All posts by Nancy

Ankle Replacement

When Life gets in the way or my ankle replacement during a pandemic

On August 11, 2020, I underwent a second ankle replacement surgery. Along with the ankle replacement was a 3D printed talus bone (the bone under your ankle), an Achilles tendon lengthening, moved my heal into position under my foot (instead of on the side of it), stem cells taken from my fibula, tightening of my ligaments on the side of my ankle and whatever else he did. Life is so much better now but this is 20 weeks later. I am walking, driving, playing golf, working out, and riding my trike.

My beloved husband, Mike, was just awesome. He cooked (incredible meals), washed, and folded clothes, helped me get ready for my showers, attached my ice water tubes to keep my foot cool, and took care of everything in the house (besides working full time) so I could just heal.

I am so grateful for him and all he did and does. I truly do not know how I would have gotten through this without his loving support. Mike is just an amazing man. The other part of our family, our Lakeland Terrier, Mac stayed by my side the entire time. He left only to go out and to eat.

Additionally, I had the support of my friends in the neighborhood even when I did not have the energy to talk to them. They were there for me. To my aunt and uncle, they were there for me every day. I appreciate and loved their encouragement. As another aside, here is a shout out to the total ankle replacement group (TAR) on Facebook. It is a caring group of people who have had, are going to have, or are thinking about an ankle replacement. They are a great example of what a Facebook group should be.

Despite everything, it was hard. I was non-weight bearing for almost 7 weeks. For most of that time, I was in a splint that had a pad that attached to an ice water machine to circulate cold water around the ankle. It kept the swelling down and the pain. I can honestly say I was not in pain as much as “annoyance” with the splint and not being able to do anything. My surgeon believes my healing was exceptionally good because of the icing. I have to say it was difficult. First the tubes to the ice machine was placed inside my knee.

I can only say, I now understand how men must feel all the time. I had that changed to the outside and it was much better, but it was annoying as well. Then came a cast for a couple of weeks. It was better than the splint only because it was more contained. After that came the boot and the “lift up” for the other foot. I just counted the days, hours, and minutes to keep sane. It was difficult.

The one thing that saved me was my knee wheeler. It enabled me to move around freely. I used it in the hospital as well, so I never needed help from the nurses.    Crutches were not an option for me.

Along the way, I just had to get out the frustration about how I felt. Below are random thoughts that came to me in the middle of the night. I wrote them down every evening (in the middle of the night) when they came into my head and am now sharing it with the world. I found it to be cathartic and am now okay to share. Perhaps it came at exceptionally low time for me. I was beyond upset being in a splint and attached to an ice machine and then the cast. It was just too much. Now, I am grateful that I kept these because I am in such a better place now. I am still amazed because this is not who I am. This was not enjoyable, but I went through it and came out better for it.

8/26/20

I want to scream.  I want to be somewhere where my foot is normal again. That I can run and bike with Mike.  I need to stay in control and not beat myself up so much.  Sometimes, I need help too.

8/27/20

I need to scream. I don’t know how to feel sorry for myself or question to bigger world, why me? Why me? My poor feet I abused with sky high heels, with as much exercise as I could do. Why me? No reason. I was just dealt a hand I never expected. I try to stay optimistic for everyone else but for me; I need to scream. 

8/28/20

I need to scream. The cover of darkness is not my friend.  I loved going to bed and relaxing from the day.  Evening and bed are no longer my haven. Night keeps me up makes me realize how mortal I am. It pushes me out of my comfort to a different time and place that is new to me.  Please come back, my friend, my sleep.  I need you to be kind. 

8/29/20

I want to scream even though today was fun. Getting into the back seat of the car for a chauffeured ride, enjoying breakfast outside, and yet tonight again the night is not my friend.  My leg is weary. It has a life of its own. I want to scream

8/30/20

It is night again.  The cover of darkness is not my choice anymore.  It is my time of hurt and despair. I feel that I just do not know how to make it through another day with my foot elevated and cooled. Day helps me see the positive things in life and then dark happens all over again.  When it does, my despair continues.

Do I regret what I wrote and how I felt? Not really but it was a low point for me. I understand being almost helpless and depending on my very special husband for things I needed to do. Being an independent person makes it difficult to accept any help. He never minded, never complained, and was only supportive and loving. That is how I got through the nights and days.

Today, it is almost 7 months past the surgery. My feet are great but my gait is so different that my IT band is very tight. Oh well. It is still so much better than before.

Pandemic

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pandemic

4 Comments

Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think we would be part of a pandemic. That is only for other places or people; Ebola, or H1N1, or HIV but here we are in the middle of a serious health concern that spread throughout the world and now touches us at home. At one time, I would have been chomping on the bit to get a “good” Covid-19 test on the market especially with the amazing infectious disease scientists I knew and worked with but those days are over for me so what do I do now?

We are so fortunate to live in a beautiful place with flowers blooming since they don’t know there is a pandemic. My orchids are blooming because they don’t know there is a pandemic either.

Phalaenopsis orchid better known as my Trader Joe’s orchids. They don’t know there is a pandemic.
View from our lanai
Part of our herb garden

We can sit in our lanai and have dinner outside every night because we aren’t crowded in an urban environment. We can enjoy our hot tub whenever we wish. We can have a drink and enjoy the sunset. Our weather is beautiful, it is warm and sunny most of the time. We can get out and see our neighbors as they walk, jog, or bike by. We aren’t forced to stay in without access to outdoors. It could be so much worse for us. I can even play golf albeit in our own carts, riding alone unless you are with your significant other, that are sanitized before use.

Great blue heron. He doesn’t realize there is a pandemic just looks for fish.
Roseate Spoonbill looking for food with no mask on.

We can go to the grocery store with our masks and the store employees clean the shopping carts before we use it. We are so fortunate and yet some people in our neighborhood still complain that their rights are being taken away. So far, I am counting our blessings that only a couple of people in  our family are in harm’s way (she and her significant other are paramedics.)

What I really miss is getting my hair colored and cut (I haven’t ever gone this long without color), getting a mani and pedi (I haven’t done my own nails in way too many years. I barely own an emery board), and finally, I want to go out to a restaurant (not order in) and be served. The truth is those a first world problems so in the scheme of things, they aren’t important at all.

So, what else am I doing during this time? Well, I am organizing areas in the house that just have been waiting for something like this to happen. Second bedroom closet? Check. Mike’s mom’s desk? Check. All of the stuff behind the Japanese screen? Check. The pantry? Check. Wow, this is great for me. It is pretty cathartic to get rid of clothes and stuff we don’t need or want anymore, after all, we don’t have winter here. Also, getting rid of new, perfectly good sandals that my feet can’t use. That was hard but I won’t ever be able to wear these so out they go to someone who can use them. Towels? Well, gave them to an animal shelter. Sheets? Gave them to someone who is sewing scrubs to support our medical staffs everywhere. All in all, it felt good to be able to give items I can’t use for repurposing.

The other thing I do is cook wonderfully healthy meals. Our friend, Chef John, owner of   Rocco’s Pandemic Kitchen and Bakery has been posting his awesome meals and amazing baked goods on Facebook.

Chef John (aka) Giovanni in his Pandemic Kitchen and Bakery.
Don’t you just want one of these gorgeous scones? Yum

I wish we could go over and enjoy some of his delicious efforts but all we can do is look at the pictures and know it tastes as good as it looks. My baking efforts don’t come close. I have been focused on fish, chicken, veggies, and more chicken.

Nancy’s pandemic roast chicken with heirloom tomatoes and baby dutch potatoes
Nancy’s pandemic mussels and clams with a white wine and tomato broth
Nancy’s pandemic Key West Shrimp salad with roasted beets, asparagus, baby heirloom tomatoes with a louie dressing.

Good thing Mike eats just about everything. It makes it easier to cook.

Hopefully, we will come out of this dread disease on the other side of it with purposeful weight loss, an incredibly organized home, and grateful for living in a beautiful place that gives us peace.

Cruises, French West Indies Cruise

Wind Surf Cruise: St. Kitts and Return to St. Martin

Basseterre, St. Kitts

The last time we were in St. Kitts, there was basically a casino and not much else. The town was pretty poor. That was 25ish years ago. Today, the port has been enlarged, they created a shopping area full of stores for us to shop. It was an amazing transformation.

We decided to take a tour of a different side of the island on a refurbished sugarcane train. The trains were originally built in 1912 and 1926 respectively. The tour included 12 miles on a bus with a driver who gave a bit of history about the island.

The train portion of the tour is 18 miles on a narrow-gauge track. The train hugs the northeastern coastline where you see beautiful views of the ocean, surf, cliffs and vegetation is all around. The train crosses on steel bridges with views of deep canyons. As you circle around the coast, you can see Mt. Liamuiga, a large volcano inland from the train. You can also see Nevis Peak across the inlet. It rises 3200 feet and is the highest point on Nevis. (it is the featured picture)

The refurbished trains probably look a lot better than when they were actually working the sugar cane fields

The tour included drinks. Anyone like rum? They also had a local singing group who went from car to car.

Sugar Cane plantation ruins
Sugar Cane field ruins.
One of the spectacular views from the train

I have to say the seats weren’t the most comfortable and you really couldn’t get up from your seat because the train rocked along the tracks. I thought the tour was a bit too long. The train runs fairly slowly so you are on the train for about 2 hours. I felt an hour or an hour and a half would have been perfect.

The bus picked us up at a different station from where we embarked and took us back to the port.

That night we went to Candles, the grill restaurant. The food was quite good. The nicest thing is the two restaurants do not have an upcharge even thought the food is taken up a notch.

Day 7 Philipsburg, St. Martin.

When we arrived at Philipsburg the following morning, we were picked up by our taxi driver. Originally, we thought we would be able to go somewhere for a few hours before boarding our plane. Instead, we did some last-minute shopping and cruised around downtown Phillipsburg. It was a lovely week in a beautiful part of the Caribbean. We look forward to coming back at some point but there are a lot of places still on my bucket list.

Cruises, French West Indies Cruise

Wind surf cruise: Guadeloupe and St. Barts

Les Saintes, Guadeloupe is not on the island of Guadeloupe. It is part of a group of tiny islands 6 miles south of Basse-Terre, the main part of Guadeloupe. From what we heard, it is much more of the old Caribbean and not as crowded as the main island.

After the one tour that was run by the ship and then having the experience of getting a local taxi drive to take us on a tour, we decided to go on another tour with a local. We took the lifeboat to the dock. We did get a local taxi driver to take the four of us on a tour of the island.

This is the port at Les Saints.

We would never have found all of the sites by ourselves. The bay of Les Saintes ranks among UNESCO’s list of most beautiful bays in the world. Overlooking the bay is 19th-century Fort Napoléon, with a museum and cactus garden. It was worth the trip to see it.

The view is from the old fort. It is a 19th Century fort built by the French.
Since we didn’t add any pictures of us. Here we are overlooking the gorgeous bay. With us are Mike and Fran Burday on the left and Mike and I on the right.
View of the Wind Surf from the island.

Gustavia, St. Barts

Who doesn’t love St. Barts? It is a real jewel in the French West Indies. If you are a shopper, this is the place. If you want really good French food and hotels, this is the place. It is also the most expensive island to do almost anything. It is the playground of the “rich and famous” especially for Christmas and New Year.

We were awestruck by the amazing yachts. One of them was the Gene Machine owned by Jonathan Rothberg who invented the Gene Machine, a next generation Gene system still used by many labs (old habits die hard. I worked in the molecular laboratory industry). It was only 160 feet.  Another was the “James Bond” Sky Fall, a 223-foot yacht. There were so many huge yachts at anchor, it was hard to imagine how many people owned them. As it turns out, a lot less own them than rent them. We took a walk along the waterfront to stare at the yachts and hoped someone would invite us on. We only saw the crews so the owners were busy somewhere else or sleeping. Sigh. What would that be like (even for a day!)

Gene Machine owned by Jonathan Rothberg
We told the crew from Sky Fall we wanted a tour. They basically laughed at us.
Another view of Sky Fall

St. Barts is a volcanic island. From the beginning, it was considered too rugged for large-scale agriculture so the island found its fame in trading.

It was a longtime French possession but it was sold to Sweden in 1784 so the French could obtain trading privileges in Gothenburg. It returned to France nearly a century later still as a trading island. From trading, it turned itself into a playground for the rich and famous.

We walked around the downtown area and did some window shopping in the designer stores. Every designer has stores there. Anyone who is anyone has a shop there. It is hard to imagine but they were able to came back from Irma quickly. Money helps.

St. Barts shopping district
More shops

We stopped off for an early drink, well mid-morning drink. It was the alcoholic kind after all, where were we going to go and other than walk to the lifeboat, not much to worry about. The place was the Le Creperie but it was more than just coffee. It was a great spot to stop and enjoy our visit.

Early drinking, Mike, Mike, Fran and Nancy

When Mike and I visited here years ago, it was on a sailboat. We never really went into the town but snorkeled at a big rock that is par of the harbor. The snorkeling was great as the water was crystal clear and the sea life was abundant.

On the way out, we saw some more superyachts, one of them owned by Roman Abramovich, a Russian Steel magnate named the Eclipse. It is 533 feet.

Quite a view from the lifeboat going back to the ship

One of the others we saw is EOS (305 feet) owned by Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg.

and finally, we saw French luxury giant LVMH owner and billionaire Bernard Arnault’s 333-foot yacht named the Symphony. Pretty impressive to see helicopters taking off from the ships. They looked so small in comparison to the ships. It was awesome.  

Quite a sight even in the dark. Taken from our ship

I would really like to spend more that a few hours there one of these days but there are so many places to go. Perhaps we will get back there someday to stay for a couple of days.  

Cruises, French West Indies Cruise

wind Surf Cruise: Dominica and St. Lucia

We never visited Dominica and, to tell the truth, the main town isn’t wonderful but the rest of the island is quite beautiful. It is a relatively poor island and is quite prone to hurricanes because of its location. Dominica is known as “The Nature Island of the Caribbean” due to its lush scenery and varied flora and fauna. The island has rainforests and is home to the world’s second-largest hot spring, Boiling Lake. Morne Trois Pitons National Park is a tropical forest blended with volcanic features and was recognized as a World Heritage Site. Some plants and animals thought to be extinct on surrounding islands can still be found in Dominica’s forests.

During our visit to Dominica, we were scheduled to go on a water/snorkeling tour but it started raining that day so we cancelled the trip. Our friends did go on the trip and had another incident with a boat that day. It was just bad karma.

Once the rain seemed to stop, we decided to go into Roseau and see the town. We hired a taxi at the pier. There were six of us from the ship going to the middle of town but when we got there and saw the “middle of town,” we decided to stay in the taxi and go back. The taxi driver offered to take us for a tour so for $25 per person (there were 4 of us by that time), it was very reasonable. His tour was terrific. He showed us the beauty of the island and took us to the rainforest. His tour included a now “famous” car that was crushed by Irma.

The crushed school bus (it was empty at the time) was a souvenir from Irma. It is now part of the landscape of the island.
Wild coffee plant along side the road.

He stopped along side the road and showed us wild coffee plants and cocoa plants as well as stopping by the volcanic heated pools.

Hot springs water rushing into a waterfall.
Just another waterfall. We passed so many and they were all beautiful. Plenty of ways to hike up to them.
Just another beautiful waterfall. Dominica is a lush, beautiful island.

We asked about how they managed during the hurricane since there was no electric for a few months. He said people lived in cars, charged their phones in the cars and subsisted on canned food as the lush bounty that the island provides.

Poinsettias growing wild.

He also spoke about the takeover of many industries by the Chinese. He was very concerned that the government was being too heavily influenced by the Chinese. According to him, the people prefer working with Americans working with them but the Chinese is providing needed funding for public programs. This was a wonderful tour with a lovely gentleman who showed us the beauty of his island but still wouldn’t visit the town.

Pigeon Island, St. Lucia

This was the second place we never visited before but I really can’t say we saw St. Lucia because Pidgeon Island is just an island separated from the main island.

It was too far time wise to go to the main part of St. Lucia, we went with the barbeque-on-the-each day. The crew and island people set up beach chairs and cabanas. Everone took some time to go into the water while waiting for the beach feast.

These blue cabanas were really handy to keep the sun in check. It was pretty hot.

Besides all of the picnic food they had a steel band to play while we were there.

These are only a few of the steel band members.
Cookies anyone?

There are ruins of a fort that was built in the area. It was alternately used by the French and British. The British used the heavily fortified Pigeon Island to spy on the French in Martinique. 

Basically, this is the only thing to see on this island.
The fort ruins
St. Lucia ocean view

It was a very relaxing day.

Cruises, French West Indies Cruise

Wind Surf cruise: Nevis

Day 1 Charleston, Nevis

The first port we visited was Charleston, Nevis. Nevis is typically associated with St. Kitts. They have a long, intertwined history. They were both visited by Christopher Columbus in 1493, Francis Drake in 1585, and Captain John Smith of Jamestown, Virginia fame in 1607. They became rich islands on the back of sugar cane. When sugar cane farming went away, they became tourist destinations.

The distance between the two islands is a little over 17 miles. This map is on a post looking toward St. Kitts.

Nevis is also famous for being the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. We decided to take a tour because it included a botanical garden in Nevis.  My dirty little secret is I go to botanical gardens anywhere and everywhere I go. Also, Mike and I visited Nevis a couple of times on a sailboat many years ago. At that time, we landed via zodiac on the beach next to the Four Seasons. It was so inviting and beautiful. On that trip, we took a tour of the English homes that were once sugarcane plantations. My memory of Nevis was a beautiful idyllic place. Well, that was pretty much a fantasy.

Charleston is okay but I kept thinking it would be so much nicer. This time we saw the “real” island. We visited the Alexander Hamilton museum.  I have to say it was actually quite depressing. It needed significant work although it survived Irma so it is a sturdy structure. The shutters were hanging by a screw. The inside was not worth the visit because there wasn’t much inside and it was basically a trip inside a basement. Hopefully, they will get funding to make it more inviting.

Alexander Hamilton Birthplace
Another view of the Alexander Hamilton Birthplace. It really needs some restoration

 From there, we went to Lord Nelson’s home. who is best known for his valiant command of the British fleet during the Battle of Trafalgar. who is best known for his valiant command of the British fleet during the Battle of Trafalgar. It turns out he met and married a woman who lived on Nevis and made the island his home. 

During our bus tour around Nevis, we passed a park that was heavily decorated for Christmas. It was a bit over the top but fun to see.

I am using this photo from the botanical garden because I wanted to show the entryway.

The next stop made the whole tour worthwhile. It was the Nevis Botanical Garden. It is situated on the Montpelier Estate overlooking Mount Nevis and the ocean. It is owned by Christi Douglass.

Christie Douglass is the owner of the Botanical Garden. She is a wonderfully engaging individual. Our tour was so special because of her. Thank you Christie!

Her husband passed away and she remained on as the owner, tour director, and anything else she needs to be. She gave us a beautiful tour of the garden and spoke about what they added to the original garden in the way of plantings and Asian sculptures, collected over many years by the Douglases, who are collectors of fine art and antiquities.

Just a few of the hundreds of bromeliads planted along the trails.
This massive statuary greets you as you walk into a n enclosed rainfall planted area.
A beautiful large staghorn fern
The statues were all collected by the Douglass’s over many years. The vibe is very much Far East. It is calm and just beautiful.

She also collected many plants from Thailand because she has a home there as well as Nevis. Because we live in Florida, we are typically surrounded by much of the beautiful plants but the addition of the sculptures just elevated the experience. At the end of the tour, they gave us a delicious drink. There is a botanical shop for souvenirs on the property as well as a restaurant that looked lovely.   

Getting back to the ship was an experience. We boarded the lifeboat to go back and were almost at the ship when when the motor overheated and we smelled smoke. Instead of anyone telling us what is wrong, they shut down the motor and we were adrift.

We were watching the other lifeboat trying to tow us.

The winds and currents were pretty strong; we thought we were headed back to St. Martin. Unfortunately, the crew was not communicating with us so we had no idea what they were going to do to get us back. There were about 40 hungry and bathroom-needing people on board, all wondering what was happening. About an hour later, they finally dispatched another lifeboat to come and tow us back.

Finally, the ship was back in sight. The race was on for the closest bathroom.

It was alternately funny and worrying but we finally got back and they kept lunch going for us. Later that day we met with the Captain who had a lot of data but no sympathy or apology. They begrudgingly gave us a note apologizing. That could have been handled much better.

Cruises, French West Indies Cruise

WindSTar Island Adventure in the Caribbean: Part 1

Last December 2019 before Coronavirus reared its ugly imposition on all of us, Mike and I went to the French West Indies on the Windstar Line’s Wind Surf.  We first cruised on the Windsurf many years ago in the Mediterranean when the ship was first launched. We enjoy smaller ships and the places they can go that larger ships cannot. While it is small, it still has 300+ people on it and it makes up for its size in so many ways.

For example, personalized service is so much better on a smaller cruise. The waiters get to know your name and your preferences for food and drinks.  By the way, the food was quite good; much better than most cruises. In addition to the dining room, they had two other restaurants available for dinner; Stella Bistro that was a French restaurant and Candles that took over the Veranda restaurant the served breakfast and lunch.

The Wind Surf just came out of drydock where it was modified and added a couple of rooms and updated the venues and mechanical parts. I have to say our room looked like it did years ago so I don’t really know what they did. The one thing not available on “sailing” ships are balconies. I have to admit, I missed being able to sit outside our cabin.

For entertainment, there were two musical groups in a couple of different bar areas.  Between the music and the delicious drinks, we had a comfortable end of the day. We were a bit surprised to find out there was a sommelier on the ship. We started a few conversations with him that resulted in a wonderful wine dinner after he found a few other couples who were game for a special dinner. The wines and champagnes were very good and his pairing suggestions for the food worked very well. It was held in the French bistro restaurant (Stella Bistro).

The Wind Surf just returned to the Caribbean from Europe and this was the first trip since dry dock. A number of people came over on the two-week journey and stayed on the St. Martin week.   One another note, Mike and I visited many of the islands where the cruise would take us with the exception of three: St. Lucia, Dominica, and Guadeloupe. On our other visits, we were on small chartered sailboats that just held 6 of us plus a captain and cook. We really loved those trips. Many of my comments about the islands we visited before contrasted with the changes in the many years since our original trips to the islands.  

On this trip, we traveled with friends one of whom is a travel agent. It was fun to travel with us. Since we had an early flight out of Ft. Lauderdale, we stayed over night on the east coast.

We flew to St. Martin a day ahead to make sure we were there without worrying about a “just-in-time” flight. The airport in St. Martin is still rebuilding from the effects of the Hurricane Irma two years before. The airport functions but it certainly has a long way to go. Along those same lines, many of the hotels are back in operation but the island is  still rebuilding.  

This view is from the taxi on the way to Philipsburg from the Queen Juliana Airport

We stayed at the Holland House overnight. It is a very nice hotel in the middle of Front Street, the main shopping street in St. Martin. Their staff was very helpful throughout our visit and I would recommend it if someone was going early for a cruise. Otherwise, I would stay at a hotel on the beach. Duty-free shops were all around us. All of the jewelry or designer clothes anyone could want was on either side of the entrance or across the street.

The back of the hotel faced the beach and it was simply beautiful. The view was the “boardwalk” with its wide promenade and then the gorgeous blue water and beach. We had a very lovely room with a balcony so we could just sit and watch the sunset or sunrise or any other time.

Early morning view from our room at the Holland House
St. Martin sunset beach view from our balcony.

They had nice bars inside and out. They also had a nice place for dinner so we didn’t bother going anywhere. The food was good. The service at the restaurant was a bit spotty.  

Looking down from our balcony on the bar and restaurant at the Holland House

It is really to travel with a travel agent because she knew who to contact for anything and the best way of getting around as well as the better tours. Fran arranged a driver to picked us up at the airport, dropped us off at our hotel, picked us up from the hotel the next day, and picked us up from the ship when we got back. The driver was really great. We just had to get in his van and off we went at the right time.

The next day, we went shopping (for a change). It is actually the only time I can get Mike to go into stores with me.

St. Martin celebrates its Dutch heritage with wooden shoes in the shopping area.

I love it and he is really good about the it especially because I bought him a shirt. Then it was time to go and our taxi came right on time and we left for the harbor.  

Bike Rides

A Trip Down Memory lane: Charity bike rides in california

When we lived in California, we were so fortunate to ride in a number of charity rides. Most of the time, it was just Mike and I but on a couple of trips, Mac (our Lakeland Terrier) came along in his special trailer. We rode every weekend on regular rides but we also went on some special charity rides. This blog will take you on a tour by tee shirt.

The charity ride we consistently found a way to attend was the Tour de Palm Springs. It is held every second Saturday in February. It supports all of the charities in the Coachella Valley. More than 10,000 riders participate and it is quite an event! It was the first charity ride for me and became a favorite. Typically, we would make a weekend of it and stay in some wonderfully funky hotel and eat in their wonderful restaurants. Palm Springs is a wonderful place to visit for the weekend.

As it was the first time I participated in a charity ride, it became my favorite. The first time we went, it was thrilling and terrifying all at one time. I was riding a regular 2 wheel bike at the time. When we stopped at a couple of the lights with hundreds of riders, I fell because I couldn’t stop fast enough due to foot surgery. After that, Mike bought me my ICE Recumbent Trike and it and I have been partners ever since. The trike freed me to ride as much as I wanted and to go on these wonderful charity rides.

Anyway, here are are few of the tee shirts we received for participating.

My first Tour de Palm Springs. It wa so thrilling to be in a ride with 10,000 other people.
This was the last time we were in California for the ride. We left the following week for our new home near Sarasota, Florida. Oh well, it is still the west coast.
Here is a map of the Tour de Palm Springs. They had 3 rest stations available. Some with music.

We went on other charity rides, all of them were favorites. We wanted to be a part of a ride that took us over the Coronado Bridge in San Diego. The bridge only closes one time a year for bikes so we made sure we participated at least once. All ages participate at different levels but the thrill is going across the bridge. It is a beautiful sight.

Mike is in the foreground as we are just getting ready to go over the Coronado Bridge.

The Cool Breeze Ride was another of our favorites and I am sure I have at least 2 or more tee shirts from that ride but I could only find one. It was always fun to go to Ventura. The beaches are beautiful and up the hill is one of our favorite places in California (among many) Ojai. The ride is beautiful except for the part where you have to ride on the 101 towards Santa Barbara. It is pretty creepy to have trucks and buses going by you at 70mph. We always stayed at the Ventura Marriott. It was close to the bike route and right at the beach. The views of the Channel Islands is spectacular and it is just fun. We don’t ride the century for numbers of reasons but also there is significant climbing on this ride.

Here is a map of the Cool Breeze Century. For us, we went as far as Carpinteria.

We finally drove to Paso Robles for the Great Western Bike Rally that is held there each year. We visited Paso many times and it is another favorite place for us. So much wine, so little time. We went at least once or twice a year when we lived in California. The routes took us all over the area. We found wineries in a different part of the area that we didn’t know about.

Yup, that is Mac with a bad haircut! We had to stop at a winery along the ride.

Hope you enjoy this blog about our charity rides. They were always fun. The weather was always beautiful. It was always a treat to see how many people came out to support the various charities and enjoy the amazing rides. Now, what do I do with all of those tee shirts???

Websites: p://www.greatwesternbicyclerally.com/ https://tourdepalmsprings.com/ http://www.bikethebay.net/ https://coolbreezecentury.com/

Uncategorized

a Trip to Havana (part 2) The Tropicana!

After our busy day, we returned to the ship for dinner and got ready to go partying at the Tropicana. It is interesting to note, once we went through the security into Cuba the first time, there was no one watching us go back off the ship a second time.

Getting into our chariot for the evening!
The cars are lined up to go!
On the way, we saw a beautiful sunset

In any event, our four antique American cars showed up. They were all convertibles and the drivers were very handsome men. We all found a car and went on our way to the Tropicana. Once we got there, we couldn’t find some of our group. Turned out one of the cars lost its clutch and they had to replace it on the fly. Those engines are basically held together with scotch tape and gum but somehow, everyone arrived at the Tropicana.

The entrance to the Tropicana
There is a building that you walk through but you are directed to the seats and the stage that are all in open air.

The Tropicana is really awesome. It is a throwback to pre-Castro days. I was surprised that it was outdoors. You walk into a doorway and then are led to tables that faced an outdoor stage with lots of walkways along side the stage. Launched in 1939 on the outskirts of Havana, it provides a mix of flash and feathers, song and statuesque dancers under the stars. You could almost imagine what Havana was in its heyday.

The stage area. You will see the Tropicana is 80 years old.
The musicians started the show. It became much more animated after their performance.
Just the start and pretty dressed for this song.

The show was fast paced and the music highlighted the rhythms of Cuba – rumba, mambo, danzonete, Latin jazz, cha-cha-cha and pulsating drums and featured so many singers, acrobats and lots of dancers, everywhere you looked. The show was electric! It went on for 2 hours.

These dancers are on narrow aisles alongside the main stage
oops, a bit more scantily dressed but still big headdresses
I call her lettuce woman
After the show, the girls came up the aisles by our seats. The headdress is really heavy.

Nothing needed here.

Along with our tickets, was a 325 ml bottle of rum and a bottle of coke between two of us. Too much rum, really!

Fortunately, the cars returned for us and took us back to the ship. What a wonderful day! It is too bad more people won’t have the awesome experience. I would love to go back and spend more time in that beautiful city.

Uncategorized

A Day in Havana, Cuba

1 Comment

Last May, I had the pleasure of going on a “girls” cruise to Key West and a place that has been on my “bucket list” for a long time: Havana, Cuba. The trip was arranged by my friend Fran who is a cruise specialist (www.travelbyfran.com). We went on a Royal Caribbean ship (Majesty of the Seas) from Fort Lauderdale. The trip went to Key West and Havana but since I have blogged about Key West before, I am just going to talk about Havana.

In my college days, I worked at a hotel that employed many Cubans. They told stories about their homeland and spoke about the wealth they enjoyed, the wide, beautiful boulevards and beautiful homes they had to leave when Castro took over. I found the stories to be fascinating. Once Cuba was opened again, I wanted to go there. Well, I finally got there even if it was only for a day. As it turned out, we were on one of the last ships to visit Havana before it was declared off limits.

To tell the truth, I loved it. I loved every minute we were there and it was too bad it wasn’t longer but at least we had got a little flavor of the beauty that is Havana.

First of all, we needed a visa that you buy on-board the ship. Once we got off the ship, we had to go through their security area and we had to change money into their currency that was the Cuban Convertible Peso called CUC’s. Interestingly, some places did take dollars.

The Cuban Peso AKA CUC’s. Since they are pegged to the dollar, 1 CUC is $1.00.

We also had to go on a tour guided by an officially sanctioned tour company. I chose the 5-hour tour that ended up lasting through lunch so it was a 7-hour tour. The buses were quite new and very clean. They were Chinese and were clearly made for a shorter population but the good news was it had a bathroom. The tour guide spoke English very well. She deftly left out anything about the Castro’s. Their name wasn’t even mentioned.

We traveled through the streets. Everyone was fairly well dressed, maybe not expensively but definitely clean and well groomed. Everyone we met was very nice. They know that tourism is important and the people were all very accommodating. We went by beautiful old homes that were sadly neglected. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough money to restore them. You could imagine what they looked like when Havana was wealthy.

On the bus tour in Havana, notice the laundry drying. We saw that all over.
Buildings in downtown Havana

Among the places we saw were old Havana with Capital, the Cathedral de San Cristóbal, the University and the Hospitals and the Plaza de la Revolución. Around the plaza were government buildings one of which was the Che Guevara building and the Jose Marti building. The Plaza de la Revolución really looks more like parking lot. It was a bit disappointing really except there were a number of old American cars parked there. We asked the owner if we could take a seat in a turquoise convertible. He said yes and in we sat! While we were taking pictures of ourselves in the cars, one of us was working and hired four of the cars to take us to the Tropicana that evening.

Government Building dedicated to Che Guevara. It is one of the buildings across from the Revolutionary Square
Government building dedicated to Jose Marti located across from the Revolutionary Square
Entrance to Revolutionary Square. The square itself looks like a big parking lot.
Posing in one of the old cars parked at Revolutionary Square (Two Nancy’s in the car)

We also visited the Colón cemetery and got off the bus for a tour. The cemetery is famous and quite beautiful place with lots interesting mausoleums to visit and learn about. The tour guide for the cemetery took us through special parts of the cemetery including ones dedicated to firefighters, a tomb of a dog who was so distraught when his owner died that he sat there until he died and someone sculpted a statue that is part of the /owner’s mausoleum. Another is a mausoleum of the man who built the stadium for the Pan American games.

Entrance to the Colon Cemetery
Firefighters Memorial dedicated to those who lost their lives fighting for the city of Havana.

One that stood out the legend of “La Milgrosa.” According to the legend, Amelia and her baby did not survive childbirth but the inconsolable widower, José Vicente Adot y Rabell could not accept it and visited every day. One day they opened the tomb and the child was in Amelia’s arms not separated as they were when they were buried in the tomb. Even today, over 100 years later, people visit Amelia’s resting place as a shrine where they could ask for protection for their children, for childbirth without complications or for couples with fertility issues. When we were there, there were lots of fresh flowers were at the tomb.


La Milgrosa . Look at all of the flowers left by people looking for help from her.
A view of El Morro
A view of the harbor area across from El Morro
A view of the Majesty of the Seas docked across from El Morro
Che Guevara home that is now a museum

We ended up at the Castillo De Los Tres Reyes Del Morro which is the fort guarding the entrance to the harbor. It is named for the three kings. El Morro looks very much like the fortress in Puerto Rico. I guess if you see one, you see them all. Among other things, we passed Che Guevara’s home called La Cabana de Che Guevara. It is a museum but we didn’t have the time to go in.  

On the way to the harbor, we passed this old motorcycle and a sidecar.

At the end of the tour, they took us to an artist building located in the dock area to go shopping for souvenirs. It was a building full of booths with all kinds of art and artists. I did pick up a picture to bring home. They did take dollars after I ran out of CUCs.

I picked up this painting at the Artists shops

When the tour was over, the guide said if we would like to go to eat at a local restaurant, they would take us with the bus as long as there was 10 people who wanted to go. Off we went to a non-government restaurant named Dona Carmel. It was a fun place with lots of cats walking around. You almost felt like it was Key West and not Havana. It was here we had our first mojito for the trip. They had a pretty extensive menu but when we asked for items it turned out all they had was local fish and shrimp. Any meat or chickens were not available because they have to wait on long lines to buy it. The mojitos were excellent! The food was good. We had rice and plantains with the fish.

Restaurant Entrance. This is a non-governmental restaurant. It is so pretty, beautiful greenery everywhere.
No restaurant is complete with at least a dozen cats. This one just stood still.
One thing that is still easy to get is shrimp and local fish. Any meat or chicken requires long lines and for the most part, not available.
The US Consulate looking just sad waiting and waiting for someday.

On the way back, among other buildings we saw was the American Embassy. It was just sad that no one is there anymore. It is on the main street going to the port. We returned to the ship to get ready for our evening at the Tropicana.