It was the Saturday before Halloween and time for our annual pumpkin painting. Chili, veggies, cheeses, crackers, grapes and Winking Owl Wine, from Aldi, with a side of chocolate twinkies were enjoyed before the painting started. It was time to get the pumpkins and paints out, but a bottle of wine was almost empty. Dee got very serious about getting the last drop out of the bottle. Derek decided he was going to do his pumpkin the old fashion way and started removing the seeds. Sam wanted to get started right away and took to opening the paints. Note Steve and Steve sitting in the background. As Sam started with her paints, Derek started his carving. Kristie finally gets to start on her pumpkin after doing some photography. I wanted to paint something that would carry to Thanksgiving. Looking at this picture now, it looks like the top I am …
Our visit to the Shetlar family lake house on Pomme de Terre Lake included an outing to Lead Mine. It was a 30 to 40 minute drive back into the Missouri country side. The community is located about 3.5 miles east of Tunas on Missouri Route E and approximately 50 miles north-northeast of Springfield, The Lead Mine community is made up of 50 to 60 Old Order Mennonite families. These Mennonites left Lancaster, Penn., in 1969 and settled in Missouri because land was cheaper. Most people thing they are Amish but they are members of Stauffer Mennonite Church. It is a small conservative sector with similarities to the Amish. Most Mennonite are more modern than this group and use electricity. First we stopped at the produce auction. Mennonites are known worldwide for their farming practices and in the summer, many families sell their produce. We wanted to purchase some of …
We started our dinner with Prosciutto . . . Mozzarella, Tomato, Balsamic Vinaigrette Gourmet Young Mesclun Greens. Our Entree was Surf & Turf . . . Grilled Beef Tenderlion and Lemon Pepper Shrimp, Fingerling Potatoes, Charred Roasted Broccoli and Peppercorn Sauce. Finally we finished off with a Trilogy of Sweets . . . Red velvet Cupcake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting, Vanilla Creme Caramel with Wild Berries and Flourless Chocolate Cake with Praline Creme.
We entered the Illusionarium, an immersive and technologically enhanced dining room, for the Cirque Dreams and Steam show. The show is inspired by Science Fiction, Victorian Fashion, Steampunk & the Industrial Revolution.We were seated by our hostess. Steve had reserved the “floor” seating, as it was billed as closer to the stage. The hostess and staff was dressed in steampunk style garb. They offered us drinks and then gave us a menu to let us know what we would be eating. While we were waiting for and during our dinner cast members came out dressed in incredibly elaborate costumes. The first lady was dressed in the Industrial style with her being made of metal pipes. None of the “characters” were named so I named some of them. This one I called the clock lady. I didn’t get a photo of her clock down. She walked around with the clock up …
Cagney’s Steakhouse is a wonderful place to have dinner on a NCL cruise, this one is on the Getaway. Cagney’s is a signature restaurant that is dimly lit and discerning affair, marked by dark woods and neutral tones. By using one of our meal credits, we were able to dine on starters, sides, and desserts plus one entrée. Once we looked at the menu, we found lots of things we would like to order. But knowing we would not be able to eat all of them, the dilemma was what to order. We all ordered our starters and the Surf N Turf which included a tender and succulent filet mignon and shrimp. Then we had to make a selection from the 15 different sides. To top off the evening we had some wonderful desserts. Cagney’s is a place for foodies!!!
We arrived at Harvest Caye, Belize and was very surprised to find that we were not on the mainland of Belize. The last time we were in Belize, we had tendered to the port, which was your usual cruise ship experience. There was nothing usual about this beautiful cruise port. It is owned exclusively by Norwegian Cruise Line. It took four years and $50 million to creating this paradise. The materials used to construct port were sourced locally from Belize. Our ship docked and there was a long canopied pier connecting us from the ship to the port. It was a good 15 minute walk down the pier or there were carts to take passengers to the port entrance. On arriving at the port, we were greeted by the lush greens of Belize’s forests, The paved paths lead to different facilities available on the island, starting with the shopping area …
This was our 12th cruise and our 8th on Norwegian Cruise Line (Getaway). When we first started with NCL we were getting double loyalty points for the cruises. This moved us up the ladder to Platinum level for this cruise. As a Platinum members, we have an exclusive check in line at the embarkation port. Once we checked in we got our boarding number, not realizing we did not need one. Our number was eight and they hadn’t even called one yet. Fred, having checked in on his cruise in September as a Platinum member, knew this wasn’t right. So he went out to find the Platinum boarding. In just a few minutes he was back and we were off to embark on the Getaway. One minor problem, Dee had not reached Platinum yet. But with a few words from Steve and Fred we were on our way to the …
It was a few days late but we celebrated Steve’s 70th Birthday with family and friends. It was an evening filled with food, laughs and good conversation. For the celebration he wanted carrot cake . . . . very good choice with lots of cream cheese icing, his favorite. When it came time to open gifts we it seems we all had the same idea. After all, what do you get the man who doesn’t really have a hobby. Unless you count planning cruises, making list, working out, working in the yard and surfing the web . . . . ok, guess you could count these things as hobbies. Anyway, he does like to play slots and doing scratch off cards. He did VERY well on the last cruise with the slots. He doesn’t do as well with the cards. We all chose to get him scratch off/raffle tickets for …
Our day was a day of eating, sharing, playing games and just being together. Mr Booker (a local caterer) did the cooking for us, Mr. Sam (Club) provided the upgraded plastic plates and silverware and everyone jumped in to helped with the clean up. The girls added deviled eggs and desserts to our meal. We discovered Mark and Val were alone for the day so invited them to join us. After dinner we enjoyed our drinks of choice and played Rummiub and Mexican Train. During the evening Rick, Rumi and Chris stopped in for a visit. Our cups runneth over with blessings
We were invited to a Honey Harvest. We didn’t know what to expect, but we knew, from the invite, there would be food, drinks, music and maybe some honey. As we arrived, there were lots of cars turning into the road leading up to the ranch. We parked, grabbed our chairs and cooler and made our way up the long driveway to the barn. We found a nice shade tree to put our chairs under, then continued up to the big tent and barn. On the left of the tent were four huge grills with skirt steak cooking. Inside the barn was a very large batch of Margaritas, a samples of the honey that had been harvested the night before and many collectibles the family had gathered over the years. Beyond this barn was the horse stables and a large garden. There were about 200 people milling around having quite …