Ireland - Wed/Thurs

Ate in the hotel again last night, very good food. For starters I had mushrooms cooked in a garlic sauce stuffed into a mini bread bowl, for main course I had a prawn and salmon open face sandwich and of course, it comes with chips (we call them steak fries). And everything comes with lots of bread.

One of the things I love about Ireland is the meals.

1. Regular breakfast is about 7 AM
2. 2nd Breakfast (that's what they call it) is at 11 AM
3. Lunch is 1: 30 PM
4. Dinner is 7:00 PM

The food here is very tasty, but pretty heavy, not sure how people stay thin.

Sorry if spelling is wrong, for some reason the spell check brings up German looking words, so it thinks everything I am typing is wrong.

Today conducted the training class for plant senior leadership team. Went very well, they taking me out to dinner tonight, but unfortunately it is back at the same hotel I am staying. I guess this shows how small the town of Cootehill really is.

Finish up tomorrow afternoon, travel back to Dublin in the limo and stay at the airport hotel on Friday night before leaving at 6:30 AM (2:30 AM Nerk time) Saturday. Get back in Columbus at 7:00 PM Saturday if all goes as planned. Pray for safety and timeliness of flights.

Hello from Ireland - Round 2

Made it on Tuesday, with no delays or problems. Left Chicago on Monday night and arrived London o700 local time, 3:00 AM Newark time. Flew on to Dublin at 9:00 AM, arrived at 10:00 AM, no problems. I call this Round 2 because I was just here a few weeks ago.

London Heathrow airport is a real pain to get around. It is old and hard to navigate. I heard they are opening a big new terminal for international flights soon. That will be nice. Imagine walking through a large corrugated drain tube and that is what it is like. Very small waiting areas, etc.

Made it to the hotel, very small rooms in this hotel, maybe smallest ever. Definitely has the smallest elevator (they call it a lift) I have been in. Think about the size of our 1/2 bathroom downstairs and its about that size. Straight in and out with the luggage.

One thing I forgot to mention last time is they do not use wash rags in Ireland, none in this hotel or the last one I was in. Just hand size towels and regular bath towels. Plenty of soap, so it not a cleanliness issue at all. just a little weird.

Everyone asks me about the food. In Ireland it is not too much different than the USA. Steaks, chicken, fish all cooked the same way we would. They do have something called "brown sauce" in addition to ketchup. Not sure what is made out of, tastes like very weak soy sauce, but much thicker.

I was only able to take about a 1 hour nap before coming to the plant to teach a class. Was very tired, did not sleep much on the plane due to the guy next to me kept his light on all night. Watched a movie I think was called "August Rush", Robin Williams had a small role, pretty good for whole family. I did tear up, because a 10 year boy who was seperated at birth found his real mother and father. Great ending!

On plane watched my podcasts of Robin Meade from CNN. WOW! If are not watching her in the AM you need to start. She is very smart, does a fast paced show,and she is easy on the eyes. Also listened to Dr. Albert Mohler podcast of his radio show and Mike and Mike in the Morning.

If you don't know what a podcast is, ask your kids. Basically it is a downloadable verison of a show that you can watch on an mp3 player or on my Zune.

Nothing else really funny or interesting happening so far. Will update when possible, see y'all soon.

Pray for Amy

4,057 hits

4,057 views on my blog. That number greeted me today as I signed in. It is hard to imagine that I say enough interesting things that people want to read it.

123 posts - That is also hard to believe that this is the 124th time I have found things from my life interesting enough to share with people. That is the easy part, with 3 active sons, a wonderful wife, and the opportunity to travel for my work, I have found that things that really happen in life are much more funny than things anyone can make up.

4,000 deaths - As I am writing this, the news mentioned that over the weekend, the US passed 4,000 brave soldiers had passed away in Iraq. To me, it reminds me that we need to pray and thank God that people are willing to defend the freedoms we have.

A freedom that is often overlooked is the freedom of religion. Yesterday we celebrated Resurrection day all over the country, in many churches, of many different faiths. I even had 2 Mormon's knock on my door on Easter Sunday. The only thing we agreed on is that Jesus is risen, but there they were sharing their faith, misguided as it is, with others.

Some would say the battle we are fighting is not worth it, we should just leave, but I think not. Who knows what the future would have been if our leaders had not decided to pay the price to protect all of the freedoms we have, that some on the other side are dieing trying to take away.

1. Say an extra prayer today for the families of those who have paid the ultimate price.
2. Pray for the ministers and chaplains serving in Iraq that their message of salvation is heard, understood, and accepted by those in the service.
3. Pray for our leaders of our country for wisdom and discernment on what to do next.
4. During the family gathering over the weekend, Pam mentioned she had talked to someone currently in the Army, and asked her what the soldiers actually thought about the war, and whether we should leave or not. The answer was very telling, the soldier told Pam that there are very few Democrats in the Army! She explained that almost all of the soldiers she is around support the war effort and want to finish the job.
5. Thank God for all of the freedoms we have have here that we take for granted.

Easter Sunday 2008

He is Risen! He has Risen indeed!

Today is the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ! It is the most important day of our lives. You see we can accept Jesus or reject him. Both choices have powerful consequences. I hope you choose Jesus and Life!

Other thoughts to catch up:

• Tyler was here for the weekend, great to see him, flying back to Memphis as I write this.
• Corey at the Knox's' celebrating Easter
• Brandon out cleaning his truck and working on his deer stand for hunting season already. He is going back to school and Morgan tonight.
• I leave for Ireland on Monday for work. Be back this week in time for our church musical.
• Church musical this year is pretty cool, it is about the time after Jesus arose and peoples reaction to him. It only makes sense that we are doing it next Sunday after Easter.
• We had the whole family here for the annual Easter get together. The Easter Bunny showed up and had presents for all the kids. Memi and JR were in Florida and not in attendance. Sandy had her new friend with her, Bill, we all liked him. Plenty of food, fellowship and fun, a good time was had by all.
• Polly and Carl even made an appearance, she is on the road to recovery, thanks for the prayers.
• Sillin's 3 boys today all had suits on, it was very cute and reminded me when our 3 boys were younger.
• Martin and Linda's oldest daughter had their new baby at church today. They were all smiling broadly form the front row.
• CONNECT group was full today, good time of sharing about how we are not alone in our christian walk. We need to rely on each other and never think we face this world alone, we always have the Holy Spirit and each other.
• Look for updates from Ireland next week!

cute girls

Finally home!

(This is the train station)


Made it home last night after a Loooooong day of traveling.

Flight to Washington took 10 hours due to head winds, then we finally get close to Washington and they are having a thunderstorm (at was 50 degrees there) so we had to circle around for the last hour. The co-pilot came on and said we have about 20 min of reserve fuel left, so after 30 min she come back on and says we have cleared to land and we will land in 20 more min? 30+20 = 50 min, wonder what reserve tank they were using but thank God we landed.

Watched 4 movies;
Elizabeth = B+
Alvin & Chipmunks = A for Alvin!
Lions for Lambs = D When Tom Cruise a conservative Senator, you know what to expect, nothing good for conservatives.
No country for old men = D for Dumb
Also watched parts of some Tyler Perry movie that looked like Desperate Housewives for blacks

Well Dulles Airport was a mess, flights canceled all over, I was supposed to be on the 5:05 PM , but it was cancelled, got on the next flight at 7:25 PM but luggage did not make it, so I had pretty bad night due to my sleep apnea. But it is worth being home with the love of my life.

Leave today for Chicago at 5:00 PM for 2 days, home for 2 weeks and then back to Ireland. No church today but no sleeping in due to jet lag. My body is 6 hours ahead of the clock.

Don't forget to turn clocks ahead.

Later, Big Daddy.

Starting home!

Last night's dinner was very good, but a man can only eat so many 5 course meals, so tonight I continued my tradition of when I am out of the country eating a meal before heading home at .......

Burger King

That's right I ate tonight at the BK in the airport in Amsterdam. I am staying at the Sheraton at the airport. It's connected to the terminal, so I walked over, did a little shopping and had dinner.

Last night we walked around downtown Zwolle, Netherlands with 2 guys from the Abbott plant there, got to see some of the sights, but got dark quickly. They explained the the old city was surrounded by a canal and had a fort built around it. Of course most of it was gone, but there were still parts of it to see.

Part of the problem eating a 3, 4, or 5 course meal in the Netherlands, is they do not get in a hurry!! It took 2.5 hours for dinner and the place was not even crowded. Food portions over here are very small for each course but very tasty. Cannot wait to taste the cooking of my queen (Angela)

Today I taught for 4 hours and Zwolle people taught the other 4 hours, took the train to Amsterdamm about an 1.5 hour ride. This time it was sunny enough to see the countryside. Nothing spectacular, but many small villages with high pitched roofs.

Plane leaves 12:20 PM tomorrow local time 6:20 AM Ohio time so pray for safe travels and no delays. Angelica (AKA baby doll) told me about the big storm, since I have to fly to Chicago on Sunday, I sure want to get home for a little while anyway.

Nothing else much going on, watching the Cleveland Indians playing spring training baseball game, it is good to watch ESPN again!

Continue praying for all those suffering right now, those kinds of wounds do not heal quickly. Pray for protection of all class members and their families. Continue to pray for my mom.

God Bless the USA!

More interesting Food.

Last night I ate in the hotel because I was exhausted from all the training and traveling I have been doing. Last night dinner was very good, had a steak with potatoes and asparagus, for starters I had quail eggs and salmon. The eggs were cooked what we would call sunny side up, but were the size of a quarter. Kind of odd but they tasted OK. The salmon was good, which I expected since we are so close to the coast. Today for lunch we had sandwiches, again. It is odd here that one of the most popular types of sandwich is called a "fillet to Americana" something like that and is raw beef, not rare but raw. I told them most Americans like their meat cooked a little and got many strange looks back. They also serve nothing else with it, no chips, no cookies, no salad, nothing. Maybe that's why people here are so skinny. I also had apple strawberry milk today, very good.

One thing I heard is very true, almost everyone in the country is over 6' tall, what is not true is the women are beautiful. The only beautiful woman I know of lives on Park Trails Drive in Newark, Ohio!

Chinese Chips?

On Monday night I went out to dinner with several people from the training session I conducted. It was quite the UN of Abbott. There was someone from:

1. US


2. China


3. Italy


4. Spain


5. England


6. Ireland

We went to an Irish place to eat but it was closed on Mondays. Ended up at a Chinese place in downtown Cootehill, Cavan county, Ireland. The owner was from China so the Chinese guy in our group was able to speak Mandarin to each other and found out they were from neighboring provinces, which are like states to us. Small world. We ordered dinner and with dinner you get rice or chips. For appetizers we had prawn chips, very good, very light, so I thought that was the option, but the Chinese guy ordered chips and it ended up being french fries! In Ireland, chips = fries, but I never thought you could get them in that kind of place. It was odd to see him eating them with chopsticks, but it worked for him.

I taught 1/2 day Tuesday and then started the long trip to Zwolle. 2 hour car ride to Dublin, plane delayed an hour due to snow and high winds in Amsterdam, got on wrong train, found right train quickly, ended up at hotel about 11:00 PM local time, 5:00 PM your time, drank a diet coke and went to bed.

Very nice room, brand new 5 star hotel, slept pretty good. Breakfast was OK, eggs and some type of sausage, but the bread was GREAT! Very fresh, there was 4 different loaves sitting out that you cut a piece off of, I put butter and jam on mine, do not know if that was right or not, but it tasted good.

Went out to meet my cab and became quickly amazed at the number of people riding bicycles, not exaggerating, but number was in the 100's. Pretty amazing, but oddly many people were smoking while they were riding. Had a cheese sandwich for lunch, was told "this is dairy country we like our cheese" by someone who lives here. Nothing to drink at lunch but milk, some had flavors in it. I had orange milk, tasted OK.

Class today went fine, but feet are sore. Writing this while giving them a break, going for walk later before dinner. By myself tonight, tomorrow group taking me on a tour and to dinner.

Caught on on Angela's emails and I think Satan is attacking our church, need to redouble our prayers, specifically to pray for protection for all members. God is powerful and on our side.

Finished the book, really good, not sure if that is what heaven is like, but I really enjoyed reading it. Cannot what to pass on to Angela to read.

Baked Beans for Breakfast?

Well I made to Ireland OK. Long trip = Newark - Columbus - Washington - London - Dublin and then a 90 minute ride to Cavan, Ireland.

The driver said he knew a short cut to avoid all the Church traffic, so I saw parts of Ireland most people would not get a chance to see. Did not look much different than last time (I was in Sligo which is about 2 hours the other way last year). Narrow roads, villages with narrow sidewalks, narrow cars, Narrow bath tubs in my room to take a shower. Is everything getting narrower or is it me? Nay, things are just getting smaller.

Nothing exciting happened during the trip. The dumbest thing was right in Columbus, going through security and I got behind a guy who had never flown before, took forever (worse than
Angela on the cruise). He was nervous like he was taking something bad on the plane (again like Angela on the cruise). He took 3 bins for all of his stuff, when he really needed 1. He was so nervous that when he finally made it through he left his laptop at security! I had to tell him it was back there.

On the flight from London to Dublin we got an official Irish breakfast: scrambled eggs, banger sausage, rasher bacon, 5 little potatoes, and baked beans, YUCK! I do not mind baked beans at all but for BREAKFAST, NO WAY! Couldn't believe I ate them anyway, too hungry.

A few details, it is 5 hours ahead over here, so Shawn is probably leading the singing at church. Flight from Washington to London took 6 hours. We were delayed an hour at Washington due to the strong tail wind across the Atlantic. London has a law that planes cannot land before 6:00 AM local time. The wind was so strong we made up the hour and more, had to circle a little so we could land on time.

That's about all for now, keep Andrews family in your prayers this week, Angela said Rochelle's mom passed away, they were on the road last night, going to be a long week for them and then Billy starts his new job next Monday.

I'll update as I get a chance and if anything interesting happens. Promise it will be more than the Kenya Team! Just kidding. By the way Pastor Dear gave me the best book to read, called Safely Home (I forget the author cause I have to sit in the lobby to get an Internet connection) about the persecution of Christians in China. WOW! It is a real page turner I read about 50% of it already. Ask him for a copy. he had a bunch in Carla's office.

Well I miss my baby doll already, boys take care of your mother, TTYL.

Big Daddy

Finally some good news!

Angela and I took my mom to the doctor today and we got some good news. We met with the nurse practitioner, who was wonderful, she answered all of our questions and really showed some compassion for mom. It made us feel very good.

The good news was:

• The biopsy came back negative for cancer
• Mom is feeling better already since she finished her 2 antibiotics Monday.
• She can get back on a regular diet.
• She only has to take 1 pill a day for her acid reflux, and 1 for regularity
• We ate at the Nutcracker in Pataskala for dinner and she ate very good. (By the way, the food there was very good, it is decorated like a 50's diner, very cool)
• Lower the bed back down to level (see below why this is a good thing)

She asked me to thank everyone who had been praying for her, she feel like she has turned the corner.

Tuesday she has an appointment with an orthopedic doctor to look at her shoulder. We are taking her to the same doctor who treated my ankle and Brandon's shoulder.

Going through this reminds me of the whole parent child relationship. When kids are little the parents take care of them, help them understand things and make sure things work out. As you get older, the roles reverse. I can see that through this time. It makes my glad we moved back from TN for things like this.

There were a couple of funny moments in this whole ordeal. The Doctor told my parents to raise the head of mom's bed by 6 inches to help with the acid reflux. Well the first night she slept in the raised bed, she slid off the foot of the bed!! Too high, so they lowered it a little.

Other funny thing was that when she would take a shower, my dad had to sit on the toilet with 3 towels for her. She has lost a lot of weight and wanted the towels right away because she was so cold!!

Union University Video

We used to live about a mile from here. God was with them all that night!

Valentines Day

Well today is the Great Day! My mom calls it Valentimes Day, but it is a day where we show our love for our spouses.

Angela got me a card that says,

"When you've been married as long as we have, you learn to accept the other person's faults."

Open it up and you see, "You'll understand this if I develop some." Ha! Ha!

I also got my favorite candy from the Goumas family candy store, Rocky Road! It is 3 large marshmellows, placed next to each other, round part facing up, with pecans on top, covered with chocolate! That is 1 piece of candy, so I got 4 of those! And she even had to wait outside in line to get in!

I am very "Lucky" and blessed to married to this wonderful woman.

Which is a running joke between us. Several years ago, someone in the choir told me I had a new nickname which was "Lucky", because I was "Lucky" to be married to the piano player, Angela.

So, I found the perfect card for Angela. She loves the late great Barry White, so I found a card that when you open it, it has recording of Barry singing, "I Can't get enough of your love baby!"

BIG HIT, went over very well, I was the hero.

We are celebrating tonight with a pizza from Bruno's where we ate on our wedding night! It was one of our favorite places when we were dating.

But I am very lucky to have a wife that loves me, is a great mother to her sons, a great aunt to her nieces and nephews, and a great person.

Her love for her family amazes me, she is always willing to watch this one or feed that one, and misses them when they are not around. So on this special day I just wanted to give this special person a special message:

I LOVE YOU!

crazy weather

In case you have been under a rock the weather outside of Ohio has been really crazy the last 2 days.

It started with tornadoes in Memphis, TN where Tyler lives. He is fine but there is much damage to parts of Memphis we used to visit when we lived in TN.

When the boys were smaller, we used to visit the Hickory Ridge Mall. It had a large carousel in the middle that they liked to ride. It was damaged severly by a tornado, with lots of damage in the area around it. Tyler is Ok and his school actually was in session today.

Just east of there is Jackson, TN where we lived for 10 years. Our house was very close to Union University where a tornado hit and damaged the dorms. They said about 1,800 students were homeless as a result, but the local churches were stepping in with food and shelter. Union is a SBC College and Southern Baptists take care of their own.

Also talked to some freinds who live in Jackson and they have been without power since the storm hit, with no idea when it will be restored. I called Tennalum where I used to work, and they had no damage, but a few of the peope I used to work with had minor injuries. They were coming out of a resturant next to Union right when the storm hit. Their cars had major damage but they had minor injuries.

As I write this, I am in Chicago and they have had over a foot of snow today and it is still snowing. Expected to get up to 6 more inches tonight. I made it back to the hotel, but it took about 2 hours to go 10 miles. Not sure if the meetings tomorrow will happen because others were flying in from Columbus and Canada, so it will be interesting to see if they make it to Chicago. Angela said it still warm and rainy in Newark.

So, please PRAY for all those affected by the tornadoes, some lost their lives, others were injuried, so pray that God will comfort the families of those suffering.

PRAY for safety for those trying to get home tonight in Chicago.

PRAY for the Kenya team if they left today, sounds like things are not getting better in Kenya, but God will protect His Children!!!

PRAY for my mom, she continues to get weaker and has lost 30 pounds in about a month, still waiting for test results.

Saying goodbye to those old, worn out words!

http://web.mac.com/southwindes/Salyer_LA/Funeral.html

Our son Tyler came up with a creative way to get the kids in his class to stop using certain words.

(Pause the music player)

Where have all the bloggers gone?

When I 1st started "blogging" there were 5 or 6 regular people who updated there blogs at least once per week. As of today most have not update since December of 2007 or later (Pastor Wally is the worse at 11/7/07). Is blogging just a fad, something like mood rings, bell bottom pants, and power ties? Or is it a real way to let the world know what is going on in our everyday lives? I say no! It is not a fad it is the communication vehicle of today. It is like publishing your own personal newspaper about things that are important to you.

I really enjoy letting people know what is going on in our family, because in most cases it proves something I have learned over the years, that things that happen in real life are much funnier than anything some comedian makes up!!

so here is the family update for the Salyer's:

Angela - Caught my cold, sore throat, and cough. Course I was done with it, so she can have it.

Tyler & Rachel - Scored the highest score possible on their pre-marriage class test they took at their church. Wedding plans are picking up speed, we cannot wait for Rachel to take full ownership of Tyler!

Tyler had a bad week last week, someone in front of him had a terrible car crash, and he held the drivers hand waiting for the EMT's arrive. Unfortunately it was too late.

Brandon - Started his 1st real job. He graduates from OSU in June and he is already working for Nationwide. He celebrated by buying an iPhone, pretty cool looking, but complicated, to me, to operate.

Corey - We went to See Audrey perform at a dinner theater for her school last Saturday night with her family. She was the best, most talented person on the stage. Afterwards his S-10 Jimmy started smoking so it is in the shop with blown radiator, $400 to fix, he played indoor soccer last night with Knox's and his team got killed, 6 - 2.

Miscellaneous
* Hosted 4 people from Watoto Ugandan children's choir at our host on Wednesday night, they loved Angela's apple pie. Very sweet people
* No trips planned until February, then to Chicago for the week.
* Church yesterday was good, but it is very cold coming and going. glad we do not have little kids to bundle up

Oh Canada! Eh?

Just got back from Brockville, Ontario, Canada population 30,000. I went there Sunday for work, Abbott has a manufacturing plant located there. Spent all day Monday teaching a class on how to manage changes in an organization and why it is bad to just let change happen. The bad part was I lost my voice! (No solos this Sunday Pastor Shawn, in case you were going to ask). My throat does not hurt, just not much comes out. I think Angela is happy about this, but not sure. So I will do more listening then speaking for a few days at home, Church and work.

I heard Angela made a slight mistake on the whiteboard this Sunday. We are having a BYOP (Bring your own pizza) party for the class on 2/15. She wrote BYOB, which of course stands for Bring Your Own Bible. Thanks Baby! More people probably looked at it becuse of the mistake than would have normally.

Brockville got about 4" of snow, but did not cause a problem. On Monday the training room was at the Country club and I was facing a wall of windows, trying to teach while watching the beautiful snow falling over the golf course.

On Monday night I went to dinner with some people from the plant and had POUTINE. The locals raved about this French dish, so I thought I would try it. All it was a was steak fries, with grated cheddar cheese on them smothered in gravy! It was OK, only had a few, but the gravy was from a jar, left a lot to be desired. Felt my arteries hardening while I was eating it.

I finally got around to reading the book FREAKONOMICS, it is a secular book written by a couple of economists. It was very interesting and quick read, I started the book on the plane Sunday and finished on the plane coming home yesterday. Lots of interesting views of society and how many of the beliefs we have about society are not really based in fact at all, but based on what someone wants us to buy. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to think about why things are in society today.

Finally, last Friday before I left I helped out at Upwards. I announced all of the players and the cheerleaders, not much but the kids really enjoyed it. The 2nd set of games were for the "Special Team". There kids are special needs children, but I think they had a better time than the other kids.

I think this is me, do you?

What Jeff Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you. You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries. You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are loving, compassionate, and ruled by your feelings. You are able to be a foundation for other people... but you still know how to have fun. Sometimes your emotions weigh you down, but you generally feel free from them.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

What a day!

It was a long day today, Angela and I put away all the Christmas decorations and cleaned the house from top to bottom. Sitting here unwinding watching the Steelers get beat before going to bed.

Since the cruise we had a GREAT Christmas. Tyler came up before Christmas and then our future daughter-in-law, Rachel came up after Christmas. They stayed until 1/2/08 and then headed back to Memphis. It was great to see them both. Rachel is a great girl, just what Tyler needs. So the next big thing will be their wedding in June.

Christmas day was lots of fun. Got together with both sides of the family. I found the best gift for the "passing party". I found an illuminated motion penguin that you sit in your yard! It was something a few people actually swapped for, but Corey ended up with it.

The cruise was the big gift, so I just got an OSU shirt from Corey, a bluetooth cordless earpiece for my cell phone from Brandon, and a chronological Bible for Tyler.

Travel for work starts up again next week, got to go to Brockville, Ottawa, Canada. Brrr! I know ot will be very cold. I always seem to go to Canada in January and Arizona in July! Not fair! Oh well, it could be worse.

That's all for now, going to bed, been a long day. Got to rest up for the BIG GAME on Monday. Unlike all of our friends whose team are done playing for the year, OSU has one more game, where they will win the National Championship!

Cruise - Final

We finally made it back! Arrived home at 3:00 AM Thursday AM. Flight was delayed an hour. Of course Angela had to get stopped by security again in Ft. Lauderdale!

She tried to carry-on some seasonings she bought. 3 bottles each about the size of a hot pepper sauce size bottle. She forgot she had them. I had to take it back to the Skybus counter and put it my carry-on bag, pay another $5 and check my bag to Columbus. Angela was so shook up she forgot to take off her jewelry and got stopped at the metal detector. Finally made it.

The last day on ship was total wash out, rained almost all day. So overall the trip was just good, not great. Due to the weather we ended up taking a 5 day boat ride with only 5 hours off the boat in Jamaica. It was good to get away from cell phones and driving and cooking and cleaning, very relaxing.

Also, I can to appreciate 1 thing much more. My wife is a great cook! The desserts on the ship do not hold a candle to anything Angela makes. The ship may have food 24/7 (which is a good thing also!), but I will take Angela's key lime cheese cake over anything I had on the boat.

Already decided we will not take another cruise till more family or friends can go. That would make it more fun. Overall, if you have never taken a cruise, it is a good thing, maybe not in December.