More Photos of Cozumel

At the pier were more than three amigos.

But these three amigos below at the pier bar are either planning to drink and/or take a bath in bathtub gin. Costa Fortuna on one side of the pier and Carnival on the other side of the pier.

Everybody loves a mariachi band. Did you know that the Japanese and the Russians as well as folks from various other countries now have their own mariachi bands? The music has spread around the world. Who knows. Maybe it spread by cruise ship passengers.

You know I love roosters. Here are three from the Discover Mexico Museum. The red one is made of red chilies! That's what I call a hot, hot rooster!

Mexican festivals and culture on display in this tree of life clay piece.

Close up of one section of the piece shows small butterflies around a depiction of corn tortilla making.

This is an example of a hope chest for the first born son of a Mexican family. The family will fill the chests with money and gifts to help the first born son begin his married life in style. Our tour guide was not the first born son of his family in Mexico City so he did not have a chest like this to pass down to his first born son so he had to go out and buy one for his first born son. Moral of this story: it pays to be the first born son.

My World Tuesday February 2, 2009

My World Tuesday

February 2, 2009

My world this Tuesday is a collection of photos from my visit to Key West, Florida last Monday, January 26, on the Costa Fortuna cruise ship. This first photo is of downtown Key West near Mallory Square.

Key West is definitely a Caribbean paradise with lots of lush green vegetation. Love those palms.
Bougainvillea grows very tall in Key West, Florida.

Behind this iron fence lies the Little White House that was made famous by Harry S Truman. This Little White House is now a museum run by a commercial company on land that was part of the Key West Naval Station. The Naval Station is still there and our cruise ship docked at the station but we could not walk on the station. We had to immediately board the free conch trains that took us to Mallory Square in downtown Key West.
Outside of the Naval Station the most famous attraction in Key West is the Ernest Hemingway House which we toured in 2004 so last Monday we decided that we would visit the third most famous attraction in Key West which is the Harry Truman House which is known as the Little White House. This was a very good tour but we were not allowed to take photos inside the home but only in the museum's gift shop. Probably this rule exists today because former presidents as well as the current president can come to the Little White House for a special dinner or diplomatic event. Below is a photo of one of Harry's casual shirts that he wore in Florida while conducting business at the Little White House.
Below you see Harry wearing one of his Florida shirts while meeting with his secretary of defense James Forrestal. (Side note: I took this photo because Jack used to work in the Forrestal Building which is right next door to the Smithsonian Castle on the Washington Mall.

Harry S Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were the first presidents that I remember as a school girl in the fifties. There were a lot of parallels between the two men.

After Jack and I finished visiting the Truman Little White House we went to the second most famous attraction in Key West. You ask what that is? Well, it is the famous watering hole that Ernest Hemingway frequented after a long day of writing prose. It is Sloppy Joes Saloon on Duval Street.

Cruise passengers going there have been known to do the Duval crawl to get back to the cruise ship after one too many tropical drinks there.

There is lots of memorabilia on all the walls of the saloon.

Each year this saloon crowns the new Ernest "Papa" Hemingway look-a-like. Here are photos of some past Papas.

Some of these guys with the grey hair and full beards really do like Hemingway.

Click on the above photo to see all the Papas.

Yes, we did treat ourselves to a libation but we didn't have more than one a piece so we didn't need to do the Duval crawl back to the ship. If you play the video below, you might get a feel for this place. Now go visit some more My World Tuesday blogs by clicking here: http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

We Cruised On Costa Fortuna

We cruised on Costa Fortuna in the Caribbean waters and enjoyed the beautiful sunrises and sunsets
as well as the beaches.

An Italian American group from Delaware arranged for their club to take this Italian cruise ship to Key West, Cozumel, Jamaica and Grand Cayman Island. The gentleman in the blue sport shirt below is the one who made all the arrangements for theItalian group. He is Mr. Ray (Frank) Cilea and he is a retired travel agent. We had met him at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware thru our good friends Jim and Joyce who live in Rehoboth Beach Neither Jack nor I have any Italian blood but we love Italian food, culture, food, music, food, singers, food, so we joined this group and they made us honorary Italians for one week.

This was our pre sailing get together at the Fort Lauderdale pier on deck nine of the Costa Fortuna.
Here Jim and Jack are comparing flights to Fort Lauderdale. Jim and Joyce flew Southwest from the Philadelphia airport while Jack and I flew JetBlue from the Dulles airport outside of Washington D. C.

This was our first dinner aboard ship. We had not even left the pier yet and we were beginning our week long food binge. What do the cruise directors always say? We allow you to walk on board as passengers at the beginning of the cruise but at the end of the cruise we need to roll you off the ship as heavy cargo. So true!

We got to see things below the water too. No, that is not my Jack scuba diving.
Here is the remains of an old ship that met its end in the Caribbean Sea.

Here is yours truly dressed in a toga and having fun with one of the Italian fellas from Rehoboth Beach gang. I had to have my photo taken with Joe because he was most authentic Roman in a toga in our group.

We Flew JetBlue

We flew JetBlue a week ago Sunday (January 25, 2009) from Dulles International Airport where we left the main terminal in these two story white buses that took us

to the secondary terminal where we went thru security for a second time before boarding our flight that left the cold winter weather of Virginia

and the land of Obama and the first 100 days of his presidency with all its cultural accouterments (see next two photos)

for the warmth of Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the Italian cruise ship Costa Fortuna which took us to summer time

and sunshine, blue skies and swaying palm trees

towering over colorful flowers and vivid green vegetation

and many macho roosters.
We have so many wonderful Caribbean experiences and cruise ship highlights to share with you that we will do at least two blogs each day this week. So come back soon if you want to learn more about cruising the Caribbean. Hope you enjoy the Italian music I have moved to the top of the Playlist to set the mood for our cruise on the Italian Costa Fortuna.
Arividerci!

New Month and A New Tree

This is a new month: February. And I have a new tree for the living room. It is a Mardi Gras tree. Mardi Gras colors are purple (justice), green (faith) and gold (power). In January of 2005 Jack and I saw both our first Mardi Gras tree and our first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. We were there for the Iris Krewe Parade and I have on my tree some of the Iris Krewe drinking cups and of course the beads! And no, I didn't do anything naughty to catch those beads.

If you would like to learn more about Mardi Gras click here: http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/mgcolors.html

You will learn all about the New Orleans Mardi Gras traditions as well as find a clock ticking the time down to Fat Tuesday which is the day before Lents starts.

High School Drama and Choral Groups

Northern Virginia is where the Cappies originated. It now has spread to many chapters across the nation. We have enjoyed many wonderful moments watching the local high school students perform. Two weeks ago Saturday we went to Westfield High School which is the second newest high school in Fairfax County to see a Disney Show.

Here is the auditorium before the show. Many parents with small children in tow were streaming in to watch the Saturday afternoon matinee.

These singers are literally cooking up a great song and dance for the audience.

Do you recognize this Disney character? Yep, it is Pocahontas.

The finale was songs and dances from Disney's High School Musical. The only thing that was changed on purpose was the school mascot. This show didn't have a Wildcat. It had a Bulldog because Westfield is the home of the Bulldogs.

The Capitol Steps Make Fun Of Everyone

For Christmas Jeanine gave to Jack and I tickets to go see the Capitol Steps. We have been hearing about this comedic song and dance group since arriving in the Washington D.C. area almost thirty years ago. Well we sure had fun laughing at their routines. They did one number that went something like what are we going to do----Obama isn't funny. How will we poke fun at him?

This group does know how to poke fun at most folks. Just look at some of their song titles:

Springtime For Liberals

Everything's Run By Pelosi

Lust in Space

I'm So Indicted

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Korea

This is the House That Jack Bribed

Oh What a Beautiful Mormon

Don Imus is a Girl's Best Friend

If I Were a Rich Mensch

Buy, Buy American Pie

McCain's Campaign

Obama Meet Osama

Cool Restaurant in Fair Lakes Area of Fairfax County

Have you ever eaten in a Japanese restaurant where they entertain you by cooking the food on a very hot flaming grill at your table? It is fun and even a little flaming hot and scarry at times. Our favorite Japanese restaurant if Sakuras. In the above photo you see the outside of the building.

And here is the fan shaped menu sitting on the Japanese plate and napkin. Lots of great steak and seafood dishes plus one side of the restaurant is a sushi bar!

Brian and Terry are catching up on the news in this picture.

In the meantime Jennifer and Jeanine are posing for Mom's camera.

While Big Jack and Little Jack are watching the flames flare up. Each time it happened Little Jack got a worried look on his face and said, "Uh--ohh!"

Look at the expression on Little Jack's face. He seems to instinctively know that fire is dangerous.

But this made him giggle out loud: putting the baby chopsticks up his nose. And this made Grandpa say "Uh--ohh!"

New Year's Resolution

One of my resolutions for 2009 is each day take time to look at something that is pretty like a photo or painting of flowers or some other aspect of nature. I just recently read that looking at pretty pictures of flowers has health benefits like lowering your blood pressure.