Haloranch

Driving around and through Winnipeg, what struck me first were how many churches I saw. Churches with steeples,and bells, which is something I haven't seen much outside of Quebec. And other than churches, the most plentiful item we saw were parks. Gorgeous green parks everywhere. Down Portage there's an incredibly wide boulevard flanked by rows of huge, mature trees marching in a straight line down both sides, facing the streets. The center of the boulevard is lush greenery with park benches and looked very inviting. I bet on a nice day it's full of people. Today it was empty. Ergo, not a nice day. Also Sunday, so maybe the people were in some of the many churches. Lots of the little buildings and older shops downtown are brightly painted with flowers and other pictures. Looks cheerful and cute, and much better than being graffitied with tags from the local gangs. On the outskirts of the city, heading east on TC #1, the road was a patchwork of repairs and hideousl...

We're off to the Rotary International Convention. First stop, Mike's place in Calgary where we enjoyed a beautiful evening but short night. Barely 5 hours of sleep and off we were on a long drive to Winnipeg. In the end, it took us *only* 12 hours of concerted driving to get there. Hans, as always, did the lion's share while I suffered through 2 hours of driving. SASKATCHEWAN Saskatchewan: an old Indian saying meaning, "No hill high enough to jump from and hurt yourself." Saying the road in Saskatchewan is boring is an understatement. It could have been the minimal sleep, or the straight but bumpy road, but soon the silver tanker truck in front of me was shimmering. It was unclear whether my eyes were out of focus or the sun was to blame but luckily, it was time to fill up the car and then Hans took over again. HILTON HOTEL SUITES Well, this turned out to be everything we hoped for! We have a one bedroom suite. You walk into the living room with desk, sofa,...

I should write a bit about Sugarloaf, which gave us some stunning views of the city, mountain and ocean. But now that the vacation is over, I'm strangely remote from it all. Already it seems so long ago. In the next week I'll post some photos throughout the blog where appropriate, and tie everything together. And then the blog gets a rest until our next adventure.

Our fabulous day in Rio was bookended by a dismal disembarkation system and an even worse boarding procedure at the airport. But in between it was great. More about that later. Due to an unusual sea current which was completely unexpected in this part of the ocean, our already overdue arrival in Rio was delayed by a further 30 minutes bringing us to 11:30 at the dock. Original docking time was 7:00 a.m. Luckily, we had let Princess know we had independent travel arrangements and were being met at 9:00 a.m. so we were amongst the first groups to disembark. However, that still took us to almost 1:30 and I wondered if Paulo, our tour guide who was meeting us at noon would still be there. The entire delay can be laid at the feet of the Brazilian officials who have an archaic and ill planned system of granting entry. First, the officials had to board the ship and set themselves up, 4 here and 4 there, to personally view every passengers passport. Yes indeed. And once inspected for t...

Wow. This is a gorgeous, gorgeous city. On our approach we sailed right past Sugarloaf, so close we could have swum to its base. We could see the cable cars moving back and forth between Sugarloaf and its smaller sister. Couldn’t wait to get there! In the distance facing the harbor we could just make out the enormous Christ the Redeemer statue. It was still early, about 9:30 a.m. and a light haze covered the city so the statue was just faintly visible, almost just an impression of itself. Again, couldn’t wait to see it.

Oh my. First line at 8:45 pm This line was dauntingly long and even though we asked folks in the queue whether this was the United Air lineup Hans thought it would be smart to double check, so off I went. The office confirmed that we were in the proper line as they had only one flight that evening and in fact, everyone I could see was going to Washington, Dulles. The good news was that it was only 8:45 and they had just opened up the check-in wickets at 8:30, so we weren’t late. More passengers were streaming in behind us. Second line at 9:15 pm Alas, the lineup in which we were caught was only a fraction of the passengers. From here, we were led into a zig zag line. You know, where the floor is sectioned off by ropes and you walk back and forth like a lab rat. The three of us went together so we’d be seated beside each other however, when we finally got the check-in counter, the girl wasn’t issuing seats. We did, however, get our three bags checked but it took awhile since our ...

“What the hell!” Hans and I were both sliding, feet first, off our bed. At the same time all loose items on the nightables tumbled to the floor. Then the ship righted itself and everything went back to normal. This happened around 7:00 a.m. yesterday morning and later that day I spoke with a gentleman who was at the breakfast buffet when the ship tilted. He happened to be standing in front of a tray of fried eggs. “I managed to grab the tray so it wouldn’t crash to the ground, but all the eggs slid off and onto my feet,” he told me with a laugh. “And all the other food ended up on the floor too.” The pools also sloshed over and apparently there was a foot of water to be mopped up on one side of the ship wherever there were pools. The captain didn’t make his usual announcement when things go awry so we were left wondering what happened until later that evening. It was the Captain’s Farewell party with free champagne in the central piazza area and he took that opportunity to update...