Woops

This is the disappearing Toucan! The other photo is a Grassquit!!

Probably a duplicate

I can't remember if I have posted this or not. At any rate, it's been a great trip. We just dropped 800 of the ships 2000 passengers off in Tampa. The ship feels lighter already! Now we are heading for Mobile where we will end our cruise Saturday around 1:00pm. We are looking forward to seeing Sam who is home from his first year in college, and Emma who has completed her 3rd year and arrives home next week. After that we have Dance Competition in 2 weeks in Birmingham, I have Mose Surgery on my face for another basal cell skin cancer and then we all hope it will be healed in time for Mike and Kylee's wedding on July 3rd. Whew! "No rest for the weary and the Righteous don't need none!" -Uncle Billy

Disappearing Toucan

This shot is so typical of so many of my jungle shots. The second I would get my target in the viewfinder, it would take off. Usually I would just get a photo of a branch, a little blurry from the fact that it was still shaking from the fact that a bird had just launched from it's platform!

Escape!

Carries turtle heads for the water. After several wrong turns and multiple washbacks due to waves, all of the little turtles at least made it out into the ocean...after waiting all day in buckets in 90 degree weather. And don't they usually hatch at night? Not to mention the bacteria from the peoples hands...

Turtle Release

This is Carries hand with the Ridley turtle that she paid to release in Mexico. Much as she refused to have her photo made with the Sloth in Columbia, I refused to participate in the turtle release in Acupulco because I felt the turtle nests were being pillaged in order to collect the eggs.

Canal passage

This is a nice photo of myself with our friends Lloyd and Suzanne, taken by Carrie during the Panama Canal transit. It was hard to leave the railing because there was a surprise around every bend in the canal!

Fat Dancers

Keeping with the theme, Carrie was Strongly tempted to pick up this little piece of art in Columbia. She felt like the couple in the photo bore a strong resemblance to ourselves. She was referring to me, of course!

Waltz Accompaniest

Here is a photo of the trumpet player who played while Carrie and I danced a waltz on top of the old Fort in San Diego.

Ruddy Turnstone

At "Paradise" outdoor cafe there was a group of 6 Ruddy Turnstones that have learned some very bad habits from the local pigeons. They would actually fly up and eat food from the customers plates! Bad Turnstone!

Photo by Carrie!

Giant Sloth

At first we were enchanted by the way this giant sloth would wrap his arms around the tourist and nestle his head under their chins for photo opportunities. However, Carrie recalled a previous trip to a Sloth rehabilitation center in South America and hearing about the terrible things that Sloths experience when taken out of the jungle. After hearing what she heard we all decided to pass on having our pictures made with the Sloth, but he was very popular with many of the other tourists!

The ones that got away

These last 10 shots are pictures that we like and hope that you will. It's difficult to keep the blog going at sea, so many times we called all but the very best shots. Even then we overlooked some good ones. Hope you agree.

These guys were painted black and they were so still that I insisted that they were statues when we passed them in the car. The only time they would move was when you dropped some money in their bucket, then they rotated, robot-like, to a new position and froze! They were in Cartegena Columbia.

Common Carribean Species

This Yellow-faced Grassquit is a fairly common bird throughout the Carribean. This one was in the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Garden on Grand Cayman. We actually saw two pair of these, though the female is much less colorful and hides easily.

Bahama's influence

Cuba isn't the only country contributing birds to Grand Cayman. This Western Spindalis is identical to the race of Western Spindalis that is found throughout the Bahama Island chain.

The Maestic Reserve

Our taxi driver was astonished to discover that there is a 2 mile nature walk in the northeast corner of the island. Some of the biggest trees left on the island are located along the walk. The Maestic Tree is one of the oldest, largest trees left on the island. The largest were only 20-25 feet tall but they are the favorite tree of the extremly shy Carribean Dove. The area around the walk is sometimes only a few hundred feet wide but the fact that it exists is indicative of the strides the country is taking to conserve it's native flora and fauna.

Cayman version of Red-bellied Woodpecker

Woodpeckers have a tough time on Grand Cayman. All of the large trees were cut down long ago. Many of the largest of the regrowth trees on the island were killed by Hurricane Ivan which stalled over Grand Cayman for 36 hours before resuming it's track for it's appointment with the Gulf Coast in 2004. We were lucky enough to see a pair of Northern Flicker, which are listed as resident on the island and this bird which is the West Indian Woodpecker.

Cuban influence

Grand Cayman is a very small island located just south of Cuba. Many of the birds on grand Cayman are thought to have arrived there from Cuba. The Cayman Parrot is thought to have been on the island long enough to evolve distinct differences from the Cuban Parrot. This Cuban Bullfinch is virtually identical to the bird of the same name on the big island of Cuba.

Target Bird Number 2

The second most sought after species on Grand Cayman is the West Indies Whistling Duck. We had read that access to an area favored by the ducks was available through a large farm in the northeast part of the island. In spite of our taxi drivers skepticism, she took us to the farm and even fine tuned our directions with a local Jamaican farm worker. Just walk down this trail and turn right at the hog pens. It seemed simple enough. At first we thought the hog pens were empty. We couldn't see any hogs, and there wasn't any terrible odor. It turned out that the hogs were sleeping, and they weren't in pens. They were in individual concrete cubicles and were kept remarkably clean. They were also gigantic! Just as we discovered the hogs I saw two birds on the ground that I mistakenly took for small Cranes of some kind. Carrie and I headed for the back of the property to get a better look. Unfortunately she walked around the back of a huge cart and I walked around the front of it. While keeping my eyes fixed firmly on what I now recognized as our target ducks I slammed into the iron fitting on the front of the cart. The trailer hitch. For a terrible moment I thought I was going straight over it to a face implant into hog dung but I somehow managed to stay verticle. I recouped my two bruised shins, regained my composure and got a great shot!

Blue Iguana

The Queen Elizabeth Botanical Garden is also a refuge for the Blue Iguana. It's an endangered species in the Caymans. Many are eaten by locals unfamiliar with their endangered status. It's a truly beautiful lizard and we only saw one during our five hour visit!

Birding Grand Cayman

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Carrie and I did some research on the Internet and learned just enough to be dangerous. One of the two most sought after species on Grand Cayman is the Cayman Parrot. It's most likely a very close relative of the Cuban Parrot. Due to a lack of habitat it's numbers dwindled in the not so recent past. Ten years ago the government started setting aside land and trying to raise the publics awareness of the Parrot. One of the best areas to locate the Parrot is the Queen Elizabeth Botanical Garden, so we made that our first stop. The Park is gorgeously planted and it didn't take Carrie long to locate our target!

Welcome to the Cayman Islands

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We arrived this morning on Grand Cayman and it was like old home week. So many wonderful vacations over so many years. It was our last port of call for the trip and Carrie and I decided to cash-in our excursion tickets for Stingray City and the Dauphin Encounter and go for broke BIRDING!

Lucky Statue

The old section of the city had many statues. Most were to famous people who had helped the people gain independence or escape cruel attackers. There is also a woman who looks just like Pocohantas. Her name was Catalina and the legend around her is exactly the same as the John Smith story. Quite strange. She stands in the middle of the harbor in Cartegena. Then there is this woman. She bears a disturbing resemblance to waaay too many women on our cruise, but I digress. The legend surrounding this corpulent creature is that anyone who touches her nipples is endowed with remarkable good fortune. Judging by the polished nature of both her breasts, there must be a lot of incredibly lucky people in Columbia. I was willing to let Carrie take my photo but that was as far as I was willing to go. I heard, "you can look but don't touch" the entire time I was growing up and this seemed like an excellent time to employ that rule!

The Old City

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The oldest part of Cartegena is actually behind a wall. The original city was walled to offer some protection from pirates aka privateers. It seems that Spain was always at war with someone. Those countries considered it a personal favor if the local ruffian would attack and loot any of a number of rich Spanish colonies. Unfortunately Cartegena was always at the top of the list due to it's gold and emerald wealth. The narrow streets inside the old city are now lined with shops, restaurants and second story apartments, many of which have balconies flourishing with Bougainvillia and other beatiful flowering plants. Cars are prohibitted and it's an extremely nice area to walk through and window shop.

The Monestary

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At the highest point in Cartegena there is a monestary. It's a beautiful location. The entire facility seems to be open to the public, so apparently there aren't any monks in residence. But the place is beautiful and there is a chapel that still requests your reverence, if not your silence. On the grounds we had several Swallows and Kingbirds and a lovely Wren that was somikar to a house wren bu larger with a much larger bill!

The View from the Top

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This photo was taken from the top of the Fort. Did I mention that Francis Drake was villified for sacking the city 3 times? There were tunnels throughout the fort with hidden alcoves. In the alcoves were sentries. They waited till you were past them and asked for the password. If the first word you said was not the password they shot you from their dark recess. There was a man who was dressed as a soldier on top of the Fort. He was playing a trumpet. It happened to be a Vienese Waltz. I asked Carrie to dance and low and behold she agreed. We waltzed round and round the parapets, sweating like pigs in the 100 degree heat, to the delight of the crowd! Who'd have ever thought?

The Fort

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Our first stop was the Fort. It seems that all of these towns have a historic Fort in their center where everyone fled to escape invaders. Sometimes they were French but usually they were British! This one was no exception!

Introducing Cartegena Columbia

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Where did all of these beautiful cities come from? I was under the impression that all of these central American countries were pretty backward. They are at least as nice as Puerto Rico. We arrive this morning at 9:00am and once again there was a small army of buses waiting to whisk us away. We had been scheduled to take the Reptile Farm tour but I had a chance to talk to a man who works here and he warned us that white people syllable get kidnapped in Columbia every day. The Reptile Farm Tour was 25 miles outside the city and he had never even heard of it. We switched to the Best of Cartegena Tour and loved it. We stretched it until we got back just 20 minutes before our deadline!

One for the road

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Or should I say one for the sea lane? This is a freeze frame shot that David and Emma sent us, of our ship as it exits the last lock in the Panama Canal and heads for the Atlantic Ocean. It's probably hard to tell from here, but our ship had all of 2 feet of clearance on each side when we entered the locks. Panama is building bigger locks to accomodate bigger ships that should be ready in the next 5 years.

Best Bird in Panama

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We saw lots of nice birds from the ship in Panama. Fork-tailed Flycatchers were everwhere. Blue-gray Tanagers and Social Flycatchers as well. Unfortunately the only bird book that we had was for Mexico. As a result many of the best birds we saw were impossible to identify. However the bird of the day was in the book. This Orange-breasted Falcon was menacing the other birds around the lock that we went through just as we exited the Pacific Ocean. It was really beautiful!

Tomorrow we dock in Cartagena Columbia. We are only signed up for a city tour because the countryside is still considered unsafe, but it should be very interesting!

Contrast

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As we were pulling into the lock this morning we were greeted by an ancient resident of the Panama Canal. This 12 ft. Crocodile has been living in the area for a million years! This speciman was small compared to the ones in Costa Rica. National Geographic was there 2 years ago and tagged a huge croc that makes this one a baby!

Panama City

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When the sun was coming up this morning, we were astonished to look south and see row after row of skyscrapers. Heaven only knows what all of the people in those offices are doing but Panama's capital city is booming and burgeoning!

Panama Canal

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We arrived at the Panama Canal overnight. Our ship was scheduled to enter the canal at 6:15am. I got up at 4:30 and went up to the bow to check things out. The bow was already almost full! There were two ladies next to me who had been there all night! When the ship was finally cleared to enter the canal they were both sound asleep in their chairs! The best laid plans...

Monkey Business

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There is always a certain amount of monkey business that goes on during a cruise. Normally when an opportunity comes along for a photo I run the other way. However, in this instance I made an exception so that this young girl wouldn't get a bad mark from her handlers. It was her job to sell photos and I felt it was a charitable jesture to support her, ahem, endeavors. It's just a coincidence that she is snuggled up to me and away from my friend Lloyd. It has nothing to do with the fact that he is drooling and has just stepped on his tongue. This little girl is from Australia and one of the ships dancers. We went to her cha-cha class the first day of the cruise and in spite of my generous nature, I had to avoid it from that day forward. She confessed later on that cha-cha really wasn't her dance. I reassured her, "cast not pearls before swine", I said. She seemed greatly reassured, if somewhat muddled. Showgirls definitely go in the waitress column!

Night in Costa Rica

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This is a view of our ship in the harbor in Costa Rica last night. We were on our way back from an authentic local dinner with Lloyd and Suzanne. The place was recommended by our tour guide. The menu had everything under the sun. Carrie had Chicken and Rice which was delicious. The rest of us had 3 different fish dishes, all of which were good. I ordered a hearts of palm salad that was entree' size and although my fish was good the hearts of palm stole the show. We didn't have to be back on the ship till 9:30pm which allowed us plenty of time to enjoy the local beer and the Costa Rican company. We were the only tourists in the restaurant and everyone was extremely nice to us. The strange thing about being this close to the equator is that the sun come up almost exactly at 6:00am and sets at 6:00pm. And that's all year long! They only have 2 seasons, wet and dry. Otherwise the temperatures and the daylight hours never change. It might get monotonous after a while but not before one gets to list the over 900 species of birds seen in the country.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we pass through the Panama Canal. Our passage will be broadcast live at www.pancanal.com all day. Go to the wesite and see if you can spot us!

Night in Costa Rica

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This is a view of our ship in the harbor in Costa Rica last night. We were on our way back from an authentic local dinner with Lloyd and Suzanne. The place was recommended by our tour guide. The menu had everything under the sun. Carrie had Chicken and Rice which was delicious. The rest of us had 3 different fish dishes, all of which were good. I ordered a hearts of palm salad that was entree' size and although my fish was good the hearts of palm stole the show. We didn't have to be back on the ship till 9:30pm which allowed us plenty of time to enjoy the local beer and the Costa Rican company. We were the only tourists in the restaurant and everyone was extremely nice to us. The strange thing about being this close to the equator is that the sun come up almost exactly at 6:00am and sets at 6:00pm. And that's all year long! They only have 2 seasons, wet and dry. Otherwise the temperatures and the daylight hours never change. It might get monotonous after a while but not before one gets to list the over 900 species of birds seen in the country.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we pass through the Panama Canal. Our passage will be broadcast live at www.pancanal.com all day. Go to the wesite and see if you can spot us!

Costa Rica

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Wow. No wonder this is Carries 3rd trip to Costa Rica. It's a birdwatchers paradise, and darned near for everyone else. We are in port on the Pacific side of the country. In a town called Puntarenas. It's a small coastal town and also the name of the biggest province in the country. There was a fleet of buses waiting when we arrived and they very efficiently offloaded 2000 guests and sent us on our ways. Carrie and I as well as our friends Lloyd and Suzanne were signed up for the canopy tour. It was a walk through the lowland rainforest that featured four suspended bridges that snakes through the canopy. There were lots of birds, of course. Undoubtedly the best birds of the day were a Scarlet McCaw and a Chestnut Toucan. The McCaw flew right in front of me across a gorge. It was only 50ft away. It never even occurred to me that I had a camera. I was dumbfounded. Interestingly we also had the Rufous-capped Warbler which Laura tried so hard to find for us near Tucson last month!

Brown Boobies

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We also had a nice group of Brown Boobies come in to check out the activity. It was a nice treat having so many birds so close to the ship. Usually we are squinting through our binoculars trying to make out a bird that we are never able to identify.

Tomorrow we are in Costa Rica all day. Then over the weekend we transit the Panama Canal. The web site www.pancanal.com has real time video of the ships going throught the canal. I will post the time during which you can go to the site and see our ship. I'll be the sunburned guy with the binocs and camera!

Masked Boobies

A group of around 10-12 Masked Boobies noticed the dolphin and flew over to be sure they weren't missing an easy meal. Carrie had seen these birds this morning and had come back to the room to tell me, however she got tonguetied and reported Nascar Boobies (I'm not making this up), my immediate thought was, "how the heck could I have not heard about that?" then she corrected herself and I slipped gently back to earth. In addition to the Masked Boobies...

Action at Sea

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Yesterday and today have been sea days as we move between our last stop in Mexico and our stop in Costa Rica. This has given us more opportunities to pay attention to what's going on around the ship. As we approached an area of heavy rain a pod of about 100 Dolphin began to race in the wake of the ship. I believe that they are Spinner Dolphin. They jump in the air swim on the wake created by the ship. They are very entertaining to watch. The folks on the ship weren't the only ones watching the dolphins!

Bad Conure

The second half of our day in Acupulco was spent at what we thought would be a turtle farm. The tour highlight was to be releasing a baby sea turtle. When we arrived it turned out that these poor people had dug out turtle nests, gotten the eggs and waited for them to hatch, whereupon unsuspecting Eco-tourists could pay for the privelege of returning them to the world from which they had been snatched. Don't worry some of us refused to participate in protest! At any rate, at this location was a pet Conure, just hanging around on a fencepost. Carrie offered it her finger and wAs thrilled when it accepted her invitation. The bird promptly waltzed up her arm and started trying to pull her ear rings through her earlobes! After that the little devil tried to bite the mole off of her neck! She was finally able to put it back on the post but not before it expressed it's displeasure about being denied it's twin goals!

Acupulco

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Carrie and I were expecting a big birding day in acupulco today, but we got another reminder that what cruise ships consider, "birding" is different from what we consider "birding". We did see some good birds though. My favorite was the Yellow-winged Cacique. We also saw the White-throated Magpie Jay which is different from the Magpie Jay we saw in the Tijuana Slough Preserve a month ago. I have attached a photo of what we believe is a juvenile Tiger Heron. That was the guides I.D. But he also called a Bittern a Blue Heron, later in the trip. Acupulco is very beautiful. It's surrounded by high mountains. We had a great time but wish we had more time birding and less time in the bus! The next 24-48hrs are sea days before arriving in Costa Rica, where we are signed up to do a canopy tour!

Red-billed Tropicbird

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We saw one of these beauties just after breakfast this morning. I went and got my camera and of course it was gone. Luckily I kept the camera with me while I was walking laps on the top deck. A pair returned and seemed to enjoy riding the wind currents made by the ship. Carrie saw this bird in the Galapagos but In spite of chasing a reported sighting at the Fort in Puerto Rico 2 summers ago, I had never seen one. It will be interesting to see if more show up as we continue south!

Everything but the paintballs

As you can see we look like we are outfitted for a paintball war. It's almost the same equipment except for the bandana, lol. For lunch we went to Cabo Wabo. It was delicious. It's owned by Sammy Hagar, who is some rockstar geezer. Beth and Ruthann recommended it. It was delicious. We are sailing in 30 minutes. Tomorrow is a day at sea. On Tuesday we make port call in Acupulco. None of us have ever been there. We are scheduled to do some serious birding there. I will make a full report as to how that works out!

Cabo San Lucas

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We arrived in Cabo San Lucas around 8:00am this morning. The weather is perfect. It's like San Diego south. We saw lots of Frigatebirds on the way in. It's a stop that uses "tender service" which means we ride little boats in to shore from the ship. It's not as convenient as tying up to a wharf but it's a little more fun. Cabo is on the tip of the Baja peninsula. It is a desert, complete with Saguaro Cactus, just like Tucson. The mountains come right down to the beach. Along with our friends, Lloyd and Suzanne, we were signed up for an ATV tour. Carrie and Suzanne were disappointed to learn that we all got our own ATV's but after 10-15 minutes they were old pro's. Since it's so dusty here everyone wore bandanas over their mouth and nose. The ride was great. It lasted over two hours. We went though gullys, and over mountains till we got all the way to the beach. We saw a Roadrunner and a Hooded Oriole, as well as woodpeckers, ravens, gnatcatchers and, best of all, a pair of Crested Caracara!

First Day at Sea

We left San Diego at 5:00pm Friday. The waters were a little swollen so Carrie and Suzanne jumped right on the Bonine, and have had no problems. Suzanne is one of our best dancing friends from Fairhope. She is on the cruise with Lloyd, her boyfriend, who is our other best dancing friend from Fairhope. There is a big dance this afternoon and we are hoping to show off a little, lol. The ship is very nice. It's one of the older models. There are only a few cabins with porches and the are all suites. We have a big window though and a nice king sized bed. The bathroom is extra big and the shower is great. As usual, the people are all really nice on staff. One odd thing is that the median age of the passengers looks to be mid 70's. Carrie has proclaimed it a geezer cruise but I say that will just make us look that better when ee are dancing. The food is excellent and we were both up early on the outdoor track to try to be sure that we stay as trim as possible, considering our situation. The air temp is 80 degrees but the Pacific Ocean is so much colder that the Atlantic that there is a signifigant wind chill factor at sea. Everyone is in the gift shop buying sweatshirts and hats. Another cruise left San Diego right after ours that was headed to Alaska. We figure those guys are suffering! Tomorrow we dock in Cabo San Lucas where we are going on an ATV tour in the morning and birding in the afternoon. Hopefully I will get some good pics!

Last meal in San Diego!

We had breakfast this morning in Little Italy in San Diego. It was excellent. Carrie made me walk 2 miles to a book store and back afterwards lest I lose my girlish figure!

Our ship sales at 4:30 this afternoon, and we are very excited!

San Diego Zoo

The Zoo was incredible. We walked till our legs felt like bloody stumps but it was worth it. They had more aviaries than either of us have ever seen. Our friends were ready to die if they saw another bird. It was super animal friendly as well as people friendly. We have decided that if we ever get into a "winter home" lifestyle like my mom and dad did, that San Diego is at the top of our list!

The Bridge from Hades

When we were in San Diego a month ago I managed to avoid going over the bridge to Coronado Isthmus. Thats where the Del Coronado Hotel is located and the Pacific fleet. The bridge was built soon after Pearl Harbor and it was designed to give the entire Pacific fleet the chance to all run out of the harbor at the same time if attacked. As a result, the bridge is 30 stories high, has a curve right in the middle and is over 2 miles across. Today our friend Lloyd said, we should take the City Tour, which had the zoo as a stop where we could get off, then come back on the trolley from the zoo. Sounded like a great plan, killing two birds with one stone. It never even crossed my mind to ask whether we would be crossing the bridge. The driver asked about 45 minutes into the tour, wheher anyone had a problem with heights. I raised my hand and he responded that I was in deep poopoo, as we turned the corner and started up the ramp to the bridge. We were sitting in the back of the trolley where there weren't even any sides to the vehicle. The winds are really strong here today and he warned everyone to take off their hats or they would be blown off the bridge. That sort of talk did not make me feel any better. I just stared at the floor of the trolly and I was able to survive the crossing AND the return, but I am going to make it up to myself with Mojito's at dinner!

Hampton Inn San Diego

We are in the Hampton Inn in San Diego, just a couple of blocks from the cruise ship terminal. We had a great meal last night at the Cowboy Star, which is a great western steak house here in downtown. The food was delicious and the restaurant was beautiful. The best part was the music! We walked in to a series of Mary Robbins songs that were followed up by the Sons of the Pioneers and Gene Autry! I love that music and even Carrie had to agree that it matched the restaurant perfectly! Our friends got in last night and we are going to meet them this morning for a City Tour by trolly this morning and we plan to spend the afternoon at the San Diego Zoo! Tonight is Lloyds birthday, and we are going to a nice Italian Restaurant to celebrate!

San Diego

Wow, the trip down from Los Angeles was really beautiful. The trip takes 3 hours and pretty much hugs the coast. In some places the waves seemed like they were actually lapping at the base of the train track supports. San Diego is really special. It is just about the prettiest town around. Our friends who are flying in from Mobile missed their connection in Houston, so we will be on our own tonight. We plan to tour the maritime museums in the harbor. That consists of a 3 masted schooner, a katch, 2 submarines, a sternwheeler and a steam yacht. The ships are all in great shape and operated as a series of floating museums, with the support of the San Diego Yacht Club, which is the sponsor of the America's Cup race.

California!

We got into California at 8:00 in the morning. The train comes into Los Angeles. We left our luggage in a locker and went outside where we were picked up by David Johnson who is currently living just north and east of LA. He took us to his favorite breakfast place, and I will have to admit that the food was delicious. We still had a couple of hours before our San Diego connection left the station, so he took us to the Hollywood stars walk of fame in front of Grummans Chinese Theater. We also went to the Kodak Theater, where the Academy Awards Show takes place. Everything was so much smaller than I imagined, but very clean and nice. Then he took us for a real surprise. The La Brea Tarpits and Museum. It was incredible. The tar pits are still bubbling! We saw hundreds of fossils of all types of animals, wolves, bears, sloth, camel, mastedon, and of course my favorite, the Saber-toothed Cat. They are actively excavating in a couple of sites on the property and we got to watch the techs in the labs cleaning fossilized bones, reassembling skeletons and doing all sorts of cool things. It was something that I had thought about doing since the third grade and it was just as cool now as I thought it would be then.

The Train! The Train

We have a great sleeping compartment on the train! Its got bunk beds. The lower bunk is bigger than the upper. Carrie is being kind and giving me the lower bunk. We also have a small bathroom with a shower and a potty.  Its pretty tight but very similar to the one in the RV. The meals on the train are fabulous. Everything is served on white linen, very formal, but you don't have to dress up. Each table seats four and you always end up sitting with other passengers. We have been amazed at how many people on the train are going on the same cruise that we are. It turns out there are a whole lot of folks who don't like to fly! We left New Orleans at lunch time on Monday and arrive in Los Angeles at 8:00 am on Wednesday. Carrie is sleeping better on the train than she does at home. She says that the rocking puts her to sleep. Talk about a gift!

Sin City South!

So New Orleans is nasty. At least Bouborn St is nasty! Good thing we leave tomorrow! We love our hotel though. We stayed at the Iberville Suites. Its in the back of the Ritz Carlton and I think, actually owned by them. We had access to their facilities, although we didn't use them. It was helpful though, because, when we went to dinner at a place where we didn't have reservations they said they only had seats in the bar. I commented that the desk clerk at the Ritz had told us that we wouldn't need reservations and all of a sudden they found a table! Imagine that. We were actually embarrassed for foreign tourists after walking down Bourbon Street. Tawdry is too kind a word! Ah well. Tomorrow the Sunset Limited and off to California!

The Panama Canal Trip

Carrie and I are leaving today for New Orleans on the first day of our Panama Canal cruise. We will be spending one night in New Orleans, during jazzfest I might add, before boarding a train to Los Angeles on Monday. I am notorious for avoiding air travel, and Carrie is a sweetheart about putting up with the resulting truncations. Besides, she loves the train too!

More later from the Road!