Gatlinburg Festival of Trees 2011

Mom and I went to the Gatlinburg Festival of Trees this afternoon/evening.  It's a relatively small event that benefits a local charity.

Santa came down from his display area just so he could take picture with my mom.

I think this was actually my favorite tree/display.  And it was outside of the main display.

I think this Mad Hatter Tea Party with the upside down tree and the tea party next to it was probably my 2nd favorite. It was also the one that I thought my friend Rebecca might like best.

This was the one that I thought my friend Summer might have liked best.

This was my mom's favorite. It looked better in person that it does in this picture. The icicles just shine better in person than in the photo.

This tree has my favorite ornaments and I would say is the most creative, but you can only see why with the up close pics below.

That's right, all the ornaments (and some of garland) were all made of paper, curled up strips of paper.

And another one that just looked neat.

And I think this one was my favorite.


They also had a gingerbread house contest.

This was the winner in the kit category.  It is very impressive.  This one looks like the pictures that come on the kit.  I bought one of these kits last year or the year before.  I evantually gave up on it.  I couldn't get the house to stay together.  This one also makes me fondly remember the year in college where we made gingerbread cookie houses around bases of kleenex boxes.

This was the winner in the youth category.  I think this one was my favorite.  I like the tree that is the Little Debbie snack.

This was the winner in the family category. And this was my mom's favorite of all the entries regardless of category. I would definitely say it is the most creative and fun one.

This was the winner in the professional category.  And while I like it, you can barely tell that they are gingerbread houses.  Although it is rather cool that they re-created some of the iconic buildings from the area.  The one on the right is the Old Mill Restruant, I think.

This light display was at the place where we parked the car. A picture would not capture what makes this display so cool.

Vacation Part 6 (Subtitled: Day 5 of Cruise)

I spent a good bit of this day trying not to think about it being the last day of our cruise.  I also spent alot of it just looking at the water.  We did a few activities that were offered by the ship, including a surprising fun game of bean bag toss.

That reminds of a fun activity on the ship on the first night were in Bermuda.  I actually had to change the time of our glass bottom cruise in order to attend.  I knew it was supposed to be good because the people on Cruise Critic (I highly recommend this site if going on a cruise).  Anyway I can't say much about it without giving away some of the fun, but I haven't laughed that much or that hard in a long time.  So if on a Royal Caribbean cruise, be sure to watch for and make time for The Quest.

  This was out the window at lunch.  If you look at the larger version of the photo, you can see a cargo ship in the distance.

One of the many water pictures I took.  It was actually a very nice day.

 I just like this photo I happened to take while waiting for the sun to set so I could take a sunset photo.

 I am likely to actually use this photo later, and put it up for sale on Zazzle.  Thus the copyrights on it.

 These were our waiters for 4 of the 5 nights in the main dining room.  The first night we were at a table for 6 with set of waiters who were okay.  But our table mates were not friendly.  Mom tried numerous times to talk to them but got very short sentences every time.  Early the next morning, we changed to My Time Dining.  We got these two waiters that 2nd night and then arranged to have them on every other night.

 The one on the left is the assistant waiter and he really made our cruise dining experience.  Neither mom or I can have caffeine after around 1 if we want to sleep (mom) or sleep well (me) that night.  We found out on the first night that we could ask for a pot of hot water and herbal mint tea bags and glasses of ice.  Then we can make caffeine-free iced tea to drink with dinner.  On the first night with these waiters, we explained wanted.  At the end of the meal, he cheerfully said he'd have it ready and waiting for us the next night.  By the last night, he actually had ready and made up as iced tea for us.  They were both really just fun.  They did magic tricks for kids they had at tables next to us.

The food....We loved it, particularly in the main dining room.  We tried the Windjammer (Royal Carribean's buffet offering) and it was okay but only just okay.  We only really went there a few times when we had to, plus I went a couple times for cookies or bread and butter during afternoon tea.

I loved breakfast in the main dining room.  I always started with a chocolate donut while deciding what to order.  Then got the classic, which was two fried eggs to order (made right the first time on 4 of 5 mornings), toast, and hashbrowns.  I often also got fruit (watermelon, pineapple and grapes) from the granola bar. The last two mornings I also got french toast to go with it.  Mom got a salmon plate every morning, and sometimes got the classic to go with it.  One morning when she was sleeping in (I think it was the day we were docking in Bermuda) I went to breakfast early and brought her back a breakfast of a salmon plate and a fruit plate to have breakfast in bed.

We only managed lunch in the MDR two or three times.  And just as Cruise Critic recommended the Tutti Salad must be tried.  You got to pick your fresh ingredients and then they chopped it up for you.

The dinner items in the main dining room were fabulous. A number of times I ordered a second main course.  The main things I remember were: prime rib so tender it just melted in your mouth (first night and last night), tried my first escargot and lobster tail (both good), and a shrimp dish that was really good.

The deserts were hit and miss, some were good, some not so much.  But they did have a Ben and Jerry's on board and they had my favorite flavor of Phish Food.

I think that most of the reason that I only gained 2 pounds (most of which may have been water weight from all the extra salt in the food) during that week was that I walked A LOT.  Cruise ships are large, lots and lots of walking required.  I think my feet have finally mostly recovered finally a week later.

I'll have one more vacation post to write for the weekend after but this is really the last one that will focus on the cruise.  The cruise was really great fun all around and I will another again as soon as I can.

Vacation Part 5 (Subtitled: Day 2 in Bermuda)

I have procrastinated some in this post, because I was hoping I might find a way to get the underwater camera pictures developed soon.  But if any of them turned out, I will just have to post again then.  This was really one of the best days of our vacation.  The Hartley Helmet Dive is amazing.  If you ever get to go to Bermuda, do the Hartley Helmet Dive.

The main reason I chose this excursion is that it was the only one that provided wetsuits, and the water in Bermuda in mid-April is still rather cold.

This is the only fish you'll see in these pictures but we saw alot more than this.  They come to Greg (the guy who owns and runs Hartley Helmet Dive now).  He has "friended" them.  That's what he says on his website.  I would say he has trained them with food, but whatever you call it the result is neat.

I think this photo says it all about how cool I thought it was to hold the fish.

Actually looking at the camera in this one though, so posting it too.

The one good photo of mom where she is looking at the camera.

In all of the others, she forgets about the camera and is just looking down at the fish.  But here is the best one of those with her holding the fish.

Us together with the fish.

Us holding the fish together.

I really wish at this point that I could show you some more pictures that would really express how cool this dive was.  Greg has sticks with words on them to point what all the fish and coral are.  And he has pieces of the coral that have broken off that you can touch.  They each feel slightly different.  Hopefully at least some of the photos we took with the underwater cameras will turn out and I will post them later.

The excursion went longer than it was supposed to and my mom was actually the last passenger on the boat before the boat sailed away.  They actually had to hold the boat for our excursion.  This was the other main reason I chose this excursion for that morning in Bermuda so that we would definitely not miss the boat.

 After we had lunch, mom went to take a nap and I went up to the relaxation room in the spa (the only free part of the spa).  It has a very nice view of the water.  And mostly I'm posting this photo because I

A video of the view, just cause I like to watch the water, and who knows you might too.  :-)

 This is the Centrum, and I just think it was a cool view.

 The only other towel animal we got.  I think we decided it was supposed to be a rabbit maybe, but we were never really convinced on that point.

Vacation Part 4 (Subtitled: Day 1 in Bermuda)

Due to the rough seas the day before, we actually got into Bermuda about an hour late. But as all we had planned for the afternoon was to ride around on the ferries and see the islands from there, it didn't really affect us.

This is a painting that was in the stairway on our deck. I just thought it was nice and so I took this photo of it.

This is from the cruise ship while we still sailing to the port. I just really like the lighthouse plus pastel colored houses in this one.

This is still from the cruise ship.  But not long after that, we would be on a ferry just like that one, or maybe even that one for all I know.

This video is from the ferry.  The first 15 seconds and the last 10 seconds are just of the wake of the boat.  I just liked watching the water.  I have lots of pictures of it, but they're mostly for just my own amusement and I am trying not to inflict my water fascination too much on everyone else.  Anyway, the other ~30 seconds of the video show a rather shaky view of the Bermuda coast.

This is a view of our cruise ship, Enchantment of the Seas, from the ferry.

This was one of my favorite (yes, here I go again with favorites) parts of the ferry rides we took around Bermuda.  The water is multicolored with many different shades of blue all around the islands.

In between the ferry rides, we sat a small park near the ferry dock.  I just really liked this shot of a pigeon that I got.

After the ferry rides, we went to a small beach near the dock.  I had brought along a snorkel mask just in case we had the time.  I saw a few small white fish that seemed fascinated with my pale white skin.  They just flocked around my legs.  And three time I saw this mostly white with yellow and black stripes fish.  It may have been just the same fish all three times, but it was fun.

This is my mom while we were waiting to go on the nighttime glass-bottom boat excursion.  Notice the boat in the background named Powerful.  I just really liked a number of the boat names we saw while there.  Another that I remember was called Resolute.

This was near sunset from the excursion boat.

This was after sunset with a long exposure time.

Now I know you can't really see anything in this photo but it was the best one I got during this excursion.  I gave up after this of trying to get photos and just enjoyed looking at the fish and the corals.  The best part of this excursion was at one point when we a big fish come along and eat a littler fish.

At the end of the excursion they took us to see this sunken ship where the bow still sticks out of the water.

We had a really good time this first day at Bermuda.  It's a beautiful place, and I definitely wouldn't mind going back someday.

Vacation Part 3 (Subtitled: Days 1 & 2 of Cruise)

Somethings didn't go according to plan in getting on the boat, but it all worked out okay evantually.  This photo here shows my favorite part of a cruise.

Notice how the where the wake from the ship hits the natural waves from the ocean, you get the water splashing up into the air.  I love that.  I could watch it all day.  I did just sit and watch it a number of times.  Other than Hartly Helment Dive which I will get to in a couple of days, just watching the water was my favorite part of the whole cruise.  Prior to going on a cruise, I never understood why anyone would want to take one of those cruises that just sails out around in the water for a few days and then comes back to the same port it left from.  I get it now, and would do it in a heartbeat if I could afford it and get the time off.  My later posts will have more of these photos and videos, but here's just one more for now.

But I will move on for now to my other early cruise photos.

 This was from the front of the ship in the Windjammer Cafe.  We mostly ate in the main dining room but this is only option on the first day and some the views from there were nice.

Another view from the Windjammer while still in port.

 This was taken as this little tugboat was pulling us out of port.

 This is from the Viking Crown Lounge at the top of the ship.  I just thought it was a fun shot.

This is from the floor of the casino.  I dropped a few bucks in a couple of machines while on the boat, mostly just so I could say that I did.

It seemed like a fun shot.

Our stateroom attendant was not all that great and we only got towel animals on two of the 5 days.  But this was the first one on day 2, and I thought it was fun.  I think we decided it was an elephant, but that is certainly open to interpretation.

Okay, one more view of the ocean just cause I like it.  The first two days were actually somewhat rough sea days.  Many or maybe most people were not fond of this.  I however loved it.  It made the sea more fun to watch, and I liked feeling the movement of the ship.