February Happenings

 Looking over our photos for the month, it appears that we ate and had a lot of band stuff. Which is true although not as much band as during marching season. 

We enjoyed the Germany Yum Box.

Our friend Jason from Mines visited us for a few hours. It was so nice to see him!

Jason, U and Me

The kids had the concert band concert one evening. Both Megan and Matthew played in the Concert Band, the Symphonic Band and the Wind Ensemble. First up were solos by five students who received superior ratings at the solo festival in January, including Megan.

Megan playing her solo with Anne Kirkham accompanying. She played Allegretto Grazioso by Brahms and did an amazing job!

Wind Ensemble playing "The Great Rubber Chicken Gallop" which is a fun song! If you look closely, you might be able to spot Megan. Matthew, on the other hand, is very hard to see due to his seating location.

Bowing at the end of the concert band concert.

The next night, we were back for the jazz concert.

Jazz Maroon

Matthew playing with the band.

Matthew during his solo.

Megan and U painted toenails and fingernails together. They are quite fancy!

We enjoyed the France Yum Box.

We went to the Count Basie Orchestra concert. Matthew and Megan were both super excited to go as they are one of the oldest jazz bands (91 years!).

U, Me, Matthew, Megan

The Count Basie Orchestra

The jazz bands had their area festival. Jazz Maroon got an "Excellent" rating which is the second tier rating and good for a lower jazz class. Jazz Black got a "Superior" rating which is the top rating.

Mr. Bullock conducting Jazz Maroon.

Jazz Maroon including the rhythm section.

USS Iowa

Since our planes did not leave until the afternoon, we had a bit of time once we got off the cruise boat. We took a walk around the pier and then toured the USS Iowa when it opened.

Stuffing all the bags in a locker.

USS Iowa with the Quantum of the Seas right behind it.

Picture of the USS Iowa from the Oct 30, 1944 LIFE magazine.

Me with the anchors at the bow (front) of USS Iowa.

16 inch projectile

Me holding a powder bag.

We went on the President's tour where we got to see some behind-the-scenes places including where FDR lived when on the USS Iowa. It ended up being just Cheryl-Lynn and Me on the tour which was nice. The USS Iowa transported FDR to Algeria in 1943 en route to the Tehran Conference.

Some pictures from when FDR was on the battleship.

Me and CL at the dining table.

Replica of FDR's wheelchair

List of those on the boat with FDR.

Admiral William D. Leahy

General George C. Marshall

Admiral Ernest J. King

General Henry H. Arnold

Harry L. Hopkins

Franklin D. Roosevelt

This is our guide, Phillip Browning. He was a wealth of information and very enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge.

The living area in FDR's quarters. They removed the bottom part of the doors to accommodate the wheelchair.

Bosun's chair used to get FDR on and off the USS Iowa.

The one bathtub on a naval ship.

FDR's bed

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill at the Tehran Conference.

USS Iowa's travels

 Me on the bridge

Bunks of enlisted men. They were not super comfortable and so men often slept on the outside decks.

CL getting her food.

Me in the cafeteria

Cheryl-Lynn and Me with a naval helicopter

Our guide had told us about a model of the USS Iowa we would see as we toured the boat. Except we did not see it. When we asked a worker about it, he told us the area was closed to tourists due to the renovations. He then asked us if we wanted to see it. So we got our own private tour of a closed off part of the boat. Plus the man studied archaeology and so was a wealth of information if Megan decides to go into that field.

USS Iowa model

We went to the Long Beach airport where we got some lunch. We then flew home.

Me at Long Beach airport

It was a nice trip. I am glad I got to spend some good time with my sister (and parents at Disney).

Readership Cruise: The Trip Back

 We went to our room to rest for a bit.

Our room steward left us this cute creation.

We ate lunch in the Windjammer and enjoyed the views as we left Cabo. We saw quite a few dolphins and whales.

Breaching whale

Group photo before dinner Monday night

We had dinner with our tablemates.

Left side: CL, Natalia, Angela, Jen, Karen
Right side: Me, Rachel, Susan, Scarlet, Claudia

Some pictures of my food. Note that multiple of these dishes were shared with my sister.

Pretty sunset!

We went to see Sonic Odyssey. Twice. It was amazing! The earth harp and the drums were all super impressive. As was the whole show. Definitely recommend!

In between the two showings of Sonic Odyssey, we went to the Shush party where we wore headphones and danced to the music only we (and everyone else with headphones) could hear. There were two channels so not everyone was listening to the same songs. Actually, people without headphones could often hear the music thanks to those with headphones singing. Fun time!

Tuesday morning we woke up due to the movement and groaning of the boat. There were 12 foot swells plus we were going against the current. It did not help that we were in the back of the 13th floor for book clubs most of the day. So lots of ginger! I did enjoy the book clubs. The swaying, not so much. Each author did a book club: "Julia" was led by Traci Abramson, "Frontier Grit" was led by Sarah Eden, "Rules of Matrimony" was led by Sian Bessey, "Winterset" was led by Esther Hatch and "Georgana's Secret" was led by Julianna Donaldson. They were all enjoyable. There was also a bonus book club with "The Maid of Sherwood Forest" with Sian.

Sarah gave everyone who came to her book club a signed "Seeking Persephone" movie poster. My family is so excited!

Julianne, Esther, Traci, Sarah and Sian during the bonus book club. They asked Readership readers to answer questions about which author would be most likely to do something as it pertained to the world of "The Maid of Sherwood Forest" and then had the authors guess who they thought the readers would choose. It was funny. Apparently both Julianne and Sarah are accident prone.

Julianne during her book club.

We got dressed for the Regency Tea Party (which had no tea, just pastries)

Cheryl-Lynn and Me in our dresses

Julianne, Esther, Sian, Sarah and Traci. They had a bunch of rapid fire questions for the authors which was fun. Sarah gave us some behind-the-scenes info about "Seeking Persephone." They taught us some Regency dances and we had the book exchange.

Sarah rapping "Ice Ice Baby" while everyone else dances. It was really fun.

During the dancing.

Do you see Me and Cheryl-Lynn? We are in there.

We had our last dinner in the dining room. CL and Me ordering a lot of food was basically a running joke at this point with our table and wait staff (although most other people were ordering multiple of things as well so I guess we were rubbing off on them). Our waiter told us we could have all the desserts (as opposed to recommending one or two). It was funny. Pictures of my food, some of which were shared with my sister.

Appetizers

Main dishes

Dessert

Left side: CL, Me, Natalie, Claudia, Scarlet
Right side: Rachel, Susan, Angela plus our wait staff: Sikelela from South Africa and Biki from India

Pretty scene

After dinner, we went to the comedian and to a family game show. 

We woke up Wednesday knowing we would soon be disembarking. We packed up and got ready to leave. 

Enjoying our last meal on the boat. The French toast was delicious!

My badge from the cruise. Each of the writers plus a few other people had ribbons for us. It made our badges quite long!

Me in the Readership shirt she won. (She won two shirts so gave this one to CL.)

A few pictures of our room. We had an oceanview room which was nice. I sure am glad we were on the 3rd deck with all the movement on the boat.

We waited as long as we could to get off the boat since our flights weren't until the afternoon. We ended our cruise how we started it: chilling in the Two70 until they kicked us off the boat.

Our boat!

CL and Me with Quantum of the Seas

Overall I enjoyed the cruise, especially the time with my sister. I will note that my world rocked quite significantly for a number of days after getting off the boat. While it was nice when I was being rocked to sleep, it was challenging when I swayed when standing.