and got in line and waited quietly in tears for our ride back…While I was standing there waiting, I took this picture…GOD BLESS AMERICA and God Bless all of our fallen warriors and all of those who perished when Pearl Harbor was attacked…

If you’d like to know more about the Arizona Memorial, click here.

Okay, I’m finished with my rant…Onward we go with our day in Honolulu…Now that we had experienced the beginning of the war, we were now on our way over to Mighty Mo to experience the end of the war. Aboard the Missouri is where Japanese envoys Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed their surrender on September 2, 1945 while in Tokyo Bay.

We were given a guided tour and were told all about the Missouri’s illustrious battle career, if you’d like to read more about Mighty Mo, check out this link.

This is one of the guns used to shoot down Kamikazes…

And the Surrender papers…

We then headed back to our motor coach, I was bushed to be honest…more emotionally than physically of course. I was so glad that we came, but, it affected me greatly. Our bus driver took us passed the submarine the USS Bowfin on our way back to our ship…

And here is my hubby’s birthplace, Tripler Army Medical Center. 🙂 Yep, my hubby was born in Hawaii! 🙂

When we got back to our ship, instead of climbing right back aboard, we took a little walk…We saw these gorgeous flowers…

And I’m not sure if any of you saw the “Dirty Jobs” show were Mike Rowe was cleaning windows in Honolulu…Well, here is the hotel where he was working on said windows…

Here is the Star Princess from a distance…Goodness she really is a beauty (I know I say that every time I show a picture of her…hahaha…I’m nothing if not repetitive on that note). 😉

Our day in Honolulu was coming to an end and we were pulling away from the dock and setting sail for Kauai. It had been a day that I’ll never, ever forget as long as I live. I feel so lucky and blessed that I was able to walk on that hallowed ground. The next time we go to Honolulu, maybe we’ll go and see a waterfall or a volcano or something more vacation’ee, but, I will never regret our tours of the Arizona Memorial and Mighty Mo. One more time, I must say…God Bless America! ❤

Next stop…Kauai…Here is a sneak peek and link:

Hawaiian Cruise – Kauai: Spouting Horn & Waimea Canyon

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

***One more thing. 🙂 Here is a video that I created of our day in Honolulu after I had finished writing my Hawaii Blog—I also have a YouTube Travel Channel (Arlynn’s Travels):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qk66KrfsX0&t=40s

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