D-Day

On June 6th 1944 American Rangers landed at Point Du Hoc. They came for one fierce mission and that mission was to sabatoge Axis anti-air guns to give Allied planes safe passage through the sky. The rangers were met by a heavy rain of bullets from the cliffs above. Even though there was heavy fire it only took the troops 30 minutes to scale and reach the top of the cliffs.



The cliffs

 Once they reached the top they found only empty bunkers with telephone poles sticking out of them acting as a decoy. The rangers took a closer look into the shrubs and saw several camouflaged anti-air guns. Quickly rangers paired up into groups of two. One man would sabotaged an anti-air gun while the other man would provide cover. After sabotaging the anti-air guns the total dead in both events was only 90 out of 225 rangers survived. From there on things got worse, Germany started to send reinforcements to fend off the rangers. On the other hand the rangers were expecting 250 replacement soldiers.

 The replacement soldiers coming by sea drifted miles away from their appointed land destination. Because of this incident the rangers were pined down and finally the replacements came to relive the rangers. From there on the troops conquered German troops by liberating small French towns until they reached Paris.When my family and I went to "Point Du Hoc" we were amazed at the site of the old smashed bunkers and colossal bomb craters. I felt like I was in "Call of Duty 2" my self. It was very cool to go inside the bunkers and see the small holes for guns to shoot out of and the large metal doors. We got to look down the face of the cliffs that the rangers had scaled years ago.

I thought it was cool to look down the same cliffs that the Americans had climbed.

Our Trans-Atlantic Cruise

For two weeks we sailed on a trans-Atlantic cruise with Royal Caribbean. We started in Panama and sailed to Curacao, Barbados, the Canary Islands and finally finished in Palma De Mallorca, Spain. Over the two weeks we did a lot of neat activities, art class, dancing, rock climbing.  I really liked this cruise because there were not alot of people so you could do more activities. The crew was really friendly and would always help us if we needed anything or just say hello in passing. And, the ship was in great condition and looked brand new, because it was refurbished a few years ago.

Our ship, The Grandeur of the Seas

We met professional dancers, lawyers, world trippers (like us), artists and tons other people. At first it was kind of strange seeing a lot of white people speaking English after eight months of traveling the world and hardly seeing anyone that looked like us or spoke our language.

Our dance instructors, Don and Aida. They rocked!

Everyone was really great and friendly and you got to know a lot of people. The crew was fantastic. The Captain would walk around and would interact with us and other people, our waiters were really nice and would intertain us with jokes. There were also activity directors that were really cool and made the cruise fun.

Our wait staff bringing us serving us our nighly mocktails.

The ship was built 14 years ago, but it seams like it was built only five years ago. The state rooms were really nice, just the right size, and none of the rooms were under the water line. The only thing that dates it ,are the elevators signs that light up indicating the floor you are on, the pictures are taken from the 90's and look like something out of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Other than that it was in great condition.

Over our 14 days we participated in so many activities that it felt almost like a summer camp. Right after breakfast we went to art class. Mr. Sherlock made it really fun and easy to understand. I never liked painting before but he taught me a lot and made it fun. Then we would hang out at the pool deck until 2:30 when dance class started. I learned tons of ballroom dances like waltz, samba, tango, rumba, meringue, foxtrot, bolero and two more that I cant remember the names of and I found out that I was very good at it too. At 3:30, after dance class, I would go rock climbing. It was awesome! There were nine levels and I made it to level six by the end of the cruise. I also went bouldering. After climbing I went to either bingorama or a world trivia game. I took second place overall in that game.


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My art class.

Mr. Sherlock our awesome art teacher

My favorite place out of all of our port of calls was Tenerife, Canary Islands. The whole island is one gigantic volcano that is the second largest mountain in Europe after Mont Blanc!! (only because the Canary Islands are part of Spain) Tenerife has still held on to its colonial heritage in a lot of places and the some of buildings have been converted into handy-craft markets.

Overall the cruise was fantastic! I would rate it a 9/10. The reason that I didn't rate it 10/10 is because the pool was small and there were only five teenagers on board, and they did interact too much in the teen room. (other than that it was Awesome!). The dinner menu was very good and most of the theater shows were great. If I had a chance to go trans-Atlantic on the same ship again I defiantly would. Some people might think that huge ships with 2000 people on it would be fun but I think less people is better because you get to know people. In that perspective it was way more fun than the Disney Cruise and it was a highlight of our trip.

Crossing the Atlantic on Grandeur of the Seas

My mind set going into our two week trans-Atlantic cruise was more utilitarian than pleasure. The idea behind the cruise was that it was a major cost saving way to travel to Europe from South America. Airfare per person for one trans-Atlantic flight was 50% more than one person's cruise fare that included lodging, food, transportation and much more. Robert and I decided we'd be foolish not to save money in this fashion so we boarded with minimal expectations.


Leaving Colon, Panama

 The first few days alternated being at sea and at port. First we visited Curacao. There we walked, shopped, visited museums and had lunch before returning to the ship. 

Off the ship in Curaco.





Adorable brightly colored port town.

Barbados was special because I met Cecelia, a friend of my Mom's from the 60's when Mom lived there while serving in the Peace Corps. We barely missed connecting with her that day. At just the last minute I spotted her and the sign she made. She's a lovely woman with a huge heart and I'm so glad we spent the day touring Barbados with her, her daughter and two grandkids.



My Mom's house.



Short hike to this view point.

After Barbados the cruise set sail for the Canary Islands off the Western coast of Africa with seven "Days at Sea" ahead of us. The best way to enjoy a week sailing in the middle of nowhere was to get involved and so we did.

Breakfast for Cameron.

Breakfast around 9:30am, rock wall, water color class, small lunch. Yes, small lunch as to avoid the ever popular cruise gorge fest that results in an additional five or more pounds. Then on to the pool for some sun and maybe a nap before ballroom dance class and the rock wall again. Plus, a random fitness class, a swim in the pool every now and then and one facial that I miraculously found time to squeeze in. And all this was before 5:00pm.





Watercolor Class


Watercolor class begins

 



Taylor working hard



Totally engaged

Done for the day. Will finish painting tomorrow.

Pool Time

There were times the ship was rocking and rolling across the Atlantic so much that the pool became a wave pool. This was Camerons favorite time to play in the water. Soon he had us all joining in.

Rock Climbing on The Wall

We began on the first at sea day learning to climb. Adrian and Christian were fabulous teachers and by the end we were attacking routes one through four. Five didn't exist and number six we just couldn't get all the way. Taylor and I both made it up half way before hands were slipping and leggs were shaking. No matter, it was a blast and something we all want to do when we get home.

Day one - route one.

Route three for Cameron and four for Ryan

Cameron waiting his turn.

Awesome Adrian and two cool kids.

Christian (Chile), Marne (USA), Adrian (Romania)

Taylor attacking route four.

 Ballroom Class

Of course I had Robert for my partner but the boys had their pick of plenty of ladies eager to be their partner. It was usually married ladies who's hubbies didn't show. The boys were a bit timid at first but after a few lessons with the fabulous Don and Aida they were leading the ladies as they should and instructing some as well. They soon became a hot commodity. I loved seeing their desire and confidence to learn the classic dances.

This photo below is of Don and Aida with my dancing boys. Our dinner table happened to be right next to theirs. Every night after a great lesson Aida would gush compliments on Taylor and Ryan about their budding talent, the class and maturity they exhibited at their age, and how overall impressed she and Don were with our boys.

   

The boys would weave and bob between all these activities and their own like the pool olympics, ping-pong, shuffle board and club time. No matter who was doing what, when, the plan was to meet in our rooms at 5:30pm to get ready for 6:00pm dinner.

 Baking Class

Ryan and another cruiser learning to make apple strudel from the ship's chefs.

C'est magnifique!

Pool Olympics

For the whole story check out Ryan's blog post.

The race is on!

Ryan won this challenge. Who can find a pair of men's shorts the fastest?

Cameron wins this one. Bring me one ladies bra. Guess a bikini top works too. No is was not mine.
Some lady wipped it off under her tank top and handed it to Cameron. Notice how he's holding it. It was hysterical.

Shuffleboard

Adrian from the rock wall challenged us to a game or two. Robert and Cameron vs. Adrian and Taylor.

We had three formal nights for which we outfitted everyone thanks to a shopping spree in Lima and a few additional items on Curacao. Dress shoes, khaki pants, dress shirts, ties and one cocktail dress and shoes for me that I found while in Curacao amazingly enough. All three boys were honestly looking forward to formal night and therefore leading the charge in their shopping endeavors.

Panama Camameron. Who's Jack anyway?

Our family with Don and Aida.

After dinner and sometimes even before dessert was served Cameron would rush off to his Adventure Ocean Club! Robert, Taylor, Ryan and I would head to the theatre to watch the nightly entertainer(s) perform or challenge the boys to a game of sunset beanbag toss. After the show the boys would check out their Fantaseas teen club and Robert and I would find other things to until 10:00pm when the boys curfew went into affect.

Robert and Ryan's turn

Tenerife, Canary Islands

The first port after a week at sea.

Pyramids in Spain? Who knew.

Hmmm, looks a lot like South American structures.

Proof the island is volcanic. Beautiful colorful layers.

Mount Teide. Tallest mountain in Spain and second in Europe behind Mount Blanc at



 Amazing thing is that we never tired of being on the cruise ship and actually found ourselves not wanting to disembark in Palma de Mallorca. We even threw ideas around like staying on the ship for one more week on it's first Mediterranean Cruise of the season. In the end we decided to stick with our original plan. Finish our last three international weeks in Spain and France.

Palma de Mallorca

Our port of disembarcation

This is what you do when you are off the ship at 8:00am on Sunday with luggage to haul around. Besides nothing is open  yet and probably won't be because it's Sunday.

After walking aound town window shopping because most places were closed, there was not much else to do but hang out. So that is what we did in this local park. Taylor sketched, Ryan played guitar, Cameron doodled, I wrote and Robert napped. Our  overnight ferry to Barcelona didn't depart until 11:00pm so we had nothing but time.

Our ferry to Barcelona.

Due to our last minute booking the cabins were sold out so these seats were our accommodations for the night. They made airplane seats look attractive.



And thus ends our cruise across the Atlantic.