Our RV Adventures

This morning Jan and I headed up to Sugarland to Sugarland Ice to watch another of Landon’s Hockey practices, with, I think only one more to go for this year.

Landon has also been taking skating lessons from a figure skating coach for the last few weeks, and it really shows. He’s so much smoother on the ice, making sharper turns, and skating backwards.

Later we had our usual lunch stop at the nearby Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, and just like last week, they were very busy, and this time we had a 20 minute wait, Last week when we asked why they  were so much busier than previous visits, I was told, with a slight hint of surprise at my ignorance, that it was ‘Crawfish Season’.

And obviously, it still is, since pretty much every table had a big bucket (or two) of Mudbugs in the center. But our service was pretty quick, since we ordered our meal when Alyssa took our drink order. She was kind of surprised though, since we didn’t even have menus yet. But we’ve all been there some many times we didn’t need them. We know what we want.

Any even as busy as they were, the food was just as delicious as usual. Never had a bad meal at a Floyd’s.

And on the subject of meals, here’s a sample menu from our upcoming cruise.

Viking Longship Menu

And this doesn’t include the onboard buffets and the eating options on the extra excursions. We may need to add a number of those ‘Demanding’ excursions to our itinerary. Sounds like we may need to ‘walk’ off some extra pounds.

While we were at lunch, our daughter Brandi was talking about what to see in Amsterdam. And she knows because she was an exchange student in Germany back in college, and visited Amsterdam with her friends.

She mentioned the Anne Frank House (already on our schedule), the world-famous Sex Museum (also scheduled, and also visited by our daughter) and the ‘CoffeeShops’, some of which actually do serve coffee.

But they’re more known for the fact that they sell legal marijuana. And as I said, some coffee. If you want coffee and not an inhalation high, you want a coffeehouse. Good to know, I guess. Strangely, although you can smoke marijuana in a coffeeshop, but you can’t smoke that dangerous tobacco there.

And concerning ‘inhalation highs’ Brandi was surprised to learn that neither Jan nor I have ever smoked marijuana. Though I said that I have inhaled deeply at a number of parties and concerts.

This fact has caused me some problems with the 20+ lie detector tests I’ve taken over the years as part of the many security clearances I’ve received over the years with both the DOD and with NASA.

The main problem was that, growing up as a teenager in the 60’s, no one would believe that I had never once smoked any weed, or Mary Jane as they pretty much called it then. Even when I passed the lie detector test, they thought I was cheating somehow. But as I said, I always told them I inhaled.

As far as my young, innocent wife, early in our marriage we attended a Beach Boys concert in Birmingham, back in the good old days when you could smoke at concerts, and when we walked in Jan took a couple of whiffs and ask, “Why are they burning incense in here?”.

And then proceeded to sleep through half the concert.

Thought for the Day: 

When people see a cat’s litter box they always say, “Oh, have you got a cat?” Just once I want to say, “No, it’s for company!

dfas

Or rather the Cheap Room.

Today was another of those strange Texas weather days with highs in the mid-70’s and low’s tonight in the mid-40’s. Whatever, it’s never boring.

We again spent some time this morning looking at cruise stuff, going through the many Optional Excursions, talking over some that we’re interested in. I suspect that if we totaled up the cost of all the excursions, it might come close to the cost of the cruise itself. Of course that’s probably what they have in mind.

In searching around the Net, I came across a photo of our actual room on the Viking Longship Skirnir.

Based on our Holland America Alaska Cruise in 1998, we got a room in the cheapest section they had on the ship, Section F.

We found that we were almost never in our room, except to sleep, so why pay extra for an expensive French balcony, or Veranda suite? Why, when you can just go up on deck and have an even better view?

What’s kind of funny is that the Blue rooms, right next door to our Yellow ones, are $200/person more expensive than ours. But according to Viking, they’re exactly the same. Same size, same windows, same amenities, etc.

I thought that maybe it was closer to the engines, elevators, etc., but even the Viking rep could not tell me what the difference was. It may be that they just needed another price point.

I was reading a business article recently about a dress manufacturer, and how they priced them. It said a small percentage are tagged for high end boutiques, more were tagged for high end department stores, some for the mass market, and then some for discount bargain stores.

But they’re all the same dress, just with different labels. So maybe it’s the same with cruise rooms.

Another thing I found out was that our cruise is completely sold out, with even both of the $14,995/person Explorer Suites taken.

Jan’s been tracking down videos about visiting London and Paris, and we came across an app called CityMapper. It’s a mapping program that covers 22 European cities, giving you routes to any destination, via walking, biking, buses, trams, tube, etc. Looks to be very useful.

Jan had her annual former co-worker get-together at Pappas Delta Blues Smokehouse in Webster, her first visit, and said it was really good, and they all had a great time as usual. And yes, there was booze involved.

While Jan was partying down, I killed time at nearby King Food, having a big bowl of their Hot & Sour Soup.

My new Carolina Reaper powder came in yesterday, so I thought I’d give it a try. And so far, it’s hot, but not outstandingly so, but then I was pretty chintzy with it, so maybe I just need to use more. I’ll bump it up tomorrow when I have Gumbo at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood after Landon’s hockey practice.

Thought for the Day: 

Aging: Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it. I think I’m there.

sfdgsf